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!

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!

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!

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.

A Thought For The Week Of October 14

"I give thanks to you, O Lord my God, with my whole heart, and I will glorify your name forever." (Psalm 86:12) Today was Thanksgiving Day in Canada. It is, in some ways, a strange idea - that we would have to set aside a special day to give thanks, as if giving thanks shouldn't simply come naturally to us every day we live. But I guess that sometimes we need reminders even to do what should be the most obvious things. It's interesting that in this country - which often seems so secular - Thanksgiving Day has a specific reference to God. In the Proclamation of our Parliament, dated January 31, 1957, it was announced that there would be "A Day of General Thanksgiving to Almighty God for the bountiful harvest with which Canada has been blessed – to be observed on the 2nd Monday in October." We do give thanks to God for the harvest, of course, but there's so much more to it than just that. What do we have that doesn't find its origins in God? Food, friends, family, faith - all blessings from God. Maybe that's why the Bible also gives us constant reminders to be thankful. The Psalms are full of verses like Psalm 86:12; it's just one of many reminders that the various psalmists offered to keep us ever mindful of the goodness, grace and generosity of our God. Today may be Thanksgiving Day - a holiday. But every day should be a day of thanksgiving - a holy day dedicated to God, in which we remember and give thanks for God's presence in our lives. have a great week!

October 13 sermon - Let Thanksgiving Overflow

It is written: “I believed; therefore I have spoken.” Since we have that same spirit of faith, we also believe and therefore speak, because we know that the one who raised the Lord Jesus from the dead will also raise us with Jesus and present us with you to himself. All this is for your benefit, so that the grace that is reaching more and more people may cause thanksgiving to overflow to the glory of God. Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal. (2 Corinthians 4:13-18)

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     Holidays are all about traditions, and like most people, I have a few of my own. On Thanksgiving weekend – at least for the last few years – my thoughts are directed toward sump pumps! You might wonder what would cause me to think about sump pumps on Thanksgiving Sunday! But I do have my reasons. I think back to 8 years ago on Thanksgiving weekend. It was our first Thanksgiving weekend here in Port Colborne – and it was cold! Thanksgiving Day started out with a massive snowstorm – one that I might have expected if we had remained up north, but that I certainly wasn't expecting in Niagara. The snow fell, and it piled up pretty quickly. There wasn't much point in shoveling because as fast as I tried to shovel the snow would just pile up again. Then, as evening approached, the temperature suddenly started to rise. The heavy snowstorm turned into a torrential rainstorm. The snow began melting very quickly – much faster than it could drain away – and the rain kept coming down. Eventually we discovered that our sump pump simply hadn't been able to keep up with the storm. It overflowed. Our first Thanksgiving in Port Colborne was marked by cleaning out a flooded basement caused by a sump pump that overflowed. And it got me thinking as I contemplated Thanksgiving 2013. The Bible says that “thanksgiving [should] ... overflow to the glory of God.” I wonder what that means?

     It's such a glorious image, isn't it. Thanksgiving that actually overflows! In a way it seems so far removed from our modern society, doesn't it. I find that we don't live in a very thankful society or a very thankful age. Some people call it the me-first society, or the entitlement generation. A culture that thinks they've “earned” things and really have no need to say “thank you” for them. A culture that's very obsessed with “rights” but often seems to forget that with “rights” come “responsibilities,” and that it's the willingness to accept the responsibilities that is at least one way of showing that we're thankful for the rights. And when you have an entire culture that often seems to be pushing the message that you “deserve” this and that you're “entitled” to that and that you have a “right” to something else, it's also easy to start to get the idea that there's nothing to really be thankful for. In a way it's unfortunate that we even need to have a special holiday called “Thanksgiving” because implicitly at least it seems to give the impression that this is our day to be thankful and the other 364 days of the year we don't have to worry about giving thanks! I would hope that for Christians at least, that's not good enough. Not at all! Our hope is that thanksgiving will “overflow to the glory of God.” And that word “overflow” strikes me as important. It's something that can't be stopped. By overflowing, it overwhelms. It's uncontrollable. It should be happening every day and every moment.

