8 Then God said to Noah and to his sons with him: 9 “I now establish my covenant with you and with your descendants after you 10 and with every living creature that was with you—the birds, the livestock and all the wild animals, all those that came out of the ark with you—every living creature on earth. 11 I establish my covenant with you: Never again will all life be destroyed by the waters of a flood; never again will there be a flood to destroy the earth.”

12 And God said, “This is the sign of the covenant I am making between me and you and every living creature with you, a covenant for all generations to come: 13 I have set my rainbow in the clouds, and it will be the sign of the covenant between me and the earth. 14 Whenever I bring clouds over the earth and the rainbow appears in the clouds, 15 I will remember my covenant between me and you and all living creatures of every kind. Never again will the waters become a flood to destroy all life. 16 Whenever the rainbow appears in the clouds, I will see it and remember the everlasting covenant between God and all living creatures of every kind on the earth.”

17 So God said to Noah, “This is the sign of the covenant I have established between me and all life on the earth.” (Genesis 9:8-17)

Today’s reading falls within the first eleven chapters of Genesis which have been designated “The Primeval History”. These chapters tell how God created both the world, and a community of men and women wholly created for the express purpose of experiencing divine intimacy with him, and caring for creation.

At this point in The History, humanity has turned from God and it is with regret and a troubled heart that God makes the decision to cleanse the earth with a flood. A flood designed to kill all living creatures. But then, in his infinite mercy, God saves one man and his family, and uses them to rebuild the world.

So after almost 400 days of being cramped inside of a wooden boat with 7 other people and a multitude of animals, Noah is finally free and what is the first thing he does? He thanks God for His grace and mercy. He builds an altar, and taking some of the clean animals and birds, and he offers a burnt offering to God.

In response God makes a universal covenant with all of creation. As he says to Noah starting in verse 9,

“I now establish my covenant with you and with your descendants after you ¹⁰ and with every living creature that was with you…  Never again will all life be destroyed by the waters of a flood; never again will there be a flood to destroy the earth.”

There are 4 important things I want to note about this covenant:

1. It is universal. God isn’t just entering into a covenant with Noah, or his family, or even just humanity. God is entering into a covenant with all of creation, all living things. God made a covenant that he would never again destroy the Earth. Other covenants, like the Abrahamic covenant, are made with one person and his descendants; one tribe, one nation. This covenant is all consuming.
2. It is God-initiated. Here we have an all-powerful God CHOOSING to enter into a relationship with these flawed beings, his fallen creation. He chooses to re-establish that divine-human relationship that he initially desired with Adam and Eve; this covenant marks the first definitive step after Adam and Eve to put things right with creation. Things had been steadily spiraling downward since that fateful day when they ate from the forbidden tree and were kicked from Eden, and God is taking the first step to turn things around.
   Noah didn’t ask to be saved, and while blameless among men at the time, Noah was far from perfect, and God could have easily sent him to the same fate as the rest. God didn’t owe Noah anything. Yet in His grace and mercy, God chooses to save Noah and his family and uses them to help rebuild the world.
3. It shows that God is a God of second chances. A god of mercy and grace. God could have scrapped everything and started over. He could have wiped the face of the earth and started fresh, but instead he chose to work with what he had already created. Through Noah and his family, and all of the animals Noah took on the ark, God rebuilt the world. While this is a new beginning, it is also a renewal; God isn’t starting over with new beings, but with a remnant of what once was. God uses what already existed and renews it.
4. It shows that redemption can only be found through God. It is only within God that resolution to human sin and earthly corruption can be found. It doesn’t matter what we do, what we think, how we act, or what we figure we deserve. It doesn’t matter how hard we work or how worthy we think we are. As God showed through Noah, it is only by God’s grace that we are saved.

Last week we entered the season of Lent. It began on Ash Wednesday and it is a time of preparation before we reach what is truly the high point of the Christian calendar, Easter. So as we consider our participation in Lent, and subsequent celebration of Easter, there are several parallels that can be drawn between the flood that Noah endured, and the Lenten season.

• Both are approximately 40 days.
  For Noah, they endured 40 days and nights of rain and then almost 400 days of being cooped up in the ark.
  For us, Lent is 40 days from Ash Wednesday until Easter, not including Sundays which aren’t counted. This is followed by the season of Easter in which we celebrate the resurrection of Christ as well as think about what it means to follow Him.
• Both are periods of transition and purification; a process that doesn’t just happen overnight, but over a longer period of time.
  While the earth flooded and all creatures perished, Noah and his family sat in the ark going through a period of transition and purification. They had plenty of time to sit and think. To recognize patterns of sinfulness in their lives and recognize their utter dependence on God.
  Lent fills a similar role in our lives as we turn to God in prayer and realize that we are not totally self-sufficient, that we have a need inside of us that cannot be filled by ourselves, that we have a holy longing and must look to God. We too recognize patterns of sinfulness in our lives and we contemplate our need for a savior, for rescuing.
• Both allow for the creation of space to allow God to work.
  The flood cleaned the slate allowing for God to start over. Not with a new creation, but with a remnant of what once was, and he uses that and works with it and makes it good again.
  Lent is a time when we set aside some of the rest of life in order to be more attentive to God’s invitation. A small space is created through fasting, prayer, and giving, allowing for a fuller embrace of the mission God has entrusted to us.
• Both result in a new covenant with God.
  God’s covenant with Noah was his first, and it was universal in nature. God’s greatest covenant, found through belief in the death and resurrection of Jesus, is also universal.

The 40 days of Lent are a purposeful preparation for Easter. Easter, God’s new covenant with us revealed through the sending of his son, Jesus, and Jesus’ subsequent death and resurrection. Just like his covenant with Noah, through His new covenant we see God’s universal love and we experience the words of 1 John 4:19, “We love because he first loved us.” Through Christ we are reborn and renewed. Despite sinning and falling short of the glory of God, he rebuilds us and makes us whole again.

It is only through God’s love, through God’s infinite grace and mercy, through Christ Jesus, that we have new life. God’s covenant with Noah means nothing to us if we are unable to experience a relationship with God, and feel His love that he showed to Noah.

So take some time during these 40 days and contemplate this story of Noah. Out of the waters of destruction God made a covenant with all of creation, a covenant that later allowed God’s new covenant to be experienced by all.

Practice the spiritual disciplines that Lent has traditionally been known for. Fast and make space for God to work in your life. Pray and open your heart to God’s leading. And give, sharing the gifts that God has bestowed upon you to bless others.

Happy Septuagesima!

What? You mean you’ve never heard of Septuagesima?

Well, in all fairness it is one of the most obscure of days in the Church calendar, it isn’t even really observed anymore. The Catholic Church dropped it back in the 60’s and only churches that follow the ancient church lectionary will still mark today as anything other than just another Sunday in the season of Epiphany or Ordinary Time. But I kind of like it. It is an interesting concept.

So this season, the three Sundays before Lent, are known collectively as the pre-Lenten season. Yet each Sunday has a particular name: today is Septugesima, next week Sexagesima, and the Sunday before Ash Wednesday is Quinquagesima. Each Sunday representing 70, 60, and 50 days before Easter, that central event of the church year around which everything pivots.

Today isn’t actually 70 days from Easter. But, this being an ancient tradition, in early Christianity Thursdays, Saturdays, and Sundays were not days of Fasting during the Lenten season. It is similar to modern times when Lent doesn’t start 40 days before Easter, but 46. Sundays are not observed as part of the fasting period of Lent, but are instead celebratory days.

These “gesima” Sundays are preparation for that austere and holy time of Lent and reflect that spirit in their collects and Scripture readings. The next three Sundays are a season of transition. We’re moving into the Easter season, a time that includes Lent, Holy Week, Easter, Ascension, and Pentecost. Since Advent, our readings and sermons have centered on the theme of expectation – the word of God made flesh, full of grace and truth, manifest in wisdom and in power.

Now, as we enter this next season, we turn our minds to consider God’s work for our salvation in Jesus Christ – his ministry, his suffering and sacrifice, his triumph in Easter and Ascension, and his sending of the Holy Spirit. So, while the first season is about God’s coming among us in Jesus Christ, the second is about his work for our salvation.

So starting today we begin our preparation for this next cycle, and as part of this preparation I want to talk about The Epistle reading that came from 1 Corinthians 9.

I want to focus on 1 Cor 9:19 and Paul’s claim, “For although I am free of all people, I have made myself a slave to all, in order that I might win as many as possible.” The question for us today is, “are you willing to give up your freedom so others may know Christ?”

So I want to ask, “Where do you stand as a Christian?” What does it mean for you, and what does it mean for those who know you, that you put your hope and trust in the Triune God?

The phrase “Jesus died for me” is not just a catchy phrase, but means that you look beyond your own shortcomings and put your hope in Christ’s righteousness. This morning I pray that you are not wishy-washy in your faith but that you cling to it with passion. Cling to it with all the strength and hope of someone caught in a rising flood who is thrown a lifeline from rescue team, secure on the bank. Hold firm to Christ’s salvation which he freely gives to you.

We are to be strong and bold in our faith; as we read in 1 Peter 3:15, Peter encourages us to, “Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reasons for the hope that you have.” In light of this, what are we to make of Paul’s claim in 1Cor 9:22 , “I have become all things to all people”? Doesn’t it sound as though Paul is prepared to adapt and mould himself to the world and the times in which he lived?

What we have here is a wonderful example from Paul of being in the world, but not of the world.  His starting point as a Christian is that he is free. He belongs to no-one. No-one has any claim over him. And where does Paul gain this freedom? From being set free through Jesus Christ. Paul gains his freedom from the sure knowledge that there is nothing any mortal person can do to hurt him. So great is his freedom, he has the confidence to say, “Whether we live or die, we belong to the Lord” (Rom 14:8). This is a man who even has freedom over the power of death. Just think, we too could have this.

So what would such freedom mean for a man like Paul? Well, he is a man no longer bound by the restrictions imposed by the Jewish Laws.  Whether a person was circumcised or not was no longer important. Being ceremonially unclean was no longer relevant. Even eating food forbidden to the Jews was no longer going to stand in the way of any Christian’s salvation! All of these freedom’s from the law come because Jesus died on the cross to fulfil God’s Holy Law.

Now here’s the astonishing measure of Paul’s freedom. So great is his freedom, he is willing to give up this freedom and make himself a slave (or servant) to everyone – to win as many as possible (1 Cor 9:19). Paul is now looking for points of contact between himself and those he is put before. When hanging with the Jews, Paul will once again observe Jewish customs and restrictions so as to not offend those he is with.

In the same way, if Paul is meeting with Gentiles, for whom the Jewish laws would mean nothing, Paul does not observe them. Paul actually argued with Peter that it makes no sense for the Gentiles to be circumcised or to observe any other Jewish customs; they were already free in Christ.

Now this shouldn’t be construed as though Paul is giving in to anyone, he’s just acknowledging that he’s not going to make many friends if he shows up to the local synagogue with a ham sandwich for lunch! By avoiding causing offense, there’s more chance that people will listen to his message, which of course is Christ’s message.

Paul is aware of those around him and he is adapting his approach to the people he is meeting. It is about respect. But while Paul is willing to change the way he shares the gospel, Christ’s message of salvation never changes. This is important for us to hear today. While we might share the gospel message in new and different ways to connect with different people, the message must remain Christ’s message, it shouldn’t change. It must never become our message. The gospel is always that he died on the cross in our place. Jesus isn’t our best buddy. He isn’t a spiritual guru. His ministry isn’t to make you thinner, or richer, or more likable. He died to save you from your sins. This must always be the gospel message we bring to others.

