Obedience is never an accident

As I have been sitting here considering this week’s Gospel (Matthew 25.14-30) and what it has to say to us for our every day living. I have to say it is an ‘ouchy’ lesson but not because it is hard but because we must choose to do it.  What is the lesson? It is about learning to obey and being obedient and diligent in your life which includes the things of the Spirit. Obedience isn’t all that hard, until it runs counter to what we what or believe. That’s when we get confronted about the path that we are walking and are called to make changes. Changing always meets resistance. Even when the need for change is acknowledge and deemed necessary, there is fear over loss and retribution for what is happening.

So how do we learn to obey, even when we are afraid and facing change? Well, firstly, we need to learn to receive from God. I have a friend who is fond of saying, “It is more blessed to receive than to give.” And you are reading this and thinking that he has it backwards! I think he is right. We need to acknowledge that all the things in our lives that we possess have been given to us by God. Our hands were empty, and God filled them. This means that we must move the Church then from a theology of scarcity to a theology of abundance. What does this look like? It looks like standing with a bishop from South Sudan in the middle of a local Wal-Mart Super store. The Bishop is lifting his hands in praise to God for how I am blessed because of all the things there are to buy in the store and for al the good things that there are in my life.

Now, I don’t know about you, but I will never look a store that same way again. I always felt intimidated by the fact that I cannot have all I want and so scurry around to buy what I can afford and get out before I spend too much. I had not realized that I was blessed to be in the presence of some much and that I can buy what I need so that my family is cared for.

The world thinks that whoever has the most toys when he dies, wins. But that is not what we think as Christians. It would b easy to think that if you have more, you are blessed. Thing is, the more you have, the better you had better be at using it for the benefit of others and for the kingdom. Obedience is faithfulness in action. One can claim to have the best theology in the world but if it never reaches out, never actually has a benefit and impact, of what worth is it to anyone else, including God?

And if there is fear in obeying because it is hard, one needs to keep in mind that there is also joy. There are too many who wish to serve God and the Gospel on their own terms. It is about what they can accumulate for themselves rather than focusing on what God has for them and doing as he asks. All that God asks as I understand it, is that we be faithful to him with what we have been given. The amount is not as important as the faithfulness is. Out of the faithfulness, comes fruitfulness (or offspring). Churches that are being obedient to the word are led into joy and joy causes growth and growth leads into new ministries and new kinds of service which lead into opportunities for new people to follow and be obedient and revive the circle all over again.

So how do we start this circle? Here are some of the basics that we need to move into:

1.    We must encourage and build up one another and maintain it as an ongoing work.

2.   We need to respect our leadership and pray for them regularly. They deserve respect because they are leading and are providing for the life and unity of the mission of the Church.

3.   Be patient with everyone and suffer with those who need compassion because we are the Body of Christ and we are all God’s people. Warn the idle, strengthen the fearful, assist the weak and the young in the faith.

4.     Allow no retaliations for wrong doing. Learn to forgive and then to forget. Choose to be kind to everyone.

5.   Choose always to be joyful. Choose to pray unceasingly – in just with words but also in the attitude you carry in life. In every circumstance, choose to give thanks to God. Some blessings have strange names.

6.    Strive to life a common life that focuses on Christ by serving the Father in the strength given by the Spirit.

7.     Christ will keep you blameless to the day of judgement through the call he has placed on your life. He will bring to completion the good work he has begun in you and he will be faithful to his promises to you; only it will be in his way and on his time. We must place our trust and confidence in God so that he can help us to work out our salvation, and fear and trembling maybe required.

Remember that it is more than just learning to trust God for what is to come, it is also realizing that he is trusting us to do what he has asked us to do so that the kingdom can come. Being faithful is not an accident but is continually a choice we must all make. Being faithful allows God to give us honour as we bring him glory and draw in his kingdom with him.

Jason+

Don't miss the party!

The Gospel this week is about the coming Groom and waiting for him (Matthew 25.1-13). So, I have been thinking about being prepared and what it would mean to miss the wedding of all eternity – life with Christ in the kingdom forever. There is one thing that is evident. No one likes to miss out on a good party because such events create memories and joy within the family and community.  No one wants to be left out. But as I consider this, we have t be prepared, be ready and be watching and listening for the moment when we must put out our lights, trim the wicks, fill the lamps and relight them so that we can be on the move when the Groom is ready to go. We are here to serve him in his time of need, not because we are all dressed up to be seen by others.

