February 28, 2016 sermon: A Wide, Wide Welcome

“Anyone who welcomes you welcomes me, and anyone who welcomes me welcomes the one who sent me. Whoever welcomes a prophet as a prophet will receive a prophet’s reward, and whoever welcomes a righteous person as a righteous person will receive a righteous person’s reward. And if anyone gives even a cup of cold water to one of these little ones who is my disciple, truly I tell you, that person will certainly not lose their reward.”

(Matthew 10:40-42)

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     As Ruth already mentioned during announcements at the start of today’s service, last Tuesday was a very exciting day, as we discovered that Teamu and Amine - the two refugees from Eritrea that we’re sponsoring - will be arriving in Canada on March 9 from Eritrea. I didn’t know that a couple of weeks ago when I decided that the general theme for today’s service would be “welcoming,” but the Holy Spirit has a way of arranging things, and so here we are. The word “welcome” seems to me to be at the heart of Christian faith. As Jesus welcomed all, so are we as a Christian community that gathers in his name to welcome all. The doors should be open and not closed. Thinking about the whole refugee issue, it disturbs me that a lot of Christians (although I’m thankful that this seems to be primarily an American phenomenon) seem to want to close the doors and keep refugees out - and mostly that’s a position taken on the basis of fear. We tend to be afraid of those who are different than we are, and we tend to be suspicious of strangers rather than welcoming to them. I suppose as Christians we should simply be grateful that 2000 years ago those who ruled Egypt didn’t close their doors to refugees as Joseph, Mary and Jesus fled there are refugees to escape the murderous King Herod. So, with the arrival of Teamu and Amine now very much on the horizon, our minds go to being welcoming - and to extending welcome as widely as possible, because such is the way of Jesus.

     Jesus said some interesting things about the idea of “welcome” in our passage today, and yet when I first started working with these words, it wasn’t the word “welcome” that leaped out at me. It was the word “anyone.” Until the last few days I had never really thought very much about how deep and how rich is the word “anyone.” On the surface it sounds like a pretty innocuous word; a word of little importance. It seems to be referring to someone who’s almost irrelevant - it refers, after all, to literally “anyone.” And when I first started to plan out what I was going to offer today, my thoughts weren’t even focussed on “anyone.” I had a very different idea of where this short little passage was leading me. But somehow the word “anyone” kept eating away at me; gnawing at me. It really was as if the Holy Spirit wanted me to think about “anyone.” Just who, exactly, is “anyone”?

     It’s interesting to reflect on the wider context of Jesus words. All of Matthew 10 consists of instructions that Jesus gave to his original twelve disciples about the mission he was sending them on. It was a mission which centred around proclaiming the good news, which Jesus described as “the kingdom of heaven has come near.” They were to “cure the sick, raise the dead, cleanse the lepers [and] cast out demons.” In other words they were to embark on a mission whose purpose would be to wipe out all the things that could put an end to a person’s ability to be in relationship with others. The disciples were to break down barriers and reconcile those who had been cast aside and create a new community of those who not only awaited the kingdom of God but who sought to create the kingdom of God as best they could. Jesus went on to warn the twelve that their efforts would not be universally appreciated. They would be persecuted, he said, but God would be with them. And Jesus said not to fear. And then came the words, “Anyone who welcomes you welcomes me, and anyone who welcomes me welcomes the one who sent me.”

     The first thing that intrigued me when I started to think about “anyone” is that this passage actually sounds at first glance very un-Jesus-like. Jesus’ focus, after all, was always on others. Jesus’ desire for his disciples was that we would always be for others. We shouldn’t be focussed on ourselves, in other words. We should always be taking stock of the needs of those around us and trying to find ways to help meet those needs; to reach out to those who have those needs. We are supposed to be welcoming to others, to invite them into the circle, to break down the barriers that divide. And yet, these words of Jesus start by putting the focus on us: “Anyone who welcomes you …” he said. Why us?

     It occurs to me that there’s a bit of a circle being drawn here. There are those who offer welcome, and those who welcome us welcome Jesus and those who welcome Jesus welcome God and in the end isn’t it God who is really welcoming us - all of us? Wasn’t the very appearance of Jesus a statement of welcome to the world: “Come to me, all you who are weary and carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest.” This is what we mean when we speak of doing Christ’s work - it is extending a wide, wide welcome to all to a place where they can find peace and rest and sanctuary; just as we have been welcomed to a place where we can find peace and rest and sanctuary. So in reflecting on the richness of that word “anyone” it finally occurred to me that, really, in the end aren’t we the “anyone”? We welcome and we are welcomed. There’s a statement of family there. Sometimes we speak of being forgiven and forgiving; we are also both welcomed and welcoming.

