The Far Side of Christmas

I have heard over Advent a lot of people decrying yet again about “how commercial Christmas is”. There is no doubt in my mind that there is two celebrations where Christmas is concerned in North American Society. The first is the secular “I need, I want, and I’m going to get” kind of Christmas celebration where people are bribed to go and spend money on what they think they want or what they need to possess in order to be happy. News shows and papers are constantly talking about how much people will spend and how good or poorly the economy will be doing based on how we respond to the demand of our culture and society that we buy everything to keep at least some of us happy and in money.

Then there is the other side of Christmas or as I think of it these days, the Far Side of Christmas. As far back as I can remember, Christmas has not been Christmas without being at Church. Whether it was in my first parish with a 1,000 other people (literally) or I was with the little congregation in Northern BC where I first came to faith more than three decades ago with thirty people maximum and the place was packed, it wasn’t Christmas for us until we had been to the Midnight Mass, we came home and we had some hot chocolate and opened one present before bed. Mom got to determine what present we opened. 

Like many others, I like the getting the presents and even going to get presents for my family that they think they are going to like. It is probably because as I get older, I have noticed how much more the far side of Christmas has come to mean to me. I have actually grown fatigued of all the Christmas shows that require someone or something saving the “Fat Man” because he cannot deliver the glitzier side of Christmas. Jolly old St. Nicholas needs the reality of Christmas just like the rest of us – but he is no saint and he is no threat to the way in which we live... unless we don’t get our stuff.

Even the traditional image of Jesus with his parents, the shepherds, the angels and the animals is no threat to us. In fact, I would say to you that the image is so familiar to us almost, that we bring it to the point of contempt. After all babies are a joy; they are a wonder and they are weak so how could they possibly a threat?

The King we await is a threat. He will come again to judge both the living and the dead (physically and spiritually). Jesus life and the new kingdom are a threat, if for no other reason than there will be no Santa to depend on. There will be a huge shift in the way that the world will live and only those who are deemed worthy will be a part of it. Remember the Parable of the Wedding Banquet. We will not be a part of the new life and the new world unless we are ready in this moment under the ways that God calls us to be.

God in Christ is here. And we are called to stand with him. Christ is Christmas. And if we find him absent who has excluded whom? Is it not us? Is not time to listen again to the voice of the angels as they sing; to the laughter of the Shepherds as they march to the Manger, to consider the quiet and the clam of the stable? Is it not time to make room of the little life that lays in the manger and know that he is going to grow and strengthen and call you to the barren tree of Easter? Isn’t that moment too on the far side of Christmas? And what does that mean for our stuff?

Jason+ 

The deep breath before the plunge

The Book that got me reading has finally been made into a feature film. In fact, the book is a trilogy of films. The Hobbit: An unexpected Adventure, the Desolation of Smaug and the most recent and concluding film, “The Hobbit: the Battle of the Five Armies”. I was and remain a lover of the literature of JJR Tolkien that created revealing the life of Middle Earth – the setting for the both the Hobbit and the Lord of the Rings series. One of the things I like about the books of this series is the theology and the working out of life and its hardships through a Christian mindset. Please watch the video above so that you can understand a little deeper, what I share with you about what this week’s Gospel says about the Annunciation of the Lord Jesus to Mary (Luke 1:26-38).

The announcement to Mary that God was showing favour to her and that she was to give birth to a son. She took a moment, a deep breath and then acknowledged that she had indeed heard and received the message and was willing to allow God to work within her to work his miracle and bring about our salvation through her child. God would save his people through her son – and she must call him Jesus (The Lord saves).

Now let us be careful about some things. Mary did not just simply give up and give over – she pondered what all this might mean... after all what does it mean to be favoured by God? When one considers the examples of whomever else God favours, the Old Testament shows that that when you are on God’s side, you are in danger or are about to be in dangers of various kinds.  Mary was legally bound to her husband Joseph and then being discovered to be with child but Joseph not being the father could cost her everything: family, friends, reputation, marriage, not to mention her life and that of her unborn son.  

Mary was willing to accept whatever it was that God had for her to do – even if she did not understand it completely or thought it silly. There is a second story that goes with the Annunciation, the birth of John the Baptist. Zechariah the old priest and his wife Elizabeth had been childless most of their lives... people who had wanted them but had never been blessed with them. Zechariah doubted that God could make it happen in their old age and laughed derisively at the notion that it would now. As a result, he spent the entire pregnancy mute, and only when he followed the direction to name the boy “John” was he able to speak again.

