Cross Preaching

Cross Preaching

(1 Corinthians 2:1-12)  J G White

United Baptist Church Digby,11 am, Sun, Feb 9, 2014

Cross preaching; cross preaching.  No, this is not about an angry pastor.  It is about the heart of our whole message; and is it like Paul’s, about Christ crucified?  Can the story of Jesus dying be the root of our whole message - in speech and action?

How can a small church in Nova Scotia compete with the preaching and teaching available now - in books, on TV and the internet?  Ours is an information age.  Some religious believers idolize wisdom and learning, great preachers and right thinkers.  So it has always been.

In December I read Umberto Eco’s novel, The Name of the Rose.  And I watched the film again.  It is an in-depth historical novel - and a murder mystery - about monks in an abbey in the 13 hundreds.  It was a fascinating read.  The author paints a picture of this Medieval place of great learning, with an incredible library that draws religious pilgrims and scholars from all over Europe.  The monks who live there venerate knowledge and intellectual pursuits.  One day, a particular monk said he would be prepared to sin in order to procure a rare book.  He was not lying and not joking.  A monk should surely love his books with humility, wishing their good and not the glory of his own curiosity; but what the temptation of adultery is for laymen and the yearning for riches is for secular ecclesiastics, the seduction of knowledge is for monks.  

That is a very different religious world than the one I live in, within a Baptist congregation in rural Nova Scotia.  But today, more and more Christians are going after the wonderful wisdom that is available.  All the preachers on TV, and even more on the internet.  All the books written that can be ordered, or downloaded.  So we believers often subdivide into the groups of those who are followers of the many teachers out there… Charles Stanley, Frances Chan, Dallas Willard, John Piper, Jack Van Impe, and so on.  The greatest, and worst, and everything in between is available to us.  

So I could repeat Paul’s words as my own to Windsor Baptist, or Digby Baptist:  I came to you in weakness and fear, and with much trembling. Who am I, to speak!?

I’ve not been a person nervous in the pulpit.  I’m calm about public speaking.  But I seldom have felt successful in the pulpit.  Yet I have certainly seen our God doing good work around me.

On my desk I have, typed up, a Prayer for Sermon Preparation.  Most weeks at some point I read through it and am guided in my conversation with the Lord, as I prepare for preaching.  Part of the prayer says this:

I confess I am seeking to be so innovative and attractive, rather than allowing for the attractiveness of Your word and cooperating with Your Spirit.

It is quite tempting, on a day like this one, for the guest preacher to try and show off in his sermon, without being too flashy.  Tempting for a congregation to present itself as so friendly, and enthusiastic, and ready for changes.  It’s like the courtship between and guy and a gal: impressing one another.

The Apostle Paul claimed he had spoken to people in Corinth with a demonstration of the Spirit's power, so that their faith might not rest on men's wisdom, but on God's power.  Faith is not a response to human persuasion, it is a gift from God. Faith does not depend on how talented we are in selling our Church, it comes when the Spirit urges a human soul.  

We keep struggling with the tension between persuading people to become Christians - like us - and leaving the convincing work to God the Holy Spirit.  We live in an Age of Persuasion, after all.  That was the name of a weekly CBC radio program, which is now called Under the Influence.  A little radio show that tells stories about marketing, advertising, persuading people.  

Any of you watch the Superbowl last Sunday?  I did: the one football game I will likely see all year.  And it seems part of the draw to watch is the high-end commercials during the game.  Commercials for Pepsi, for pistachio nuts, for various fancy cars, even a commercial for a religion: Scientology.  

I believe our Faith cannot depend on how we market it, sell it, advertise it.  Our best ‘marketing’, so to speak, will be your life and my life.  Our speaking and listening.  Our actions as the hands and feet of Jesus.  It is His power in us that will be convincing.  It will be the Holy Spirit He sent who will speak to the hearts of others, through our simple witness, our basic compassion.  We preach the cross in our day-to-day lives: this is the best preaching of the cross.  Lives that point to the Lord.

A kindergarten teacher gave her class a "show and tell" assignment of bringing something to represent their religion.  The first boy got in front of the class and said, "My name is Benjamin and I am Jewish and this is the Star of David."

The second boy said, "My name is Joey. I'm a Catholic and this is the Crucifix."

The third boy said, "My name is Tommy and I am Baptist and this is a casserole."

That story may not be true, but, is it true?  It can be easier for us to invite someone to a church supper than to invite them to meet Jesus Christ, the crucified One.

The apostle Paul was determined to be focused on Jesus, Jesus executed.  He said this to his friends in the Church of Corinth, Greece.  A new little congregation in a big, old city of the ancient world.  He writes these words we’ve heard today in the midst of his opening chapters about the divisions among the believers there.  They seem to have split into groups, each hailing a different leader or founder.  Paul. Appollos!  Peter!!  Christ!!!

So in the midst of this, Paul speaks here about his own ministry, when he was one of their founding pastors, just a few years before.  He writes about not having spoken with eloquence, lofty words, wisdom, and the like.  He did not want the message of God - Jesus dying on the cross - to be overshadowed.  Paul did not want to be so showy that people would follow him; he wanted people to trust and follow Jesus.  

This material at the beginning of First Corinthians really speaks to me now.  We are, at Windsor UBC, facing a leadership conflict: between another pastor who is there with me, and most of the deacons.  Just this past week we each met with two mediators who came from our Baptist Convention staff.  I’m hopeful for these first good steps towards some reconciliation.  But I am quite concerned for the leadership team of my church, and the whole congregation who now knows something has been going wrong.  And I am concerned for their well-being amid the possibility of my leaving them in the not-too-distant future.

