Listen to the Sad

Listen to the Sad

(Revelation 21:1-6)

Sunday, April 28, 2013, Windsor UBC, J G White

Bruce McKinnon Cartoon - Rita MacNeil at the 'pearly gates': “I'm with the band.”

There seem to have been quite a few recent deaths faced in our culture: people our whole province notices have been lost: four fishermen from Shelburne County, Rehtaeh Parsons, Margaret Thatcher, Boston bombing victims, deaths from the Texas fertilizer plant explosion, and the Bangladesh factory collapse - hundreds dead!

A lot of people have heard that the shortest verse in the Bible is John 11:35. “Jesus wept.” But do people know that this Jesus is available to weep with them today? And are we, Jesus' people, His Body, available for this ministry now? Can we listen to the sadness?

Jesus wept: He wept at the tomb of his friend, Lazarus, who had died. When He was entering Jerusalem one day he wept over it, saying, “Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it! How often have I desired to gather your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing!” (Mtt. 23:17)

Did Jesus weep when he prayed outside one night, just before he was captured, tortured, and executed? He said he was grieved deeply; He threw himself on the ground (Mtt 26:38,39); His sweat was like drops of blood.

Our Saviour cried with and for all those around Him. Just take a thorough look at the ways He spend time with those who were hurting. He spent so much time with them! Our Master would lead us to listen to our sadness, and that of others. Our covering up of death would be uncovered by Christ. Our denial of failure would become dealing with it. Feel the hurt, and find the healing and wisdom of God.

John Eichhorn shared words today of the Revelation of John: that vision of the New Heavens and the New Earth. Here is a great promise: God himself will be with them;

he will wipe every tear from their eyes.

Death will be no more;

mourning and crying and pain will be no more,

for the first things have passed away. (21:3&4)

These are scripture verses we preachers have often read at funerals. But I have have the occasional request not to mention the word “death” on such occasions.

Just look at funeral rites today - times, they are a changin! I've talked with some funeral director friends lately. They can tell us what we already know. There is a minimizing of funeral rites: committal only, visitation or reception – not both, secular gatherings – no religion, celebrants instead of pastors, or sometimes nothing at all – not even burial of the ashes.

Lament - do we know how to lament? Do people want to know? Is this avoided? Just about everyone wants to “celebrate life” instead of mourn and have a Christian funeral. Shouldn't we believers be those who know how to lament well, and help others do the same? If we simply are in denial of death and loss, like others, what difference is our Faith making? Might we, believers, express sadness and disappointment at death? Can't we call out for mercy when bad things happen?

I've mentioned before a particular obituary in the paper that once caught my eye. It was for a man I'd never heard of, though at least one of you knew him well. Not many death notices are written with sentences like these.

____, ____ ____, 72, Dartmouth, died February 2, 2002, in Dartmouth General Hospital. His battle with cancer was not courageous, he detested every moment he had to endure the disease that robbed him of years of his well-planned time of retirement and relaxation. He has been unhappily dragged from this world with many of his projects incomplete and his plans undeveloped.

Now that's a lament! Right in the obituary. It's a modern-day expression of Psalm 30.

To you, O Lord, I cried, and to the Lord I made supplication:

"What profit is there in my death, if I go down to the Pit?

Will the dust praise you? Will it tell of your faithfulness?

Hear, O Lord, and be gracious to me!

O Lord, be my helper!"

You have turned my mourning into dancing;

you have taken off my sackcloth

and clothed me with joy,

so that my soul may praise you and not be silent. (8-12)

Of course, this Psalm, from David's collection, is the song of one who survived and did not die. We notice there was mourning before there was dancing, the wearing of sack-cloth before being clothed with joy.

I think the story was told of American preacher and author, Walter Bruggeman, who was asked years ago what he thought of “praise teams.” You know, a band leading so-called contemporary worship music. The professor answered, “I guess that's fine, as long as you also have a lament team.”

Brueggemann today keeps asking why we don't lament in a bigger way, as the Psalms would teach us to do. Start with our complaint – be it about our sin or other things, and them move toward looking to God as Saviour. The Church – us, or “doing church” - our worship, can become a safe place for people to be sad – about themselves, about their lives, about their world. We do this in the presence of the living God, who came to heal all.