Mary chose to believe not matter how silly or impossible it sounded. And there is something that this should make us aware of the presence of God in a person’s life – God is faithful to his people and he is a true keeper of his own promises and is trustworthy to his word.

Accepting God at his word does not make us crazy or foolish. It means that we are willing to trust and rely on Him and his word – even when the world thinks we are out to lunch. Allowing God to work in us and through us is what Christmas is all about. We might not always understand what we have been told; We may not realize what the consequences are of saying “yes” or “no” are. What we can trust is that God through his Son has our best interests at heart and is working out our salvation through Him.

This is the deep breath before the plunge into all that Christmas is: will you be like Mary and allow it be to you has God has spoken? Will you accept the thing that God has for you to do and allow God to begin to work in your life as he sees fit? Does it sound crazy or wild? Take a deep breath and then answer.

Jason+

Doing the ministry, proclaiming Christ

John the Baptist had an important, growing, even thriving ministry among the people of Israel. He was in a place away from the major cities and from the popular holy places where people practiced their religion. He was “in the wilderness” preaching and exhorting the nation as a whole to come back to God and to repent of the lives they had been living away from him. The main goal of his ministry was to point to the Messiah when he saw him. John’s ministry was one of proclamation – to tell the people that there is One who is coming who will be more powerful than he is and will baptize not with water but with the Spirit. He believed that the world around him needed to know that Jesus is amongst us.

Many asked John if he was the one the nation had been waiting for. John consistently pointed to the One who was coming after him because he ranks ahead of him; that the Messiah’s ministry must increase and that his own ministry, his proclamation and witness must decrease (John 3.30). It is not me, he is the One we have been waiting for... behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world! John came as a witness to what was to happen in the life of Jesus and to point people to him. if you wish to think of it this way, John the Baptist consistently told people “I am not the One” whereas Jesus consistently says throughout the Gospel of John that “I am”.

And this statement, that that Jesus is the “I am” is incredibly important. John the Baptist and John the Gospel writer are human witnesses of a cosmic, eternal and divine event. God has moved into this world in an unprecedented way in and through Christ. They are signing his presence by actively witnessing to it through their own lives.  To not witness what God is doing is to proclaim divine absence and our disbelief in God’s ability to come and reach us where we are. If we are to act in this way then we are sinning and thus separated from God. It means that we are broken, hurt and dying people. And that is why Jesus came and is coming again – that we might have life and have it more abundantly. And if you worry that you have done something that is simply unforgivable, that God simply would not let you off the hook for, that too was covered by Christmas. There is nothing original about your sin and God has come in Christ to do something about it. There is nothing that God cannot overcome in your life, once the Light has been put upon it. For certain there are going to be moments of struggle and pain but the greatest thing about Christmas and the coming of the King is that when everything is made new again, all of it will be behind us. We will truly be free and the work of Christmas will have only just begun.

So where does this leave us? We need to seek out Christ, because we need the Light to see. Our eyes will never adjust to the darkness. We need the light – even if it is only by a single, little, flickering flame. We need the Light and to follow it, not just so that we can help Jesus rescue those who are sitting in darkness, but so that we can find our way home too. Our eyes need to the Light so that we can get to “see” level and then with John the Baptist and so many other people over the last two millennia, actively show people the King in his true light. Then we will been seen for who we truly are, faithful reflections of his light and that he really is the One we have been waiting for. We must continue the ministry. 

Maranatha! (Come Lord Jesus, come quickly)

Jason+

On becoming an Andrew

This is the last week, the Last Sunday of the liturgical year for the Church. Next week we move into Advent and begin to focus on getting ready for the coming of the King and his kingdom. This Sunday we celebrate our patron saint, Andrew. It might interest you to know that there were two congregations here in Prince Rupert. St. Andrew’s became the Cathedral of the Diocese in the late 1920’s. The other parish was St. Peter’s, Seal Cove. St. Peter’s was meant to be the fishermen’s church and St. Andrew for the West end of the city.

In 1963, owing to the lack of money to keep both parishes going, St. Peter’s congregation was moved into the Cathedral. The chapel on the South side of the Building is St. Peter’s Chapel, in honour of the former Church and parish of Prince Rupert. I mention this because I think we need to be aware of the local history. I believe it is important to use this information to help guide us both in matters of the physical and the spiritual decision making that needs to happen in the working out of the mission. To this I would add that we need to know about the history of the person we are named after... what is his spiritual nature/heritage and how are we like him? Anglican congregations are often name for saints, and for the character of that saint because they believe that this best exemplifies the character of the community to which they belong.