Ours is a different leadership conflict from that in Corinth 2000 years ago, but the solution will be similar. We will all need to be humble before the cross of Christ, and face up to our own sins to find forgiveness and understanding.  

We can avoid the competition that divides a fellowship by remaining weak before the power of God, remaining simple before the Divine wisdom.  As Isaiah 55 says, "For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways," declares the LORD. Whether we are trying to reach people for Jesus, and bring them into the fellowship, or we are simply trying to get along together in the work of the Lord, we can stay on track with humble submission to God’s way.  His way, in Jesus, was actually to become weaker Himself, and even get killed.  This is our story, our preaching of the cross.  

Walking with the Lord could be described as a journey into weakness.  I’d like to quote Jean Vanier, known best as a founder of the L'arche communities.  This is from an interview titled, “Become Weaker.”  

He speaks of a friend… who [worked] in palliative care.... He was asked to help one of the head of the Mafia who was in prison in the States, who had a cancer of the [esophagus].  And this guy obviously had a story of abuse when he was a [child]: verbal, physical, sexual abuse. So, [as] adults, you just had to get rid of [that]. Weakness was a horror, so you had to be powerful.  You enter the Mafia or you enter gangs to have a consciousness of power; and all weakness was horror.

But my friend was saying, as [the man’s] sickness continued, he became weaker, and my friend said: we became... best friends.  He said weakness was not a horror, but it was a moment of communion, of peace, and so on.  

Our message is rooted in the story of the cross of Jesus, where we see God at His weakest, eh?  If the Cross of Christ is at the centre of our message, in all the ways we preach it - by word and deed - then we have a truly counter-cultural message.  And counter-cultural methods too.  

A person puts his or her personal faith in God from a position weakness and not knowing everything.  From the place of a real need for forgiveness, for healing, for purpose, for love.  God does the planting and growing of that faith in a person.

Then, as a believer, one serves the Master, Jesus, from a similar position: humbly, not strong enough, not a know-it-all.  God’s wisdom and greatness is so good and available to us, in Jesus Christ. Our message to the neighbourhood does not need to depend upon us.  We can depend thoroughly upon our Lord, and be used by God.  As Paul teaches us, the message of the Cross of Jesus starts off as foolishness in people’s eyes.  Then God moves in, and the story of the cross becomes the greatest power of God.  

And we Christians join together in like manner, as those who rely on Christ to unite us, on the Holy Spirit to guide us, on God the Father to give common purpose.  

Paul once said: My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit's power, so that your faith might not rest on men's wisdom, but on God's power.  May it be so for us, today. 

Christ Crucified

Christ Crucified

(1 Corinthians 1:18-31) Windsor UBC, J G White

10:30 am, Sun, Feb 2, 2014

A kindergarten teacher gave her class a "show and tell" assignment of bringing something to represent their religion.  The first boy got in front of the class and said, "My name is Benjamin and I am Jewish and this is the Star of David."

The second boy said, "My name is Joey. I'm a Catholic and this is the Crucifix."

The third boy said, "My name is Tommy and I am Baptist and this is a casserole."

It is better for us to claim the cross as our symbol, eh?

Last Sunday morning here, I ended with 1 Corinthians 1:18, which today is our beginning.   For the message about the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. What powerful things does our God do for us by the Cross, by the sacrificial death of Jesus?  Four things are listed in one sentence at the end of this chapter. (30-31)

He is the source of your life in Christ Jesus, who became for us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification and redemption, in order that, as it is written, "Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord."  

Wisdom: Christ Jesus, who became for us wisdom from God.  We gain some true wisdom by knowing Jesus Christ and the salvation of our souls.  

26 Consider your own call, brothers and sisters: not many of you were wise by human standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth.

Eugene Peterson paraphrased this, saying:  I don't see many of "the brightest and the best" among you… and, decades before, Clarence Jordan put it this way, in his Cotton Patch Version of Paul’s Epistles: It appears as though God deliberately selected the worlds “morons” to show up the wise guys, and the world's weaklings to show up the high and mighty, and the world's lowly and rejected – the nobodies – to put the heat on the somebodies.   

Salvation does not depend upon being the brightest lightbulb, being well-educated, having a certain IQ.  God’s wisdom is enough; and it is simply seen in what Jesus has done for us.

Also, the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, because what Jesus did can appear very unwise.  He got arrested by the local authorities during a religious festival.  He and His disciples has just observed a feast called the Passover, and after dark were out in a nearby orchard.  When some of his fellows rose up to fight and defend themselves, Jesus said ‘put down your sword.’  Then, Jesus gets tried and questioned, amid being tortured and treated badly.  He does not fight back.  And when He is finally hung on a cross to suffer and die, He does not call on the divine powers at His disposal.  We sometimes sing the scripture, Matthew 26:53, this way:

He could have called ten-thousand angels

to destroy the world, and set Him free.

He could have called ten-thousand angels,

But He died alone, for you and me.

Was this wise?  We who have received the blessed impact of Jesus’ sacrifice know how wise and powerful this submissive action was, the sacrifice of God for humans.  God’s wise way of reaching people and saving us is not anything humans would have thought up as strategic or even possible.  Yet, the message of the cross is the... power of God.

Jesus became for us Righteousness. We have things made right because of the Cross: we are made right with God, made right with ourselves, made right with one another.  Because the ways we do wrong are overtaken by the ways Jesus does what is right.

