A Thought For the Week of April 22

Thought for the week: "They were put to death by stoning; they were sawed in two; they were killed by the sword. They went about in sheepskins and goatskins, destitute, persecuted and mistreated ..." (Hebrews 11:37) This past week has been a week in which fear won, unfortunately. I'm talking, of course, about the bombings in Boston - terrorism it's called, which emphasis on "terror." Those who commit such acts have one primary goal - to spread as much fear as possible, to terrorize people, to make us afraid and to make us see enemies around every corner. Suspect everyone - especially those who look different or believe differently or who dare to disagree with you. That's living in fear - and, unfortunately, while living in fear might be living, it's not life - certainly not as Jesus wants it lived. I thought of the words above over the course of the last week. They are a part of a passage describing the hardships faced by the first disciples of Jesus. Those were courageous people who stood for their faith against terrible opposition. They were people who should have been terrorized into silence by the forces arrayed against them. But they weren't! Nothing could terrorize them, simply because they believed in Jesus, and they took to heart Jesus' words: "Do not be afraid." Don't let the events of last week change you. Don't let those who promote terror actually terrorize you, because if you let fear take over, that's how they win. Have the courage a disciple of Jesus should be filled with. Live a joyful, abundant life in such a way that the world will see the difference Jesus makes to you. Have a great week.

April 21 sermon - Resurrection As Life

Jesus said ... “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me will live, even though He dies; and whoever lives and believes in Me will never die. Do you believe this?” (John 11:25-26)

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     When I think about the little passage of Scripture that Hannah shared with us a few minutes ago, I always find my attention drawn to the last four words. Somehow, they often  get forgotten. These two verses of Scripture get used a fair bit - often at funerals or interments; often in the context of Easter. And one thing I’ve noticed (and one thing I have myself been “guilty” of - to the extent that there’s guilt attached) is that the last four words often get left out. “Do you believe this?” I understand why. Certainly, I understand why I leave them out at a funeral or an interment. Those aren’t the hopeful words. Those aren’t the comforting words. “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me will live, even though He dies; and whoever lives and believes in Me will never die.” There’s the comfort. The assurance of life. The promise that because Jesus lives, we’re going to live. The last four words are not comfort. The last four words are challenge: “Do you believe this?” I’m in the midst of a few sermons about the impact of the resurrection right now. We’ve talked about the resurrection as promise and as victory. Today is life. And what we’ve talked about - and what’s coming up in the next 3 weeks as we look at the resurrection as restlessness, journey and completion - is meaningless unless we can come to grips with the last four words in today’s passage. “Do you believe this?” Because, if you don’t, then the resurrection doesn’t mean a lot. So, today, I’m making a bit of a shift from comfort and assurance to challenge. Today, I’m talking about “Resurrection As Life” - and that’s a challenge. To actually believe in life in the face of death - that’s a challenge. To actually believe that Jesus lives even though He died - that’s a challenge. To actually believe that we are going to live - even though we’re also going to die - that’s a challenge. “Resurrection as life.” That’s a challenge. Do you believe it?

     I suppose that to know whether we believe it or not we have to know what we mean by “life.” We’re not talking biology. Biologically, I suppose life basically means the ability to reproduce. But, really, it means a lot more than just that. Jesus refers to “life” constantly and he’s not talking about biology. “I have come that they may have life.” “I am the way, the truth and the life.” “Life” - in its fullest and broadest and most meaningful sense is about Jesus. It revolves around Jesus. I’m not talking here in terms of doctrines - believe this or that and you go to heaven, don’t believe it and you go to hell. Jesus isn’t talking in terms of right belief or proper doctrine or acceptable liturgy. He’s talking about more intangible things - the things that truly give life. Last week I talked a bit about the things that take away life - things like fears and possessions and addictions and all the various kinds of demons (however you want to define that word) that swirl around us and sometimes possess us through no fault of our own. I said that the promise of the resurrection is that all those things that take away life have been defeated - and so they have. But what replaces them? What fills the void? If we get rid of the things that take life away, then what is the life that we fill the empty space with? What’s the life that Jesus offers?

