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+

Who wants to be powerful anyway?

In the Gospel this week, Jesus’ opponents change, but the question still is, “Who is this man and where did he get the idea that he is in charge?” (Matthew 21.23-32) His opponents are the Sadducees and the Elders – the ruling class who living in Jerusalem and have authority over the people because it was given to them by the Roman Empire. These are the folks that were offended when Jesus cleansed the Temple and disrupted the on-going commerce and rota that was going on. Why had Jesus don this and who told him to where questions on the rulers’ minds.

The rulers and elders fear the general population and how they would react to Jesus and his claim that his authority came from God and so feared to act against him. At the same time, they were not willing to admit to his authority coming from heaven for the implications that would have in terms of what is would mean for the Jewish nation (province) and what it would mean for them personally. Rome would throw them out of office for failing to control the population. It would be the end of their power, control.

So, they confronted Jesus in the Temple area, hoping that he would claim openly Jesus would flat out say his power and authority were from God. For doing so would allow them to charge Jesus with blasphemy. To deal with the situation, and to avoid the obvious trap that was being laid for him, Jesus asked a counter question: “What about John? Where did his authority to preach and baptise come from? If you tell me where John got his authority from, then I will tell where I get mine from.”

It does seem obvious in this passage that fear of people, fear of loss of control, power and position, denial of heaven all lead to compromise and paralysis. The people in power down want to admit that some else might be operating under divine power and certain don’t want to empower others to remove them from their own power. Therefore, they chose not to answer Jesus’ question though making it clear where Jesus got his authority from, without saying a word.

And at this point, do you notice the difference in how power and authority are used? The ruling class use it to fortify and to penalize people. Jesus uses his power to serve so that they outcomes are different. Jesus brought people together into community. There was restoration and healing, people being realised from demonic powers, the blind receiving their sight, the deaf hear, the lame walked up right and the dead rise to life. He worked and walked to find and build relationships with the least, the last and the lost and used his power to protect and build them up not for self preservation, adulation and advancement.

These are the people who are entering the kingdom first, not the religious and the powerful. They gave little or no need of God and his help. What they have not realized yet is that they are on the wrong side of their equation. They have fallen into their own trap and displayed their own folly.

So, who do you say that Jesus is, and where do you think is power and authority comes from? What will you do with the power and authority Jesus has put in your hands?

Jason+

At work in the Lord's Vneyard

I have been working away with and struggling over what the Parable of Matthew’s Vineyard (20.1-16) is trying to teach us. I remember times when things had to be don in preparation for the coming season. Hay had to be put into the barn. Firewood had to be cut for the coming winter to keep the house warm in the cold of the winter. Gardens had to be finished up and turned over for the next planting season. Defrosters were placed in the horse’s water troughs and plugged. Grain was bought and stored. Even as I describe what it was like to get ready, the memories educe the smells of the animals, the fields and the rest of creation.

The first thing that we need to do is to consider with the Gospel this week is to ponder the nature of the kingdom of God. It should not be of surprise that the time of the harvest is a busy time. Extra workers are sought – day labours to help with the demands that the vineyard puts on the Owner and his normal staff. The owner goes out early in the morning and draws in those who are ready to work at 6 am. Again, and again over the day, until there is only an hour left and he is still sending people into the vineyard to work.

No comment is made about the quality of the workers and the work being done. And when the time comes, each worker is paid the same. This creates upset amongst those who started early – they bore the brunt of the heat and the work over the course of they day and they believe that they have been unfairly treated by the Household owner.

It is a reminder that every ministry in the Church is important and that they are of equal worth in the eyes of the Lord. One is not more important than another – all work together to draw in the harvest. All have their assigned tasks and all are treated equally when it comes time to be rewarded for a job that is finished. Being first is not a reward, just a reality. And those who came late receive mercy because their situation must need it for one reason or another, the giver determines the gift and the grace and mercy that goes with them. The receive cannot demand what they think they are owed when it is a gift. The kingdom continues to grow and so does the demand for those who will come in and labour with God to bring in the harvest.

This is where it occurred to me that the nature of the kingdom of God needs to be the nature and reality of the Church militant here in earth. The Church by design, should grow like the kingdom. If it is not growing then should we stop and ask why? Ought we not to want to know why the Church Is not expanding and drawing people in? If a young married couple are trying to have babies and don’t seem to manage to conceive, do they not go to the doctor to get things figured out? So why is it reasonable to expect the Church to make disciples when it hasn’t for a long time and see the kingdom grow without figuring out what the problem is?

