Scripture Reading: Exodus 14:19–31 | Psalm 114 | Romans 14:1–12 | Matthew 18:21–35
“We do not live to ourselves, and we do not die to ourselves. If we live, we live to the Lord, and if we die, we die to the Lord; so then, whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord’s. For to this end Christ died and lived again, so that he might be Lord of both the dead and the living.” (Romans 14:7-9). Water is a complicated thing in the Holy Scriptures. It is of course essential… a basic necessity for the flourishing of Creation. Without water, there can be no life. But with it, life abounds. It truly is a gift from God. And yet, water is also an image of dangerous, unpredictable power. And no wonder! We got a taste of water’s force this weekend, as the overly warm waters of the South Atlantic helped to generate Hurricane Lee, a storm which made its way to us here in the Maritimes. Further afield, we’ve also heard about the devastating flooding in Libya this week. Over ten thousand lives were lost as dams burst, and the waters raged. Let us keep Libya, and especially the flood’s survivors, in our prayers in the days to come, as they mourn their incredible loss, and seek to rebuild their lives again. For many ancient cultures, including those in the Bible, water… particularly the vast saltwater oceans and seas, held deep symbolic significance: they represented the abyss… the fierce chaotic forces always threatening to undo creation… the home of monsters and dragons… the realm of no return. It’s no accident that in the first pages of the Bible, in the Book of Genesis, God separates the waters and makes dry land appear so that new life can begin. Or that when, a few chapters later, all of humanity was hell-bent on destroying God’s good world with violence, that the flood-waters returned, washing away all but Noah’s family, so that humanity, might have a new, albeit still very broken, beginning. And in today’s first reading from the Book of Exodus, we heard of another key biblical story in which the Living God brings about a new beginning through the waves: freed for a moment from Pharoah’s grasp by God’s dramatic acts of deliverance, Israel was on it’s way out of the land of Egypt, and into the land the LORD had promised their ancestors. But they found their way blocked by the abyss… the waters of the sea stood in their way… and suddenly Pharaoh’s army shows up behind them, trapping them between Egyptian swords and the watery depths. Death seemed to be their destiny… but the LORD was determined to save them. “Then Moses stretched out his hand over the sea. The Lord drove the sea back by a strong east wind all night, and turned the sea into dry land; and the waters were divided. The Israelites went into the sea on dry ground, the waters forming a wall for them on their right and on their left.” (Exodus 14:21-22). And when Egypt’s army pursued them, the waters closed in again, washing them all away. Israel was saved through the waters of death, for a new life with the Living God on the other side. The crossing of the Red Sea marks the dramatic break between Israel’s old life, and their new beginning, reminding them that what lay ahead would look nothing like what lay behind them… and that they could truly trust the Living God to lead them into life. And this story points forward to God’s ultimate act of deliverance in Jesus Christ, God’s own beloved Son sent to rescue God’s beloved world and bring it a new beginning. At the start of His ministry, the Gospels tell us that Jesus passed through the waters of the Jordan River… baptized by John, and identified with those Israelites who were again turning their hearts to the LORD with repentance and trust. In that moment, His unique connection to God the Father and God the Spirit was revealed, driving home how firmly united all Three divine Persons were, and would be in all that was to come. And Jesus would once again pass through the waters, not of the Jordan, but the deep waters of no return… entering the abyss of death at the cross, washed away along with all the wickedness of the world, to set us free. But the Living God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit cannot be ultimately overwhelmed by any flood, and in God’s steadfast love, Jesus was raised again, overcoming death once and for all, to share God’s new resurrection life, and a new beginning for all. And we the Church, followers of Jesus Christ who place our hope and faith in Him, have already begun to share in Christ’s new life, united to Jesus in His death and resurrection. In our own baptisms, we cling in faith to Christ, and through His Spirit at work in us, God leads us from our old broken ways to the New Life shaped by His holy love, which even the waves of death cannot overcome. One day, like everyone since the beginning, we will die. But in Christ we know our physical death will some day give way to a physical resurrection like Jesus our Saviour, a new beginning, fully embodied, but filled with the power of God’s the Holy Spirit, united together with Jesus in the love of God for all eternity. In many ways, all this remains a mystery… but because of Jesus, it’s a mystery we believe to be reality. As St. Paul writes in Romans 14:7-9, “We do not live to ourselves, and we do not die to ourselves. If we live, we live to the Lord, and if we die, we die to the Lord; so then, whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord’s. For to this end Christ died and lived again, so that he might be Lord of both the dead and the living.” We are the Lord’s… whether we live or die. Like Israel, once through the waters, we have a whole new adventure ahead of us. They were set free from Pharaoh’s power, not to wander each on their own way, but move forward together as God’s people in the world… to the destination that the LORD had in mind for them. Learning to live together His way. And for us Christians, we’re not simply baptized… passed through the waters… to go our own way on the other side. Baptism is just a first step in a new journey, living God’s way… now no longer as one nation, but as God’s multi-ethnic, and beautifully diverse family that we humans were always intended to be. Even so, as we know, this ‘new way’ presents us with many challenges: ones that can feel pretty overwhelming. How can we actually start to live God’s way in the world? Learning to put His holy love into practice in everything? For the most part, our world is not asking this kind of question. It’s far more concerned with other matters. And many times in our history, Christians have forgotten God’s ways, and tried to be more like our neighbours… swept along with the current of whatever our culture says matters most, or just going our own ways, instead of moving towards the New Life God has prepared for us. But this morning, our two readings from the New Testament remind us of God’s way… highlighting for us two very important facets of this New Life this new beginning we have been given as God’s family, both of which might seem unsafe… dangerous… and even likely to bring about our end at times… but our Saviour Jesus leads us through them both, not to overwhelm us, but to share His New Life with us… and those around us. The first of these dangerously deep waters that Jesus leads us to in St. Matthew’s Gospel is forgiveness. In Chapter 18, St. Peter asks a pretty important question for those who want to live alongside others about the reasonable limits of forgiveness. Matthew 18:21-22, “Then Peter came and said to him, “Lord, if another member of the church sins against me, how often should I forgive? As many as seven times?” Jesus said to him, “Not seven times, but, I tell you, seventy-seven times.” Seventy-seven times. That’s quite a number… and oddly specific. I’m sure many of us would have a hard time wrapping our heads around forgiving someone even seven times, as St. Peter suggested… but seventy-seven times? That sounds a little extreme. And it is extreme. Jesus is trying to make it as clear as possible for us what kind of life God has shared with us… the kind of life built on forgiveness, not vengeance. This clearly stands out from the ways of our world, where ‘getting even’ in one form or another consumes so much energy, and tears apart so many lives. And even in the first few pages of the Bible, in Genesis Chapter 4, we hear an account of this spirit of violence and pride at work in one of Cain’s descendants, a man named Lamech. As we might remember, Cain was the first murderer: out of envy and anger, he killed his innocent brother. But God had mercy on Cain, and offered to protect him from the violence of others he would meet. God promised that “Whoever kills Cain will suffer a sevenfold vengeance.” (Genesis 4:15). In this way, God sought to spare even a murderer’s life, and stop the spiral of violence, and vengeance from spreading. But several generations later, Lamech looked at God’s promise to Cain, and twisted it to be used to intimidate others, threatening those who insult or injure him with death. In Genesis 4:23-24, Lamech proclaims “I have killed a man for wounding me, a young man for striking me. If Cain is avenged sevenfold, truly Lamech seventy-sevenfold.” And so the cycle of bloodshed grows, throughout humanity’s story. ‘If you do wrong to me, I’ll get you back... seventy-seven times worse.’ But Jesus flips all this on it’s head. He shows us God’s way is not too escalate retaliation, but to abundantly forgive. To go far beyond the reasonable limits when it comes to seeking reconciliation, setting each other free from our failures and faults… to find a way forward together. Jesus then tells a powerful parable, highlighting the logic of forgiveness at work within God’s family: that we must extend to each other what God has already given to us. For how can we presume to receive God’s gracious forgiveness ourselves in Jesus Christ, and then withhold it from each other? Jesus’ command far exceeds the expectations of His followers, back then and today. Even now, we can hear the voice of those who call themselves Christians calling for bloody vengeance, and targeting others around them with brutality. But imagine if God were to do the same thing to us whenever we fail? That’s what Jesus calls us to do: to reject the way of wrath, and to side with God’s gracious forgiveness instead. It might seem too dangerous to forgive… to unpredictable to step out and seek reconciliation. But Jesus leads us through these waters, and there is no other way that we can go to share in His New Life. This leads us to the second dangerously deep abyss that Jesus calls us to cross, explored in St. Paul’s letter to the Christians in Rome: the rejection of judgmentalism. How many friendships, families, communities, and even churches have been torn apart by differences that ultimately don’t make any difference at all? How strong is the instinct that has been polarizing so much of our world today? Looking down with distain at anyone who disagrees, and desperately grasping after power. But speaking to the Roman Christians, a community struggling with many deeply ingrained divisions… especially those at work between Christians from Gentile and Jewish backgrounds, St. Paul shows us a very different way. Romans 14:1, “Welcome those who are weak in faith”, he says…that is, those still struggling in the early stages of understanding the nature of God’s gracious, saving love offered to us all in Jesus Christ. The Church was not to be an elite order for spiritual experts, but a family where we are all welcomed, and continue growing in God’s love together. And an important part of this flows from what St. Paul says next: all are welcomed “but not for the purpose of quarreling over opinions.” Those who are weak in the faith… beginners, might struggle with knowing the nature of this new community. That unlike the world around us, it’s not based on common interests, shared preferences, or opinions, but on the saving grace and love of God for sinners revealed in Jesus Christ. And the examples St. Paul touches on may not seem too important to us, but they were actually sources of deep divisions within many early Christian communities. I mean, these days what we eat has become a pretty big concern for many. People have strong ideas about what is the most ethical, healthy, and morally sound diet, and it can make it hard to relate to those who make other choices about their food. But back in St. Paul’s day, there were lots of other reasons, including religious reasons, why food was such a source of contention. In Gentile cities throughout the Roman world, meat was often purchased in markets after being sacrificed in pagan temples. St. Paul makes the point elsewhere, in his letters, that mature Christians know that there’s only One God above all, and that any food received with gratitude to Him does us no spiritual harm. But St. Paul knew that not everyone’s able to see this yet. Some were still worried it would be a sin to eat such meat, so they just ate vegetables. And St. Paul’s advice was not to get caught up in arguments… to seek the truth, but at the same time not to look down on those who don’t agree with you! Don’t judge them! Love them! Walk with them. Make concessions for them as younger siblings in God’s family, regardless of their age or status. In short, treat them God’s way: with patience, grace, and welcoming love, even when it’s hard. And over time, help them to grow in their faith, just as others have helped us grow. But another reason why eating food might prove divisive had to do with differences of religious heritage: Jewish Christians might opt to eat only vegetables to avoid non-kosher foods. In order to maintain their intentional distinctiveness from the Gentiles all around them… including those in the Church, causing all sorts of tensions between these two groups. And this relates to the other example St. Paul deals with: considering one day as more important. This likely refers to the practice of Sabbath, resting on the seventh day, which was a central mark of Jewish identity, that some were arguing was a necessary practice for all Gentile Christians too. According to St. Paul, this ancient Sabbath practice was not bad, but it was also not binding for Christians… those kinds of distinctions aren’t what make God’s people unique anymore. Their new way of life in Jesus Christ is what counts now… seeking to honour the Lord with our whole lives. In short, we must learn to welcome, and share our lives with, and love people who are very different from us. This can feel scary, and unsafe, but if we are to live as God’s people today, we must leave judgmentalism behind, washed away, just as God welcomed us all through His Son. In Romans 14:4, St. Paul says “Who are you to pass judgment on servants of another? It is before their own lord that they stand or fall. And they will be upheld, for the Lord is able to make them stand.” Can we trust the Living God to deal with us in His own wisdom, and righteousness, and gracious love? Can we learn to welcome each other the way Christ welcomed us? Freely, in order to set us free by His own blood? There will always be tensions and differences within the family of God. The question is: What is God’s way for us to deal with these differences? And with each other? It’s not to abandon our commitment to the truth, to the Good News of Jesus Christ and God’s saving love… the Living Faith we have received. It’s not to retreat into our own private corners, and keep from Sharing the Hope we have been entrusted to extend to each other and to all those around us. God’s ways forward is to continue to Grow in Love… to learn to walk with each other, even with our differences… to stay devoted to each other, despite the tensions that will arise from time to time. To offer compassion and care to each other, as Jesus Christ has offered to us all… especially at the cross… not to condemn, or seek vengeance, but to forgive and set even enemies free. And though it might seem too daunting and dangerous of a path to open ourselves up to God’s forgiving and welcoming ways, we know that our Saviour Jesus has already passed through these dark waters, and with Him we will find His New Life at work in us… which is what we and our struggling world desperately needs: Signs of God’s new, forgiving, and welcoming beginning, that they too are invited to share in. I’ll end now with a sonnet by the poet and priest Malcolm Guite, for the Baptism of Christ: Beginning here we glimpse the Three-in-One; The river runs, the clouds are torn apart, The Father speaks, the Spirit and the Son Reveal to us the single loving heart That beats behind the being of all things And calls and keeps and kindles us to light The dove descends, the spirit soars and sings, ‘You are belovéd, you are my delight!’ In that swift light and life, as water spills And streams around the Man like quivering rain, The voice that made the universe reveals The God in Man who makes it new again. He calls us too, to step into that river, To die and rise and live and love forever. Amen.