     Jesus says “He who believes in Me will live, even though He dies; and whoever lives and believes in Me will never die.” The life that Jesus offers us, plain and simple, is His life. It’s a new life, it’s a new nature, it’s new priorities, it’s new desires, it’s a new way of seeing the world, it’s a new way of seeing others. It’s basically living a life of freedom. There are so many things in the world that can take our freedom away. We saw that displayed this past week in Boston, as an entire city found itself cowering in fear. In the circumstances perhaps that was understandable but as always it got taken to far. So a state senator in New York could say, "let's torture the kid. No one will care." Or a radio host could say, before we even knew who was responsible, "we should kill all the Muslims." And the thing that truly bothers me is that if I were to look into the backgrounds of those two men, I suspect I would find that they call themselves Christians but really they have simply been enslaved by fear that has led to hatred.  Wouldn't God be proud? Here’s 2 Corinthians 4:9-10: “We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed; always carrying in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be made visible in our bodies.” We carry both the death and the life of Jesus in us and with us because in Jesus life came out on top. All the oppression and persecution that the mightiest empire in the world could throw at him couldn’t hold him. He overcame them - and so this life that’s freed is now what’s at work in us. “You will know the truth, and the truth shall set you free,” Jesus said. Freed from fear, but freed for what? Not freed to do whatever we want, because that isn’t freedom. That just enslaves us to our desires and to our wants and to the pursuit of more - always more. No. We’re not freed to do whatever we want. We’re freed for God! We’re freed to create the Kingdom! We, as a people, live with so much worry and with so much fear. As a people, I think we too easily fall into the trap of thinking we’re afraid that we might not be good enough, and so we need the rules laid out for us. Either way, we don’t live in freedom. But Jesus wants us to have life, and so Jesus sets us free.

     “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me will live, even though He dies; and whoever lives and believes in Me will never die.” Now there’s the source of life - life freed from fear; life freed to serve God; life freed to love others; life freed to stand with those who have no one else to stand for them. And we have that freedom because we have nothing to fear, because if the resurrection is true then life is more powerful than death, and if even death offers us nothing to be afraid of - then we are free! Then we are alive! Then we can be the church!

     “Do you believe this?” That’s the key question isn’t it. “Jesus said ... ‘I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me will live, even though He dies; and whoever lives and believes in Me will never die. Do you believe this?’’ I hope, for all of us, that the answer to that question is “yes,” because a “yes” brings you into the life Jesus wants you to lead.

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For a link to a video of the entire service, you can visit

http://niagaraonlineworship.churchcastonline.com/our-live-feed-and-archived-videos/

Once there, go to "Archives" and then "Sunday 04/21/13 10:00 am"

A Thought For The Week Of April 15

"This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters." (1 John 3:16) Say what you will about the whole doctrine of substitutionary atonement - which is the idea, basically, that in his death Jesus paid a price that we would have otherwise had to pay. There are different ideas about what the doctrine means, and some Christians don't believe in it at all. Having said that, the death of Jesus clearly means something. The biggest part of the Gospel stories revolves around his passion and death, and the crucifixion and its results are constantly reflected upon throughout the New Testament. Without getting into all that controversy, let's acknowledge this: Jesus' death (certainly in combination with the resurrection) has had an impact on the world, and certainly on those who are Christians. And if nothing else, it serves as an example of unselfish self-giving. Jesus, even in death according to the Gospels, focused not on himself but on others, to the point of ensuring that his mother would be cared for, assuring a repentant thief of his salvation, and offering forgiveness to his persecutors. That's quite an example. And John, in this passage, makes the death of Jesus an example: "we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters." That may not mean having to die for others, but it does mean making ourselves available for the service and well-being of others, whatever the cost might be to ourselves. If we could all focus on the well-being of others, think what a wonderful world we'd have, and how many of the world's problems we could solve. Have a great week!

April 14 sermon - Resurrection As Victory

Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God, and everyone who loves the father loves his child as well. This is how we know that we love the children of God: by loving God and carrying out His commands. In fact, this is love for God: to keep His commands. And His commands are not burdensome, for everyone born of God overcomes the world. This is the victory that has overcome the world, even our faith. Who is it that overcomes the world? Only the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God. This is the one who came by water and blood - Jesus Christ. He did not come by water only, but by water and blood. And it is the Spirit who testifies, because the Spirit is the truth. For there are three that testify: the Spirit, the water and the blood; and the three are in agreement. We accept human testimony, but God’s testimony is greater because it is the testimony of God, which He has given about his Son. Whoever believes in the Son of God accepts this testimony.Whoever does not believe God has made Him out to be a liar, because they have not believed the testimony God has given about His Son. And this is the testimony: God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life. I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God so that you may know that you have eternal life. (1 John 5:1-13)

