Serving your way to a good seat

How do you know when you are a leader? When you turn around and discover that people are following you. That’s what the Saint James and Saint John saw in Jesus. (Mark 10.35-45). And I deliberately call them saints because that is who they became. It also reminds us that saints are not the glorified leadership we sometimes make them out to be. Saints, like all Christians, are not perfect. They are forgiven. What is amazing is the fact that Jesus is telling them for the third time that he is going into Jerusalem where there will be a confrontation, he will suffer and die, and then in three days time rise again. The amazing part is that the people who would be leaders in the Church sometime soon still do not get it. The all of the twelve want power and fame and position. James and John decide to beat the others to the punch and ask first...

They try to set up Jesus first. “Master, we want you to do something for us.” To which Jesus responds, “What would you have me do for you?”  “Grant a place for one of us at your right hand and the other will take the left when you bring in the kingdom,” ask the brothers. So Jesus turns the tables on the brothers and interviews them for the spots they so desire. “Can you go through the pain and the suffering I will go through? Can you immerse yourselves in death like I will?” To this the brothers boldly nod and agree that they can go through these this, suffer and die with Jesus. Jesus tells them that this will be so but there is a catch. He does not control who has what power or what seat. That belongs to the Father and the Father alone. It is not in my power to give it to you.

When the others heard about this, they were up in arms. So Jesus called them all together and set the record straight. Power and position are for possession and promotion like the rest of the world but for service in God’s world. If you wish to be great in the kingdom of God then you must serve – I have come to give and to serve, including giving my life as deliverance, a rescue for many.

There is a great desire in people to be in control in a world that still seems to be so out of control. If we ran the world it would be a better place. We would put things right and do it better than the guy before us and better than anyone else can. The problem is though, many good, smart and powerful people have tried. They have tried and all have failed. Moreover, being “lords and ladies of the manor” is not the style of leadership that Jesus modeled in his own life and it is not to be the model of leadership within the Church, ancient or modern. Leadership does not come from the fashions you wear or from where you sit in Church, it comes from the service you give and offer to God through the Church and in the world.

The only way that we are going to let the world know that Jesus is real, is here and is here for them is if we are willing to take the risks that are going to lead to us suffering and in some cases dying for our faith. We need to recognize that suffering in front of power and glory, in the face of the governments and kingdoms of the world is how the Church was built and that the life of the Church is the blood of its martyrs. We as the people of God need to offer something that is more real than the unreal, unattached lives that our society lives these days. Our life both as individuals and as a community needs to serve as a wake up call to the rest of the world. We are not here for any other purpose that to help the world see and know Jesus that the world might know him, love him and learn to obedient serve him as Lord. 

Are you blessed or are you a blessing

Have you ever heard the saying, “The one who has the most toys when he dies, wins”? Or what about the saying “The difference between men and boys is the price of their toys”? Or did you ever hear about the woman from Beverly Hills died, was buried in her favour car and if a family member did as she asked he would get 2 million for following her wishes? No?...

Now, you might wonder why I bring this up... Easy. This is the way the world thinks. It is   about trying to fill the void that so many of us feel when we seek to be independent, wealthy, famous and so on. It is not that any of these things are wrong in and of themselves, but stop and ask yourself a simple question: “What is missing from their lives that the need these things even in death?”

The young, rich ruler came to Jesus with a simple question, “Good Teacher, what (more)   must I do to inherit eternal life?” (Mark 10:17-31) How did Jesus respond to that question? “Why do you call me good? No one is good - except God alone. You know the commandments: ‘Do not murder, do not commit adultery, do not steal, do not give false testimony, do not defraud, honour your father and mother.”

“All these I have kept since I was a boy,” declared the man. And Jesus looked at him, really looked at him and then he loved him. “One one thing you lack then, go and sell what you have and give to the poor, then come and follow me.” The man went away sad because he was a man of considerable wealth.

