Monday 23 December 2013

A Thought For The Week Of December 23

"Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel." (Isaiah 7:14) Immanuel. God With Us. It's what Christmas is all about really. It's the sign that God is with us. Not over us, or beyond us, or above us. But actually with us. And even more than that - God is both with us and one of us. Matthew's Gospel takes this verse from Isaiah and applies it to the reality of Jesus - that through his birth, God was coming to us. And Paul speaks of Jesus being born of a woman. It's the same message. Through Jesus, God is both with us and one of us. There are a lot of uncertainties and even a lot of mysteries around the birth of Jesus. None of them perhaps as great as the simple words "the virgin will conceive." I for one don't try to explain that; but because I can't explain it, neither do I simply reject it. I accept it as yet another wonderful part of a story that in one way makes no sense, but in another way makes perfect sense: that God, out of love for what he created, would choose to become a part of that creation. To me, that's the wonder and the mystery and even the majesty of Christmas: that God loves us enough to come to us. Have a great week - and have a blessed and merry Christmas!

December 22 sermon: Keeping Christmas In Perspective

Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle and set apart for the gospel of God - the gospel He promised beforehand through His prophets in the Holy Scriptures regarding His Son, who as to His earthly life was a descendant of David, and who through the Spirit of holiness was appointed the Son of God in power by His resurrection from the dead: Jesus Christ our Lord. Through Him we received grace and apostleship to call all the Gentiles to the obedience that comes from faith for His name’s sake. And you also are among those Gentiles who are called to belong to Jesus Christ. To all in Rome who are loved by God and called to be His holy people: Grace and peace to you from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ. (Romans 1:1-7)

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     How many of you are familiar with the elf on the shelf? (Show of hands.) The Davis household has an elf on the shelf. Our elf is named “Louie.” He appeared in our home I believe three years ago. Apparently every elf has its own little quirks (they're really just like mini-people, after all) and so each elf does things a little differently. Louie makes his appearance in our home generally on the night of the first Sunday in Advent. Then he flies to the North Pole every night until Christmas Eve to report to Santa on who's being naughty and who's being nice. You see, unlike the way some seem to think of him, Santa Claus isn't God. Santa isn't all-knowing. Santa has to be told about things by the elves. The point is that Louie comes back and lands in a different place in the house, so that every morning Hannah is tasked with the responsibility of finding him. She's 9. I suspect that it's all in fun, but she plays along with it. But there are people out there who take this elf on the shelf thing far too seriously and blow it out of all proportion. They don't seem to be able to keep it in perspective. A few days ago I was looking at some posts on a clergy group on Facebook. The elf on the shelf came up. Someone asked if the elf on the shelf was “satanic.” Really. Someone else said that the elf on the shelf would harm their family's faith development. Another comment was that the elf on the shelf would make their family forget the “true” meaning of Christmas. My gosh! An elf on the shelf can do all that? I replied, suggesting that if any of that were the case (if an elf on the shelf could truly harm a family's faith development) then the problems went far deeper than an elf on the shelf! Really. Satanic? Harming faith development? Causing us to forget the true meaning of Christmas? As I suggested in my final post on the thread, “Let's keep this in perspective, people. It's a fake elf, and kids look for it in the morning. It's fun.” But it does occur to me that there do seem to be some Christians who seem to believe that anything that's fun must also be suspect. And they tend to get all the attention, and people base their opinions of Christians on them.

     Oh well. My topic today is “perspective.” Especially perspective as it revolves around Christmas. Christmas is another one of those controversial topics with some Christians. I know a fundamentalist Christian who refuses to celebrate Christmas because, as he says, “I don't see anywhere in the New Testament where it says that Jesus was born on December 25.” Well – he's got me there. December 25 is never mentioned. But on the other hand, the New Testament does mention that Jesus was born – so is it really so offensive to God and faith that we choose a particular day to celebrate his birth? I don't think so. To that fundamentalist acquaintance, I say – “perspective, my friend. It's all about perspective.”

     Paul had Christmas in perspective. You will from time to time run across those who claim that Paul knew nothing of Jesus' birth; implicitly then suggesting that Jesus' birth wasn't at all important to the early church, since Paul's writings are the earliest Christian writings we have. Of course that's not true. I give you Galatians 4:4: “But when the time had fully come, God sent His Son, born of a woman ...” It's not much, but it is a reference to Jesus' birth. How much Paul knew, we can't say for sure, but he knew something. But he kept it all in perspective. He understood what was really important, and he states it pretty explicitly in our passage today from Romans: “Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle and set apart for the gospel of God - the gospel He promised beforehand through His prophets in the Holy Scriptures regarding His Son, who as to His earthly life was a descendant of David, and who through the Spirit of holiness was appointed the Son of God in power by His resurrection from the dead: Jesus Christ our Lord.” Paul fully understood Jesus' earthly background – he was “born of a woman” and he “was a descendant of David” - but he kept it all in perspective. Not that it wasn't important, but Paul understood what was most important: “who through the Spirit of holiness was appointed the Son of God in power by His resurrection from the dead: Jesus Christ our Lord.” Paul understood. As a matter of priority, resurrection comes before birth, because of what resurrection proclaims to the world!

     The importance of Christmas is the idea of incarnation – that God would willingly choose to become a part of that which God has created. The importance of Christmas is “Emmanuel” - God With Us. The importance of Christmas is the message that it sends that we're able to approach God without fear or hesitation; that God is not frightening or intimidating. A few Christmas Eves ago I shared a story that I thought illustrated this pretty well. It was Christmas Eve night, and a man who had no time for either God or church was sitting at home alone, because his family had gone to a Christmas Eve service. The man had no time for a Christmas Eve service, because the whole idea of God becoming human was foolishness to him. A snowstorm began. The wind howled and the snow became fierce and the temperatures plunged. Suddenly, the man heard a crash against his front window. Alarmed, he ran to the door and looked outside, and he saw a flock of small birds, obviously disoriented by the storm, huddled together, struggling to protect themselves against the snow and winds, and obviously not able to survive much longer. The man had a barn, and he thought that if he could just shoo the birds into the barn, they could ride out the storm and they'd be safe. So he went out and tried his best. But the birds were afraid of him. He was so much bigger than they were, and they were overwhelmed by him. They would scatter when he approached and wouldn't let him shoo them to the barn. He tried several times, with no success. Finally, in despair, he fell to his knees and he cried out, “If only I could be a bird, then I could save them.” And suddenly he understood. God became a man, so he could save us, and so that we wouldn't be afraid. “Do not be afraid” - some of the most common words of Jesus, Who was God born as a man, so that we would have no reason to fear God.

     That – to me – explains the meaning of Christmas. But keep it in perspective, is, I think, Paul's message. For Paul, the perspective was always and ultimately the resurrection. Do I plan to preach an Easter sermon on the Sunday before Christmas? No. There will be plenty of time for that come April. But resurrection always keeps things in perspective – even Christmas. Jesus, “through the Spirit of holiness was appointed the Son of God in power by His resurrection from the dead ...” Paul doesn't mean that Jesus became “the Son of God” by His resurrection. Jesus was always the Son of God – that's Christmas. But the resurrection declared His power and authority, while the birth revealed God in a weak and vulnerable and completely approachable state. But make no mistake about it – the child born in that weak and vulnerable state is the same one who took everything the mightiest empire in the world at the time could throw at Him and still emerge victorious by defeating even death. And that means that we can be victorious. No matter how weak and vulnerable and frightened we may sometimes feel, we can be victorious – because a baby born in a manger ended up victorious by rising from the dead. That helps us keep Christmas in perspective. Christmas is important - because it's about the coming of God in human flesh. But if Jesus is merely human then He's no more than a good example. If Jesus is also divine then He becomes the very embodiment of love and life itself to us all, and the sign that God understands us in even our darkest moments. And ultimately our hope is found in resurrection - the final sign of who Jesus was. So, even as we wish each other a "Merry Christmas," let's not forget that at heart we are an Easter people, who gather to celebrate the presence not of a baby in a manger, but of the risen and living Christ in our midst and in our lives!

Monday 16 December 2013

A Thought For The Week Of December 16

"Don't have anything to do with foolish and stupid arguments, because you know they produce quarrels." (2 Timothy 2:23) That seems to me to be pretty good advice. I suspect that if we actually sat back and took a close look, we'd discover that most of the things we argue about are less than central to our life and/or our faith. They're tangential issues; things we might get passionate about, but things that aren't really going to make that much difference. At least that's been my observation, considering both the things I've managed to get into arguments about, and the things I've seen others get into arguments about. I'd have to say here that this verse applies even to the church. How many church fights have any of us witnessed over the years?  Probably a lot. And how many of them have really been about issues that are central to the church's purpose? Really - I've seen passionate arguments break out over what colour the sanctuary should be painted! I bring it up this week because I've started to see an annual argument breaking out among some of my social media friends and colleagues - should we sing Christmas carols during Advent, or should we stick to Advent songs? And some people get very passionate about that. And I find myself wondering - does Jesus really care? Really? Jesus - who had never heard of either Advent or Christmas during his own lifetime? It's a secondary, tangential issue that a lot of people get riled up about and that serves as a perfect illustration of church fights that don't really mean anything. I know if you're a liturgical Christian you love the flow of the seasons, and Advent is one of those seasons. I know that some people think that Christmas carols in Advent destroys the idea of "preparation" that's at the heart of Advent. I know all that. But really - think about 2 Timothy 2:23. Some sing Advent songs in church and some sing Christmas carols in church. I'm doing both. Now that we've acknowledged our differences on the matter - maybe we should get down to doing what Jesus would actually want us to do - which I suspect isn't debating which types of songs should be sung during worship! Have a great week!

Sunday 15 December 2013

December 15 sermon: Will People Know Us?

