Chocolate Soup and Cod Fish Ice Cream

Believers in God of whatever stripe are all faced with the same question "How can I know what God wants?" "How can I know what God wants me to do with my life or how can I know what God wants to think about this issue or that?"

The simple answer to this question is, "The way you can know what God wants is to become knowledgeable about what God has said and done in the past." This we call revelation: what God has revealed of God`s self. For Christians, as for others especially Jews and Muslims, the principal source of God`s self-disclosure is the sacred writings or holy scripture of the tradition. For Christians this holy scripture is the Bible, for Jews the Torah, and for Muslims the Qu`ran.

Now that seems simple enough. But it isn`t. It`s a bit like saying the way to cook a fabulous meal is read a recipe book. But a recipe book isn`t any good really if you don`t know the difference between a casserole and trifle. Chocolate soup and codfish ice cream will have your guests leaving your table without any sense of having been well nourished. Indeed indigestion is more likely! And what good is a recipe book if you don`t know the difference between baking powder and baking soda? A recipe book is most effectively used by a trained and experienced cook.

Clearly, in order to use a recipe book properly one needs to have some training and experience. Good intentions are not enough. Loving your guests with all your heart and soul and mind is not going to automatically enable you to serve them up a mouth-watering souffle. The same is true of understanding and interpreting the bible. Loving God and being convinced that the holy spirit is in your possession is not going to automatically give you wisdom and discernment. The bible, like your recipe book, has different recipes for different occasions and if you don`t know which recipe is appropriate you will make some big mistakes.

Now this may all seem terribly elementary but it is at the crux of that difficult problem of knowing what God wants. God`s word to humanity as recorded in the bible was heard and recorded by people living in a particular historical context and it is heard and interpreted thousands of years later by people living in a completely different context. Both contexts need to be taken seriously.

Sacred writings use metaphoric language extensively. That is, they use language like that of today`s gospel parables, "The kingdom of heaven is like... a mustard seed...yeast..a treasure hidden in a field...a merchant in search of fine pearls." We recognize this as the language of imagination and metaphor. Symbolic language, which Jesus uses almost always, lends itself very nicely to inviting the listener in, it calls to our spirit, it challenges and expands the possible interpretations and it invites us to find the meaning within ourselves. People who want to use the Christian religion as a law code or a set unchanging moral standards hardly ever quote the words of Jesus. They typically prefer the Old Testament or the writings of St Paul. There they find ancient law codes and didactic teaching both of which lend themselves well to being abstracted from their contexts and imposed upon a new context.

So there is a certain irony in the ending of today`s gospel when Jesus asks his disciples,

"Have you understood all this?" They answered, "Yes." It is such a pity that there are not three more chapters to follow this one in which the disciples explain what it is exactly they have understood.

And you here this morning, have you understood all this? What is your answer? It is a problem for us isn`t it. If we say "no" I do not understand, then we must ask ourselves what can I do to understand? Go back to school, pray harder, go to church more often, or just trust that others know what it means? If we say "yes" then we feel like we are skating on thin ice. What exactly does Jesus mean by "all this"? Does he mean, "do you understand God`s will?", or does he mean something simpler like, "do you understand the story I just told?".

Personally, I can tell you that my answer to this question is yes and no. Typical Anglican you might say. After several years of formal theological education and many years of the general practice of ministry all I can say yes and no! What kind of a religious leader are you?

"No!" I do not understand all of this. I think I understand bits and pieces of what God`s will as revealed in the bible, in the teachings of the church, and in my own experience. Furthermore, because I believe myself to be much like the rest of humanity, I consider all attempts at understanding God`s will by others, be they popes, or creeds or church teachings, or theologians partial and imperfect. For me no doctrine or custom is absolute. I could not possibly belong to a religious tradition which required me to abandon my conviction about the ultimate unknowability of God.

And that is why we need to treat one another kindly - and with humour if possible. We need to "lighten up" in both sense of the word. Let us not break the bond of peace we have in Christ in the name of our own fancies of truth.

The reason the last line of today`s gospel caught my eye this morning is because I have, in recent weeks, experienced some of the weight of that camp of Christian believers who answer Jesus question with an unqualified yes. They are absolutely certain that I am wrong in my proposed motion to diocesan synod about the blessing of same sex unions. Furthermore, I am not only wrong but somehow perverse, wilfully unhearing of God`s word, deceived by the devil, sick and stupid to name but a few of the charitable remarks that fellow loving Christians have used to describe me. In fact, one couple advanced that me and the Indians are destroying the Anglican Church of Canada Wow ! I had no idea I was that powerful!

Now as a matter of fact, it doesn`t matter one bit to me if people agree with me or not on this issue. Mind you, I would prefer an above the belt debate about the issue without the threats of God vengeance but many respectable Christians, determined to protect God, consider that all means are fair when it comes to pressing God`s truth.

It seems to me that as Christians we should be able to love one another and disagree. This has been a characteristic of this parish for a long time. When I hear of the kinds of issues which cause resentment and bickering in other parishes I thank God for the relative sanity of St John`s Church! I hope this prevailing charitableness will continue through the present discussion.

With regard to the motion which I am going to take to synod I want you to know that I am not asking you to declare yourself on this matter. I certainly will not be asking our synod delegates to support me if it is contrary to their conscience. If you are upset or dubious about my action please feel free to discuss the matter with me. Be assured that regardless of whether you agree with this motion or not I will continue to do my very best to be your parish priest.

I say this not only to give you this assurance but also to warn you that the present debate is likely to go on until our synod in October, and as you well know, despite the many world-scale issues of need and injustice there are to be addressed, it will be the sex stuff that the media will be interested in. I apologize if this embarrasses you as members of St John`s Church. I have thought carefully about this matter and I believe it is the right way for me to exercise leadership here. I may be wrong.

At the end of today`s gospel, when Jesus poses the difficult question I have been discussing, he adds, "..every scribe who has been trained for the kingdom of heaven is like the master of the household who brings out of his treasure what is new and what is old." I am greatly moved by this passage because that is what I believe that I am doing. I am holding on to the treasure of my religious tradition which is familiar but I am digging deeper and finding a new treasure. And that treasure, to me, is a way for our church to help to end the centuries of hatred and vilification which gay people have lived with. The new treasure which our tradition has to offer is the capacity, if we want, to embrace them as full members of Christ`s family.

When it comes to matters which are controversial or divisive I think that it is more important than ever for us to keep our perspective. While the issue of meeting the pastoral needs of gay and lesbian people at St John`s is important to me- indeed, I consider it an obligation- I spend far less time on this issue each week than I do on the issue of affordable housing, or hospital visiting, or seeing to the good functioning of the dozens of ministries of which so many of you are part.

The other important piece of keeping a healthy perspective is to take seriously what St Paul speaks of in today`s letter to the Romans. He says, "We know that all things work together for good for those who love God, who are called according to his purpose" (Romans 8:26-39) Paul is not saying that if you believe in God only good things will happen to you. Rather, Paul is grappling with the idea of God as being the very heart and soul of the universe. That there is nothing, whatever the appearances to the contrary, that is not within God`s purview.

Only in the fulness of time we will see how all things fit together. Deceitful as Jacob and Rebecca were in cheating Isaac and Esau, God used Jacob the trickster in his plan of salvation. We are likewise encouraged to see our lives, broken and inadequate, our church, divided and arguing, and our world, violent and unjust, as being reshaped and transformed by God who waits patiently.

We know that it is true and that this is the way we are to go through things temporal to things eternal because we have seen Jesus- the treasure hidden in the field, the pearl of great value.