0 Comments
Scripture Readings: Exodus 12:1–14 | Psalm 149 | Romans 13:8–14 | Matthew 18:15–20
One of the things I really missed during the long days of COVID was sharing meals with others… eating alongside friends and neighbours in fellowship, and without fear. It’s one of those things most of us took for granted. I mean, eating food is something we do each day, but which takes on a whole new level of purpose and meaning when it becomes something we do together. In the womb, an unborn child is nourished directly from their mother… secretly, unconsciously… but once the child is born, they must begin to be fed in a whole new way. Now they must be sustained by love… by the gracious care and intentional provision of another human. Suddenly, they’re part of a community, and a whole new way of life opens up for them. As God’s children, we too are nourished and sustained in a new way… by the grace love of God… rescued and invited into a whole new way of life. A way of life meant to be shared… picked up and practiced in community. In our Old Testament reading from the Book of Exodus this morning, we heard about a key moment of the saga of Abraham’s family: the first Passover, a sacred meal, inviting those who eat to share in the story of the Living God’s gracious rescue of Israel… saved from slavery in Egypt and given a brand new beginning… born into freedom for a whole new way to be God’s people together. The celebration of Passover was to become a perpetual practice, an incredibly important reminder of how God had graciously delivered them: hearing their cries of distress, dramatically defeating their oppressors, and in every way inviting them to share in fellowship with Him; the Almighty Creator of all that is, sharing His Heavenly life with a people with no home, no land, no strength, and no future… and giving them everything they needed for a whole new kind of life. On Passover, all of the congregation of Israel, in their own households were to kill a lamb, consume it together, and cover their doorposts with it’s blood, marking themselves off from those around them, as those ready to respond to God’s instructions… who believed in His deliverance: Exodus 12:13, “The blood shall be a sign for you on the houses where you live: when I see the blood, I will pass over you, and no plague shall destroy you when I strike the land of Egypt.” This sacred meal marked the start of the Exodus… Israel leaving their old way of life as frightened and powerless slaves in Egypt behind… and it marks the start a new beginning for them as the rescued people of God. Having eaten the lamb, and having been protected by its blood, in faith and obedience to the Living God, Israel was being formed into a new community… one meant to live God’s way in the world, and to share His rescuing love: telling and retelling the story of God’s salvation from generation to generation… by returning again and again to the table together… eating and drinking the sacred meal the Living God had set for them. A meal meant to shape every aspect of their lives… drawing them to their Saviour, so that they could share in His holy love. And here we find ourselves today at St. Luke’s, one household within the worldwide Christian community, united across time and space by our response to God’s gracious and saving love: to what the Living God has done in Jesus Christ at the cross… the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. We believe the Good News of His self-giving love: laying down His own sinless life at the cross to rescue us sinners, and set us free from our sins, our guilt, and our shame. We believe in His resurrection, setting us free from the fear of death… the fear of abandonment, of loss, and rejection… the fear of our enemies… the fear of each other… and opening up for us a new way to live God’s way even now. A way that will never end… uniting us in Jesus to the Living God and to each other once and for all. We believe Jesus died for us. That He was raised for us. And that He lives to sustain and save us… that we are baptised into His death and resurrection… in order to be born from above to share in His New Life. By faith, we eat His body. We drink His blood, trusting in His perfect sacrifice and power to make us and our world new… to stir up in us God’s New Creation, through His Holy Spirit at work in us. Jesus Christ is Himself our sacred, spiritual food… setting us free to leave our old ways behind, and to begin a whole new Exodus together… to share in the life of a new community… one meant to live God’s way in the world, and to share His rescuing love: telling and retelling the story of God’s salvation from generation to generation… returning again and again to the Lord’s Table together… eating and drinking the sacred meal that the Living God had set for us all. A meal meant to shape every aspect of our lives… drawing us closer to our Saviour, so that together, we can share in His holy love. And share it with all those around us. The New life of God that Jesus has set us free to share in is His holy love… which has always been at the heart of what it means to be God’s people… together. I know there are lots of questions that we Christians and whole Churches are asking these days… questions about what we should be doing in times like this to stay relevant, or to bring more people to us. Questions about how to keep our own communities alive and well, and able to last from generation to generation. Questions about who’s right and wrong… and how to best move forward in a strange and frightening world. But one big question I believe we all need to be asking, again and again, is this: How do we really love one another? How does God’s holy love call us to live today? In our reading from the letter to the Romans, St. Paul reminds us of the centrality of love for those around us when it comes to living God’s way. Romans 13:8-10, “Owe no one anything, except to love one another; for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law. The commandments, ‘You shall not commit adultery; You shall not murder; You shall not steal; You shall not covet’; and any other commandment, are summed up in this word, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore, love is the fulfilling of the law.” To be God’s people today… to be a Church family, a Christian community… means sharing together in God’s love. Drawing near to Jesus together to receive and reflect His self-giving love. We are fed and sustained by what Jesus has done for us all, but then we are called to offer the grace and compassion He offers us to each other… growing closer together in His love. This all sounds great, but of course it’s not easy, as both the story of Israel and the Christan Church reminds us. And even Jesus prepared His disciples for the real challenges they would face as they sought to be His followers, a people shaped by His holy love. In our Gospel reading this morning, Jesus gives His followers instructions on how to deal with the divisions and the fallout from sin at work within their community… acknowledging that as we’re learning to live God’s ways, we will not always get it right. Matthew 18:15-17, “If another member of the church sins against you, go and point out the fault when the two of you are alone. If the member listens to you, you have regained that one. But if you are not listened to, take one or two others along with you, so that every word may be confirmed by the evidence of two or three witnesses. If the member refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church; and if the offender refuses to listen even to the church, let such a one be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector.” That is, as one who is now outside the fellowship, because they have chosen to break their fellowship with their fellow believers and not to be reconciled. This whole process is meant to pursue every opportunity for restoration and reconciliation, not to shame others, or play power games. The point is that even though sharing God’s holy love is God’s will for His people, His love cannot be forced. We can resist it. We can reject it. We can turn against each other and wreak havoc within God’s family. But Christ shows us God’s love does not ignore discord, and the evil still at work in His people… but instead He charges us to deal with it. To be open ourselves to correction, and to seek reconciliation, and to leave our old ways of life behind for the sake of those around us. In short, we cannot be careless in sharing God’s love. We must take it seriously. Again, St. Paul’s words to us this morning ring true: Romans 13:11-14, “Besides this, you know what time it is, how it is now the moment for you to wake from sleep. For salvation is nearer to us now than when we became believers; the night is far gone, the day is near. Let us then lay aside the works of darkness and put on the armor of light; let us live honorably as in the day, not in reveling and drunkenness, not in debauchery and licentiousness, not in quarreling and jealousy. Instead, put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires.” ‘Wake up’, we’re told, ‘and live in the light.’ Put on Jesus, and with Him take up a whole new way of life together. Together. Remembering that this is not a solo journey, but the new Exodus for God’s whole family. That none of us are meant to being doing this alone, but alongside our sisters and brothers in Christ. And even more, with Jesus Himself! With the Risen Lord, our Saviour, who promised that: “where two or three are gathered in my name, I am there among them.” (Matthew 18:20). It can be so easy to feel like we’re on our own though. To feel like it’s all resting on our shoulders, and that if we can’t keep things up it will all come crashing down around us. Each one of us have areas in our lives where we feel like this, but this morning I want to touch on one example that we happen to share in common: the future fate of our Church. St. Luke’s is a beautiful but small Church community. Thankfully, by God’s grace and the devotion of so many of you, we are still stable, and God’s Spirit is at work among us. But even so, as we look forward into truly unfamiliar territory, and see the world around us changing so fast, I know many of us at times are deeply afraid of losing our Church. And this fear, while completely natural, can also get in the way of God’s holy love… making it harder to actually be the kind of community God set us free to share in, because we’re more concerned with holding onto what we know… than loving those around us. When we find this fear at work inside us, we need to remember Jesus’ words: when even two or three are gathered together in His name… He will be with us! In Jesus Christ the Risen Lord we are assured of our eternity, together with all of God’s people, throughout all of time. And even now, as we worship Him together we are actually gathering with the whole host of heaven! When we sing His praises, even if we only hear a few voices, we are truly joining in with the heavenly choir… glorifying the Living God together with all of Creation. We could be a whole cathedral, packed full… or merely two Christians praying together by a bedside, and yet in that moment God is with us, and we are partaking in His Heavenly life. Of course, it is right to acknowledge our fears, and concerns, and to faithfully do what we can to steward well what we have been entrusted with. And when we experience significant changes, or loss, it is good to grieve… to cry out to God, who hears and cares, and to bear our hearts to one other. But as long as we faithfully draw near to God in Jesus Christ, and to each other in Him, we ultimately have nothing to fear. God’s holy love will see us through. So then, if the way of holy love, which seeks to draw God’s often divided children back together again, is our new way of life… if this heavenly reunion is the future and freedom for which Jesus Christ gave His own precious body and blood to save and sustain, not only us, but everyone… what does this mean for how we seek to take part in it? In other words: How do we really love one another? How does God’s holy love call us to live today? Regardless of how long into the future our Parish continues to share in God’s mission, we here at St. Luke’s Gondola Point are called to fulfill the law of love… together, today. We’re called to let Christ’s love rule in our hearts, and our minds, and actions, and choices… sharing it with one another and all those around us. Receiving it from God’s Table in order to feed God’s hungry world. Amen. Scripture Readings: Exodus 3:1–15 | Psalm 105:1–6, 23–26, 45 | Romans 12:9–21 | Matthew 16:21–28
“The cry of the Israelites has now come to me; I have also seen how the Egyptians oppress them. So come, I will send you to Pharaoh to bring my people, the Israelites, out of Egypt.” (Exodus 3:9-10). As you may know, I did not grow up an Anglican. I was raised in the Free Methodist Church, which is much more common in Ontario and further West… a branch of the Methodist movement, which was begun by John and Charles Wesley, way back in the 1700’s and existing within the Church of England until after the brothers had died. The Methodist movement was begun with intention of helping Christian people to stay on track… to remain faithful to God’s calling in a time of great upheaval and challenges, instead of slipping into complacency, or compromise with evil at work in that corner of the world. Anyway, I grew up as a Free Methodist, and cutting a very long story short, it was with the intention of becoming a Free Methodist pastor that I attended Wycliffe College, an evangelical Anglican seminary in the heart of Toronto. After my time at that wonderful school, I was struggling to find a clear next step: there were very few positions open for me within the Free Methodist Church across the country, and those I had been able to explore ended up passing me over. It was a pretty disheartening time, to be sure. Shortly after hearing back from one such congregation, I ran into one of my Wycliffe friends who encouraged me to check out New Brunswick, and explore ministry with the Anglican Church… which by that time I had come to know and love while attending Wycliffe. That conversation led Bethany and I to consider a whole new path forward… one with many unknowns, and also many exciting possibilities. One thing led to another, and soon we were on our way to the Kennebecasis Valley, for me to work with young people and pursue Anglican ordination. And the rest is history. Years ago, I would never have imagined myself here, with the life and ministry I firmly believe God has invited me to share in. But it seems sometimes what we… and our whole world, really needs is a change of plans. To let our goals give way to God’s… and let Him guide the way. In our Scripture readings today, we see two people called to a whole new path in life… one they could not have imagined, didn’t seem to want, and even strongly resisted. And yet, both of them would come to learn that the Living God draws us to Himself, not to give us what we think we want, but to change our lives for good by His holy love. And so, drawing near to this God requires us to respond with humility and trust, but it also opens us up to share His New Life… not only for us, but for our world. In our first reading, we heard the story of the call of Moses: how the Living God encountered him in the wilderness, in the burning bush, and commissions him to go back to Egypt as His chosen messenger to bring freedom and deliverance to His oppressed people. “Then the Lord said, “I have observed the misery of my people who are in Egypt; I have heard their cry on account of their taskmasters. Indeed, I know their sufferings, and I have come down to deliver them from the Egyptians, and to bring them up out of that land to a good and broad land, a land flowing with milk and honey… The cry of the Israelites has now come to me; I have also seen how the Egyptians oppress them. So come, I will send you to Pharaoh to bring my people, the Israelites, out of Egypt.” (Exodus 3:7-8a, 9-10) Now this was not at all what Moses had wanted for himself. He was content to hide out in the wilderness… to start a new life as a shepherd, in Midian, and to avoid all the dangers of Egypt that he had fled. Confronting Pharaoh the mightiest King in the region on the behalf of a people he technically belonged to, but barely knew did not factor into his life goals at all. But it turns out, God had other plans. Plans to turn Moses’ life, as unlikely as it may have seemed, into a means of His grace… to work through him to rescue Israel from their bondage and misery, and to reveal to them the good news that the God of all creation really does care for them. That He knows their pain, and their suffering, and that He will save them… changing their lives for good… so they can come to know and share their lives with their loving Saviour, and learn to walk in His ways. Long story short, Moses runs out of excuses, and soon get’s swept up into God’s great rescue mission… empowered to lead the people of Israel out of slavery, through the wilderness, and into a New Life with the Living God. If Moses had stuck to his old plans… think of how different the story would be… not just for Israel all those years ago, but even for you and I today… for our world. God drew him close to change his life for his own good, and for the good of us all. Turning now to our reading from St. Matthew’s Gospel, we heard Jesus teaching His followers about God’s plans for His own life… and how it would lead, not to triumph after triumph, but to suffering, to rejection, and to the cross. Christ begins to let them in on God’s ultimate rescue mission: that He was heading to Jerusalem in order to confront the powers of darkness that held, not only His covenant people, but all of humanity trapped in bondage: breaking the chains of fear, of guilt, and of death. But this would mean choosing to suffer for the sake of all… bearing the sins and sorrows of the whole world on the cross. It would mean accepting humiliation, rejection, devastation, and a cruel, shameful death. But doing so would reveal once and for all that the God of all creation really does care… not just for one people, or for “good” people… but for all. For sinners of all shapes and sizes. That He knows our pain, our failures, and our brokenness, and that He will save us… changing our lives for good… through His death and resurrection, so we can come to know and share our lives with our loving Saviour… so we could be filled with His Holy Spirit, and learn from Him to walk in God’s ways. But not everyone was on board with the direction Jesus was plotting for Himself, and for their whole movement. Matthew 16:22, “Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him, saying, ‘God forbid it, Lord! This must never happen to you.’” And whether he understood this or not, St. Peter’s attempt to change the mind and path of Jesus was not just a temptation to avoid the horrors of the cross, but to abandon the entire project of God’s rescue mission and His Kingdom work in the world. Up until then, Peter and the disciples were content to follow Jesus, assuming it meant growing their influence, achieving success… and that all the good things they saw Jesus do would keep happening. But all that would end if Jesus moved forward in this new direction. The cross simply didn’t fit into St. Peter’s plans, but God had other plans, and the cross turns out to be completely essential to what the LORD was up to all along. And so we here in Matthew 16:23, Jesus “turned and said to Peter, “Get behind me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to me; for you are setting your mind not on divine things but on human things.” And then our Lord goes on to say that, if we want to share in God’s New Life, this is the path He must take, and the path we must follow Him on… not the path of triumph, or of hiding and biding our time, but of practicing faithfulness to God and His ways, even in a world that has no place for it. Even if it means that we must suffer like Jesus, maybe not on a cross, but in all sorts of ways, we do so in the hope of being raised to life with Him. Of sharing in God’s New Creation, finally set free from all sorrow, suffering, sin, and bondage to death. Set free by the blood of Jesus Christ, the Risen Lord shed once on the cross for all. Matthew 16:24-25, Jesus says to His disciples, back then and here today: “If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will find it.” But to actually do this… to follow Jesus, we really do need to trust Him. To trust that God’s plans for us are actually better than our plans for ourselves. To trust that the hard road of the cross is actually the path to life. To trust that the One who created our world cares for us all far more than we could ever imagine, and that He will not abandon us, even if we must lay down our lives. To trust that just as Jesus our Lord was raised from the dead, in Him, we too will rise victorious. So, will we trust the Living God and follow His ways… even if it means changing our plans? Here’s where we run into our own set of temptations: the temptation to retreat like Moses, and avoid our risky calling to be God’s agents of grace in our own corner of the world. Or the temptation to turn aside like St. Peter, from the core of Christ’s mission, and seek to make Him into a means, not of God’s saving grace, but to achieve our own hopes for ourselves. This temptation is a big one we can see at work all over the place: trying to make Jesus our Lord into a tool to bless our plans and to make our dreams come true… using God and the Christian faith to justify all sorts of things: Rampant consumerism, selfishness, and greed. Oppression of others, cruelty, hatred, and violence. Idolized individualism… “everyone doing whatever is right in their own eyes” …instead of being transformed and shaped… changed by the holy love of the LORD for good. Following Jesus really does mean denying ourselves… in the sense of saying 'no' to anything at work in us that resists God’s work, and leads us away from His plans. In our reading from the letter to the Romans, St. Paul, whose whole life is a witness of what it means to let God change our life, gives us a clear image of the kind of life God has in mind for us His people… the kind of shape, reflecting God’s own holy love, that we are meant to embody: Romans 12:9-21, “Let love be genuine; hate what is evil, hold fast to what is good; love one another with mutual affection; outdo one another in showing honor. Do not lag in zeal, be ardent in spirit, serve the Lord. Rejoice in hope, be patient in suffering, persevere in prayer. Contribute to the needs of the saints; extend hospitality to strangers. Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse them. Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep. Live in harmony with one another; do not be haughty, but associate with the lowly; do not claim to be wiser than you are. Do not repay anyone evil for evil, but take thought for what is noble in the sight of all. If it is possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all. Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave room for the wrath of God; for it is written, “Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.” No, “if your enemies are hungry, feed them; if they are thirsty, give them something to drink; for by doing this you will heap burning coals on their heads.” Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.” Many who call themselves Christians live lives that look nothing like this... or like our loving Saviour. Instead, they simply chase after their own desires, and wear a religious disguise... whether they realize it or not. And if our lives are at odds with the clear path that Jesus our Lord has called us to follow, then we too need to heed His words to St. Peter… “you are setting your mind not on divine things but on human things.” Thankfully, like St. Peter, we too can hear these words, not only as a rebuke, but as a renewed invitation to draw near again… and let Jesus change us by His saving grace. And like Moses, our fears and insecurities are no match for God’s mercy and power, able to work through us His rescued children to bring His New Creation to life. The point isn’t to just get caught up in focusing on our own private religious experience… but to draw near to the Living God… and by His grace to participate in His Kingdom work and Great Rescue Mission in Christ… sharing God’s forgiveness, and the freedom of God’s holy love in our corner of the world here in Gondola Point. The Living God draws us to Himself, not to give us what we want, but to shape us by His holy love… and so set us free. To follow Jesus requires a response of humble trust… of faith. But such faith opens up God’s New Life, not only for us, but for our world. When as God’s people we trust Him enough to change us, and our plans… to truly take up our cross and follow Jesus, we play our part in God’s great rescue mission: revealing to all we encounter in our corner of the world that the God of all creation really does care for them, and wills to save them too. That the Living God knows and cares about their struggles. That He understands all their burdens, and longs to set us all free and save us for good… through Christ’s rescuing love and resurrection life at work even now in His people… so we can all be filled with His Holy Spirit, and learn from Him to walk in God’s holy ways. That together, we all might find the true life that only comes when we lay our lives down with Jesus. Amen. Scripture Readings: Exodus 1:8–2:10 | Psalm 124 | Romans 12:1–8 | Matthew 16:13–20
“Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your minds, so that you may discern what is the will of God—what is good and acceptable and perfect.” (Romans 12:2) So much of the destruction we humans bring into our world flows from our fear: from seeing each other as a threat, and the impulse to hold onto our own sense of security and power, no matter the costs. We can see this fear-driven mania at work all over, and once again in the headlines this week: first of all, there was the death, likely an assassination, of the Wagner Forces commander, who led a failed mutiny earlier this summer against the Russian military leadership. And secondly, just to the South of us, we’re privy to the endless debates and escalating divisions of our American neighbours, who seem bent on tearing their country apart grasping after political power… casting aside concern for the greater good, as long as “their side” comes out on top. But we don’t have to look to the news to see the damage that fear can do in our world. In our own lives, how often does fear drive us to foolish and ungodly places? When our own insecurities wreak havoc in our homes, or in our relationships… and perhaps even tempted us to dominate those around us to make ourselves feel more in control? And what about the damage unchecked fear can do within a community? Even a Church family? How much outright evil has been done even in the name of God by those driven by fear, and grasping for power? We know that our world is all too unpredictable. And that these days, it feels even less secure than it used to. We face questions, like: What does the future look like for ourselves… for our kids, and grandkids… for our Church family here at St. Luke’s? How are we going to keep going, when everything around us seems so uncertain? In our Scripture reading this morning from the book of Exodus, we find the theme of faithfulness in the face of fear playing out again in a dramatic story, offering us wisdom and insight, not only into a godly way forward in times of real danger, but also into how God Himself is at work in our frightened and fractured world. Our reading today from the first chapters of the book of Exodus marks the continuation of the story of God begun in Genesis: the story of the Living God, seeking to rescue and bless all the families of the earth, and to restore their shattered relationship to Himself and each other, through the family of Abraham. Genesis ends and Exodus begins with the Israelites dwelling as honoured guest in the land of Egypt… embodying God’s blessing… just as God had intended for all humanity, going all the way back to the Garden of Eden. In Exodus 1:7, we’re told, after Joseph and his brothers died, “the Israelites were fruitful and prolific; they multiplied and grew exceedingly strong, so that the land was filled with them.” It’s an image of God’s divine blessing at work, and the abundant life that flows from it. But instead of rejoicing in and sharing in this blessing, the new king of Egypt saw the growing Israelite presence in his land as a curse… a threat, to his own power, and the security of his people. Exodus 1:8-10, Now a new king arose over Egypt, who did not know Joseph. He said to his people, “Look, the Israelite people are more numerous and more powerful than we. Come, let us deal shrewdly with them, or they will increase and, in the event of war, join our enemies and fight against us and escape from the land.” Like so many tyrants, before and since, Pharaoh was deeply afraid. And his insecurity made him even more desperate to hold onto power. Though this story is thousands of years old, we can still feel echoes of these same fears in our own corner of the world today. How do you and I respond when we feel like the fortunes of others are on the rise? When groups of people who might seem different from us, in ethnicity, politics, religion, social values, and so on, begin to grow in number and influence? When we start to feel outnumbered, and like our sense of control is slipping away? In situations like this, it’s easy to be afraid. So often throughout human history, it is the strong and powerful who take advantage of those who are vulnerable… leaving us little reason to believe that if we lose too much influence, then one day we will find ourselves under someone else’s boot. And all around us, in our world today, what response to we see to these kinds of fears? Example after example tells us to “Do anything it takes to stay on top!” And that the ends of our own security and survival justify any means… no matter how divisive, destructive, or corrupt… even if it means crushing our neighbours… those whom God has called us to love. I mean, what else can we do? Is there really any other way? There is. But before we explore it together, Exodus also offers us a full fledged example of what happens when those with power are driven by fear: In Pharaoh’s mind, the wise course of action is to first oppresses the innocent people of Israel, exploiting their strength for his own desires and purposes, through brutal and ruthless forced labour. In short, he stole their freedom, and made slaves of God’s people. But the more Pharaoh oppressed them, the more it seemed God’s blessings spread. So, Pharaoh then tries to divide the people, and ensnare some of the Israelites to serve him instead of being devoted to the Living God and their neighbours. But that plan also falls apart, so Pharoah throws aside all bounds, and turns the Nile red with the blood of the innocent… slaying every Israelite baby boy in the land. Well, almost all of them. Oppression. Corruption. Death. These are the tools that tyrants use to get their way in the world. Yet, try as they might, they are all no match for the saving ways of the Living God. Intertwined with the account of Pharaoh’s frightened plotting from the throne of Egypt, we’re also introduced to three of the most powerless and vulnerable people in the land: two Hebrew midwives, named Shiphrah and Puah, and a Levite mother. Three women who in the face of fear put their faith into action in some remarkable ways. The two midwives come onto the scene when Pharaoh orders them to secretly kill all of the Hebrew boys when they were born… but these two women won’t: Exodus 1:17, But the midwives feared God; they did not do as the king of Egypt commanded them, but they let the boys live. They refused to follow Pharaoh’s evil orders… because they “feared God”. But wait, isn’t fear the whole problem? Isn’t fear what led Pharaoh, and so many other tyrants, to these horrific deeds? Well, as you may know, the Holy Scriptures offer us a more complex understanding of fear, and its proper place in our lives… and when it is directed to the Living God it is linked to the gaining of wisdom. For instance, the Book of Proverbs makes the claim that “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge” (Proverbs 1:7). And the book of Ecclesiastes, which explores life and all it’s paradoxes and mysteries, concludes with these words: “The end of the matter; all has been heard. Fear God, and keep his commandments; for that is the whole duty of everyone. For God will bring every deed into judgment, including every secret thing, whether good or evil. (Ecclesiastes 12:13-14). But again, what kind of “fear” are we talking about? What does it mean to faithfully “fear God”? We might easily think of fear of God as terror… the uncertainty and dread we might feel before a bully or tyrant we do not trust. In this light, many see God as an unpredictable, capricious oppressor… eager to crush those who stand in His way, and condemn all who fall out of line. I grew up with this vision of God… with this kind of fear. And I can tell you, it did not lead me to wisdom. Or virtue. Or faith… but only towards despair. But thankfully, this is not the only way that the fear of the Lord is understood. Fear can also refer to reverent awe… to a humble deference to one who deserves our wholehearted loyalty… inspiring not dread, but devotion. Fearing God in this light means that He is the one anchor point around which all of our life is built. It means that when everything else around us crumbles, He is the One we look to for help. As the poet says in Psalm 46:1, “God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.” This second kind of fear is what we see at work in Shiphrah and Puah… leading them to choose to act faithfully, and out of reverent devotion to the Living God, as they courageously defy Pharaoh’s wicked demands. Can you imagine their situation? Slave women called before the mightiest ruler in the region. They’re choice of God’s ways over the King’s orders was incredibly brave. If their deception was detected, they were done for. But despite all the pressure to go along with the fear-driven schemes of Pharaoh, these women remained true to the Living God and His ways, and as a result, God’s blessings continued to flow. Exodus 1:20-21, God dealt well with the midwives; and the people multiplied and became very strong. And because the midwives feared God, he gave them families.” God worked through the faithfulness of two humble midwives to throw off the plans of a tyrant. But as we know, terrified tyrants don’t give up easily. In desperation, Pharaoh resorts to an open act of genocide. Exodus 1:22, “Then Pharaoh commanded all his people, ‘Every boy that is born to the Hebrews you shall throw into the Nile, but you shall let every girl live.’” In the face of this kind of bloodthirsty “wisdom of the world”, what can one do? How can we faithfully follow God when placed in this kind of position? The next example of faith that our reading from Exodus offers to us is perhaps one of the hardest to imagine: the faith of a mother, who knows full well she will have to surrender the newborn life of her beloved child. There was no way for her to avoid this loss. She was powerless in the face of Pharaoh’s decree. But instead of giving into despair, she musters what hope she has and places the boy in a basket before letting the mighty river bear him away. For her, the boy is still gone for good. But she does what little she can out of love to preserve his life. To save him, she has to let him go. In this crisis, she chooses to let go of all control, and leaves the boy in God’s hands. It’s a truly heartbreaking, desperate situation, but one that she faced faithfully. And as it turns out, God was at work even as she surrendered her beloved son, for the river brings the basket to the palace of Pharaoh, and into the compassionate arms of the tyrant-king’s own daughter! We’re meant to see God at work in this story bringing hope and life even up out of certain death… and against all hope, the boy is even returned to his mother’s keeping until he had grown up, and then he was brought back to the palace. God raises the child up from a watery grave, to the very household of Pharaoh. And this is all just the beginning of the remarkable story of Exodus, and God’s gracious rescue mission involving this one Hebrew baby boy, Moses, in which God’s power and saving love are revealed, to the Israelites, and to the world: working through the lives of His faithful people, as powerless and vulnerable and oppressed as they may be, to bring His blessed abundant life. And this story of Exodus points us to Jesus Christ, God’s own Son, and His ultimate act of saving love, as Jesus gave up His life on the cross to rescue His people, His enemies, and His world. Like Shiphrah and Puah, Jesus refused to play along with the powerful people vying for influence in His day… the religious and political parties that divided the people of God, as well as the Roman tyrants and governors who held God’s people under their boots. Like the Levite mother, Jesus let go of control… surrendering Himself to death at the hands of His enemies at the cross, not out of despair, but in faithful devotion, trusting in His Father’s love to overcome even the power of death. And like the boy, raised up from the waters that threatened to overwhelm him, Jesus, the Son of God, was raised up alive again from the dead, resurrected not just for His own sake, but to bring God’s saving love and New Life to those who are lost. Jesus has overcome all our true enemies through His life, and death, and resurrection. He has offered all who turn to Him in faith God’s forgiveness, freedom, and New Life forever. And Jesus has opened up for us the way of faith, of trust in the Living God… revealing the self-giving, saving love of our Heavenly Father, so that we can share our hearts and lives with Him… empowering us to truly trust in Him no matter what troubles or tyrants we might face today, or someday down the road. And as we follow Jesus, we too are called to faithfulness in the face of fear. Whether we’re tempted to feel like we have power we need to preserve, or if we feel vulnerable and oppressed… in Jesus we can trust the Living God to be our refuge and strength, our Saviour. With His Holy Spirit at work in us, and leading the way, we can find a way forward where we are not bound by fear, but by wholehearted devotion to the Lord of love. As St. Paul says to us in his letter to the Romans: “I appeal to you therefore, brothers and sisters, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your minds, so that you may discern what is the will of God—what is good and acceptable and perfect.” (Romans 12:1-2). Our world will keep on finding reasons to be afraid, or to use fear to grasp after power. But as Christians, with the Spirit of Jesus guiding us, we can learn to live a different way. So when we are being pressured to compromise with wickedness… what will we do? When we must completely let go of control, where will we look for help and hope? Let us look to the Risen Lord, Jesus Christ, our Saviour and Redeemer, and place our trust in His faithfulness to lead us into God’s blessed, abundant, and eternal life. Amen. Faith in the Face of Disaster - Sermon for the Twelfth Sunday After Pentecost (August 20, 2023)8/20/2023 Scripture Readings: Genesis 45:1–15 | Psalm 133 | Romans 11:1–2a, 29–32 | Matthew 15:10–28
“God sent me before you to preserve for you a remnant on earth, and to keep alive for you many survivors.” (Genesis 45:7). This summer, it’s been hard not to have disasters on the mind, especially if we’ve been paying any attention to the news. This week, for instance: the whole city of Yellowknife has had to be evacuated due to forest fires… and the B.C. interior is also facing the same fate. Last week, it was the island of Maui. And now, a fierce storm is approaching Mexico, and the Southwest Coast of the USA. Last month, Nova Scotia faced both fire and flood, and it seems like every day another serious crisis is looming, threatening some beautiful corner of our world, and those who dwell there. Along with this change in our whole planet’s climate, we’re being given many frightening reminders of the frailty and fragility of life… and how much of what we so often take for granted can be taken from us in an instant. Generally speaking, a lot of us in this part of the world aren’t used to this sense of instability… and vulnerability… but even though the climate crisis has certainly ramped up in recent years, this fragile state of our existence is nothing new. In fact, it’s the norm. After all, most people, for most of human history have existed on the brink of disaster… one step away from everything falling apart… especially those living in poverty, who are still usually the hardest hit, and the first to suffer in any crisis. The dangers may vary: war, famine, disease, natural disaster… but the constant truth is: life is always a precious but precarious… and fragile gift. But how can we keep moving forward… how can we keep from being overwhelmed by fear and anxiety… both of which can tend to make us self-focused and paralyzed… when we’re suddenly face to face with life’s instability? In times like that, we can turn to God… and find that the Good News of Jesus Christ has the power to set us free from our fear. Trusting in the Living God, made known to us in Jesus Christ our Lord, is the source of the courage and strength that we need, and which God longs for us to share with our world. But what do we mean by that? What does trusting God with our lives look like, especially when it’s hard? And just as importantly: what are we supposed to be trusting God to do? Our Scripture readings today from the book of Genesis, and from the Gospel of Matthew share two stories of people like us who trusted God when faced with their own disasters. Though very different, these stories invite us to see God’s plan is not merely to help us always feel safe and secure… but for us to trust in His mercy and love, even in the midst of disaster, and take part in His blessed work to bring redemption, healing, and hope… to bring New Life. In our first reading, we heard the dramatic turning point of the book of Genesis, where Joseph reveals himself to his brothers who had betrayed and abandoned him. Genesis as a whole tells the story of how the Living God chose Abraham, and promised to give him descendants, so that through Abraham’s family “all the families of the earth shall be blessed.” (Genesis 12:3). But as the story progresses, we see that both Abraham and his family are a mess! Their stories are full of betrayal, selfishness, and deceit… often driven by fear… and yet God remains true to His word, and works with these broken people to bring His blessings into the world. Three generations later, Joseph and his many brothers keep up the family tradition: out of jealousy, his brothers secretly seize him, and sell Joseph as a slave. He ends up in Egypt, as a household servant, and just when he starts to find some measure of stability and security again, he’s falsely accused of assaulting his master’s wife, and thrown into prison to rot. Yet all the time, through all those betrayals, and injustices, and isolation, God was with Joseph. God blessed him and brought His blessings through him, even as he suffered. And in time, God brings about an amazing change: from the depths of prison, God raises up Joseph to the right hand of the Pharaoh, where he receives all authority and honour in the land of Egypt… just in time to prepare the land for the worst famine they’d ever seen: seven abundant years, followed by seven years of nothing. Through Joseph’s dramatic story, God saved a whole nation from disaster. But all through those long years in slavery, and then in prison, Joseph didn’t know how his story would end. He never received angelic visitors telling him: “Cheer up, Joe. This is all part of God’s plan. Soon you’ll be up in the palace. It’ll all turn out fine.” No, Joseph was left in the dark. His whole life had been stolen from him. And yet Joseph trusted God, and he remained faithful to Him. And when he was set free and raised up from rags to glory, he could look back on all of his truly tragic story, and see how God’s merciful love had been with him and at work all along. And this in turn helped him to do the truly unthinkable: to also offer merciful love to those who had betrayed and abandoned him… forgiving his brothers, and sharing his new blessed life with them. Genesis 45:5-7, Joseph said to them, “And now do not be distressed, or angry with yourselves, because you sold me here; for God sent me before you to preserve life. For the famine has been in the land these two years; and there are five more years in which there will be neither plowing nor harvest. God sent me before you to preserve for you a remnant on earth, and to keep alive for you many survivors.” And later on, Joseph again reassured his brothers of his forgiveness with these words: “Even though you intended to do harm to me, God intended it for good, in order to preserve a numerous people, as he is doing today.” (Genesis 50:20). Joseph’s words invite us to look back on the messed up story of him and his whole family, and see the Living God at work, turning disasters and even outright evil acts into a surprising source of His blessing and new life. He is not the cause of evil, nor does He condone it, but He can and does work through it, counter it, and conquer it again and again. In the face of disaster, Joseph trusted in the Living God, and God’s merciful love transformed His life, and transformed so many others through His life. Many centuries later, we pick up the story in Matthew’s Gospel of an encounter between Jesus Christ, and a desperate Canaanite mother. All through St. Matthew’s Gospel, Jesus is consistently identified with the family of Abraham, the Israelites. In fact, his Gospel opens with these words: “An account of the genealogy of Jesus the Messiah, the son of David, the son of Abraham.” (Matthew 1:1). The picture the Apostle is painting for us is that Jesus is God’s own Son, sent to be the truly faithful one, who will fulfill God’s promise to Abraham, that through his descendants, “all the families of the earth shall be blessed.” (Genesis 12:3). And in Chapter 15, we’re told He runs into one of those other families of the earth: a Gentile, Canaanite mother, a descendant of Israel’s historic enemies, begging Jesus to deliver her daughter from the forces of darkness. “Have mercy on me, Lord, Son of David;” she says, “my daughter is tormented by a demon.” (Matthew 15:22). It is a request He’s answered many times before… bringing freedom and healing, and hope to all sorts of people, again and again. But this time, He remains silent. He does not respond to her pleas. But the mother doesn’t give up. She persists, to the point that His disciples start begging Him to send her away… to just say no to her, and be done with this Gentile. But Jesus doesn’t say “no” to her. Instead, He highlights the major obstacle standing between them: She was not an Israelite. She was a descendant of Israel’s ancient enemies. Jesus breaks His silence: “I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.” (Matthew 15:24). But wait… wasn’t it God’s plan all along to bless all the families of the earth? To bring them all His New Life? Does Jesus not care about what happened beyond the borders of Israel? What kind of response is this from the One who’s supposed to be the Saviour of the world? There’s no way to fully unpack those questions this morning… not without a much longer service… and someone a whole lot wiser than I am leading the way. But as a start, I think we need to highlight the difference between an overall mission, and the first steps along the way. Maybe this analogy will help: The overall goal of those planning the assault of D-Day during World War II was to end the conflict in Europe with the Allied Forces victorious. But the necessary first step was to take the beaches of Normandy… so that the rest could follow. From the start, the Living God has sought human partners to bring about His good purposes on earth. And He promised Abraham that through him and His descendants “all the families of the earth shall be blessed.” (Genesis 12:3). Jesus was not a descendant of Abraham by accident… but as the culmination of God at work through the stories of Israel, to bless everyone. Because God loves the world, and longed to rescue it, He sent His Son to be Israel’s Messiah… as a beachhead in order to bring God’s blessed New Life to all the earth. But this first step really mattered! He had a clear calling to follow: to take up Israel’s broken story, and bear that brokenness Himself… to be the faithful Israelite, who suffers for the sins of His people. To be the truly innocent one falsely accused, and betrayed by His family… abandoned to the pit, and the powers of death… only to be raised again to glory to the right hand of the Father... to bring God’s New Life to the world. This was His path. This was the first steps He must take. He could not forsake it, and wander endlessly across the Roman world... doing good, but leaving the crucial battle of the cross unfought. And yet… He doesn’t say 'no' to her. The obstacle remains, He makes it plain, but He doesn’t say no. And this desperate Canaanite mother does not give up. Matthew 15:25 “she came and knelt before him, saying, “Lord, help me.” Again, Jesus doesn’t say no, but He does drive home the point that His mission is first and foremost directed to Israel, using an image that makes us cringe today, but highlights the deep and widespread divisions in their days between Jews and Gentiles: “It is not fair” He said, “to take the children’s food and throw it to the dogs.” Immediately, she responds: “Yes, Lord, yet even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their masters’ table. Then Jesus answered her, ‘Woman, great is your faith! Let it be done for you as you wish.’ And her daughter was healed instantly.” (Matthew 15:26-28). What an incredible example of faith under pressure! Faith in the face of silence… resistance, and even apparent rejection. She could have given up. She was given every reason to give up. Like Joseph in prison, she didn’t know how this meeting with Jesus would end. She didn’t know all the in’s and out’s of His mission… she was just a mother, doing whatever she could to save her daughter from disaster. She believed Jesus could help her. She believed Jesus would help her! She put it all in His hands, and Jesus responded to her faith with merciful love. There’s far more we could say about this story, but it’s enough for now to make this point: Across every obstacle and boundary we humans can construct or imagine, those who look to Jesus Christ in faith will find God’s mercy and love. Heavenly silence is not rejection, but an invitation to draw nearer with faith. We may find when we do, that there are real obstacles that still stand in our way… but God’s merciful, saving love in Jesus Christ can overcome them all. These two stories from the Holy Scriptures have much to say to us about what it looks like to trust in the Living God in the face of disaster: first of all, faith isn’t a guarantee to avoid all suffering… or a way to manipulate our circumstances, or the LORD to get what we want. Faith is the determination to hold on, even when we don’t know how things will turn out in the end, because we believe that the One we are holding on to will not let us go. And we can believe that because time and again, the Living God has shown us that He is committed not just to holding on to a few ‘good’ people who seem to deserve it… but of reaching out to the ends of the earth, as the merciful Saviour of this world… bringing His freedom, forgiveness, and His own blessed New Life to all who trust in Him. We can believe this because this is what we’ve seen in Jesus: stretching out His hands in suffering at the cross to take on Himself the burden of sin for all people, Israelite and Gentile alike… reconciling humanity to God through His own shed blood… bringing His betrayers full forgiveness… breaking the powers of sin and death… and setting us free to share in the goodness and glory of His blessed resurrection life. Jesus did not shy away from disaster, but at the cross, He endured it for you and I… and for all. And through the life-giving, merciful love of God, He rose again from the dead, paving the way for us all. We don’t know exactly how each of our stories will turn out, but we can trust that Jesus our Risen Lord, the Saviour of the world will not leave us to face it all on our own. We can trust Him to be with us, through it all. To share our sorrows, and bear our concerns and cares… and to raise us up from whatever pit we may find ourselves in to reign with Him forever. So, in the face of our struggles today… in our moments of fear, of loneliness, desperation... or disaster, let us draw near in faith to the Living God through Jesus His Son. Let us look to Him, and hold on. Let us look to Him, and not give up. Let us look to Him, and let those around us know where they can find the courage and strength to carry on… where they can find the merciful, saving love of God that will never give up. Amen. Scripture Readings: Zechariah 9:9–12 | Psalm 145:8–14 | Romans 7:15–25 | Matthew 11:16–19, 25–30
“Come to me, all you that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest.” (Matthew 11:28). What a gift it is to be able to gather together for worship and prayer in this sacred place: surrounded by the reminders of our many sisters and brothers in Christ, who in their days laboured in all sorts of ways in this community… in the hopes of sharing the peace of God with their neighbours... and having completed their labours, are now at rest in Him. Their names and their stories, even if they may be unfamiliar to us, serve as hope-filled signs of the ongoing work of God in the lives of His people here in Gondola Point… a work we too are called to share in, just as we also look forward to sharing in God’s everlasting peace… along with our departed brothers and sisters… a peace which is ours in Jesus Christ. And true peace is something we all need… something that deep down, all of us desire... and yet, we can so easily take peace for granted: forgetting the hard work and efforts required in order to make real peace possible. For whether we realize it or not, peace is the fruit of God’s own Holy Spirit at work in us… inspiring and empowering people to put aside our prejudices, and pride… and to work towards harmony and fellowship with one another instead… leading us forward together, and bringing our sad divisions and acts of destruction to an end. We heard about God’s message of peace from the prophet Zechariah this morning, and his vision of God’s promised Messiah, the Chosen One who would one day come to His war-torn and battered people… not as another bloodthirsty conqueror atop a warhorse, but as a peace-driven Saviour riding on a humble donkey. Zechariah 9:10 says, “He will cut off the chariot from Ephraim and the war-horse from Jerusalem; and the battle bow shall be cut off, and he shall command peace to the nations; his dominion shall be from sea to sea, and from the River to the ends of the earth.” How wonderful a vision of world-wide peace God gives to us. And yet how unlike so many pictures of peace we are offered today. For the work here begins with the disarming of God’s own people… with the healing of the divided hearts of Ephraim and Jerusalem… and then with all the nations of the earth. In other words, Zechariah invites us to see that God’s Messiah brings to His people a peace they must first put into practice themselves, so that they can share it with everyone. And the Scriptures go on to show us that Jesus Himself fulfills this prophetic promise… not by ignoring the deep divisions at work all around, and even inside God’s people, but by exposing the root of what truly divides us: our selfish desires, our fears and foolishness… our sins… and worked to undo their destructive force… enduring the cross to conquer the powers of sin and death with God’s longsuffering love… and revealing His life-giving victory as He rose again from the grave. Jesus Christ purchased our peace not through force or through compromise, but through giving up His own life. The true peace of God is won through the labour of His self-giving love. And we know, following Jesus on this road to God’s peace is not easy. We daily face all sorts of temptations to give into this or that impulse or desire that only lead us to more divisions and destruction. Even lifelong followers of Jesus experience these kinds of struggles; storms within our souls that threaten to sink us, and shatter our relationships. Giving voice to this war within each of us, St. Paul asks that vital question: “Wretched man that I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death?” (Romans 7:24). But thankfully, we know St. Paul doesn’t stop there, but instead exclaims: “Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!” (Romans 7:25). The Good News is, Jesus does not just show us the way to practice peace, Jesus shares His peace with us. Christ brings God’s peace into our lives… working in and through us even when our strength and hope runs dry. In those times, we can turn to each other, to our Christian brothers and sisters here on earth, for much needed encouragement, companionship, and help. We can also remember and be inspired by the stories of our fellow Christians who have remained faithful to the end, going before us into the blessed peace of God… resting from their labours, and waiting to share with us the joys of God’s glorious resurrection. And we can turn to Jesus our Saviour, and hold onto His own promise to us: “Come to me, all you that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me; for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.” (Matthew 11:28-30) This morning, surrounded by our Christian brothers and sisters, both those living, and those who have already received their rest from our Saviour… we know there’s still work for you and I to do in this community. There’s still many divisions to undo, many hearts to heal, and many ways to make the peace of Christ known to our neighbours through our words and through our actions. So let us look to Jesus, and follow Him today as God’s faithful servants, working for His Good Kingdom… and trusting that He is leading us to God’s true Peace. Amen. He Passed The Test, Once and For All - Sermon for the Fifth Sunday After Pentecost (July 2, 2023)7/1/2023 Scripture Readings: Genesis 22:1–14 | Psalm 13 | Romans 6:12–23 | Matthew 10:40–42
God said to Abraham, “Take your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains that I shall show you.” (Genesis 22:2). You know, there are times when we might find ourselves envying the characters in the Bible a bit… wishing that we would get to hear God’s voice in such a clear and direct way… unless God happens to say something like that, of course. It’s probably for the best that this reading from Genesis didn’t come up last week for Father’s Day. Obviously, this isn’t an easy story for many of us to hear, and for some it might seem to suggest a pretty cruel and callous vision of the character of the Living God… presenting Him as a distant, uncaring tyrant with no sense of compassion for His human creations. I mean, why else would God command Abraham to sacrifice Isaac? Thankfully, today’s reading from Genesis is just one small part of the much bigger story of God, and the picture this passage paints for us becomes much clearer when taking the whole scope of Scripture into account. All throughout the Bible God is revealed to be incredibly invested in the wellbeing of His creatures; and infinitely compassionate and gracious to us, even when we least deserve it. So as we remember the big picture of who the Living God has revealed Himself to be, the big picture that finds its full unveiling in Jesus Christ… we can look at this story from Genesis and see more than divine callousness and cruelty… we can see God graciously at work in Abraham story to lead him, and you and I into life. This story, as hard as it may be to hear, is an important part of God’s Good News for our world. But in order to see it that way, we are all invited to trust God too. As for why God would command Abraham to sacrifice his beloved son Isaac, the author of Genesis tells us. Genesis 22:1, “After these things God tested Abraham.” It was all a test. But before we explore why God saw it as necessary to test Abraham in this way, we need to be clear about the key difference between testing and tempting. Tempting is when someone wants you to make a wrong choice… to trip you up, and get you off track… taking the road that leads to destruction and death, even though it might seem perfectly reasonable and right in the moment. In short, tempting is a trap. But testing involves a very different goal. To test something is to demonstrate it’s true capacity, and character. To bring to light the knowledge or skills or in this case the commitments that have shaped one’s life so that they can make use of these things in the world… putting them into practice. For instance, medical students are tested through their studies and residence internships so that their ability to practice medicine is based on more than their mere desire to be a good doctor, but on their clear competency and skill. Pilots are tested, not to potentially crush the dreams of those who long to fly, but don’t quite measure up… but to clearly establish that those who do pass the test are trustworthy enough to handle the great responsibility of transporting precious lives and cargo. Drivers must all go through tests, not to try to rob them of the freedom to travel, but to make the roads safer for all. We could go on and on, but I bet you get my point: testing can be very challenging, but it’s actually meant to be a good thing. A gift… bringing the truth about us to light, so that we can move forward, or get the help that we need. And in our reading from Genesis, God was testing Abraham in order to nurture within him a living faith… so that he would learn to trust the LORD completely, with everything. Leaning on God’s proven character and promises, and trusting Him to lead the way. God was testing Abraham’s faith in Him in order to build up a steady foundation for the whole relationship between God and His people… Abraham’s promised descendants, who would be born of Isaac. And for good reason too! For Abraham, who’s often called the father of faith, had not been proving himself to be all that trustworthy… frequently failing to trust that the LORD would be true to His word, and instead, taking matters into his own hands… often with tragic results. And the command to offer up his son Isaac didn’t just come out of nowhere. It was a test of faith that strikes at the very heart of all that Abraham held dear. God had promised that Abraham would become the father of many nations, and that all of the families of the earth would be blessed through him. The LORD had already offered Abraham a key role in His great rescue mission. On top of that, Abraham also had a more personal hope. To have no children in ancient cultures meant to have no lasting legacy… no future. But miraculously, God had graciously given Abraham and Sarah his wife a child, Isaac born to them in their old age. Isaac was the answer to all their prayers, the tangible sign of God’s great compassion and mercy. So, God’s gracious promises were tied up with Abraham’s own natural human desires. Not bad desires, by any means. But intertwined with his hopes for a family and for God’s promises to come true were the fears that they wouldn’t happen after all. That God could not really be trusted to get the job done, and that to be sure, Abraham would have to take matters into his own hands. Throughout the story of Abraham in Genesis, we find someone who longs to be true to the Living God, but who’s doubts and fears kept causing him to do what is right in his own eyes, instead of following God’s ways… which we saw in last week’s reading with Hagar and Ishmael. So when push comes to shove, what would Abraham do? Would he trust God, or in his own wisdom? Would he put his faith into practice, letting God lead him into life? Or would he cling to his own understanding, and end up on the road of death? In heartbreaking detail, the author of Genesis shows Abraham ascending the mountain in obedience… embracing the hard road of faith that leads to life. Even though it cost him everything, Abraham chose to believe… to trust in the LORD and obey His command. When asked by Isaac about the whereabouts of the sacrifice that would be required, Abraham only answers his beloved child: “God himself will provide the lamb for a burnt offering, my son.” And at that final moment when Abraham’s commitment to God was made clear beyond a doubt, just like God had graciously provided Isaac in the first place, so God graciously provides a substitute for him on top of the mountain… God provides a ram to be offered up in Isaac’s place. The test was passed. In this crucial moment, Abraham trusted the LORD with everything, and he put that faith into practice: obediently surrendering everything into God’s hands… and then unexpectedly receiving it all back again as a gracious gift. And from this point on in the story of Scripture, the foundation for the relationship between God and His people had become clear: it required a Living Faith… trust that stands the test, and is put into practice by obedience. But as we know, the rest of the story in Scripture is pretty shaky: Yes, there are moments and glimpses of human faithfulness from God’s people, but they’re stories are always mixed with fears and sinful desires that tempt and erode this relationship, leading again and again towards destruction. Time and time again, we people prove ourselves faithless despite God’s enduring trustworthiness. The human side of this partnership is always coming up short. It’s like they keep reliving the story of Abraham’s earlier life: they’re still somehow clinging to the LORD and His promises, but also seeking their own way in the world… pursuing their own hopes, and running from their own fears instead of trusting God to lead them, and walking obediently in His good ways. And we know this isn’t just the story of the Bible. It’s our own story too. How often is it our faith in God that’s found wavering? How often are we just obeying our own instincts and desires… which may not always be bad in themselves, but which still end up pulling us farther and farther away from the LORD who alone can give us life? How can we hope to pass the test? How can we be the faithful, obedient human partners in the world today that God longs for His people to be? Like always, it is the Living God who provides the way… who faithfully offers us the gracious gift we all need to lead us into life: He gives us Himself in Jesus Christ His Son. Jesus Christ our Lord is the fulfillment of the whole story of Abraham’s test. As the incarnate Son of God, Jesus is the One human who truly passes the test… proving to be utterly faithful, once and for all. Jesus steps into the place of Isaac… as God’s own precious, eternal Son become a human like us… innocent of evil, yet offered up at the cross as a gift of God’s rescuing love. And Jesus steps into the place of the ram. Where Isaac is spared death in Genesis, Jesus is not. His blood is shed and His body is broken as an atoning sacrifice… dying to bring restoration and new life to a world of sinners like us. Jesus’ life is offered up to restore the shattered relationship between us and God… reconciling us through the gift of His self-giving love. And Jesus also steps into the place of Abraham. It is Jesus Himself who ultimately endures and passes the test of faith. It is Jesus who chooses to go all the way. Who could have backed down from offering up His life, but who instead freely laid down His life in an act of complete trust in His Heavenly Father… obediently surrendering everything into the hands of the Living God… and even more unexpectedly receiving everything and more back again as a gracious gift… a gift He does not keep for Himself, but shares with all the world! In His resurrection from the grave, Jesus demonstrates the world-changing faithfulness of God, proving that not even death itself can prevent His promises from coming true. In rising from the dead, Jesus shows us that faithful obedience to God truly is the path of life… even if it costs us everything. Jesus is the one human who passed the ultimate test, which Abraham’s test foreshadows and points us to… and the rewards… the benefits of Christ’s faithfulness… of His passing the test at the cross, is God’s great gift to us all. We are saved… given God’s new and eternal life… because of Christ’s faithfulness. It’s a gracious gift. One which we’re all invited to embrace, and place our trust in. But this gift is not a license to sin. To simply say that we trust in Jesus, but keep living our own way… chasing our own hopes, and running from our own fears. It’s a gift meant to set us free to live God’s way in the world… free to obey the way of His self-giving love. As St. Paul reminds us in our reading from Romans Chapter 6, to place our faith in Jesus’ faithfulness and receive the gift of God’s new life means leaving behind our old way of life, and learning to live God’s way: “When you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness. So what advantage did you then get from the things of which you now are ashamed? The end of those things is death. But now that you have been freed from sin and enslaved to God, the advantage you get is sanctification. [That means, being made holy]. The end is eternal life. For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Romans 6:20-23) As Christ’s disciples, His students and apprentices today, we are, like Abraham, being invited to share in God’s great rescue mission… sharing the Good News of Jesus Christ with our world through our words and through our actions. And like Abraham, our relationship with God comes down to faith: trusting in the great faithfulness of Jesus Christ our Saviour, and putting that faith into practice by following His commands, empowered by His Holy Spirit. And this high calling invites us into a whole new way of life… one that requires us to learn to live out our faith in every aspect of our lives. If that is the case, then we shouldn’t be that surprised if our faith in Jesus is also tested at times. Not tested so that we fail… but so that our faith in Him might be brought into the light… that it might grow even stronger, and so that we might also turn to our faithful Saviour for help when we struggle and stumble and fall. So how are each of us being called to trust Jesus, and put that trust into practice today? It probably won’t look like the test that Abraham faced, but that doesn’t mean it will be easy. Maybe we’re being called to let go of a particular dream, or a desire that keeps pulling us away from God, or interfering with the growth of the gifts of God’s Holy Spirit in our lives: the love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, self-control, gentleness, and faithfulness that the LORD longs to take root in us, and share with the world? Maybe we’re being called to confront a persistent fear… a fear of loss, a fear of suffering, a fear of the unknown… that keeps us from wholeheartedly embracing the path of life that Jesus has set before us? Jesus Himself is God’s gift of life, and His faithfulness is the sure foundation for God’s great saving work in our own lives, and in our world today. No matter how hard our faith might be tested, we know that in Him, our future is truly secure… that everything we entrust to His compassion and care is in the very best hands… and that nothing we have to give up for Him can compare with what He’s already shared with us. Amen. Scripture Readings: Genesis 21:8–21 | Psalm 86 | Romans 6:1–11 | Matthew 10:24–39