(A video link to this sermon is below.)

When John, who was in prison, heard about the deeds of the Messiah, he sent his disciples to ask Him, “Are You the one who is to come,or should we expect someone else?” Jesus replied, “Go back and report to John what you hear and see: The blind receive sight, the lame walk, those who have leprosy are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the good news is proclaimed to the poor. Blessed is anyone who does not stumble on account of me.”  (Matthew 11:2-6)

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     That question from John the Baptist – passed to Jesus' through John's own disciples – strikes home with me for some reason. John (Jesus' own cousin according to Luke's Gospel) clearly wasn't convinced about Jesus: who He was, who people were saying He was. Clearly, John thought it was possible that his cousin was the Messiah – as hard as it was for him to believe that. I mean, I have a lot of cousins – none of whom I would take seriously if they claimed to be the Messiah! Nor would they take me seriously if I made the claim! But John was torn. He had his expectations about the Messiah, and Jesus hadn't really been living up to them apparently. But there had been a lot of exciting and dramatic things happening around Jesus ever since He appeared – so, well, maybe. John has never struck me as a shy guy, or a guy reluctant to speak his mind, but in this particular case he was reduced to asking (in what I, at least, think was a rather hesitant and uncertain tone): “should we expect someone else?” It's as if he was saying “Wait a minute. You're it?” Yes – just a tinge of hesitation; maybe a dash of disappointment; certainly a good helping of uncertainty. “Are You the one Who is to come, or should we expect someone else?”

     So - what do people say today when they think of the church? “This is it?” Truthfully, people have been asking that for a long time when they think about the church. I've quoted Mahatma Gandhi many times – because his words are so challenging to us and so thought provoking to us – or at least they should be: “I admire you're Christ, but you Christians are so unlike your Christ.” Then there's John Wimber – the founder of Vineyard Christian Ministries. The Vineyard is a sort of hyper-charismatic Christian denomination. I have a lot of differences with the Vineyard in terms of theology, but I know where Wimber was coming from when he started it. He actually began by attending the Church of England when he first came to faith. And after a while he finally went to the priest and asked “Where's the stuff?” “What stuff?” the priest asked. “The Jesus stuff – like in the New Testament.” At least Wimber understood that we're supposed to reflect Jesus, and he understood – like Gandhi – that we often don't do a very good job of that. When John sent his disciples to challenge Jesus about who he was, and to ask “should we be expecting someone else?” Jesus pointed to everything that had been happening in His life and ministry: “Go back and report to John what you hear and see: The blind receive sight, the lame walk, those who have leprosy are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the good news is proclaimed to the poor.” There had been healings, there had been resurrections and there had been proclamations of good news since Jesus appeared on the scene.There had been no rebellion against Rome, which is what many people had been expecting of Messiah, but there had certainly been a lot of signs that this Jesus was something special.

     What of the church? What are the signs that accompany we who claim to be the followers of “the one who is to come”? I'm not sure that our presence is supposed to be demonstrated by exactly the same signs as those that accompanied Jesus. I'm certainly not closed to the possibility of miracles. But I do think that some Christians are too quick to claim miracles – and the fact is that if miracles are as common and happen as easily as they do at a Benny Hinn Miracle Healing Service then – well – they really wouldn't be miracles, would they? A miracle has to be something out of the ordinary; something unexpected; somehting that seems impossible. Too many Christian ministries are too quick to jump on the miracle bandwagon and too reluctant to let their miracles be confirmed. But that's an aside.  I don't deny the possibility of miracles, but I'm not sure that those things (the “stuff” that John Wimber talked about) are necessarily supposed to be the signs that accompany the presence of the church, and that point others to Christ. But I do think that the ministry of Jesus guides us and tells us how we ourselves, as the church, are supposed to proclaim the presence of Jesus and the appearance of Messiah in our midst.

     Jesus healed the sick. “The blind receive sight, the lame walk, those who have leprosy are cleansed, the deaf hear ...” is how Jesus defined this part of His work. We, of course, read these words and assume that the reference is only to their physical healing. But I think not. I don't discount that Jesus could do such things. But there was more going on than just physical healing. Jesus was restoring these folks to their place in society. The sick, the disabled, the blind, the lame – they were often outcast in Jesus' day. They were generally reduced to begging at best. They were shown no respect and the thinking was that they were deserving of no dignity. They were looked down upon. As a church, I'm not sure that we can easily heal physical afflictions. Miracles happen, but there are enough sick Christians that we have to understand that they are miracles – and they don't happen as often as we want them to. But we can welcome people who've been cast out into the circle. We can show people respect. We can offer people a sense of dignity. And we can do that no matter who we're talking about. We do that by treating all people – whatever their walk in life, whatever their socioeconomic status, whatever their lifestyle choices might be, whatever their sexual orientation is – with the dignity and respect that all people deserve, simply because they are beloved of God. When we are able to do that, then people will know us!

     Jesus raised the dead. “... the dead are raised ...” He said – offering this as a sign to John the Baptist. The dead don't rise very often. Sometimes the dying get better, but the dead don't get raised very often. There are stories ... rumours ... accounts of such things ... but usually unverified. And should we expect to do that anyway? Or is our calling – our sign to the world – to restore life to those who have chosen for whatever reason not to live it. The church can offer hope to those trapped in behaviours or patterns that suck life away. We can raise the dead in our own way when we reach out to drug addicts or alcoholics – whose very addictions are ways of escaping life – and off them to hope of God; a God whose love can fill whatever hole causes a person to turn to addictions or destructive lifestyles in the first place. When we are able to do that, then people will know us!

     Jesus proclaimed good news to the poor. It wasn't necessarily those living in poverty. It was perhaps the poor in spirit. The point is that Jesus went to those who had the most need. Does the church? Or does the church content itself with those it knows well? With those it knows won't rock the boat too much? With those who have something to offer back to us? What Jesus did for the poor was to offer them practical hope – with not just words but actions. He proclaimed the grace of God and He lived it out by standing with the poor and the oppressed, and giving up status and privilege. The church can do that. The church can stand up and be heard on behalf of the poor and the marginalized and the outcast. The church – in its earliest incarnation according to the Book of Acts – was such a place, where all were treated as equals and there were no distinctions of class or judgments to be made. And people responded to that vision. The church today can proclaim good news by offering the vision of a community (and a world) where all truly are equal – certainly equal in God's eyes, and certainly equal in our eyes – and by welcoming all into our midst. When we are able to do that, then people will know us!

     “... should we expect someone else?” was what John the Baptist asked of Jesus. It might be what many people ask about the church today – especially if they don't see us going about the business of Jesus!


Tuesday 10 December 2013

A Thought For The Week Of December 9

"Because Joseph her husband was faithful to the law, and yet did not want to expose her to public disgrace, he had in mind to divorce her quietly." (Matthew 1:19) Joseph often gets ignored as Christmas approaches. The focus is on Jesus, of course, and also on Mary. Mary gets a significant part of the first two chapters of Luke's Gospel, she appears during Jesus' lifetime, she's at the foot of the cross, and she's a witness to the empty tomb. But Joseph? A few words in the first chapter of Matthew's Gospel, and a couple of mentions of his name in other places. Otherwise, he's often the forgotten one of the Christmas story - there, but not really noticed. Which is a shame. Joseph was a good and compassionate and merciful man. The reference to Joseph deciding to divorce Mary sounds harsh, but it was actually a choice that reflected these qualities. Mary had been found to be pregnant before marriage - and not with Joseph's child! And the story she told? About the Holy Spirit? Difficult to believe. If Joseph married her, he'd potentially be the object of ridicule. And he could have openly condemned her - and the penalty for a woman who became pregnant outside of marriage in those days was not a pleasant one to say the least. But Joseph would do what he had to do quietly - showing those qualities of goodness, compassion and mercy by not exposing her publicly. And, ultimately, he would show great faith - believing what God would reveal to him about the child and acting as human father and protector to both Jesus and Mary. He was a good man, and he was a good example - reminding us that goodness, compassion, mercy and faith should be the characteristics of our lives as well, all through the year. Have a great week.

Monday 2 December 2013

A Thought For The Week Of December 2

"A voice of one calling: In the desert prepare the way for the Lord; make straight in the wilderness a highway for our God." (Isaiah 40:3) Yesterday, we put our Christmas tree up. It's a bit of a family tradition that we put it up on the First Sunday of Advent, and leave it up until the Season of Christmas ends on January 6. Sometimes the dates vary a bit - it's not a hard and fast rule after all - but we're usually pretty close. Yesterday, we got it right on. It's all a part of preparing. In this case, we prepare for Christmas, in both its secular and spiritual dimensions. Extra church services on the one hand, and a few parties to attend on the other. And it's all good, and it's all fun, and the season moves quickly on and sometimes overwhelms us with all its busy-ness, which is why we have to keep our eyes on what Christmas is really about - not the parties, and not even the extra church services. No. It's about the birth of a baby - God come to us in human flesh, in the helpless form of an infant. What could be more inviting than our Almighty God who needs nothing coming to us in such a humble and helpless state. As much as the parties and extra church services may overwhelm us, this is what's truly overwhelming: God in love chose to join with us in our condition to share our existence and to experience our lives. This is love - overwhelming enough that perhaps we do need to take some time to prepare for its celebration; to prepare the way for God to encounter us anew. Have a great week!

Sunday 1 December 2013

December 1 sermon: What If We Really Walked In The Light?