Andrew was unique in the group of apostles in that he was constantly bringing other people to see Jesus. He would listen and respond to their needs, which usually meant getting them close to Jesus. Andrew himself was the first among brothers to believe and to be close to Jesus. When Jesus asked him and John what they wanted from him, they asked to see where he lived, and he was invited to “Come and see”. In the days of Jesus’ he was in the inner circle with Simon Peter, James and John and was often in the lead. This plays out in his ministry later on in John’s Gospel when a group of Greek men who came and asked Andrew to see Jesus.

Now among those who went up to worship at the feast were some Greeks. So these came to Philip, who was from Bethsaida in Galilee, and asked him, “Sir, we wish to see Jesus.” Philip went and told Andrew; Andrew and Philip went and told Jesus. And Jesus answered them, “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit. Whoever loves his life loses it, and whoever hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life. If anyone serves me, he must follow me; and where I am, there will my servant be also. If anyone serves me, the Father will honour him.” (John 12.20-26 ESV)

The Gospel this week, for St. Andrew’s Day, (Matthew 4.18-22) registers the claim that Jesus laid upon his original followers. They had spent time together and gotten to know each other. Then the command – not an invitation – came to the four of them to come to follow, and to learn how to be fishers of men. It is significant that the teacher chose the students and not students the teacher. In those days people would follow by their own choice (and still do!), coming and going as they pleased. Jesus chose his followers and called them deliberately into community with himself. Andrew was chosen by Jesus. Andrew left what he had (Family, friends, marriage, children house, business, profession and income) behind.

How do you respond to the call to be a follower of the Lord Jesus? We are confronted with that question each time that there is baptism in this church... Will you obediently serve him as your Lord? Perhaps this is why our mission statement for the Parish reflects this reality: our mission is to seek, to seek and to serve God in Christ through the Holy Spirit. it is not enough for the community of Christ to just do the first two things – to come and to see. Once we have come and seen there is the necessity of serving Christ where we find him in everyday life. In that way our everyday actions, thoughts and prayers become worship. Like Andrew we ought to strive to use the words of a familiar hymn to make them real in our lives: “take me life and let it be – ever, only, all for thee”. We ought to be all about Jesus and the coming kingdom. And if we are to do that then we must, like Andrew, cultivate and active interdependence upon God and each other so that we can be supported and carried thought he challenges of the day as we await that day when the kingdom is a full reality.  

All of us can be Andrews. All of us are and can be believers, followers and some of us even leaders of the community of the Lord Jesus. Let us ask God to give us grace to deepen our faith in Christ and the strength to effectively confess and proclaim that Jesus is Lord of all the nations. The message must go to the ends of the earth, and people must see the salvation of our God. Will you not take them?

Jason+

Know the Father, have peace.

A while back, I had a conversation with an elderly priest. We were talking about public ministry and public life as clergy and I asked him what he thought people wanted or needed the most. After some thought, he gave me a simple answer.  “Peace,” he said, “People want and need peace.” So I have been thinking about that this week. If people want peace, why don’t they have it? The world is a strange, busy, often violent place. This seen best and most of all in the life of Jesus and the ways in which we treated him and caused him to suffer and die. And that is when it hit me. Because we do not know God, we find it hard to know grace. And because there is precious little grace, there is no peace.

Our New Testament lesson this week is from First Peter. Here is what Peter says,

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, who by God’s power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, so that the tested genuineness of your faith—more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire—may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ. Though you have not seen him, you love him. Though you do not now see him, you believe in him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory, obtaining the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls. (1 Peter 1.3-9, ESV)

One of the very first things that we can draw out of this is the fact that God is not an unknown entity. God is a well known and beloved Father. The life that comes from God the Father, the life that God offers to us in Christ, cannot be changed, eroded, faded or worn away by the passage of time. It cannot and shall not be ravaged or stolen away because that life belongs to God and it is part of the divine nature. If we have life in the Father, we are his and we belong to him. And if we belong to him then we must participate in the dying and rising of his Son.

