Living into rebirth and getting wet in the process

This week’s Gospel ought to be familiar to most people – John 3.1-17. But it occurred to me that this might the year where we are going to hear it repeatedly through out the Lectionary. And because it is well known and because I have been preaching on it for some time. What is there that could be new and that needs to be said?

Well first, let’s consider Nicodemus. He is a teacher and a leader of the People of Israel. He is powerful and wealthy. He has a seat on the ruling council. Jesus impresses him: what he is seeing and hearing through teaching and sings of power. He comes to Jesus at night not because he is afraid to be seen with Jesus but because it is the time that he can really investigate things so that he can figure out whether to believe in Jesus. It is possible in Nicodemus’ mind that Jesus might be the one who has been sent to inaugurate the kingdom. Nicodemus is at least open to this possibility where many others of his class are not. What if Jesus is the one to bring the kingdom? What then?

After introductions and complimenting Jesus, Nicodemus suddenly finds that Jesus goes to the heart of the matter that he is struggling with. Jesus tells Nicodemus straight out that unless one is born of both water and the Spirit, unless one is born from above, you cannot see and know the reign of God. In order to be a part of it, one must be altered by water (death) and the Spirit (rebirth).

Death as a way of reordering one’s life. There are no more cellphones. No more meetings or work. There is no more plans or holidays, calendars or dates. The life into which we are called and reborn is not like the physical life into which we first came. Nicodemus recognized that as being foolish – and he and we would be right to think so. This rebirth that Jesus is taking about is not physical but spiritual. As Saint Paul would point out, “I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.” (Galatians 2.20 ESV) The Christian life is one that has been altered by experiencing death through baptism in water and then rebirth through the infilling of the Holy Spirit. No one can see or participate in the life of the kingdom unless then are born again in this manner.

And to go deeper in this thought, there is a need for those of us who proclaim and teach the Christian faith, ought to be aware of the ability of God’s love and power to change the lives of people. Moreover, such people cannot claim to be ignorant of the same – as Nicodemus is wanting to do. God’s power and love which transforms people’s lives is not limited to the physical here and now. God promised that his people can and will receive new hearts and right spirits. Nicodemus for all of reading and learning about the Bible should have understood this. Jesus doubles down on stuff like this when he tells people that, “Truly, I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child shall not enter it.” (Mark 10.15 ESV) So unless we recognize that we need to receive (because we cannot demand anything) from God and we need to die to self while allowing God to fill us up and change our agenda we cannot participate in the kingdom.

Jesus did not come to this world to point the accusing finger and tell us that we are wrong and bad. Jesus came to show us and to assist us in the way that we need to live so that we live into the reign of God. Jesus extended his hands to bless, to heal and to draw in those who are the least the last and the lost in this world. It is why, when the Bishop confirms someone and lays hands on that person, he prays, “Defend O Lord, this your servant, with your heavenly grace…” God enables you and I to love and serve him because he wants us as a community to participate in the transformation of this world through giving, through self sacrifice so that other people might have their lives made new. He wants us to live a life that enables the transformation of others, through death and into rebirth.

Jason+

Left behind for a purpose

Can you believe it? He left us behind! But as the Gospel points out, there is a purpose to his leaving and it is more than we think. The Gospel this week is the Gospel for the Feast of the Ascension, when Jesus is taken up into heaven (Luke 24.44-53). It is important to have it on a Sunday because the Church needs to hear this part of the story because it is where Jesus directly engages us to get into and take over the ministry that he had been leading- enabling us as the community of his Body to do what he does.

It is also important to me personally because the Feast of the Ascension is the Day 11 years ago May 17^th 2007) that I become an ordained person as a Deacon in the Church. Anniversaries are important for the simple reason that it affords the opportunity to reflect upon how God has been faithful to each and to all of us over time. A Feast Day should do the same thing for the Church.

One of the things that I have been reminded of his week, is how God, through human history has enabled us to do the things that bring us closer to him and build the community that God calls us to be. Consider for example, how leadership was passed on in the Scriptures – from Master to learner. The Learner receives not only the teaching of the Master but also the spirit and the blessing of the Master.  Abraham to Isaac, Isaac to Jacob and Jacob to his 12 sons who fathered the 12 tribes of Israel. Then there is Moses to Joshua to lead the people and Elijah to Elisha among the Prophets, David to Solomon and Zachariah to John.  So, it should not be surprising that Jesus does the same with those who are to be his apostles (sent ones).  And I mean more tan just the Twelves when I say apostles. Yes, the twelve were important but we need to remember that Jesus sent his Church – all his Church to witness to him, in life and death and resurrection. The entire community is meant to engage in the ministry and mission of the kingdom. Every believer receives the same power, the same blessing and the same Spirit to take on and do the things that need to be done to fulfill the mission God has in mind.