In the next letter, Second Corinthians, we can read: For our sake God made Jesus to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. (2 Corinthians 5:21)  It is hard to live rightly; we cannot do it on our own.

To live rightly with one another is the challenge of human life.  To fix things when broken is not simple.  In relationships, I mean.  

I think of an image, a scene from the movie, Ordinary People, based on the novel of the same name.  The story of an ordinary family, a woman, a man, two teenage sons.  Or, rather, one son; the other died in a boating accident; and the three that are left struggle with the grief and guilt and a mess of emotions.  It is a family breaking apart.  

And I see the scene where the mother, who never expresses her emotions, always keeps up appearances in the nieghbourhood, breaks a plate in the kitchen.  "I do think this can be saved; it’s a nice, clean break," she says.  Crazy Glue might mend a plate, but there is no quick fix for a fractured human life.  

Our brokenness can be saved… by God.  There is no simple way for us to save ourselves.  The ways we don’t do right can be touched and rebuilt by our Lord.

So, as it says here, we have nothing to boast about in and of ourselves.  We have Jesus to boast about.  Our righteousness, our being right and doing right, is like filthy rags, Isaiah chapter 64 says.  But, the cross of Jesus can bring us into a place of being counted right.

Sanctification. This means holiness: to be made holy, be special, be separate.  In the simplest terms, this is being improved, by God.  This improvement is ongoing, by the work of the Holy Spirit of God. It is when we put ourselves in the hands of God that we get clothed in righteousness and holiness.  

It is Superbowl Sunday.  This is not a religious holiday, though, with the festivities today one might think so!  And undoubtedly, quite of few Seattle Seahawks fans will wear the green and blue clothing of that team, and many Denver Bronkos fans will wear blue and orange.  The fans of a sports team identify with the actual team by the clothing, the team colours, and then cheer their team on with determination.

But it is not by our own Christian determination and efforts that we get clothed with holiness.  It is by the grace of God that we begin to resemble and shine with the pure goodness of the One we love, who died for us.  The cross, the death of Jesus, has the power to transform us.  Simply putting a t-shirt on with a Christian message will not make us holy, nor coming to worship on Sundays.  Renewal of the inner person matters, and is the work of God, so we cooperate with the Spirit in His work.  

Amazingly, it is as Jesus bleeds and dies that the way is paved for us to be reunited with the Holy God. In Judaism, the religion of the Messiah, a dead body was unholy, unclean.  In Jesus, Holy God comes down into unholiness, and dies… so we can be holy again, and be with God.  

Fourthly and finally, Redemption.  Christ Jesus, who became for us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification and redemption.  This means to compensate for something bad, or to exchange something by paying, or to set free.  This is why the Bible talks of Jesus’ dying to pay for us, or, for our sins.  We get set free from the result of our wrong; Jesus ‘pays the price.”

Anyone here originally from New Brunswick?  Have you noticed that New Brunswick has a different culture from Nova Scotia?  The big highways we call 101, 102, and so forth, they call 1, 2.  We eat clams; they eat fiddleheads.  And there are redemption centres in New Brunswick - for recyclables.  

Well, in the theological sense, Windsor Baptist is a ‘redemption centre,’ a people and a place for freedom from evil and wrong to be provided.  A fellowship building ourselves upon the Cross of Jesus, where He is the One we rely upon to bring us back from the damages and powers of sin.  

The Choir has sung Chris Tomlin’s song…

He became sin Who knew no sin

That we might become His Righteousness

He humbled himself and carried the cross

Love so amazing; Love so amazing.

Jesus Messiah, Name above all names,

Blessed Redeemer, Emmanuel,

The rescue for sinners, The ransom from Heaven,

Jesus Messiah: Lord of all.

The Power of the Cross

The Power of the Cross

(1 Corinthians 1:10-18)

Sun, Jan 26, 2014. Windsor UBC; J G White

The message of the cross… to us who are being saved … is the power of God. (1 Cor 1:17)

There is power from our Lord to do good: in us, with us.  There is power from our God to heal and forgive and reconcile people.  There is power from our Saviour to save and keep on saving!

This scripture text is being read today in many churches across the globe.  It’s a prescribed reading in a list that is used by many: the Revised Common Lectionary. I have not been using this much at all for the past three years, but I am just now.  Many believers today are hearing these words read, and then preached, in many languages…

10 Now I appeal to you, brothers and sisters, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you be in agreement and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be united in the same mind and the same purpose.  It’s a good text for the end of the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity.

The author, Paul, appeals to his congregation in Corinth.  In the English of 400 years ago – King James – “I beseech you, brethren.”  Some of you have already heard my subtle appeal this year, an appeal to find joy and rejoicing.  As we discover the ways we are built upon Christ, and also see the ways we try to build our church family on other things, God can grow and transform us.  The Spirit can unite us, that we may be in agreement, have no divisions, be of the same mind and purpose.  I, for one, believe in the potential to be positive!

Sharon was excited a week or so ago to get in the mail a book she had ordered, Marva Dawn’s ‘Truly the Community: Romans 12 and How to be the Church.’  It looks to be a lovely book.  The 31 little chapters can be read devotionally, and in a small group, one for each day of a month.  And in Marva Dawn’s delightful, deep and challenging way, I’m sure she inspires a better sense of community for the local church.  One main theme she picks up on in Romans is a deep cheerfulness that is a mark of the Christian family. 