This is what Isaiah son of Amoz saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem: In the last days the mountain of the Lord's temple will be established as the highest of the mountains; it will be exalted above the hills, and all nations will stream to it. Many peoples will come and say, “Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the temple of the God of Jacob. He will teach us his ways, so that we may walk in his paths.” The law will go out from Zion, the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. He will judge between the nations and will settle disputes for many peoples. They will beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation will not take up sword against nation, nor will they train for war anymore. Come, descendants of Jacob, let us walk in the light of the Lord. (Isaiah 2:1-5)

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Scott Mission Presentation: Carrol Castle

This year for our Christmas offering, the Worship, Mission and Outreach Committee has decided to make a donation to the Scott Mission, a Christian non-denominational outreach based on Spadina Avenue in downtown Toronto, where it serves the poor, the hungry and the homeless. The mission was started about 70 years ago, as a soup kitchen. There were days when 1000 men lined up to be fed. Today, men, women and children are cared for. The staff and 5000 volunteers are involved with the mission, offering food, shelter, child care and a food bank. They serve without expecting anything in return. This ministry of love cannot continue without donations. For just $4.25, you can provide a mean for one hungry person thia Christmas ... $4.25. You will receive your Christmas offering envelope with your December newsletter, or you can ask an usher for one. I've never been to the Scott Mission, but my son Darren has been there when he was homeless in Toronto! So I am asking you to be generous with your Christmas offering, which will transform lives, through the Scott Mission!

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     What would it look like if we really walked in the light? It's a question that should challenge people of faith. Christian faith makes large claims and huge promises and offers great hope – but the words we use are meaningless unless we back those words up somehow in a practical way. Isaiah calls people of faith to “walk in the light of the Lord.” The question becomes: what is light? In a spiritual sense, what is light? If we truly “walk in the light of the Lord” that where exactly are we walking and what are we doing while we walk?

     It seemed to me that the introduction to the work of the Scott Mission was appropriate as the beginning of our message time today, and as a part of our kickoff not only to the Season of Advent but to the beginning of a new church year, in which we hopefully commit ourselves anew to doing the work Christ has called us to do. The work of the Scott Mission is light being given to those who are walking in darkness of various kinds, and light is what I want to talk about this morning.

     Light is a common metaphor in the Bible that's used to represent so much. Jesus is called “the light of the world” and He tells us that we are “the light of the world.” The 23rd Psalm tells us that we walk “through the darkest valley” - and since we walk “through” it that presumably means that when we come out the other side we enter light. It was the light of a star that started to draw people from the far corners of the world to Jesus. The shepherds were drawn to the manger by “the glory of the Lord [shining] around them.” All references to light – and what do they stand for?

     Light is hope. It's what takes us out of the uncertainty of the darkness. Light is assurance. It's what helps us out of the paralysis of fear. Light is joy. It's what takes us out of the depths of sorrow. Light is life. It's what rescues us from the grip of death. As we “walk in the light of the Lord,” we discover the meaning of Jesus' words: “Do not be afraid.” Over and over again in the Gospels, Jesus says variations on “do not be afraid.” Our society is, in so many ways, filled with so much fear. The light of Christ is intended to get us through the darkness that fear represents, and as fear disappears from our own lives, we're inspired to not just “walk in the light” but to offer that light to others; to invite those who live in darkness to join us on the journey. In a later passage from Isaiah, the prophet says that “the people walking in darkness will see a great light.” As Christians, we believe that “great light” to be Jesus, and we understand our call to be offering that light in which we walk to the world; to all who walk in darkness.

     The First Sunday of Advent is a time for hope. I wanted to start the message time today with the presentation about the Scott Mission, because it represents a light of hope to a great number of desperate people. A number of years ago, Lynn and I got up at 4:00 on a Saturday morning and traveled 3 hours with a group of about 8 people from Zion United Church in Sundridge to downtown Toronto to volunteer at the Scott Mission. And I saw first hand the impact that the Scott Mission has on lives. It does the work of Christ to the people Christ came to serve. Christ came to demonstrate God's love to those who knew no love. His life was spent constantly reaching out to those who had been cast aside by society, who were condemned to the margins, who were considered unworthy and unclean. And Jesus reached out to them and he loved them. Sinners, tax collectors and prostitutes are mentioned by the Bible as among those that Jesus sat and ate with, showing them love and compassion and deliberately inviting the wrath of the pious religious folk, who considered such people to be beneath them and worthy of nothing but contempt. Today we might add drug addicts and alcoholics and just those who find themselves homeless to that list. The Scott Mission and others like it are examples of not only walking in the light but of being the light to others. It's also a challenge to us to not only walk in the light, but to be the light to others.

     “... let us walk in the light of the Lord” is what the prophet Isaiah told the people of God. We are “the light of the world,” Jesus said.What if we really lived that way? What if we really called people to hope instead of leaving them in the despair that so often seems to grip so many lives. This is what Advent is about – a reminder that even when things seem to be their bleakest, hope reigns and a light shines, and suddenly – Christ appears. As we wait, we walk in the light and we are the light. We are called to bring hope to the hopeless - loving each other, and helping people who need help, and standing up for people who can't stand up for themselves, and giving a voice to people who can't speak for themselves, and proclaiming the salvation of God and the coming of God's grace in Jesus even to those who feel the most helpless and the most unworthy to receive it. That's called “light.” That's what we walk in! That's what we are!

Tuesday 26 November 2013

A Thought for the Week of November 25

"Many false prophets have come into the world." (1 John 4:1) I wonder who the false prophets are? I don't doubt that they're around. Some of them are probably well known. Some may claim to speak for God; others may speak for any one of the false "gods" that fill our society. But surely we have to have some way of discovering who they are - so at least we'll know who not to listen to, in this era when there are so many competing and conflicting messages - even coming from the Christian community. A prophet, of course, is one who speaks for God, so a false prophet would be one who doesn't speak for God - even though they may claim to. If you consider the Old Testament prophets, you discover that prophets were also concerned with both the social and religious well-being of their society. They decried faithlessness toward God and uncaring attitudes toward others. Jesus picked up on this theme when he (as well as later authors such as James) seemed to suggest that we serve God the best when we serve others the most. It would seem to me that among today's false prophets are those who insist that we consume more and more of everything, that we always need to have the newest and best of everything. Which, of course, makes some people rich, puts some of us in debt and makes workers toil for as close to minimum wage as possible. When we put profits ahead of people, and money ahead of gospel, we have a problem. I'm thinking of this because Christmas is approaching. The stores are already decorated. I went into our bank the other day, and staff were decorating the tree. Christmas specials will be on TV soon. And so much of Christmas now is directed to getting us to spend. More and more and more. Which, it seems to me, is a message that comes from false prophets. Remember that, in the words of James, "Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world." Watch out for the false prophets who tell you otherwise! And have a great week!

My Contribution to the Central United Church Advent/Christmas Newsletter

     In the church, the beginning of Advent the time when we start preparing to celebrate the birth of Christ, and so it represents the beginning of a new year on the church calendar – a year that moves from Christmas to Leant to Easter to Pentecost, through a few months of what's called “Ordinary Time” until it all culminates with a Sunday known as “Reign of Christ Sunday” - when we celebrate Jesus' authority over the world. Then, the cycle ends; and the new year begins – this year on December 1. So, while it may seem to be a month or so early, let me begin by saying to all of you: Happy New Year!

     To me, Advent is a strange time. Everyone calls this “the Christmas season.” We want to get right to the good stuff! Advent tells us that we have to hold on and wait. Our society has a tendency to be impatient – and sometimes that creeps into the church as well. I've sometimes had people say to me “what's this Advent stuff all about, anyway?” Well, we can't just celebrate the birth of Jesus – we have to prepare for it. You always have to prepare for the birth of a baby, after all. In the church, there's always tension between those who want more than a month of Christmas and those who understand that Advent songs are more appropriate. I always try to blend the different seasonal music: some will be Christmas carols, some will be Advent songs, some will be hymns that could be sung any time of the year. As Christmas approaches, we'll focus more on carols, and then in the Season of Christmas (which comes AFTER Christmas Day, not before) we'll be singing many of the old familiar carols.

As always, we have a full agenda during this Advent/Christmas season. Unfortunately, our Director of Music (Robert Wood) has informed me that for various reasons, the choir will be unable to offer its Christmas cantata this year. We will miss that. But there's a lot of other seasonal things to celebrate. Advent kicks off with a celebration of Communion on December 1. On December 8, our Sunday School (Central Casting) offer us their Christmas presentation, and they will collect white gifts. Christmas Eve will feature the usual two services (a 7:00 service featuring a lot of Christmas carols and other special items, and our 11:00 Communion service.) On December 29, I'll be offering our 3rd “Question & Answer” session rather than a normal sermon. The first two have been very well received. And we'll kick off 2014 on January 5 – the second Sunday of the Christmas season.

One of my goals for this congregation is to see us become a more mission-oriented church. We do a lot, from Out of the Cold Dinners to Clothing Boutiques. One program that doesn't receive as  much attention as it should is our sponsorship of 6 children through World Vision. This is a wonderful ministry, and an exciting way to be able to touch a young person's life. Our Council has agreed that we need to shift our understanding of our support of World Vision – so that our relationship with these children is not seen by us as a “commitment” but rather as a “relationship.” Each week we're going to be highlighting one of our children, and including them in our pastoral prayer at the end of the service, and we encourage all the members of the congregation to be a part of this relationship, especially by writing letters.

This year our special Christmas offering is being directed to the Scott Mission in Toronto. When I served as minister at Zion United Church in Sundridge, we took a team of volunteers on a 3 hour drive from Sundridge to downtown Toronto to volunteer at the Mission and help serve those who are supported by it. It was a wonderful experience. Our special offering this Christmas is going to be directed to the work of the Scott Mission.

