He ascended with our scars

“Pax Dominum” (The Peace of the Lord be with you) – it is how Jesus greets his disciples for the last time in the Easter season and right before he is taken up to heaven. He has come to lead them out to the Mount of the Ascension and he is going to be taken into heaven from them.  But the question might be, “Where did he go?” According to the Creeds, he ascended into heaven and sits at the right hand of the Father. From there he will come to judge the living and the dead.

And then things got interesting. Two men dressed in white robes asked the 11 disciples why they were standing there, looking up into heaven when they should be focused on what’s next. Imagine how daunting that must have been. Jesus has been taken up, what do we do now? So I find what they did next all the more interesting. The Eleven worshiped and prayed. They went back to the Temple and to the City and they worshiped and prayed some more. And that it when it hit me: at the start of the Gospel of Luke, Zachariah would not thank God for the gift of a child believing that it was not possible and so could not bless people for nine months; not until John was born and he acknowledge what God had told him and did as he was directed.

That is a stark contrast to Jesus who is taken up from his disciple and continues to bless them as he is removed from their sight. Scripture witnesses to the fact the Jesus keeps on blessing as he keeps on proceeding to his rightful place, beside his Father. Jesus, according to the Scriptures continues even today to bless the Church. It has happened from that moment to this moment. Jesus is blessing his one, holy, catholic and apostolic Church. But what does it mean for us to be blessed?

Well, for one, when you know that you are blessed, there needs to be a response starting with thanksgiving. Praise and thanksgiving are an important part of God’s economy. The peace that draws us into God’s presence also enables us to move from fear to faith; from misery to mercy and from bewilderment to fascination, awe and wonder at what God can and is doing. Give thanks that he has ascended with our scars. Worship helps us to focus on God and to let go of the things that hold us down and keep us back from him and all that he desires to give us and to do through us in the world.

Secondly, we need to know when to get home for worship and to be resupplied and when to get out of the house. It has been said that “timing is everything.” It may be, but it is not the only that needs to happen. When it was time, things moved forward. The Spirit came upon the Church, Peter preached, people responded and the Church grew because the community had been both blessed and empowered for the work that was ahead.

So this then, raises questions like, ”Can you wait? Can you wait faithfully and keep on praise and worshiping God? Can you celebrate being left behind?” If you want to, then lift up your heart, lift up your life and allow God to direct it as he sees fit and may the Lord continue to bless you in the things he has called you to.

Jason+

Would it be like Jesus to do something like this?

This week in our parish, we return to the teaching and preaching of the Creeds and what is in them. In particular this week, we are gong to consider one phrase: “the forgiveness of sins”. In doing so, I could not but help recall a story I heard a while back about a man who was at home and received phone call. It was the police and they asked him some questions about his wife and his whereabouts for the past several hours. Apparently the man’s wife had been badly beaten and left in a ditch on the side of a country road having been given up for dead. The police anted to know if he could come and identify his wife. “Oh my goodness!” the man exclaimed, shaking and shuttering “I’ll be there as soon as I can!” When he arrived, the police arrested the man for attempted murder? Why? He knew where the body was opposed to be.

So it is no wonder that the disciples on the road and the disciples in the upper room in Jerusalem were nothing short of shell shocked when they discovered that the Lord Jesus was alive (Luke 24:13-49). After all, the dead don’t rise and the followers of Jesus knew that they knew where the body was supposed to be. Nevertheless Jesus stood among them and greeted them as simply as he could – as he always had: with peace. He invited them to come to him and see and touch and examine him to know that it was the truth. He wanted them to know that he was really alive. He ate in front of them. He taught them one last time like used to on the roads, in the boat, in the fields and in the places and spaces of worship and most of all around the table. Jesus prepared them for his departure. He geared them up for what was next and what lay ahead of them as the mission of the kingdom was ahead of them. He reminded them of what the Word says, giving those who will lead and those who will follow hope and strength for the days and trials ahead. Most of all, Jesus told them to remain in the city and wait until they got power from on high before they moved out to live in the blessing.