In her preface she says: As I travel around the country to teach, I am deeply saddened by our failure to be what God designed the Church to be.  People who have been Christians for a while are not very often characterized by the profound gladness that marked the earliest followers of Jesus and that frequently bubbles forth in present-day new believers.  (p.xi)

Instead of joyfulness bubbling up among us old-timers in the Church, what comes to the surface often is correction, complaints, discontent, and problems.  In February I plan to read through Marva Dawn’s book, one day at a time, to seek joy in the God who gave us Romans 12.  Now, back to this other letter, 1 Corinthians, chapter 1.

11 For it has been reported to me by Chloe's people that there are quarrels among you, my brothers and sisters. 12 What I mean is that each of you says, "I belong to Paul," or "I belong to Apollos," or "I belong to Cephas," or "I belong to Christ."  This is what Paul had been hearing, and though the little congregation had written him for advice on other matters, he starts his letter off with this trouble.  Here they are, caught up in their squabbles over church leadership.

13 Has Christ been divided?  Paul asks.

Later on in this letter – 1 Cor – and in other bits of the New Testament, we are given the picture of belonging like parts of one human body – the Body of Christ.  The little church in Corinth Greece was likely only five years old.  Already, they were splitting up from within.  That little body of Jesus was threatened with being dismembered, drawn and quartered!  No wonder Paul appeals to them, beseeches them.  Has Christ been divided?  Of course not.

Georges Florovsky was an Orthodox Christian priest of the 20^th century.  He claimed:  Christianity entered history as a new social order, or rather a new social dimension.  From the very beginning Christianity was not primarily a ‘doctrine,’ but exactly a ‘community.’  There was not only a ‘Message’ to be proclaimed and delivered, and ‘Good News’ to be declared.  There was precisely a New Community, distinct and peculiar, in the process of growth and formation, to which members were called and recruited.  Indeed, ‘fellowship’ (koinonia) was the basic category of Christian existence.” 

So, we remember that each person is part of Jesus’ body now on earth.  We remember this when we think about someone, or talk about that person, or speak with that person. 

Was Paul crucified for you?

Of course not.  This rhetorical question gets me thinking about Paul’s actual role with this congregation.  Here is a little gathering of Christians in a major city in ancient Greece.  Paul had been in on the founding of the fellowship in Corinth, in on their first training and teaching the things of Christ.  A few years later, he is away, and writes to them this long letter.  He, of course, did not go to the cross to die for the sins of the people of Corinth, nor is Paul their Saviour.

It still happens that church people idolize a former pastor or leader who was used excellently by the Lord.  This sometimes draws attention away from Jesus Christ, and, as in Corinth of old, can divide people into factions.  Those who liked that leader better than the new ones, yadda yadda yadda…

I remember with appreciation my organist and choir director in Parrsboro Baptist Church, years ago.  Donna was very devoted to Christ, and devoted to her music.  But at times she lived in the shadow of Mrs. Reynolds, who had been the organist and director before her.  Mrs. Reynolds had retired, and died, just a few years before I got to that Church.  I heard stories of her that painted a great picture of her wonderful personality, her demanding choir-directing, and her exquisite musicianship.  The old drawbar organ in the choir loft – she could make it talk, as they say.  Mrs. Reynolds’ upright Heintzman piano is still in the church sanctuary today.  My new organist and director, Donna, was not the same – of course.  But, thankfully, I think it was seldom that anyone criticized or compared Donna to Mrs. Reynolds. 

Neither of those wonderful, musical women was the saviour of Parrsboro Baptist Church.  Jesus was and is their Saviour.   Various leaders were servants of the Master, doing good work.  So it is here, today, for Windsor Baptist, thanks to the grace of God.  Jesus is our Saviour; He suffered and died for us.  Some of us happen to be on the serving team, helping lead the way. 

Or were you baptized in the name of Paul?

No.  Paul knows this; those folks in the Corinth church knew this too.  Paul’s point is this:  it’s not about who the leader is.  People are baptized in the name of God, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.  You and I don’t show we are believers by the pastor or local church we follow.  We show we are believers by submitting to God.  Baptism itself shows we are all on common ground: every one of us as good as dead; raised up by the supernatural love of God! 

Paul goes on. 17 For Christ did not send me to baptize but to proclaim the gospel, and not with eloquent wisdom, so that the cross of Christ might not be emptied of its power.  Ah, we see him going on about how he did not want to detract from the Master and the Message.   His preaching was not eloquent, and this was a good thing!  A danger of being a great orator is that people clamour to hear you, not the Lord.  [Your online talks go viral; may Jesus go viral.] The amazing singer gets applauded instead of God.  [The soloist is a christian Idol; may the Lord of song alone be worshipped.] The brilliant strategic thinker is hailed as the one who set a church free, rather than Christ and the Spirit He sent.  [The…

Paul speaks of the cross of Christ: the power of the cross.  As people representing Jesus to others, it is important we be clear about the cross.  Yes, the cross is a wooden object.  Yes, it is now a main symbol of our religion and Christ.  But when we talk in our faith of the cross, we usually are getting at the event – the execution of Jesus.  We don’t mean the wood, we mean Jesus dying.  Jesus gets killed, and He submits to this for us.  There are many ways – from the Bible – to explain this to our hearts and imaginations.  The event – Jesus’ death, and then His being brought back to life – is the power outlet that can give each person life.  Life much more as it should be.  Life that conquers death.  Life that overcomes sin and evil and wrong. 

In the musical, Jesus Christ Superstar, Jesus sings, “To conquer death you only have to die, you only have to die.”  This He does.

Paul wrote: 18 For the message about the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.  Our souls are free because of Jesus! 

More about this next Sunday... For now, remember in every circumstance that God, our God, is with us, and has power to redeem – to set free!  Praise God!