First, let me say to you that I have gone right back to the original language, and there is nothing in the Greek that says that the man has to destitute himself and his family to give to others. He is expected to sell everything but then out of the sale give generously to people who cannot bless him and who have nothing to give him in return (so he thinks). It is not so much that the man loves his money as it is that the man loves whatever else he gets that his money can give him. Power, prestige, position and so on. Thus he thinks that he is asked to give up on what everyone around him says is his good fortune and God’s blessing.

Second, it is not enough just to not do the don’ts, we need to do some of the dos. We are called to love our neighbours, to do God’s work; to do good to those who hate us and persecute us. We are called to rid ourselves of our agendas and the false sense of safety and satisfaction that we have done all that needs to be done. We have not done everything that needs to be done nor have we fulfilled everything that needs to be done in preparation for the coming of the kingdom and the true Jerusalem. In being a believer, it is necessary to not only keep ourselves pure, but to make sure that we are fulfilling whatever it is that God has given us to.

Third, please stop and consider what used to be a blessing in your life and in our life as a congregation. What still is a blessing and what is perhaps now a curse? Blessing is not a sign that one is finished and that we can sit idlely by but rather an opportunity to do more ministry, and to build up things further. Being blessed is a moment to go and to be a blessing.

Last, I will ask you to consider the words we used to hear at funerals “The Lord giveth and the Lord taketh away; bless be the name of the Lord” I would take this to mean that there is a lot of give and take in a relationship with God. Everything that we have and everything that we are comes from and returns to God. Does this mean he wants my Dodge? Not exactly. He wants the use of it to make ministry happen and so he finds ways to provide it to me so that my family can have an impact on this city and this diocese for the sake of the Gospel and the coming kingdom. And if God wants this from and for me, what about you? How have you been blessed? How will you use the grace, the gifts, the talents that are within you? Or will you turn and walk away? It is your choice and it is time to walk or to walk away. You get to decide. I invite you to come with us.

Gratitude and Gravy.

The Thanksgiving Holiday here in North America has a long and storied tradition. Many think it was the pilgrims in the United States that started the tradition. Most don’t realize this but Thanksgiving is older than that. It actually started in Newfoundland in the 1520’s as an act of thanks for safe arrival in the new place from Europe. Moreover, people these days seem to forget that this is a moment of great spiritual significance. The early “liv’yers” in Newfoundland like those who followed into Plymouth Rock 100 years later, were devout Christian people. They recognized that they were prayerfully dependent upon the grace of God for their well being and being able to give thanks was an important thing. We seem to have forgotten that. We often take what we have been given for granted and assume that we are entitled to the good fortunes we have and we are thankful we are not our neighbour.

Perhaps that is what makes the gospel this week so jarring (Luke 17:11-19). It is made clear where Jesus is going and why he is going there. He is going into the city and its going to be, well... it’s going to be murder.

Along the way, coming into a village, he was met by a small band of brothers who were lepers. These men were exiled and outcasts from their communities, their families, their children and their marriages. They heard Jesus was coming that way and so they waited, they hoped and they prayed that they would be healed. When the moment came, they approached him but did not get to close. They called out to him, calling him “Master” and in effect gave themselves to him, asking that they would be made well.

God’s purpose in Christ is to have mercy; to rescue people and to make them whole. God desires to have mercy on the human race and in doing so to fundamentally transform the way in which life is lived on this earth. God wants to change the way life is being lived in this city, in this church. God wants to start those changes with you. So Jesus asked them to obey the Scriptures and to do what the Law requires to re-enter in to the life of the community and so they do. In the going they discover that they are indeed healed and that is when there is a choice to be made: do they keep going to the Temple and the priests? Do they just forget what they were asked and go home and surprise everyone? Or do they go back to the place where the journey began and there give thanks?

Only the one person that no respectable man would give the time of day to, came back and offered praise for what had been given. A foreigner. An out-of-towner. One who was not supposed to know any better is the one who came back to God and to give thanks because we recognize that we have been blessed. We know that that we have been healed and have been given to. When this man came back he got low. He assumes the position of worship and of adoration, flat down on his face at the wonder that had been given him. Then he is invited to go and participate in all of life, not just having found the healing he desired but also finding the faith that will help him to live that life that is to come.