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     There’s an old gospel hymn, written in 1939 by Eugene Monroe Bartlett, which includes the following words: “... victory in Jesus, my Saviour forever.” The question, I suppose, is: victory over what? And - victory by what means? Grantland Rice was a sports writer. He was also something of a philosopher. He’s often given credit for the old saying “It’s not whether you win or lose, it’s how you play the game.” A lot of people have made fun of his words, and called them into question. Martina Navratilova, for example - the great tennis player - once said that “whoever said ‘It’s not whether you win or lose,' probably lost.” I think Navratilova’s quote probably sums up the thinking of the world. She would have probably agreed with Vince Lombardi - the great coach of the Green Bay Packers, who said, “winning isn’t everything - it’s the only thing.” We have this desire to create winners and losers in our society - and not just in sports. We do it in all aspects of life. Love, business - in so many things, it tends to come down to who wins and who loses doesn’t it. Even in church - as I've noted before - we tend to take votes to decide who wins and who loses rather than take the time to pray and discern the will of God. So, I want to go back to Rice’s words for a moment. You see, he didn’t actually write “It’s not whether you win or lose, it’s how you play the game.” The words actually come from a poem he wrote in 1908 called “Alumnus Football,” and it actually says:

For when the One Great Scorer comes

To mark against your name,

He writes - not that you won or lost -

But how you played the Game.

     “The One Great Scorer” in this poem, of course, is God. I don’t know anything about Grantland Rice’s religious beliefs, but I believe he did get this right. From a Christian perspective, you see, victory isn’t a matter of winning or losing. Victory is about being faithful to God. We don’t (or at least we shouldn't) have winners or losers in the church. What we have in the church, among the community of believers, are people who are victorious - not because they have outrun or outfought or outscored anyone else. We are victorious because we have lived as God has asked us to live. Victory is not about winning. Victory is about persevering. In 2 Timothy, Paul writes not about winning. He writes, “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race” - but he never says that he won either the fight or the race. He does go on to declare victory, though, not because he “won” - but because “I have kept the faith.” In other words, he has held on to that which God has given him - the assurance that in Jesus there is victory. And John, in the passage we read today, also speaks not of winning, but of “victory” - “This is the victory that has overcome the world ...”

     So what is the victory? And how is the victory won? For Jesus, victory was about both crucifixion and resurrection - because both were tied up in being faithful to God's call. For us? That's true as well. We can be victorious even when we seem to be obviously beaten. But since we’re in the season of Easter let's think about the resurrection as the victory. The resurrection of Jesus is God saying that even the worst thing that can possibly happen to any of us is already beaten. The thing that none of us can beat God has already beaten. It’s why, in 1 Corinthians 15, Paul can say “where, O death, is your victory,” and then he concludes the passage by saying, “thanks be to God. He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.” So what is the victory? The victory is the resurrection. How is the victory won? The victory is won by the resurrection. But there was a third question. What’s the victory over? Is it over death? Well, yes. But is it only over death? I would say no. In John’s words, it’s the “victory that overcomes the world.” It’s a victory over death, but it’s a victory over more than death - the resurrection is a victory over anything that takes away life - and so many things beside death can take away life. So many things can hold us hostage. So many things can hold us in bondage. So many things can turn life into drudgery. Or into meaninglessness. Or into a nightmare. So many things. I think of simple things. I remember a television commercial a few years ago, in which a young man puts a desk lamp out at the curbside for the garbage pickup the next day and then spends the night wistfully gazing at it, worrying that it’s lonely; wondering if he can give it up. And there are people like that. They’re controlled by their possessions. I think of hopeless things. People who have to turn to drugs or alcohol or whatever it might be just to get themselves through another day because their lives have become so meaningless and they can’t find anything else to make themselves feel better. They’re controlled by their addictions. Or I think of tragic things. Like a 17 year old girl in Nova Scotia who takes her own life because of something that happened that was out of her control but whose consequences she couldn’t escape from, and she just couldn’t find the strength to keep battling the demons that had invaded her soul through no fault of her own and wouldn’t let her go. All of these are the things of the world that sometimes we just can’t defeat. But God can defeat them. God can defeat them because God has defeated death - and if God can defeat death, God can defeat anything. This victory won by God - this  “victory that overcomes the world” - is a victory that overcomes anything that takes life from us. This is a victory that promises us not only that God will not be defeated, but that we will not be defeated.

     Now the whole verse, of course, says “this is the victory that overcomes the world, even our faith.” Does that mean that victory is only for the faithful? Does it mean that those without faith are condemned to defeat? I don’t believe we can be bold enough to say that. John is simply writing to assure those with faith that a victory has been won by God, and God is perfectly loving and perfectly merciful and perfectly just all at the same time. We can’t understand that kind of perfection, which is probably why we’re told not to judge. Our calling is simply to proclaim the goodness and the salvation of God. Once again, in the word of Grantland Rice.