We can lament and be sad, because loss and hurt and death and wrong and evil do not have the last word. So we can face loss and hurt and death and wrong and evil, thank God! I do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about those who have died, says Paul in 1 Thessalonians 4:13, so that you may not grieve as others who have no hope. We grieve; yes we grieve, but not as others who do not have hope: hope of resurrection. Death gets conquered in the story of Jesus. Now, we may well grieve as those without hope for those who have died without Christ. In the Family of God, we grieve as those who have hope in our Saviour. We also bemoan evil and wrong as those with faith and confidence in Jesus, who ushers in God's Kingdom on earth, and who comes again with new heavens and new earth.

We may need the Holy Spirit to develop in us more longing for expressions of grief – in actions, in prayer, in silence. In Richard Foster's book on Prayer he has a chapter called The Prayer of Tears. He writes, (p. 38)

I recently experienced a special grace of the soft rain of tears. I had been considering my sin and the sin of God's people... As I did this, God graciously helped me enter into a holy mourning in my heart on behalf of the Church, and a deep tear-filled thanksgiving at God's patience, love, and mercy towards us. As Micah declares, “Who is a God like you, pardoning iniquity?” (7:18)

For me, says Foster, this heart-weeping lasted only a few days. I wished for more. These experiences seem to be the exception today; there was a time when they were the rule.

Lamenting is a gift from God, and a ministry of community. Jesus’ own compassion is incredible. We see his expressions of care for so many hurting people. He doesn't just swoop in and fix things; he starts by joining them, knowing them, feeling with them. This is com-passion: feeling with.

We are intentional about this in our small groups that meet – sharing, confession, crying out to God together. We do this when we all gather, for worship. And, it is a ministry of care and prayer for us. Our Christian way of lament is needed for the sake of others in the wide family of Church. The United Churches in Kings County right now are struggling to amalgamate. It's tough, it's a crisis, it's sad! Our prayers can lament with them before God.

And there are many individuals we meet who have a lot to lament about. Though some lament who have life pretty good.

I have a Church member I visit about once a year, a non-participating person, who mostly, to me, complains about the failings of WUBC. My pastoral ministry to her is to hear and receive her lament. Now, I feel what I can offer her is bigger than this, but I've noticed that all she speaks with me about is putting down our church family. So I want the Holy Spirit to teach me through this. I'm sure He wants to do greater things, when the lament is over.

In our faith we should understand sadness about ourselves – sadness over our sin. Can't we help our secular neighbours who have sadness over the evil within and among us?

Some people look for regret, confession, sadness from the perpetrators of violence such as the Boston Marathon bombing, or recent bullyings. The words of the Psalms cry out for justice again and again, and find it in the Lord. We have the spiritual tools at our fingertips, to speak for others. Our ministry, our expertise with sadness and tragedy, may be needed in our community, or our world, someday. Not to mention our Church, this Family of Faith. Will we be ready?

Jesus compassion is incredible. Our compassion is His compassion. Our hope is in Him. He is our model. With Him we move from lament to praise and faith – on our own, in small groups, together in worship, and in ministry out in life.

The Lord touches people where they are broken as we listen and see and receive the lament. We help people with their own lament. Give language to the experience, help them with their spirituality. We also become bilingual – learning their language for sin and salvation. Their real blessings will come through us when we are instruments of God's grace and channels of His peace.

You know the old hymn for the TV watcher? Channels Only. It was about a decade ago I first learned and sang this gospel hymn; thanks to mid-week prayer meeting here, and people like Marg Boyd who requested such songs:

Channels only, blessed Master, But with all Thy wondrous pow'r

Flowing thru' us, Thou canst use us Ev'ry day and ev'ry hour.

Listening is a priestly task, and we Baptist Christians stand in the tradition of having a priesthood of all believers. It is not just for Pastors to listen and speak good news into the lives of others. So many of you have a gift of ears – spiritual gifts to receive the confession of others, the sadness of others, the hurt and torment of others, and take that to Christ – take them to Jesus. As we do, the Spirit dwells and fills and heals and blesses. This is our ministry, that ole ministry of reconciliation mentioned in 2 Corinthians 5.