     The Scott Mission is a Christian, non-denominational, faith-based street mission in downtown Toronto, serving the poor and needy of Canada's largest city. It is a ministry of mercy and love, which aims to meet the needs of people with love and compassion and seek to bring physical, spiritual and emotional wholeness to their lives. People from all over the country (most likely including some from this area) find themselves drawn to Toronto and unfortunately living on the streets or facing other challenges. Jesus asks us to serve. Without judging and without counting the cost. And so, we invite you, the Christian family of Central United Church, to respond to the call of Jesus to serve, by being generous in your support of this special Christmas offering.

     On behalf of Lynn and Hannah, I want to take this opportunity to wish all of you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. May you be safe and may you be blessed! As we look ahead to 2014, let us remember the words of an old hymn:

Many things about tomorrow
I don't seem to understand
But I know who holds tomorrow
And I know who holds my hand.

     Yours in Christ,
     (Rev.) Dr. Steven Davis, Lead Minister

Sunday 24 November 2013

November 24 sermon - Lord(s) Or Servant(s)?

In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus: Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to His own advantage; rather, He made Himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled himself by becoming obedient to death - even death on a cross! Therefore God exalted Him to the highest place and gave Him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. (Philippians 2:5-11)

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     I was talking with the children a few minutes ago about Jesus as a different kind of King. That He most certainly was. He was the King whose throne was (at the beginning of His life) a manger, and whose throne (at the end of His life) was a cross. Those two images right there tell us that, indeed, Jesus was a different kind of King – especially when you compare Him to the kinds of Kings (tyrants mostly) who reigned two thousand years ago during His lifetime. Today, we may be fairly familiar with royals who have little power (we live in a monarchy, after all, in which the monarch is just a figurehead) but we would still think of royals as having certain privileges that most of us don't have – not the least of which is to have a big house to live in. Let's face it – and I mean no criticism with this at all – but one of the biggest dilemmas the Queen faces on a regular basis is whether to lay her head down at Buckingham Palace, Windsor Palace or Balmoral. It's a tough decision. I'm glad I don't have to make it! Jesus was very much a different kind of King. He had “no place to lay His head,” after all. And maybe more to the point, in Matthew's Gospel, Jesus said: “the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve.” We often speak in terms of being servants of God or servants of Jesus – and yet, verses like this seem to suggest that such a relationship is the last thing Jesus wants. Jesus wants to serve and not to be served, and Jesus served up to and including the ultimate service of giving His life. More to the point – He did that even though, at least by His nature, He didn't have to do it.

     I wanted to speak today about the nature of Jesus as both lord and servant, and in order to do that I realized that I had to organize my thoughts around this morning's passage from Philippians. In Philippians, Paul speaks about Jesus' identity (indeed, about Jesus' very nature) – and He speaks of the seeming contradiction between Jesus possessing, on the one hand, “equality with God,” but also of His willingness to take on “the very nature of a servant.” The two do not easily go hand in hand. They most certainly didn't go easily hand in hand for the Jewish community of Jesus' day, who had been raised with the image of a kingly and all-powerful God who led His people into battle and crushed their enemies and possessed all authority and power. And then on to the scene came Jesus – recognized from the beginning by at least some – as God in human flesh, Who claimed not divine power for Himself, but rather human servitude. He was the one “Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to His own advantage; rather, He made Himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled himself by becoming obedient to death - even death on a cross!

     Here, in Jesus, is the very nature of God: the one Who serves His people completely and unselfishly. Not a mighty ruler, but a humble servant. On a number of occasions in the Gospels, Jesus makes it quite clear that His purpose is to do the will of God. For example, in John 4:34, He says, “My food is to do the will of Him Who sent Me and to finish His work.” So we can be pretty sure, since Jesus was so convinced that He was to do the will of God, that what we see in His life is not only the will of God, but the very nature of God: and that it revolves around service. Jesus served; He was not served. This was the will of God. This is what God in Jesus does. As followers of Jesus, this is what we're called to do.

     Martin Luther once wrote that “a Christian is a perfectly free lord of all, subject to none. A Christian is a perfectly dutiful servant of all, subject of all.” We have to live on that very same thin edge as Jesus. We are subject to no one, because we belong to God, but simply because we belong to God, we are subject to all. Our calling is to serve others. It's not to be concerned with status or privilege; it's to humble ourselves to simply serve without seeking anything in return. That's tough, because frankly the church has become accustomed to possessing privileges in our society. Sometimes we expect that society will just continue to act as if it's Christian, and when it doesn't we get upset and nonsensical cries of  “persecution” get raised – nonsensical because there are places in the world where churches are being burned down and Christians are even being killed, while North American Christians cry “persecution” because cashiers don't say “Merry Christmas” anymore. I read a blog written by an American pastor the other day who summed this up quite well: “if you're looking for Jesus in the checkout line at Target, you're probably looking in the wrong place.” Or Wal-Mart. Or Costco. Or Food Basics or No Frills. Because Jesus will be found far more powerfully among those who can't afford to shop at even those places. Yes, it's that time of year once again when Facebook will be filled with those silly “Keep Christ in Christmas” posts. Which is really little more than a thinly disguised plea for Christian privilege to continue – even though Jesus Himself surrendered all His privileges, and humbled Himself even to the point of death.

     I find myself thinking about 1 John 2:6 - “This is how we know we are in [Christ]: Whoever claims to live in Him must live as Jesus did.” If we take that verse seriously – if we really take it seriously – then being the church (being in Christ) would be a tough thing indeed. Live as Jesus did? Really? With no privileges? With no wealth? With no place to lay our heads? With a willingness to give our very lives for the sake of others? Live as Jesus did? That's a tall order. If we actually insisted that Christians live as Jesus lived we'd empty the churches pretty quickly! Because let's be honest. As much as we talk about being Christ-like, and following Jesus – how many of us really want to do it? I mean really? When you consider the entire story of Jesus' life – how many of us really want to follow Jesus? Probably none of us. Not to the extreme anyway. But at least we can follow Jesus' example of living a servant lifestyle – of serving others, and doing it willingly and even happily, because such is the will of God.

     In Philippians Paul spoke of Jesus “taking the very nature of a servant.” If that's what Jesus did, then how willingly should we – who claim to be His followers – willingly serve others. And if we're truly servants, we look for no credit, we seek no glory, we appeal for no reward – we simply serve. We serve one another; we serve those around us; we serve those we find in need – because this is what Jesus would do. And, really, this is how we best serve Jesus. If we focus simply on the idea of serving God then it's easy for us to become content and complacent and to believe that we've accomplished something by being in church every week (or every other week, or once a month or whatever); we've accomplished something by singing the music loud and clear, or by clapping our hands, or by speaking in tongues, or with whatever our particular tradition says is the best illustration of faith. But none of that is what Jesus wants. He wants us to serve others – and the basic message of Jesus is that we serve God best when we serve our neighbours the most. We're not here to lord it over others or to judge them as to their worthiness to be served. Our calling is just to serve. Because that's what Jesus did.

     So hear Martin Luther's words again: “a Christian is a perfectly free lord of all, subject to none. A Christian is a perfectly dutiful servant of all, subject to all.” We are subject to no one, because we belong to God, but simply because we belong to God, we are subject to all. Our calling is nothing less than serving others humbly and willingly. Because that's what Jesus did.

Saturday 23 November 2013

I've Been Thinking About God's Grace

My contribution to this week's In Port News "I've Been Thinking" column:

As of November 21 I turn 50 years old. That's an intriguing birthday. Half a century. It's not particularly old, but then again ... Well, maybe it explains why I prefer to think of myself as two 25s rather than as 50. But it is one of those milestone birthdays that pretty much force us to take stock of our lives. Have things worked out the way we wanted them to? Do we have regrets? Are there things we would have done differently if we had been given the chance?

In one sense I suppose that the answer to those questions is always "yes." Who among us can look back at the whole scope of our lives and actually say that everything has been perfect. That we've never slipped up, hurt anyone, made a bad choice. We've all done that. Christians do those things as much as anyone. A long time ago Paul wrote that "I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do." Some people look at some of the situations we Christians get ourselves into and they immediately cry "hypocrite!" Well, only if we hold others to a different standard than we hold ourselves to. I personally understand fully what Paul was talking about. Is there anyone among us who hasn't from time to time ignored the little voice of conscience in our heads and gone ahead and - in Paul's words - done the thing we do not want to do?  Probably not. If anyone reading this can say that, then - well - you're a better person that I am!

Thinking about this reminds me, of course, of the wonders of God's grace. "Grace" of course is a free gift. It is that which is given without condition, simply out of the generosity of the giver. In the case of grace, the give ris God. I've noticed over the years that there are so many people who want to put limits on the grace of God. To many it becomes conditional on this or that: good works, belief, or any number of things. But to put a condition on grace is to deny grace. Grace has no conditions; it's just grace. God extends his grace to us, as it is in God's power to do. It's not even in our power to accept or reject it. Grace is simply ours because God has given it to us. I've sometimes likened God's gift of grace to a person who anonymously slips a hundred dollars into my mailbox in the middle of the night. Once I find it, it's mine to do with as I please. I have many options. I can use it selfishly, for my own purposes; I can use it generously to help others; I can simply hide it away somewhere and never touch it; I can turn it over to the police. But what I can't do is give it back to the person who's given it to me. It's the same with the grace God bestows on each of us. We can't reject it or give it back, because it's been given to us. All we can do is use it - wisely or not. And sometimes, we'll all choose the "not." Just as Paul said, "what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do." As to the consequences for using God's grace unwisely? They, of course, are for God to decide.

Our responsibility and our privilege is simply to proclaim the existence of grace, given to the world in the form of Jesus Christ. We do that not only (and perhaps not even primarily) in words, but also in how we relate to others. We do not judge or condemn anyone. We simply proclaim God's grace and we live the love of Jesus.