In this moment of encounter with the risen Lord, these folks needed peace more than anything else. They had been distraught over the crucifixion and the burial. And now there was all this nonsensical talk about the body not being in the tomb and some who are saying that they have seen Jesus – even Peter who denied Jesus that night had seen them. Beleaguered, embattled and bewildered they suddenly find that Jesus is there amongst them offering his own peace and his own self. Wouldn't such a moment cause you to take a pause and consider what it is that is going on? Wouldn't it be like Jesus to do something like this?

During their chat, Jesus tells them point blank, “These are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you, that everything written about me in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled.” Then he opened their minds to understand the Scriptures, and said to them, “Thus it is written, that the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead, and that repentance and forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem. You are witnesses of these things. And behold, I am sending the promise of my Father upon you. But stay in the city until you are clothed with power from on high. (Luke 24.44-49 ESV)

I am always amazed at the number of people I encounter in the Church who have yet to come to a place where they know and believe that in Christ God has dealt with their sin and believe that there is still an atonement that needs to be made. Sin came because of Adam and because of sin there is death. We are by the virtue of being of Adam’s race then subject to death. God sent Jesus to be the second Adam so that through faith and trust in him, there would be life. There is nothing that we can do to save ourselves and to make ourselves good enough in God’s eyes. There is nothing we are and nothing we possess that can pay for the judgement made against sin. This is why we need Jesus. God laid on Jesus the price of our lives; the iniquity of us all. In turn, through the gifts of grace and faith we can receive Christ and “all other the benefits of his passion.”

Being a Christian does not make one perfect – by no means. It does mean that there is work to be done on relationships starting with God to make sure that we live the kind of life that is righteous. It means that we need to live the kind of life where the fruit of a righteous life, a life lived in the Spirit are evident in increasing measure. And we need to keep in mind that “that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.” (Philippians 1.6) God will bring the perfection. We need to be faithful and boldly declare that there is forgiveness, repentance and the nearness of the kingdom for those who will come and do so.

Jason+ 

Effective, costly ministry

The religious types of the day must have been freaked out at what was happening around this man Jesus. His life and ministry were upsetting the balance that the wealthy and the powerful had struck to maintain themselves in their positions and with their wealth. Because of the constancy and consistency of his life and ministry and because of this latest sign (the raising of Lazarus, John 11:1-53)  The religious leaders of the South are remarking with fear to each other, “The whole world has gone after him!”

It must have seemed like that – the whole known world was going after Jesus. They wanted him to be their healer, their teacher and their King. They wanted what they wanted. Effective ministry is important to the life of the Church community. Doing things both right and righteously draws people to you and it is up to you and me to minister to those whom God will put in our paths, personally and corporately. One of the things I have been reflecting on recently, is the fact that people we see in the gospels sought Jesus. They went looking for him; the people were reacting to the presence of the power and the healing of God in their midst. The people sought Jesus out and they found him. In turn Jesus offered what he had for them: healing, wholeness, and a challenge to live rightly for the kingdom because God had come near to them.

What people often don’t see and know about those who minister to them, is the price that those who minister pay for the ministry they offer. Jesus himself pointed out to those around him, 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 honor him. (John 12.24-26 ESV)  Does this mean we are to actually hate our lives, treat ourselves with fear and loathing and make ourselves to be martyrs for a cause? By no means!

We are called to love Christ and to follow him in such a way that it may seem to others that we have not only left the old life behind but that it is dead to us. By implication then, that might mean that we see people around us as dead... and so what would we be prepared to do to see that the people around us live? Such is the costly nature of ministry in the life in the Church and in the world.

If you are going to follow Jesus, what are you going to take with you on that journey? Let me make a suggestion? Take with you the fruit of the Spirit and the death of Christ, so that you might live for Jesus, walking in step with the Spirit: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. (Galatians 5.23, 24 ESV) As baptised people, we carry with us both the death of Christ, who died once for all and the risen life of Christ that we might live with him and for him in this life. And in doing so that we might discover that the life within is welling up as a spring to eternal life.

So in essence, we live out both the dying and the rising of Jesus on our everyday lives.

To be effective in our faith, we need to focus ourselves on Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God (Hebrews 12.2 ESV). We need to seek, to see so that we might serve him in those places and spaces we find him and those who are with him.