“A disciple is not above the teacher, nor a slave above the master; it is enough for the disciple to be like the teacher, and the slave like the master.” (Matthew 10:24-25). Few practices seem as obviously evil to us today than slavery. And yet, for most of human history, slavery was simply a given. It was the status quo. In the ancient world, one could become a slave in several ways: one could be born a slave, or become one through being defeated in war, or being abducted… or as a legal punishment for a crime. Or one could end up sold into slavery in order to pay off debts. But whatever the cause for individuals becoming enslaved, the practice of slavery shaped the world as we know it. Basically every ancient civilization that we still tend to admire for their achievements and success was built on the backs of slave labour… exploiting the lives of our fellow human beings, oppressed and forced to serve others against their will. And tragically, though we usually tend to think about slavery as a thing of the past, it’s cruel reality continues to shape our world today. Though it’s officially illegal, modern day practices of slavery are everywhere, and people continue to exploit and oppress those who are vulnerable in all sorts of ways. Think of the abusive labour conditions that help produce so much of the consumer goods we enjoy, or the engrained prejudices and systemic racism that keep on perpetuating generational poverty. Or the truly heinous human trafficking and sex-slavery that’s going on in society’s shadows, preying especially on young women and children, to feed dehumanizing desires. Sadly, slavery is very much alive in our world today. The world you and I are called to serve, care for, and protect. Back in the beginning of the Bible, in the first Chapters of Genesis, we are told that humans were all made in God’s own image, and we were supposed to be partners together with God, to care for His good creation… but after the Fall, we turned against each other… and started seeking to dominate and rule over one another. And so, when we see slavery at work in all its forms, we see the fruit of human evil: the distortion and corruption of God’s gift of life. But if slavery is so evil, why doesn’t God do more to protect slaves in the story of Scripture? Why does He not do more for folks like Hagar and Ishmael, for those who are vulnerable, exploited, and oppressed? And if we’re to follow God’s lead… what does all this have to tell us about our responsibility to our neighbours today? Wrapped up with these important questions is our understanding of who the Living God truly is, and what it means for us to love this God, and to love all of our neighbours as well. And I can think of no better place to seek to understand these things than in the pages of Holy Scripture: which is where we encounter the story of God’s dealings with Hagar and Ishmael… Sarah’s Egyptian slave, and Abraham’s firstborn son born to Hagar… both of whom were cast away and forsaken by none other than God’s chosen couple. Before we dig into the story though, there’s something that needs to be said: Just because God chose to bring His blessing through Abraham and Sarah does not mean that everything they do is in line with God and His holy ways! Sometimes we assume that the characters we read about in the Bible are all supposed to be spiritual heroes and models of proper morality. But that’s not the case at all! Most often, the characters God interacts with in Scripture are the prime examples of people who get things completely wrong… those who go completely off course… and yet, time and again, the Living God continues to work with these messed up people in order to bring new life out of the destruction we humans have created. In short, the Bible, is not about people who do what is right… it’s about how God keeps bringing His blessings out of our wreckage. Turning even our worst failures and faults into fertile ground for His new life to grow. Now this is not the same thing as saying that God caused these evils in the first place. Or that God wanted them to happen… that God makes people do horrible things so that something better might come about. Some Christians teach these kinds of things. But I can’t. And I believe that to do so takes the story of our Saviour… of who the Living God has always shown Himself to be, and drags it right through the mud, completely missing the point of who God is, and what He is up to in our world. So, let’s look a bit closer at the story of Hagar and Ishmael, a story that finds it’s beginning in the lack of faith of Abraham and Sarah… and see what it has to shows us about the kind of heart God has for the oppressed, and what that means for Christians like you and I today. Back in Genesis Chapter 12, God had promised to Abraham that, despite his old age and the fact that Abraham and Sarah his wife had not been able to have children, that he would become the father of nations, and that through his descendants, God’s great blessing would flow into the world. God’s gracious gift of this miracle was to leave no doubt in anyone’s mind that it was the LORD’s own hand at work bringing His healing touch to our broken world. But in the face of what seemed like the sheer impossibility of the hope God had offered to them… rather than believing… than trusting God to do what He had promised, Abraham and Sarah came up with their own plan to bring about a family: Sarah would use her Egyptian slave, a woman named Hagar, to get a son for her husband. You can read all about this turn of events in Genesis Chapter 16. Long story short, their plan ended up with Abraham sleeping with Hagar, and she became pregnant. Hagar had been treated as a tool to get what they wanted, and nothing more. An expendable instrument to bring about their own desires… which they thought God would be on board with! They used Hagar’s body, and she gave birth to a son, Abraham’s firstborn… named Ishmael. But this was not the plan that God had for Abraham’s family. That was not the kind of gift that He had in store. It may have seemed good in their own eyes at the time, like sin so often does… but their selfish abuse of Hagar would serve to create more and more conflict instead of peace. And yet… instead of just giving up on this messed up couple… God does something surprising: He re-affirms His promise to Abraham, and even explicitly says that Sarah will bear him the promised son… not because they somehow deserved it… but because that’s what it would take to bring God’s great rescue plan for all the world to life. And so, in time Abraham and Sarah bear a son, Isaac… but only because the Living God is gracious… giving us humans far more than we deserve… and He longs to bring His salvation to all the oppressed of the earth, including those that Abraham and Sarah have had a hand in oppressing. But in the midst of the story, that saving purpose is not all that clear. At times, it even seems like God doesn’t care all that much what happens to Hagar and her child, like when God tells Abraham to let Ishmael and Hagar go, like Sarah demanded… essentially sending them off to die alone in the wilderness. But we know God hears the cries of those who are oppressed, and He sees the pain that we humans cause one another… the callous indifference we show, instead of compassion and love. And as the story goes on, God shows His compassion to Hagar, precisely when all hope seemed lost. (Genesis 21:17-19). “God heard the voice of the boy; and the angel of God called to Hagar from heaven, and said to her, ‘What troubles you, Hagar? Do not be afraid; for God has heard the voice of the boy where he is. Come, lift up the boy and hold him fast with your hand, for I will make a great nation of him.’ Then God opened her eyes and she saw a well of water. She went, and filled the skin with water, and gave the boy a drink.” In that moment, God provided water for them in the wilderness… but much more than that, God saves them from their bondage to Abraham and Sarah! When she saw herself as forsaken and abandoned, God showed Hagar His saving love, and led her into new life… with the promise that Ishmael, would also become a mighty nation… that her family would be blessed by God with a brand new beginning, one they could not have imagine possible. Now there are many things we could explore and focus on in Hagar’s story, but this is the one we’ll contemplate together today: that God sees and loves the ones who are used, oppressed, and forsaken, even by those who were supposed to bring God’s blessing to the world. God Himself defends them. God sustains them. And God weaves even their painful stories into the tapestry of His salvation. Of course, this good news goes far beyond the story of Hagar and Ishmael. Like Abraham and Sarah, we know that God’s people have been guilty of causing all sorts of grief and oppression in the world too. We too lose sight of our loving Saviour, and turned back to our old ways of self-centeredness and sin. As Christians today, we must own up to our share of the responsibility for the broken shape of our world, both in centuries past, and in the present: for the open or hidden support of slavery… and the oppression of our neighbours… whether the reason be religious, racial, political, sexual… or anything else. Just because we have come to know that the Living God is gracious and doesn’t give up on us, or abandon His promises to us, doesn’t mean that He ignores the wrongs we have done, or forsakes those we have wronged. No, the New Life of God that Christ Jesus gives to us is meant to break our bondage to these sin-filled ways of being… to set us free from fear, from violence, from selfishness, and from everything that urges us to dehumanize and abuse our neighbours, instead of caring for them as fellow bearers of God’s image. As St. Paul reminds us in our reading from Romans Chapter 6, following Jesus is meant to be a radical break from these sins that so easily ensnare us. Romans 6:6-11, “We know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body of sin might be destroyed, and we might no longer be enslaved to sin. For whoever has died is freed from sin. But if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. We know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again; death no longer has dominion over him. The death he died, he died to sin, once for all; but the life he lives, he lives to God. So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.” Because of what Jesus Christ has done for us all /at the cross, we no longer need to serve the old ways of sin and death. Through His Holy Spirit at work in us, we are free instead to become like our Master… to share in the life of Jesus Christ, the crucified and Risen Lord. In order to save the world, Christ Jesus gave Himself over to be abused, rejected, oppressed, and forsaken… becoming one with all those who suffer at the hands of their human neighbours. As the truly righteous one, Jesus gave up His life to God’s own people who crushed Him. Driven by jealously, and fear… they cast out and killed the Firstborn Son of the Most High God. Like Hagar and Ishmael, Jesus was cast off as unwanted… left to die a cursed death… but it was through the very horrors of the cross that God’s gracious gift of New Life for all came about. And rising again from the grave, Christ broke through the chains of sin and death that kept us all in bondage. Bringing forgiveness, and setting free all who place their faith in Him. Through Jesus, God’s saving love has turned the story of human destruction into hope for all the world: hope for a whole new way forward, that changes how we see and relate to everyone… especially to the people in our own lives today. In Jesus, we have a new way to see those who hurt, use, and oppress us: He gives us a freedom from fear, trusting in the Lord who sees all, and who will never forsake us. As Jesus said in our Gospel reading: …“have no fear of them; for nothing is covered up that will not be uncovered, and nothing secret that will not become known. What I say to you in the dark, tell in the light; and what you hear whispered, proclaim from the housetops. Do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul; rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell. Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your Father. And even the hairs of your head are all counted. So do not be afraid; you are of more value than many sparrows.” (Matthew 10:26-31) We can trust the heart of God that Christ Jesus shows us… even if we must face our own crosses, we know that His saving love will finally set us free. And just as importantly, Jesus gives us a new way to see those who are oppressed in our world, by ourselves or others: In Jesus, we are being set free… free to be forgiven, yes… but also free to make amends… to bring help and hope to others… to work to undo the wrongs done by ourselves and others, so that God’s new life can flourish. In other words, we are to become true instruments of righteousness… tools in God’s saving hands, serving Him as He works to set our world back on course. As St. Paul also reminds us in Romans 6:12-14: “Therefore, do not let sin exercise dominion in your mortal bodies, to make you obey their passions. No longer present your members to sin as instruments of wickedness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and present your members to God as instruments of righteousness. For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace.” In Jesus, we are God’s servants, God’s joyful slaves… bound not by cruelty, or by self-centered desires, but by His gracious love, set free to share His saving love, and the freedom it brings to our world. As Christians today, we are meant to become like our Master, Jesus Christ… the one who joined Himself to the outcasts and the oppressed of the earth, so that God’s redeeming love and compassion might reign forever. What would it look like for you and I this week to become more like Jesus in this way? To let His Holy Spirit set us free to serve as God’s instrument of righteousness? As we seek the answers to this question, I’ll conclude with the words of a familiar prayer: Lord, make us instruments of your peace. Where there is hatred, let us sow love; where there is injury, pardon; where there is discord, union; where there is doubt, faith; where there is despair, hope; where there is darkness, light; where there is sadness, joy. Grant that we may not so much seek to be consoled as to console; to be understood as to understand; to be loved as to love. For it is in giving that we receive; it is in pardoning that we are pardoned; and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life. Amen. Scripture Reading: Genesis 18:1–15 & 21:1–7 | Psalm 116 | Romans 5:1–8 | Matthew 9:35–10:23
“When he saw the crowds, he had compassion for them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. Then he said to his disciples, ‘The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; therefore ask the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.’” (Matthew 9:36-38) What does it mean to be a ‘Christian’? This word gets used in all sorts of ways… some of them closer to the truth than others. In a fairly vague sense, to be Christian simply means to have some sort of connection to Christianity… a worldwide religious movement that has made a massive impact on history, and helped shape billions of lives over the last two thousand years. In this sense, we can talk about Christian music, Christian art, Christian practices, and so on. And some will speak more directly about Christian countries… Christian worldviews… Christian cultures, as though it’s obvious to everyone what they may be. But as we know, words can be tricky. Sometimes we end up using them in ways that distort their original meaning, maybe without even knowing we’re doing it. Sometimes people might deliberately use words like ‘Christian’ as weapons… mis-using them to influence and manipulate others into getting on board with their own agendas. One blatant example of this kind of distorted use of the word ‘Christian’ happened in German under the Nazi’s in the buildup to World War II. As the National Socialists grew in influence, there were many within the Protestant Churches in Germany who sympathized with their racist and fascist agenda. Calling themselves the “Deutsche Christen” or “German Christians”, they promoted Nazi ideology as if it were fully in line with the historic orthodox Christian faith… convincing many of their fellow citizens that the “Christian” thing to do was to give full allegiance to Adolf Hitler… leading to truly horrific atrocities that can only be called evil. Mercifully, there were others within the Churches in Germany at the time who weren’t fooled by this. They knew the heart of the Christian faith well enough to not be led astray, and so they stood up against this so-called “German Christian” movement, even though this stand eventually led many of them to suffer greatly… having to fleeing the country, to go into hiding, or face persecution, imprisonment, or death. Yet their faithfulness through those dark times continues to inspire Christians around the world to not give into those who would mis-use our faith for evil. And their examples show us that knowing what the word “Christian” really means is not just an idle question. It has huge implications for how we live in the world today. And there are lots of people in our world today trying to do the same thing: to co-opt the word ‘Christian’ and use it to convince others to support their own agendas, which may have absolutely nothing at all to do with Jesus Christ. So how do we know what it means for us to be Christian, here in Gondola Point in 2023? How do we keep on the right track, and not be led astray from the path of our Lord? If we want to understand what it means to be Christian, we need to keep looking to the Scriptures, and seek to understand what it tells us about another word: discipleship. Discipleship. What is a disciple? In brief, a disciple is a student. But not just someone learning information. It’s someone learning a whole new way of life… how to truly become like their teacher in thought, word, and deed. A disciple is closer to an apprentice: someone who pays close attention to the ways a master goes about their tasks… adopting their pattern of life, and practices, and leaving their old habits in the past. When we hear the word “disciple”, we often think of the Twelve, those who in the Gospels followed our Lord Jesus Christ, and who, apart from Judas Iscariot, guided the Church after His resurrection and ascension. But as Matthew points out at the end of his Gospel, Christ sent these disciples out into the world to make more disciples. To teach His ways to all the nations, and all the world be drawn into His good Kingdom. In short, to be a Christian is to be a disciple… an apprentice of Jesus Christ. Someone whose life is now dedicated to following and becoming more and more like Him… not as solo students, but as part of the one Christian Church… the community of disciples. We can be a disciple without being a Christian… following all sorts of teachers, leaders, or lords. But we cannot be a Christian without being a disciple of Jesus Christ. Earlier this year at St. Luke’s, we adopted a new Vision Statement, a brief summary of the direction we believe that God is leading us: Living Faith | Growing Love | Sharing Hope, and in a way, it’s all about discipleship: following and becoming more like Jesus together. And as we explore our Gospel reading this morning, and consider what it tells us about being a disciple of Jesus Christ, I believe we can see some interesting ways that our Vision Statement helps us stay true to the heart of what it means to be a Christian disciple today. First of all, it all begins with the Living God: With the work... the mission God the Father sent Jesus, God’s Son, to do in the world through God the Holy Spirit. Matthew 9:35, “Then Jesus went about all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues, and proclaiming the good news of the kingdom, and curing every disease and every sickness.” As the long-awaited Messiah, Jesus was fulfilling God’s promises to His people, that He would rescue them, and bring about God’s good Kingdom at last. Not through violence, or through political power, or through the normal ways earthly kingdoms are made, but through compassion… and healing brought to the most vulnerable… and hope being proclaimed far and wide. In Jesus, God was at work stitching our broken world back together, not trying to tear it apart. He was reaching out to those who were lost, and longing to bring them all safely home. Matthew 9:36, “When he saw the crowds, he had compassion for them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd.” This is the starting point of all discipleship: God’s heart for the hurting and helpless, and His desire… His commitment to save them. To save us. To save His world. And so, moved with compassion for the crowds of hurting, harassed, and helpless people before Him, Jesus calls His disciples, His apprentices to pray… pointing them to the Father in Heaven as the One they are to look to in times like these to bring healing, and help, and hope into the world… to bring His Kingdom to life here on earth. Matthew 9:37, “Then he said to his disciples, ‘The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; therefore ask the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.’” There was much work to do in the service of God’s good Kingdom. Pray to the Father for more labourers. But prayers like these invite participation. They ask us to take part in bringing about the hoped for answer. Jesus calls His disciples to seek for the fulfillment of God’s Kingdom work… but also to be open to sharing in that work. To put their prayers into practice. Matthew 10:1, “Then Jesus summoned his twelve disciples and gave them authority over unclean spirits, to cast them out, and to cure every disease and every sickness.” And He says to them in verses 7-8, “As you go, proclaim the good news, ‘The kingdom of heaven has come near.’ Cure the sick, raise the dead, cleanse the lepers, cast out demons.” These might seem like impossible tasks, but they were never expected to do these things on their own. They were being empowered by Jesus, and entrusted with a share in His mission… and so the power of God’s Holy Spirit would be at work through them as well. They could never do the things Jesus commissioned them to do without God’s help, and so they would have to trust Him to work through them again and again. The disciples were being sent out to share in the work of Jesus… and they would have to depend completely on the Living God… to place their trust in the Lord to bring it about. In other words, they would need to be Living their Faith to do what Jesus commanded. And as it turns out, Living Faith can be a risky way of life. Jesus made no empty promises to His disciples about their work being easy. He told them the truth: Matthew 10:16 “See, I am sending you out like sheep into the midst of wolves…” They would face harsh opposition, and rejection as they sought to spread the Good News of God’s Kingdom. Yet, instead of being told to arm themselves for a fight, or to stock up on what they would need to be self-sufficient, Jesus does the opposite: He sends them out completely defenseless and vulnerable, and dependent on the hospitality of the strangers they would encounter. Matthew 10:8-14, “You received without payment; give without payment. Take no gold, or silver, or copper in your belts, no bag for your journey, or two tunics, or sandals, or a staff; for laborers deserve their food. Whatever town or village you enter, find out who in it is worthy, and stay there until you leave. As you enter the house, greet it. If the house is worthy, let your peace come upon it; but if it is not worthy, let your peace return to you.” Why would Jesus want His disciples to take on these added risks? To voluntarily be so vulnerable? To knowingly face the possibilities of rejection, and suffering… and instead of taking precautions… to make themselves more dependent on those who might bring them harm? It seems to make no sense from a practical point of view. That is, if the goal is safety and feeling secure… but it’s not. The goal Jesus has in mind for His disciples is to follow, and become like Him… to learn His way of life. A way of life that involves relying on God’s provision, and the care of other people. Even strangers. To be open to the risk of rejection… but also to the joys of being received and welcomed in. To be unexpectedly loved. The faith that Jesus called His disciples to live out by being so vulnerable as they shared in His work would open them up to receive God’s sustaining love, as well as to receive love from their neighbours, inspiring those they met to offer and experience it as well. They were not coming as those who would impose their will, or force their way into places of power, but like Jesus, they were agents of God’s self-giving love… which can still be rejected, and opposed, but that is the nature of love. And even the suffering of Christ’s disciples is not pointless when it points others to God’s life-changing love… for then we’re truly sharing in the love that Jesus revealed at the cross. St. Paul’s words from Romans 5 remind us what the love of God looks like, and how even our suffering can play a part in how it takes root and grows within us. These words are well worth repeating. Romans 5:1-8, Therefore, since we are justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have obtained access to this grace in which we stand; and we boast in our hope of sharing the glory of God. And not only that, but we also boast in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not disappoint us, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us. For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. Indeed, rarely will anyone die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person someone might actually dare to die. But God proves his love for us in that while we still were sinners Christ died for us.” The life-changing, saving Love of the Living God is what Christ wants to Grow in the life of His disciples. A love that is vulnerable in order to be open to anyone. Including you and I. The self-giving love that Jesus embodied at the cross, dying to save even His enemies is at the core of the entire Christian story. This is the heart of the Good News the Hope for the world we disciples are called to believe and to Share. A hope not based on how good we are, or how well we compare to others. Or how powerful we feel, and how secure we can try to make ourselves… but a hope that comes from experiencing God’s love in our own lives, growing through the love we share with one another… and then coming to see that this is the same life-changing, saving love that God has for everyone, and that Jesus calls us to make known to them. As disciples of Jesus, we’re to Live out our Faith, Grow in God’s saving, long-suffering Love, and to Share the Hope that Jesus gives to us, all of which flow from the Living God working in us. There’s far more to say about what it means to be a Christian disciple, but this is a good start. So with all this in mind, we can re-examine our understandings of the word “Christian”, and how people around us might be using it… or mis-using it today. Is what we call “Christian” something that’s based on our own ideals and agendas? Or is it continually looking to the Lord Himself, and open to His leading… or even correction? Does what we call “Christian” invite us to act more like distant spectators, or passive recipients? Or does it invite us to participate in God’s gracious work in the world? Is our understanding of “Christian” characterized by God’s suffering, and self-giving love? Or by fear, defensiveness, or self-centered concerns that cut us off from our neighbours? Does it fill us with confidence that God is not giving up on our world? And does it inspire us to share this hope with the people in our lives? Loved ones as well as strangers? As those called to be Christ’s disciples today, let us also pray that God, the Lord of the harvest would send labourers like this into His fields, that are ready right now for an abundant harvest. And through God’s own power at work within us, may we be open and ready to Live out our Faith, to Grow in Love, and to Share the Hope Jesus our Master and Teacher laid down His life to share with us… and with our world. Amen. Scripture Readings: Genesis 12:1–9 | Psalm 33:1–12 | Romans 4:13–25 | Matthew 9:9–13, 18–26
“I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you, and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and the one who curses you I will curse; and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.” (Genesis 12:2-3) It’s hard to feel blessed when all we see around us is brokenness. Speaking just for myself, I know how easy it can be at times to fixate on even minor issues… to grumble and complain when things don’t turn out as I’d hoped… and to lose sight of all the things in life I should be grateful for… the many blessings that surround me each day. Sometimes I think we all need those simple reminders to keep things in perspective. To focus on and give thanks for all that is good, and stop being so negative. But of course… sometimes the problems we face are actually pretty big problems! Sometimes the answer’s not as simple as trying to stay positive, or adjusting our attitudes. Sometimes in life we come face to face with real tragedy… real suffering and even disaster. Sometimes our world is truly broken in ways we can’t put back together. I know that some of us here today have faced times like these, when everything seems to be falling apart. And all of us have people in our lives… family members, friends, neighbours… who have experienced serious struggles and haven’t known where to look for help. The last thing anyone needs in times like these are pat answers and platitudes. We know words alone won’t put our world back together. We need something more. So when all we see is brokenness… in our own lives, or in the world around us… where do we look for hope? Where can we find the blessings of wholeness and restoration that we need? Our Scripture readings today invite us to see and experience this kind of blessing even in the midst of our brokenness; calling us to trust that the Living God’s healing hand is at work in our world and our lives, even when we cannot see it. Even when all hope seems lost. In our first reading from the book of Genesis, we meet the patriarch of Israel and our own forefather in the faith: Abram, or as he is known later on, Abraham, who here encounters the Living God when the whole human story has just been shattered. After generations of humankind rejecting God’s good ways, and violently pursuing power for themselves, Genesis 11 tells the story of how our ancestors once tried to create a unified society based on their own self-centered pride, embodied by the building of a city and tower that would reach up to the heavens. Seeking the security they thought they could provide for themselves, they were becoming ‘one’ by together turning their backs on the Living God, and defying His will. So, in Genesis 11: 8 we’re told that, “the Lord scattered them abroad from there over the face of all the earth, and they left off building the city.” And it’s in the aftermath of this great scattering that the story of Abraham begins… the story of God’s gracious blessings breaking into our broken world. Genesis 12:1-4 “Now the Lord said to Abram, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you, and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and the one who curses you I will curse; and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.’” The rest of what happens in the Bible flows directly from this promise of the Living God. Everything that follows these words is the unfolding of this gracious gift, extended first to Abram, and through him to all the families of the earth. The biblical scholar, Elizabeth Achtemeier spells out the significance of what is going on in this promise to Abram: “We are introduced here in these three little verses to the universal purpose of God for all people, and Abraham is called to leave his home in Mesopotamia not because he is especially privileged, but because the Lord God wishes to bring his blessing on every one of us. It is a long and complex story, this story of God’s working for us. It has its heights and depths, and it seems as if it will never come out right. But God has spoken his word to Abram, and God always keeps his promises.”[1] One is blessed, so that all might be blessed through them. United and restored not by pride, or self-centered power, but by God’s gracious gift, His blessings intended for all. And this promise came to someone who was completely powerless to bring it about except by believing and obeying God… it was a promise built on trust. Abram was being led to a completely new country, a completely new life, far from anything and he had known before. And not only that, he could not make himself into “a great nation”… he and his wife Sarai were already old, and had no children. Only God Himself could bring about this promised blessing, but Abram chose to believe, to trust God… and I guess the rest is history. Let’s turn now to our reading from the Gospel of St. Matthew, where we find God’s blessings again breaking through to bring new life to some very broken people… in very different ways. First of all, we see how St. Matthew’s own life was interrupted by the call to follow Jesus: answering the invitation to leave his old life behind, and take part in something new. In many ways, Matthew’s old life could be called broken: he was cut off from his neighbours, by his life-choices… taking up tax-collecting, a despised career built on exploiting his neighbours in their need… and aiding the Roman enemies of his people. He had burned bridges to get ahead. Or at least, to avoid the crushing poverty and oppression faced by his neighbours. Serving his own security and selfish ambitions, he would be scorned by all those who took things like holiness and God’s good ways seriously. And yet, just like God had sought out a seemingly hopeless case with Abram, Jesus comes up to St. Matthew completely out of the blue and simply says: “Follow me.” And Matthew does. He leaves everything he had known before… his old broken way of life behind, and follows Jesus, trusting Him with everything. Little did Matthew know that he was being invited to share in the mission of Jesus… who had come to bring God’s blessings to our broken world in ways Matthew never could have imagined. And no one else would have imagined Jesus would seek out someone like Matthew to join Him in God’s blessed work. In fact, even afterwards, some of Christ’s critics could not get over the strange people Jesus surrounded Himself with. The scholar Dean Leuking points out that, again and again, not just in St. Matthew’s story, but in ours too, “Jesus calls to himself people totally lacking in all ordinary qualifications of piety, rectitude, or deservedness… everything about discipleship is based on the radical grace of Jesus’ call: ‘Follow me.’”[2] Following Jesus Christ is not just for those who have their lives all put together. He draws deeply broken people to Himself, and loves to make them whole. Jesus said “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. Go and learn what this means, ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice.’ For I have come to call not the righteous but sinners.” (Matthew 9:12-13). “Why does he eat with tax-collectors and sinners?” Asks the bishop and scholar NT Wright, “Because, while other religious leaders of the day saw their task as being to keep themselves in quarantine, away from possible sources of moral and spiritual infection, Jesus saw himself as a doctor who’d come to heal the sick. There’s no point in a doctor staying in quarantine. He’ll never do his job.”[3]And as our Gospel passage today reminds us, Jesus has plenty of healing work to do: Not long after St. Matthew answered Christ’s call, we hear of two more people whose lives had been shattered in other ways, and had come to Jesus, seeking His help. The first was a heartbroken father, the leader of the local Jewish synagogue, whose 12 year old daughter had just died. And yet, he still held onto hope. Kneeling before Jesus, the father pleaded: “My daughter has just died; but come and lay your hand on her, and she will live.” (Matthew 9:18). Setting aside his pride, and the opinions of his peers, many of whom were outright opposed to Jesus, this desperate father came seeking mercy, and help… and found Christ eager to bless. Jesus got up right away, and with His disciples, followed the father home where He would turn their sorrows into joy. While on the way, we’re introduced to someone else seeking His mercy and help: a woman who had been hemorrhaging blood for 12 long years. Her burden was severe, more than just the physical symptoms, which would be bad enough: because of the purity laws of her people, she would have been cut off from her neighbours, and considered ritually unclean all that time. Imagine being an outcast from your whole community for over a decade. Imagine the pain, the shame and blame she must have felt… wondering why this was her cruel fate. Longing for someone to set her free from this misery… to bring her healing and wholeness at last. What would we do if we were in her shoes to be made well? But help it seemed was out of reach. She must have heard about Jesus… the one who had healed so many hopelessly broken lives before… and when she heard He had come to her town, imagine how excited she must have been. But how could she get close enough to Jesus to actually receive His help? Because she was ritually unclean, she could not even touch anyone else without making them unclean as well. Wading through a crowd to get close enough to Jesus to be noticed by Him was out of the question. And yet, she was desperate. This was her one chance! She couldn’t let it slip away. Saying to herself “If I only touch his cloak, I will be made well.” (Matthew 9:21), she secretly makes her way through the crowd surrounding Jesus and reached out and touched the fringe of His cloak. How many of us have reached out to God like that from time to time? Desperately longing just for the slightest contact… the smallest ounce of His healing power to pour into our lives? Maybe we don’t think He notices our pain. Maybe we don’t think He cares. Yet still we reach out in hope that in touching Him we really can be made whole. And the Good News is Jesus notices. And Jesus cares. And Jesus longs for God’s blessed life to reach out even into our brokenness and make us whole. Matthew 9:22, “Jesus turned, and seeing her he said, ‘Take heart, daughter; your faith has made you well.’ And instantly the woman was made well.” The theologian Stanley Hauerwas points out that: “It is not faith in general that cures her, but her faith that Jesus has the power to cure. She is at once cured and her isolation ended.”[4] Despite her fears and secrecy, she could not hide herself from Jesus, who wanted her to have more than physical healing, but the healing of her heart… to know that God has seen her pain and isolation… and has sought her restoration… pouring out His blessing on her life through her faith… her trust in Him. This is what lies at the heart of not only her story… but the whole story that St. Matthew and all of Scripture is telling us: that we can truly trust God… believing the Good News that Jesus Christ, God’s Son, has come to save us… to bring God’s blessed life to our broken world… but to see this blessing as it truly is, we are all called to believe… to place our faith in Jesus, and find our lives draw into His story too. Matthew the tax-collector believed and answered the call to leave everything and follow Jesus. The grieving father believed Jesus to be the Saviour for his daughter, and found Him eager to restore her to life. The woman believed that the slightest contact with Jesus would be enough to set her free, and she found herself fully seen and fully restored by His mercy. He is the One through whom God’s blessed life is offered to all. Jesus Christ the risen Lord who St. Paul tells us “was handed over to death for our trespasses and was raised for our justification” (Romans 4:25) brings God’s blessed life to broken people in so many different ways, each one a unique story, and yet all find Him to be their Saviour through placing their faith in Him. So… will we trust Jesus with our broken world? Will we believe that the Living God is still reaching out to you and I, eager to seek out and save sinners like us? Will we believe that as Jesus turned even the cross into God’s blessed gift of New Life, that Jesus can and does bring God’s blessed life today even in the midst of our darkest moments? I’m not promising that if we just ‘believe enough’, all our problems will go away. Or that everything that’s broken in our lives will suddenly be put back together. Christ Himself walked the path of suffering, and called His followers to take up our own crosses too… facing all sorts of heartbreak and pain as we walk the path of God’s love with Him. But we are promised that, even when we come face to face with life’s darkest moments, when everything seems to be falling apart, we can turn to Him and trust that Jesus our Saviour is right there with us! We can trust Him to be at work in our lives bringing God’s blessings to life in surprising ways. We can believe that He sees our pain, and knows what we need, and longs to restore us, and make us whole in Him forever. We need much more than words alone when all we can see is brokenness. We need Jesus, our Saviour, who alone can put us back together. So how can we look to Jesus when we feel discouraged, frightened, and alone? We can take time to reflect on how God has already been at work in our own lives so far… especially in our moments of brokenness… inviting Him to help us see how He has brought healing and hope to us in our times of need, and asking Him to help us keep trusting Him if we can’t yet see His hand at work. We can invite God to share more of His blessed life with us… actively seeking Him out and drawing near to Jesus our Saviour… through prayer, through studying Scripture, and gathering around His table in worship with fellow believers… and we can also draw near to Him through acts of mercy offered to others! We can encounter God’s blessed life when we share the love, and hope, and faith He has given to us with the people He’s placed in our lives. All of us are just a small part in the big story of God’s great love for the world… and the blessings we have received are one portion of God’s gift to everyone. No matter how broken our lives or the world around us may seem, take heart! God sent His Son Jesus to bring God’s healing where it is desperately needed, and to call us all to share His blessed life with His broken, but still beloved world. Amen. [1] Elizabeth Achtemeier, “Third Sunday after Pentecost, Year A,” in The Lectionary Commentary: Theological Exegesis for Sunday’s Texts, Volume One (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 2001), 25. [2] F. Dean Lueking, “Third Sunday after Pentecost, Year A,” in The Lectionary Commentary: Theological Exegesis for Sunday’s Texts, Volume Three, ed. Roger E. Van Harn (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 2001), 49. [3] Tom Wright, Matthew for Everyone, Part 1: Chapters 1-15 (London: Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, 2004), 101. [4] Stanley Hauerwas, Matthew, Brazos Theological Commentary on the Bible (Grand Rapids, MI: Brazos Press, 2006), 102. Scripture Readings: Genesis 1:1–2:4 | Psalm 8 | 2 Corinthians 13:11–13 | Matthew 28:16–20
“Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you” (Matthew 28:19-20). Have you ever had someone tell a story about you that wasn’t true? It could be a bad story… a slanderous story… one that undermines your character and reputation, making it harder for people to trust and want to get to know you. Or it could be a good story… a flattering story… one that makes you seem more exciting, more virtuous… or more attractive to others than you might otherwise appear. Either way though, regardless of whether the story is good or bad in our eyes, whether we face slander or flattery the problem is the same if the story’s not true: false stories keep us from being known as we truly are. They get in the way of us forming real relationships. Of knowing and being known. Of loving and being loved. In short, distorted stories prevent us from truly sharing our life with others. They become barriers we have to overcome with our words and our actions, so that those we long to share our lives with can encounter and come to know, trust, and even love us for who we really are. It's not just about accurate information, it’s about the basis of our relationships. Without sharing our true stories, we will always remain a mystery to one another. If this is true for our relationships with one another, with our fellow humans… imagine the importance of knowing true stories about the Living God! There are so many conflicting stories about who God is… about what God is like… about what God has, or has not done… about God’s intentions for the world, and for all who dwell in it. How are we to come to know, and trust, and love God, if we don’t know the truth about Him? Of course, this is not just a question of choosing between the stories of God told by different religions. It’s a challenge that exists within every faith community as well! Every religious group has to deal with tensions and questions of this sort: How do we know who it is we are to worship? Who we’re called to orient our lives around? Who we are to love, and serve, and entrust our stories to? The early Christians had to sort through these kinds of questions, but like us, they had been given a tremendous gift: the story of the Living God found in the Bible, the Holy Scriptures. They believed the stories of what we call the Old Testament, the sacred Hebrew texts faithfully passed down for countless generations, as well as the writings of the Apostles in the New Testament: the Gospel accounts and pastoral letters linking the stories of the Living God in the Old Testament to the story of Jesus Christ, and the new community of His followers. The Holy Scriptures, Old and New together are an amazing gift. And yet, the early Christians still had many questions. They still struggled to wrap their heads around the Living God they were coming to know, and trust, and love… and this became an even bigger challenge when the Church began to spread… when the Good News was shared with people far from Jerusalem, and who had never heard the true stories about the Living God. With people who had stories of their own that didn’t match up with the stories of God found in the Holy Scriptures. In many ways, their situation is not all that different from ours. In our day, there are so many, even here in New Brunswick, who have not heard the true story of the Living God. What does that reality ask of you and I today? How might we be called to help our neighbours come to know, and trust, and love the Living God? As our early Christian sisters and brothers prayed and wrestled with these kinds of questions, searching for the truth about the Living God through the Holy Scriptures, they came to see the need for clear statements and guides to help them stay on track… to help them remember the true heart of the story of the Living God, and keep them from twisting the story of Scripture to try and make God fit their own agendas. And so, the Creeds came into being: attempts to clarify what it was that the Church truly believed… what the Gospel, the Good News of Jesus Christ was all about. The word creed comes from the Latin word “creedo”, which simply means: “I believe”. And in the first few centuries after Jesus first sent His followers out into the world, to make disciples of all nations, and teach them to obey everything He had taught them, the Church was proclaiming the Apostle’s Creed, and a bit later on they added the Nicene Creed… telling the story of who Christians believed the Living God to really be. And they found they could not tell the true story of the Living God encountered in the Bible without speaking of God the Father, and Jesus Christ, God’s Son, and the Holy Spirit of God. All Three shared in what it means to be God… all Three were United, and yet in some way were distinct from one another. They knew there was only One God. And yet these Three all shared in God’s unique identity. Eventually, to speak of the Living God Christians began to use the word Trinity. Tri-Unity. Three-In-One, and One-In-Three. And so today, many centuries later, we Christians celebrate Trinity Sunday: joyfully worshipping the Living God, who is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Contemplating together this beautiful story of who the Living God has shown Himself to be: From before time began, and forever more, God is Three-In-One, and One-In-Three. The strange thing is though: the word Trinity isn’t actually found in the Holy Scriptures, or in the Creeds. But even so, the story that the Scriptures and the Creeds tell… the story at the heart of the Gospel that we have been entrusted with… the story we Christians believe to be true points us directly to the Trinity. They may not say the word explicitly, but its truth shines through all the same. For instance, on the very first page of the Bible, in Genesis Chapter 1, we find an account of the One true God bringing all creation into existence. And yet, this One God creates all that is in a surprisingly Trinitarian way: God the Father speaks the cosmos into existence with only His Word… the same Word who became Flesh, Jesus Christ. This Word flows directly from the Father, and the Breath… the Wind, the Spirit of God carries that Word and makes the Word known, felt, and experienced. The Speaker, the Word, and the Breath all act together, and together they bring everything into being. Thousands of years before the word “Trinity” would ever be used, Genesis Chapter 1 poetically describes God’s creative act in ways that hint at and fit incredibly well with this Three-in-One story of God. But it is not until our Lord Jesus Christ enters the picture that the reality of God as Trinity really starts to come into view. In Jesus, we come face to face with the Living God in the flesh. Embodying everything God is, while taking on our humanity too… revealing the depths of God’s love for us all by dying for us on the cross, and rising again from the grave to share God’s forgiveness and resurrection life. And as we saw last week at Pentecost, Christ Jesus the Risen Lord has now given us His Holy Spirit… God’s own personal presence and power, to dwell inside us, drawing us into God’s holy fellowship, and empowering us to truly be His people in our world. And both Jesus, God’s Son, and the Holy Spirit He sent, share in and show us the heart of the Father in Heaven… revealing what He is truly like, and what He wants for His creation: that is, to rescue it. To redeem it. To reconcile us to Himself, and to each other. For us to share together in His saving love forever. This is what Trinity Sunday is all about: the beautiful truth that the Living God longs for us to set aside all the distorted stories we have come to believe about Him… and instead, come to know Him, trust Him, and love Him as He truly is. It tells us that Jesus Christ is truly God. That the Spirit of Jesus at work in us is truly God. And that to look to Jesus, and experience the Spirit is to truly come to know the Father’s rescuing love. Speaking of God as the Trinity does not answer all our questions about Him, or remove all the mystery that surrounds God’s glorious identity… but it does keeps us on the right track. It keeps us speaking truthfully about the God we’ve come to know in Jesus Christ, and who shares His life with us today in the power of His Holy Spirit. If we are to know, and trust, and love the Living God of the Bible and the Creeds, the Trinity shows us the way. The doctrine of the Trinity teaches us to tell the true story about the Living God… to be true to who God has shown Himself to be: the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, united in holy love for all eternity, and at work in us drawing all of creation to share in His saving love. I’ll close now with the words from St. Paul in his second letter to the Corinthians: “The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with all of you.” (2 Corinthians 13:13). Amen. Scripture Readings: Acts 1:6–14 | Psalm 68:1–10, 32–35 | 1 Peter 4:12–14, 5:6–11 | John 17:1–11 Why is it exactly that we Christians celebrate the Ascension? The story itself is strange enough: forty days after the miracle of Easter, when Jesus Christ overthrew the chains of death, becoming the firstborn of God’s New Creation, the Risen Lord is lifted up as His disciples gaze in wonder, until a cloud finally takes Him from their sight. It all seems so odd… so otherworldly… so disconnected from our day to day lives, even as we strive to live as Christ’s disciples today. Why should we spend our time reflecting on this confusing part of Christ’s story? Surely there must be other, more pressing concerns for us to deal with? And I mean, wouldn’t it be better for us if Jesus had just stuck around? It seems strange to celebrate His mysterious disappearance… especially with all the trouble down here on earth to attend to. But for the first Christians, and for us today, the Ascension of Jesus the Risen Lord is actually an incredible gift of hope for our world that seeks to transform how we live today. From the earliest days of the Christian Church, the Ascension of Jesus has been at the core of some of the most radical, and revolutionary claims ever made. And far from being seen as irrelevant, the Ascension was significant enough of an event to be included in both the Apostle’s Creed, and the Nicene Creed: the early Church’s attempts to define the heart of the Christian story for ages to come. Just think, every week, millions of Christians around the world and throughout history have proclaimed their faith, affirming that after His resurrection, Jesus Christ: “ascended into heaven and is seated at the right hand of the Father.”[1] So as strange as the Ascension might seem to us, perhaps we should spend some time trying to understand exactly what it means, for us and our world. But to do that well, we need to turn to yet another part of the story of Jesus: the strange nature of His birth. Or as the Nicene Creed put’s it: His incarnation. We say this word every week as well… but let’s stop and think about what it means. It comes from the Latin words “in” meaning “in”, and “caro” meaning “flesh”, the same word at the root of “carnivore”… that is, “flesh eater”, or “carnal”… meaning “mortal”. So “incarnate” means “in-the-flesh”: Jesus Christ “became in-the-flesh… and was made man.” Seems straightforward enough, I suppose. That is, until we think about who it is exactly we are saying has become “in the flesh”! The “only Son of God”, we say with the Creed: the One who was “eternally begotten of the Father”… in other words, there was no such thing as time before Him! He is the One who is “God from God, Light from Light, true God from true God”… everything true of God is true of Him. He was “begotten, not made,” that is, He is not a Creature, a part of Creation, but the One through whom “all things were made.” And yet this One who was of “one being with the Father” became a human… stepping into Creation and taking on the reality of Creaturely life. This may not sound all that strange to us, as we say these words week after week when we gather for worship… but to make this claim was to completely mess with how the universe was understood. Think of it like this: imagine going to a movie, and watching the actors playing out a scene on the big screen. We can simply get caught up in the story the actors are playing out, or maybe we might start to think about all the work that went on behind the scenes… the writers, the producers, the directors who all played a part in creating the story, but did not step in front of the cameras and become a visible part of the film. Now imagine as you sit there in the movie theatre, the sole writer, director, and producer of the film suddenly walks down the aisle, and somehow steps through the screen and starts taking part in the scene along with the other actors! This is the kind of beautiful madness and mystery we’re talking about: God breaking down the walls we assumed were unbreakable. In short, in the very person of Jesus Christ, both the Creator and the Creation are now united. The beautiful truth of the incarnation is that Jesus Himself is God-and-Humanity… Heaven and earth… bound together… forever! If that blows your mind, you’re not alone. And this is where the radical nature of the Ascension of Jesus fits in… with that little word: “forever.” It’s not at all about Jesus leaving our world behind. The Ascension is about Jesus lifting up our world with Him. The Ascension of Jesus Christ means that our Creator and His Creation are still united… and always will be. After all, we Christians believe in the “in-carnation”… but there’s no “out-carnation.” Not stripping off of His humanity. Christ didn’t just ditch His resurrected body somewhere in the atmosphere. Whatever it means for Jesus to Ascend to Heaven, it doesn’t mean that. Christ was raised to new life… not to become a disembodied spirit, but as the firstborn of God’s New Creation… with a resurrected body, still bearing His scars, and yet more real… more alive… more filled with God’s life-giving Spirit than ever before. Christ has passed through death, and come to life, not as a ghost, but as the start of a renewed Humanity, united to the life of the Living God. The beautiful bond begun at His birth… in His incarnation… the bond between Heaven and earth was not broken by His death, nor was it set aside as He Ascended. None other than Jesus Christ the Risen Lord, God-in-the-flesh, sits at the right hand of the Father in Heaven. And He will reign that way forever. Ok… I’ll admit that was not all that straightforward, was it? But then again, most of the deepest truths we encounter in life are not straightforward either. Beauty can be complicated… confusing even, and yet still draw us in deeper into it’s mystery. We need not comprehend it completely to be moved by it… or even be transformed by it. If there’s one thing you get from what I’ve said so far, I hope it is this: in Jesus Christ, the Living God has not abandoned the world but has bound Himself to His beloved Creation… and because Jesus is alive and will be forever, that bond will never be broken. The Ascension of Jesus is not about Jesus stepping out of the world, it’s about Him raising it up! And reigning at the right hand of God the Father as the Saviour King of Creation. If we simply think of the Ascension as Jesus leaving, we miss the point… which is where He is headed! He’s being lifted up… glorified… the Son of God, faithful even unto death, has now been highly exalted. In a sense, the Ascension is like Christ’s cosmic coronation. The moment when His Kingship over God’s Creation was made clear to His disciples… and challenging what they expected God’s Kingdom to look like. In Acts Chapter 1, the disciples had been hanging around with the Risen Jesus for some time now. Forty days, to be exact. But in that time, they still had their old assumptions about what Christ was doing, and what He had in store for them. Acts 1:6, “when they had come together, they asked him, ‘Lord, is this the time when you will restore the kingdom to Israel?’” They expected the Kingdom of God to arrive in an instant. For the redemption of Israel, and the fulfillment of all the promises God had made through the prophets to suddenly transform the world. They were anxious to see what the Risen Christ would do to set the world back on track. But Jesus had other plans… bigger plans… plans to not only bring God’s Kingdom to Israel, but to the whole earth… and to send out His disciples as His witnesses to bring this about. Acts 1:7-8, Jesus replied, “It is not for you to know the times or periods that the Father has set by his own authority. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” They were to bear witness by the words they spoke and the lives they lived, that Jesus Christ really is the Risen Lord of all Creation. Like royal ambassadors, and heralds, proclaiming the beginning of a new King’s reign, Jesus would send His disciples out into the wide world to make His Kingdom known… to help His world that does not yet see Him as Lord to believe the Good News, and to share in the life of His Good Kingdom, which has already begun. And this remains the calling of every Christian, including you and I: to speak and live each day as witnesses of the Risen Lord Jesus… sharing in the life of His Good Kingdom even now, and helping our world do the same. And this is possible for us because our Lord Jesus Christ Himself remains with us through His Holy Spirit. And it’s through the Spirit’s power that the work of God’s Kingdom continues today. The authors and theologians, Dr. Tim and Dr. Aaron Perry point this out in their book on the Ascension: “The promise of the Father, the gift for which [St. Luke tells us the] disciples are to wait, is revealed to be the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of God, who will come in the end time to set all that is wrong to right, to pacify the warlike, and to render the land fruitful once again. This wonderful universal renewal of creation, Luke tells us, is now possible because of the ascension of Jesus. Luke wants us to comprehend the coming of the Spirit as the earthly echo of the heavenly enthronement of the victorious Son. Jesus is the heavenly King and as such, he is absent. Through the coming of the Spirit, though, he remains present to his followers. The coming of the Holy Spirit, the promised power from on high, is the sign and guarantee of Jesus’ reign and the manner of Jesus’ continued presence.”[2] When we are tempted to think of Jesus our Lord as completely absent… as disconnected and detached from the cares of the world, and of our own struggles… when we can’t seem to see any signs of His Kingdom at work, remember His Holy Spirit, “the Lord, the Giver of Life.” Remember the gift of His holy presence and power, poured out on God’s people… a precious gift made possible because Christ has been lifted up. We’ll have more to say about the Holy Spirit next week, as we celebrate Pentecost. But for now, it’s enough to remember that it’s through the Holy Spirit that Jesus our King reigns on earth… and it’s through the Spirit that His presence and power are made known in the lives of His people. So how are we living by God’s Holy Spirit today? How are we bearing witness to His rule, here and now in Gondola Point? We might not be sent across the world… but maybe we could go across the street? Or even start across the table? For those of us who feel unsure of what we could do… can we start by devoting ourselves to prayer, and then let God’s Holy Spirit open up doors and lead the way? The Ascension of Jesus is a message of hope for our world: that no matter how broken and dark things might get, God will never abandon His Creation. It’s future… our future rests firmly in the nail-pierced hands of the One through whom all things were created, and who through His resurrection power at work is making all things new. So let us take courage. Christ Jesus is Lord of Heaven and Earth right hear and right now, even when we can’t see Him… and through His Spirit at work in us, we get to share in the life of His Kingdom, right hear and right now. Amen. [1] The same wording is found in both the Apostle’s & the Nicene Creeds. Quoted from the Anglican Book of Alternative Services. [2] Tim Perry & Aaron Perry, He Ascended Into Heaven: Learn to Live an Ascension-Shaped Life (Brewster, MA: Paraclete Press, 2010), 45-46. (Photo of Risen Christ taken at Rothesay Netherwood School, Rothesay, New Brunswick) Scripture Readings: Acts 17:22–31 | Psalm 66:8–20 | 1 Peter 3:13–22 | John 14:15–21
“I will not leave you orphaned; I am coming to you. In a little while the world will no longer see me, but you will see me; because I live, you also will live.” (John 14:18-19) One of the biggest challenges we face in the West today is loneliness… isolation… the ongoing lack of connection. Earlier this month, the U.S. Surgeon General, Dr. Vivek Murthy, made the striking claim that their country is facing a “loneliness epidemic”… a serious and a growing breakdown of people’s general sense of togetherness, that has dramatic implications for everyone’s wellbeing. He writes that “Loneliness is far more than just a bad feeling—it harms both individual and societal health. It is associated with a greater risk of cardiovascular disease, dementia, stroke, depression, anxiety, and premature death. The mortality impact of being socially disconnected is similar to that caused by smoking up to 15 cigarettes a day, and even greater than that associated with obesity and physical inactivity. And the harmful consequences of a society that lacks social connection can be felt in our schools, workplaces, and civic organizations, where performance, productivity, and engagement are diminished.”