     Now, I can't comment on how well we all remember to do it, but I suspect that most of us who are here today have more than enough reason to be thankful. I'm sure we all have problems and challenges and hurdles to overcome, but nevertheless God showers rich blessings upon each day of our lives. Think of the people you love and the people who love you. Think of God’s provision for our daily needs. Think of our families and friends. Think of our freedom. These are just a few of the treasures that immediately come to mind when we contemplate thanksgiving – and why we should offer it. But the greatest, most earth-shattering blessing we have received is God’s grace through Jesus Christ. As Paul reminds us in 2 Corinthians, the grace that reaches more and more people should result in an overflow of thanksgiving to God’s glory!

     Here's yet another reminder – as thankful as we are (or at least as thankful as we should be) even thanksgiving isn't about us; it's about others. It's about sharing the news of what God has done for us through Jesus with such passion and with such joy and with such passion and with such conviction, that this divine grace that has worked its way inside us and hopefully transformed our lives will do the same thing for others. And then they'll become thankful, and share the same news, and it will reach others – and so on, and so forth, and the message of God's grace will spread, and thus we have this explosion of thanksgiving, overflowing “to the glory of God.”

     I look at the first couple of verses of the passage we read this morning: “It is written: 'I believed; therefore I have spoken.' Since we have that same spirit of faith, we also believe and therefore speak, because we know that the one who raised the Lord Jesus from the dead will also raise us with Jesus and present us with you to himself.” If we truly want to reflect on the fact that it's acknowledging the responsibilities that accompany our rights that reminds us to be truly thankful, then these words remind us of what our responsibilities as disciples of Jesus are. To understand the goodness of God, to reach out to the world around us with that goodness, and to share what we've been blessed with as a result of that goodness. Thanksgiving has a way of multiplying what we have. To be truly a people of thanksgiving means to discover that for all the things we may want, we already have far more than perhaps we realized. To be truly a people of thanksgiving means to discover that the people who are a part of our lives are more important than the things we possess in getting us through the hard times. To be truly a people of thanksgiving means to realize that all this comes from God. Thanksgiving begins to overflow simply when we take a step back and simply realize what we already have, The truth is that when you believe in God, thanksgiving and overflowing go together. With God things inevitably overflow: laughter overflows, joy overflows, love overflows, faith overflows. The “things” we have are nothing; but the God whose we are is everything.

     “So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.” And when we're finally able to see those “unseen” things – thanksgiving begins to overflow, and as we share, the overflowing can't be stopped.

A Thought For The Week Of October 7

"A new heart I will give you, and a new spirit I will put within you; and I will remove from your body the heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh." (Ezekiel 36:26) A couple of hundred years ago, the German writer Jean Paul Richter wrote that "God is an unutterable sigh, planted in the depths of the soul." The prophet Ezekiel suggested that one of the works of God for God's people would be to bring about a change of heart - transforming hearts of stone (cold, hard, unbending) and turning them into hearts of flesh (warm, alive, feeling.) This would be done by God giving us a new spirit - not the Holy Spirit, I don't think, but rather a new attitude and outlook on life that comes as a result of our faith. Almost a new "me" and a new "you" - freed from worries and fears, and opened to the working of God around us and among us and even within us. I believe Richter might have been reflecting if not on the words of Ezekiel, at least on the same principle. If we truly and fully open ourselves to God, the only possible result can be a totally transformed life, committed to God, and to the well-being of all those around us. That "unutterable sigh" is the sense of complete peace and contentment that God fills us with. We cannot fully comprehend the love and grace of God - nor can we fully comprehend why it's poured out for us. We can only marvel. Words do not do it justice. We are God's. We know this in the depths of our souls. Have a great week!

October 6 sermon - Does God Hate Our Sacraments?

(A link to a video of the sermon is underneath.)