All Things

So in our world today, in our context, what does it mean to for us to be all things to all people? In our post-Christian, North American culture, what does it mean to be a Christian and share this gospel, Christ’s message, with those around us? Like Paul, the folks around us aren’t generally receptive to our evangelism. Even that word carries so many connotations that I don’t even want to use it. Evangelism has become a dirty word, and it is with this in mind that we go out into the world.

Paul says in 1 Cor 9:21, “To those outside the law I became as one outside the law (though I am not free from God’s law but am under Christ’s law) so that I might win those outside the law.” And it’s the “(though I am not free from God’s law but am under Christ’s law)” that I want to make special note of. I find The Message actually puts it quite well, and here is a paraphrase of verses 19-23 taken from The Message:

19-23Even though I am free of the demands and expectations of everyone, I have voluntarily become a servant to any and all in order to reach a wide range of people: religious, nonreligious, meticulous moralists, loose-living immoralists, the defeated, the demoralized—whoever. I didn’t take on their way of life. I kept my bearings in Christ—but I entered their world and tried to experience things from their point of view. I’ve become just about every sort of servant there is in my attempts to lead those I meet into a God-saved life. I did all this because of [Christ’s] Message. I didn’t just want to talk about it; I wanted to be in on it!

Paul “didn’t take on their way of life.” Now this is important to note. He became like them, respected their customs and tried to experience things from their point of view, but he never sacrificed his own beliefs in the process. It was in this way that Paul was able to connect with people unlike him.

I have some experience with this in my previous life as an industrial mechanic. I grew up in a number of blue collar mining towns, in particular Yellowknife during my formative years. Yellowknife is blue collar to the core and I started my apprenticeship as a millwright in grade 12, spending my morning at school and afternoons working. I quickly became immersed in the culture of tradespeople, crude language and all. If you’re not familiar with The Trades, crude language and off colour jokes are abundant; there’s a general sort of casualness about “highfalutin” societal norms. As an impressionable teenager, that started to rub off on me, becoming part of my language, often to the disgust/chagrin of my parents and teachers.

As I grew into adulthood, my faith grew and matured as well. It felt natural to “bring my faith to work” as it were, in the various industrial jobs I held. The guys knew I went to church on Sunday and a Bible study during the week, they knew I took my Christianity seriously. Yet, this didn’t become something that alienated me from their culture, as it might have. I was comfortable experiencing life as a member of blue collar culture; I could respect their customs (crude as they might be). I didn’t have to stress that I was somehow above them because of my religion, nor did I treat them like a personal mission field. I could stay connected to, and build meaningful relationships with people who were religiously unlike me, because we never lost sight of our common humanity. I just happened to be a common human who also went to church, studied the bible, prayed for them (whether they knew or not).

In some ways, my participation and comfort in the trades culture could have compromised my reputation or credibility. But through my industrial jobs, I met a number of people often ignored by mainstream society (unless they’re doing negative things that feed into white trash stereotypes.) I met hurting people, affected by violence and abuse, and I brought a measure of Jesus’ healing presence to our workplace. I didn’t do anything particularly bold, but I listened to their stories and I was able to pray for them. As far as I know, none of them changed their lives dramatically, but maybe Jesus’ presence through me was one small step in their faith journey? Many of them were accustomed to Christians being judgmental, maybe it was healing to simply not feel judgment from me for what they did, but feel pure acceptance for who they were as people, created by God in his image. I think it was an opportunity for me to look at others through the eyes of Jesus, rather than my own.

God’s people bringing his grace

Sometimes it is hard to share why you come to church with family or friends. How do you begin to share God’s grace with those who are quick to judge the church with all their prejudices? You need to remember the point is God being all things to all people and he does this through His ordinary people, people like you and I.

Through people being confident of their salvation, they have the freedom to go places they wouldn’t ordinarily and as they do so, they bring his grace and presence to hurting people.

This point is important to make. You have already been saved by God. Like Paul, you are free; you are a slave to no one. This means there is nothing, nor anyone who can take away your salvation. No one can hurt your faith. With this freedom, we have the righteousness given to us through Christ which gives us the ability to go into any situation, no matter how foreign it may be. Keep your spiritual ears and eyes open to better understand where others are at. God will tell you what to pray for and if needed, he will give you the right words or actions. God will work through your hands to bring his grace to those who need his help.

Who are those who need God’s presence today? Look around you. How well do you know those seated with you? When did you share a meal together or maybe go to a movie or some other social event? What about the people who live in the same street or suburb to you – have a look in our directory? What about the people we often see, but aren’t here this week? Or maybe they haven’t been here for a couple of weeks. Are they sick, or are they away, or are they angry with God or with the church? Why not pick up the phone and say, “Hello – just thought I’d give you a call to see how you are.” You might be surprised with the answer. This is bringing God’s presence to those who always need him in their lives.

Paul had the confidence of God’s grace, mercy and righteousness to bring his presence to so many different people. But as special as Paul may have been, he was given no more, nor any less access to God’s gifts as any of you here today. You have all been freed through Christ’s death on the cross. For as long as you cling with faith to Christ you are freed and strengthened to be all things to all people.

The peace of God which passes all understanding, keep guard over your hearts and minds as you are freed through Christ Jesus. Amen.

Today we are talking about Jesus’ parents, Mary and Joseph. Earlier Greg and Ange read two stories, one from Luke and one from Matthew. The story in Luke was a telling of Mary’s visitation from an angel informing her that she, a virgin, was to become the mother of the “Son of the Most High.” While the story in Matthew was a telling of Joseph’s visitation from an angel informing him of his wife-to-be’s pregnancy. What we have here are two parallel stories about one event, and two people’s responses to God’s blessing.

Today we are going to talk about Mary’s Predicament and Joseph’s Dilemma: The Conception of Jesus

To start, I’d like to introduce you to two people, Mary and Joseph, and give you a little historical context.

Now we don’t know a ton about these two, but I think it is important to get an idea of who they were.

So here’s the situation…

Mary and Joseph are betrothed. Now if you remember a few weeks back I gave a brief overview on what the marriage process looked like in Ancient Israel.

The groom’s side would go out looking for a suitable bride, purchase her, and then the betrothal process began. The woman had the right to say yes or no, and then a marriage contract was signed. The contract was a covenant with each other, sealed in blood and legally binding. With this contract they were legally married in all aspects except for the physical consummation of the marriage. At this point the groom would leave his betrothed and prepare the wedding chamber, a process that could take up to 12 months, during which she had to wait and remain faithful.

So being betrothed, this meant that the marriage, for all intents and purposes, was official, and the only thing left is to consummate it. So it is at this time that Joseph is away preparing the wedding chamber and Mary is awaiting his return. And it is during this time, when Mary and Joseph are apart, that Mary becomes “with child.”

For Mary, home was the village of Nazareth in the hilly area southwest of the Sea of Galilee.

In ancient Israel, as with many cultures at the time, women were married off as soon as they were able to start having children. As such, at the time of Jesus’ conception, Mary would have been quite young, most likely in her early teens, probably 13 or 14 years old. She would have been living at home, with her parents, Joachim and Anne.

With these details in mind I want to look at the story from Luke, what I call, Mary’s Predicament.

I read a commentary that explained how this passage tells us four things about Mary: The facts of Mary’s life, the fear in Mary’s heart, the wonder in Mary’s mind, and the submission in Mary’s spirit.

The first part, verses 26-28 talk about the facts of Mary’s life, which I just talked about.

Verses 29-30 tell us about the fear in Mary’s heart. When approached by the angel she is taken aback, troubled, confused, perplexed. To this, Gabriel responds that she shouldn’t be afraid. New things can scare and confuse us, so I can only imagine the fear in this young girl as she is approached by the brilliance that is an angel of God.

Now fear is an acceptable emotion, one programed into our DNA, and Mary’s response was quite normal and healthy. But there is also a dangerous kind of fear, the kind of fear that grips and controls us. It is this type of fear, this fear that lives in us as opposed to a momentary reaction that we need to be careful of. Entrenched fear should be resisted, as it is the breeding ground for unbelief (This is similar to what I talked about in a previous sermon on doubt. Doubt is okay, but can lead to unbelief if left unchecked). Mary was scared, but she understood the power of the angel, so when he said, “Do not be afraid,” she calmed.

Verses 31-34 tell us about the wonder in Mary’s mind. When told that she will become pregnant and give birth to the Son of God, she doesn’t just numbly accept the fact, but she questions the angel, Gabriel. Mary was a virgin, and we are all old enough to know that babies don’t get delivered by storks. Gabriel just announced that this most amazing, most supernatural, of events was going to be taking place, and Mary responds with an incredulous, “but how?” The key thing to note here is that Mary wasn’t responding out of doubt, but through faith.

Now parallel to this story is the one that _____ read from Matthew. The passage in Luke showed Mary’s side of the story, the one in Matthew gives Joseph’s side, Joseph’s Dilemma.

Like Mary, Joseph is put in a tough situation. On the one hand, God is putting a huge blessing before him, on the other hand, from an earthly perspective; it is less a blessing and more an acceptance of a shameful existence.

Here is a man, off preparing for the final wedding ceremony, when he finds out that his wife-to-be is pregnant. I can imagine his first reaction wasn’t exactly positive, but his response, right from the beginning is one of an honorable and righteous man.

Upon hearing that Mary is pregnant, he would have assumed it was by another man (this would be normal, as it’s not every day a woman gets pregnant supernaturally), and decided to divorce her quietly. By quietly it means leniently. The punishment for adultery (which Joseph is assuming is the case because he doesn’t know any better yet) could be as severe as death by stoning, but Joseph didn’t want that.

This decision speaks volumes about Joseph’s character. He could have made a huge deal out of this. Matthew calls Joseph a righteous man. This meant that Joseph carefully observed the Law and valued his reputation. Marrying an already pregnant woman, especially one living apart from Joseph, would have compromised himself in the eyes of the law. Fortunately Joseph’s righteousness and honor went deeper than superficial righteousness before the law. He could have publicly humiliated and shamed her, but being a righteous man, he chose to do it quietly, therefore allowing her to marry the father of the child with minimal fuss. This shows a level of mercy I don’t think many could emulate.

So as Joseph is in the midst of making some really tough decisions, and probably feeling pretty broken-up about the whole situation, God sends a messenger to him. In a dream, Joseph is visited by an angel and told to, “not be afraid…because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit.” Well, now that changes everything. Or does it?

Like Mary, Joseph is presented with a blessing from God, but it doesn’t really look like a blessing. It looks like humiliation and shame, but who is he to question the will of God? Three times we see God speak to Joseph in the New Testament, and each time he responds in the same way, in obedience.

One event. Two stories. One response.

Mary and Joseph were chosen, favored by God, but what a strange blessing that was. When we think about what God’s favor looks like, we equate it with things that we figure are part of the “good life”: social standing, wealth, good health, etc… This is quite the opposite of what Mary and Joseph received.

On the surface Mary’s “blessing” was being pregnant out of wedlock with a child who would later be beaten, tortured, and then executed as a criminal. For Joseph his “blessing” was the shame of marrying a woman pregnant by someone other than him. There isn’t much talk of Jesus’ younger days, but life couldn’t have been easy for Mary and Joseph in the beginning. We all know how tongues wag with juicy gossip, and the people in the little village of Nazareth 2000 years ago wouldn’t be much different than those around us today. Folks just love to hear about what’s going on in the lives of others.