In this we too are called. In this we too can rejoice. In this most of all we can give thanks to God in Christ for what is yet to come... Now let’s pass the gravy!

Pass the salt, please.

Salt. We are constantly warned about the effects of too much salt on our bodies. We are told on television. We are told by doctors. We are told by family and friends. We are told not to use to much and it would be better not to use it at all. I want to point out to you that there is a physical and a spiritual consequence to a lack of salt in one’s life. Physically we need sodium and without a bit of salt in out bodies, our health fails and we can die from a lack of salt. Too little salt is as dangerous as too much.

The same is true spiritually for the individual and for the Church. We are already salt if we are believers in the Lord Jesus. No lines, no waiting. We are in this moment as people and as a community, salt. It should be noted that slat never stops being salt but it can lose its effectiveness. It can become something less than what it once was. The spiritual life can become diluted and insipid. Ineffective. Useless. All it becomes good for is being thrown out. Somehow a lot of why I am saying sounds familiar in the life of the Church... doesn’t it?

So what do we do? First of all we are called to recognize what we are: SALT. The Church is salt in the world. What does salt do? Salt penetrates deep into whatever it is given to. Salt brings out what is hidden; both the good and the bad. Salt preserves what it penetrates and it draws out the flavour of whatever it penetrates when it is cooked and consumed. Salt helps to retain water which is necessary for life to happen.

So what should the Church do? In short, it needs to participate. We need to be recognizable as Christian people in the world. We need to penetrate our society and preserve those parts of it that best reflect who God is and what God does that this city and the nation would recognize that God is amongst them. The Church needs to be self disciplined in its work in and with the world. The Church needs to be wise and disciplined in its witness to the world about God. We need to confess Christ; him crucified and risen from the dead. We need to remind this world that God has come to us, all of us. And in the going we need to live a life that is not just morally pure but live a life in the service of others.

People in the Church complain about the lack of young people. What draws in the younger generation is a faith that is not only deeply held, but that actually has an impact, in a positive way, on the life of another. Faith needs to lead and to go somewhere. Faith is not solely about one person anymore. It is about all of us. The way we live and the way we serve is watched. My generation is watching the Church with a great desire to see the fellowship grow and a drive to go and make Christ known. Conversely, my generation is not interested in the past or in trying to maintain the Church as it has been for our parents and grandparents. We will not support the structures of the past but rather concern ourselves with the mission and the kingdom. In the short term, that may make us a financially poor Church, but one worth being a part of as we focus on reaching out to the least, the last and the lost of our communities, cities and nations. We will become again that has no wealth to offer but will offer what we do have: health and rescue in the name of the Lord Jesus. 

Out on the sidewalks and into the Kingdom

Last Sunday morning, in the midst of getting ready for the Sunday morning Eucharist, I went out to the big front doors to make sure that they were unlocked so that the early birds coming for the service were able to get in. When I open the door I spotted a little fellow out on the sidewalk. He couldn’t have been more than a couple of years old (or so I thought). He was there chatting with one of the clergy who was here for the service. It was in this moment that I realized that he was not wearing pants and that I had not seen him before. I went over to him and asked him his name. He mumbled something that I could not understand. I noticed that there was a medical alert necklace around the little boy’s neck and so I could my wife, who kindly brought the boy a pair of pants and I went to the kitchen and got him a cookie to munch on. Realizing that he could be seriously lost and ill, I decided to call the police.

In the meantime the same priest outside came across the babysitter who was of course frantic and worried about the little boy. The parents had gone to get groceries and had left the little boy in the sitter’s care. In a flash, he had gone from playing with a computer tablet to disappearing and the search was on. There was much relief and even a smile as the police constable arrived took his notes and went on his way again. Everyone was thankful that the little boy was back where he needed to be again.

