Wednesday 24 May 2017

A Thought For The Week Of May 22, 2017

"Cast your cares on the Lord and he will sustain you; he will never let the righteous be shaken." (Psalm 55:22) I'm writing this just a couple of days after the terrorist attack in Manchester, England, that killed at least 22 people - most likely teenagers and at least one who was only eight years old. It's a shocking thing. It's impossible to understand. There are truly no words that can properly express the horror we feel at such an act of ruthless violence directed toward innocent children. And it's called "terrorism" for a reason. Its goal is to spread fear and terror into the hearts and souls of people, and to blind them to qualities such as love and compassion and mercy. Terrorism wins when we choose to live in fear and to look around every corner for those we think we should be afraid of. And when that happens, the next step is hatred. We start to lash out - we blame "them;" whomever "they" may be. Already in Manchester, for example, there's a report of an arsonist having set fire to the city's main mosque. Not because anyone at the mosque had anything to do with the attack, but because of hatred caused by irrational fear. We're afraid that something like this might happen to us or to those we love. And fear can cause us to set rationality aside. No wonder Jesus said "do not be afraid." He understood the problem. Those who are afraid will never listen to God. They'll be too busy either cowering or taking irrational vengeance on those who have never harmed them. I once read that a psychological had estimated that 90% of the things we worry about and fear either never happen or are things we can't do anything about. The basic message, then, is that worry and fear solve very little and create a lot more trouble. Wouldn't it be great to just let go of 90% of our worries and fears? But, of course, there would still be the other 10%. What about that relatively small handful of our worries that actually are worth worrying about? What about the things we really should be afraid of? This, I suspect, is where faith is tested. Do we actually trust God to care for us? Do we actually believe that God loves us? Do we take seriously the idea that God can, in some way, intervene directly and personally in our lives? This verse from Psalm 55 promises us that if we do take these things seriously then we will, indeed, never be shaken. It's important to understand that the Psalm never promises us that the things we worry about will never happen. Bad and even tragic things are a part of life - and they happen to someone, somewhere every day and faith doesn't protect us from them. What faith does, though, is remind us that for all the sin and violence and evil we see around us - and even in spite of the bad things that sometimes happen to us personally - there is one who is more powerful than all the things that can happen to us in life. We trust God to triumph over all that frightens us and can easily lead us to hatred. "Come to me, all who are weary and heavy burdened, and I will give you rest," Jesus said.

Wednesday 17 May 2017

A Thought For The Week Of May 15, 2017

"For from him and through him and for him are all things. To him be the glory forever! Amen." (Romans 11:36) From him, through him and for him. That doesn't leave much out, does it. All things belong to Christ. Everything that exists does so in an intimate relationship with that which created it all. To me, that's the basis of Christianity. Our faith is about an intimate relationship with Jesus. We are connected to him; we are guided by him; we are given new life through him. Whatever we are, as Christians it is because of Jesus. All things are from him. Or, as John put it in his Gospel, nothing that came into being did so without him. All things are through him. Jesus is the intersection of the temporal with the eternal; of the profane with the sacred; of the natural with the divine. We approach God through Jesus, and God approaches us through Jesus. He is the gate, or the door - not locked, but wide open in invitation to all to share this relationship of intimacy with God. And all things are for him. His work continues, and all that exists in some way has a role to play in the furtherance of that work. We can't always see it, but if everything exists for Jesus, then everything has a God-give purpose. None of us are unimportant; all of us are created to be a part of God's work and of Jesus' ministry in the world. Most of the time we're probably unaware of that calling - which is both a great privilege and a great responsibility. Truth be told, most of the time we may yearn to feel an intimate connection with Jesus - but it seems elusive and distant. But if everything is from, through and for Jesus then even those times when we feel distant from Jesus can be holy moments; times of holy awareness. Jesus is indeed the one who holds everything together. And so Paul - who knew both hardships and blessings; who felt both intimacy and distance from God - can quite rightly say "To him be the glory forever," punctuating those words with an emphatic "Amen."