It is important to consider the fact that there are ten maidens – the very basis for community within the Jewish faith. Five are foolish and unobservant while five more consider the task and prepare accordingly. Everyone is a part of the community, whether wise or foolish. Some are ready for what is being asked of them while others are not. Some think about what God wants while others judge the situation to be about them and what they think matters. It is not about the doctrine they hold. It is not about the programs and projects they run from their buildings.

As Anglicans, how often do we worry about when Jesus is coming back and when will he get here? Do you expect him soon? Do we live like it, both as individuals and as a community? Christmas is coming, and my boys can tell you how many more days (or sleeps) there are until Christmas Day – right down to the hour. How would we live if we knew when Jesus was coming back? Would we live any differently until the last minute? Would we wait until it is almost time and then try and change as much as we could on the last day?

Faith and hope are meant to be lived everyday both by the individual believer and by the Church so that others can see and believe it. After all, in our current culture, no one will care about what you believe and know until they know and believe that you care about them. In the years that I have been pastoring and replanting churches, this has been a basic truth. People, before they will try returning to faith need to know that there is hope for them and for the community to which they are endeavouring to enter and re-enter.  From our perspective, it might look like Christ is delaying his return. We might be getting tired of doing good and waiting. We might be like the Thessalonians who think that Jesus has come, and we have missed him and need reassurance.

As human beings, we all need hope which is why as Church, as a community we need each other. We await not just the Bridegroom. We are waiting for that moment when faithlessness, pain, suffering, sin and death will finally come to an end. The old order will pass away and the new will come. We wait for that moment when every tear will be wiped away for the last time. We look for the realization of our hope and faith because it will exist in the presence of divine mercy and justice.

As a Church community, we live to do more than state that we believe in God: even the devil can do that and he shudders – we are together to proclaim the hope that we have in Christ and that he is coming to us to usher in his kingdom, whether we are ready or not. We need to live as faithful witnesses to all that God is doing and be ready to light the lamps and move as God directs. Does this excite or scare you? It should because I know I have some of both.

Let us take the time to be ready, to be prepared and to watch for his coming. Don’t miss the party! Maranatha!

Jason+

The Blessed

The Gospel this week is familiar, Matthew 5.1-12, also know as the Sermon on the Mount and the Beatitudes. Jesus saw the crowds of people coming to him. He called to them and they came to him and he taught them. It might be worth noting that he sat down to teach them. This was a defining moment for Jesus and those who followed him. This was to be core teaching and Jesus took a position that told the people around him that they need to get this down. Plus, he ascended the mountain – as Moses did to meet with God. Everyone understood that this was going to be a meeting with the holy because of where Jesus went and how he was teaching them.

Jesus calls them the makairos, the blessed; the fortunate ones. Being blessed by God is not dependant on how we feel or think – it is what God does for us, regardless of how we feel and what we think. It is not even dependant upon our circumstances. God knows and understands our lives and the circumstances in which we find ourselves and we are blessed by him right where we are. It is amazing that we are blessed often before we know why or what for.

And it is important to recognized that we are blessed for the precise reason that we are headed to the future. A future with God and others who have followed Christ where there will be no more weeping and tears. There will be no more death, only life. We are being fed, led and enabled to work to get to the kingdom of heaven. After all, where else can you go and get yourself a meal that is going to last you an entire week? Being blessed is more than getting what you hoped for – there is an action dimension. We are blessed for a purpose – to be a blessing to others that they might turn and walk into the kingdom. When we are blessed, we seek God. We follow his Word, we seek after righteousness and choose to be made holy.

This does not mean that the Christian life, is easy. It is not. It is the cruciform life. We are called to come to Christ, deny ourselves and take up our cross to follow him. We are called to live out Christ’s death and resurrection on a regular and sometimes daily basis. We need to recognize that we are called to help make the old new, new again. We are asked to participate in raising up the fallen and await that moment when all things will be brought to perfection in Jesus on the last Day.  Being a blessed people comes at a cost because we see and know what the world around us is like. We know all to well the brokenness and sin, the pain and death in this life. We are meant to be the peacemakers, the meek and those who are righteous that others can see a new way and a new life. Blessing necessitates action for the sake of others. Otherwise we are at risk of being complicit in how the world continues.