But how many of us in the Church in North America, these days are ready and willing to die? How many of us are ready to risk death so that we may live and others with us? There is a certain amount of fear about the end of this life and even more so about the control of life and the loss of liberty and self determination in the face of decay and disease in our society again recently. Now more than ever, our society needs to see people in the Church live their lives with courage and integrity worthy of the kingdom of heaven. Please keep in mind that I am not talking about martyrdom. A gift such as martyrdom is a gift you get to use only once, and it is near the very end of this life. I am talking about bold living and proclamation of the kingdom: first, the simple actions of honest living and then, at the right time the right words to share the desire of the heart of the Father – that we would choose to love him back and to enter into relationship with him. Also remember that courage is not the absence of fear – such a thing is for fools only. Courage is the ability and willingness to act and to do in the face of fear, know that there will be a cost and offering the appropriate sacrifice.

Here, we need to be truthful with ourselves. Faith to come into its fullness is necessarily tested and tried by fire. Without having our faith, both as individuals and as a community tested, of what worth and strength is it?  Can we not recognize that death is not the end but only the beginning? As Scripture reminds us, “Weeping may spend the night, but joy comes in the morning.” (Psalm 30.5)

Maybe I can make things make sense this way. My own dad and I were very close. For reasons that I cannot to this day explain, having my father present always allowed for a certain amount of peace. He showed me how to control my fears and anxieties, passions and temper.  Over my childhood I can remember my dad teaching me that there was life waiting on the other side of the gate and that death was a gate all of us had to walk through., So when my father was sick and dying with cancer, I can remember him being sad that I had to look after him and help him to do things. It was a test that I think strengthen the bond between us. In the last few days that he spent in hospital, I would stay with him at night, to be there for him if he needed anything. When I would leave I would say to him, good night, Dad, I’ll see you in the morning.  It was a deep privilege for me to be with him, to pray with him and for him, the night he died because he had taught me to pray. And now when I go to visit his grave, I still remind him and myself, “See you in the morning.”

Is the lost real? Of course! Do I miss him? For certain. I remember what I was taught through my relationship with my father and that sustains me. And at the same time I have come to discover that peace, real peace, comes from knowing the Father and having relationship with his Son. And we have so much we can look forward to: On this mountain the LORD Almighty will prepare a feast of rich food for all peoples, a banquet of aged wine -- the best of meats and the finest of wines.(Isaiah 25.6) We need to know the Father so that we can see the old become new, the fallen being raised up, and all things being brought to their perfect in Christ on the day of his coming again. Know the Father have grace and when you have grace, you have God’s own peace.

Jason+

Everything, according to plan - except not.

My wife and I have often made jokes about waiting on our wedding day. We were well planned and ready to go. The banns had been read in our respective parishes. The invitations had been sent out. The photographer had had a mishap with keys but was ready to go. Our families had arrived from both coasts of the country. My bride had told the clergy off, insisting that she would be at the Church on time and the wedding would start as planned.

There was one issue we had not planned on though. The Church where we were getting married was in downtown Toronto (Avenue Road and Dupont Avenue) and my wife and her family where coming from Don Mills. The plan was to travel the Don Valley Parkway. We discovered right before the wedding that the DVP (or as we had dubbed it, the DV Parking Lot) was going to be closed that weekend but didn’t map out a route for my wife’s uncle to follow, since he had lived in Toronto for decades.

I share this escapade with you, to draw us into a parable that is our Gospel this week – the Parable of the ten virgins or the ten bridesmaids (Matthew 25.1-13). The Parable should tell us something about God because that is what parables are designed to do for us. So does this mean that if the God is closed, God is going to be late for the wedding? Not exactly, but let’s ferret this out a bit more.

First of all, let’s remember that weddings in the Middle East, especially in ancient times, were a big deal that went on for more than a single night. Weddings went on for a week. Everything was carefully planned and laid out so that there was nothing that would happen to spoil the festivities. Second of all, it was about waiting for the Groom, not the bride. The bride and the wedding party (the families and guests) waited at the place of the wedding for the Bridegroom and his party to arrive so that everything could begin. This is the total opposite of how we do weddings in our culture. The day is about the bride and the dress and the reception and the pictures of it all, the toasts and other traditions, etc...  The Groom, at least this used to be the case, got the Wedding night.