Wednesday 10 May 2017

A Thought For The Week Of May 8, 2017

"If the Son comes to make you free, you will really be free." (John 8:36) I found myself wondering as I read these words - free from what? "If the Son comes to make you free, you will really be free." OK. But - again - free from what? Was Jesus speaking in political terms? Do we see an early nod toward what ultimately became liberation theology - the idea that Jesus seeks to free people from political oppression and persecution? I certainly think that's a worthy goal, in keeping with the teachings of Jesus, but I doubt that Jesus was thinking in political terms when he spoke these words. The very orthodox, traditional Christian answer to that question would be - free from sin. That would probably also represent the typical fundamentalist or evangelical answer today. Freedom from sin - or, at least, from the consequences of sin. I can see that. I can then take it one step further. If one agrees with Paul that "the wages of sin is death" then perhaps what the Son is setting us free from is death itself. I can see that as well. I believe that this life isn't all that there is. I believe in eternal life. So that works for me. But to be honest I think I need to keep pressing the question. I still need to ask "free from what?" Maybe the real answer to the question is freedom from fear. Perhaps that's the key. Oppression, sin and death all cause fear - fear of consequences, fear of punishment, fear of the end. But if all these things are ultimately overcome by Jesus, then what the Son is really setting us free from is, in fact, fear itself. Franklin Roosevelt said "we have nothing to fear but fear itself." But in Christ there is no room for fear at all. Actually, with Jesus we don't even really have to be afraid of fear! Because of Jesus we can live without fear. Because of Jesus I have the freedom to serve God as best I can without fearing that it's not good enough, without fearing the risks involved. Because of Jesus I can stand against all the powers (spiritual and otherwise) that would try to oppress me. This is the work of the Son. Because he comes to make us free, we "will really be free."

Sunday 7 May 2017

The BEST Shepherd - May 7, 2014 sermon

“Very truly, I tell you, anyone who does not enter the sheepfold by the gate but climbs in by another way is a thief and a bandit. The one who enters by the gate is the shepherd of the sheep. The gatekeeper opens the gate for him, and the sheep hear his voice. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. When he has brought out all his own, he goes ahead of them, and the sheep follow him because they know his voice. They will not follow a stranger, but they will run from him because they do not know the voice of strangers.” Jesus used this figure of speech with them, but they did not understand what he was saying to them. So again Jesus said to them, “Very truly, I tell you, I am the gate for the sheep. All who came before me are thieves and bandits; but the sheep did not listen to them. I am the gate. Whoever enters by me will be saved, and will come in and go out and find pasture. The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly. I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep."
(John 10:1-11)

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     Sheppardville is a fascinating little town. I discovered it almost 25 years ago when I was serving a three point pastoral charge in Central Newfoundland. Sheppardville wasn't one of the points on my charge, but it wasn't too far away. According to the 2011 Canadian census, Sheppardville has a population of 77 people who live in 28 homes. Like most small towns in Newfoundland, the population of Sheppardville has been declining rapidly. When I lived in the area Sheppardville had about 200 people. It was a pretty quiet little town back in the 1990's, and I suspect it's even quieter today. You can't really do much in Sheppardville. Any services are in the surrounding larger communities. So - why did I call Sheppardville "fascinating"? It was because of the Sheppardville listing in the Newfoundland telephone directory back in the 1990's. As I said, there were about 200 people living in Sheppardville at the time - and as I recall the telephone directory suggested that about 95% of those people had the last name "Sheppard." So, if you wondered where the name of the town came from - that pretty much gives it away! It really was a "Sheppard - ville." The congregation (according to the United Church Yearbook) is still open. It's a part of the Little Bay Islands Pastoral Charge - a 2 point charge that has an average attendance between both congregations of 30. I never had the chance to preach in Sheppardville when I was in Newfoundland, but if I ever had, I hope I would have chosen to use this passage of Scripture in which Jesus refers to himself as "the good shepherd." I wonder if it would have stirred any competition? You know how Jesus' own disciples argued amongst themselves over which of them was the greatest? I wonder if the folks in Sheppardville would have argued amongst themselves about Jesus calling himself "the good shepherd"? Some of them might have wanted to claim that title for themselves. Maybe someone in Sheppardville thought of themself as the best Shepherd of all! But perhaps - just perhaps - some of the Sheppards of Sheppardville would have been willing to concede at the very least that Jesus was the best shepherd!