So, may the scripture be fulfilled in us: Isaiah 50:4. The Lord God has given me the tongue of a teacher, that I may know how to sustain the weary with a word. Morning by morning he wakens— wakens my ear to listen as those who are taught.

May God do this in us!

Listen to the Scientific

Listen to the Scientific

(2 Chronicles 7:12-15; Romans 8:18-25)

10:30 am, Sunday, April 21, 2013, Windsor UBC, J G White

Last Earth Day I looked back... way back.  Hard to say how far back one truly can look at God’s creation.  This day before Earth Day, I want to look ahead, into our future.  What is happening to the earth?

When Sawyer W. is seventy-years-old, what will his province and planet be like then?  When Atira O. is eighty, Matthew T. is seventy-three, and Dryden D. is sixty-nine, will the climate here have changed?  How about the sea level around Nova Scotia?  The toxins in the environment?  And across the planet, what will the population be?  

Psalm 24:1 begins: The earth is the Lord’s, and everything in it.  Not everyone believes this.  And, not everyone thinks the same about how important it is to care for and preserve this ecosystem.  As Christians, we are Resident Aliens, as Stanley Hauerwas put it, or we sing, This world is not my home, I’m just a-passing through, as Albert Brumley put it.

I really want to say two things today; One is listen.  Listen to the scientific.  As believers, disciples of Jesus, ambassadors of Christ, we must hear those whose view of the world is a scientific worldview, those who are the environmentalists, those who are sold on consuming LOFT: Local, Organic, Fair Trade.  If we hope to be heard by them about the spirituality and life we know, we must hear them with respect, and interest, and care.  We have do good things to learn from one another.

As we pay attention to people, we find diverse people.  In any field, people don’t agree.  Online, in the social media, you can see images like these, which are statements of worldview.  

 I’m not actually of the same opinion about the Avon River and what should be done with it now.  For instance, I’d say this is not a desert.

And...

I don’t think I share the view of my facebook friend who posted this.  I expect there is and will be climate change, caused by the past century of human activity.  That’s just me.  I am both insightful and fallible.  So are you.  So are those Christ would listen to with our ears.

We know there is diversity among scientific and environmental claims.  Is butter better for you than margarine, or the other way around?  Is the world warming up, or not, because of CO2?   

Science is just like religion.  Put two Baptists together and you’ll have three opinions, eh?  Well, neither lack of agreement worries me!  I’m not interested in bashing science because it has its inconsistencies and disagreements.  We Christians have enough problems agreeing and being good ourselves.  I am interested in science, and this environment, creation.  I am interested in the people are are scientific, who are environmentally conscious, who are secular, or atheists, or agnostics, or... faithful. I am concerned for human souls; I am concerned for the planet and future generations.  This brings me to the second thing I’ll say: care for the Earth.

Is our faith purely an escape plan for the next world?  While we are here, how shall we live?  We are creatures in creation.  If, with our fellow believers, we won’t agree on this, we also won’t agree with everyone we want to introduce to Jesus Christ.  So we learn to know and love one another in the family of faith, and go on to know and love the un-Christians, whatever their views of creation.  Such is God’s grace, God’s heart for people, God’s enjoyment of all creation, including us.

We, who visit these pews, consider God as Creator, Sustainer and Redeemer of all creation.  We may know so much of Creator God from the scriptures.  We may also be familiar with the redemption of creation that is part of our hope.  That profound chapter, Romans 8, speaks of this: the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to decay and will obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God.  And in the visions of Revelation we read: Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away. (21:1)

As we search, we find comments about the Lord God caring for earth in the here and now.  This  poetic imagery is from Psalm 65.  You visit the earth and water it, you greatly enrich it; the river of God is full of water; you provide the people with grain, for so you have prepared it. (9)  

The question is: how much are we disciples to help God care for this earth?  To what degree are we to share dominion and responsibility for this fallen planet?  Christianity is basically human-centred.  Saving the planet is usually way down on our list of things to do with God.  Am I right?  Others out there have different priorities; the environment is a number one priority.

