Ex 20:1-17; John 2:13-22                           Will to Survive                       Carman, EC               March 19, 2006

1. The people of Israel are survivors.  They?ve been wandering in the desert a long time.  Setting up tents, taking down tents, wandering some more.  They?d survived slavery, they could survive this.  Head down into the driving wind.  They were a group of people thrown together on a very extended camping trip, totally dependent on each other for safety, for all their physical and emotional needs.  It became evident they weren?t figuring out how to do this well.  Their hearts are blocked.  God could see their need for help!  So out of great Holy love came the Law, with the preface about liberation.  It?s supposed to set them free.  Ways to live together.  Blessings, because when they lived them with their hearts unblocked, they were blessed.  They could build a community where love freely flows, loving God, honouring the lives of others in community.  It was a great way to live meaningful, happy, just and fulfilled lives.

2. By our second lesson, Jesus? anger in the temple, we find that the law, meant to be liberating, wasn?t always.  Jesus was furious because people were exploiting the poor who had to pay for doves or sheep to give as an offering to God instead of using the money they had to buy food.  The moneychangers were taking a cut every time they changed the ordinary coin of the day, with Caesar?s image, into temple coins, free of images.  The law, intended to liberate was being used to oppress.  People were not being put first.  Some were profiting unfairly at the expense of others.  The flow of love was definitely blocked!

3. Where in our lives do we feel that flow of love blocked?  Prairie people remind me very much of the Israelites.  Head down into the wind, survivors.  The economic realities of the weather and unjust laws of the last years in rural communities leave us asking, how can we be the church to each other?  How do we use the resources of our faith, and our indomitable prairie spirit to support each other?  Your Outreach committee invited us to come to share the why and the how one ecumenical group in the south east of MB got started on this.

4. My name is Karin Mueller. I grew up on a dairy farm in Germany and promised myself to never get married to a farmer. Well, here I am, married for 20 years to a farmer in Manitoba. My husband and I run a grain farm and a seed plant in Arnaud, MB, close to Dominion City. Life on the farm has been good for us, especially in raising our four children and working together as a family.  Why do I believe the ?Will to survive Interchurch Neighbourhood Coalition? is a good idea?  I believe in ecumenical efforts.

I grew up in the Protestant Church in Germany. For our annual prayer weeks we met in all the different Protestant churches and denominations in our town of 20,000 in an effort to strengthen our common bond.

During my senior high years I attended a Roman Catholic private school and learned more about the Catholic traditions. My husband grew up Catholic.  When setting up our household in Arnaud, we did some ?church-shopping? and decided to become members in the local Mennonite church, where we have felt welcome and become active from day one.  Even though in certain denominations we differ in the ways we express our faith, we all believe in the one and only God. 

I believe in community.            Arnaud is a small village of about 50 people. We live 3 miles south of Arnaud on an isolated farm yard. Life can become really lonely. I believe God has created us with a longing for community.  As our rural areas experience more and more population decline I believe it will become more and more important to learn how to work together, across gender or age or denominational lines. It will become a matter of survival.

I believe in celebrating  Farming is never easy. There is no predictability, neither regarding the weather nor the prices. We will never forget the drought of 1988, the challenging harvest of 1993, the flood of the century in 1997, the excessive moisture before we could even get seeding in 2004 and 2005.  And yet it is in these years of extreme stress that we stop to think and ponder some important questions about our livelihood, our faith, our purpose in life.  As a deacon in my church I have been part of a committee trying to acknowledge the tough and stressful times but also nudging to take inventory and realize that we are still blessed people, blessed with life and with each other.  In coming together and sharing our burdens, the worries loose their tremendous weight and make room for fellowship and celebration.

      In closing I would like to share with you a story that was forwarded to me by a dear friend in Christ:

 A lecturer, when explaining stress management to an audience, raised a glass of water (raise a glass of water) and asked, "How heavy is this glass of water?"  (Wait for answers.) Answers called out ranged from 20g to 500g.  The lecturer replied, "The absolute weight doesn't matter. It depends on how long you try to hold it."  "If I hold it for a minute, that's not a problem. If I hold it for an hour, I'll have an ache in my right arm. If I hold it for a day, you'll have to call an ambulance. In each case, it's the same weight, but the longer I hold it, the heavier it becomes."  He continued, "And that's the way it is with stress management. If we carry our burdens all the time, sooner or later, as the burden becomes increasingly heavy,             we won't be able to carry on. As with the glass of water, you have to put it down for a while and rest before holding it again. When we're refreshed, we can carry on with the burden."   "So, before you return home today, put your burden down. Don't carry it home. You can pick it up tomorrow. Whatever burdens you're carrying now, let them down for a moment if you can. Relax; pick them up later after you've rested. Life is short. Enjoy it!"

5. Linda:  Hanging over my computer desk is a sampler that I ?tongue in cheek? stitched last winter.  It says - ?I thrive on Chaos?   It seems that way some days.   It?s Monday morning, I have my day neatly planned and the phone rings at 10 to 9.  I?m a substitute teacher, so I immediately look at the clock and think ?Oh no? and oh yes, someone is sick.  Can I come right now?  This was two weeks ago Monday.   I sit down, write a hasty note to my husband, pack lunch, change and am on the road well within 10 minutes.