After all we are with him in his ministry reaching out to draw the world in and Jesus himself will build his church. And remember, the outstretched hand of another, is the altar of God. It is an opportunity to serve. 

Jason+

Faith is a verb, not just a noun!

In the parish throughout Lent, we are going to consider the Creeds. especially the Apostles' Creed - I post a copy of it here for reference sake. Aside from Scripture itself, this is one of the oldest and most enduring confessions of the Christian faith. Tradition says that each of the Apostles, the 12 disciple contributed a line to it. 

Let us confess our faith as we say: 

I believe in God, the Father almighty,

Creator of heaven and earth.

I believe in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord.

He was conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit

and born of the Virgin Mary.

He suffered under Pontius Pilate,

was crucified, died, and was buried.

He descended to the dead.

On the third day he rose again.

He ascended into heaven,

and is seated at the right hand of the Father.

He will come again

to judge the living and the dead.

I believe in the Holy Spirit,

the holy catholic Church,

the communion of saints,

the forgiveness of sins,

the resurrection of the body,

and the life everlasting. Amen.

Where does the Christian faith begin? Faith begins when we attend to the reality that God is revealing who he is through the person of Jesus Christ and that we are accepting the invitation to come into relationship with God through Christ for Scripture, “Commands all men everywhere to repent and believe in the name of the Lord Jesus... as he commanded us (Acts 17.30, 1 John 3.23 and John 6.28) Believing in God is more that an assent, an acknowledgement that he is real and out there somewhere in the cosmos. Faith and belief is about a commitment to a vital relationship with the God who created all that is, seen and unseen; of heaven and of earth. This belief is also a commitment to actively express the personal conviction that God has drawn me into this relationship and that I have accepted and am living out the reality of that invitation and relationship in this world and this life.

Some will ask, “What if I have doubts? What if I get it wrong? What if I make mistakes?” First, I would point out that without doubts we cannot be certain of what it is that we actually believe. Moreover, we need to be aware that we need to examine both what we believe and where we have doubts. We need to know that there are, according to JI Packer, two types of doubt. There are those inside doubts: that is there is faith that has become infected, sick from a lack of faith and confidence in God and in the Scriptures leaving our faith “out of sorts”. There is also the external pressures that cause doubts. They often com about because we have laid to one side the faith we place in God and the Scriptures because we have chosen to believe in human expert opinion or a deep involvements that have take us way from both God and Church, or even the fear of ridicule from others for believing they way you do about a particular thing as you do. Often doubts will come because of personal experience and allowing that to override where faith is concerned.

So how do we overcome doubt? This is the moment where we need to be aware that we need the community of faith to get through these things. We need people in the churches whom people can talk to, to explain the difficulty that one is having. We need to explore and examine the Scriptures and prayerfully speak with God, considering what both the Word and the Spirit have to say on the subject and reason things out (Faith is not against reason and logical, faith is above reason). Then it is important to explore what there might be in one’s life that would give rise to the doubts. It is important to remember that time and perspective will make things clearer and easier to understand.

So when we come to say the creed, it is crucial to remember that when we proclaim, “I believe in God” that the God we proclaim is the God of the Scriptures, the God that is revealed in the person of Jesus Christ. It means also that we do not believe in any other gods; that we don’t put our lives into the hands of something or someone else, be they metal or mental. We proclaim that we believe in God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. The God who is “merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity ... but who will by no means clear the guilty.” (Exodus 34.5-7) John’s Gospel reminds us that God is both light and love. God is both lover and judge. God loves and at the same time requires righteousness and purity. God demands morality and compassion at the same time because that is his nature and his role. We see and learn this in Jesus, the Son.

When we proclaim that we believe, we claim to be participating in the worship of the Father, who is above us, with the Son Jesus, who is one among us and beside us through the Spirit who is within us. The worship and mission of God come from God himself and we are the divine community which God has created to be his Church and in God the Church lives and moves and has its being. And maybe that is the most important thing about faith... it is not just about the head knowledge that we can collect nor is about all the things the heart can feel, it is the realization that faith (pisteuo) is a verb. Faith informs the  mind and emboldens the heart which in turn, empowers the hands and the feet of those who proclaim their relationship with God.