So let us have good respect for folk who are focussed on being good tenants on this earth.  Ever been a landlord?  Rented out property?  Every had any trouble with your tenants?  Have you ever - in your younger years - been a poor tenant?  I heard a story just the other night of a landlady who’d heard there was some movement going on at an apartment property she owns.  She checked out one of her places that is not rented, and found that some people had just moved in - that day - set up housekeeping, and cooked their supper!  Suffice it to say, she got rid of the squatters!

Well, what kind of tenants shall we be, on this earth, for this short time?  The old life-patterns for God’s people in Leviticus speak much of the land, the Promised Land the Hebrews received.   In chapter 25 we can read of Sabbath-keeping, and how the land itself was to have rest.  At verse 23 the word of the LORD is:  The land shall not be sold in perpetuity, for the land is mine; with me you are but aliens and tenants.  When you and I are tenants, we can choose our attitude...

The earth does not matter; it is not ours, after all.  We won’t be here long.  The End may come soon anyway - we are in the last days.  It’s supposed to get trashed.  

Or, earth does matter; it is not ours, and even in this fallen world creation is amazing, spectacular, and provides amazingly!  Who knows if we humans will be here for another thousand years, or more?

Jeanette read from 2 Chronicles today, including that beautiful verse 7:14.  I’d love to sing it, us all to sing it.  If my people who are called by My name will humble themselves, pray, seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and heal their land.  This is recorded as part of the Lord’s answer to Solomon’s prayer, dedicating the new Temple in Jerusalem.  When the drought, or locusts, or other pestilence come upon the land (which the Lord sends!) the Lord will hear and answer the prayers and humility and obedience of the people.  “I will heal their land,” says the Lord.

The environmental preacher in me feels the temptation to make this, instantly, into a statement about how our God, now, wants to heal the globe, the environment, the atmosphere, the oceans, the ground.  That’s not quite what this is about, in 2 Chronicles.   What’s going on now was not a concern then, at all. But This message from the Lord does speak to the vital connection between God, and humans, and the planet.  The life-giving relationships.  

So I keep preaching that part of our discipleship to the Lord Jesus Christ is how we take our our trash and recycling, how we shop locally, how we expect our lifestyle to continue indefinitely.  This is part of my apprenticeship for life; my Master has a lot of training yet to do with me. And I hear the dual strands, woven together in scripture, of living here in the Kingdom of God as it is in Heaven, and living as aliens and sojourners in this life.

More than a dozen years ago, in Parrsboro where I lived, I got introduced one day to a man who was dying.  He was a neighbour of a Christian couple of my congregation.  The man was at home, suffering with cancer, and had just been led to faith in Christ by the believing neighbour.  I was invited in to minister to the man, and even to baptize him, there in his bed in his living room.  Sprinkled, but baptized as a believer.  I remember having prayer with him, and he said he did not even know what to do when it came to prayer.  He was an absolute beginner, in those last few weeks of his life.  

But he got the best of both worlds.  He was not only assured of eternal life, he lived better while still here.  That eternal promise removed the fear and dread of death, and he could make the most of the days here that he still had.  

I think of our lives that way.  Thank God! we enjoy bits of the eternal kind of life now, we enjoy citizenship in heaven.  And so we make the most of this life, this world, these people, because of Christ, and the open door to so much more He gives.  

This is the message we have for those whose view is purely scientific.  For those who see the present environmental crisis as the crisis.  And for those who don’t know what to think about all this.  Patient understanding and respect may be needed to reach them.  Patience and respect is needed among us who are already with Christ, as He unites us.

Good News!  God is in the work or restoring and enjoying creation.  That includes, us, as some of His creatures.  This Earth Day, rejoice in the earth God has given us.  And rejoice in those who share it with you.   We can leave a spiritual legacy - faith in Christ - to others, if we listen to them and Christ.  And we can leave a better planet for Sawyer and Matthew and Atira and the rest, who may live to see and enjoy the 2080s. 