     Surely, this is what the cross reminds us of. All who desire to are welcome to gather at the foot of the cross. It’s at the foot of the cross that we experience the ultimate welcome: the invitation to experience and claim God’s grace. And yet the invitation to be welcomed to the foot of the cross is not an easy one to accept. Even many of Jesus’ original disciples ran away, so overwhelmed were they by what the cross represented. Yes - the cross is a welcome, but it is more than just a welcome to all things bright and beautiful. It is a welcome for those who choose to associate themselves with those who are cast out and cast away, with those who suffer and with those who are hungry and with those who, like Jesus himself, have no place to lay their head. As those who have been welcomed by God - may we extend a wide, wide welcome to those who most need it.

A Thought For The Week Of February 22, 2016

"My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you." (John 15:12) In my opinion this is one of the most meaningful verses in all of Scripture. Too often in today's world we cheapen the concept of love. One way we do that is by simply romanticizing the idea of love - so that love becomes only what's depicted on Valentine's Day cards or in Hollywood love stories. Or we just throw the word around loosely so that it really means nothing and we proclaim our love for virtually anything (because, one can indeed proclaim their love for virtually anything.) But in this one verse, Jesus deromanticizes love and points out that love comes with a price if it's real love. "Love one another as I have loved you." Which begs the question - how did Jesus love us? Jesus loved us by giving and sacrificing. In the context of the passage Jesus had already shown such love. He extended it to the disciples - some of whom (like Matthew, a tax collector and therefore a collaborator with the Romans) would have been despised by respectable society, and he extended it beyond the Jewish community (to the Samaritan woman at the well or the Roman centurion whose servant he healed.) In both cases Jesus risked drawing the hatred of society onto himself - and, in fact, it wasn't just  a risk. His love resulted in the ultimate sacrifice  - by loving so richly and so deeply and so widely he ended up on a cross - put to death with great suffering. Love always comes with a price - if it's real love. It's more than just romance and it's more than just a way of saying "I really, really, really like ice cream." Love comes with a sacrifice - if it's real love. This is the love Jesus showed us; it's the love Jesus wants us to show one another.

February 21, 2016 sermon: Enemy Or Friend Of The Cross?

Brothers and sisters, join in imitating me, and observe those who live according to the example you have in us. For many live as enemies of the cross of Christ; I have often told you of them, and now I tell you even with tears. Their end is destruction; their god is the belly; and their glory is in their shame; their minds are set on earthly things. But our citizenship is in heaven, and it is from there that we are expecting a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. He will transform the body of our humiliation that it may be conformed to the body of his glory, by the power that also enables him to make all things subject to himself.

(Philippians 3:17-21)

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     There are times when it isn’t easy to distinguish your friends from your enemies. During the First World War there was a German soldier who was hit by gunfire and tried as best he could to retreat back into his own trenches, but on his way he became entangled in barbed wire. He was screaming and moaning in great pain, and finally an American soldier left his trench to try to save him. The two opposing commanders saw what was happening and actually ordered a cease fire. The American soldier picked the German soldier up and carried him back to the German trenches before retreating back to his own trench, at which point the cease fire was lifted and the two sides began shooting at each other again. Can you easily identify who was the injured soldier’s friend and who was his enemy? Sometimes it’s not always clear.

     In today’s reading from Philippians, Paul is speaking about enemies and friends of the cross. The word “friend” doesn’t actually appear. What Paul writes is that “... many live as enemies of the cross of Christ; I have often told you of them, and now I tell you even with tears,” but I think it’s pretty clear that those he considers to be friends of the cross are those he described earlier “who live according to the example you have in us.” And it’s a little bit like that German soldier from World War I - I’m not sure that it’s always easy to tell the difference between the two groups. Many Christians, for example, have a tendency to place their faith in rules and regulations. They think that that “if I’m a Christian and if I really want God to love me than I must do this or I mustn’t do that.” And we think that by putting our faith in doing this or not doing that then we’re honouring God - but really that’s being an enemy of the cross, because it denies the grace of God that the cross represents. God loves us not because we earn it with our actions, but simply because God chooses to love us. That’s divine grace, shown by divine love on the cross. Well, rather than denying the cross and living as its enemy, I want to reflect on the benefits of the cross and living as its friend. In this short little passage we looked at today, Paul offered four thoughts about what identifies an enemy of the cross, and then he balances them with four thoughts about what identifies a friend of the cross.