Life in the Church these days makes me believe that the Vineyard could be in disarray. That’s the bad news. The Good News is that God is in the process of sorting things out and is drawing more labours into the harvest.  He wants everyone to be involved and for no one to be left out. Each worker, no matter how long each has worked, is offered the same pay and the same grace as those who have been around longer. By human standards, that must feel and seem unfair. Mercy is given to those who have not been there as long. Those who have done so much and been so much for the community over a long period of time, might feel that they have been cheated, but they have done what their faith has led them to do.

As I consider that thought, I cannot help but think of the sermon that was preach at my installation, where the preach pointed out clearly that the ministry that was done 30 years ago is now enabling the ministry that is going to go forward from here. That tells us that what we do and even don’t do in this moment, in the Lord’s Vineyard, will have impact and ramifications for decades to come, should the Lord tarry.

As the Lord of the Harvest to send out workers, into the fields, into the vineyard, to send out messengers into the highways and byways of the Land and call people in. The fields are white. The fruit is ready and there is a fest to prepare for.

Jason+

Make forgiveness a habit, not an event.

Many years ago now, I encountered a Roman Catholic priest who was covering the same area of Newfoundland as I was. When there was the occasion, I would go over to the Roman Catholic Church and, because of a love for music, I would sit with the choir. They thought it was “far out” that the Anglican Minister would do this, and the first time it caught the new priest Father Joseph off guard. After one such service – a funeral for a much love town employee who, amongst other things, collected the community’s garbage – we were stand out side waiting the for the funeral home to come out for the trip to the cemetery. Father Joseph grabbed me by the shoulders and loudly announced to those gathered around, that we, Him and I, were brothers.

Now you need to understand that Father Joseph could not look more different if it were possible to make it so. He was very tall, me not so much. He was very thin and me, not so much. He was from Ghana and black. I am from Canada and white. The people were confused as to how we might be brothers. So, I was quick to point out that we are brothers from different mothers. We were adopted by our heavenly Father and we are brothers and heirs with Christ in the kingdom and in the life that is to come. “We are brothers, because Christ made it so.” Then, there were smiles and the nodding of heads and clapping of mitted hands in approval.

We need to consider the Gospel this week in the same light. In Matthew 18.21-35, there is an important discussion about forgiveness and about how often one needs to extend forgiveness to another. Peter says to Jesus, Should I forgive my brother seven times? Conventional wisdom of the day was that you forgive a person three times. After that you can respond how you like. So, Peter, more than doubling the total, thought that he was being lavish and generous to think seven times. No doubt, Jesus’ response to his generosity was bone jarring.

There is lots of debate about whether it was 77 times or 490 times that you must forgive a person who has wronged you. How hard is it on the 78^th or even the 491^st time? The point of the lessons was not to keep track of sins so that at some point down the road you could hold it against the offender. That makes a person merciless and pitiable because they do not understand compassion at all. They cannot have experienced mercy and compassion when they were suffering and in need becoming merciless (anileos). Mercy, compassion and forgiveness are fundamental to being a follower of the Lord Jesus and in staying healthy as a human being.  If there is no capacity for forgiveness and compassion (which leads to the offering of grace) then there is no hope for there to be a reserve for grace to be lived into.

Think of the merciless servant that Jesus talks about in the parable. What did he do with his new found new lease on life that he had been given? He used the old system to brutalize someone else. He got forgiveness from the king but then he turned around and throttled the next person in the chain not allowing the forgiveness, mercy and grace that had been given to him to follow to some one else. One cannot claim to be a good Christian and to love God and then turned around and hate your brother. If you love God, you must also love your brother and sister. (1^st John 4: 20) Otherwise, you make yourself out to be a lair, because you do not love the people you can see and know but claim to love Someone others cannot see.

In learning to forgive from the heart, is the crux of the matter. In choosing to forgive, from the very centre of one’s life, you do not allow for anger, bitterness and resentment to settle in. These things can lead you to sin, to be come separated from others and from God. Not allowing these things in prevents sin from having a toe hold in your life. Living this way in turn promotes healing, reconciliation and community which are God’s desire for us. Allowing anger, bitterness and resentment to remain means that we are making our feelings and desires paramount which leads to us making our feelings and demands are more important than what God expects of us. This is an idolatrous notion.

We need to remember that forgiving someone is not an event; it is a process. Old feelings of anger and the desire for retribution and revenge are going to surface. In that moment, we need to stop forgive and forget: not for the offender’s sake, but for your own. Forgetfulness is key to forgiveness and our own well being. It is a godly thing to do as well so that we are not consumed by our own issues, desires and demands, including the need for revenge.

This is especially important for the health and well being of the community of Christ in which we participate. Learning to forgive and forget where members of the Church, of our family are concerned is one of the ways that we can best witness to a world that is bent on revenge and one-up-men-ship.  Learn to forgive from deep within and do not allow your anger to cause you to sin. Learn to love as Christ loves.

Jason+