Listen to the Discouraged

Listen to the Discouraged

10:30 am, Sunday, April 14, 2013, Windsor UBC, J G White

(Jeremiah 8:20-22; John 21:15-19)

Anyone discouraged?  This can be an age of discouragement. I thought I was going to preach today about how we can listen to the discouraged around us - which is important to our calling - but I've been turned to looking for how God deals with us when discouraged.  We need to start here.  And, to have a ministry of listening, we must know how we are heard by our Lord in our own discouragements.  

Bette read for us a scene with Jesus, recently raised from the dead.  After meeting some disciples on a beach in Galilee, as he has fish for breakfast with them, He has that conversation with Peter.  Peter, the one who had stayed nearby, hiding on the sidelines while Jesus was on trial and tortured before his execution.  Peter, who had denied three times that he knew or was associated with Jesus, while Christ was undergoing his last torturous day.  

Now, just a matter of days, or weeks, later, Jesus is alive, with Peter and the others again.  And he asks Peter, three times, "Do you love me?"  The connection of the love question asked of Peter three times, after Peter's denial three times, always seems to stand out.  How desperately discouraging those moments of denying Jesus and protecting himself must have been, especially after the rooster crowed.  Jesus had forecasted all this for Peter.  And how discouraging those three questions from Jesus must have been for Peter.  We read that after Jesus asks the third time, "Do you love me?" Peter is hurt, grieved.  

Notice the whole picture here, as recorded in John 21.  There are three things I want to point out.  There is more to the words in these questions and answers than we can see in most of our English translations.  As Peter answers, Jesus keeps giving him a mission; He doesn't punish or judge Peter.  And, Christ gives again the amazing invitation that started it all, "Follow me."

First, the word "love" in Jesus's questions and Peter's answers are not just one word, in the Greek New Testament.  This Greek language actually has four words for what we call "love."  Storge, which we could call affection, like that in families.  Eros, or erotic love, between a loving couple.  Philia, which is deep friendship love.  And agape, which is the profound love of God.  One of C. S. Lewis' latter books is all about these four loves.  Two of these words are in John 21.  Some English translations express this and try to get at the subtle language.  I'll read the conversation again now, so we notice all that's happening.

Jesus said to Simon Peter, "Simon, son of John, do you love me more than these others?"

"Yes," said Peter,"You know I am your friend."

"Then feed my lambs," Jesus told him.  

Jesus repeated the question: "Simon, son of John, do you really love me?"

"Yes, Lord," Peter said, "you know that I am your friend."

"Then take care of my sheep," Jesus said.  

Once more he asked him, "Simon, son of John, are you [even] my friend?"  

Peter was grieved at they way Jesus asked the question this third time.  "Lord, you know my heart; you know I am," he said.

Jesus said, "Then feed my little sheep." (New Living Translation)

I've been reading and rereading this passage, looking for how Christ listens to Peter and his answers to the questions.  I find my Lord taking time in His conversation with Peter, and moving from asking about Love/Agape, His word, to Friendship/Philia which was Peter's word.  To me it's as if Jesus comes down to speak Peter's language, his heart language, what Peter was ready for at that moment.  Christ takes the time and attention to know Peter and what his answer is.  Jesus accepts Peter's heart.  Peter was ready to be a deep friend, but not ready to speak of steadfast-love.

I wonder if Jesus was tempted to be discouraged about Peter, tempted but not discouraged.  And we see that Peter felt some hurt or grief with these three questions.  

I know we have times when we are tempted to try to fix someone who is discouraged.  Or we want to correct someone whom we think doesn't quite have the right attitude.  Or we get impatient for someone to understand something.  We become like Job's comforters, who should have kept their mouths shut, instead of giving long speeches to set tormented Job on the right path.  

God, whom we see in Jesus so well, is the God who comes to us and can deal rightly with who we are, as is, today.  God acts to bring us along, bring us up, bring us ahead.  Yet God comes to us where we are, and is amazingly accepting.  Jesus models this for us, and gives the Holy Spirit to grow a generous spirit in us.  Generous enough to walk with those who are discouraged and let them be, love them.  