For some reason we seem to think that God’s blessing will bring us acceptability, prosperity, or comfort. These things are not the essence of God’s blessing. As Jesus says later in Luke, “If anyone wishes to come after me”, he said, “he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me” (Lk 9:23).

In spite of the consequences of their actions Mary and Joseph embodied the obedience of faith in responding to God’s blessing with affirmation and acceptance. With humility they submitted to His will. Mary and Joseph were offered the ultimate blessing from God, to be parents to His son, but in order to receive it they needed to first give themselves in obedience to God’s call.

This morning I want to kick off Advent by inserting some realism into it all, and one way to do this is if we recognize that the glory of Christmas came about by the willingness of ordinary people to obey God’s claim on their lives.

Earlier I introduced you to Mary and Joseph, very real historical figures. My hope is to help you understand who Mary and Joseph were as people, not just these mythical people that sit up here, or at home, in our nativity sets, brought out once a year for a month or so, and then packed away again.

We don’t hear much about Mary and Joseph outside of Advent and the Christmas season. Nor do we hear much about the shepherds, the magi, or Mary’s cousin Elizabeth, mother of John the Baptist. But the reason we celebrate Christmas was made possible by these people. And it doesn’t end with just Christmas; they were instrumental in making the entire Church calendar possible, Christianity itself! These are the people that were there from the very beginning, and they were just ordinary people like you and me.

Today’s readings are a lesson in discipleship, as a window into the souls of Mary and Joseph. What motivates their responses to God, and in the same vein, what motivates our response as disciples when God asks something difficult of us?

This is what I want you to think about as you head out into your week. What do God’s blessings look like in our lives, and what motivates our response to them? They might not look like we expect, so we have to remember who is at the core of all the decisions we make.

Faith is not simply expressed in obedience — faith is obedience.

Let us Pray – Dear Lord – bless the
words of my lips and the meditations of our hearts – grow
in us and show us your ways and inspire us to live by
your truth.  Amen

Today’s sermon is going to be slightly shorter than my usual. I’ve been fighting a cold all week and seemed to pick up a sore throat these last few days. I won’t let that limit God’s speaking through me and I hope to still be a worthy vessel through which he can speak. I’ve just packed the same great content into fewer words.

It takes me a long time to write a sermon. In keeping with the tradition of using the Lectionary, I tend to draw from Lectionary passages from the week I am speaking. For someone such as me, who is pretty new to this whole preaching role, it is often quite helpful. There is always an Old Testament reading, a Psalm, something from the Gospels, and a passage from the Epistles (the epistles are all of the letters which come after the Gospels: Mt, Mk, Lk, and Jn.)

Last week I was talking to Jo about my approach to selecting a passage to speak on and I mentioned that I tended to lean toward the Gospel readings. This year in the Lectionary has focused on Matthew, while next year will focus on Mark. They are the words of Christ, and therefore, pretty important. The Gospels are nice because they tell the story of Christ. Of his life, his teachings, and his death. When you get to the Epistles, things get a little more muddled.

The word “epistle” really just refers to a literary genre, one that is a writing directed to a person or group of people; a letter. The Epistles are letters that were written by leaders in the church 2000 years ago, most of them by Paul. So when we read them, we’re really reading someone else’s mail. We are reading one sided correspondence between a church leader and the church, and usually a church in trouble, or straying from the path.

For this reason, I’ve tended to play it safe and focus on the teachings of Jesus. The Gospel readings also lend themselves to single sermons, whereas the Epistles, especially those from Paul, often need a little more time to talk about, a multi-week series, maybe something I’ll work up to in the future.

In keeping with my Gospel-focused sermons, I turned to this morning’s reading and quickly got hung up on the seeming lack of grace in the story, and the various allegorical elements, and complexity of the parable. So much for playing it safe…

That’s alright, I learned a lot in my preparation for this morning and hopefully I can pass that on to you.

Today I want to talk about a parable that Jesus told his disciples. It is from the Gospel of Matthew, towards the end of the book. It is part of what is known as Jesus’ ‘Judgement Discourse’ that falls between Matthew 23 and 25. After this, in Chapter 26, it moves into preparation for Jesus’ crucifixion. So, being that these are some of the last teachings of Jesus, they tend to carry a little more weight. In the same way that when a dying person wants to impart wisdom, or say something important, it tends to carry more significance because they are dying. Jesus knows that he is dying, and therefore this discourse gains significance.

Today’s parable falls at the end of this Judgement Discourse and is the first of three eschatological parables.

Do you guys know what “eschatological” means? It is a word I learned in my first year of Bible College and it took me a while to really understand what it means. Eschatology is basically concerned with the endtimes or ‘the four last things; death, judgement, heaven, and hell.’ (Oxford English Dictionary)

The theme this morning is preparedness: preparing the way of the bridegroom, Christ, God’s incarnate love/mercy.

When you think back to the story that Lorne just read, which group do you think you fall into, the foolish or the wise? How do you think we, as Christians, have done preparing the way for Christ? How have we done being vigilant for his return?

Do you remember that guy, Harold Camping? He was the one with Family Radio and he predicted Christ’s return back in May. May 21^st to be exact, the day came and went and we weren’t trampled by the four horsemen of the Apocalypse, nor were all the chosen raptured, ascending into the sky. Realizing that he had obviously miscalculated (though he’d also predicted that this was supposed to happen back in 1994), but now he swore that it was all going to happen on October 21^st. Well, that was a few weeks ago now and we are all still here, so I guess he was wrong again.

Now Mr. Camping was not the first to try and predict the return of Christ, nor will he be the last. Folks have been doing this from the moment he died. And to be fair, Jesus did say that he would be returning soon, so folks have been anxiously awaiting that moment for the last 2000 years.

At the writing of this gospel, some 50 years after Jesus’ death, the early church would have been going through some tough times: many of Christ-followers, holding onto their Jewish heritage would have continued to worship in the synagogue, when suddenly they were cut off, with those worshipping Christ no longer welcome; Jesus had said he would return within their generation, yet he still hadn’t returned; and excitement surrounding this amazing teacher would have been waning.

Today’s parable speaks to these issues, and while it would be easy to just call those “bridesmaids” with oil “believers”, and those without “unbelievers”, that isn’t the case.

In this story we have the bridegroom, which is Christ Jesus, and the bridesmaids, who represent us, the Church of believers. We are represented by both the wise AND the foolish bridesmaids. But wait, at the end of the parable, don’t the foolish get locked out? Aren’t they denied entrance into the Kingdom of Heaven?

That seems to be the case, now doesn’t it? But what is the difference between the two groups? How do we know if we are the wise or the foolish? The difference lies in preparedness, the theme in today’s story.

Now before I go too far into explaining this parable, I want to give you a brief overview of what marriage looked like in Ancient Israel.

There are definitely some similarities and differences between now and then, with their weddings resembling more what we would consider to be an arranged marriage.

The father of the groom would go out, or more likely send a servant out, to search for a bride for his son. Once found, she was “purchased.” Women carried a price, which was paid to the father, and it was supposed to indicate how much the groom valued the bride, and to compensate the bride’s father for the loss of a worker.

There was then a betrothal, which is similar to our engagement, and the bride had a choice to say yes or no. The betrothal also included a marriage contract, a covenant with each other, which back then was sealed in blood and legally binding. At this point they were legally married in all aspects except for the physical consummation of the marriage.

The groom would then give gifts to the bride, and her father, and there would be a ceremony of ritual purification.

It was at this point that the groom would leave his bride and go to his father’s house to prepare a wedding chamber. This process could take up to 12 months, all the while she had to wait and be faithful.

Following his preparations, the groom would return, usually late at night. A horn would announce his presence and there would be singing and dancing in the streets. It was an event for the whole community, but especially for the young women invited to serve as bridesmaids. This would have been a great honor, and they would have been tasked to await the arrival of the groom and announce his presence. They would usher him in, guiding his way.

So back to the bridesmaids. On the surface, they all seemed to be the same, yet the key difference is that half showed up with extra oil for their lamps (the wise), while the other half did not.

I found 7 similarities between the foolish and the wise.

1. Invitation. All 10 women were invited to be bridesmaids, just as we have all been invited to be Christian. None were coerced or forced.
2. Acceptance. All 10 accepted. Honored and excited at the prospect, they all accepted the invitation, in the same way we as Christians have accepted Jesus Christ as our Lord.
3. Visible. All were there, awaiting the coming of the bridegroom. In the same way we are all waiting for the return of Christ, part of the visible church
4. Love. All 10 displayed love and affection toward the bridegroom, shown in their dedication by showing up to be part of the celebration. As Christians we also do this by participating in our faith community, engaging in prayer and worship, letting our lives reflect how much we value our relationship with Christ.
5. Asleep. All 10 fell asleep, both the foolish and the wise. I found this one to be the most interesting as it shows that we all fail at some point.
6. Patience. All 10 waited for the bridegroom to arrive, and while they did fall asleep, none left. Being a Christian can be hard. Wondering and waiting for Christ’s return can seem pointless at times, yet here we remain, steadfast in our devotion.
7. Lord. Similar to number 2, all 10 called the bridegroom, Lord, just as we call Christ, Lord.

But despite all of these similarities, there was one glaring difference between the two, one half showed up prepared while the other half did not.

It is important to note that judgement is reserved to the only one who can judge. This characteristic is confined to one character, the bridegroom. Even the wise women, the prepared women do not judge the foolish ones, they merely refuse to share their oil and send them to buy some more.

So then, what does it mean to be prepared? To be vigilant?

Christianity is often thought to be a religion of rules, of dos and don’ts, of guilt and condemnation. Hopefully over my last few sermons you’ve learned that Christianity isn’t about rules, in fact it is quite the opposite. It’s about getting out there and being the hands and feet of Christ. And how did he do things? With love. It’s what I talked about a few weeks back with Jesus’ Great Commandment: Love God. Love your neighbour. In doing these two things you will encompass everything that Jesus has called us to do.

Earlier in Matthew there is a great set of chapters that contain Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount. It is in here that we really learn what Jesus wants us to do, what Jesus expects, and a section that I find especially fitting to answer the question, what does it mean to be prepared?

These are the people who will enter into the Kingdom of Heaven. These are the wise bridesmaids who arrived with oil for their lamps. You might not notice the difference when you see the 10 bridesmaids standing there, but you sure see it on their hearts.

From Matthew 5: 3-12:

³ “Blessed are the poor in spirit,
for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
⁴ Blessed are those who mourn,
for they will be comforted.
⁵ Blessed are the meek,
for they will inherit the earth.
⁶ Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness,
for they will be filled.
⁷ Blessed are the merciful,
for they will be shown mercy.
⁸ Blessed are the pure in heart,
for they will see God.
⁹ Blessed are the peacemakers,
for they will be called children of God.
¹⁰ Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness,
for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

Being prepared isn’t easy. Being vigilant isn’t easy. Folks have been waiting a really long time for his return, which is why so many buy into the false prophesies of guys like Harold Camping. We wait, and wait, and wait, and we reach a point where we just grab onto something in hope.

Christ is our hope, and while His words might seem hard to hear, we can find comfort in them, in knowing that, while we might not know when, He will (indeed) return. “Therefore keep watch, because you do not know the day or the hour.” (Mt. 25:13)

Jesus gives us great instructions on how we can enter the Kingdom of Heaven, and while we will often fail, remember that even the wise bridesmaids fell asleep.