“I hate, I despise your religious festivals; your assemblies are a stench to Me. Even though you bring Me burnt offerings and grain offerings, I will not accept them. Though you bring choice fellowship offerings, I will have no regard for them. Away with the noise of your songs! I will not listen to the music of your harps. But let justice roll on like a river, righteousness like a never-failing stream!” (Amos 5:21-24)

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     Unless you're Westboro Baptist Church (whose rather innocent sounding but repulsive name I promise never to mention ever again) you don't generally mention the words “God” and “hate” in the same sentence. “God is love,” the New Testament tells us. But, as you may have heard, there's a fine line between love and hate. Just because “God is love,” does that mean that God can't hate? Well, apparently not. There are actually a number of things the Bible tells us that God hates. It varies a little bit depending on the version of the Bible that you're using and what word gets picked, but as far as I could come up with, there are 14 things that God hates according to Scripture – everything from burning your sons and daughters as sacrifices to things like violence, deceit and haughtiness, or arrogance. Only one person was ever mentioned – apparently at one time God hated Esau.  All intriguing, I suppose. The idea of God “hating” is a strange one, after all, but – there it is.

     As I worked my way through the list I developed, I started to divide the things that God hates up into categories – because I don't think we can take these things absolutely literally, after all. We have to try to see the kinds of things that God might hate, as opposed to the specifics mentioned in the Bible. Let's face it, not too many people these days are busy burning their sons and daughters as sacrifices to God! At least, I hope they're not. So what KINDS of things does God hate?

     If you take those 14 “hated” items that I found, you could lump them basically into five categories.

     God hates violence. Psalm 11:5 says that explicitly, and Proverbs refers to God hating “hands that shed innocent blood.” So many people reject belief in God because of the violence sometimes committed by God's followers, and yet violence is definitely on the divinely hated list! And that must cause God a great deal of difficulty, because it leads right into the next category:

     God hates religious extremism. It's true. Deuteronomy 12:31 tells us that God hates those who burn their sons and daughters as sacrifices. I think that would qualify as religious extremism. Some, of course, will immediately leap up and say “but what about the Abraham story. God told him to sacrifice Isaac.” Well, whatever actually happened in the midst of that divine encounter between Abraham and God, the real point of the matter is that God saw what Abraham was going to do, understood that perhaps it was well intentioned as a show of faith – but then didn't let him do it! Religious extremism seems to be out as far as I can see. It's also on the divinely hated list. And I doubt that it matters much whether it's Christian extremism or Islamic extremism or whatever. God hates it. Why? I suspect because it either cycles back into the violence that God also hates, or it cycles ahead into the next thing:

     God hates those things that destroy relationships! “That they may be one as we are one.” That was the prayer of Jesus for his followers, and, really, for the entire world. “That they may be one as we are one.” God wants us to be in relationship with each other, in fellowship with each other, in communion with each other. Religious extremism blocks relationship. I suppose it creates a small core group of those you agree with, but it dismisses even the possibility of relationship with those you disagree with. God wants us in relationship because that's the only way we can actually accomplish God's will. So Zechariah the prophet says that God hates when we “plot against each other,” Isaiah the prophet says that God hates “robbery and wrongdoing,” and Psalm 5 says simply that God hates “all who do wrong” - because all these things destroy our sense of community. Which leads to Number 4:

     God hates bad or negative attitudes. Really. God does! What use does God have for negative attitudes. For people who see or expect the worst instead of the best. For people who spend their lives cynical or fed up or angry or bitter. Remember, of course – it's not the people God hates, but the attitudes. That's probably why Scripture is full of reminders to us that we are to be thankful people. Proverbs talks about God hating “haughty eyes.” In other words, a sort of angry arrogance that only puts other people down rather than seeking to build them up.

     So, there you are – four categories of things that God hates: violence, religious extremism, anything that destroys relationships and bad or negative attitudes. But there's a fifth, that I thought was especially relevant for today, when we celebrate Holy Communion: the Bible tells us that God hates empty religion. Here's how the prophet Amos put it in our reading this morning: “I hate, I despise your religious festivals; your assemblies are a stench to Me.” Being here this morning, for what is essentially a religious festival or assembly, that hits pretty close to home. Is it possible that God might hate the fact that we're here, doing this? I suppose that to answer that question, we have to identify what it is, exactly, that God hated about the religious festivals and assemblies of His people!