At first glance it seems a little chaotic but nothing like my husband faces each day.  We have a beef and mixed grain farm.  There is an order to the chaos in our life - a sense of order that my husband and I have established through the years.  A support and faith in the strength of each other that brings order to our own private chaos.  Communicating with each other, celebrating our blessings each day, and just being there for one another.

We all need a sense of order in our lives, a feeling that something is there that we can depend on; an anchor in our storms. 

From the chaos God created -  From the chaos He gave direction  to bring order out of chaos  - To give His people that anchor  -   that sense of security and support. 

For the past few years our rural area as well has been asked to weather some tough storms.  The rules have been broken.  What worked for the last 40 years won?t work when you have more than a foot of rain perfectly spaced through May and June to keep everything a soupy mess.  No matter how hard you try, everything goes wrong.  The rules don?t work.  Maybe there are no rules.  Maybe they keep changing so no one knows what to do. 

While the farm community has been at the ground level of the resulting chaos, it is noticeable in the small communities that depend on the farm economy for survival. 

As a church community we have been well aware of these problems as we too have struggled to make ends meet both financially for us and emotionally for our members.  It seems that we are ready to support M&S, Beads of Hope, Tsunami Relief, and other far away projects but often find it hard to cope with what is right next door.

We have two perceptive clergy in our neighbourhood.  Pastor Lynne Martin from the Arnaud Mennonite Church contacted our Rev. Bev with concerns she was observing in her congregation and looking for a united support to react to these issues and an invitation to join them in finding suitable responses for the community at large that we share.  Bev brought the idea to our local board meeting at the end of June.  We discussed the idea, struck a committee to join with them, and brainstormed for ideas.  These included a rural ? urban pulpit exchange, plan a local fun event with neighbouring churches, and a Spirit raising event.

In early July we met with the Arnaud reps and Will to Survive. Interchurch Neighbourhood Coalition was formed.

At this point I think I should confess that I had been skeptical of the idea when presented at our meeting.  In a depressing, hot, humid environment at the end of a rather long meeting, it felt like just another thing I HAD to do.  I came home from our ecumenical meeting with a renewed spirit.  There is nothing like the fellowship of friends communicating and celebrating the blessings that we do have even in a season of challenges.   We hoped to be there for our friends and neighbours, to let them know that as a community of faith we shared in their concerns and also to provide a place of meeting to share with each other, and to uplift each other and to lighten the load.

We had planned a community pot luck supper and fellowship in mid October; supper, cards and games, craft time, visiting and lots of laughter and a ?Sing Out Christmas ? Clean out the Cupboard? evening of carols in early January.          

In November WTS sponsored our ?BIG? event .  Award winning author, Elaine Froese spoke to us on ?Planting the Seeds of Hope:  Communicate, Celebrate, Connect?.  Many of you may have heard Elaine speak and know what an inspiration she is or you may be familiar with her column in the Grainews.   Her positive message left all who attended feeling good about themselves.

I received an e-mail this week that sums up my feelings about our group.  ?A member of a church had suddenly stopped attending services.  After a few weeks the pastor went to visit him and they each sat near a fireplace saying nothing. 

The pastor, in grave silence, sat contemplating the flames dancing around the burning logs, and soon picked up the fire tongs and carefully picked up a brightly burning ember and placed it on the hearth, all alone.  The host sat there and watched the ember?s flame flicker and diminish.  Soon it was cold and dead.

Not a word had been spoken between the two of them since the initial greeting.  The pastor soon realized it was time to leave.  Slowly he stood up and replaced the cold, dead ember in the burning fire.  Immediately it began to glow and was soon blazing, relit by the coals around it.? 

I sincerely hope that this touching of the lives about us by activities sponsored by our group will rekindle the hope, the trust, and the faith of those who need the comfort of our Heavenly Father?s care.  Sometimes in this world we try to say too much with too little.  Consequently too few listen.  Maybe the best messages are the ones left unsaid but lived instead.

6. So how do we live our message of hope not only to out near-by neighbours, but with the rest of God?s children around the world?  We open our hearts in continued prayers for peace with justice for all.   We open our hearts to the 80% of the world that is left with 20% of the world?s resources.  To wonder what?s going to happen as the World Bank insists that developing nations cut back the money for health care and education, if they want to qualify for loans?  As we walk together, where are the places that we can speak boldly about our concerns about how the flow of love and resources is blocked in our communities and in our world?

7. A young father had taken his daughter for a ride on her pony, a distraction for them both because her mother and sister had recently died.  They stopped for a picnic in the midst of the wide prairie.  The little girl asked, ?Daddy, does God love us as much as Mommy did??  At first the father didn?t know what to say.  Then pointing to the most distant horizon, he said, ?Honey, God?s love reaches farther than you can see in that direction.?  Turning around, he said, ?And God?s love reaches farther than you can see in that direction, too ?And God?s love is higher than the sky.  And God?s love is deeper than the earth.?

The little girl said, ?Oh just think Daddy.  We?re right in the middle of it all.? 

8. And here we are in the middle of it all.  What a great place to be!  For we do not walk alone.  We have the will to survive, we have each other, we have God?s commandments or blessings for relationship to guide us, Christ?s witness for justice to teach us, the Holy Spirit to enable us, and God?s incredible love to nurture us.  Thanks be to God.