As you head out into this coming week, I want you think of ways that you are staying prepared for Christ’s return.

Last week a number of folks from the church, including some who were not from our church, met here on Halloween and we went out Trick-or-Treating for cans. Cans that were then donated to Winnipeg harvest.

We went out and were the hands and feet of Christ. We went out on a night not typically a Christian celebration and lived out His words:

35 For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, 36 I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.’

Wyrd bið ful aræd

For those of you that can’t see it, I’ve put a picture up on the screen. Now don’t worry if you can’t read it, it is in Old English and says, “Wyrd bið ful aræd.” Translated literally it says, “fate remains wholly inexorable.” You know, because that makes a lot of sense right? J It means that fate is impossible to stop, or unrelenting, that destiny is everything. It’s an old Norse saying, and I kinda like it. I’m not sure if I agree 100% everyday, but it works for me.

Anyway, so I got this tattoo on Wednesday and being all excited about it I posted pictures on Facebook and Twitter. I posted some while the artist was tattooing me, as well as the finished result. I received lots of congratulatory comments about it, along with the obligatory, “Christopher David!!” from my mom. (She’s not a fan of tattoo; she thinks they are ugly.) But I also received some less than positive comments, mostly from my more conservative Christian friends and family, with one email in particular standing out.

It was an email that expressed caution about my recent tattoo, especially as one going into ministry. It quoted the following verse from Leviticus 19:28, “Do not cut your bodies for the dead, and do not mark your skin with tattoos. I am the LORD.”

Now, reading it just like that it is pretty clear don’t you think? It says right there, clear as day, “do not mark your skin with tattoos.” Maybe I made a mistake? Maybe, as a Bible believing Christian, I shouldn’t have done that. Granted I already had a tattoo <show bass clef>, a bass clef that I got done 4 or 5 years ago, shortly after I started playing bass, but that was before I wanted to be in ministry.

So, was I wrong for getting this tattoo? I clearly violated one of the 613 Judaic Laws, does that mean I am unfit to be a pastor?

I want us to stop for a minute and take a look at one of the Old Testament readings for today; A set of verses that come from Leviticus and are actually just 10 verses prior to the one condemning tattoos.

The LORD spoke to Moses, saying: Speak to all the congregations of the people of Israel and say to them: You shall be holy, for I the LORD your God am holy… You shall not render an unjust judgment; you shall not be partial to the poor or defer to the great: with justice you shall judge your neighbor. You shall not go around as a slanderer among your people, and you shall not profit by the blood of your neighbor: I am the LORD. You shall not hate in your heart anyone of your kin; you shall reprove your neighbor, or you will incur guilt yourself. You shall not take vengeance or bear a grudge against any of your people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself: I am the LORD.

What we are looking at here are some of the purity laws that the Ancient Israelites were given, or had developed; laws to set themselves apart from the rest of the world, to draw them closer to God.

If you notice, there is a distinct focus on holiness; in fact, it is the focus of the entire book of Leviticus, a book where the word “holy” shows up more times than any other book of the Bible. The focus is on the holiness of God, as well as the holiness of His people.

Usually when we think about the laws from the Old Testament the first thing that comes to mind are the 10 Commandments, but did you know that the Israelites had a total of 613 laws that they were required to follow? 613! That’s kind of insane. Of those 613, 248 of them fell into the positive category, the “thou shalt” category, while 365 of them fell into the negative category, or were of the “thou shalt not” variety.

As someone who can barely keep track of the few rules in my life that I do have, I couldn’t imagine trying to memorize, and abide by, another 613. I don’t even think I could list all 10 Commandments that God gave Moses.

Now this isn’t to say that these laws weren’t necessary or didn’t serve a purpose. They were vitally important to the life of an ancient Israelite. These laws were what set them apart from the rest of the world. These laws allowed them to enter into God’s presence. I like to think of these laws, these commandments, as parental in nature. They are a parental gift God gave to help his people flourish, not a punishment to keep them in line.

I read a great analogy in which they compared God’s holiness to a blast furnace. Blast furnaces are hot and dangerous, and if you get too close you will get burned. The blast furnace will not burn you because it is angry, but because it is, by nature, hot. This concept can be applied to God – he is all powerful by nature, and that has consequences, not “angry” consequences, just the facts of his omnipotent reality. Israel was given, or developed, these laws so that they could enter into God’s presence, his holiness, without fear of death.

God is still Holy, but we, as Christians, are not in relationship with him the same way the Israelites were. We are not held to these laws because we have been redeemed by the blood of Christ. Prior to Jesus, the only way to enter into God’s presence was to abide by, or at least attempt to abide by, these 613 laws, the words of the prophets, and sacrifices. But this is not the case anymore, praise God for that! Access is now given through Jesus Christ – not because we just erase the laws, but because Jesus fulfills them, as he said in Matt 5:17, “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them.” Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross makes Jesus the doorway into the God’s presence, and his Divine Love. This is why we are no longer bound by the law, but freed from it.

What does that mean for my tattoo and Leviticus 19:28, “thou shalt not tattoo any marks on thy body”? If I was a Jew, I probably shouldn’t be getting tattoos, but as a Christian freed from the bonds of the Law, I don’t need to worry, for I can enter into God’s presence by his amazing grace!

This brings me to the second part of my sermon today, the gospel reading that _______ read earlier.

In this reading we have what is known as The Great Commandment. (have you ever noticed how all the things Jesus said have the word “great” attached to them? The Great Commandment, the Great Commission, the Great…. Other things.)

So in the gospel reading Jesus is surrounded by pestering law-abiding Israelites who are once again (and thankfully, for the last time), trying to trip him up and trap him into saying something heretical. This time Jesus finds himself being grilled by a legal expert from among the Pharisees.

Now there are two main groups that we are constantly hearing about throughout the New Testament, the Sadducees and the Pharisees. Do you know the difference between the two? I never did. I just assumed they were all the same, a bunch of Jews who were overly-focused on the law, because that’s how the Bible makes them out to be, right? Well, it turns out there were some rather significant differences between the two groups.

See, the Sadducees were typically aristocrats. They were wealthy, held powerful positions, as well as the majority of the seats in the Sanhedrin – the governing body of the Jews. They were a group that seemed more concerned with politics than religion and often worked hard to accommodate their Roman rulers, often at the expense of their own people (the Jews). They were removed from the common man, and so were unconcerned with Jesus until they found him to be a threat, afraid that he was going to bring unwanted Roman attention.

So while the Sadducees were the ruling, aristocratic type, the Pharisees were mostly middle-class businessmen, and held in much higher regard with the common man because they could relate. When it came to religion, the key difference between the Sadducees and Pharisees was which texts they considered the authoritative word of God. Sadducees, the politicians, held that only the written word (the Pentateuch?) was of God, while the Pharisees held that the Jewish oral tradition carried equal weight to the written word.

[FYI, the political concerns of the Sadducees were no longer needed following the destruction of the Temple in 70AD, so they no longer exist, while the Pharisees remain active to this day. Just a little aside to give you some background info on the groups in the Bible, and as John would say, “But I digress…”  So back to the story…]

Jesus is being grilled by the Pharisees and they test him by asking him, “Which commandment in the law is the greatest?” And Jesus, being the sneaky, clever man that he is (it helps that he is also God), responds, with a two part answer: “’You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.’” Also, “’ You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’”

Simple, right? Love God, love your neighbour. Check and check. Done. As a Christian that’s all I need to do? Those are my two commandments? They had 613, and I only have two? Sweet!

If only it were that easy…

These commandments Jesus lists are hardly new. Heck, they are straight out of the Old Testament, one is actually from the Leviticus passage I read earlier (No, not the no tattoo one, if that were the case, I think Christianity would look a whole lot different and have a whole lot less young people). No, the verses Jesus is quoting are Deuteronomy 6:5 and Leviticus 19:18.

And you must love the LORD your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your strength.(Deut. 6:5)

“You shall not take vengeance or bear a grudge against any of your people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself.” (Lev. 19:18)

And Jesus wasn’t the first Rabbi to say these things either, there were numerous Rabbis before him that said the same thing. But at that point in time, his presentation of these ideas was a blow to the religious status quo. A hard enough blow to put Jesus on the cross – and without that, the Christian church wouldn’t even exist. So these ideas, as old as they are, must remain important for us today. So what we need to do is address what these commandments look like for us, so many years later.

Last month I was up here talking about the unfairness of grace. To be a Christian, to be saved, to enter into the eternal presence of God’s glory only requires one thing, acceptance of Jesus Christ as Lord. That’s it.

So do we need to follow these commandments in order to “be saved.” Technically no, but there are numerous times when Jesus says, “If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me.” Or “If you continue in My word, then you are truly disciples of Mine; and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free.”

To be a Christian is to be a follower of Christ, and what do followers do? Take the lead of their leader and do as they do. So with the acceptance of Christ as Lord, we are also accepting his yoke, his cross. We read in 1 John 2:4-6:

“If someone claims, “I know him well!” but doesn’t keep his commandments, he’s obviously a liar. His life doesn’t match his words. But the one who keeps God’s word is the person in whom we see God’s mature love. This is the only way to be sure we’re in God. Anyone who claims to be intimate with God ought to live the same kind of life Jesus lived.”

Alright, so what does it mean to live out these two commandments in our lives today?

Well, first we need to understand just what it was Jesus was saying here.

We read, “Love God and love your neighbour as you love yourself.”

How can we be commanded to love? That doesn’t make sense. How can one be forced to love another? That’s not going to be very genuine. And you’re right, it wouldn’t be. But that isn’t the kind of love Jesus is talking about here.

In the days of old, and I’m taking like 2000+ years ago, to “love” didn’t mean this mushy, gushy, touchy, feely, affection type thing that we think of it as today. Back then love wasn’t necessarily this intense emotion but more akin to commitment. Well, that kind of emotional love existed as well, but that isn’t the kind referenced here. This type of love also wasn’t passive, but active. Something we have to do of our own will. As one author put it, “it is loving-kindness, merciful action that is both generous and continuous.”

This is starting to sound like something I can do. I’m not big on just loving everyone in the way I normally think about love in that “feelings” sort of way. At least not right away. And what I’m finding is, that as you start to love your neighbours in a “loving-kindness” and “merciful action” kind of way, it is easier to love them in the emotional kind of way too.

It’s still hard. Sure, it is easy to love the neighbour that you like. Maybe you shovel the walk for the elderly couple next door, bring banana bread to the people that just moved in across the street. But what about when it comes to loving those you don’t really feel a connection with? The smelly homeless guy, the annoying co-worker? When Jesus says to love our neighbour as we love ourselves, he means to love the stranger as we love those that are close to us.

So I want to ask you folks, how do you love your neighbours? Was there a time in this past week when you loved your neighbour like Jesus commanded here? What about the last year? What about anytime? When was the last time you showed loving-kindness to someone that you didn’t necessarily want to?

This morning we learned two very important things:

One, that we as Christians are free from the law. The Law still exists for those that want to attempt to live under it, but by God’s saving grace it is no longer a necessity to enter into His holy presence. Feel free to cut your hair, wear polyester, eat pork, eat pork while drinking a milkshake, plant beans next to peas in the same field, let a practicing witch live, and yes, even get a tattoo.

“What Jesus claims is that the whole law is about love, not rules, about really loving God and one’s neighbor, not about figuring out how to avoid stepping on cracks in the legal sidewalk” (Matthew, Westminster Bible Companion).

