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.

January 31, 2016 sermon: How To Make A Difference When You're Hiding

“And whenever you fast, do not look dismal, like the hypocrites, for they disfigure their faces so as to show others that they are fasting. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward. But when you fast, put oil on your head and wash your face, so that your fasting may be seen not by others but by your Father who is in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you.”

(Matthew 6:16-18)

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     I fasted once. Many people find that hard to believe, but I really did. It was many years ago and it was Ash Wednesday. I thought it would be a very meaningful thing to kick off Lent with a fast. So I committed myself to 24 hours with only water or juice, but no solid food. I had great hopes and expectations. There would be revelations from God, I thought. Perhaps the secrets of the universe would be revealed. Maybe I’d even learn where Jimmy Hoffa was buried, or whether Oswald acted alone, or the truth about Area 51! Surely, at least, my spirituality would go through the roof, and my connection with God would be stronger than ever. I’d be a better Christian for the experience. You know what? All I actually got out of the experience was extreme hunger, so at exactly midnight - when Ash Wednesday was officially over - I had a bit of a pig-out. It was a disappointing experience. There are people who get a lot out of fasting. I don’t want to dismiss the powerful experiences that some people have when they fast. It just didn’t do anything for me - and the reason was probably because I was fasting for all the wrong reasons. I wasn’t doing it to glorify God. Instead, I was seeking something out of it for myself. The experience I was going to get was more important to me than simply fasting for the sake and glory of God, and if you’re doing something mostly for yourself rather than for God, then you’re probably going to end up disappointed. Or, at the very least, you’re going to find that God isn’t going to reach out to you just to satisfy your own ego by patting you on the back and telling you that you’ve done a wonderful thing. We do have to discover our own spiritual practices and traditions and rituals, and then we have to commit ourselves to following them with the goal of glorifying God rather than just making ourselves feel good about ourselves.

     In today’s passage, Jesus was speaking about fasting, but fasting wasn’t really the point of the passage we just read from Matthew - fasting was only an example of a larger issue. Jesus used fasting as an example of something that had become so commonplace (at least among certain groups) that it had been emptied of its power and had become essentially an empty religious ritual, of no real value to those who were engaging in it. Jesus had nothing against fasting. At one point in his ministry he even said that some demons could only be cast out of people through “prayer and fasting,” but it’s interesting to note that as far as we know, Jesus himself never fasted (except in the wilderness after his baptism when there was no food, and therefore no choice.) Neither did Jesus’ disciples ever fast as far as we know. In fact, they were criticized at one point by some of the religious leaders of the day for not fasting. That lack of fasting among Jesus and his disciples suggests to me that Jesus had seen the spiritual emptiness of the fasts that the people were engaging in and so chose to completely disassociate himself from the practice. But it wasn’t just fasting. Jesus was concerned about the way “religion” - the word basically means the set of rituals any people use to worship God as they understand God - was being abused and emptied of its meaning. God’s people in his day were doing a lot of “religious” things - but it really wasn’t having much impact on them, nor were these practices of any practical use to God or to others. They were being done for show.

     People in today’s world understand that the same thing is still happening. Some suggest that it’s at least one of the reasons for the decline of the church in recent decades - the growing sense that people who aren’t in church have that what those of us who are in church do when we’re in church doesn’t make much of a difference to us. We’re hypocrites, in other words. I’ve heard that from a lot of unchurched people. What was happening in Jesus’ day was kind of the same thing.

     Jesus was criticizing those who had turned their religion into a source of pride that allowed them to look down their noses at those who, as far as they were concerned, didn’t quite measure up. The particular issue in this short passage was fasting. Jesus understood that fasting - as faithful as it might seem - could easily become a way of getting praise from people rather than expressing devotion to God. Fasting in Jesus’ day was certainly a part of showing that you were devoted to God. The Hebrew Scriptures actually required it at certain times and in certain circumstances, and Jesus wasn’t criticizing people for doing what God asked of them. But in this case, the Pharisees (as they often did) were going far beyond anything that God had required of them. Fasting was only required on special occasions - the Pharisees fasted twice a week! The Pharisees would actually disfigure themselves to make it obvious when they were fasting - which God had never asked of his people. Which raises a question: do we get any credit from God for doing that which God has never asked us to do, especially when we do it to impress people rather than to offer devotion to God? The answer, I suspect, is no - and the Pharisees also understood that. Their twice weekly fasts weren’t to please God - they wanted to rub everyone else’s noses into the ground of their own self-righteousness. There was nothing righteous about what they were doing. Truly righteous people are satisfied with being close to God; they don’t need to be constantly reminding others of how close to God they think they are. The Pharisees failed that test miserably. They had come to believe that seeking the approval and admiration of the crowd was the same as showing devotion to God, and truth and faithfulness and humility had been lost in the mix. The only thing that had come to matter to them was whether they could play the role properly.