For when the One Great Scorer comes

To mark against your name,

He writes - not that you won or lost -

But how you played the Game.

     Each one of us can be responsible only for how we play the game, and not for how others play the game. Claim the victory, and live life to the full, as Jesus asked - which means living a life of love; love extended in all directions; love withheld from no one.

A Thought For The Week Of April 8

"But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you ..." (Matthew 5:44) Here's where living by the Gospel gets tough. When we think about the love that Jesus wants us to show for those around us, we generally choose the far less challenging words "love your neighbours," don't we. That we can handle, although even that isn't necessarily easy. I remember once having neighbours whose teenage son insisted on banging on drums at all hours of the day or night - and they wouldn't stop him. Loving them would have been tough. At the time, I wasn't a Christian, so I can let myself off the hook for some of my thoughts! But if one is going to be a follower of Jesus Christ then we can't just pick and choose who we'll love, or who we'll pray for. We can't just love and pray for those we like or for those we agree with or for those who have done something nice for us. We have to do the same even for everyone. We have to love those we find unlovable. We have to pray (nice things!) for those who seek to do us harm. How can we do that? Well, let's remember that love for Jesus wasn't an emotion - it was an action. It was something you did, whether you felt it or not. Prayer is similar. You do it. You call blessings upon those who wouldn't even thinking of doing the same for you. Love or prayer or both - as a Christian you just do it! And that's where it gets hard. No one ever said being a Christian was easy. If we actually try to do it we'll find the challenges are great. But loving and praying for those who seem undeserving is the way of Christ! Have a great week!

April 7 sermon - Resurrection As Promise

Against all hope, Abraham in hope believed and so became the father of many nations, just as it had been said to him, “So shall your offspring be.” Without weakening in his faith, he faced the fact that his body was as good as dead - since he was about a hundred years old - and that Sarah’s womb was also dead. Yet he did not waver through unbelief regarding the promise of God, but was strengthened in his faith and gave glory to God, being fully persuaded that God had power to do what He had promised. This is why “it was credited to him as righteousness.” The words “it was credited to him” were written not for him alone, but also for us, to whom God will credit righteousness - for us who believe in Him who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead. (Romans 4:18-24)

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     Let me begin this morning with a question: when is a promise not a promise? It sounds like a strange question, but I have a reason for asking it. After all, the world is full of unfulfilled promises. The world is even full of promises that are never intended to be kept. “Promise” has become one of those words that are used so often, and that are often used so poorly, that they lose their power to mean anything. I’ve talked before about how modern society has somewhat cheapened the word “love” by applying it to basically anything we like. So in the same breath I can say “I love ice cream” and “I love my wife.” Is it the same. No. But it kind of cheapens the word. The advent of Facebook has cheapened the idea of friendship. Your “friends” used to be the people you enjoyed spending time with and who you had some sort of real and personal relationship with. A lot of Facebook “friends” are people we never have and never will meet. Some people collect “Facebook friends” as a badge of honour just to see how many “friends” they can collect. But it cheapens the idea of friendship. And promises that are made with no intention of being kept, and when the person making the promise doesn’t have the ability to keep it, empty the word “promise” of its meaning. How many people pay any real attention at all to political “promises” during election campaigns? Most people that I talk to just assume that they’re nothing more than attempts to buy votes - and that they’ll be forgotten the moment the votes are counted. How many people make the promise to love and to cherish “in sickness and in health, in joy and in sorrow, for better or for worse, for richer or for poorer, as long as we both shall live” - only to file for divorce when “irreconcilable differences” come up. I should think such differences are covered somewhere in the promise. I’m not suggesting, by the way, that all marriages should stay together forever. Some relationships are unhealthy and even toxic and need to be ended. I’m just saying that in a lot of cases, there isn’t even really an attempt to put the promises into practice. There's an old saying from a bygone day that says that “a man's word is his bond” - but that sounds so naive now doesn’t it. We no longer trust a man's word. We no longer trust people to keep their promises.