     “... many live as enemies of the cross of Christ,” Paul wrote. And what does he say about them? First, that “their end is destruction.” If the cross is that which provides us with hope - the hope that we can be loved and accepted by God in spite of our obvious failings - then to be an enemy of the cross must be to fall into hopelessness. If the cross is that which brings to us assurance of God’s mercy and eternal life, then to live as an enemy of the cross must mean to lose our hold on such things and to begin to live in fear - desperately trying to earn God’s love, but rejecting the love God gives us through the cross. Paul continues on to say that “their god is the belly.” He’s speaking figuratively here, of course, He doesn’t mean that they’ve turned their stomachs into idols; he doesn’t even mean that they’ve turned food into an idol. What he means is that their lives are governed and controlled by their appetites - and we can have appetites for many things beyond mere food. But when you’re an enemy of the cross of Christ then whatever things you are looking for it’s a given that the one thing you’re probably not looking for is the cross, because the cross represents self-sacrifice and not self- indulgence. Paul also tells us that those who live as enemies of the cross of Christ “glory … in their shame.” They lose sight of any need for self-control or any sense of right and wrong (not in a legalistic sense but just in a basic moral sense) and they choose to live licentiously and wantonly and even defiantly before God - often trumpeting their choices, their greed and their avarice; their choice to live for their own sake rather than for the sake of Jesus. I would suggest that our society is full of people who treat the model of sacrifice shown by Jesus with open contempt. It’s the Kevin O’Leary take on ethics: “show me the money!” Paul’s fourth point about the enemies of the cross of Christ is a sort of summing up that ties the first three together: their minds are “set on earthly things.” Such people become enemies of the cross of Christ because the cross of Christ inevitably leads us away from our more earthly appetites and fills us instead with a desire for the things of heaven. Enemies of the cross of Christ will inevitably want more and more of the things of earth, and as that desire grows we’ll draw farther and farther away from the cross to get them.

     The good news is that it doesn’t have to be so. You have to choose to be an enemy of the cross, meaning that you can also choose to be a friend of the cross. To live as a friend of the cross is a lot more challenging, because it expects and demands a certain transformation in how we live and relate to those around us and to God, but in the end it’s far more rewarding in every way than the alternative. To balance what he said about the enemies of the cross, Paul also offered four characteristics of those who would be friends of the cross.

    First, to be a friend of the cross is to recognize that “our citizenship is in heaven.” Citizenship is about duty and loyalty and - ultimately - responsibility. Those who live as friends of the cross understand that the first call upon their allegiance is always God’s call, and they set aside all the considerations of this world for the sake of doing God’s will. If our citizenship is in heaven and our first loyalty is to God then we should do whatever it is that God asks of us without worrying about the potential costs or sacrifice involved. Paul then said that those who are friends of the cross are “expecting a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ.” Those who are friends of the cross understand that the present troubles of the world and sometimes of our own lives are only temporary intrusions and mere inconveniences, because we know that the future holds not only Christ - because he’s with us now - but also the Kingdom that Christ wants to create. And so we have both hope and assurance. We believe that Jesus will neither abandon or forsake us. We believe that He is ours and that we are His. We believe that he is our present reality and our future hope and our eternal destiny all at the same time. Paul goes on to say that friends of the cross will be “conformed to the body of his glory.” In other words, we will be like Christ. We will have his mind and his spirit. We will live with him and for him and through him and in him. This is what awaits us, so that - and this is Paul’s final point about friends of the cross - the glorious future and eternity that we hope for and await will be subject to Christ. It won’t only be us. All creation will be conformed to God’s desires. In a world that so often seems to be spinning out of control - all things will be made right. Eventually, all things will be as God wants them to be.

     So, the question: friend of the cross or enemy of the cross? The distinction isn’t always clear and the lines can become easily blurred. But I think we can see that the benefits of being a friend of the cross are huge. I want us all to be a friend of the cross. I want Laura to grow up to be a friend of the cross - knowing that she belongs to God and always will and responding to God’s love always. That’s the life God wants us to live - a life not fixated on things and on gain for ourselves but a life focussed on God and on service to others. That’s the life Jesus promises when he says that his desire is that we should have abundant life!

