Row, Row, Row yer boat!

As I sit to write this week, I am thinking back on all the things that have happened: the meetings, the trips and the worship, including a funeral. I have been leaning on two things in all the business that has needed to happen. The first is the moment that members of the congregation here at St. James’ laid hands on me and prayed for me. I ask for prayer from time to time, for the congregation pray for me. This time I asked for them to do it. I knew it was going to be a difficult week and it has been that for a variety of reasons. The other thing I concentrated on was the image of Jesus fast asleep on the pilot’s cushion at the back of the boat while the storm rages around him and the little flotilla that had set out from the beach where the feeding of the 5,000 took place.

If you consider the people in the Lesson (Mark 4.35-41), we learn some things about Jesus and about people that are both interesting and important in learning to be good followers of Jesus. First there is God himself, who through Jesus is calling for transformation while people around him are wanting revolution. What is the difference? Revolution may change the situation, but it does not deal with the person. Therefore, God comes to you and to me incarnationally – as the God with the skin on so that we might be transformed. This story reminds us that God is not just the God of those who agree with him but that he is the Creator of all that is, seen and unseen. The Father has authority over creation. Jesus has authority over creation. What does that tell us about Jesus – that he is his Father’s Son and that he is God. He has raw power over all of creation, including you and me. Jesus is Lord over everyone, not just those who agree with him.

And what about those who follow Jesus? The Twelve? They have been following and listening to Jesus, watching him and asking questions. However, their faith has yet to be tested – and this will be the night. In moments of fear and stress, we often express what we hold most dear within ourselves. Jesus takes them to the boats and it is getting dark. This is matter for the disciples, at least not for the fisherman. It is life and business as usual. Other boats with other people get into the water and follow Jesus and his Twelve.

Mark drops us then suddenly into the middle of the boat and the middle of the storm. Fear in the disciples rises and they wake Jesus who is tired from a full day’s worth of ministry and complain that he does not care about them and that they are about to die. In all this, we can trust the fisherman’s judgement because they know about bad weather and the Sea of Galilee. When the fishermen are scared, they you too know to be afraid. As human, we are often quick to think that God cannot see us or is indifferent to what is happen to us. It is not true of course, but we often rush to that very conclusion.

Jesus arises from his place and he speaks to the wind and the waves and they cease their tumult and come to a flat calm. The disciples go from fearing for their lives to thanking God that it is all over and they can continue to go on as before. This is when Jesus confronts them about their faith – do you still not believe after all that you have seen? Why do you have so little faith? The Twelve had seen Jesus with power over sickness and evil. In this moment they go from fearing death to preferring death because they are more afraid of living with and for Jesus, than they are of going to the bottom of the sea.

Jesus has the power and the authority to end death and destruction. He brings healing and wholeness to those who need it. Jesus is Lord even if others don’t perceive or agree with him. Jesus gives hope and that hope enables trust in him and trust is the strength of faith – that is why all those who follow him must persist to participate in the kingdom. Do he does not abandon the Twelve because of their lack of faith. In fact, he draws them on to show and teach them more, including how to deal with rejection.

Need help? Call out to Jesus! Make it a good prayer and hang on to see what he does!

Jason+

the Seeding of the Kingdom

Though you might not think it, my family’s background has been until more recent years, a farming background. All my grandparents grew up on farms in the late 1920’s and early 30’s. My maternal grandfather left school at an early age because his presence was needed at home. It is incredible to drive the roads of my new diocese and watch so much of what took large groups so much time, to be done by a single large tractor pulling a series of implements.

In this vein, I got the thinking about the comparisons that Jesus is making between (in Mark 4) seeds and the kingdom of God. First, Jesus is the planter and we are his seed scattered all over the earth. We as his Church are his planting. We are put into the soil and in the darkness of the ground, the seed dissolves and begins grow into what it was designed to be. The seed is not the goal and the end of the process but only the beginning. What grows as a plant, shrub or tree is something else from the seed. There is a transformation in life, from seed to fully mature plant.

