For this past Sunday, I had to come up with something quick for sermon-time.  The difference from every other week was that I wasn't going to be leading worship.  It was my first day of vacation and the person who was scheduled to do pulpit supply didn't pan out.  So, I wrote this short reflection for a lay person to read.  I thought I would share it with you.  I made great use of James Taylor's Everyday Parables book and, admittedly, I didn't cite that properly.

Imagine that someone asked you, “What is God trying to tell you right now?” while you were doing the laundry or nailing siding onto your house.

If you're quick witted and memorized a lot of the Bible verses as a child, you might come up with word associations about washing away guilt or building houses on rock.

But until you were asked, it wouldn't have occurred to you that what you were doing had any connection with your faith! And if you were asked the same questions when you were working on the car or boarding a jumbo jet, you couldn't have answered at all. Because automatic transmissions and airlines aren't mentioned in the Bible.

By and large, our churches today have lost the message of Emmanuel, the name that means “God with us.” The preaching, the teaching, the thinking almost always focus on long, long ago. People have given up expecting to find God anywhere other than in church or in the Bible. That puts their faith into a strait jacket.

It seems as thought Jesus could simply look around the world in which he lived in see God in everything! And he used everyday objects to teach people about God and help them make those connections. We see that in famous parables like the one we heard today about the Sower and the Seeds.

If Jesus were here with us today, in the middle of the city of Fredericton, he likely wouldn't talk to us about farming or about sheep or about fig trees. Instead, he would turn to objects that had more meaning for us in hopes of explaining something as mysterious and grand as God to us – something that is so indescribable.

So what might Jesus talk about? Since most of us want to do nothing much else these days but lie on the beach or pack up the family and go on vacation, do you think Jesus might talk about picnic coolers, seashells, lemonade, and campfires? What can these mundane objects possibly teach us about God?

In his book Everyday Parables, Canadian author James Taylor takes ordinary objects such as these and shows how they can be parables too.

The Parable of the Picnic Cooler goes something like this.

Picnic coolers are supposed to keep hot things hot, and cool things cool. But sometimes the insulation in a picnic cooler wears out. You put something hot into your old cooler, and when you want to use it, it comes out lukewarm. Or you put something cold into the cooler, and it comes out lukewarm too. Then you know it's time to get rid of that cooler and get a new one that works better.

What's true for picnic coolers is true for our faith, too. When our faith leaves us only lukewarm, neither hot nor cold, it's probably time to junk some old ideas, or trade them in on somenew ideas and insights that work better.

And how about the Parable of Lemonade?

On a hot day, there's nothing more refreshing than a glass of icy lemonade.

To countless suffering people, the story of Jesus has come as refreshingly as lemonade. Refugees and slave, victims of ill health and of war, have found comfort and consolation in the story of his crucifixion and resurrection. They have identified with an innocent man suffering for something he didn't do. They find hope in the message that the way things are isn't the only way things can be.

But for many in the more affluent world, the lemonade has gone sour. The good news has a bitter taste.

Some high-profile evangelists try to sweeten the mix. They disguise the bitterness with jazz and razzmatazz. They water down the natural tartness of the message and add artificial flavours.

Others know what's good for us. So they cut out the sugar. They give us the straight lemon, straight from the shoulder.

So what are the parables of your life? Through what does God speak to you?

Our days are filled with ordinary moments. Maybe we can't explain just how God is relevant to them all but when we realize that God is present in them all, we allow God to crack open the crust that forms our daily routines. May we start to see, hear, feel, smell, and taste the presence of an everyday God. May we create our own parables.