It is a terrifying thing to fall into the hands of the living God. – Hebrews 10.31

Jason+

The Truth finds us and lives through us

For truth to be real, it first needs to be spoken. Then it needs to be demonstrated through action, or in this case, revelation. We are at a serious juncture of the Gospel of Mark and we are to the end of the Season of Epiphany with one more revelation of monumental proportions.

The Gospel lesson for this Sunday is about the Transfiguration of Jesus (Mark 9.2-9). Personally I would go so far as to include the walk back down the mountain and right smack dab into the middle of controversy over the boy with the demon the disciples could not overcome. 

This part of Mark needs to be expanded if we are going to read it for all that is worth. So we need to go back to the city of Capernaum and to Peter confessing that the disciples believe that Jesus is the Christ – the Anointed One. The disciples believed that Jesus was send from God and that he was the Messiah. But they also had ideas of how Jesus was going to be Messiah and King. Ideas that did not coincide with what Jesus was teaching. So when Jesus told them that he was about to die in Jerusalem, Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him fiercely. Jesus in turn, told him to get back in line behind him or get out of the way. Six days after all this Jesus took Peter, James and John up the mountain and there, Jesus was transfigured before them, and the disciples saw Jesus as he really is.

Jesus literally changed. The change was not a soft glow or a low light. It was as bright as anything those men had ever seen. Jesus actually changed his form and he radiated pure light. Then he spoke to Elijah the Prophet and Moses, the law giver. And what do they talk about: Jesus’ Exodus; his departure for home. They talked about the realities of what was ahead in the crucifixion, death and burial, and about his resurrection and ascension.

What I find amazing is that the disciples still didn't get it. They wanted to hold on to and hoard the moment for themselves through tenting up and staying on that blessed mountain top. They wanted to remain there and never let things go forward. They wanted to do this in favour of life back down in the valley where they had to  That’s why I believe they still did not get it. Here they are in a small outcrop on a large mountain and very near the top. They are high enough that they encounter a cloud and they are spoken to from out of the cloud by the Father – the same Father who spoke at Jesus’ baptism. The Father reaffirmed his relationship and devotion to his son and commanded the disciples to “Listen to him.”

Faith comes to us through God’s revelation of himself to us. We need to see and know that God desires to give Himself to us through Christ – and he is smiling and laughing about it!

The truth found me in a little Anglican Church about four and a half hours from where I currently live and the Truth found me about 33 years ago. I discovered that God loved me and that has made all the difference. There is a plain truth about God that abides in the person and life of Jesus. But I have come to realize that Jesus is who he said he is and what we need to do about is not always plain and evident to everybody- responses to that are going to vary from person to person. Even those of us who are experienced in the faith find that they are lost and wayward from time to time. And please note, that I did not call it simple either. After all, the plural of disciple is not disciples, but Church. Faith is worked out and lived into within community. Truth belongs not to the individual disciple but rather to the community to which that believer belongs and in which the believer lives. So let us together proclaim him who is the Way, the Truth and the Life that others might see him and come to follow alongside him.

Jason+

The kind of Church that God wants

Have you ever taken the time to consider what kind of Church God wants to build? The matter of the church building has been one that has been on my heart and in my head this past week. Especially after learning we have raised nearly $25,000 for the next stage in the roof project and are $899.01 away from our goal. Well known parishioners, people and groups from the rest of the Diocese and folks from other places and spaces well beyond our Diocese, having encountered a video or seen the Diocesan newspaper, have been so generous and have given of themselves to help us to fix our roof. It is on times, overwhelming the kindness and the generosity of people.

But then I am confronted with the fact that Jesus did not possess an edifice complex. In his ministry, he did not build buildings. Jesus made disciples. Jesus’ ministry, as was witnessed last week, set a man who had been invaded by evil, free. A single act of power set a man free. And what did he do after that experience? He told others. He told others what Jesus had done for him and at sunset, others came to Jesus and they were set free too. Every person who heard what Jesus had done, those who wanted relief left to seek Jesus out - to find health and freedom from evil. All because of what happened with one man, in a congregation on the Sabbath.