The Christian life is no different than a seed. Even in the smallest things, there is great potential. The Church is proof of that. It started with 120 frightened people in a room who are then emboldened to go out and tell others about Jesus Christ and him raised from the dead. No programs, no budgets and no structures. One of the awesome things about the kingdom is that it is still growing, even after al this time. We have not known or seen the full extent of it yet. Therefore, we need to be aware that we need to adopt new ways of seeing and responding to the kingdom. God’s kingdom is growing and invading this world with its power and governments – kingdoms, dominions and republics. The kingdom of God is growing in the hearts of men, women and children everywhere. It cannot be stopped, overcome or overwhelmed. The full extent of the kingdom is not yet known.

If there is a comfort from the Gospel of Mark, it is that the kingdom’s growth is not dependent upon us. Although the Twelve make mistakes, and that they bumble and stumble their way through the Gospel, the kingdom and God’s rule have begun and there is nothing to prevent that. The kingdom is not about being or looking pretty. It is about shelter and security for those who need it. The kingdom is medicinal and is good for the body as well as the soul. The kingdom forces us to rethink and redefine how we understand greatness and power.

Something that we regard as completely ordinary is capable of swiftly taking over. The kingdom is not a great oak or a towering Cedar of Lebanon. It is a fast-growing weeding that will mess with our boundaries and values. It brings colour and life to desolate places and spaces. It will crowd out concerns and fears. It resists manipulation and corruptions of all kinds. It does not depend on human guile, ingenuity or even our help. We are invited to join in bringing to fruition a kingdom that is going to continue to grow until it is in its fullness. It will continue to grow even through there are those who want to up root it and burn it down and restore the natural order of things.

How do you see the kingdom? By the fruit that is produced! Love joy peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self control (Galatians 5.22+23). If you have these in an increasing measure in your life the kingdom will be seen because God will cause that to happen. Let be so in Jesus’ name.

Jason+

Will you becoming to the family supper?

The Gospel this week (Mark 3. 20-35) is an interesting situation. Consider that there are some different groups of people involved in what is going on. Jesus and his disciples are in some family’s home. Jesus mother and brother walk the 30 miles from Nazareth to Capernaum where Jesus was to retrieve him because they thought he was crazy. There were Scribes and Pharisees that were saying that Jesus was not crazy but that he was pure evil. And there were of course all those who wanted more. Those people that were making it impossible for those men to eat and to have some rest – who wanted grace in their lives. So, it is worth considering why people viewed Jesus the way they did and what they were willing to do about it. And of equal import what does Jesus think about people and ministry? That is, what does he think about the people that are with him in ministry? After all, you need to know your family and together, you need to do and be within the Father’s will.

So let’s talk about family. Jesus’ mother (the brains of the operation) and brothers (the muscle to back up the brains) made the trek to find Jesus and bring him home before he got himself into serious trouble. He’s crazy they kept telling each other as the walked. Why else would he act the way that he does? Why would he be baptised? The electrical panel has fallen out on the floor and the wires to his brain are disconnected. It is interesting that when they get to the house, they do not go inside to hear what’s going on or to ask him questions. His mother makes the demand that he come outside the house to them, thinking that would be half the battle. He would not disobey his mother – he wouldn’t dare!

The reply Jesus sends back outside is a question with a thunderbolt: who is my family? Is it not the one who does my Father’s will? Those who do my Father’s will are my family.

Then there are the religious people, the Pharisees and the Scribes. The point out that they think that Jesus gets his power from evil – in large part because he does not act like they do. He is radical in his teaching and constantly pushing beyond the limits of what is sensible and required by the Mishnah (local tradition). The Scribes, using their reputations and knowledge, write Jesus and his ministry off as being a deception of evil. They do this to try and ensure that Pilate eventually will crush Jesus and send him to his death.  This is sad in my mind, because it shows these men to be devoid of hope and openly contemptuous of what God was trying to do through Jesus from them. Despite their best attempts to stifle Jesus and his work, they cannot stop the renewal that is already happening around them.

Finally, there is the people that are coming to Jesus not worried about his mental health or whether he is evil. They experience in him the grace, mercy and rescue of God that they have been looking for – maybe for all their lives. The things that Jesus are doing and saying are magnetic. Jesus is drawing people to himself. The crowd does not speak, only comes and awaits whatever it is that Jesus has to offer.