     "I am the good shepherd." These are iconic words of Jesus. They have been represented in the arts almost from the beginning of Christianity, and we're all familiar with the image of Jesus holding a baby lamb in his arms - the shepherd caring for the sheep.  In one way or another all of those are heart-warming images, designed to get an emotional response from whoever sees them. And there's nothing wrong with that. I think we should have an emotional reaction to the love of God revealed in Jesus. But the image of Jesus as the good shepherd should be more than just emotional. There's a toughness revealed by the image. Shepherds in Jesus' day had to be tough. They weren't well respected in society as a whole (which makes it an interesting image for Jesus to choose for himself) and they sometimes had to risk great danger to keep their sheep safe from the various dangers around them. It was a tough job, and sometimes a risky one. I found myself reflecting on that as I thought about the context of today’s passage. A few weeks ago we reflected on the story of the man born blind being healed by Jesus - and the anger toward Jesus that incident stirred among the Pharisees and other religious leaders. This passage is what comes immediately after that story. I wonder if that was deliberate. Jesus had angered the leaders - and probably made his own disciples wonder if he had gone crazy. "Why would you do that?" they perhaps wondered. Why take that kind of a risk to help a blind man that - to be blunt - no one much cared about? "I am the good shepherd" was perhaps Jesus' answer to such questions. In other words, to paraphrase what Jesus meant, "I'm not called by my Father to be popular and I'm not called by my Father to stay safe. I'm called by my Father to be the good shepherd - with all the risks that being the good shepherd carries." The image that's so heart-warming for us would actually have been an uncomfortable one for Jesus' disciples, because there's a huge challenge involved in it.

     Henri Beyle - who's better known by his pen name Stendhal - was a French author and poet in the 19th century. He wasn't a Christian - in fact he had a rather contemptuous view of religion in general, believing it to be for the weak and stupid. He wrote about shepherds that "the shepherd always tries to persuade the sheep that their interests and his are the same." He didn't mean that as a compliment. It was his way of saying that many shepherds tried to lead their sheep astray by getting them to work for the shepherd's benefit rather than their own, but making them believe that they're helping themselves by doing it. Kind of like politicians who manage to convince a lot of people that cutting taxes for the rich is actually going to help the poor! But even though I understand that's the perspective Stendhal was writing from, I was intrigued to apply his words to Jesus. "The shepherd always tried to persuade the sheep that their interests and his interests are the same." Not all "shepherds" are bad, of course. Some powerful people really are scam artists who take advantage of people to further their own interests. No argument there. But was that Jesus? In any reasonable look at the Gospels, you find that Jesus looks after the interests of others - and that he risks himself to do it. Jesus stands for others - and he angers the leaders to do it. Jesus sits and eats with the outcasts - and he infuriates the self-righteous religious leaders by doing it. Here is a shepherd who's different. Here's a shepherd who really does care more about the sheep than he does about himself. Here's a shepherd who lives that out by risking himself as he goes about fulfilling his calling. Dare I say that Jesus was not only "the good shepherd" - but that perhaps he really is the best shepherd? And, if Jesus really is the best shepherd, then shouldn't we be trying to match his interests to our own?

     Do we look out for others? Do we defend the defenceless? Do we love the unlovable? Do we provide for those in need? Do we care for those who can't care for themselves? Do we give a voice to those who have no voice? Do we welcome those whom others cast out? If we're doing those things then we are matching our interests to those of Jesus. He's still the best shepherd, of course - but we should try to follow him by doing the things that he did, and by loving others as God first loved us.

Thursday 4 May 2017

A Thought For The Week Of May 1, 2017

"Then some of the scribes and Pharisees said to him, 'Teacher, we wish to see a sign from you.'" (Matthew 12:38) It's a strange thing perhaps - but in my observation there are generally two kinds of people who want signs from God: hard core believers and hard core unbelievers. They're at opposite ends of the spectrum, but in some ways they're the two sides of the same coin. It's pretty easy to understand why unbelievers would want a sign. They demand proof as a condition for belief. That's simple and straightforward and completely understandable. But understanding why believers want signs is more complicated. I would say there are three reasons that believers might ask for signs. First is that some people simply get fixated on the dramatic and supernatural. It becomes almost an addiction. They need signs, signs and more signs - which is, in itself, a sign of a sincere but very fragile faith that's in constant need of reassurance. Then there are the believers who don't need to "demand" signs because they already see the evidence of God all around them in the every day things of life. That's more or less the group I would count myself among. And then there's a third group - who have a lot in common with the Pharisees. This group demands signs either as a way of judging the faith of others or they demand signs as a way of being able to mock the faith of others. In this passage, Jesus had come and claims had been made about him. There were already signs around to back up the claims. But the Pharisees demanded still more. Nothing would satisfy them. Theirs was a closed mind and a closed heart - unable to see and appreciate what was right in front of them, and not really expecting that there was anything to see and hear in the first place. That's an attitude that still exists today. It's a reason that people of faith need to be continually growing their faith and building their relationship with God. There will be a lot of testing of our faith, and even a lot of mocking of it. Standing firm isn't always easy - but if you know that God is with you, you don't need mighty signs to stay strong. You just need a sincere faith.