My 50 years haven't been perfect. But they also haven't been a waste of time! I've had the chance to learn a lot about the grace of God in that half century, and I still have a lot to learn about it! I'm hoping that all of us take some time to reflect and be thankful for the grace of God given to us all - because, truly, none of us are perfect, and all of us sometimes do those things we know we should not do, and we fail to do the things we know we should do. But God grants us a new start. Always!

Monday 18 November 2013

A Thought For The Week Of November 18

Jesus said that "the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.” (Matthew 20:28) Jesus is often referred to as a King - even as the King of kings. That description brings to mind a certain image: someone extremely powerful, living in a palace, with every need being taken care of by a virtual flock of servants. A life of ease and pleasure. A life where the King gets everything he wants handed to him. But that wasn't Jesus. As I thought of the King of kings, and what that status meant to Jesus, I found myself drawn to these words. Jesus serves. He serves both us and the world. He makes sacrifices. He doesn't seek anything for himself; instead he willingly gives up everything for others. This is, indeed, a King like no other king you've ever heard of. And in the way Jesus exercises his royal and divine status is a model for us in how to live with each other. We are called to serve one another; not to lord it over each other. Status shouldn't count in the church. The only thing that should matter is that the gospel be faithfully lived out in both word and deed. And actually living the gospel renders each one of us servants to each other. Think of a community in which everyone seeks to meet everyone else's needs. Where love of neighbour truly is the rule of life. Where "I" is never as important as "you." That's what Jesus was modelling. Hopefully, we can all try to live that out. Have a great week!

Sunday 17 November 2013

November 17 sermon - Family Matters

Jesus went up on a mountainside and called to Him those He wanted, and they came to Him. He appointed twelve that they might be with Him and that He might send them out to preach and to have authority to drive out demons. These are the twelve He appointed: Simon (to whom He gave the name Peter), James son of Zebedee and his brother John (to them he gave the name Boanerges, which means “sons of thunder”), Andrew, Philip, Bartholomew, Matthew, Thomas, James son of Alphaeus, Thaddaeus, Simon the Zealot and Judas Iscariot, who betrayed Him. Then Jesus entered a house, and again a crowd gathered, so that He and his disciples were not even able to eat. When his family heard about this, they went to take charge of Him, for they said, “He is out of His mind.” And the teachers of the law who came down from Jerusalem said, “He is possessed by Beelzebul! By the prince of demons he is driving out demons.” (Mark 3:13-22)

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     If you remember, a couple of weeks ago I shared some thoughts about friendship, based on the first part of Proverbs 17:17, which says that “A friend loves at all times but a brother is born for adversity.” After the service, someone commented that since I had concentrated on the first part of the verse dealing with friendship, maybe I should devote a sermon to the idea behind the second part of the verse dealing with family. It seemed like a good idea! Families are, after all, interesting things. I'm not going to deal so much with adversity, though. I want to think about the way families react to those who come to faith, because there are so many families now in which the family members believe different things – and many believe nothing in terms of faith.

     For example, I was raised by a family of heathen! I say that with great respect and even affection. It doesn't change my love for those who raised me, but it simply points out a fact. They were a bunch of heathen. My family of origin was small – and apart from those I actually lived with (which was my mother and her aunt and uncle) it consisted essentially of various and assorted cousins living mostly in Eastern Ontario, who we didn't see all that often. None of them were “churchified,” if I may coin a phrase. None of them were Christians; none of them spent any great amount of time even thinking about religious or spiritual matters, and when they did think about it, it was usually to proclaim themselves to be atheists and to denounce both belief and believers. That was the basic environment in which I was raised. Now, as we all know, God works in the most mysterious ways. I ended up in the church; I ended up knowing and believing in Christ; I ended up going into the ministry. I suspect that my family (from the closest to the most distant) never really quite figured out what to do with that. But it was interesting to see how they responded. Shortly after I began studying for the ministry I went to a family dinner in Belleville with some of my cousins. The food was brought out and put before us. As always, I picked up my knife and fork to dig in – and I noticed that no one else was starting. Actually, they were looking at me. “What's up?” I asked. “Well,” said one, “aren't we going to say grace?” I was stunned, sat silent for a moment and then said, “well, we never have before.” I think as it turned out I did say grace before that meal. But it reminded me that family is a funny thing. You can never really be sure how your family will respond to you when you take a direction they wouldn't have anticipated.

     Jesus would have understood. For Jesus, family was a complicated thing. There's even debate within the Christian church about who exactly Jesus' family was. We call Him the Son of God; we also call Him the son of Mary – which begs the question: where does Joseph fit in? The Bible speaks about Jesus' brothers; there are those in the Christian community who insist that Jesus couldn't have had brothers – that they must have been cousins. The Bible makes no reference to Jesus ever having been married; others say that Jesus could never have been accepted as a teacher in His society unless He was married. What more can I say – it's complicated! And, really, the Bible doesn't say very much about Jesus' family. Mary's a big part of the Christmas story, and also has a significant role in the Easter story. Otherwise? Just scattered glimpses; intriguing biblical hints at what the relationship between Jesus and His earthly family might have been like. And of all those interesting biblical hints, perhaps none is more interesting than this one today, recorded for us in Mark's Gospel.

     One thing that comes across loud and clear in this passage is that Jesus' own family really didn't have a clue what to make of Him. Others did – or at least others made up their minds pretty easily. In the passage that we used this morning, we actually get a sense of how four different groups responded to Jesus, and of how they perceived Him.

     The passage starts by talking about the twelve – Jesus' original disciples. They were apparently convinced about Him. To them, He was the Son of God, the one Who would reveal God's will and God's ways to them. When He called them, they came; when He sent them, they went. They were loyal; they were faithful; they believed. Then we read of the crowds that jammed into the house where Jesus went to eat. The crowds were interested in Jesus; even excited about Him. They wanted to see Him and hear Him. They may not have believed in Him – but they were interested. They were perhaps the equivalent of what we call today “seekers” - those we desperately want to get into the church. The passage ends by talking about “the teachers of the law” - not lawyers, but those who were responsible for teaching the Law of Moses to the people. They reviled Jesus. They not only disagreed with Him, they considered Him positively satanic, under the control of Beelzebul – another name for the devil! Those two extremes are still easy to find today. There are many (including, I hope, most of us in church) who are convinced about Jesus. We may not completely agree about who He was or what we should believe about Him, but He's the centrepiece of our faith; the one around Whom everything about our faith revolves. And there are those who consider Jesus (or at least we or the church who represents Him to the world) to be among the most evil organizations around. Those two extremes, I suppose, will always exist. But the most interesting group who responded to Jesus in this passage was His own family: “When his family heard about this, they went to take charge of Him, for they said, 'He is out of His mind.'”

     Those are pretty harsh words: “He is out of His mind.” I wonder why they thought that? This might be where the passage really starts to apply to us. Apparently his family thought he was out of His mind – because He was allowing who He was to start making His life a little more difficult. The problem in this passage was quite simple apparently – Jesus had gone into a house and wasn't able to eat because He had so many people following Him. It may have been a simple problem, but it represented a big challenge. It showed that as news about Jesus spread, even the simplest things would become more difficult. It would be like being an unknown extra one day and then suddenly winning an Oscar. All of a sudden there was no privacy, demands were being made on Jesus, expectations were high. Why would you want your life to change like that? And that seemed to be the cause of His family's misgivings. We sometimes think of the passage as saying that Jesus' family thought that Jesus was out of His mind to believe Himself to be the Messiah; that they thought He had become some sort of religious nutcase. But this passage doesn't support that. They were concerned about the change in His life, and what the implications of that change might be. “Who would take this on?” seems to have been their question, and their answer was that anyone who would take this on has to be “out of His mind.” Choosing to follow Jesus by definition makes a difference in our lives – and therefore to those around us and closest to us.

      The world doesn't understand the difference Jesus makes to those who truly follow Him. The world wants to get things. People want to get ahead. To follow Jesus is to follow the way of sacrifice – and that doesn't make sense to a lot of people in the modern world. Many people today will give – but they'll only give as long as they don't really miss what they're giving. Jesus set the example for His followers by giving everything. And the world doesn't understand. And sometimes the world even ridicules those who truly follow Jesus – because they don't understand. “You're out of your mind.” Possibly. By worldly standards. After all, the message of the cross is foolishness to the world around us.

     The point of the passage seems to be that those who are by default the closest to us are usually the ones who don't know quite what to make of us, and that can be a tough road to walk. It was a tough road for Jesus as well, but it seemed to work out in the end. His mother was among those at the cross on the day He died, and it's believed that James was one of his brothers – and that he became a leader of the church in Jerusalem and the author of the New Testament letter named after him. But how hard is it to hold on to faith when those closest to you don't share what you believe. It's a real issue in today's world, in which there's a virtual buffet of religions to choose from – one of which is no religion at all. And how we show our faith to those closest to us is a big issue today. The lesson we learn from Jesus is a simple one: just live it. Just do what God calls you to do. Just love as God calls you to love. Just share what God calls you to share. We worry too much about results, and we forget to leave the results to God. We're just called to be the witnesses – to those both near and far.

Monday 11 November 2013

A Thought For The Week Of November 11

"The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit." (John 3:8) I stood this morning at the cenotaph here in Port Colborne, attending the annual Remembrance Day service in honour of those who have fallen in time of war. It was a cold day, with a very cold wind blowing. A biting, chilling wind. A strong wind that drowned out many of the speakers. Many people left partway through the ceremony, not able to deal with the wind. I found myself thinking of God - and of this Scripture in particular. What a marvellous image reminding us of why we can't possibly be in control of God and God's Spirit. It would be like trying to control the wind. The wind blows as it chooses, and God's Spirit moves as God chooses. I hear the sound of the wind, just as I see and feel and sense the guidance of God's Spirit. But I can't control either. Just as the wind has a mysterious source and a mysterious destination, I'm not aware exactly of where God's Spirit may lead me from day to day. Today, at the cenotaph, some gave in to the wind and left for home, others (including me) chose to defy the wind and remain to the end. We do the same with God's Spirit as well. Sometimes we follow the Spirit's leading; sometimes we defy that leading. But the point is that whatever we're doing, God's Spirit is like the wind - all around us and uncontrollable, getting our attention constantly, whether we choose to heed the Spirit's guidance or not. So watch and listen for the Spirit of God in the days ahead. You don't know where you might be led. Have a great week!