As a brother priest once pointed out to me, some of our blessings have the strangest names: cancer, meningitis, loneliness, conflict, separation. You could add to that list easily. The Good News is that God is at work in this world at this moment, to bring in his kingdom. He is at work in our lives and through our circumstances to bring about his will and his kingdom.  He is not dependant on your circumstances but rather can use them to draw others to you and to himself. The kingdom is alive in our midst and we are God’s demonstration model for the rest of the world as to how we live this life and into eternity. We are the living conduit through which God blesses.

This means that we are fortunate. We are blessed, in whatever circumstances we find ourselves.

Maybe I can sum up this way. I recently spent some time with Bishop Wilson Kamani of the Diocese of Ibba. He need to fix his watch because it has come apart in the wrist band. So my wife and I took him to Wal-Mart to see if we could find what was needed. In looking for the parts, two important things happened: (1) we discovered that we could fix the watch and (2) Bishop opened my eyes to see things as he did. He had never seen a store like things and he was constantly lifting up his hands and giving thanks to God for this marvelous store where you could find some many things under one roof. “You are so blessed!” he kept telling me. I had to reconsider my attitude towards the circumstances in which I was living and look at it from a fresh perspective. It requires a change in attitude- to start thinking and living with an attitude of altitude – to see things as Jesus does and to know that we are blessed, even when we don’t feel or think that we are.

As St. Paul points out to the Corinthian Church: To the church of God that is in Corinth, to those sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints together with all those who in every place call upon the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, both their Lord and ours… (1 Corinthians 1.2 ESV)

Jason+

Learning to love and to lve the command

Do you remember learning the 10 Commandments when you were in Sunday School? Do you remember them all? The Gospel this week (Matthew 22.34-46) reduces them down to two commandments: Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul and mind, and your neighbour as yourself. The love that Jesus speaks of, is more than a friendly affection you might have for a person you like, it is a commitment of devotion that is directed by the will and can be commanded as a duty towards neighbour.  John’s Gospel takes it one further. Jesus said “A new command I give to you: love one another as I has loved you” and “By this (sign) all will know you (the Church) by your love (agapaos), one for another.” According to John there is only one command to love as we have been loved by Christ.

That means we are invited to come to him and to surrender and die with him that others might rise. I had a professor in theological College who would repeatedly remind us, you need to participate in Christ every day – which means you must learn to die and to rise with him.

That is different from dealing with hot button debates and trying to grow congregations with one method or another. When I consider the life of the early Church and the ways in which they grew there were some simple common elements: preaching Christ and him crucified, willingness to love and serve, and the power of the Holy Spirit among them, in terms of sings and wonders. There maybe others, but these traits come through loud and clear. The ancient world wanted to hear what Christ had to say. It was not because they agreed with the message necessarily, but because it was important stuff and they needed to hear it. Some people responded while others rejected the message for various reasons.

Our society today will listen when the Gospel is preached, everyone will react in the same manner. The problem for the Church is that we often compromise the message in some way because we do not what to be offensive. Consequently, we come of sounding wimpy and like we are participating in the culture but are sounding worse than the culture. Therefore, the world is not paying attention to the Church most of the time – because we have little to nothing to say to them.

So maybe it is time that we started seeing people around us as Jesus sees them – with heavenly eyes. Are we willing to seek, see and serve Christ in their lives so that they can see Christ in us? So often we have been hung up on being popular in the community and having great clergy who run great programs so that we can be impressive to other Christians. It has never been about being popular. In fact, the Church grows best when it is unpopular and is persecuted - as the Book of Acts and others in the New Testament witness to. We are called to be faithful to the message of the Gospel (repent and believe because the kingdom of God is coming near to them) and to see and love people as God does.

How do we do that? We go and try to serve them first, and then come to God in prayer – so that we can be enabled to pray correctly for them and then go back and serve them so more. We can only be the people of God when we allow ourselves to be conformed to the word of God and allow for God the Holy Spirit to transform us by his love. We are only competent for ministry after we have been in Christ’s presence and had our feet washed by him. People will respond to the message when they have experience the love of Christ in us. But this means that we are going to have to get up close and personal. We are going to have to work to have an impact on people that will open the possibilities of drawing them into the fellowship that is the Church.