     It's not that complicated. They had become empty. All the religious festivals, all the religious assemblies, all the sacrifices made in the temple, all the pious prayers that were offered – they had become empty. They were ends in themselves. People participated in them – and they were left feeling self-satisfied, as if by participating in them they had actually accomplished what it was that God had called them to. The religion of the people had become at best a show but it wasn't being demonstrated in any practical way beyond the religious rituals. People had started to think that religion was all about the rituals. They had forgotten that the rituals were just signposts, pointing us to what God wants us to be about as a result of our faith.

     Today is called on the calendar of many churches “World Wide Communion Sunday.” The first Sunday in October is the day set aside by many denominations to share Communion together, and the occasion made me reflect on these words of Amos. Why are we doing this? What's the point of this particular “festival” if you want to call it that? Do we think that gathering and celebrating Communion is an end in itself? Is God satisfied with us showing our piety by being here – even if it's Sunday after Sunday after Sunday – or does God expect more? I think that God expects more! So, to go back to what I said just a moment ago, if  Communion is just a signpost, pointing us to what God wants us to be about as a result of our faith, then what direction does it point?

     It seems to me that the Communion table, when you get right down to it, is about sacrifice, and it points us in the direction of sacrifice. Jesus sacrificed for the world; we sacrifice for the world. Not in the same way obviously – but living by the same principle of self-giving love for others. Communion only means anything if it's really less about the table and all about the world around us and those in it. If taking Communion is an end in itself for us, and we think we've accomplished something by doing it, then maybe God does hate it. But if we understand what it stands for – and if we respond – then God will surely be pleased!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TW-slHejKac

I've Been Thinking About "Religious Neutrality"

My column for the In Port News, to be published today:


     One thing that I’ve been following fairly closely recently is the debate in Quebec about preventing public servants from wearing religious symbols while at work. It’s an interesting debate. What, really, is the role of the state in deciding that people shouldn’t be exposed to religious symbols? Does the state even have such a role? A colleague of mine who has served in the past in Quebec has suggested that people from Ontario and elsewhere in Canada really need to stay out of this debate – that such interference is only going to enflame the passions and possibly revive the separatist movement by doing so. Possibly. I’ve never lived in Quebec, so I don’t have a real handle on how sensitively such “interference” will be taken. There is, though, a deeper issue that seems (as far as I’ve seen) to have gone largely unaddressed. Apparently as a part of this move, the Quebec government is going to establish a so-called “Charter of Human Values” which enshrines “religious neutrality” as a value. I struggle with that concept.

     Is religious neutrality actually a value? I wonder if you can make a blanket statement that neutrality is always a value. There are things we should just stay out of because it’s none of our business, and neutrality is the direction we have to take, no doubt. But is there really a sentiment growing that says that in general terms taking a stand on religion – having deep religious convictions – is not a value, while being “religiously neutral” is a value? Or is this “religious neutrality” really a way of saying that unbelief is fine and dandy, but anybody who actually believes anything – who actually has a faith – is denying our values? In other words, if “religious neutrality” is a value, then what is religious conviction? A weight on our society that needs to be thrown off?

     Some would say that’s true. Some blame religion for everything bad that’s ever happened. Some see violence committed in the name of religion and say that religion is evil and religion is poison and it must be done away with. And, of course, they’re entitled to that opinion. But religion isn’t the only thing that causes conflict and even violence. Should we make, for example, political neutrality a value, and implicitly say that political conviction is an evil to be stamped out? There’s been a lot of violence done in the name of ideology over the years! Should we ban sports? I’ve seen riots and mayhem break out after sporting events. I’ve known family members who rarely speak because one supports one team and one supports another. Seriously! So should we declare “sporting neutrality” a value? Of course not.

     The reality is that as a society we need people who will stand up and be counted for what they believe. What we don’t need is an entire society that becomes afraid to take a stand on anything – be it religion or anything else.

     I’m quite happy to leave it to Quebec to decide what their public employees should or shouldn’t be allowed to wear while on the job. Quebeckers need to sort that out for themselves. But, in general terms, I fear the idea of “neutrality” – religious or otherwise – being entrenched as a “value,” simply because of what it seems to say about those who have convictions – about anything!

How Should We Pray?

Two weeks ago I was pondering over the question of why Jesus rarely offered intercessory prayer for people. It's still an interesting question that puzzles me, but I'll let that one go. I'm still thinking about prayer, though.