     To some extent we all do that I suppose. There’s a lot of truth in Shakespeare’s words “all the world’s a stage, and all the people merely players.” We all play roles all through our lives. We put the best foot forward, so to speak; we don’t let others see the less noble parts of ourselves. But when we do that in a life of faith - when we try to put on a religious show instead of living a life of devotion to God - then we aren’t going to fool anyone, and we’re certainly not going to fool God. That’s probably why Jesus said not to make our faith a show for others, but just to make it an act of devotion to God.

     I’ve entitled my remarks to you today “How To Make A Difference When You’re Hiding.” Yes - I wanted it to sound a little bit humourous, but there’s also a serious point. If Jesus tells us not to be noticed, then how can we make a difference? Surely we’re supposed to make a difference! The gospel is supposed to transform lives, and, then, hopefully, to transform society as individual lives are transformed. So, yes, we’re supposed to make a difference! But how do we do that if we’re not supposed to draw attention to ourselves? I don’t think it’s all that complicated really. Maybe it’s as simple as this: those who are serving God by serving others are supposed to draw attention not to themselves but to those who are being served? Perhaps the result of Christian devotion and service isn’t to glorify individual Christians but is rather to draw attention to the plight of the poor, the hungry, the oppressed and the marginalized and to encourage others to accept the Christian mission of helping as their own. That, after all, is what Jesus understood as true devotion when he said that whatever we do for those he called “the least of these,” we were doing for him.

     We don’t need to draw attention to ourselves or make ourselves seem better or holier than we are to be faithful servants of God. Perhaps we just need to faithfully and quietly serve God, and let that be our witness.

A Thought For The Week Of January 25, 2016

"The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands." (Psalm 19:1) The strange thing about Psalm 19 is that I always remember it incorrectly. Yes - "the heavens declare the glory of God." That part I remember. But for whatever reason I always think of the next few words as "the earth proclaims the work of his hands." But it's not the earth - it's "the skies." Perhaps I make that mistake because I tend to think of the heavens and the skies as the same thing - that "heaven" is "up there." This Psalm reminds me that the biblical authors had a mocu more complex view of creation than we often give them credit for. They obviously understood that heaven was not "up there." They understood that "the heavens" we not a place in the sky - "the skies" were totally different. As I reflected on this I came to a better understanding of what the author meant when he aid that "the skies proclaim the work of [God's] hands." He's talking about the universe - the physical, created universe. He's suggesting that the very existence of the universe is itself a sign of God's presence and of God's creative activity. We don't know exactly how they came to be. The Big Bang Theory only tells us that there was a big bang; it's silent on the question of what came before the big bang The origin of everything is shrouded in mystery; shrouded in God. The best words I've heard about what existed before the big bang came from, I believe Stephen Hawking, who said simply that "the universe that existed before the big bang would have been a very strange place indeed." Personally, I think whatever existed before the act of creation was, in fact, God. I see the existence of the universe itself as an awe-inspiring testimony to the ultimate mystery I've come to know as God, who is the source of all that exists - the heavens that declare God's glory, and the skies that proclaim God's work.

January 24, 2016 sermon: With Jesus In The Centre

… all the people gathered together into the square before the Water Gate. They told the scribe Ezra to bring the book of the law of Moses, which the Lord had given to Israel. Accordingly, the priest Ezra brought the law before the assembly, both men and women and all who could hear with understanding. This was on the first day of the seventh month. He read from it facing the square before the Water Gate from early morning until midday, in the presence of the men and the women and those who could understand; and the ears of all the people were attentive to the book of the law.