The focus is on the ten women who wait for the Groom. This is an odd thing, women waiting for a man and the man is late! Especially since their duty was to wait on and be tending to the bride not the groom. They needed to tend to their torches, adding oil every 15 minutes or so. Then there is a delay of some length. We aren’t told how long except that those who were reasonably ready now found themselves short. Five were reasonably prepared. Five more were extraordinarily prepared. You would think that when a friend or a neighbour is in need that one would share the oil, and help out. But that is not what happens. So, those who were less prepared for the delay of the start of the party, ended up missing out on the wedding entirely, because they had not been wise enough to be extraordinarily prepared. For the unprepared, it became a “weeding” party; that means that if one is not prepared, even for the unexpected, you can and will be “weeded” out. And Luke’s Gospel tells us that there was weeping and gnashing of teeth – and those who didn’t have teeth, were given some.

If there is anything that I have learned in the 20 years plus that I have been married and in the nearly 25 years I have been in ministry, is that there is a need to planned and there is a need to be prepared. However, in the case of the kingdom, there is one thing more that is necessary: to know the nature of the King and to be ready to wait as long as it takes for him to arrive. We need to be ready for the unexpected. We need to be ready to wait for as long as it takes. Please understand that waiting in the Bible is not idleness. It is continuing to do the things you do and doing them as for the Lord, so that we are helping, working to draw others into the kingdom. There are going to be moments of sudden ministry that are going to demand our best and draw heavily on our resources. There is no real excuse for not drawing on God to provide for moments such as those – we should not have waited so long nor been caught flatfooted.

Who has the faith to last until the end and where can we get more? Ask God, he will supply you amply. So be prepared to wait and to do what must be done in the meantime. It is everything according to plan. Except not. It is God working out for us and with us our salvation. Trust and live in that this week... in his name!

Jason+

For All the Saints - not worrying about "it"

This week is the anniversary of my ordination to the sacred priesthood. It will be seven years ago Saturday that I went to St. Peter’s Church in Westport, White Bay and was ordained as a pastor, priest and teacher in the Church. I remember that moment vividly for a number of reasons not the least of which there is a great collage of pictures that was given to me as an ordination present to help me remember that night.

But then I recall the Day – the Christian feast day on which I was ordained: All Saints Day. Over the years, there are two consistent things that people have said to me about saints and sainthood: (1) I don’t want to be a saint, you’ve got to be kidding me and (2) to be a saint you have to be dead and I am not dead yet. Moreover, they often think that when I tell them that they are becoming more and more like their Father, they think that I am teasing or kidding.

In my own case, I waited months to feel like a priest after ordination. I can remember sitting through lectures and writing papers, doing projects while still being a father and a husband... hoping and praying that when I got there that I would get “it” and that I would really like “it” and be a really good, even holy priest. And then I became concerned because it was not happening. Ministry in the parish was like it was before. Things were happening and going much like before. I knew that I was a priest but I did not feel like one.  This feeling went on for some time until, standing at the altar one Sunday, I finally got “it”.  No, I didn't suddenly become a paragon of Anglican ministry having been zapped by the Spirit. Rather, I finally understood that the moment of ordination was a moment of public declaration of ministry. I was publicly entrusted with the life and leadership of the Church. God had called me because he made me to be a priest, and I was responding and living out that call. And that is when I realized that sainthood and holiness for the whole Church works in the same manner.

We are the children of the most high God. God has chosen us, God loves us and God is continually blessing us as we seek, see, and strive to serve him. We are in this moment blessed. We are blessed not because we are special or have done certain things or acted in particular ways but we are blessed nonetheless. We are blessed and then we go to do our ministries and we come back to this sacred place to be renewed, replenished, resorted and reminded that we are blessed. Then we go again and re peat the cycle.  It is only through going to ministry and returning from ministry that we can begin to see patterns of how God is working in our lives and the lives of those around us so that we can recognize that God is fulfilling his promises to us and transforming the community around us.

In blessing us, God brings to bear all that he has in store for each and for all of us. We are blessed so that we are effective in living out the out the Good news and the proclamation of the kingdom and at the same time, blessed so that we can live into the kingdom that is coming through the grace and plan of God.

We are blessed. We are being blessed right here and right now. This is not just a future tense thing where we will suddenly arrive and we will know it all and we will be “it”. We are being blessed and we may not know why or what for – that is for a later time. We need to go and live life so you can figure what you are called to and then come back praising and rejoicing and then go and do it.

And that is what I intend to do all over again in my eighth year of priesthood: go and discover the ministry to the minors and then do it – wherever and whenever, knowing that God has already been there and I don’t have to worry about “it”.

Jason+