And two, that there are two simple rules that are far more important than the 613, more important than the mighty 10 Commandments. These two rules are known as The Great Commandment: Love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind. In the same way, love your neighbour as yourself. There is no other commandment greater than these.

And as such, “it is important to remember that the primary component of biblical love is not affection but commitment. Warm feelings of gratitude may fill our consciousness as we consider all that God has done for us, but it is not warm feelings that Jesus demands of us but rather stubborn, unwavering commitment” (Matthew, Interpretation).  And commitment can be seen as a setting of the heart, something we choose to do, a way we freely choose to live our lives. Commitment is that mysterious mingling of feeling and action, a beautiful dance between the two.

Free from the law, safe with the knowledge that by God’s grace we are saved through Christ Jesus’ sacrifice, go out there and be a follower of Christ. Follow in his footsteps, take up his cross and live out this greatest of all commandments. Get out there and show the love of Christ to those around you. Do it with unwavering commitment and watch it change your life in amazing ways. Don’t get caught up in the supposed legalities of Christianity, live a live free from guilt and shame, knowing that you are a child of God and He loves you.

Amen!

Verses

Last week I read the parable of the workers in the vineyard. Here’s a brief summary: The owner of a vineyard goes out in the morning and hires some men to work for him. Throughout the day he goes out a few more times, hiring a few more men each time. The last time he goes out, he hires men that only work the last hour of the day.

When it comes time to pay the laborers, he pays everyone the same amount, no matter if they worked one hour or the entire day. This infuriates those that worked the entire day because they believed their compensation should reflect their longer labour. In response, the landowner says, “’Friend, I am doing you no wrong; did you not agree with me for the usual daily wage? Take what belongs to you and go; I choose to give to this last the same as I give to you. Am I not allowed to do what I choose with what belongs to me? Or are you envious because I am generous?’”

To the Jews that were listening to this story, it would have hit pretty close to home. For the last 2000 or so years, they had been toiling, supposing the benefits of their current position under the Romans were due largely to themselves and their works. They figured they had earned this position as God’s chosen people through centuries of faithful labour (though reading through the Old Testament, their faith wasn’t exactly the most consistent thing in their lives). They were a people that had forgotten their position, their blessing, was due to God’s grace, not through anything they had done.

So listening to this story, they would have had more than a few issues with the idea that these benefits they figured they had earned over the years were now being freely given to the gentiles who had done nothing to deserve them.

The second parable I want to focus on comes from just a small section of this week’s Gospel reading, the parable of the two sons.

“Tell me what you think of this story: A man had two sons. He went up to the first and said, ‘Son, go out for the day and work in the vineyard.’ “The son answered, ‘I don’t want to.’ Later on he thought better of it and went.” The father gave the same command to the second son. He answered, ‘Sure, glad to.’ But he never went.” Which of the two sons did what the father asked?”

They said, “The first.”   Jesus said, “Yes, and I tell you that crooks and whores are going to precede you into God’s kingdom. John came to you showing you the right road. You turned up your noses at him, but the crooks and whores believed him. Even when you saw their changed lives, you didn’t care enough to change and believe him.

This parable is one of my favorite stories in the entire Bible, and probably one of the most powerful, life altering verses that I have ever read. Consequently, it is also the most challenging and hardest to understand.

Among other things, what Jesus is saying here is that no matter what kind of life you have lived, as long as you turn to Jesus before you die (or He returns), all is forgiven. Pretty simple and straight forward right? Well, kind of like communism, it sounds good on paper but in reality it is a whole lot messier.

To put the parable in the language of grace and make it less abstract: Two men are given the choice to accept Jesus as Son of God and in doing so secure His redemptive grace. The first man chooses not to accept, and walks away. Later in life he realizes the folly of his ways and returns and accepts the offer. The second man accepts, professes his belief, but then does not live it out, nor continues to believe what he has accepted.

To this Jesus says that the first man is the one who is doing the will of the father and as such, receives God’s redemptive grace.

So this got me thinking, is it fair that a man who has spent his life in sin can suddenly change his mind at whatever point and God will accept him and he will receive as much as someone who has spent his entire life serving God?

Is it fair that people who come in line with Christ in the “last hour” of their lives receive the same love and salvation from God as those who’ve followed him faithfully from age four?

It isn’t fair. And for most of us sitting here today, we’ve been in the Christian family for awhile. We’re more likely to stand among those workers who had worked all day, as it were. Maybe we’re a little more likely to feel the sting of that unfairness. And I think, certainly for me at least, it leads me to believe God has something important to teach me about his grace, and how it isn’t fair. And what I learned about the unfairness of grace is what I’d like to share today.

Grace

In preparation for my sermon I asked the question, “What does grace mean to you?” I asked people at work, friends in my Twitter prayer group, Facebook friends, and other random people. These are some of the responses I received.

“Grace teaches us that God does for others what we’d never do for them.”

“Grace is what extends us beyond ourselves in spite of ourselves. The institution of it was purchased by Christ on the Cross and it is administered through his resurrection to all who believe in him.”

“Grace is the eternal reversal of causation as a gift, and promise from a forgiving, loving, just God.”

“Grace is forgiveness when none is deserving.”

“Grace is a fresh start every time I need it. No memories of the failures, just the promise of the future.”

“God’s absolute acceptance and inclusion of us in God’s family. God’s transformative presence recreating us into our true self.”

“Grace is undeserved rescue from the mess I’ve got myself into.”

“Grace is unmerited blessings given to believers in Christ.”

The word “grace” occurs 131 times in 123 verses in the NIV, with only 7 of those times being in the Old Testament. It comes from the Greek word ca,rij.

The lexical meaning of the word is simply “non-meritorious or unearned favor, an unearned gift, a favor or blessings bestowed as a gift, freely and never as merit for work performed.”

A theological definition of the word is “Grace is all that God freely and non-meritoriously does for man and is free to do for man on the basis of Christ’s person and work on the cross. Grace, one might say, is the work of God for man and encompasses everything we receive from God.”

With those definitions in mind, I went through all 131 instances of the word in the Bible to find out what the Bible had to say about grace.

What is grace?

-         God’s eternal blessing

-         Received by the humble

-         Multiple blessings

-         Often associated with truth and peace and righteousness

-         Allows people to do miraculous signs and wonders

-         It is through grace that we are saved

-         It is given to us through Jesus Christ

-         It is freely given to us

-         It is for everyone

-         Where there is sin, there is grace

-         It is not worldly wisdom

-         It frees us from the Law

-         It helps us in our time of need

-         It strengthens our hearts

-         It is not a license for immorality

From this list we see that grace is quite the multifaceted concept. We as Christians are saved by grace, justified by grace, and given grace. Grace abounds, is surpassing, and is given freely to everyone through Jesus Christ. We experience it, are strengthened by it, grow in it, and are freed by it. It is God’s eternal blessing, received by the humble, to help us in our time of need. Grace is the wonderful truth of God’s character through Jesus which is shown to us, comes upon us, and is manifested in us.

As Christians, we believe that all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. We are fallen, sinful, and we screw up. It is only through God’s unmerited grace that we are redeemed. And it is this redemption, this amazing gift of God’s unmerited grace that is freely given, the only requirement being belief in Jesus as the Son of God and accepting him as your Lord and Saviour. And here is where we run into the issue of God and his lack of fairness that I talked about from the Gospel readings. I want to expand on that a little more.

Fairness

Life isn’t fair. You know that, I know that, the only ones who don’t know that are babies, but it is something toddlers figure out pretty darn quickly. Hey, I wouldn’t think life was fair either if I was constantly being told “no” and having everything fun taken away from me. What can I say, the life of a toddler is tough. Or maybe that’s just my son. J

Seriously though, life isn’t fair. Sure, we try and build a framework of fairness into our lives. Build a box in which we can control everything, right and wrong, yes and no, fair and unfair. Laws, rules, doctrine, and commandments. We have “fair play” in sports, and on the playground we teach our kids do “play fair.” We try to create a system of fairness, though it’s all subjective in the end.

This is all nothing but a human construct; fairness is not a concept God works within.

According to the parables we looked at earlier, belief, no matter how late in life is all that is required. Now I want to stress, this isn’t ideal, or what God intended for us to all do, but the option has been left open.

This means that people like Hitler, Pol Pot, George Bush, Jeffrey Dahmer, and Charles Manson could potentially, on their deathbed, realize that everything they have been doing, all the innocent people they killed, was wrong, that Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life, commit their remaining breaths to him, and die in God’s good grace. Doesn’t sound very fair does it? Now I’m taking it to the extreme a bit, but this point needs to be illustrated.

Let’s look at the Old Testament, there are countless examples of God not working within the constraints of fairness, at least as we define it.

The most glaring example of unfairness in the Bible would have to be the story of Job. Here is a man, blameless and upright. He feared God and shunned evil. He was the greatest man among all the people of the East. Job was a faithful servant of God, yet everything he had was taken away from him. His servants were slain and livestock stolen. Even his children were killed. Then he was afflicted with painful sores over his entire body.

Job was a shining example of what it meant to be a good and proper servant of God, and still he suffered.

There was no fairness in God’s treatment of Job.

Then we have the story of John the Baptist. John was imprisoned for denouncing the marriage of Herod to the wife of his former brother in violation of Old Testament law. John had done nothing wrong, but was imprisoned all the same. To make matters worse, he is then beheaded at the prompting of Herod’s wife, who John had spoken against.

There is no fairness in this death.

And then we have Jesus. The man that was crucified for the sins of the world. A man blameless, pure, holy. Is this not the pinnacle of unfairness?

It is with these examples in mind that we return to grace. In the above examples, and in most examples we can call to mind individually, unfairness is a negative thing. Even when incidents occur in our lives that benefit others but not ourselves, we consider this to be unfair. The root of this problem is envy of those treated kindly without merit.

Unfairness carries a lot of negative connotations, yet when it comes to grace, isn’t it anything but negative? If we leave this selfish little box we have built, can’t we see the absolutely incredible nature of this act?

It is the very nature of the act of grace not fitting within our idea of fairness that makes it so wonderful!

Not a ticket to heaven

Part of what is so amazing about God’s grace is that it does so much more than just ensure our salvation. Grace is not merely a ticket to heaven.

As Paul says in Ephesians, “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith — and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God — not by works, so that no one can boast” (Ephesians 2:8-9).

God’s grace redeems and saves us. But this doesn’t mean grace is just a ticket to heaven. It doesn’t mean it is a one-time “Get out of Jail Free” card. Grace is what allows us to live, day-to-day, with residual sin in our lives. Grace allows us to screw up and still come crawling back to him. Grace is unconditional forgiveness always. No matter what we say or do, God will take us back. He takes us back without mention of failures, just promises of the future.

Without grace we crawl through life, living fallen, sinful lives, lives broken and incomplete. It is through this amazing transformative blessing that our sinfulness is transformed into something that points to God. It allows our lives to be turned around, turned into something meaningful.

Grace is not just a ticket to heaven; grace is continuous redemption. Grace allows us to be the hands and feet of God, vessels of His love. Grace allows us to live lives free of shame, with the power to become something that, in turn, sheds light onto the very nature of God. A forgiving God. A gracious God. A god who loves without condition, who shows grace no matter what, in every day, in every moment.

Grace isn’t just there for us at the end, but at each step along the way, big and small, those that step up, and those that step in big stinking piles of crap. Without redemption there is no light, no hope and the world only gets uglier. Grace allows each day to start new. New opportunity, new love, new beginnings.