The second thing in this Jesus-Peter conversation is the continual commissioning of Peter, even though he might be judged to give the wrong answers.  "Do you LOVE me?"  "Yes, I'm your Friend."  Jesus doesn't scold or correct Peter; He gives a mission!  "Feed my lambs."  The second time, "Tend my sheep."  The third time, "Feed my sheep."  

What do ya think of that?  To the discouraged, to the less-than-perfect heart Christ says: go and care for others in My Name.  "Lord, I pray, yes, some, but not every day like I should; and not with that joy and longing for Your presence that our songs talk about."  "OK, my child," says the Lord, "you shall care for those who don't know My song."

"God, I want to get others to believe in You and be saved, but I really am embarrassed by the conversation, and I'm not confident at all to talk about You."  "Go, dear one, and you shall love those whom I love."

"Father, I just have these problems now, my body, my emotions, my mind is not strong, and I don't think I can do a lot to help right now."  "Dear one, My grace will be enough, and in your weakness I will be strong," says The Lord.

Isn't that how God so kindly deals with us?  We have beautiful things to do for God, just when we are still weak, discouraged, ourselves hurting.  We can become wounded healers, as Henri Nouwen put it.

The third thing I see in Jesus' chat with Peter that day on the Galilean beach: a fresh invitation to follow Him.  That's how it had all started three years before, or whenever.  By the sea, with the old boats and nets and the smell of fishing gear.  To James and John, Peter and Andrew, Jesus came along and said, "Follow me and I will make you fish for people."  Now, at the end of Jesus's time with them, again, "Follow me."  And so Peter did.  Without saying, "I Love you" the way Jesus first asked it.  Peter and the others follow, with the best yet to come.  

Jesus' open invitation is just that: still open.  Perhaps you are discouraged, maybe after decades of life in the Church, about what we really will accomplish.  Perhaps you are down about this stage in your life, harder and emptier than you ever wanted it.  Perhaps you are downhearted about this troubled world we live in, and must raise our children and grandchildren in.  But where we are today, in our hearts, Jesus knows.  And he still sends us - US - to feed and tend His sheep.  He doesn't shut the door and give up on us; He says today, "follow Me."  And O how He means it!

Today you may be glimpsing a new light from God, a glow that tells you there is a new beginning for you.  The mission of love the Lord has for your life can begin again, despite any failure up to this point, despite any weakness of faith or mediocre devotion.  Perhaps you have been a cultural Christian all your life, churchgoing, supporting things, coming but not committed.  And you may not know how this can change.  But our incredible Saviour knows, and he invites you, "Follow me."  He said to Peter more than once in his life, "Come, follow me," and Peter said yes both times.  So can you.  It's the second Sunday of the month, my usual time to be available after serviced here for prayer.  You may want to come to the Saviour in a new way.  The invitation is open.

Our mission, when we accept it, and accept His love, is to hear the cries of the distressed and discouraged around us.  People cry out in so many ways, as The Lord helps us hear.  And we can respond, because we know what it is like when He responds to us.  This is the Good News in action!  

Listen to the Cynical

Listen to the Cynical

(John 20:19-31)

Sunday, April 7, 2013, Windsor UBC,  J G White

I start this little series of sermons today on listening to various voices around us, with the cynical, the critical, those who doubt what this is all about.

I've been reading and hearing a lot, in recent years, about the trends in Canadian society, and the falling away from religious faith that is prevalent.  A lot of Christian study has gone into what the younger generations think and believe and do in North America.  There is a lot of doubt about organized religion, criticism of Christianity, and scepticism about God and Jesus.

For instance, David Kinnamen has a book, YOU LOST ME: Why Young Christians Are Leaving Church... And Rethinking Faith.  He quotes John Sullivan, former Christian, and writer for GQ magazine:  The hell stuff - I never made peace with it.  Human beings were capable of forgiving those who'd done them terrible wrongs, and we all agreed that human beings were maggots compared with God, so what was his trouble again?

I'm getting to be a firm believer in listening long and hard to the questions people have.  Holding back my reaction, my answer, my correction, my instant Bible-study for those who doubt what I believe about Christ.  I'm a believer in this patient listening, though my actual listening this way has far to go.  So I've been looking to Jesus to see if He wants to train me and you in this.