As part of our Gospel this morning, Jesus tells the “Parable of the Home Invasion” where he is the figure that has broken into Satan’s stronghold and has bound him so that he can plunder what Satan has claimed for himself and return it to God. He points out to those who call him evil that if he were using evil to gain favour and popularity, the kingdom he builds will collapse because it is divided.

So where does this leave us? You have a choice: you can be a child of God or go your own way. It depends on what you do with and about Jesus. Some will consider him a lunatic. Others will consider him to be evil. What do you do with Jesus? Will you call him Lord? Either he is Lord, a lunatic or something worse. In choosing Jesus we can go from the house of oppression to a house of freedom and blessing. You cannot leave him as a great human teacher, like Mohammad or Buddha. Jesus has not left you that choice. You can silence him as a fool. You can kill him for being something demonic or you can fall at his feet and call him Lord. The choice is yours. So, will I see you at family dinner?

Jason+

getting rest and getting into blessing

Keeping Sabbath these days is not the tradition it used to be. I can remember the debates over Sunday Shopping would happen and where or not the big local Mall “orchard Park” for those who know Kelowna, would be open for business. There are many in our communities who don’t know what a Sabbath is and why it is important to keep it. And you think that I am going to tell you next that it is important to go to Church for worship – after all it is my job as clergy, right?

Sabbath is not just about putting bums in pews. In fact, it is about coming to worship on the Day of the Resurrection to meet with Jesus and with the rest of the community of Christ so that we can be refreshed. In the ancient world, the seventh day – the last day of the week – was the day of rest. In ancient Israel I was meant not only to concentrate on God but also to remember what as a people, they once were. They were slaves. Sabbath was and is meant to remind the people not to act or to be like the Egyptians were to the Israelites, when the Israelites were slaves.

Sabbath was a gift of rest – a gift to deal with the ongoing curse of labour because of the Fall and the loss of Eden. Sabbath was to bring refuge to those who labour and were heavy ladened. It is not an accident that many of the poorest people in this country are having to work two and three jobs because they must make ends meet and to maintain a kind of life style. The world in rush to accumulate wealth, position and power, denies the working poor their sabbath and we all suffer for it.

Sabbath is about enjoying God and the relationship we have with him and then to be able to so the same with one another. The Church is one of the last bastions of community. Many within the Church think that the community is about to be lost because we are in the throws of generational change. Here is a reality that we need to grapple with. We need to begin to reverse the effects of the secular revival of the 1960’s and 70’s when we began to believe it was all about us and what we want. We are only interested in ourselves and our own opinions. We need people who are going to begin to think about someone other than themselves.

Then we need to teach those same people what commitment is and how to make it. There is to much in our society that belittles and degrades commitment to the point where it is easy to make. So, when it comes to Baptism, we have people who wish to have the sacrament without the training and the commitment to faith and community that Baptism necessitates. We are raising a generation of people who do not know what it means to be committed to anther person for anything. Today’s younger people, for example, do not know what it means to be married… for as long as you shall both live instead of for as long as you both shall love. Commitment is more about what you feel then what you say or do. Love one person in Holy Matrimony is not just about one person it is about being family and community, including the Church. People fail these days to think about the wider picture and think (selfishly) that its about them and what they want, and it is okay to go and get it no matter what one must do to get it.

Sabbath is about knocking do the idols we have allowed to be put up in our lives. It is about getting to see the bigger picture again so that we can be able to carry out what it is that God asks of us. After all, what is more important: keeping rules to keep some people happy or proclaiming forgiveness to people so that they can be made right with God and with neighbour? Our Sunday School Potluck last Sunday is case and point: did we feed the poor? Did we offer help? Did we offer hope?

We, as the Body of Christ need to offer the plain truth to the people around us so that they can see the reality of the life of Christ in us. Our common life needs to evidence Christ’s life within us and between us, living out in every day life, the dying and rising of Christ. And we need to do so that we can discover that we are not abandoned to our own devices but rather that we are drawn further into the sustaining life of God. That we are raised up and sent back, just as Jesus is, to those who need to see and to hear the message of the kingdom.

Want to see God at work in your life, in your church – take a break from the pattern and make friends. In this way we do not miss out on things, the blessings that God has for us as we rest in him.

Jason+

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+