Joy and Strength

Joy and Strength
(Nehemiah 8:9-12; 1 Corinthians 1:1-9) J G White
10:30 am, Sun, Jan 19, 2014, Windsor UBC

Is it a joyful day for you?
Is it natural for you to have joy today?
  People ask me – a pastor – how are things at my Church.  “It is the best of times, it is the worst of times” is what I tell them.  Which is my experience of the past while.  I think of myself as a joyful, positive person, but it is not always easy.
It takes strength to be joyful!  Because life is hard.
D'ya know Amy Grant's song: We believe in God, And we all need Jesus / 'Cause life is hard, And it might not get easier.
“Fake it 'til you make it” is not adequate.
“The joy of the LORD will be your strength.”
Sometimes joy is a miracle, it takes a miracle.
And act of God, of grace.
Nehemiah 8.  The Joy of the LORD is your strength.
Strength comes from the Lord to us.
Phrase written on a piece of furniture in the room of a college student: “You have to try really hard to be happy.”
It takes attention upon our God to find deep joy.
     Strength will rise as we wait upon the Lord, (Brenton Brown, Ken Riley)
     We will wait upon the Lord, We will wait upon the Lord.
   In the days of Nehemiah and Ezra, (400 BC) when the people of God had returned to the Promised Land, which was by then in a sorry state, they found and heard some of the Old Testament that had been lost.  The crowd is struck by the lessons of scripture and words of the covenant – promises they had not kept and ways of life they had completely forgotten.  They weep, because of how far they had fallen from living as God intended.
   But on that day of confession and mourning, they are told to celebrate.  Modern thinkers call celebration a spiritual discipline, an activity that helps put people in a place where God can work with them and transform.    Eat the fat and drink sweet wine and send portions of them to those for whom nothing is prepared, for this day is holy to the LORD; and do not be grieved...
   A holy celebration can come out of sadness over failure.  The failure of oneself, the failure of circumstances.  Failures in you, failures surrounding you.
   Finale of Habakkuk (3:17-19):
Though the fig tree does not blossom,
and no fruit is on the vines;
though the produce of the olive fails,
and the fields yield no food;
though the flock is cut off from the fold,
and there is no herd in the stalls,
yet I will rejoice in the Lord;
I will exult in the God of my salvation.
God, the Lord, is my strength;
he makes my feet like the feet of a deer,
and makes me tread upon the heights.
There can be joy, despite circumstances.
There can be joy, despite our own failures.
   Joyful celebration comes when truth from God shows us our failures.  At least we know now!
   Like the words of Psalm 32 (1, 5).  Happy are those whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered.  I said, “I will confess my transgressions to the LORD,” and you forgave the guilt of my sin.
   Like getting the diagnosis of an illness.  Knowing helps a lot – eases our mind, we know what we can do, and have clearer expectations about our future.
   “Knowledge is power” - knowing gives us real options and actions.  The unknown leaves us helpless.
When those folks, 2400 years ago, heard the Law read for six hours that day, the laws of the Old Testament, they were deeply saddened.  But they were urged to celebrate, for God had met with them in the reading of the word, and now they knew.  Now they knew, once again, the patterns of life and worship that the Bible reveals.
   1 Corinthians 1.  A letter from Paul to a church.
   I give thanks to my God always for you because of the grace of God that has been given you in Christ Jesus, for in every way you have been enriched in him, in speech and knowledge of every kind...  (4-5)  Sounds very positive, eh?  You are not lacking in any spiritual gift as you wait for the revealing of our Lord Jesus Christ.  Oh, how very complimentary.  
   Yet look through the rest of this long letter.  Paul writes to them to deal with some serious problems.     There are division in the church – groups following certain leaders (1).  There is sexual immorality going on among the church people, even worse than the pagans (5).  Some are going to prostitutes! (6)  They are taking one another to court to solve their problems (6).  They are divided when they have fellowship meals to celebrate the Lord's Supper (11).  The church people are mixed up in their attitudes on how each one uses spiritual gifts in the fellowship (12-14).  And, they are confused about life-after-death: what the resurrection of Jesus and of them is like (15).
   Sounds like this little church, in a bustling Greek city, was in a mess.  But, as Paul says in his intro, Jesus Christ will also strengthen you to the end, so that you may be blameless on the day of our Lord Jesus Christ.  God is faithful; by him you were called into the fellowship of his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord (8-9). At the end of the letter, Paul says, My love be with all of you in Christ Jesus (16:24).
   God strengthens us by gracious forgiveness.  This, of course, comes by Christ crucified.  God strengthens us by the presence and power of Himself, the Holy Spirit.
   The reading of the Bible Law to the Hebrews, 400 years before Jesus, had shown their failures. A few decades after the time of Jesus, Paul deals with the failures of the Corinthian believers.  All the warnings in the letter are instructive, and part of the healing and renewal those disciples needed.  They were still loved and included, by Paul, and by our Holy and Almighty God.  We are loved and included... by God.  There is our joy.

We believe in God, And we all need Jesus
'Cause life is hard, And it might not get easier
But don't be afraid To know who you are
Don't be afraid to show it.
If you believe in God, If you say you need Jesus
He'll be where you are
And he never will leave you
Sing to me now words that are true
So all in this place can know it...
We believe in God, And we all need Jesus
We will hear more about forgiveness next week.
The joy of the Lord will be your strength!