And I see my Lord, newly resurrected, meeting with his closest friends and followers.  Alison read one story for us today.  Christ came to them, showed Himself, breathed peace into their presence.  Thomas was missing that day; and later, Jesus returned.  Some interpreters of this event give so-called "Doubting Thomas" a hard time; but don't forget that he asked for no more than the other disciples had been given - a real look at Jesus in the flesh, alive again.

Thomas had said he'd need to meet Him, be sure it was that wounded body.  Many of the others probably felt the same way one week before, closed in and hiding in their meeting room.  They all got to meet and see Christ.  "Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe" said Jesus.

In this, and so many of our Jesus stories, I see our Lord listening and paying attention to those who would follow.  He comes to them, He knows what they need. He sees "ye of little faith," and meets them.  He keeps choosing those to follow Him who have doubts and questions.

You can read all the books you want about our secular culture, post-modern culture, and digital culture; but the rubber meets the road with those who are in West Hants, on your street, in your family.  As I talk with local folk - people you also know - about God and faith, some are cynical, they doubt, they critique God and our claims about God.  One young person speaks of problems with the Bible and what is in the Bible, and how we use it.  A middle aged person talks of not fearing death and hell, while church people seem to think he should fear.  A senior, who’s actually a "churchgoer," dislikes the talk at funerals of life after death; she can't quite believe in that, doesn't want that at her own funeral.

These are all the confessions of people whom I have seen in the past in these very pews.  Which helps me wonder if we are all more alike than different, we 'believers' and we atheists and skeptics.  We all have questions that don't seem to have answers.  Sometimes we don't feel it is safe to ask our questions, or simply to disagree.

We should be safe with God.  I believe in a Jesus who can handle doubts, disagreements, questions, critiques.  He still sends His Spirit to visit, and show Himself. Matthew's record of Jesus' final departure comforts me.  As the disciples gather where Jesus told them to, for His farewell, Matthew tells us, "When they saw him, they worshipped him; but some doubted."  (Matthew 28:17)  In their last moments with Jesus, those few who were the very closest to Him had doubts.  "Is this real?"  "Is He real?"  There was worship, and doubt, together.  And Jesus blessed them in that moment with an amazing mission statement, the great commission.

Jesus knows and understands the doubts each person has.  Jesus offers Himself, and is willing to meet.  Now, it's by way of God the Holy Spirit.  Jesus listens; He does this as we become His ambassadors today.

John's Gospel claims "Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of His disciples, which are not written in this book.  But these are written so that you may come to believe that He is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that through believing you may have life in His name." (20:30-31)

In this very room, we encourage faith in one another.  In the pews, around His table.  We bring our faith to the table, however small or great, and we are not alone; and we are not without Him.  When we leave, we are ambassadors for Christ.  Our lives today can "be written" so others will believe and have life in Him!  

As the Apostle Paul wrote to his friends in Corinth, "you show that you are a letter of Christ, written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts."  (2 Corinthians 3:3)  And some of us, this week, will be letters sent from the Saviour to the cynics and skeptics. ]

Let us pray.

An Idle Tale?

An Idle Tale?

(Luke 23:50 - 24:12)

Easter Sunday, March 31, 2013, Windsor UBC, J G White

Have you heard any news lately that was quite a surprise?  Hard to believe?  Or difficult to understand?

A woman, 34 weeks pregnant, is told at the IWK: You are having your baby today!

A man, after brain surgery, is told by the doctor: You have a couple months to live!

A person waiting in hospital for months is told: Your room is ready at Dykeland... tomorrow you can move in!

We also wonder at untrue news we hear, not knowing it is untrue.  Such as...  Kings Transit bus fares are going up!  Jeff White gave his resignation to Windsor Baptist Church!  …

Today, Easter, we enter the lives of some men and women on a day when the news, after the execution of their Leader, was unbelievable and confusing.  Some of the Master’s closest friends at first thought the news an idle tale.  