Grace allows us to be the love that Love has been to us.

So I have three things I want you to think about as you go out into your week:

1. Think about what grace means to you and how are you responding to it. Are there times in your life when you have been shown grace when you didn’t deserve it? How does it make you feel to receive something good when fairness would say you deserved the opposite?
2. Then, think about it the other way around; what about times when you have shown grace to someone who you didn’t think deserved it? How do you think you showing grace changed their life? How did it make you feel to act in a way that reflects the nature of God?
3. Life often isn’t fair, but it is how you respond to that unfairness where you can demonstrate the love of God in your life. This week when you come across a situation that you do not think is fair, respond to it with the same grace that God has shown us, respond to it with love and forgiveness.

So first we check in with one of the psalms, 119:33-40, where the psalmist is singing this song to the Lord: “Teach me, O Lord, the way of your statutes, and I will observe it to the end. Give me understanding that I may keep your law and observe it with my whole heart. Lead me in the path of your commandments, for I delight in it.”

Discipline is about teaching our children how to belong in society, how to follow the rules of social living, since they’re not likely to go off and be hermits. Rules are not naturally appealing to our nature – we have to use higher thinking to rationalize that following the rule has a greater benefit to my position within the greater good – and that reasoning allows us to follow rules against our nature.

I heard an interesting study on the radio that people get self-control fatigue, or ego-fatigue. What happens is, we go through our days making so many decisions, so much rule following (self or other imposed) and it tires us out mentally, so that we lose self-control after exerting that much decision making effort. So, you can choose to eat healthy all day long, and somehow at 10pm, you’re scarfing down three scoops of ice cream. Or maybe that’s just me.

And the more I thoughts about it, the more I was like, this is not news to parents! Because toddlers are great examples of ego fatigue – they are so new to using reasoning to follow rules, it really takes quite a bit of cognitive effort, you can see it on their face. And it exhausts them! When Jasper stops listening, stops exerting the mental effort to listen to my words and follow my directions, then I know it’s time for sleep. He has reached ego fatigue.

Matthew 18:15-20 describes how we are to approach discipline of a sinful church member. First, “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,” The Message translates this as “you have made a friend.” So, just like a parent with two kids fighting over a toy, God would like us to sort it out between ourselves, one-on-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.” So the passage goes on to describe two more what-ifs, what if the person doesn’t listen to me, what if the person doesn’t listen to a few of us, what if the person doesn’t listen to the church, ending with the possibility of, essentially, removal from the congregation.

I definitely think this passage has been misappropriated over the years, to justify some shady church practices. Can you just imagine, “Oh brother Pat I’m so aggrieved you won’t agree with us on our choice of carpet colour for the new sanctuary. If you would just see the error of your ways. No? Well, here are my witnesses who can affirm that the taupe and navy swirl is truly the blessed choice of colouring. Won’t you see the light? No? Then we must shame you for your awful taste in carpet, and you shall be cast out!” I think following Matthew 18 with the wrong heart has contributed to more than a few church splits over the years.

In all seriousness, I have to say I’ve struggled with this passage over my life. It feels like a recipe for legalism – people who want to get up in other’s faces for being sinful have this lovely little step by step guide on how to call them out, and potentially shame them in front of the whole church. Many pay lip service to this idea that you approach the person “in love”, but it still often seems to amount to the same thing – convenient justification for being kind of a jerk. I definitely needed to dig a little deeper and find some better insight about this.

First, the very inclusion of this passage in the bible confirms what we already know by experience: our brothers and sisters will sin, it will happen. It bears pondering, you know, what if I’m the person who has sinned against another? What if someone is looking at this passage and thinking about me? How would I want them to approach me? All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God – so it’s important to think about, in advance, the loving and grace-filled way to deal with it. Sin happens, and it will go better for us if we get in line with God’s thoughts on the matter to process it.

Secondly, the whole passage is about the relational consequences of sin – sin affects more than just ourselves. If my sin was mine alone, I could work it out with God alone, and that would be fine, but a little sterile, and not true to life as human, social animals. My sin affects the people around me, and given this inevitability, it behoves us to consider beforehand, what to do about it. There is a natural progression in these steps, from individual to communal. So first, we hit it one-on-one, if that doesn’t work, bring in someone else, if that doesn’t work, take it to the community. The addition of each new person brings the consequences of the sin more immediately into more and more people’s lives. It’s important to bring in witnesses, to share the responsibility here, for the health of the community. To share the burden of finding the right way.

Thirdly, we must place this passage in context, snuggled between Jesus’ parable of the lost sheep and Jesus’ response to Peter’s question about how often to forgive. The parable of the lost sheep reminds us the good shepherd will leave the ninety-nine to search for the stray, no matter what, concluding in Matthew 18:14, “So it is not the will of your Father who is in heaven that one of these little ones perish.” And then remember Peter asks how many times a brother can repeatedly sin against him and still receive forgiveness, suggesting seven times might be enough, to which Jesus fires back, no, up to seventy times seven.

Doesn’t this sound more and more like God’s discipline after all? It’s not about condemnation, and progressively sort of piling on guilt to someone until they snap “Okay okay I repent sheesh!” This is about community, and teaching each other, in community, about escaping sin, getting out from under it, for our own health and the health of the group. And isn’t that your own instinct, as a parent when you discipline your children, too? You want your child to see where they went wrong, and you want them understand how it affects the family, and you want them to know this is a safe place to screw up and fall down and be lifted back up and be loved. When we discipline the way Matthew 18 shows us, not necessarily as a step by step, but following the community principles, we’re using love as our guiding principle.

This is confirmed by Paul’s thoughts in our NT reading. In the first part, Romans 13:8-10, we read: Owe nothing to anyone except the huge debt of love you owe each other, for he 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 is summed up in this, ‘You shall love your neighbour as yourself.’ Love does no wrong to a neighbour; therefore love is the fulfillment of the law.”

All of the commandments (which. remember, we are to delight in) can be summed up with love. When we love each other, we fulfill those commandments. In fact, the only debt we are to have is the huge debt of love towards each other. Discipline can feel like it gets caught up in the don’ts: don’t steal, don’t covet, don’t cheat on your spouse. But it’s not about that: the commandments are all about love, and discipline is about learning to do that, learning to delight in living out love. When we discipline each other in the church, we have to use love as our guiding principle. When we see each other falling away from love, it would be unloving to ignore it. It is our responsibility to reach out and give a hand, to help guide and teach and bring the stray sheep home.

The OT reading this week came from Exodus 12:1-14, where God instructs Moses and Aaron how the Israelites are to prepare for the first Passover, the ultimate plague God brings against Egypt when he kills all the firstborn in Egypt, both human and animal, except in the Israelite houses, whose doors are marked with the blood of a sacrificial lamb. God commands them, “This day shall be a day of remembrance for you. You shall celebrate it as a festival to the Lord.”

Passover has beautiful symbolism – it has this very tangible, physical working out of salvation. You have to keep an animal, and then you have to kill it and eat it, and then you have to physically put its blood on your door. It is performed with hand and mouth, it is visible on your doorstep, it had real life and death consequences for the firstborn of Egypt. It is worth commemorating every year. We don’t do this, obviously, because Jesus accomplished our Passover, once and for all. We don’t have to kill an animal and use its blood to be forgiven of sin – Jesus already did this on the cross. Our salvation is worked out internally, in the heart, and that is warm and intimate. But if we left it that way, it would also be silent and isolated, just our own little thing that no one has to know about. We are not meant to do this alone, we are meant to be in community. And we need direction about how to do that, we need to be guided, disciplined, regarding how to live out love and grace to each other.

Part of that is coming together and commemorating our Passover in Christ, which we do at the communion table each month…[etc.]

I just started preaching last December, when I preached my first sermon the third Sunday of Advent. Now, 8 months later, I have preached 7 times. For a while there I was preaching every 6 or 7 weeks, but it is hard doing little one-off sermons with no follow-up. So I asked to do a few weeks in a row, and got the privledge to do so these past three weeks.

So I learned what it is like to speak 3 weeks in a row. To write 3 sermons and deliver them without a break. And you know, it was hard; writing sermons is a lot of work. Now it might not be for someone that has done it for years, but for someone who only has part of a degree, has never taken a class on preaching, and is just sort of making it up as he goes, it is a little more work. I mean, I’m doing alright, and I’m getting better with each week, but it sure isn’t easy.

I find sermon writing to be a difficult process, and quite frustrating. Now part of that is because I’m a big procrastinator, but what is most difficult is dealing with my own faith. With trying to figure out why I believe what I believe, and why that is important to me.

It causes me to look at my faith, and my beliefs, and re-examine them. This is hard to do when in the midst of trying to figure out what to write and present to the congregation. I mean, I am bringing them the Word of God, but how am I supposed to be a good steward of His Word when I don’t even know what I believe.

Preaching has been an amazing eye-opening experience, and I have learned a lot.

Being a full-time stay-at-home-parent, I fit my sermon writing into nap times and after they go to bed. This isn’t too bad with my son, since he has a pretty regular schedule, but we are transitioning him out of the crib to a real bed, so he hasn’t been napping properly. Add to that the fact that I have a 5 month old baby girl who doesn’t nap on a consistent schedule, and much of my sermon writing time is spent holding her, or putting him back in bed.

But I still manage to get them done, and from the comments, I’m doing a pretty good job.

It’s been cool to see the evolution of comments that I have been getting. When I started they were very generic, “good job,” and the like. And while encouraging, I’m a big fan of critical comments. I want to know what I did well, and what I can improve on.

So critical comments, along with listening to my own sermons (have you ever had to listen to yourself speak for 20-25minutes? it is hard.)

And I’m improving. My writing is getting better, but where I have really noticed the difference is in my speaking/presenting skills. I rarely say “uhh” or “umm” and am getting more confident in my speech. One thing I do need to work on is my hand gestures, I’m still pretty stiff, but even that is improving. I think the next step is to record myself on video to really see what I’m like up there.

I’m glad I have this amazing opportunity. Not many pastor-wannabes get this kind of opportunity, and I’m fully embracing it. It might be hard, and I might get frustrated, but I’m going to get what I can out of it while I have the chance. Between now and Christmas I will have the opportunity to speak once a month, and I’m looking forward to continuing to improve.

Faith

For the last few weeks I have been talking about issues surrounding faith. I built a 3 week series on Faith structured around the Gospel Lectionary readings. In the church calendar we are in the period following Pentecost known as Ordinary Time. There are no big feast days or celebrations, but it is a time when the focus, for the Gospel readings anyway, is on the teaching and ministry of Jesus. And, since we are in year A, the focus is on the book of Matthew.

Two weeks ago the topic was doubt. Doubt is what we begin with, we learn to deal with, and as a result we come out with a greater certainty of faith than we would have had we not gone through the doubting process. Doubt is not a sin; it is an essential aspect of growing our faith, and something we should learn to respond to in a productive manner, lest it lead to unbelief

Doubt differs from unbelief in that doubt says, “I don’t think that can happen,” while unbelief says “no way that can happen.”

What is important when it comes to doubt is how we respond to it, through prayer, conversation, and biblical reading.

Last week we learned about perseverance and the power of persistent faith. Through her persistence, the Canaanite woman had the power to fight against an unyielding Jesus. Her persistence changed the mind of the Son of God, and as a result her daughter was healed, and a fundamental change took place in Jesus’ ministry.