Take the chance this week to genuinely love someone as Jesus does and see what happens.

Jason+ 

It's a trap!

There is a meme that is popular that came out of a line from one of my favourite movies: “Star Wars: Return of the Jedi” … The phrase? “It’s a trap!” it is the fateful words of Admiral Akbar when the Rebel Alliance discovers the evil Emperor and his mindless minions have set yet another trap to snuff out the uprising of those who are on the light side of the Force.

The Gospel this week (Matthew 22.15-22) works out the same way. The Pharisees and the Herodians get together to try to set a trap for Jesus so that they can make accusations to the Imperial Government, accusing Jesus if he says, “Don’t pay your taxes” and ready to cry foul is he says. “Pay your taxes” and discredit Jesus with the population because he supports the occupation. In a way, it is almost comical that these to groups, who are so diametrically opposed to each other would consider working together, except that they have a common need or desire to get rid of this rabbi from the north – he is rocking the boat and shifting the balance of the status quo. Politics and even more so the pursuit of power and the maintenance of position makes for strange bedfellows indeed.

It does beg a certain question though: what do we value most? What do we have in our lives that is truly ours? My possessions are all in the house and in the office and they are of this world which means that they are truly not mine. So, do you know what belongs to who? We are to give to Caesar what belongs to Caesar and to God what belongs to God. But do we know which is which? At the very least there needs to be in each of our lives, a reckoning that makes our priorities clear. We need to know what we have and to recognize, “All things come of thee O Lord, and of thing own have we given thee.” In other words, there is nothing in our lives that we have not been given. We need to acknowledge to God and to ourselves that our hands are empty, and God fills them. God knows what we need before we ask and our ignorance in asking. Yet, there is still the need for us to ask that we might be aware of what it is that needs to be done. Remember, where prayer is focused, power falls.

In our society these days, there is a crisis in faith. We have made up our minds that we must have faith in our ability to have faith rather than having faith in the God who is wondrous and who sent Jesus to be our rescue. It makes faith into a psychological condition and therefore, to be self idolatrous because it is based in what we think and can believe in rather in a miraculous God. The Good News is that the Gospel is not about us bout about Christ and who he is to us and for us. We need to become reenchanted with the Good News of the Gospel and then remissioned by the Spirit that we would give all that we can to mission in terms of time, talent and treasure as well all that we are to God. The Church needs to preach Christ and him crucified and risen from the dead because we are valued by him.

Jesus recognized their scheme and asks them why they bother – and then springs the trap, leaving the people amazed – and only able to walk away from the encounter empty handed.

Where does this leave us? Well let’s start with something simple: if you are in Christ, inform your face! Don’t be downtrodden or dower in your expressions – smile and let others see your joy. Remember that we are made to thrive in joy unspeakable, faith unsinkable, love unstoppable, and where anything is possible. Plus, work hard to make difficult to get to hell from where you are. Pray for the revival in the life of the Church. Remember that revival is not just about people being in Church but about people coming back to the Lord so that the Church can be remissioned. The mission is the responsibility of the Church and the clergy are responsible for the care and feeding of the flock. We need to be reenchanted by the Scriptures that we would faithfully proclaim him to the community around us and they see a faithful reflect of him in us. And lastly, we can figure out our teddy bears and where they are that we might serve others and see them come to Christ. This will allow us to put others first and to show that we are about our neighbour and God.

Jason+ 

Rediscovering our mission

Because this is Synod weekend, and because this Bishop is doing some things, he chose the Gospel lesson for the Eucharist this week: Matthew 28.16-20. It says, Then the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain where Jesus had told them to go.  When they saw him, they worshiped him; but some doubted. Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”

The focus of our weekend meeting (called Synod, which, aptly enough means meeting in Greek) is the renewal of the mission and life of our diocese for the next three years. There is a lot that is going to happen, but it all focuses on the mission of God across our diocese (Northern Alberta). I have written about power and authority on numerous occasions over the past server years. All I will say here is that it is clear from this Great Commission is that the power and authority that we have is not ours. It belongs to Jesus Christ because the Father has given it to him. Therefore, what he gives to us, is for a purpose. We are to go, and we are to go and do in his name, under his authority in his power and to do so for the sake of those whom he means to serve. This determines the shape of our mission. It is not about the liturgy, it is not about the colour of the nursery, it is not about the curtains in the rectory living room. It is about seeking out those whom Jesus wants us to serve and living with them come what may. We do this so that they can see something of Jesus in us and be drawn to him.