Sunday 10 November 2013

November 10 sermon - For What Would We Give Our Lives?

As the Father has loved Me, so have I loved you. Now remain in My love. If you keep My commands, you will remain in My love, just as I have kept My Father’s commands and remain in His love. I have told you this so that My joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete. My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. You are My friends if you do what I command. I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from My Father I have made known to you. You did not choose Me, but I chose you and appointed you so that you might go and bear fruit - fruit that will last - and so that whatever you ask in My name the Father will give you. This is My command: Love each other.  (John 15:9-17)

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     “In Flanders' Fields” is, of course, about sacrifice. I'm very familiar with the poem. I have been since I was a young teenager. In Grades 7 and 8 I attended John McCrae Senior Public School in Scarborough – named after the author of the poem, Lt. Col. John McCrae. Not surprisingly, Remembrance Day was a big event at John McCrae Senior Public School. And, having been a student there for two years, I've visited John McCrae's birthplace in Guelph twice. It was an annual field trip for us. The recital of “In Flanders' Fields” is a standard part of any Remembrance Day ceremony, much as the recital of the Lord's Prayer is a standard part of the liturgy in many churches. And I thought about it this week as I was thinking about the whole concept of sacrifice. As I worked this through in my mind, I thought of a couple of numbers.

     The first number is 114,724. That's the total number of Canadians who've died either in war or in peacekeeping missions since Confederation. There were 267 in the Boer Wars, 66,665 in World War I, 46,998 in World War II, 516 in Korea, 121 in peacekeeping missions and 157 in Afghanistan. A total of 114,724 Canadians killed. When you first add it all up and hear that number, it makes you pause for a few moments. 114,724. Why would 114,724 Canadians sacrifice their lives? And why would so many more than that be prepared to sacrifice their lives? It's a tough topic for the church to address in some ways, because our attitudes toward war differ so greatly. Some Christians are pacifists, believing that any war for any reason is wrong. Others believe in the Just War theory, which says that war, while evil, is sometimes necessary, if only as the best of a bunch of poor alternatives. And some allow their Christianity to be effectively usurped by nationalism or patriotism or militarism, so that if the nation says “go to war,” they go (or at least they support going) in the full belief that God marches with them and is on their side, no questions asked – even though we know that many on “the other side” believe exactly the same thing. Over the years I've known a lot of veterans. For a few years in Sundridge, I served as Padre to the Royal Canadian Legion Branch 67 (for those of you not familiar with the title – it basically meant I was their chaplain.) I conducted a lot of their memorial services over those years. I came to know their stories. And I came to know that many of them were motivated by love: love for family, and the desire to make the world a better place for their families. Love for neighbour, and a desire to make sure those neighbours could live in peace and safety. Love for country, and a desire to make sure that this country would never fall victim to some of the inhuman ideologies that they fought against. War and love may seem an awkward fit, but I've known enough veterans to know that love in some form was often at the forefront of their thinking. Jesus said, “Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.” That reminds me that, whatever my thoughts about war and pacifism, there are at least 114,724 people who, over the last 133 years since the first Boer War, have chosen to call themselves my friend. I choose to honour them today, as I'll honour them tomorrow at the cenotaph.

     The second number I want to reflect on today is a simple one – it's the number “1.” It's the one sacrifice that, as far as I can see, really matters to the church. I'm thinking, of course, about Jesus. The sacrifice against which all other sacrifices pale in comparison. His was not a sacrifice made in a time of war – except, perhaps, that it might be considered in the context of a spiritual war. But his wasn't a military sacrifice.  It was violent and it was bloody, but in a strange way it was Jesus' way of standing against violence and bloodshed. When Peter picked up a sword to defend Jesus against those who would arrest him, Jesus said, “Peter. Put away your sword. Whoever lives by the sword will die by the sword.” Prophetic words, indeed. For all those who have fought in any of the various incarnations of the “war to end all war,” the sad reality of human history is that one war simply seems to lead to another ... and another ... and another. The sacrifice of Jesus on the cross was, in one sense at least, a way for God to be linked with all of human suffering; a way for God to be in solidarity with His creation; a way for God to weep with those who weep. It was the “1” sacrifice, perhaps, that made a real and substantive impact on the world – because, as much as we often choose to use our faith for purposes Jesus probably never intended, the cross still stands as the supreme act of sacrifice: God, who had no need to experience either suffering or death, willingly experiencing both suffering and death to be in solidarity with His children. A sacrifice that wasn't necessary; that wasn't being called for; that Jesus didn't have to make – but that was made solely out of love. Jesus said, “Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.” The “1” sacrifice – on the cross so long ago – reminds me of the great privilege of being in relationship with Jesus, my Lord, my Saviour, my Redeemer, my Friend.

     Whether we think of the “114,724” today, or whether we focus on the “1,” we think of sacrifice being made for others. We think of the desire of the 114,724 or the 1 to create a better world, a better life for others. But there's another number. I don't know what it is. It refers to my generation, and to the generations that have come after me. I'll be 50 in less than two weeks (although I prefer to think of myself as a pair of 25's!) and that means that I was born well after World War II, and while things in my generation haven't always been peaceful, there's been no need for me to choose what I'd be willing to give my life for. I (and those who've come after me) belong to a privileged (and some would say too privileged) generation, who've been given everything and who've perhaps lost sight of our responsibilities while clinging ferociously to our rights. Whenever I think about the rights that have been gained for us at such incredible cost (the right to live in freedom gained by soldiers who died or the right to be called children of God gained by Jesus who died) I can't get out of my mind a story a few months ago about a woman who hauled a men's barber shop in Toronto before the Ontario Human Rights Commission – because they only cut men's hair and not women's. And that's what “rights” have been reduced to for many people? Jesus said, “Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.” Do we understand? Do we get it? I'm not sure. I'm really not. And what is it – exactly – that we who have been so privileged would be willing to give our lives for? I'm not sure about that either. I'm really not.

     But I do want to honour the sacrifices that have been made for me. I want to honour those 114,724 who gave their lives for what they believed in and because they believed they would be helping to create a better and safer world for people such as me – whom they had never met. And, of course, I want to honour the sacrifice made by Jesus, Who gave His life so that all of us might know true life. Jesus said, “Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.” Yes. We will remember them. And yes. We will remember Him!

Monday 4 November 2013

A Thought For The Week Of November 4

Peace I leave with you, my peace I give you." (John 14:27a) As Remembrance Day approaches here in Canada (and this coming Sunday is Remembrance Sunday or Peace Sunday as some call it) I - as I often do - find myself thinking about some of the words Jesus offered about peace. Did Jesus ever envisage a world without war? I don't think so. "You will hear of wars and rumours of wars," he said after all. I don't think Jesus approved of war. He seemed uninterested, for example, in taking on the Romans, and - to some extent at least - he even seemed to preach co-operation with them. So I wonder what Jesus really meant when he spoke of peace - or when Scripture declares him to be the Prince of Peace. I think the reference is not to the state of the world but is rather to a state of mind. Perhaps to Jesus, "peace" didn't mean the absence of war. Perhaps it meant contentment. Think of the difference it could make to the world if we could learn to be content. We wouldn't be selfishly grasping after what others have, and we might even be more willing to share what we have with others. That would be a radical change in the mindset of how the world operates - and, if put into practice, it might even lead to the absence of (or at least the reduction of) war in the world - because if we're content to the point at which we're willing to share, then what would be the point of fighting? It seems to me that's the kind of "peace" Jesus is offering. Not just putting an end to war and violence, but changing our minds and our hearts so that war and violence become increasingly unthinkable. Have a great week!"

Sunday 3 November 2013

November 3 sermon - What Is A Friend?

A friend loves at all times but a brother is born for adversity. (Proverbs 17:17, NIV)

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     For whatever reason, I have found myself in recent weeks giving a lot of thought to the concept of friendship. What is friendship? For that matter, what is a friend? It's a very relevant topic for the church; a relevant topic for those who claim faith in Jesus Christ. Friendship is a very biblical concept! But what is it? In a way, the word is hard to define. It's one of those words that's been cheapened a bit in the modern world by the whole concept of “Facebook friendships” - sort-of quasi-relationships that we have with people who we sometimes have never even met face to face, and yet we call them “friends.” Maybe that makes it even harder for us to understand the importance of friendship. I don't know if you've ever thought about it, but “friends” are strange things – not the people, but the concept! There's an old saying that “you can choose your friends, but you can't choose your family.” It's probably based on the same principle that Proverbs 17:17 is based upon. And yet I'm not even really sure that's true. Do we always get to “choose” our friends, or do they sometimes just appear in our lives as if they're a part of some sort of plan to help us through a little bit of life and its challenges? It seems to me that perhaps the best friendships are often the ones that surprise us: when the most unexpected people enter our lives in the most unexpected ways, and touch us very deeply. Maybe from time to time we even find ourselves having unexpected “best friends” - those same unexpected people who come in unexpected ways who we find ourselves with an immediate connection to, and who we end up unburdening our souls to, always safe and secure in the knowledge that whatever we tell them won't go any farther. And, let's face it – we all have some unburdening of the soul to do every now and then in our lives, don't we, and when there's someone in our life we can do that with? Well, it's a very precious thing indeed. And sometimes those unexpected friends go away. They touch us, they help us, maybe they even change us – and then they leave for one reason or another, but they always leave something behind for us to cherish don't they, because they've touched our lives and our hearts and our souls in precious ways.