[1] And as much as we might like to draw a line between ourselves and our neighbours to the South at times, this same story is playing out all over Canada as well. Loneliness is just as much a problem for us and our communities. In many ways, this isn’t a new problem. All throughout the human story, we people have had to search for ways to belong… to be surrounded by others we can share life with, in all it’s ups and downs. In fact, overcoming isolation was one of the first acts of compassion and rescue in the story of the Holy Scriptures. In Genesis Chapter 2:18, the very first thing in all of creation that the Living God says is not good is that the human He made should be alone. To remedy this, God creates a community… created to share life side by side. From the start, the Living God longs for us His children to belong together. And yet, here we are, so far from that gathering in the Garden… cut off in so many ways… and unsure how we are supposed to come together again. The question before us calls to min the words from the Beatles’ song, Elanor Rigby: “All the lonely people… where do they all belong?” No doubt, all of us have stories of when we felt isolated and alone. And maybe some of us are feeling this way today, and are longing for something more… somewhere to belong. Before we turn to our Scripture readings this morning, I just want to take a moment and share a small part of my story… from when I was a small and lonely boy, and someone saw me and stepped into my life. I have a vivid memory from my very first day of school… in part because it was everyone else’s second day. I had missed that crucial first day of Jr. Kindergarten when everyone else came together, made new friends, and found out what school was about… and so when I arrived, a timid and socially unsure child at the best of times, I was overwhelmed by the feeling that everyone else already belonged, and I was stranger. When it came time to play, I remember just standing there all alone, while everyone else knew what to do, and could easily join in the fun with their newfound friends. Mercifully, this moment did not last too long. Another boy saw me standing their, and came over to me, and in a friendly voice he simply said: “Do you want to play?” And suddenly I belonged. I was welcomed… invited in. Able to share in the fun that was happening all around me, but that seemed so far away. Now I was supposed to belong there already. After all, I was a student not really all that different from the rest, but that’s not how it seemed to that frightened and isolated little boy. As far as I could understand at the time, I really was alone… until this other boy came and found me and befriended me. And from this simple invitation to play, a lifelong friendship has grown. It was such a simple gesture, a simple act of kindness and hospitality… but even so, it truly changed my life. I know this story might seem pretty insignificant in the grand scheme of things, but just remember: everyone is capable of feeling cut off and alone, no matter their age, or stage of life. Everyone has times when they feel lost and don’t know what to do. Everyone can lose sight of where they truly are meant to belong, until someone else invites them in. And everyone can play a part in helping others discover that they don’t need to be alone. We often hear that God loves everyone… that everyone belongs by God’s side… but what does that love really look like? How can we come to know the power of this love that truly changes lives? Does God’s love for everyone mean, that basically, everyone can just keep doing their own thing? That because God loves everyone, there’s no need to bother about actually letting them know? In other words, does it really matter that everyone comes to know the Good News of the Living God? Our Scripture readings today teach us to say “Yes!” It matters so much! More than we often realize… though perhaps for different reasons than we might usually assume. Our first reading today from the Book of Acts Chapter 17 tells the story of the missionary Apostle, St. Paul, and his time in the city of Athens. One of the great centres of Greek culture and civilization, that had spread all across the Mediterranean world and beyond, Athens had a history of great thinkers and philosophers… not to mention a very diverse religious life as well. But then St. Paul, this Jewish stranger from the backwater regions of the Roman Empire arrives… someone who could not have felt more isolated and out of place in Athens. Acts 17:16 says that St. Paul “was deeply distressed to see that the city was full of idols”, which for someone raised on the Ten Commandments, never mind the rest of God’s Law, would have been a major obstacle. For the Jews, idolatry… worshipping statues, or anything other than the Living God alone was unthinkable, and the source of all kinds of wickedness and sin. And yet, despite his isolation, St. Paul stays in Athens a while, where he begins to get into some debates with his fellow Jews and Greek philosophers about the Good News of Jesus. Unsure about the message this stranger was trying to share, the Greeks invite St. Paul to say more in a more formal setting at the Areopagus, where these kinds of discussions were held for a crowd to hear. And put on the spot, St. Paul starts to share the Good News about the Living God with these people who in some ways seemed so different from him, but who he knew God still loved. St. Paul, this Jewish Christian, a stranger in Athens so many ways, invites his listeners to come to know the Living God, who is so unlike anything they had yet imagined. Acts 17: 24-28, “The God who made the world and everything in it, he who is Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in shrines made by human hands, nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mortals life and breath and all things. From one ancestor he made all nations to inhabit the whole earth, and he allotted the times of their existence and the boundaries of the places where they would live, so that they would search for God and perhaps grope for him and find him—though indeed he is not far from each one of us. For ‘In him we live and move and have our being’; as even some of your own poets have said, ‘For we too are his offspring.’” St. Paul points out on the one hand that the Living God is not like the other spiritual beings they worship through idols, and living for this God looks very different as well. But on the other hand, he claims that the one true God has always been reaching out to them in love… graciously providing everything they need, and longing for them to truly come to know Him too. I suppose St. Paul could have left it at that. Encouraging his listeners with his message of this unknown God’s love for everyone… But St. Paul knew that coming to know the Living God and the reality of His saving love makes all the difference in the world! Acts 17:29-31, “Since we are God’s offspring, we ought not to think that the deity is like gold, or silver, or stone, an image formed by the art and imagination of mortals. While God has overlooked the times of human ignorance, now he commands all people everywhere to repent, because he has fixed a day on which he will have the world judged in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed, and of this he has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead.” What does St. Paul think it means for the Living God to love everyone? It’s an invitation for everyone to repent… to turn around… and turn away from everything that keeps us from Him, and to place our trust in the love of the Living God made known to us in Jesus Christ… the One who was raised from the dead, and who will reign over God’s Kingdom forever… sorting out all of the messes we humans have made that cut us off from one another and from our Creator, so that God’s good justice and peace will fill all the earth. St. Paul’s point is that God longs for us all to belong, and be right with Him. In love, God has reached out to find us all in Jesus Christ, no matter how far off we may be… to bring us all home. To draw us together to His side, and share His New Life with us. Through the strange words of this stranger, God Himself was speaking to the people of Athens, inviting them to draw near to the One who had been right there all along, and let Him change their lives for good… helping them find their own place in the world He created for them to share. Turning now to our Gospel reading, we hear the words of our Saviour, Jesus, speaking to His disciples, on the night He would be betrayed. Christ speaks words of comfort to them, knowing full well the horrors of the cross that the next day would bring… reassuring them, that He would never abandon them… even in death. That even if the world could no longer see Him, Jesus and His Heavenly Father will not leave them all alone. John 14:18-21, Jesus says: “I will not leave you orphaned; I am coming to you. In a little while the world will no longer see me, but you will see me; because I live, you also will live. On that day you will know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you. They who have my commandments and keep them are those who love me; and those who love me will be loved by my Father, and I will love them and reveal myself to them.” Jesus wants them, and you and I, to know and share in the love and life of the Trinity, the Living God… Father, Son, and Spirit, holding onto His holy ways, and knowing we truly belong in Him. This is an image of community… of sharing in a deep relationship… and fellowship… of knowing, and being known, and having our lives transformed by the presence and influence of the other. At this crucial moment in His life, and the life of His followers, Jesus invites them to trust in His love for them… a love they have come to know through His whole life… through the things that He said and did… a love that He ultimately shares with God the Father, and with God the Holy Spirit, and which He was about to share with the whole world, offering His life upon the cross for everyone. We come to know the power of God’s saving love… a love that truly changes lives through Jesus Christ on the cross. Dying and rising again to reconcile us all to God, and give us New Life… breaking down every barrier that keeps us apart from God, and from one another. And even more than that, this love show us where we belong in His great rescue mission too… serving as God’s partners as He keeps seeking and saving all who are lost. “In a little while” Christ said, “the world will no longer see me, but you will see me; because I live, you also will live.” As Christ’s followers today… as the community who has already come to know Him, and through Him has come to know God’s saving love… we find our sustenance and strength from our ongoing connection to Jesus. And though the world today may not see Jesus… the world does see us! So if they can see the life of Jesus at work in us, through the Holy Spirit, the whole world can catch a glimpse of the Living God and His life-changing love through us as well. This is why how we live our lives as Christians really matters. It’s not to prove how morally superior we think we are, but to mirror God’s own character… His mercy and compassion, His justice and peace… His holy, life-changing love… so that through you and I, the Living God can reach out to everyone… inviting them to draw nearer and come to know that in Him, we all truly belong. In Jesus Christ, God has made Himself and His love known to the world in a unique and ultimate way… and His Holy Spirit has been at work in all the world, seeking us out and drawing us all to the Father’s side through Jesus His Son. And now we all get to be part of His great invitation… our simple, everyday lives shaped by God’s love are how others will come to know where they too belong. The story of my friend’s invitation to play has a sequel to it. Two years later, I missed the first day of Grade 1. But this time, instead of just being a stranger in my classroom, I was lost in a strange new part of the school, wandering the halls alone after the first bell range, without a clue where I was supposed to go. As I wiped the tears from my eyes, and walked back and forth, looking for anybody who might help me find where I belonged, that very same friend saw me, left his classroom, and stood there with me… and again, I was no longer alone. On his own, this little boy helped me discover that I was actually supposed to be in his class again too! Such a simple, beautiful thing… to be together with friends… to belong. God loves everyone. God is seeking out everyone. God came to us in Jesus so that all of us might come to know Him and His saving love. It doesn’t matter what age we are, or where we come from, we get to be part of God’s gift of love to everyone. So, like my friend all those years ago, let’s not hesitate to step out and share God’s welcome with the world. To help those around us come to know the Good News of God’s love in Jesus Christ, the Risen Lord… to draw near and share in His New Life… and find our place together by His side. Amen. [1] Dr. Vivek H. Murthy, Our Epidemic of Loneliness and Isolation: The U.S. Surgeon General’s Advisory on the Healing Effects of Social Connection and Community (https://www.hhs.gov/sites/default/files/surgeon-general-social-connection-advisory.pdf) Scripture Readings: Acts 7:55–60 | Psalm 31:1–16 | 1 Peter 2:2–10 | John 14:1–14
“But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s own people, in order that you may proclaim the mighty acts of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.” (1 Peter 2:9) What does it mean to be a success in the Kingdom of God? Over the past few weeks, as we have been moving through the season of Easter together, our readings from the Book of Acts have followed the remarkable sermon St. Peter delivered at Pentecost. That morning, filled with the Holy Spirit, St. Peter offered to God’s people a dramatic call to repent, resulting in the eager reception and open hearts of thousands of Jewish pilgrims from all over the Mediterranean world. As far as sermons go, this one clearly made an impression, and we’ll say a bit more about its significance when Pentecost comes around in a few weeks. But by all accounts, St. Peter’s first message was a massive success! A dramatic and dynamic first step for the Church of the Risen Christ. But then today in our reading from Acts Chapter 7, we heard about a very different sermon in the early days of the Church with a very different result. We heard the end of a message from St. Stephen, one of the first deacons in the Church, who had boldly proclaimed the truth about the Risen Lord Jesus to his fellow Jews in Jerusalem, only to be stoned to death by them… accused of blasphemy and murdered by an angry mob. It's hard to imagine a more opposite, not to mention undesirable, response, especially compared to St. Peter’s Pentecost sermon, where thousands of people responded in faith. And yet, the public witness of St. Stephen about the Good News of Jesus, the Risen Lord, has, from the very beginning, been seen by believers as a massive success as well. But in order to see why it’s a success, we need to get a better sense of the bigger picture… and wrestle a bit with what it actually means to succeed in the Kingdom of God. Let’s start with a closer look at the speaker who gets rejected: St. Stephen. As I mentioned before, St. Stephen was one of the first deacons… set apart for the ministry of service within the Church, and caring for the practical needs of Christians, so that the Apostles could focus on preaching and teaching. And yet, even though it was not his job, so to speak, the Book of Acts recounts how God’s Holy Spirit empowered Stephen to speak about the Good News of Jesus in ways that many responded to… helping them come to know the Risen Lord through Stephen’s words and his deeds… but also drawing the attention of those who stood opposed to this message. Acts 6:8-14, “Stephen, full of grace and power, did great wonders and signs among the people. Then some of those who belonged to the synagogue of the Freedmen (as it was called), Cyrenians, Alexandrians, and others of those from Cilicia and Asia, stood up and argued with Stephen. But they could not withstand the wisdom and the Spirit with which he spoke. Then they secretly instigated some men to say, ‘We have heard him speak blasphemous words against Moses and God.’ They stirred up the people as well as the elders and the scribes; then they suddenly confronted him, seized him, and brought him before the council. They set up false witnesses who said, ‘This man never stops saying things against this holy place and the law; for we have heard him say that this Jesus of Nazareth will destroy this place and will change the customs that Moses handed on to us.’” Because of his Christian ministry, St. Stephen got into conflict with some of the Jewish factions in Jerusalem, who seized on his connection to Jesus in order to drag him to court to silence him. They claimed that St. Stephen and his message about Jesus was a threat to the Temple of God, and to all they held dear… and that he was promoting blasphemy, and so was deserving of death. What’s clear is that St. Stephen had challenged their understanding of what it meant to be faithful to the Living God… calling them to change course… to reconsider what they believed about God’s Kingdom, and how to live in it. To be fair, that was also what St. Peter had said to the crowds in his sermon on Pentecost. He didn’t mince words in an attempt to appease his audience, or worry about the backlash he might receive… he simply told them the story of Jesus’ betrayal, unjust arrest, and cruel crucifixion… rejected by the very people He had come to save. St. Peter had boldly proclaimed that God’s people had failed to believe in… to trust in their Messiah, rejecting the Saviour God sent to them, and so they all shared in the blame for His death. Sounds like a harsh sermon. But remember: no one would know more about failing to be faithful to God’s Messiah than St. Peter, who had been so close to Jesus, and had even bragged about remaining steadfast by Christ’s side, even if he would have to die with Him… and yet, before the night was over, St. Peter would betray His Lord three times over. St. Peter knew all about failing to follow the Way… failing to trust in the Truth, and failing to cling to the One who is truly Life. Yet he had also come to know the forgiveness and the freedom that the crucified and Risen Christ offers to all: he knew that God calls everyone to repent… to turn around and turn to Jesus in faith, and find in Him God’s Way, God’s Truth, and God’s Life… no matter how lost, deceived, or dead in our sins we may be. St. Peter’s message was that despite everything we have done to mess things up… Jesus Christ has died and risen again to pardon and to save us all. To turn us all around from our old lost ways, and all of the lies that bring death… and to lead us into life instead. This is the Good News the first Christians dedicated their lives to sharing with those around them: retelling the story of Jesus the Risen Lord with their words and with their lives. And this is what St. Stephen had dedicated his life to as well… putting into practice the self-giving love of God he learned from his Master, and helping others do the same… living out the Gospel of Jesus Christ… even if others would end up rejecting him for it too… which is of course, what happened. St. Stephen’s life and message challenged and confronted those who refused to believe that they had had a hand in the death of God’s Messiah… and who were convinced that Jesus and all who followed Him were just deceiving God’s people, and trying to lead them astray. So, they had St. Stephen arrested, and just like Jesus, accused him of blasphemy. And there, before the court, St. Stephen was given the chance to defend himself. But what would he say? Would he listen to the temptations to compromise his message, twisting it around to conform to what he thought others wanted to hear? Maybe he could convince them too if he made his message a bit more appealing? Would he listen to the temptations to make the Gospel’s claims less shocking… less challenging or confrontational, in order to get others to accept it? Maybe he could avoid risking his neck if he just toned it down a bit? But the truth is, the Good News of Jesus can be hard to hear, because the Good News of the Risen Lord brings to light and exposes how frequently lost we are… how often we fall for and even spread lies… how much of what we think will guarantee our survival only leads to death. The Good News of Jesus calls us all, no matter who we are, or how close to God we might believe we are, to repent… to turn around, again and again, and draw nearer to the One who is Himself the Way, the Truth, and the Life. The Gospel calls us to cling to Jesus Christ… to trust in Him, and follow Him wherever He may lead us. And St. Stephen wholeheartedly answers this call… even though it would cost him his life. Standing in front of the court, after retelling the long story found in the Scriptures of the faithfulness of the Living God, despite the deep unfaithfulness of His people, St. Stephen responds, in Acts 7:51-60, “You stiff-necked people, uncircumcised in heart and ears, you are forever opposing the Holy Spirit, just as your ancestors used to do. Which of the prophets did your ancestors not persecute? They killed those who foretold the coming of the Righteous One, and now you have become his betrayers and murderers. You are the ones that received the law as ordained by angels, and yet you have not kept it.’ When they heard these things, they became enraged and ground their teeth at Stephen. But filled with the Holy Spirit, he gazed into heaven and saw the glory of God and Jesus standing at the right hand of God. ‘Look,’ he said, ‘I see the heavens opened and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God!’ But they covered their ears, and with a loud shout all rushed together against him. Then they dragged him out of the city and began to stone him; and the witnesses laid their coats at the feet of a young man named Saul. While they were stoning Stephen, he prayed, ‘Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.’ Then he knelt down and cried out in a loud voice, ‘Lord, do not hold this sin against them.’ When he had said this, he died.’ ” Like Jesus, St. Stephen was slandered and falsely accused. Like Jesus, he remained faithful in the face of temptation, and certain death. Like Jesus, St. Stephen embodied God’s great mercy and self-giving love, pleading for the forgiveness even of those who were murdering him. In life and in death, St. Stephen walked in the footsteps of his Saviour. And because Jesus Himself is the Way, the Truth, and the Life… what it means to succeed in God’s Kingdom is to stay true to Jesus… no matter how others around us respond. That’s why St. Peter’s Pentecost sermon was a success… not because thousands of people believed it, but because by the Holy Spirit’s power, St. Peter spoke faithfully about the Risen Lord, and invited his hearers to trust in Him too. That’s why St. Stephen’s final words in the witness stand were a success… because, even in the face of violent resistance, and incredible pressure to back down, the Holy Spirit of God empowered St. Stephen stayed true to His Lord… to remain faithful to Jesus, not just by the words that He spoke, but by the way His life, his actions lined up with those of His Lord. St. Stephen was a success in God’s Kingdom because He entrusted His life to the Risen Lord, and stayed true to the One who is the Way, the Truth, and the Life. So, for you and I today, hear in Gondola Point, what does it look like for us to be a success in the Kingdom of God? We won’t likely have the opportunity like St. Peter to speak to thousands of pilgrims all at once, or like St. Stephen to be surrounded by those accusing us of blasphemy, ready to strike us dead… although many of our brothers and sisters in the Church around the world do face these challenging situations. But what are the ways that we can be tempted in our lives to step aside from the Way? Or to distort the Truth? Or to give up on the Life that we have been invited into, and entrusted to share with the world? As individuals and as a Church family, we too face the temptations to change what we say and do to attract those around us, or to avoid suffering rejection. We too can be easily tempted, like those who opposed St. Stephen, to try to hold onto our old ways. To resist Christ’s call to let go and turn away from the ways of life that are keeping us from staying true to Him… and holding us back from where He wants to lead us. But even when we stumble and fail to stay faithful, Jesus, our Risen Lord remains true. He stands steadfast for us. He took up His cross, and gave up His life to bring us God’s forgiveness and freedom… and He calls us to follow Him, filled with His Holy Spirit who gives us the grace we need to stay true to Him too. In short, success in God’s Kingdom, does not depend on the immediate results that we can see or achieve… but ultimately on the faithfulness of our Saviour, Jesus Christ the Risen Lord, and the renewal of our lives… our words and actions, to stay true to Him no matter what. So, whether we find people flocking to our words of hope, and joining in the life of our Christian community… or if they turn against us, and we find ourselves seemingly alone… Remember what St. Stephen saw! Jesus Himself, at God the Father’s right hand, standing up for his faithful servant… welcoming him into the joys of heaven, and reminding him that no matter what others may do, if the Living God who raised Jesus Christ from the dead is with us, our success is assured. And we too will share in the victory of the Kingdom of God forever. Amen. |
Rev. RObRev. Rob serves as the Priest-in-Charge at St. Luke's Gondola Point, and as the School Chaplain at Rothesay Netherwood School Archives
March 2024
Categories
All
|