PRAYERS of the People
Today, a bidding prayer; you know what a bidding prayer is? You pray according to my bidding, my suggestions. In the silences will be our prayer. Let us pray.
God - our Joy, God - our strength, God - our Saviour:
We count our blessings this morning, and rejoice in all that You provide: we thank You for blessing us...
God of holiness, God of spirit, God of love, God of truth, God of oneness and threeness: we also express our love and thanks for You - Who You are...
God of creation and redemption, we know many failures in our lives, and we come before You as sinful creatures, confessing...
God of grace and God of glory, Your forgiveness & new life for us is amazing, coming to us in Jesus on the cross; we receive the promises of spiritual healing and reunion withe You...
God of mercy and power, so much of our praying is for one another, & those closest to us: we pray for some of them now...
God whose farm is all creation, as stewards of all that is around us, we pray for Your earth, and our part in it...
God whose so loved the world that You gave Your Son; we look with Your vision to people far and wide - many in need - and we pray to You...
God the Son, Jesus Christ, true and only head of the church; hear us pray for our own life and ministry as a fellowship called by You into mission...
God the Spirit, Comforter of the afflicted and Afflicter of the comfortable: we pray for justice and peace among people - both locally and globally...
God the Father, Giver of Joy; we rejoice in You now: may we rejoice in You always. AMEN.

The Joy of Witnessing

The Joy of Witnessing

(Acts 10:34-43)

10:30 am, Sun, Jan 13, 2014; Windsor UBC; J G White

2014, for me, in my preaching, shall be a “Year of Joy.”  I have pondered this for the past couple months, and decided, “Yes, we need more joy in our faith and fellowship.”

So I start, in the season of Epiphany, with the joys of sharing Jesus with the whole world. 

It is not always natural for the Christian believer to be a witness, to speak directly and “always be ready to give a reason for the hope that is in” him or her. (1 Peter 3:15) Though opportunities do come along. 

Was walking into a garage the other day, to fetch a repaired car, and was greeted by the owner seeing me and exclaiming: “Praise the Lord!”  What does one say to that?  Uhh… duhh.  I didn’t say much of anything.  What could I have said? Let me give you multiple choice and see what you say…

“Oh, I didn’t know you praised Him too.”

“Oh, I didn’t know He is your Lord too.”

“Hallelujah!”  “Amen, brother!”

“I love praising the Lord.”

“Well, thank you for the compliment.”

“…and pass the ammunition.” I think that’s actually what I did say, come to think of it!  The title of a 1942 song; not a very good response to the opportunity.  He took me totally by surprise.

In Acts 10, we read of some folks in a Roman town who had been touched by God, and were guided to send for a well-known disciple of Jesus who was nearby, Peter. His ‘sermon’ in Caesarea, before a soldier, Cornelius, and others, is recorded briefly here.  Peter had witnessed the action and purposes of God, and he speaks of all this.  He is a ‘witness,’ he tells what he has seen. 

This is our mandate. 

Peter, in his sermon, spells out the gospel with at least eight points about Jesus and His life events.  Jesus’ baptism, His anointing by the Spirit, His doing good, His death, His resurrection, His appearances to people, His role as Judge, and His forgiveness of us. 

1.      Baptism: “the baptism that John announced” only alludes to the fact that Jesus was baptized, after his cousin John has prepared people for Christ by baptizing them for forgiveness of sins, out in the countryside.  Baptism for us is a way of saying “yes” to the Lord that is beyond words and promises: it is a public action. 

2.      Holy Spirit and power anointing: “God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power”.  We might say in Jesus was God, and God’s power to do what we can’t. 

3.      Doing good: “he went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil”.  How wonderful and profound the stories of Jesus are, in Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. 

4.      Death: “They put him to death by hanging him on a tree”.  The wooden cross of old was an instrument of torture, humiliation and death, in popular use by the Roman Empire, back then.  This was how Jesus was executed.  Executed by… a lot of people, really… and in a deep sense, by all of us throughout history. 

5.      Resurrection: “but God raised him on the third day”.  If we have reason for joy, within, this surely is a root.  The sins of the world could not keep Jesus down.  The mortality of humanity and all creation could not win over God.  Death, and suffering, and sin, do not have the final word!  “Praise the Lord!”

6.      Appearances: “…and allowed him to appear, not to all the people but to us who were chosen by God as witnesses, and who ate and drank with him after he rose from the dead.”  Real, personal experience with Jesus, alive again, was the strong testimony of people like Peter, who were there in those days.  We don’t have this same experience, but we have other experience in our day.  We have God the Holy Spirit, whom we can call “another Jesus,” as John Bartol beautifully explains Him. Jesus with us all, in Spirit.

7.      Judge: “he is the one ordained by God as judge of the living and the dead.” Or as we said four hundred years ago, “judge of the quick and the dead.”  I don’t think I’ve ever explored God’s judgment with you at any length, and it would be worth doing this sometime...  We, Christian believers, anticipate being judged by Jesus one day in terms of our faith, our confidence, in Him.  How have we relied upon Christ to make us right, instead of relying on ourselves to be good?  Jesus’ righteousness becomes our righteousness, since we don’t really have any.  Our being in the right is like filthy rags, scripture says.  There is judgment of how we have lived. This includes our obedience, our love and sharing, including what we have done with Jesus.  Some speak that we will be asked, on approaching the judgment of Jesus, “What did you do with Me?’ or, “Who did you bring with you?”  We will be judged upon our witnessing.

8.      Forgiveness: “everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins through his name.”  Peter also had mentioned “preaching peace by Jesus Christ”.  Peace for the inner turmoil, peace with others in this life, peace with God for the human soul – these all come thanks to the forgiving sacrifice of Jesus.

