A Thought For The Week Of October 14

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

October 13 sermon - Let Thanksgiving Overflow

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

A Thought For The Week Of October 7

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

October 6 sermon - Does God Hate Our Sacraments?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

I've Been Thinking About "Religious Neutrality"

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


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

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

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

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

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

How Should We Pray?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The Early Morning Contemplation - A Poem

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

The Early Morning Contemplation

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