Next it is important to note that Jesus as he is blessing his people, is taken up – he takes his and therefore our humanity into the heights of heaven. There is a Graham Kendrick Song called “Meekness and Majesty” which expresses this well:

Wisdom unsearchable, God the invisible

Love indestructible in frailty appears;

Lord of infinity stooping so tenderly

Lifts our humanity to the heights of his throne.

Oh what a mystery, meekness and majesty,

Bow down and worship, for this is your God;

This is your God!

Who and what comes back to us terms of the Pentecost, after the Ascension is just as important. We receive the Spirit and the continual blessing of Christ to carry out the Father’s will. All the power and authority we need to carry it out has been given. What we need to do is act on what we know and what we have been given. For the Church to live out its mission we must know Christ. For the world to see Christ they must first see him in and through the Church.

Faith and trust in Christ reveal themselves best in obedience to the commands of Christ and living them out in our everyday lives. At the Back of the Church, I am going to post a sign that says, “You are now entering the mission field! Wait for the power and then move in the blessing!”

Jason+

The Handsome Shepherd

What do you need to be rescued from? What do you look for in a Saviour? These are questions that we encounter through the Gospel this week. It is Good Shepherd Sunday, the Sunday when Jesus tells a group of Pharisees who are disputing with Jesus over the man who has just been giving his sight, that he is the Good Shepherd and that he will give his life for the sheep.

Some important things we ought to keep in mind about shepherds. They are not the friendliest people. The are often out on their own with the flock and they are often outcast from the community. They are the sole defenders of the flock. They must know where the pastures are for the flock to eat, how long to stay and when to go. They need to be experts in the art of defense and of first aid. The staff is to drawn in the sheep to care for them and the rod is for defense of the flock and self.

And sheep, I am sorry to say, need rescue. Often. They are not the brightest of creatures. They get hurt and get lost on a regular basis. Here is something important about them though. They will not follow just anybody. They follow the voice of the one who cares for them. The shepherd is there for them from the moment they are born to the moment of their death. The shepherd is their life and they follow his voice – to whatever end. But they also are attacked by other, wild animals and they wander off to find better pastures and more food and need to be rescued.

The Gospel this week (John 10.11-21) is very much a parallel between the shepherd and the sheep along with Jesus and the Church. Jesus is the Good Shepherd and the Church are his sheep. It should be noted that the Pharisees are there too, as hirelings, though the picture of who they are is not flattering. They know and see this in what Jesus is saying and object to being painted as runaways.

Much of this section of the Gospel is the difference between the Pharisees and Jesus – a polemic about who the true leader (shepherd) is. The Church affirms Jesus as the ‘Good’ or ‘handsome and effective’ Shepherd. In doing so, there is also laid down for the leaders within the Church community, a pattern for ministry that asks, even demand everything of a shepherd, a pastor. Pastors cannot escape pain and suffering for the life of the flock, it is inherent in the life of those who do ministry and lead the community. It is what is meant, at least in part, by calling Jesus, “good”.  Ministry is more than a job or even a profession. It is a vocation (Latin: vocation), a calling. We called first to know God and to be known by God then we are sent to make God known in the world. Ministry is not about what a particular person does, but rather how the community through all its people, serves God in the world.

Think of it this way: growing up, we had lots of animals. Horses, chickens, ducks, dogs, cats amongst others. The interesting thing is that the animals knew who the real care taker was. Mom. I could feed them and do things for them, but it was always obvious where their true affections lay. The response to mom was deeper and more real than to anyone else. The same needs to be true for the Church where Jesus is concerned. Jesus gives through sacrifice of himself and his life. Pretenders don’t… they won’t let it all on the line when it matters. That’s the difference. They come in some other way and in doing so they are not able to bring life. They are not able to submit to the Father and to his will and so actually end up stealing life instead of giving it.

The very presence of Jesus in this place in this moment, creates division and marks out those who are the Israel of God. He knows them and they follow him because they know his voice. What can he rescue you from? Will you follow him?

Jason+

What things do you need to get off your chest?