In the years that I have been in ministry (27 years almost), there have been a lot of good people, doing good things and leading good programs that support the life of the institutional Church. There has been a lot of good teaching in the face of opposition and work done to make Christ known. What has been missing by in large though is what I like to call “The Boom” – people getting their eyesight, their hearing, their walk and dance back; the dead rising again to life. This is what draws people to Jesus; they need to see and hear the Boom.

Therefore, it is important for us to tell our story: from Scripture and from our own personal experiences. We must be faithful in telling others what God has done in terms of his wonders of old and be a demonstration of how that is still true. Our living of our lives personally and corporately means the Incarnation continues from within the life of the Church through the Holy Spirit. In this way, God’s mission becomes our mission.

We need to go and in the going, in the living of life, to make disciples. There will be special moments for baptism, for confirmation and for a few of us, even ordination. What is common to all of us, is a necessity of living a life in the Spirit that is faithful and fruitful for a lifetime, wherever we are, whatever we are called to. We cannot become the people God calls us to be in 12 weeks worth of Confirmation lessons as foundational as such classes might be. Catechesis and discipleship are important all along the way. Until the people we have witnessed coming to faith are beside us, doing what we are doing and are mature in the faith, we cannot claim to have faithfully discipled anyone.

A life offered to another in service, to enable them to be the person in Christ that they were created to be, makes heaven and earth quiver! And remember, Christ is with us all in the going, the teaching and the living. And that is our mission.

Jason+

its all garbage, I tell you!

The following lessons is for Sunday coming and is the New Testament Lesson - the words of St. Paul that wrote to the Church at Philippi:

If someone else thinks they have reasons to put confidence in the flesh, I have more: circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; in regard to the law, a Pharisee; as for zeal, persecuting the church; as for righteousness based on the law, faultless. But whatever were gains to me I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. What is more, I consider everything a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them garbage, that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ—the righteousness that comes from God on the basis of faith. I want to know Christ—yes, to know the power of his resurrection and participation in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, and so, somehow, attaining to the resurrection from the dead. Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already arrived at my goal, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus. (Philippians 3:4b-14)

What have you given up and what has been taken away from you, so that you can hold on to Christ? I find it exciting and discombobulating at the same time. I have lived all over the country and I have people that are not only friends but some as close as blood. I lament occasionally that I have not been closer to family because of the call in my life to be who and what I am. There are things in my life that I know that are my trophies. I use them to feel better about things only to realize that they can take me away from God and what God has for me. Trophies can become personal idols which make me think that its all about me. Paul points out that whatever it is that he hung onto, to make great and powerful in his own eyes and that of others, it gone down the toilet. It has been relegated to the sewers because of the hold the Christ Jesus had on him.

Paul also reminds us that there are things and people that will hang on to us, try to keep us from moving on, going forward. There is going to be pain and suffering in taking the time and energy to proclaim the Gospel Gaining momentum in living a faithful Christian life, is going to create and multiply the things in your life that are wanting to take you away from the one thing that we need to hold onto. Moreover, we are called to move into the pain and sufferings of Jesus and move through them with him. Knowing Jesus means that we need to understand what it is that he has done for us by showing us himself in the lives of other people and what he is doing in and for them.

Proclaiming a message that is unpopular is not a career move we might make currently. Telling the people something they do not want to hear is hazardous to the messenger’s health – always has been. It will get you mistreated, beaten, stoned, and even killed. Fortunately, where Jesus is concerned, our mistakes are not fatal and our deaths are not final. Death is not the final word in the Gospel.

We are God’s people, on the move into God’s mission. We move by God’s power into that mission. The question God asks each of us and all of us is, “Who will go for us? Whom shall I send?”

It cannot be “business as usual” anymore. Our society needs to see the Church at work under a divine commission and power, doing and saying the things that God wants done and said. Let us move forward into all that God calls us to do and do so in Jesus” name all the while letting go of our trophies and all that would slow us down and keep us back.

Let us consider the glorious Saint Paul: it seems that no other name fell from his lips than that of Jesus, because the name of Jesus was fixed and embedded in his heart. -   Saint Teresa of Avila

Jason+