     I began with the question, “when is a promise not a promise.” The answer is actually pretty easy. A promise isn’t a promise when we make promises we know we can't keep and when others know we can't keep them. But there’s another question. When is a promise reliable? When can we trust the promises someone makes to us? Well, a promise is reliable when the person making it has demonstrated their faithfulness. A long time ago, a seemingly ridiculous promise was made to a man named Abraham. God promised him many descendants - descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky. This in spite of the fact that Abraham was 100 years old, and his wife Sarah was 90. The promise made no sense. It sounds a little bit like a political promise. “Let me be your God and look what I’ll do for you!” It would have been an easy promise to sneer at because it was so outlandish. But Abraham didn’t sneer. As far as Abraham was concerned, God had proven His faithfulness in many and varied ways since that first call came to a man whose name at the time was Abram, calling him to leave behind everything he had known to journey to a far off land. And Abraham (as he became) had seen the signs of God’s presence with him and had experienced the power of God’s love and the faithfulness of God’s word. And so, in spite of what reason told him, “he did not waver through unbelief regarding the promise of God, but was strengthened in his faith and gave glory to God, being fully persuaded that God had power to do what He had promised.”

     Today, we are at least the spiritual descendants of Abraham, and we’ve gathered to celebrate a promise. In faith terms, a promise is a covenant. A covenant by definition involves God. Without God you have an agreement or a contract, but once God gets involved you have a covenant. Covenants are important to a life of faith. We make a lot of personal covenants with God - and many of them go unfulfilled (not by God but by those who enter into them on the human side of the equation.) For a lot of people covenants become either a game (as in, God, I’ll go to church every week if you let me win the lottery) or they become a last gasp act of desperate piety (as in, God, I’ll give everything I have to the poor if you’ll heal me or someone I love.) In neither event are they serious on our part, if only because they’re conditional. God has to do something for us to earn the right to be in a covenant with us. But the covenants God initiates are different - because they’re based on grace. They’re freely given. Nothing is demanded in return. They’re given out of complete and unselfish love. They start with the rainbow covenant of the Book of Genesis, they continue with the covenant God made with Abraham to make of him a great nation, and to the covenant with David that one of his descendants would rule. And that brings us to Jesus.

     Today, we are honouring a covenant. That’s what Communion is. The celebration of “the cup of the New Covenant in My blood, which is given for you all for the forgiveness of sin.” The blood language is off-putting for some, but all it really needs is some understanding. Jesus gives His life in order that humanity and divinity might meet fully, and that the walls that divide us from God might be broken down. That’s what Jesus has accomplished - the breaking down of the barriers between ourselves and God. And the guarantee of the New Covenant is the resurrection.

     Paul says that in Communion we honour the Lord’s death until He comes. But crucifixion needs resurrection in order to be a covenant, because the resurrection is God’s guarantee that the covenant can be and will be fulfilled. A God Who can raise the dead can presumably do anything. Why would we doubt God? What reason do we have to doubt God? Today we're celebrating a covenant which means that today we are celebrating a promise. The promise was made by God, it was confirmed by God by the resurrection and it’s lived out today through the resurrection. Communion celebrates that New Covenant in the blood of Jesus which is given for all for the forgiveness of sin. Communion celebrates a covenant of new life and of new beginnings. Communion is a promise that the old has gone and the new has come. Communion is a promise that the disappointments of the past are now replaced by hope for tomorrow. Communion is a promise that the worries and fears of the past are now today's peace.

     Communion is the commemoration of the Lord’s death, but it is celebrated only because we are a people who can also proclaim with no hesitation that “the Lord is risen!” The resurrection of Jesus is a promise to us all!

A Thought For The Week Of April 1

"...if Christ has not been raised, then our proclamation has been in vain and your faith has been in vain." (1 Corinthians 15:14) There's somehow something so appropriate about the fact that the day after Easter Sunday this year is April Fool's Day. I wonder how many Christians have thought today (even lightheartedly) about how it would feel if God suddenly shouted "April Fool's." As if - "gotcha! There really was no resurrection." It would call everything into question wouldn't it? Our faith, how we view the world, what we think about eternity. All of a sudden, none of that would have any foundation, because without the resurrection our faith and our views on life and death and eternity are suddenly all called into question, because so much of them are focussed on the resurrection. Could we hold on to our faith without the resurrection? We could perhaps commit ourselves to trying our best to live up to the ethical demands of our faith, but that isn't quite the same as having faith. Our faith teaches us not only how to live, but how to die as well.  Our faith teaches us that things are never so dark as to be hopeless. And that's based on the resurrection. A God who can bring life from death can help me through anything. I don't believe we'll ever have to test what our faith without the resurrection would look like. I believe in the resurrection. I'm convinced of it. I may not fully understand it, but I also have no doubt about it. Death is not the end. And a faith that assures us that life triumphs over death is not and can never be in vain. Hold fast to the resurrection, claim it for yourself and proclaim it as hope for the world! Have a great week!