As Graham read the story from Luke, did you notice the diverse feelings and actions of the people that morning?  The women were puzzled, then terrified, then they remembered, and they rushed to tell others.  Some of the men thought it an idle tale; Peter went, looked, and wondered about what he saw.

The initial responses to God’s action and intervention are the start of a whole new life with the Lord.  A life that follows His.  In His Steps, as the title of one old book puts it.

One simple way to describe the way to follow the Crucified One - who is alive now - is these three steps:  vision, decision, action. So says Dallas Willard in a small group study called The Divine Conspiracy.  I like this pattern.

Vision: a person learns something about Christ, and catches a vision of reality that is new to him or her.  Jesus is real, He truly did live and die for the rest of us, He actually conquered death and evil for us, He opens the door to the heavenly kingdom of God now, as we rely upon Him.  

This is not only good news to one who has never tried to be a Christian.  There are many people who start off in Christianity, and later in life find a whole new hope in God that they had not yet known.  The vision becomes greater!  A deeper conversion can happen when the heart and soul are so moved.  

John Wesley became a famous Anglican preacher of the 18th century.   Well into his ministry, and after a failed revival tour in America, Wesley was depressed and despairing.  This well-loved excerpt from his journal tells of what he experienced on May 24th, 1738.  It sounds like it happened at what we might call a Bible Study or Prayer Meeting.

In the evening I went very unwillingly to a society in Aldersgate Street, where one was reading Luther’s preface to the Epistle to the Romans. About a quarter before nine, while he was describing the change which God works in the heart through faith in Christ, I felt my heart strangely warmed. I felt I did trust in Christ, Christ alone, for salvation; and an assurance was given me that He had taken away my sins, even mine, and saved me from the law of sin and death.

The heart strangely warmed is, to me, the vision of the human soul for what God is really doing.  It is a personal thing. It is a real experience of something new.  Good News.

Step two:  Decision.  It takes an act of will on our part to put our trust in Christ, to admit we are powerless against our own sin and slavery, to join those who call themselves Christian.  

We Baptist Christians stand in the centre of a strong tradition of spiritual freedom.  We believe that individuals have the choice to make - for Christ or not.  To trust Him.  To follow and obey Him.  To be saved by and then apprenticed to the Master.  It is never an infant that we baptize into Christianity.  It is a person who can know Jesus for him or herself, and takes his or her own steps to follow God.  

So, part three:  Action.  The first steps of a saved person are just that, the first steps - the prayer to receive God and salvation, the commitment to rely on the Holy Bible, the obedience of submitting to baptism.  The actions of the rest of life are the real living of Faith in Christ.  We develop lots of spiritual practices that help us live with the Spirit in all of the times we are not doing our spiritual practices.  I pray, I fast, I confess, I worship, I study, I meditate, and so on, so that I become more and more like Jesus in all the moments when I am not praying, fasting, confessing, worshipping, studying, meditating, and so forth.  So it can be for Atira and Christina; so it can be for you.

I had us read today from Luke not only the first resurrection events, but also the earlier moment of placing of Jesus in the tomb.  Our vision, and decision, and action, are well-founded when they stem from the complete Jesus, the complete Jesus story.  Our faith and religion will be from an idle tale if our story is incomplete.

Today, there can be no music without silence; no praise without lament first.

There can be no resurrection without a death; no Easter worship without Good Friday worship.

There can be no coming up out of the waters of baptism without going down first.

There can be no washing clean without there being any sins in life to start with.

There can be no solidarity with and obedience to Christ without denying yourself.

There can be no running the race of faith without being still far from the goal.

Vision, decision, action.  On this weekend many catch a fresh vision of Jesus and what God offers.  Here, and many other places, we celebrate individual decisions to act on that vision.  To act upon Jesus’ word, His gracious invitation to join in and follow.  He becomes our way, our truth, our life.  

Following Christ, others can catch the same vision from us.  The news to some seems but an idle tale, an old-fashioned myth.  “Death on a cross?  Resurrection?  Weird!”  To others, the glimpse of an alternate reality - God’s eternal Kingdom coming to earth as in heaven - is a stunning vision.  Some will decide to act on this, when they meet Jesus Christ.