I share this moment of ministry with you for a simple reason. Children, whether we realize it or not, are amazing teachers and terrific mirrors. They show us who we truly are and they can teach us how to be servants if we will let them. They will in their own ways reflect our attitudes and repeat all the things we say and do, without too much thought on their part. I think that is why Jesus took a child and put that child amongst his self seeking, me first disciples and challenged them to think not of themselves but of the one who needs to be cared for and to actively seek out those in need as if it were Jesus himself (Mark 9.30-37).

The 12 had been disagreeing with each other on the road as to who was going to fulfil what role when Jesus got to Jerusalem and wiped out the Romans and the religious authorities – when he returned the kingdom of great King David to the people of Israel. This in the face of the fact that Jesus had told them he was going to face persecution, suffering and death and after three days rise again from the day. They missed it. They didn’t get it. They were more worried about themselves and the places they would occupy in a kingdom that was not going to come than in hearing that it was that was going to happen.

So Jesus takes a little child, who has no money, no status in human society, no power to wield nor titles to hold or to confer. He shows them that power and authority is not something to be held and sought for the individual person. Rather such things are given by God to men and women who are going to serve in the building up of the kingdom, the world that is come. Power and authority, blessing and prestige are there for those who will serve the naked, the sick, the lost, and those who are imprisoned. Grace and mercy will be given to those who show it and to those who will proclaim release and jubilee to those who desire it.

We need to remember that Jesus comes to each of us and to all of us because we too have forgotten who he is and who we are. He comes to each and to all to help us discover not only who he is and thus who we are in him and for him. He comes that we might discover our own Galillees that we would effectively reach out with all that we have been given: power, authority, gifts, grace, love and so much more. All that is asked of us is that we offer three simple things: our actions, our prayers and our suffering. This is our common priesthood. It is what each of us needs to do and it is what all of us can hold in common. We do so for the sake of the One who did these things for us and for the rescue of those who will follow after us into the kingdom, those both great and those like a little boy on the sidewalk.

Its time for mission not for monuments

There was a headline that caught my eye on the front of the last Anglican Journal. It was a statement that the Bishop of Christchurch, New Zealand made about her Cathedral and what has happened to her diocese in the months since a devastating earthquake rocked Christchurch and has rendered so many church buildings, home and other buildings unusable. And that got me to thinking about some of the Church buildings that I have known in my own life.

The building in which I was baptised was torn down for a parking lot. The building where I came to faith, was confirmed, learned to do services and to serve at the altar is now in a museum static display. The building where I learned to preach, was vacated by the congregation because they could not keep going financially. In my first summer in full time ministry as a student, I participated in the closure of a building and the sale of that building to private interests. In the five years that I served the congregation where I was ordained priest, I had the deep privilege of burying about half of the active congregation in the church’s cemetery.  The interesting and most important thing to me wasn’t the buildings and whether they remained standing and in good shape or not. It was the community and whether they we’re vibrant and alive or not.

So If I go back to that list of places I have been in my spiritual journey and identify them for you, it might make a bit more of an impression upon you. I was baptised at St. Matthew’s, Abbotsford, BC. They were on their third and biggest building when I visited them about 20 years ago. I was confirmed at St. Clement’s, Houston, here in the Diocese of Caledonia. They have a much bigger and very pretty building than when I was there as a teen. I preached my very first public sermons at St. Christopher’s, Downsview, ON. that is now home to a vibrant Chinese congregation that was planted there after my time. I had the chance to go back and share with them and preach. And last but not least, St. Peter’s Church, Westport, White Bay, Newfoundland where I was ordained priest. In my time there, the parish closed three buildings to go from seven churches to four. The Sunday attendance went up and so did the finances. We worked hard to bring our buildings back up to snuff and still maintain a self supported parish with a full time priest.