     In John 15, Jesus said to His disciples “I have called you friends.” Think about that for a moment. Jesus – saying to His disciples (including us): “I have called you friends.” We call Him Lord, Saviour, Messiah. He calls us “friends” - and implicitly invites us to call Him a “friend” in return.

     Think about what I just said about friendship. Think about how Jesus entered the lives of those first disciples. Maybe think about how Jesus entered your life. Or mine. Unexpectedly. Suddenly. Perhaps without warning, maybe without us realizing that He was even there. Maybe without us realizing that we even needed such a friend. Someone to Whom we can unburden our souls, sure in the knowledge that what we say is safe and protected – and also forgiven, because in addition to being our friend, Jesus is, as Scripture declares, the grace of God that entered the world so long ago – the grace that assures us that nothing in our lives can change one very simple and important fact: God loves us with an unshakeable love that can never be changed. And that's a part of friendship too, isn't it? Sometimes friends come in and out of our lives, but even when they feel out of our lives (and there are times when Jesus seems rather distant to me to be perfectly honest) we know that they're still there. Jesus told His disciples “I have called you friends.” And then He was arrested, and crucified and killed and buried. And then His disciples were stunned, shaken, confused, fearful, lost and alone – but never quite without hope, because Jesus had also said, “I'll be killed, but three days later I will rise again.” And then comes the glory of Easter – strange perhaps to mention on the first Sunday of what some people consider to be the bleakest and grayest month of the year – but are we not an Easter people all year round? A people who believe in the presence of Jesus? A people who believe that the friendship He gives to us can never really be taken away? I hope you believe that. I know that I do!

     Proverbs 17:17 says “a friend loves at all times.” Not just some of the time. Not just in the good times. Not just when you're on your best behaviour. Not just when you have something to offer them. Not at all. “A friend loves at all times.” We've probably all had people in our lives we think of that way. But we also have Jesus. “I have called you friends.” He loves us “at all times” - and probably often in spite of ourselves. I started thinking about the love of Jesus when we sang one of our hymns last Sunday. It was the one based on the Beatitudes. A couple of people talked to me afterward and expressed how beautiful they thought it was and said they hoped we'd sing it again. We're going to. In just a minute. When you think about the Beatitudes, you're thinking about friendship. Those who have almost nothing to offer in return, being the most blessed people of all – because they are Jesus' friends. And I thought about this line: “Blest are they who suffer hate, all because of Me,” which is a fair paraphrase of the Gospel. That's a statement of friendship. I had never thought of Jesus apologizing before, but isn't that in a way Jesus saying to us, His friends, “I'm so sorry for what you sometimes have to go through because of Me.” That's love. That's friendship. Straight from Jesus: “I have called you friends.”

     What is a friend? Look to Jesus. His life, His death, His resurrection. What is a friend? You'll know the answer when you look to Jesus. Let's sing this wonderful version of the Beautitudes, celebrating the friendship of those who have so little with Jesus – Who is All in All!

Blest are they, the poor in spirit, theirs is the Kingdom of God.
Blest are they, full of sorrow, they shall be consoled.
Rejoice and be glad! Blessed are you, holy are you!
Rejoice and be glad! Yours is the Kingdom of God!

Blest are they, the lowly ones, they shall inherit the earth.
Blest are they who hunger and thirst, they shall have their fill.
Rejoice and be glad! Blessed are you, holy are you!
Rejoice and be glad! Yours is the Kingdom of God!

Blest are they who show mercy, mercy shall be theirs.
Blest are they, the pure of heart, they shall see God!
Rejoice and be glad! Blessed are you, holy are you!
Rejoice and be glad! Yours is the Kingdom of God!

Blest are they who seek peace; they are the children of God.
Blest are they who suffer in faith, the glory of God is theirs.
Rejoice and be glad! Blessed are you, holy are you!
Rejoice and be glad! Yours is the Kingdom of God!

Blest are you who suffer hate, all because of Me.
Rejoice and be glad, yours is the Kingdom; shine for all to see.
Rejoice and be glad! Blessed are you, holy are you!
Rejoice and be glad! Your is the Kingdom of God!

Monday 28 October 2013

A Thought For The Week Of October 28

No Scripture this week. I want to think about some words from a very old and very wonderful hymn: "I once was lost, but now am found. Was blind, but now I see." I don't know about you, but I see a lot of lost people in the world, who just don't see to know where they're going, where they should be going, and they often don't give much thought to where God wants them to go. Aren't we all like that sometimes? Stumbling, groping our way forward, sometimes even fearful - burdened by the past, overwhelmed by the present, apprehensive about the future. A lot of people live every day like that; most of us feel that way at least every now and then. But then comes Jesus - the light of the world; the light of God that no darkness can ever extinguish. And when we trust Jesus, suddenly we don't seem quite so lost anymore. Because, after all, isn't Jesus "the way." And is that anything more than saying that He's the road to follow; the path that will bring us to God. Not Christianity, not the Church; not assent to a particular set of doctrines. Just Jesus, guiding us, and suddenly bringing us into the light, out of the darkness in which we were lost. Jesus. The way. That's what it's all about. Have a great week!

Sunday 27 October 2013

October 27 sermon - The Key To Reformation

For this reason, ever since I heard about your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all God’s people, I have not stopped giving thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers. I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better. I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in his holy people, and his incomparably great power for us who believe. That power is the same as the mighty strength he exerted when he raised Christ from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms, far above all rule and authority, power and dominion, and every name that is invoked, not only in the present age but also in the one to come. And God placed all things under his feet and appointed him to be head over everything for the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills everything in every way. (Ephesians 1:15-23)

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     It's been said that the only things in this world that never change are the things that are already dead.  Which makes me wonder sometimes why the church is so resistant to change. Ongoing change is a sign of life. When we're willing to do things in new ways and try new things and take some chances we also show that we're alive. Which we should be. We're the body of Christ – and we believe that Christ Himself is alive and well. There's a lot of talk going on in the church of the modern world about what the future holds for the church. To a lot of people, it doesn't look very bright. We worry about attendance, we worry about membership, we worry about finances. When we start to feel overwhelmed by the problems we face, we're tempted to “circle the wagons” so to speak, and simply hang on for dear life in the face of the challenges that confront us. And when we do that, it's so easy for us to lose sight of what we're about; of what's important; of what really matters; of what makes us the church. And we end up all too often not looking like the church. We become a religious club, that talks a lot but believes very little. Or we become a fund-raising organization whose goal is simply to find the money to hang on for a little while longer. Either way, we drain the life of the gospel out of ourselves. But it's something the church has always struggled with.

     Did you know that today is Reformation Sunday? Protestants mark this day (the last Sunday in October) to honour the reformers of the church of long ago – people such as Martin Luther, who saw a church that was becoming a shadow of itself – rife with internal corruption and squabbling; consumed with money and power; quickly losing sight of the gospel and of the example of Christ – and decided that something had to be done. Luther probably didn't expect or want his ideas to actually split the church. If Luther had had his way, we'd probably all be celebrating Mass today in a reformed Roman Catholic Church. But whether things turned out the way he wanted them to or not, he did identify the problem – a lack of focus by the church on Christ and gospel, with the things of the world – money and power – substituting for them. Almost 500 years after Luther's death – what would he think of those of us who stand at least partially within his legacy? Would he be pleased, or would he immediately set out on another project of reformation? I wonder.

     In Ephesians we read that “he raised Christ from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms, far above all rule and authority, power and dominion, and every name that is invoked, not only in the present age but also in the one to come. And God placed all things under his feet and appointed him to be head over everything for the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills everything in every way.” You see, for all the challenges we face and as much as it sometimes feels as if we're living in a constant, never-ending whirlpool of change in the society around us, one of the great ironies is that they key to reformation for the church is the One about whom Scripture declared “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever.”

     How can the one who never changes be the engine for change in the church? The reformers of the church all understood that unless their reforms were founded on the unchanging Jesus Christ, nothing they did would work. Even the opponents of Jesus knew that. As the chief priests and rabbis watched the movement around Jesus begin to grow and they debated how to stop it, the best advice they received was from a rabbi named Gamaliel, who said basically, “leave it alone. If it's of God it can't be stopped. If it's not of God it won't go anywhere.” He was a wise man. The key to reformation in the church is to follow the unchanging Jesus Christ – simply because He cannot be stopped. We get so consumed by our fights and our arguments and our disagreements and our debates and our doctrinal differences. But why? Whatever the issue is that gets us upset - if it's of God it can't be stopped, and if it's not of God it won't succeed. So why don't we just be the church.

     The church in whatever form it exists at whatever point in time and in whatever place might be stopped. It might decline. It might even die. But from death always comes resurrection, and if we are the body of Christ, as Ephesians declares, then we have nothing to fear about the future. I get so distressed sometimes when I hear the laments about the future of the church – because those laments are so un-gospel, even anti-gospel. They're based on hopelessness. They're based on the feeling that nothing can ever get better. They're based on the idea that the church is on a one-way death spiral with no way to get out of it. But what is that? That's hopelessness. And why should we be hopeless? Why should we as a church (and I'm not talking just about us – I'm talking about the entire church) be so afraid of what the future holds. We follow Jesus, who died and was resurrected! What is there to fear? Why should there be fear? When you follow a living Lord who never changes, why should there be anything other than hope?