A Thought For The Week Of February 15, 2016

"I love you, Lord, my strength." (Psalm 18:1) What a wonderfully rich and meaningful message is contained in just those six words. We are to love God. We love God because God is a God of love who freely gives his love to us. We love God because in Jesus God has shown his love for us - in Jesus' life, death and resurrection, Indeed, the only way we can really love is because we learn what love is by following the example revealed to us by Jesus. And so, "I love you, Lord." And in return for our love (not as a reward but as a result) God becomes our strength. God's strength sees us through all troubles and trials, all circumstances and situations - whether they're of someone else's making or whether they're of our own making. God's forgiveness is the ultimate sign of God's love. Sometimes God loves us in spite of ourselves, and sometimes we're not very easy people to love. I certainly don't mind admitting that about myself. The strength God gives us in all circumstances is the sign of God's love for us. The only response we should be able to offer is our love back to God in return - not as a price we pay but as a natural result of being loved. God's love for us is not a reward, but a result, and our love for God is not a price, but a result. Love begets love - and love becomes our strength, that will see us through all things.

A Thought For The Week Of February 8, 2016

"Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me." (Psalm 51:10) There's an implicit assumption being made in this verse that none of our hearts are truly clean. "Create in me a clean heart, O God" seems to be in the nature of a type of ongoing petition. On the one hand that could come across as a bit discouraging. It suggests that no matter where I am in my life of faith, the problems of the world still confront me, and try as I might - my heart is not clean. Of course, John Calvin and his supporters would agree wholeheartedly - the doctrine of total depravity bears witness to this! And, ultimately, while being a very real and serious and honest commentary on human nature, this verse really shouldn't be discouraging. If we are to repeatedly petition God to create a clean heart in us, after all, it must be because we believe that God can can do such a thing - which is a given if we believe in the omnipotence of God - and that God will do such a thing - which is a given if we believe in the unconditional love of God. So this is a good petition; a good prayer to start every day with - even if it's a short one. It expresses an understanding of our nature and our need and our conviction that God is both powerful enough to do what I'm asking and loving enough to want to do what I'm asking. And the benefit of believing this is clearly spelled out - "renew a steadfast spirit within me." In other words, keep me strong in faith and always aware of God's great power even when everything around me seems to be a mess. It's a powerful verse - more powerful than the small number of words within it would suggest.

February 7 2016 sermon: A Different Kind Of Fishing

Once while Jesus was standing beside the lake of Gennesaret, and the crowd was pressing in on him to hear the word of God, he saw two boats there at the shore of the lake; the fishermen had gone out of them and were washing their nets. He got into one of the boats, the one belonging to Simon, and asked him to put out a little way from the shore. Then he sat down and taught the crowds from the boat. When he had finished speaking, he said to Simon, “Put out into the deep water and let down your nets for a catch.” Simon answered, “Master, we have worked all night long but have caught nothing. Yet if you say so, I will let down the nets.” When they had done this, they caught so many fish that their nets were beginning to break. So they signaled their partners in the other boat to come and help them. And they came and filled both boats, so that they began to sink. But when Simon Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus’ knees, saying, “Go away from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man!” For he and all who were with him were amazed at the catch of fish that they had taken; and so also were James and John, sons of Zebedee, who were partners with Simon. Then Jesus said to Simon, “Do not be afraid; from now on you will be catching people.” When they had brought their boats to shore, they left everything and followed him.

(Luke 5:1-11)

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     The first thing that struck me in this passage was that the people pressed in on Jesus “to hear the word of God.” I immediately thought of what I was speaking about a couple of weeks ago - the centrality of the Word of God to the people of God; that it is the Word of God that causes us to rally together and that is the focal point of our faith - a word of God that, as Christians, we believe is revealed in Jesus. So the people were pressing in on Jesus. It’s still the same today for people of faith - or at least it should be. We shouldn’t downplay the Word of God, we shouldn’t be embarrassed by the Word of God and we shouldn’t apologize for the Word of God - and I’ve heard Christians do all of those things. The Word of God is what people need to hear, and as this passage begins we get another illustration of the power of God’s word. A lot of people today say that times have changed and people aren’t interested in the Word of God anymore. I call that nonsense. Go into Chapters or log on to amazon.com. You’ll find whole sections devoted to books about the Word of God. Chapters and amazon want to make profits - they don’t stock books that no one is interested in. The reality is that people are interested in the Word of God because, deep down, they know that through the Word, God can touch them very deeply. Jesus offered the Word of God (Jesus WAS the Word of God) - and crowds gathered to hear what he had to say, because they were hungry for it, and whatever challenges the church might be facing today, almost everyone agrees that there is a desperate spiritual hunger in our society today - that people today are as hungry to hear from God as they were in Jesus’ day. In today’s passage, Jesus spoke to the crowds from a boat. The point is to take advantage of whatever forum is available to offer those around us what they truly need.