What was the difference? Why did we grow? We claimed ownership and stewardship of our local mission. The focus of all the work on all these church communities was primarily on the community; on the people rather than on the buildings. We learned to pray as a community and we took the time to study the scriptures together. We had to learn to genuinely seek out Christ in our neighbours and to think of others ahead of ourselves. We did this because we discovered that in most cases what we had was not a financial problem but rather a spiritual predicament. We had been trying to husband very small fires which around which only a few could gather rather than lighting and carrying torches to go and find those who are sick, broken, in need and the dying both physically and spiritually. And in the process of lighting the way for others to come into our communities, we found some light for ourselves too.

How do we build our Church communities across this vast diocese? We draw people in by sharing with them ourselves and our lives. We need to focus on reaching people and caring for them. People are not going to care about fine sounding vision and mission statements. The world around us is waiting to see if God is still here and present in his Church and if God and his Church still care enough to do the deed and speak the word that needs to be spoken. We need to find new ways of being who we really are through rediscovering our enthusiasm for mission, to seek out the least, the last and the lost of our world and draw them in. In doing so we build for the time when there will be no buildings to worship in. The Church – the one, holy, catholic and apostolic Church – is here because God has made it so. We, in turn, are here for the world because God his here for this world and to participate in it. Or as retired bishop and theologian N.T. Wright might put it, “Heaven is important, but it’s not the end of the world.” We are called and drawn to help others be ready for the new city, the new life and the world that is about to come. This is the time for planting for dreaming and for reaching out.  It is time to think and to live mission, not to build monuments or write our epitaphs.

Persisting into the blessing and the Kingdom

Jesus took his disciples north to territory where most of the crowds would not follow, into modern day Lebanon. Jesus led his disciples towards people who were not going to be openly hospitable towards them. He wanted to take some time to find out what the 12 knew and to have some time with them. But his desire to be left alone to do some important teaching and listening was interrupted by his fame and a call from a woman who persisted in asking for her daughter to be healed and released from the demon that effected her.

So why did Jesus refer to her and to her child as “dogs”. There are many in the Church that are unsettled by this image of Jesus, that he would apparently be mean and nasty to a woman who had a sick child. But one needs to stop and consider what was actually said and what Jesus was actually saying to understand what he was up to.

Jesus pointed out this woman that this was not the time for the healing and feeding for those who were outside a particular group. This time was meant to feed and strengthen those who would in time and trail have to declare Jesus as the risen and ascended Lord. There would be a time to bless and heal everyone, but not now. Interestingly, the woman did not give up. She persisted. She was unwilling to stop. She would not give up. When she was apparently being brushed off, she kept right on going. And as a result of her willingness to do so, that is when she was blessed and her prayer was answered. She had a hope and she was not willing to let the hope or its future go. Because of her persistence, her daughter was healed and free of the evil that was destroying her.  

What does our world, our Church look and sound like when God is in charge? When people who are without hope are given hope; when people who are blind are given sight, and people who have been formerly deaf are able to hearing; when people who are imprisoned are set free and those who are in debt are forgiven and those who are dead are raised to life... that is what the kingdom of God looks like.  

How do we see it? We need to look beyond the past to the future that we might make this present different; better. We need to move from looking for a blessing to being a blessing around us; giving thanks for all that we have been given. When God is in charge, the Church and the world become fundamentally different; transformed.

Why should we become a blessing? It comes back to this mom who would not stop, would not give up, and would not go away. In the days that followed, Jesus healed another man from the North and fed another 4000 people, just has had done before. Others benefited from her persistence and opened a path for them to receive “all the benefits of his passion”. Yes the world is messed up. Yes there are divisions in the Church and there are all kinds of problems there too. Everything seems apparently in chaos. All we seem to do is go round and round in circles and nothing ever seems to change, perhaps in large part because we don’t want to look past all the things that we think are important, to the things that God wants us to focus on.

We are called to be kingdom people. We are made to be resurrection people. We are to be people who are not hobbled or fettered to the whims and will of this present world. We are called to build our Church towards that great moment when we will see God face to face. So let us persist in the risk of faith, continuing to be people of hope, that we might dream and change the world according to God’s will and plan.