Let us pray: O God, we live in times marked by searching, the choice to follow different patterns and traditions, disillusionment, and awakening and emerging expressions and ideas about your presence in the world and in our faith lives. May what I say here enliven us to your presence, your call, and the new ways that are being opened to discern each of these in our lives. Amen.

Have you heard of the game of life? It was invented in 1970 by John Horton Conway. Since then it has intrigued computer programmers and theorists from many different disciplines. I won't go into much detail about how it works except to say that it is played by setting a pattern in a grid of squares with each little square representing a living cell. There are rules about which cells will survive from one generation to another. Cells will die if they are lonely – if a cell has no neighbours, or if there is overpopulation – if a cell has too many neighbours. Conversely it will survive, some say by reproduction, if it has two or three other living cells beside it. The reason it is popular with computer programmers is that while it can be played manually, such play is very slow. On the the other hand, the rules are very simple and can easily be translated into a computer algorithm with the result that you can watch the generations expand and contract very quickly right before your eyes.

Since its creation, many people have tried to create beginning patterns that will allow the game to grow exponentially and scientists from various areas have been fascinated by what happens when the rules of the game are applied. People seem to think that the interesting results achieved by applying the rules I stated above can offers connections with such diverse areas of study as computer science, physics, biology, economics, mathematics and philosophy. People in these areas of study have observed and been intrigued by the way that complex patterns can emerge from the implementation of very simple rules.

Well the game of life is one thing, but of course even though the game tries to replicate some aspects of the mystery of life, we all know that nothing can come close to the complexities and enigmas that constitute what we know as life itself.

Even trying to define life and its meaning is a complicated subject, to say nothing of the fact that we apply the term to many different aspects of our existence. We can talk about human life, or life as we know it in the plant and animal world but also in the context of institutions and organizations. In particular we might describe the life of the church, or the life of a particular community or organization. Like the game of life, although considerably more complicated, some of these seem to operate by certain rules. Part of our time, perhaps a goodly portion of it can be spent in trying to determine the rules and apply them in order to preserve or lengthen the life of, for example, a congregation or denomination. I think there is a lot of that going on right now in the life of the church. Some people, perhaps a majority, might suggest that the rules as they apply to the church community have changed indeed. This was pointed out to people who were part of the second set of workshops connected with the Emerging Spirit program of The United Church of Canada. The presenters of the material suggested that the rules of the church community have changed quite significantly. Keith Howard, the Executive Director of the program pointed out that the old rule of church community was this: Believe - Behave – Belong. In other words the characteristic that drew people into the community was belief. Once a part of the community, the rules, expectations, norms guided people to behave in a way that helped them to fit with the community and then ultimately there was a sense of belonging. Keith went on to suggest that today’s Emerging Spirit churches recognize that belonging is what people today are consciously seeking. People come looking for that ‘third place’ in their life, besides home and work, where they can belong, relate, contribute and be appreciated. Some have postulated that in today’s postmodern society “Togetherness is a rare, precious and elusive experience.” So the rules that define or describe church community have changed, so that the characteristics are reversed to become: Belong - Behave – Believe. Just to be clear about this, I don't want you to think that the middle one, the one that didn't change in the order, namely “behave” is not meant to be a rule within itself. It is not a prescriptive set of behaviour rules, but rather a description of what happens when someone joins a community – in order to “fit in” to feel a part of the community. Another way to describe it would be as a “community norm” - a description of the way we treat each other, and the unspoken ways in which we define or describe the boundaries of a community – whether we are talking about a particular congregation or even a denomination.

So, the rules about how community forms and continues to thrive may have changed. But the writer of Deuteronomy says to us: Choose Life! What does this mean in the context of survival for congregations and denominations?

I would suggest that it begs a deeper question first. If we are to choose life, then it is our responsibility to know what it is that is life. That is true for our life as human beings and of course it goes beyond the physical aspects of life. Life is both simple and complicated and of course it consists of a feedback loop of everything that goes into our being who we are – mental, physical, emotional, and spiritual. Each of them influences the other. To choose life is to give priority to the aspects of our lives that need nurturing, care and nourishment. The same goes for the life of a community. But that means that we have to know what aspects actually need each of these forms of care. And for me that means discernment, deepening of our knowledge of who and what we are.

Paul put it in a somewhat different form, although I think the connection is both brilliant and beautifully simple. We are the body of Christ. We almost don't need any other description to emphasise the importance of choosing that which is life-giving for the body – a body that just like our own has aspects of the physical, mental, emotional and spiritual with it as well.

Life is also nurtured or chosen by caring for the environment in which it lives. That's the point of the verse we heard from John's gospel. The verse is perhaps over-used by a certain part of the body of Christ, to the point where, as was mentioned it may be treated with less rigour because it has such a stigma attached to it. But listen to this emphasis: God so loved the world. That's the environment in which life is to be nurtured. That takes it beyond the personal and even the confines of our particular congregation and even denomination. Some would say, myself included, beyond the confines of our Christian faith, to encompass everyone, regardless of faith community.

Those are the broad strokes of what the writer of Deuteronomy is offering to us this day. But broad strokes are not enough. In fact some would say that broad strokes are meaningless or pointless if the intent of the broad strokes is not lived out in the detail.

It is the detail with which I want to close this morning – the detail which describes choosing life in two different but connected ways. First and closer to home is the life of this congregation. Today, following this worship service, we have been called to gather in community to consider the work that we will do in the coming year. It's called the “Annual Financial Meeting” of this congregation, but in reality it is a time when we gather to put shoes and socks, elbow grease and grey cells into the task of “choosing life”. That's what's up for us in the time right after this service of worship. But that's not all. We have been asked by Alberta and Northwest Conference of The United Church of Canada to do some consideration of the life of the conference as well. Everyone in the conference – formally constituted as congregations, pastoral charges, committees – both standing and ad hoc, and other groups, both formal and informal, have been invited to participate in a year of listening and discernment for the future work and might I say, life of the community we know as Alberta and Northwest Conference. You are going to hear more about it as the weeks progress. Some of you have already been invited to be part of our response as a congregation. It includes a spiritual practice which seems particularly fitting for the season of Lent, and that may be when it takes place, although it may also start a little sooner than that.

In each of these things – whether it be in the context of an annual financial meeting or in the context of a study group to listen and discern what God is saying about the work and life of our conference, or in the reminder we have also been marking today of the work of the Mission and Service Fund, we are being given the opportunity to consider what gives life to our community of faith, and the even wider community of faith and then to choose it and live it out as the hands and feet of Christ because of God's love for the world. May we be given the gift of wisdom, insight and discernment. Amen.