Peter’s little sermon, here, begins and ends with forgiveness of sins, and the emphasis on this being a message to share.  To share with all. With a roman soldier like Cornelius, and with all who were not even Jews. 

I see several categories of joyful witnessing in our lives.  And the first, for many of us is the JOY of being a witness of our Church, our religion… this is possible, with caution. 

I glimpse this all the time when folk invite a friend to a concert here, or a small group meeting, or Sunday worship.  This is a subtle, and sometimes effective way of witness.  We are not saying anything about Jesus, but we are inviting someone to a place where Christ may be shared and seen. 

I will always recall the Eulogy for Mable Parker by her grandson, Brian.  Mable was not likely one of these people who preached at her grandsons about Jesus and so forth.   Brian spoke of how she brought him with her to worship here, where he learned about Jesus, and met Jesus.  

Now, I’d say that being a witness for our local church and being a witness of the gospel of Jesus Christ are two different things, which do overlap.  When we recommend our church to people, we are recommending an imperfect thing, an entity with gospel goodness and fallen badness.  When we recommend Christ to someone, we are telling them about the perfect Saviour. 

There is the JOY of witnessing as part of the team.  Together we know and can tell the more complete story of salvation by Jesus Christ. We get to see and know all this too, though any one of us will not know it all, from our own experience.  Together, we do. 

Just think about those eight elements Peter mentioned.  Some Christians have had a very special moment in their spiritual journey that has to do with healing, a healing that comes from God.  Others can’t speak of that from first-hand experience.  But some have faced a death in their family that profoundly showed them that Jesus provides life after death.  So they can testify about that.  Other people have personal stories of sin and forgiveness to tell, and point to Jesus that way.   Still other individuals have experienced the anointing by the Holy Spirit in amazing ways, and that is part of their story.  Not one of us has experienced all the things Peter outlined in his sermon that day, but together, one hundred of us likely can tell the whole story from our many firsthand experiences.  When we are a team, the whole story of God doing these things in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries can be shared and come to life for others!

So, there is also the JOY of not having to know it all. I do not have to know Him completely to be a witness.  We share what we do know.  That is what being a witness is.  As in a court room; that’s the metaphor.  The Lord gives us joy in what we do know in our life with Him, and what we can understand and explain.  There is joy in having faith, small as it may be, and using that little light to shine for Jesus.  This is the sentiment of many a gospel song, such as…

I don't know about tomorrow; I just live from day to day.

I don't borrow from its sunshine

For its skies may turn to grey.

I don't worry o'er the future, For I know what Jesus said.

And today I'll walk beside Him, For He knows what is ahead.

Many things about tomorrow I don't seem to understand,

But I know who holds tomorrow

And I know who holds my hand. (Ira F. Stanphill)

One more point.  There is the JOY that we are also chosen witnesses, today, of the saving acts of God. 

The Apostle Peter preached of himself and others who “were chosen by God as witnesses.”  Jesus commanded them “to testify that He is the one.”  And, “all the prophets testify about him.”  Almost two thousand years later, we are the witnesses. 

Years ago I knew a retired pastor named Eric Miner.  I think he was ordinary, kind, hard-working, in his career.  He told of serving in his early years of his ministry on Long Island, Digby County.  Another local church had held revival services – the thing to do in those days.  Not much came of them, few converts, we’d say.  Then the Baptists decided to try.  And Eric talked about seeing a response – a revival – that he never saw before or after in his life.  Hundreds of people responded.  They had been primed; they were ready.  Eric could not explain it, he was simply a witness, and gave the credit to the Holy Spirit.  And all those years later, he testified to me about that moving of the spirit in one rural Nova Scotia place.

Our faith can grow, our knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ can grow, our experiences of God can grow.  So it is meant to be.  And we must tell what we know, what we do know!  

In a live church the preacher does not do all the talking. Dependable witnesses are as indispensable in the church as in the courtroom. Lawyers and preachers are helpless if there are no witnesses. (sermoncentral.com) 

The Joy of Including

The Joy of Including

(Ephesians 3:1-12)

10:30 am, Sun, Jan 5, 2014; Windsor UBC; J G White

As we come out of the stories of Christmas, I notice that these are tales that include strangers. Joseph and Mary are strangers in Bethlehem, and don’t even find a sensible play to stay.  Shepherds from the countryside are angelically urged to visit the holy family in their makeshift B&B.  A year or two on, strange travellers from the east come to find and worship and offer gifts. 

This Child, this Jesus, grows to be a man who teaches about life and God, who touches people with healing, who trains disciples to follow the pattern, and who faces His death in such a way that all humankind can benefit.  All humankind. 

Jesus was Jewish, after all, not of any other faith, and was the awaited Jewish Messiah.  Yet it became clear that this spiritual role extended far beyond Judaism.  Jesus is the Saviour of the world, not just the chosen people.  God so loved the world.

This is the emphasis of Epiphany, January 6, a day to celebrate the story of the Magi, and then have a season to celebrate the showing of the Saviour to everyone.  So we read from Ephesians 3 today.  The preacher here speaks of the mystery of Christ that is being shared, in former generations it was not made known to humankind, but it has now been revealed to his holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit: that is, the Gentiles have become fellow heirs, members of the same body, and sharers in the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel. 

The Jewish Messiah is not just for the Jewish people: Jesus is good news for everyone on the planet.  So we are in the joyful role of including everyone in the life of Jesus, the Gospel, the Kingdom.  We have the great pleasure of including people. But, is it a joy? 