(Nehemiah 8:1-3)

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     I don’t know how many of you were aware of it, but this past week, lasting from Monday until today, was The Week Of Prayer For Christian Unity. It’s an annual and international event, almost always the third week in January, that’s jointly organized by the World Council of Churches and The Vatican, and its purpose, I think, is self-explanatory. It’s to take time - at least for a week - to remember the prayer of Jesus in John 17 that all of his disciples may be one. When I served in Port Colborne, this was a big event. Most of the churches in the community took part in it. One church was chosen to host services every day from Monday to Friday at noon, followed by a soup and bread lunch. Different preachers offered the message every week. We had Protestants and Catholics, and Presbyterians and Pentecostals and Baptists and United Church folk involved. I had the opportunity to preach at the services a few times over the 11 years I was there, and it was always a very meaningful thing to see a diverse cross-section of Christians set aside their denominational differences and simply come together as one to celebrate what’s really important - their faith in the one who transcends all those differences - Jesus Christ himself. I was a little sad to do some checking on the internet and not see anything much being done about the Week Of Prayer in the Pickering-Ajax area. And yet, in a weird sort of way, as much as I enjoyed the services it also saddened me a little bit that we have to set aside a specific week to celebrate Christian unity, after which those who take part in the event still have a tendency to retreat back behind their own walls, as if they and they alone know what it is to be a Christian. And, in the midst of doing some reflection of the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity - lamenting both its absence here but also its need anywhere - I found that this reading from Nehemiah was in the lectionary for this week.

     Nehemiah? Really? Nehemiah? Nehemiah lived hundreds of years before Jesus was born; centuries before there was any such thing as a “Christian” - never mind any concerns about Christian unity. What in the world could Nehemiah possibly have to say about Christian unity? And then I read these three verses. And I saw it. You see, the Bible is always about Jesus. It doesn’t matter if it’s the Old Testament or the New Testament. The Bible is always about Jesus. You just have to have eyes to see and ears to hear - and if you do, you’ll see Jesus and hear Jesus coming from the most obscure and little known texts. Even from Nehemiah.

     Nehemiah lived during the time of the Jewish exile in Babylon. As many Jews did, he rose to a position of great prominence, and actually became a trusted servant to the King of Persia, as Babylon came to be known, and he was sent by the king to Judah as the governor, with instructions to supervise the rebuilding of the great temple of Jerusalem. This was seen by the Jewish people as a culmination of all that they had hoped for; the rebuilding of the temple, it was believed, would bring forth the Messiah. For decades the Jewish people had been forbidden to practice their religion openly, and - with that background to put it into context - what we read in today’s passage from Nehemiah was the first time that the Book of the Law of Moses had been opened and read in the eighty years since Judah had been conquered. And you can see the response of the people: they all gathered together, and they were attentive to what they were hearing. This was God’s Word - silenced for eighty years, suddenly being offered to them. Had we read on in the Book, we would have discovered that the people were so overwhelmed by hearing these words that they cried in joy. That’s the effect of the Word of God - it brings God’s people together; it gives God’s people a focal point to gather around. Nations have their flags; the people of God have the Word of God.

     And this relates to Jesus because Christians believe that Jesus is the Word of God made flesh, as John’s Gospel tells us - the Word of God perfectly lived out in a human life. For Christians, more than the Bible Jesus is the centre of our faith; Jesus is the one around whom we gather. We gather as Christians with Jesus in the centre, and everything we do, everything we say, everything we believe revolves around him. And we gather together today around Jesus, who is right here in our midst, as he promised - “whenever two or more gather in my name, I am there among them.” And I hope that, like the Jews of Nehemiah’s and Ezra’s time were to the Book of the Law of Moses, we’re attentive to the presence of Jesus, listening for him, listening to him, being moved by him - and, who knows, maybe even (now and then) being moved to tears.

     Last week, as I said, was “The Week Of Prayer For Christian Unity.” Our bulletin cover today is using the logo for the Week of Prayer - with outstretched hands coming together around the cross of Jesus. That’s a great symbol for a church gathered together with Jesus in the centre. The week kicked off last Monday, on what was also Martin Luther King, Jr. Day. King’s “I Have A Dream” speech is all about unity; it’s about the hope of people of different races and religions being brought together, and being able to set aside their differences and unite as one. King saw that in unity there was also freedom. In fact, he believed that without unity there couldn’t be any real freedom. In the church freedom is found in Jesus. Here is the freedom to come before God not as others think we should be, but simply as we are. With Jesus in the centre, we know that we are always welcomed and accepted.