“What things?” – what a great question to ask someone who needs to get some things off their chest. In the hours and days since the accident just outside Nipawin, Saskatchewan, where there were so many lives lost.  There have been many in this community who have had things that they need to share and "to get off their chests". The hurt, disappointment and anger that they feel at the loss of life and the sense of helplessness to do anything about it. this is of course coupled with the outpouring of kindness and compassion for those who have survived and who are grieving. The outpouring of care and compassion for the afflicted and the grieving has been nothing short of incredible with awesome sauce!  

Therefore, I think that the Gospel in these Easter Days are especially potent right now. In listening to the spiritual leaders in the City of Humboldt, there is one thing that I wished I had heard: that there is hope and that there is life in Jesus. We walk through the valley of the shadow of death – that means that death is already defeated, and we are, even in this moment in the presence of the Shepherd who is our defense and our life. Jesus is Lord and he is here. We are with him.

In the Gospel this week (Luke 24.36-49) Jesus appears to the disciples in the upper room after he has spent time with two disciples walking from Jerusalem to Emmaus and becomes known to them through the breaking of bread (Luke 24.13-35).

How do we know Jesus? We see and know him because of the Word, in hearing it read to us, in reading it ourselves and in having it proclaimed to us by knowledgeable preachers. Know him in the Breaking of bread and in prayer. Know and see Jesus amid the Christian community – the life and worship of the Church. a

Bring people to faith starts with where they are not where you expect or want them to be. Did you notice where Jesus started with the two on the road? He asked them what they were talking about as they walked along together – what matters in your relationship, that you would talk about it? Answer to Jesus’ question? Are you stunned? Our dreams and our hopes have been dashed because of what has just happened in Jerusalem.

“What things?” and the pair explain, maybe with distain all the things they saw and experience around the arrest, rejection and execution of Jesus. Important to this, is the fact that Jesus listened to them – the sharing of their sorrow and disappointment becomes a prayer that God can answer. He counseled them out of the Scriptures and what they knew to show himself to them and then shared himself with them in the Meal so that they knew that they knew it was really him. In response they went back to the city to declare it.  

So, there are some simple things that we need to know, to understand and to do to help others to see and to know Jesus: (tip of the hat to Becky Pippert and her Book “Out of the Salt Shaker”)

1.       Get the story in. We need to know and understand what you know from the Scriptures – not responsible for what you do not know, only for what you know and can teach another. In the kingdom’s economy, we teach and uphold one another. That is what Jesus did for the two on the road; he upheld them in their grief. He encouraged them to believe and prepared the ground for them to be solid. He reveled himself to them when they were ready for the revelation.

2.       Get the Story straight. – for the two on the road, he made them aware of the Scriptures and what the Scriptures had to say about him and all that he was going to go through. He helped them to connect the dots so that the could come to understand what it was that God wanted of them next. In doing so, in drawing them closer to himself, he set their hearts on fire so that

3.       Get the Story out. Come to the table to get fed then get back to it – they went back to the rest of the community, in the dark and through the danger to make Jesus’ presence known to the others, to discover Jesus has already been doing the same thing. We are the bread that Jesus takes, blesses, breaks and shares with the rest of the world – go into this community and the rest of the world to help people eat and live. There is a time to tell our story and we need to learn to tell it well.

The Gospel because of the peace of God, because of the presence and mercy of Christ, has the power to move us from fear to faith; from misery to mercy; from confusion and despair into mystery, full of awe and wonder.  We need that, so that we can get the story in, get it straight and then get it out to others, especially in this time of grief and mourning. We need to let people know there is hope and there is life with Christ and we want to share it all with them.

Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his faithful servants. – Psalm 116.15

Jason+

Planting seed and giving God glory

There has been a music festival going on here at the Church for the past week now. And the room beside my office has a piano and this is where the young people have been coming to warm up before the go on stage. It has been an interesting week in that there are lots of young people in the building and more than one or two amazing voices. There has also been upset, anger, and people rushing for a bathroom to be sick.  The building has been alive with the energy of so many people.

So, as we approach Sunday and the Gospel (John 12.20-33) it has put a different slant how I see and understand this moment in Jesus’ life and in the lives of the people around him. Jerusalem was abuzz with everything that was going on. The whole world was coming to see this Jesus and the things that he was doing, especially after he raised Lazarus from the dead. They wanted at least some small part of what was going on for themselves. Jesus’ opponents, who had hoped to make a quick and easy end of him and his ways, had seemingly been thwarted. They would not acknowledge who Jesus was and what God the Father was doing through him because he was changing what people were doing and believing. The whole world was seeking him.