     To do that we have to be willing to take some risks, of course - and maybe even do some things we’d rather not do. In today’s passage, for example, Simon and his partners had been out all night and they had caught no fish. They were tired and discouraged. They were washing their nets and then probably looking forward to going home and resting for a while. And then, Jesus showed up and told them to launch their boats again. It’s not clear at this point whether Simon had ever met Jesus before, but even if he had I doubt that he was filled with enthusiasm for what Jesus was asking of him. “Master, we have worked all night long but have caught nothing. Yet if you say so, I will let down the nets.” Do you hear the unenthusiastic tone to those words? The truth is that sometimes doing what God asks us to do feels like launching back out into the deep when all we really want to do is find a comfortable and safe place to put our feet up and get some rest. And I hope you noted that Jesus told Simon and his partners to go out into the “deep water.” This wasn’t a short or easy excursion they were being asked to make. This was going to take effort; it was going to be work. The point seems to be that shallow or half-hearted efforts aren’t going to achieve very much. You either put your all into something that’s important, or there’s no point putting anything into it at all. If the disciples wanted to catch fish, they were going to have to go all out to do it. Simon understood that, and so he said to Jesus, “...  if you say so, I will let down the nets.”

     As I said earlier, that might have been an unenthusiastic response, but Simon did go back out on the water, into the deep waters Jesus directed him to. And the result was dramatic: “When they had done this, they caught so many fish that their nets were beginning to break. So they signaled their partners in the other boat to come and help them. And they came and filled both boats.” Simon had been ready to give up - but by responding to Jesus’ words and putting everything into the effort, he was led to a rich catch.

     Today, we’re called to engage in a different kind of fishing. “... from now on you will be catching people,” Jesus said. This is what being a disciple of Christ is all about. It’s to be those who lower the nets of heaven and bring people into the Kingdom of God. On that day on Lake Gennasaret, Simon and James and John found a new focus and a new calling. Now they would follow Christ and bear witness to Christ and learn how to draw men and women to Christ. This lesson taught them a lot of valuable things.

• they learned to strengthen themselves for the task ahead of them through solitary prayer and time with God;
• they learned not to depend on their own words but on the Word of God;
• they learned to seize hold of every opportunity presented to them to share the message of Jesus with those they encountered;
• they learned to trust Jesus, even when what he asked of them went against their own desires or their own better judgement;
• they learned that they had to give this mission their all and make it their focus rather than just a hobby.

     You see, there’s a difference between mere fishing and catching fish. Fishing is a hobby. People do it to relax, to enjoy themselves, to relieve stress. Sometimes - if all you’re doing is fishing - it doesn’t even matter if you catch any fish; it’s just all about the experience. But catching fish is different. When it’s your livelihood and your life then you put everything into it and you don’t let yourself get discouraged. You can’t let yourself get discouraged. Fishing is a hobby; catching fish is a calling.

     Sharing the gospel and living by the way of Jesus isn’t a hobby Christians. The calling of the church (and of every individual Christian) is to follow Christ’s command to go out into the deep water and let down our nets to make a catch for the Kingdom of God through how we live; through how we love; through who we love. If we’re not seeing results, maybe we’re not going deep enough. Maybe we’re just fishing and not really trying to catch fish.




   

A Thought For The Week Of February 1, 2016

"I will declare your name to my people; in the assembly I will praise you." (Psalm 22:22) Clearly what we're being reminded of in this verse is our need to bear witness to God and to praise God in worship. There's nothing especially difficult or confusing about that. I'm reminded that this is a Psalm - a prayer or hymn directed by God's people to God. That makes this in a way at least not a divine command but an encouragement from one group of believers to another. There's a sense of accountability, then, within the community of God's people. We help each other; we encourage each other to be as faithful as we can possibly be. All those things ring clear - but strangely they only ring clear to me upon reflection. For whatever reason my first thought when I read this was that it was God bearing witness to us - that somehow God was making us known to God's people everywhere. And as I think about it that also may be not a bad way to interpret the verse. It's a Psalm - it is a prayer of hymn to God. But as a Psalm it's also Scripture - and so it's God's word to us as well. And it fits. If reading it one way reminds us of our responsibility to share our knowledge of God with God's people, then the other (or reverse) way of looking at it reminds us of how vital it is that we do live faithful lives that bear witness to God, because God will find ways to make us known. We are going to be seen as representatives of God to the world. That's why God has called the church into being. So it's important that we be a true rather than a false witness, living responsible and faithful and even holy lives. Not pious or self-righteous - but just lives that reflect God's love for the world and that offer God's love to the world in our words and our actions. How better to be encouraged and equipped to do that than by gathering together with God's people regularly to praise the God who calls us.