     Sometimes I get asked by people, “what's the biggest challenge facing the church today?” And people expect me to respond with something like, “declining attendance,” or “aging membership,” or “increasing deficits.” None of which are the stuff that the church is really about; none of which come even close to defining what the biggest challenge facing the church is. Those are worldly concerns; worldly measures of success or failure, of health or sickness. But the church's well-being can't be judged in worldly terms. No way. It just can't be. Now if I say this at a meeting, I'll be immediately told that “we have to run the church like a business.” Excuse me? No – we don't. That's not what the church is. A simple look at the cross reminds us that it's not about profit and loss, surplus or deficit. The church's well-being is judged on whether or not we're faithfully fulfilling our calling as disciples of Jesus Christ. Are we growing into Christ-likeness. Are we doing his ministry. Are we not concerned about what the results seem to be right now, but are we simply doing what God calls us to do – which is not looking out for our own survival, but which is faithfully giving of ourselves and even sacrificing ourselves completely if that's what we're called to. Because that's what Jesus did! Jesus gave himself completely to the point of crucifixion and death; the church too often fights to save itself and stay alive for a few more years. Where's the proclamation of the gospel in that, I wonder? The biggest challenge facing the church today is hopelessness. It's a lack of trust in the gospel. It's the inability to believe that there's nothing to fear, simply because there is Christ, and that no matter what happens to us, we will overcome – simply because Christ overcame.

     The great reformers of the church, from Martin Luther onward, knew that for the church to truly be the church it would constantly have to risk itself rather than try to save itself, if only because “whoever tries to save their life will lose it, but whoever gives their life for Christ's sake will gain it.” And they knew that they followed a living Lord who constantly challenged society, who constantly pushed the people of God out of their comfort zones, who confidently faced those who opposed Him and stood firm in His determination to do the will of God at whatever cost. They followed a Lord who stood out in the crowd, and they were willing to stand up and be counted too!

     If we want the church to be constantly reforming – which we have to be if we want to remain at all relevant to the fast-changing society around us – then the key for us is to do what Jesus did. Stand out in the crowd and stand up for God. Stand with those who so desperately need to know the love of God. Why did Jesus attract so much negative attention? Why was He crucified? Why did He die? He was a friend to tax collectors and Romans and prostitutes and children and women – all the people who stood at the bottom of society's pile. And He loved them – no matter what society thought. He simply loved them. He didn't care what it cost Him to do that. He just loved them. He only cared what He gave to others by doing that. And then there's the church. The body of Christ – but so often filled not with love but with judgment.

     “Jesus Led Me All The Way” was what we heard sung earlier in our service. The question for me is not whether Jesus leads. It's whether we're actually willing to pay the price involved in following, or whether we're just interested in getting by for as long as we can. As a reformed and still reforming church – that's the key to our own reformation and to our own future!

Monday 21 October 2013

A Thought For The Week Of October 21

"What is truth?" Pilate asked. (John 18:38a) That's a good question - and a surprisingly complicated one. We probably think of "truth" as being simple honesty. "Always tell the truth," is what we tell our children. Of course, even that can be complicated. Do we really tell our neighbours how ugly their new car is? Let's face it, if "truth" is nothing more than just telling it like it is, then most of us aren't truthful - at least not all the time. Nor would we want to be. Being completely truthful would probably damage a lot of our friendships! But truth is much deeper than that. That understanding of "truth" seems to relegate "truth" to the status of facts. "Here are the facts. The provable, indisputable facts." But "truth" is far more than just "facts." "Truth" is wisdom and understanding and depth. At times, when I've commented on Pilate's question, I've been a bit contemptuous of the man. But maybe he was on to something. "What is truth?" Maybe it isn't something we ever really figure out - in this life anyway. Maybe it's a question that simply spurs us onward in the journey, as we seek to discover more about life, more about faith, more about God. And the ultimate truth, of course, is Jesus: the one who finally reveals God to us and brings us to God. Be a constant seeker of truth. Don't ever start to think that you've got it all. Have a great week!

Sunday 20 October 2013

October 20 sermon - When Bad Turns Out For Good

I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us. For the creation waits in eager expectation for the children of God to be revealed. For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the freedom and glory of the children of God. We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption to sonship, the redemption of our bodies. For in this hope we were saved. But hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what they already have? But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently. In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us through wordless groans. And He who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for God’s people in accordance with the will of God. And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love Him, who have been called according to His purpose. For those God foreknew He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters. And those He predestined, He also called; those He called, He also justified; those He justified, He also glorified. (Romans 8:18-30)

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     There's a well-known story about Chippie the parakeet. He was simply minding his own business and signing his song one day when his owner decided to clean out his cage with the vacuum cleaner. The phone rang and the lady went to answer it and that was when things began to go horribly wrong for little Chippie. With Chippie's owner gone, the vacuum cleaner sucked up the little bird and sent him to the dust bag. Realizing what had happened the woman tore open the vacuum and ripped apart the bag to find little Chippie, fearing the worst. But Chippie wasn't dead. He was just stunned and covered with dust. The woman decided that he needed to be revived and so she ran to the bathroom sink. She turned the water on and stuck Chippie under the flow. Now Chippie was cold and wet from the sudden bath. So the owner decided to dry the bird off - but not with a towel. She got out her hair dryer to blow-dry the poor feathered creature, put it on full blast and Chippie went a-tumblin'. In the course of just a few minutes, Chippie went from being sucked up, to being nearly drowned to being blown over. His owner was asked by a friend a few weeks later how Chippie was doing. She replied: “Chippie doesn’t sing much anymore, he just sits and stares.” I wonder why! But does it sound at all familiar? Life comes at us at a furious pace and a lot of it isn't good and we get blind-sided just like poor Chippie. One moment we don’t have a care in the world and the next we get sucked up by trials, problems and difficulties. And they take over. And they can blind us to the presence of goodness.    

     In a world full of bad things that happen – from the international stage to the every day lives of every day people like us – wouldn't it be nice to be able to believe that all these bad things somehow turn out in a good way? And yet, sometimes and in some situations that can sound rather trite and patronizing, can't it. If you go up to a person who's facing some type of difficult or challenge or hardship or burden and you say to them, “don't worry – it will all work out for the best,” don't you ever wonder how the person to whom the comment is directed feels? “Sure it will. Sure.” And yet, we have all sorts of ways of saying the same thing. “It will all work out for the best.” “Everything happens for a reason.” “If life hands you a lemon, turn it into lemonade.” And, of course, there were the words Paul wrote: “... in all things God works for the good of those who love Him, who have been called according to His purpose.” “All things” must mean the bad things too. Gee, God, thanks. In a lot of ways all of those different kinds of advice that all say the same basic thing  can be just a little bit irritating. Put yourself in the shoes of the one hearing it. “Yeah, buddy, but you don't know my problems.” In most cases – that's probably true enough, isn't it. But – I do know God; at least a little bit. And when I think about God, I start to be able to understand what's being said.

     God is good. That's one of the things we trust and believe, isn't it? God is good. Always good. In every way. Psalm 100 says “Enter His gates with thanksgiving and His courts with praise; give thanks to Him and praise His name. For the Lord is good and His love endures forever; His faithfulness continues through all generations.” It is the goodness of God more than anything else that makes us thankful. It isn't what God does for us that makes us thankful. It isn't what God gives us that makes us thankful. It's who and what God is that makes us thankful.  Good is good and God is love. And it's in that very nature of God that we begin to see the hopes that words like Paul's in Romans (and some of the other sometimes trite-sounding phrases that get bandied about) aren't trite-sounding at all. They're a reflection of reality; they're based on what we believe to be the very nature of God.

     God is good. And God's goodness is enough to overcome whatever “bad” may come into our lives. That doesn't mean, of course, that God takes away our troubles and our problems and our challenges. Some people face these hardships in life, and they start to question God, because they think faith should be a magic wand, driving all troubles away. But it isn't so. But it also doesn't mean that God causes them. Some people seem to have a very fatalistic view of God. Bad things are explained away as “it was God's will” - as if that makes everything better, when all it really does is paint a picture of God as a cruel monster, who deliberately causes His people to suffer. But if God neither causes our problems, nor takes them away, then we have to find the middle choice – God uses those problems to bring us to a deeper understanding.

     One of the main problems we face is that the bad things that happen can blind us to the goodness around us. They can blind us even to the goodness of God. Perhaps that's why Hebrews calls us so emphatically to “keep [our] eyes fixed on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith” - because if we let our eyes slip away and begin to focus on that which isn't good, then we also lose sight of God. One of our problems, I suspect, is that we equate “goodness” with “good” things happening. If bad things happen, good gets drowned out, and so does the idea of a good God. But perhaps that misses the point. C.S. Lewis, in a book called The Problem Of Pain, wrote that “We can ignore even pleasure. But pain insists upon being attended to. God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our conscience, but shouts in our pains: it is His megaphone to rouse a deaf world.” It is the very presence of our pains that inspires God's people to their greatest works of goodness – works of goodness that reflect the good God who inspires and guides us.

     Some say that one thing can only be understood and appreciated in relation to its opposite. If there is no “hot,” then we can't really understand the concept of “cold.” In the same way, if there is no “bad,” then we can't really understand the concept of “good.” It's the bad things that happen – the troubling, challenging, hurtful things - that turn our attention to the need for good. It's those very trials and hardships faced by us and by so many all over the world that serve to propel us to becoming God's own agents in trying to hold out a vision of hope. You see, to me the goodness of God isn't displayed in simply God doing good things and magically making all the bad stuff disappear. The goodness of God is displayed in the hope we have that things can be better, that challenges can be overcome, that problems do not have to defeat us. The goodness of God is displayed in the hope Paul spoke of in Romans: “our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us.”

     When Paul writes that “in all things God works for the good of those who love Him ...” he isn't saying that God is causing or even using the bad things that happen as a part of some sadistic divine plan. He's saying that the goodness of God will eventually triumph over the bad things that happen. He's saying that hope exists – even when things seem to be at their most hopeless.