Case and point, a group of God-fearing Greeks who were living a Jewish life style without fully committing to the Law, came and found Phillip (a Greek named disciple of Jesus) and asked if he would take them to Jesus so that they could interview him and figure out if they would follow him or not. Phillip takes them to Andrew and together they take this unnumbered group to Jesus. The discussion leads to conversation about following him – and letting go of their agendas. They were going need to live the whole life in the light. This means that they were going to have to follow and not just on their terms but on God’s.

Life on a farm is no different from being a disciple. There are simple rules and they need to be obeyed. I know because I grew up on a small farm where we had and raised horses, dogs, cats, chickens, goats, and the occasional goose. Most, if not all my family when they came from Europe (England, Ireland. Scotland and Sweden) they came to the Canadian prairies to farm and homestead. You may not know this because much of my life has been spent on or near the ocean in BC and in Newfoundland and Labrador. Being in farm country has its rules as does living on the ocean.

Number one rule on the farm. Don’t get attached to anything you are going to eat. Don’t name it and don’t make a deep commitment because for there to be life, there is going to be death. There was not to be at the supper table, a discussion of ‘who’ we were eating. With seed it is different. Seed is not cute or fuzzy. Seed is not fuzzy or cuddly. We cannot get attached to seed like we can to a horse, a dog or even a chicken named “Fonzie”.  But we can pin out hope on the outcomes of the seed. If it does not do well, there will be consequences. No bread, no feed, no life.

Jesus wants us to consider our lives like seed for the next generation of the Church. Our lives need to be offered and given so that there can be another generation in this place. Our lives are the seed of the next generation. Those who are to follow us are the fruit of our ministry. This means we need to live in such away that people can see Jesus and come and see him. We are called upon to reject this life and the way that the world wants us to live it as if it is the only way that life can be lived. Living life the way that the world demands us to, leaves us trapped and desperate for something else, something better. Such life causes anxiety and causes us to live in the dark without hope.  

People in this community, this province and this country need to see more of Jesus. We must lift Jesus up. We must glorify the Father. We need to see Jesus again and again so that we can capture afresh both a reminder of who he is and what we are called to in him. We can reject this life as being without God and therefore without hope in favour of a life that has death and resurrection. Fruit bearing may be painful and destructive but we are not in this alone – God will glorify himself in us as we honour him – even if it means that we walk through the Valley of the Shadow of death.

Those who choose to live in the dark will lose their way. We can walk in the light, with Jesus and hear the music of the saints and live. 

Jason+

He loves us, like it or not.

This week in the Gospel of John (Jn. 3.14-21) we get a small potion of a larger discussion between Nicodemus and Jesus that happened one evening after the business of that day was finished and the evening could be given to contemplation.

In this conversation, a simple concept confronts Nicodemus. God, because of his love for his people and his creation is relentless. Love is the foundation of his kingdom. Therefore, Jesus in his preaching and teaching keeps calling on us to respond in repentance and faith to the coming of the kingdom amongst us. God in Christ pursues us seeks us out because he loves us and he desires us to be with him, both now and into eternity. We tend to forget that words like ‘holiness’ and ‘righteousness’ the very things that we need to be and to become are not verbs, things we do. Rather these things are things we become because of the relationship that we have and hold on to. These are characteristics that we gain as we spend time with the Lord and with other people who follow Jesus.

But this goes deeper than that. The love that God offers to this God hating empire is make stronger with mercy. And at the same time, his love needs to be accepted and responded to by surrendering to its demands. In fact, God goes so far as to say to each and to all of us, “I love you… like it or not.” We cannot twist or control God’s love for us to shape it to our benefit, to suit our needs or qualify our demands. We are not in control of God’s love or of God’s person. He loves all of us; like it or not.

It reminds of going to a First Nations village last Easter to do Baptisms. One boy of about three years of age was brought up to the font for Baptism. When I went to put water on him to baptize him, he smacked my hands away because he did not want to get wet or for me to touch him. His father scolded him for his actions. I then said to them, “It’s okay. Bring him down to the water so that he can touch it.” The boy played in the water for a moment, swishing his hand back and forth. Then I baptized him and anointed him with oil. I share that to say to you, God pursues you and is waiting patiently for you to turn and respond to him.