Our Gospel this week (Mark 1:29-39) has Jesus and the disciples (Simon, Andrew, James and John) leaving right after worship and going to Simon and Andrew’s house. Simon’s mother-in-law was ill and they told Jesus about it. Jesus goes to the woman and takes her by the hand and assists her up out of bed. Jesus, according to Mark, gives this woman her health back. This is another act of power, so that the woman can serve and follow Jesus – a foreshadowing of the cross and burial of Jesus when the women will take charge and then a woman will declare the good news of the resurrection to the Apostles. The woman looking after her guests is also a witness to the disciples that she is really and truly healed – that she has been given back herself and she serves because of it. Wholeness is marked by the presence of peace (shalom) which allows for the person who has been healed to go forth and participate in the life that God has given.

And it got busier as the people came to the house and Jesus continued to heal and to break down the hold that evil had on people. And his fame grew exponentially as he continued to minister to people. The power of God to give health and life was not abated – all who had need where made whole.

They moved on from Capernaum, and Jesus continued to heal, to teach and to drive out demons, offering health, wholeness and freedom. The disciples were witnesses of this and participated in this. Together they traveled much, and did much.

So what kind of Church does God want? He wants a community that is going to teach and preach the need for repentance and faith. He wants a community of apostles who are going to seek out people who need God and share with them that they are not alone – that the kingdom has come near and God is with them. Let that be our call and our duty too.

Jason+

What deserves our attention and amazement?

This week’s Gospel lesson (Mark 1.21-28) is where the message of the kingdom, get is momentum. It is the Sabbath and Jesus is in the local Synagogue teaching. It is not what Jesus is teaching that is surprising people, it is how he is teaching it. He does not refer to other people. He does not have specific prayers, tricks or incantations. What Jesus has, is a simple and direct command to a demon. No bargaining, no pleading. Just the simple command “Stop talking and come out of him.”

Jesus’ teaching is declarative not just deliberative. His teaching declares the nearness of the presence of God and the kingdom and how things are in the presence of God rather than asking the people simply to believe that God cares. Jesus’ teaching doesn’t just talk about peace and healing – it becomes a reality the sight of the nation. Jesus preaching is the kind of teaching that breaks the boundaries of the old system which has benefited another kind of rule and allowed evil to thrive. The presence of God and the preaching of Jesus come to make God’s blessings flow “far as the curse (of sin and death) is found”.  God has come in the person of Jesus, to break down all that entangles and ensures us and the rest of creation so that we can grow and flourish as we are created to.

This season of Epiphany is a time for us to look at this very thing so that we are ready to enter into Lent and participate in Christ as he walks, suffers and dies and then rise again with him at Easter time. And because of this, we need to decide whether we can accept the way that life is around us, and live the status quo or if we are going to take the risk and believe in and follow Jesus to the cross; the same Jesus who is commissioned by God to bring the life of the kingdom to the people of God who are in need of it. We are challenged by the message to discover if there is something more beyond what we have become familiar and satisfied with: to figure out what deserves our attention and amazement.  

One way to help us do that is to be in worship on a regular basis. We need worship, eucharistic worship to help us to deal with what is going on inside. Worship and prayer are the foundation of how God reorders our lives so that we can be free. The four fold action of the Eucharist (Take, bless, break and give) teaches us the order in which we are to live our lives. We receive and take for ourselves, what God has given – because the Father gives good gifts to his children. We bless what we have received because what is given, life and all it holds is sacred. We break it to savour all that the gift holds for us. Then we share it, because it is a matter of life and death for each and for all of us.  

We must learn to live in this fourfold way precisely because when people come to the Church looking hoping for a miracle, leaving frustrated because they think God isn’t listen or does not care. We are his hands, his feet, his eyes and his voice. It is okay to be afraid. It is okay to not have it all down. It is okay to not have all the answers. We are not called to be God. You and I are being drawn in to be witnesses of the power of God’s Message in us and through us, that others might be set free physically and spiritually.

Will you come and follow him?

Jason+