Perseverance and persistence can be hard. It is easy to want to give up, especially when prayers seem unheard and go unanswered. But we have stories like the Canaanite woman to show us the power of a persistent faith, and we can draw strength from that.

Today, in my final sermon in this series, I want to talk about faith itself, the faith that we as Christians profess and believe. Instead of getting into the minutae of various doctrine and dogma, I want to talk about the very foundation of our faith. I want to look at the question Jesus asked his disciples, “Who am I to you?”

Let’s start with the answer given in the Gospel. Peter calls Jesus “Messiah, Son of the living God.” It is this phrase that is the foundational belief of what it means to be a Christian. The foundation of the Christian faith is that Jesus is Messiah, the anointed one, the fulfillment of prophecy, the Son of God.

One night as I walked home from work in downtown Calgary, I passed a man handing out tracts by one of the C-train stations. We started a conversation, during which he asked some questions that stuck with me, questions about who I thought Jesus was. This guy was standing among the crowds, trying to find converts, and here I was, already a Christian, and he still left me with questions. That’s the thing! This part of faith – answering who Jesus is –is the question we keep asking throughout our Christian journey.

The basis of Christianity, the central tenet of this entire faith tradition is the belief that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God. It is the foundation upon which all other aspects of the faith – the crucifixion and resurrection, forgiveness of our sins, Christian community, missional living – are built. Without Jesus as Messiah, there is no reason to believe.
I like the way C.S. Lewis puts it in his book, Mere Christianity, which, if you haven’t read is a great read and he does a good job of explaining Christianity, especially some of the confusing bits, like the Trinity. This is a quote from Mere Christianity on why belief in Jesus as the Son of God is imperative to faith as a Christian,

“I am trying here to prevent anyone from saying the really foolish thing that people often say about Him [Jesus Christ]: ‘I’m ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don’t accept his claim to be God.’ That is the one thing we must not say. A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic—on a level with a man who says he is a poached egg—or else he would be the Devil of hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God, or else a madman or something worse. You can shut him up for fool, you can spit at him and kill him as a demon; or you can fall at his feet and call him Lord and God. But let us not come up with any patronizing nonsense about his being a great human teacher. He has not left that option open to us. He did not intend to.”

So C.S. Lewis thinks that it is folly to think about Jesus as merely a great moral teacher, you either believe he is the Messiah, or a lunatic. Now there are many that would disagree with him on this point, Muslims for instance, who believe Jesus to be a great prophet, but not the Divine Son of God. I, however, am inclined to agree with Lewis. Jesus is the divine Son of God, and without this belief, there is no point to Christianity.

So if we use Peter’s response, “Messiah, Son of the living God” as the foundational belief for the Christian faith, do we actually know what it means? Do we understand what it means that Jesus is the Messiah? That Jesus is the Son of God? Now, some of you might know exactly what that means, and how it impacts your faith, but I’m sure there are many out there who have always just heard and used the expression, but never really thought about it. So I want to explore this idea of what it means to have faith in Jesus that He is the Messiah, the Christ, the Son of God.

The word “messiah” is a Hebrew word that we kind of butcher in our pronunciation, but since I’m no good at making the gutteral sounds required to say it properly in Hebrew; we’ll go with the English pronunciation.

Messiah means “anointed” and the Greek for “anointed is “Christ.” So “Messiah” = “Christ.” The words are synonymous, translated from Hebrew to Greek.

Throughout the Hebrew Bible, “messiah” is used two ways; to refer to someone crowned as a King, or, as we Christians use it, to mean saviour. When referring to a king, there are a number of people called “messiah,” including King Saul and King David. In these instances however, it means they were selected by God to be King of Israel.

There is only one time that the word “messiah” is used in the way we think of it, and that is in the book of Daniel. This is also where the phrase, “Son of Man” finds its link to the title “messiah.” Jesus studied the Hebrew bible like any other Jewish boy; he knew it by heart. When, as an adult, Jesus refers to himself as the “Son of Man” he is referencing this Daniel passage, and he knows those Jewish listeners he is addressing would understand he was proclaiming himself as the Messiah.

Throughout the Hebrew Scriptures, the promise of a Messiah is given, but that exact word isn’t necessarily used. The classic messianic prophesy comes from Isaiah 53, which identifies “The Suffering Servant.” This passage, when read next to stories from the New Testament gospels, reads with startling parallels – the events foretold match up so closely with the real events that transpired so many centuries later. Psalm 22 is another amazing example where it predicts numerous separate elements about Jesus’ crucifixion a thousand years before the event took place.

This Hebraic messiah is the one Peter claimed faith in, when he answered Jesus, “You are the Messiah, son of the Living God.” However, Peter was also still clinging to a messiah with kingly connotations. He believed the messiah’s appearance would usher in an age of peace and prosperity, such as the world has never known. This is in line with the prophecies that the Christ be from the line of David, and that his destiny would be to restore the house of David to kingship, with Jerusalem at the center of the world’s religious worship.

It bears noting modern Judaism still denies Jesus fulfills the messianic prophecy, for a variety of reasons. The messiah Peter thought he was proclaiming is not the messiah of Jesus we know within the Christian church today. We need to look forward from the Hebrew Scriptures. What does Jesus the messiah look like to us today? What is he to us Christians now?

Now, I could sit here and go through what I believe are the basics of the Christian faith, but I find some of the church fathers did a great job of that at the Council of Nicea back in the 4th century. It gives a nice basis for what it means to be a Christian without adding too many extras to get caught up in. On the other hand, I’m told Baptists aren’t big on creeds, so please forgive me if I stretch our Baptist comfort zones with this illustration today. The Nicene Creed states:

•  We believe in one God, the Father, the Almighty, maker of heaven and earth, of all that is, seen and unseen.
• We believe in one Lord, Jesus Christ, the only Son of God, eternally begotten of the Father, God from God, Light from Light, true God from true God, begotten, not made, of one Being with the Father; through him all things were made.
• For us and for our salvation he came down from heaven, was incarnate of the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary and became truly human.
• For our sake he was crucified under Pontius Pilate; he suffered death and was buried.
• On the third day he rose again in accordance with the Scriptures; he ascended into heaven and is seated at the right hand of the Father.
• He will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead, and his kingdom will have no end.
• We believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the giver of life, who proceeds from the Father and the Son, who with the Father and the Son is worshiped and glorified, who has spoken through the prophets.
• We believe in one holy catholic and apostolic Church.
• We acknowledge one baptism for the forgiveness of sins.
• We look for the resurrection of the dead, and the life of the world to come. Amen

I find this creed, along with the Apostles’ Creed, nicely sums up the basics of the Christian faith. Now you’ll find many that would argue that more should be added, while others say not all parts of the creed are necessary. But there will be people to debate over the details until the end of time, and we’re just looking for some foundational basics today. The creed(s) provide an outline of the roles Jesus is to play as Messiah or Christ:

• He suffered and died to reconcile the sins of all mankind.
• He was raised from the dead on the third day after he was crucified to demonstrate His power over death and Satan, enabling humanity to receive Him as their saviour and live under God’s grace
• He rose to heaven where he is seated at God’s right hand, reigning over the world
• He will return to judge the living and the dead, and reign over a new creation here on Earth.

Now that we have a better understanding of what it means that Jesus is the Messiah, what does it mean that Jesus is the “Son of the living God”?

Jesus was both fully human AND fully divine throughout his time on Earth. By saying that Jesus is the Son of God is not to imply that God came down and had sexual relations with Mary. That’s what Greek Gods did, and it rarely turned out well.

No, God and Mary did not mate and together produce a son. Jesus is God’s Son in the sense that He is God made manifest in human form. He was conceived by the Holy Spirit in Mary. Now this can get a little confusing because the Holy Spirit is also God, but that gets into the whole Trinity discussion, which is an entire sermon in itself.

So this “Son of God” title goes back to the line the Nicene Creed, “We believe in one Lord, Jesus Christ, the only Son of God, eternally begotten of the Father, God from God, Light from Light, true God from true God, begotten, not made, of one Being with the Father; through him all things were made.”

Jesus, while being fully human, was also fully God. He was “begotten of the Father” meaning he was of the Father’s very essence. He was God and God was him.

It was this title, “Son of God,” that was the reason Jesus could be lawfully executed by the Jewish leaders. This is something Pontius Pilate didn’t understand: how could Jesus calling himself the “Son of God” be considered blasphemy; to Pilate, it wasn’t like he was calling himself God.

But that’s exactly what he was doing, and the Jewish leaders knew that. To be the Son of God is to be of the same nature as God. The Son of God is “of God,” is God, and it is for that reason that Jesus was tried and convicted of blasphemy. As it says in Hebrews 1:3, “The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of His being.”

So when we call Jesus the “Son of God” we are essentially calling Him, God. They are one and the same, yet still separate.

What I’ve covered here today is what I believe to be the central tenet to the Christian faith, that Jesus is the Messiah and the Son of God. If he wasn’t, then he was just a liar and a fake, and there is no reason to believe any of the things he said or did.

When asked the question, “Who is Jesus to you?” how would you answer? And why does it matter, that Jesus is Messiah and Son of God?

It means that we can live free from the burden of Sin. Only the death of Jesus as God is sufficient to pay the penalty for the sins of the whole world. As God, he could pay the debt, yet as man, he could die. Belief in Jesus’ incarnate deity is a requirement for John 3:16 to be true in our lives, “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”

Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”

This is why we believe that Jesus is Christ, that Jesus is the prophesied Messiah, that Jesus is the Son of God. This is why it matters.

Now that I am a parent, I am faced with the monumental responsibility of sharing who Jesus is, as my messiah, to my children. When they ask me, “Daddy, who do you say Jesus is?” I need to have answers for them. And yet, as the incident with the evangelist handing out tracts by the C-train tracks showed me, we continue answering this question, this central question of faith, throughout our Christian life.

The first answers I give them should lay the foundation we’ve explored today – that Jesus is Messiah and Son of God. Upon that foundation I can build upwards – our need for a saviour, our need for God to become incarnate, to become the Son of God. The beautiful thing about God made Man is our ability to relate with him; here is a God who so badly wanted to be known by us that he came down from the very heights of heaven to walk among us. To eat with us, talk with us, to share in our frailty and filth.

Jesus is the Messiah and Son of God to provide a relationship with God, to be the way, so all can come to the Father. Faith starts with this foundational answer, and faith continues as that relationship deepens and widens our understanding of who Jesus is. And I pray, for myself, and my family, and our church, that we never stop finding new answers.

Jesus and Canaanite Woman

Here is the audio from the sermon: Doubt and Faith

Last week I was blessed to bring you God’s Word, and started the first in a three-part series on faith. Last week’s sermon was on doubt. I talked about how doubt does not need to carry all the negative connotations that are often associated with it in Christian circles, as well as three ways to respond to it, through prayer, talking to someone, and turning to the Bible.

Today’s lesson goes hand in hand with what I talked about last week, because it’s about the underlying, essential component of all three responses to doubt – Perseverance and persistence. When struggling with feelings of doubt, we don’t just pray once, or talk to someone once, or even just look in the Bible once or twice to find answers. We do it repeatedly and with persistence. If we don’t find what we are looking for, we look harder, or we look elsewhere.

Persistence and perseverance are often used synonymously, interchangeably, but there is a difference in their meaning, both of which apply today. Persistence means sticking to a course of action, perseverance involves sticking to a belief or idea. Perseverance is the macro, the big picture, while persistence is the micro, the details.