Negotiating with people to give them what they demand gives them control not only over the situation, it makes them ‘players’ and gives them a measure of control over us. This will never be where God is concerned. God’s love is free and unconditional. He loves us. Period. Whether we like him or not; whether we believe or not in him. He loves us with an everlasting love (Jeremiah 31.3)

And it does not end there. In loving us God in Christ becomes vulnerable. Christ becomes sacrificial and gives his life for us, all the way to death and the grave. Christ makes this gift, this sacrifice knowing the costs and does it anyway knowing that the price is dear. Humans do not want to be weak, vulnerable and make sacrifices. We prefer to live and our ongoing Game of Thrones where we win or die trying to win. We live believe that the real security is in power and strength, being bold and using power and might to affect change in the world.

Whose strength do you operate in? Yours or God’s? Are you able to be vulnerable and open to sacrifice for the benefit of another? I ask this because I know that in the presence of unconditional love, we discover ourselves powerless. In such living we need to yield to God, giving up or plans, letting go of our goals, and manipulating agendas. Know that God’s love is going to tenaciously pursue us, to transform us into the people that God created for himself, like it or not. God created this world and he is in control. He causes it to be maintained and he will bring it to an end when time is fulfilled in favour of the new creation and the new life it will contain. He has done this through being vulnerable, tenaciously loving and giving sacrificially.

Is this not a love, a God you could surrender to? In Christ God has snatched victory from the jaws of defeat and offers life to those who will accept and love him. All we need do is come into his light, liking it or not.

Jason+

Becoming living altars

I have been thinking this week about how we serve God and what it means to be missional. The Gospel this week (John 2.13-22) is an interesting lesson in that will consider it again at least in a cursory way, during Holy Week. This will be in the lead up to Good Friday and what happens on that low hill outside the city and on the cross. It also goes to the question, “Will you surrender to God?” It is what Jesus did, starting in the Garden when he asked for the cup of suffering to be taken from him and then says, “Not my will, but yours.” He surrendered himself to the will of the Father that he would become the way home for those who would participate in him and his life after the cross.

In this lesson, I noticed something that is important. Altars. How we approach them and how we deal with them is not something that we Anglicans spend a lot of tine talking about. It is more something which we honour and something we keep as sacred and tend to leave it there, unspoken. But maybe it is something that we need to become as people. Confused? Then let me explain.

The Temple was the place of the altar and where people could approach the presence of the God of Israel here on earth. It was the place where sacrifices and offerings where made. Synagogues, where most Jews worshipped was a place for prayer and for teaching, not for sacrifice. Jesus had made the journey more than once. He went into the Temple – a place he had been before, at least twice that we know of in the Gospels. Both times were with his parents. First with his parents to obey the Law and offer sacrifice to reclaim him from the Lord because he was a first-born son. This is when the little family encountered the quiet in the Land (Simeon the priest and Anna the prophet) and many important things were said and done. The second time in the Temple was just before the year in which Jesus would have celebrated his bar mitzvah and became a man within the spiritual community. He was left behind when they family headed home, and his frantic parents went back and found him “in his Father’s house” talking with learned men.

So, for Jesus to suggest its destruction was a bit of a wild thing. Why would you destroy a big, beautiful building that is meant to house the presence of the living God? Where would people go to meet with God? How would they get forgiveness for their sins? What would become of the priests and their religion if there was no temple? Reality? God is moving his location from a place into the lives of his people to be with them – with you and with me. All day, every day.

This means that as followers of the Lord Jesus, our lives play host to the presence and the life of the living God. Our lives must out of necessity become places and spaces where giving, sacrifice and blessing need to meet – for the sake of others, not just for ourselves. Our lives and our bodies are where the divine and humanity meet. Therefore, the lives we live, including our bodies must be come altars. How do we know this is so? Consider Jesus! He had eyes to see what it was like in the Temple, ears to hear the noises and a nose to smell the different odors. Jesus knelt on a knee to wash his disciples’ feet at the table. He had hands that reached out to pick up and bless children and at the same time to make a whip of cords to drive out flocks and herds while tipping tables and scattering coins.

In learning to surrender, we also discover that our faith and participation in Christ makes us uncomfortable – faith and obedience causes struggles. It makes us sweat. Upon occasion believing and participating will involve pain and tears. And in all of it, where you go, Christ lives. So maybe we need to consider carefully where is God in our lives and in our ministries. Where does Christ need to be let in? What rooms in our lives need light? Where do we need to some spring cleaning?  We need to be people who can be identified as Christian people (and please note I say Christians not Anglicans) because of how we live, what we say and what we do. We must live incarnationally so that people can encounter ‘God with the flesh on’. In this way through what we do and what we say we are also becoming missional. In so doing, we become living altars.

Jason+