For the Lord to use us to reach out to others, we must be transformed by the renewing of our minds.  For our minds are not always set to include people.  Most of us live in a world of insiders and outsiders; people who belong and “come-from-aways”; us and them.  

An acquaintance from the other end of the Valley posted an article from the Coast on Facebook a few weeks ago, called, “Saying Farewell to Nova Scotia for a Reason.” My “Facebook friend” moved here from Ontario less than a decade ago and is now set to leave and go back.  She prefaced the article with her own comment…

Nova Scotia can't keep young people---no surprise---but just as many of us over 50 are coming and then leaving again for reasons far more basic; the inability to get genuinely accepted by anyone except other "ex pats" a problem particularly acute in smaller communities. Something I have never before encountered before moving here: that no matter what---I will always be an outsider. I hear the same story even from Nova Scotians living here, who come from a different area of the province: which strikes me as clan thinking at its most basic level. So I go back from whence I came.....

We Nova Scotians can be known for being very friendly to visitors, tourists.  But when it comes to someone moving in next door, we are less than welcoming. 

This challenge of our own, especially rural, culture is one that I am sure Jesus would have us face.   The challenge to be welcoming, be including, be less “us and them.”  If people from West Hants, say, share this petty attitude about strangers, doesn’t the Spirit of the living God call us, in churches, to grow into a better attitude than the average person?  Is this not possible?  As one church website put it, we can be a people committed to the ancient Christian virtue of hospitality, or the love of strangers.  (www.knoxmet.org/about.html) This is a love available to us, in Christ, and much needed. 

It is the joy of welcoming strangers that Paul, or whoever wrote Ephesians, had.  Grace was given me to bring the Gentiles the news of the boundless riches of Christ, and to make everyone see what is the plan of the mystery hidden for ages in God…  As you peruse these long sentences in Ephesians 3, note the exuberance, the enthusiasm, the joy!  The joy of sharing what was once for one religious sect.  Now, everyone is welcome.

Is everyone welcome in our lives?  Not that we each have to be a gregarious extrovert, an in-your-face welcoming committee of one.  (One of the most helpful books I read last year was Adam McHugh’s Introverts in the Church: Finding our Place in an Extroverted Culture.  I’m sure some of this will leak out in sermons yet to come.) We each have a calling, whatever our personality and giftedness, to be part of the team that finds joy in including people.  Including them in the fellowship of those seeking redemption by the blood of Jesus Christ.   

The mystery of the Gospel that Ephesians 3 speaks of is that the Jesus events, and Jesus Himself, are available and intended for everyone.  Let this be the root of our attitudes, and our joys. 

I’ve been thinking this past week: there likely is a bit of a ladder of joys when it comes to interacting with “outsiders.”  Here’s my first, rough draft of “stages of joy” when we approach strangers…

The joy of belonging (when others don’t).

The joy of knowing what’s going on.

The joy of thinking oneself right.

The joy of knowing more than someone else.

The joy of correcting someone. (These are not good joys!) 

The joy of being nosy about others.

The joy of being curious about someone, genuinely interested.

The joy of seeing curiosity in someone else.

The joy of seeing change in someone.

The joy of learning from someone.

The joy of seeing someone start to belong.

The joy of seeing blessings for someone else.

The joy of seeing the church be better by including others.

The joy of seeing faith grow in someone.

The joy of seeing a person take his or her own faith journey.

The joy of seeing someone go father, do better than you.

It can be worth praying through our attitudes, and the sources of our joys.  The Lord longs to develop our joy.

The author of Ephesians claims, “Of this gospel I have become a servant according to the gift of God’s grace that was given me by the working of his power.”  By the grace of the God who died for us, we too can be graciously gifted to include “strangers.”  Then, we will welcome the bright, intelligent stranger who moves into the neighbourhood from Ontario.  Then, we will be warm toward the totally irreligious acquaintance we run into each week.  Then we will have joy in getting to know people like… Kevin. 

At his baptism, Kevin introduced himself to his new church family as an “ex-drug addict, schizophrenic, and — most of all — a child of God.” Here is his story, told last year in Mosaic magazine. [Home Church, by Giselle Randall]

 “There I was, living in the street.  Homeless, friendless, drugs and alcohol my only companions,” Kevin said as he shared his testimony before being baptized. “Let me tell you — winter is very, very cold in those conditions.” Some people helped him find a room in an apartment. “I lay on the bed, over the blankets, too afraid of what I might find under them. I started to have convulsions… but when the ambulance came, I refused their help.”

Feeling like he was about to die, Kevin suddenly felt God’s hand on him. He remembered the words of an ex-girlfriend: “Don’t wait to lose everything before stopping all this.” With the last of his energy, he reached out for help and went back to a detox centre.

After rehab, Kevin began attending Église Voix de l’Evangile, a small church in Saint Jean-sur-Richelieu, Quebec. “He’d go away and we wouldn’t see him for a while, then he’d come back and we’d receive him and just show him love,” says the pastor, Michel Martel. “Slowly but surely, by being patient with him, just being with him at times, he’s starting to really understand what it means to be a Christian.”

Kevin was one of five people baptized on Sunday, August 4, 2013 at Église Voix de l’Evangile, a church plant that started as a small group in Pastor Michel Martel’s home in 2009. Today the church meets in a coffee house downtown and has grown from 12 to 40 people on average. It is one of about five evangelical churches in Saint Jean-sur-Richelieu, a city of 100,000. Only one percent of Quebec’s population identify as evangelical Christian.

Of this gospel I have become a servant.  (Eph 3:7)

Of this gospel you have become a servant. 

Let us serve. 

By the grace of God, let us find joy in including others.