I am notorious for not sticking with things. Growing up I had a hundred different hobbies: I took piano lessons for a while, bought an electric guitar, played Warhammer, Dungeons & Dragons, mountain biking, etc… I never really stuck with anything, always moving on when I got bored or things got tough. I swam competitively for almost 10 years, but that was more of a social thing, and when it started to get boring, when I wasn’t doing as well as I wanted to, I quit.

After high school, I went from job to job, career to career, school to school. It is a running joke when I start a story with, “This one time when I was a” that I’m starting to make things up. But it’s true, I’ve done a lot. I was an industrial mechanic where I worked on equipment from the gold and diamond mines, worked in hydraulic shops, built giant compressor units. I was an HVAC controls tech for a while, installing thermostats, and working with all the controls for heating/ventilation and air conditioning. I went to school to be a personal trainer, went to Bible college, trade school, and eventually finally finished a diploma in computer engineering. I worked a ton of odd jobs pumping gas, installing pipes at new construction sites, and I was even a receptionist in a hair salon for a while.

I say this to show that persistence and perseverance are not key traits in my life. They are not characteristics about me that I could consider strengths.

Now there are two things in my life that I can use as examples where I was, and continue to be, persistent: bass playing and my relationship with my wife. And I believe that it is only through the grace of Christ that I am successful in that.

After numerous false starts on instruments growing up, 6 or 7 years ago I bought a bass and was determined to learn how to play. I had always loved the bass line from U2’s With or Without you, and it was the first thing I learned to play. I figured bands and churches are always looking for bass players, I liked being in the back, out of the spotlight, and playing bass is just plain cool.

So I started playing. I really had no idea what I was doing, but I bought some books, and even took lessons for a little while, but mostly I put in the hours in my basement to gain some level of proficiency. As a reward for my persistence, and as a reminder to keep my practicing, I got a tattoo of a bass clef on the inside of my forearm. Now it is upside down to most people, but that’s because I got it for myself. I got it on my left arm because I think of it as the bass clef at the beginning of the staff. I (usually) play a 5-string, which is like the 5 bars on the staff. It is a source of inspiration and keeps me going during those times when I just don’t feel like practicing.

Another thing that kept me going was that bass playing turned into a form of worship for me. I started playing in church, and as I got better and spent less time thinking about the notes I was playing, I was free to think about other things, and my mind turned to God. When I’m on stage playing bass, it is so easy to lose myself in the song, in the worship, in my connection to God. It has since become one of my main connection points with Him, and a form of prayer in my life. I think because I devoted myself to it in pursuit of a deeper connection with God, it makes it easier to persevere in those times when I really don’t want to be practicing at home.

The other example of perseverance in my life is my relationship with my wife.

In May, Jo and I celebrated our 4th wedding anniversary, which isn’t terribly long, but in June we celebrated 10 years together as a couple. Now if anyone were to tell me that sticking with a relationship for 10 years doesn’t require at least some level of persistence and perseverance, they would be lying. I’m not saying there has been a ton of adversity in our relationship that we’ve had to work against, but challenges exist in all relationships.

The part of our relationship that required the most persistence was the little over 3 years that my wife went to school in the US for Chiropractic college. We’d met in Calgary, and spent the first couple years of our relationship living a short 10 minute drive from one another. There were the 4 months I spent in Bible college, but, (and this is just another sign of my lack of persistence) I dropped out after one semester, in part because I missed my girlfriend. Then she moved away to attend Chiropractic college in the US, and I stayed behind in Calgary, working and still trying to figure out what I wanted to be when I grew up.

So Jo and I spent over 3 years of our dating relationship, almost half of it, doing the whole long distance thing. We talked on the phone every night, visited each other every couple of months, and were committed to making the relationship work. There was also a whole heck of a lot of prayer. It was hard, and I sometimes wonder how we did it, but we did, and it is one of the few things in my life that I have stuck with, and for that I have been greatly rewarded. I also don’t think we did it alone. I think it was through the power of Christ in our lives that we had the strength to persevere, even when times were tough.

In our world today, perseverance and persistence are no longer the virtues they once were. We live in a world of convenience, of high speed mobile internet and communication. Of microwaves and instant everything. We want everything now. Faster. Sooner. Patience? What’s that? And woe to whoever makes us wait.

It makes me wonder if part of the reason interest in God is waning is because we live in a “more, faster” society? God doesn’t work on our timeline, and I wonder if folks are just looking for something else because of that. This wouldn’t be anything new, think about the Israelites in the Old Testament, they were constantly impatient with God’s timeline and moving on to other things.

Despite the devaluing of patience, persistence, and perseverance, in society, it remains a key element of our faith, and instrumental in maintaining a strong faith in God.

Today’s gospel reading is a brilliant illustration of the power of persistence and what we can achieve when we put our minds to it. Asread earlier, it is the story of the Canaanite woman who approached Jesus to heal her daughter, and despite repeated rejection, she continued to press on, and was rewarded for it.

To help understand today’s story, I want to put it into the historical context in which it took place.

In verse 21 we learn that Jesus travels to the district of Tyre and Sidon. This area was just outside of Israel, away from the pressing crowds, and questioning Pharisees. It was something of a vacation for Jesus and the disciples, some time alone to regroup and recharge. But, as Jesus and his disciples were enjoying a little down time, he is confronted by a woman from the region shouting for Jesus to cure her daughter who was being tormented by a demon.

To fully understand the story, we have to understand the racial and societal tensions that are in place in first century Israel, and these become apparent in the exchange of words between Jesus and the woman.

Jesus, despite being the Son of God, was still a product of his culture. He would have been raised in a very exclusivist community with very clear lines of division. There were the clean and the unclean, the Jews and the Gentiles. This was further compounded by the fact that he lived in a country occupied by an invading force, the Roman Army, and guidelines for who is in and out would have been even stricter. These weren’t just lines drawn in the sand, these were lines established over thousands of years, etched in two stone tablets, and in countless writings, oral stories and 613 commandments to be kept. Judaism itself had been split into multiple sects including the Pharisees, Sadducees, Zealots, and Essenes, so growing up, an us-them mentality would have been the norm in his life.

This story takes place in the district of Tyre and Sidon, which would be located in what is now known as Lebanon. The Israelites had a long-standing feud with these people, a feud that continues to this day, with Lebanon being a country that is just over 50% Muslim, the other 50% being Christian. Jesus was no longer in the land of his people, but this was part of the appeal of being there. This was a time to get away, to find some downtime for himself and the disciples, away from the crowds and those wanting something. So with this in mind, it is understandable why he reacted the way he did.

We have to remember, while Jesus is the Divine Son of God, he was also the Incarnate Son of God, truly man, fully human. So while sinless, he still got tired, he still got impatient, and as we see in this story, even a little bit self-righteous.

So here’s Jesus, just trying to get away from it all, when this woman starts pestering him to heal her daughter. The parallel story in Mark tells us that he was in a house, trying to stay off the radar, but this woman found out he was there and sought him out.

Matthew refers to this woman as a Canaanite, which is a bit strange as the Canaanites didn’t really exist anymore. The Israelites wiped them out, and to call her a Canaanite would be akin to calling her an enemy. This is the first strike against her; she is not of his people.

Now if this story had taken place in Israel, and NOT outside of the Jewish land, things would have been different. Israel had strict laws regarding the treatment of foreigners in their country. Because the Israelites survived persecution through the kindness of some of those that lived in the lands where they were being persecuted, they now had to treat foreigners well. But alas, they were outside of that holy state where these rules do not apply.

So, strike one was that she was not one of the chosen, not one of the clean, a Gentile. Strike two, she is female. She is a woman. In ancient Israel, as in much of the world today, women were not considered much more than the property of their husbands or fathers. They had no right to speak of religious things, as she does with Jesus.

And the third strike? She is speaking out in a way quite unseemly. Shouting at a man? Speaking of things beyond her station? Being pushy and persistent, nagging and bothersome? Well these were things that proper women just didn’t do. These were the kinds of things prostitutes did. For a man to speak out is considered a positive trait. For a woman to do so would have made her morally suspect.

So with these three strikes against her, there is little wonder Jesus acted the way he did. He acted in a way befitting of his culture.

Conversely, behaving so counter-culturally also speaks to the woman’s total desperation. We have here a mother, a mother with a sick daughter. In the first century someone sick would have been thought to be possessed by a demon, so the natural choice would be to approach a religious leader. Think how desperate this woman would have been to approach this man, this rabbi. A man not of her culture, for in the same way Jesus would have been brought up to distrust her, she would have been raised in a similar fashion. And for her to speak out to him, to shout at him and ask for healing for her daughter? To risk the moral judgement? That speaks to her desperation. And the fact that she challenges Jesus, that even in the face of dismissal she is persistent in her faith that he can heal her daughter, this speaks to her desperation, her commitment to her daughter, to the love of a mother.

It is her response to Jesus that really puts her level of persistence on display.

She comes to him, pleading for him to save her daughter.

At first he ignores her. Doesn’t look at her, doesn’t respond in anyway.

But she continues to beg. And the disciples tell Jesus to send her away.

In what I imagine to be a moment of exasperation, he explains to his disciples that he has been sent here to save the “house of Israel.” And you can almost hear the undertones in his words, “why is she bothering me, I’m not here for her.”

But she persists, kneeling before him she begs for help, “Lord, help me.” This is a woman desperate. A mother on the edge.

And still he dismisses her with a callous, off-hand remark, “It is not fair to take the children’s food and throw it to the dogs.”

Now dogs were not held in the same regard back then as they are today. Dogs were pests, vermin, and this is what he was calling her. She is no better than the dogs that roamed the street, unclean and disease-ridden.

And still she continues, even fighting back. Denied by the Son of God, she persists. These weren’t just prayers unanswered; this was flat out denial, denial with an insult.

She replies “…even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their masters’ table.”

She understood that she was coming from a place of unworthiness, but she held onto her faith. She responds that even for the unworthy there is power in even the smallest bit of Jesus.

And it is here that her persistence pays off, but in more ways than this woman was expecting. The woman was begging and pleading for her daughter to be healed, and she was. But what she didn’t know was that her faith caused a much bigger transformation in Jesus’ life.

This moment marked a fundamental change in Jesus’ ministry. It is here that he adopts a universalistic vision for his ministry and begins to reach out to ALL people, not just God’s chosen ones.

This story should speak volumes to us about the power of persistence. The power of perseverance. With it, this one woman changed the heart of the Son of God. Opened his eyes to what was out there.

Growing up I was taught that God gives three answers to prayer, “Yes,” “No,” and “Wait.”

If “Yes,” we return to God with prayers of thanksgiving. This answer also helps us to return to him the next time we are in need. We think, “hey, he granted my prayer last time, I will continue to ask him.”

If “No” or “Wait” we continue to pray, to beg, to plead. We don’t give up, we keep asking. We are persistent in our prayers. The answer might continue to be “no” or “wait,” but we have stories like this one, stories where persisting in faith changes the mind of God.

God values persistence and perseverance. As it says in Matthew 24:13, “He who perseveres to the end will be saved.” He understands that there will be adversity in our lives and in our faith, and has given us the tools to persevere in our faith, persist in the face of doubt.

As Paul says in Romans 5: 3-5, “More than that, we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.

When prayer seems unheard, pray with the courage and persistence of the Canaanite woman; ask God for the gift of great faith. For with God, all things are possible, all we need to do is ask.

http://twistedchristian.ca/my-5th-sermon-doubt/