Many people find it hard to pray. My wife taught me to pray - or at least helped me to develop the confidence to pray publicly. My usual bit of instruction to those who wonder how to pray is to just imagine it as a conversation with your best friend who's right in front of you. Which, in a way, is what it is. And just let the thoughts and ideas and words flow. Prayer doesn't have to make use of grandiose and ostentatious and pious language. In fact, it seems to me that those are the kinds of prayers Jesus didn't really approve of. His idea seemed to be "keep it simple."

When this question comes up in our minds, we're in good company.  It was after all the disciples themselves who said to Jesus, "Lord, teach us how to pray." And Jesus responded to them with the words that we (more or less) call the Lord's Prayer. I'm not convinced that Jesus actually ever expected his disciples of two thousand (or even two) years later to still be reciting it word for word. I'm not so sure he wanted that. It was, after all, just a model for prayer; it wasn't an actual prayer. But it works, and if you're stuck praying out loud and don't know what to say, it's never a bad idea to say, "and now let us pray as Jesus taught us ..."

A few years ago, I came across something known as the ACTS model for prayer. I've often found that helpful both for personal prayer and for prayer groups. It divides a prayer into four parts:

"A" stands for "Adoration." It's basically talking to God about God, but the benefit is really for us. By thinking and perhaps speaking out loud about the attributes of God (as in, "O God, Creator of heaven and earth ...") we come closer to God, and closer to knowing God.

"C" stands for "Confession." There's so much in our lives that burdens us; so much holding us back; so much that makes us feel separated from God. There are, I suspect, a lot of people carrying around quite a load of guilt. Some of it's heaped on us by others; some of it's probably legitimate. How many of us have never done anything we regret or know we shouldn't have done. "Give it up to the Lord" is evangelical language, but it works as far as guilt is concerned. God is the only one who in any real sense can judge us. And I believe that confessing and forgiving go hand in hand with God. God won't hold your past against you. Real confession - unburdening ourselves and making ourselves right with God - is essential to prayer.

"T" is for "Thanksgiving." Have you noticed that there are a lot of whiny people around? People who complain about all the bad things that happen to them, or who lament all the things they don't have. I've noticed them. Moving from confession to thanksgiving is natural. Once we confess we realize how grateful we are to God, and perhaps we start to see the world in a new light. We start to see its beauty and not its ugliness. We start to see its hopes and dreams and not its darkness and challenges. We're not blinded to the problems, but we are encouraged by suddenly realizing how much we have to be thankful for when all is said and done.

Finally, "S" is for "Supplication." It's a fancy word - which basically means something as simple as praying for others (and maybe even yourself if there's a real need.) Prayer ends with supplication as a way of reminding us that our thoughts and actions and prayers as Christians are always to be directed outward to others. This keeps us oriented as people who don't sit in church for an hour a week as our act of Christian devotion, but as a people who go to church to be inspired to reach out to the world with acts of Christian devotion.

ACTS. It's really a very workable model of prayer, an easy acronym to remember because of the book of the Bible of the same name!

There's no one model that's right or wrong for everyone. I do, though, stand by one thing I said earlier. Praying is talking to God as if God is your best friend. Because that's what God is!

The Early Morning Contemplation - A Poem

Woke up early this morning as always. A little after 5. This was in my mind. Don't know why, but maybe inspiration. Who knows. Thought I'd share.

The Early Morning Contemplation

Morning. Early morning.
The dark; the quiet; the peace.
The dreams of the night fade away; the dreams for the day fill the mind.
Dreams from all our yesterdays are crushed or fulfilled.
What will tomorrow's dreams hold? A question mark at best?
And for today? Who knows.
Joy. Or sorrow. Life. Or death. Hope. Or grief.
So many possibilities.
But always God, in the midst of it all.
The sky glows in the east.
Pink. Red. Orange.
The light of the sun, already eight minutes old as it appears, calling us:
"Wake up! Start anew."
It drives the sleep away.
It signals a new beginning.
With God. With friends. With strangers.
Strangers who may become friends. Or not.
For who knows what the new day holds.
But the light breaks into the darkness.
The day begins.
Again.
Anew.