Family Resemblance

August 8, 2010

John 14: 8 - 11, Genesis 1: 26 - 31

Karin Breuer

How many of you, as a child heard such sentences as “He has eyes just like his dad.” “Her smile reminds me of aunt Rose.” “He walks just like uncle Charlie.” “She has the brains of her granddad and the looks of her mom.”

And how many of you have said that about your children or grandchildren or nieces and nephews? “She’s going to be the athlete of the family just like her dad.” “He’s an amazing cellist. He can someday be a Josh Groban. Got his musical ability from grandma for sure.” “Opa has got to be cheering in heaven—what a brilliant math student she is.”

We see the family resemblances in our children, in one another, and sometimes even in our heroes and people we admire.  

Jesus too spoke of family resemblances when he answered Phillip after Phillip asked the Lord to show them the father. Jesus answered—and I paraphrase John 14:8-11--“Don’t you know me Phillip?” Haven’t you seen the family resemblance even when I was with you all this time? Can’t you see that if you know me you know the Father? Give your head a shake Phillip. Even if you didn’t notice the resemblance—the way I walk, talk, teach, love—then you should have known me by my talents—the things that I do which are the things that my Father does.” 

We are so aware of our worldly family resemblances that we often overlook the family resemblances that Jesus points us to. In Genesis 1 we read that we were created in the image of God—in other words, we resemble God—or do we? Jesus tells us in Mark 3:33-35 when a crowd told him that his mother and brothers were waiting for him: “Who are my mother and my brothers?” and pointing to the people seated around him he continued “here are my mother and my brothers! Whosoever does God’s will is my brother and sister and mother.” That is pretty clear I would think. 

But just in case you missed that chapter in the book, Paul in 2^nd Corinthians 6:17 reiterates God’s promise first made to King David and now to all His people “I will be a father to you and you will be my sons and daughters, says the Lord Almighty.” In Galatians 3:20-4:7 Paul expands on his exhortation that we are son’s and daughters of God through Jesus Christ ending with the sentence “So you are no longer a slave, but a son, and since you are a son, God has made you also an heir.” (v.7) 

So now I ask the question of you that I asked of myself when I first started to examine this topic of family resemblance, can you say the same words Jesus said: “If you have seen me, you have seen the Father?” Or can we say: “If you know me you will know who Jesus is?” Is our family resemblance to the God we call Father, to the Lord we call Jesus, Savior, visible to our children, to our family members, our friends and the stranger in the street? 

It is a tough question and I know that personally it made me stop in my tracks and take a good hard look at me. I wanted to limp away from God with the words from Romans 3:23 “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” But He wouldn’t let me do that and we entered into a conversation that went something like this: 

          God: I’ve already dealt with your sins, that is not the question.

Me: So exactly what are you saying?

          God: I’m saying, are you demonstrating a family resemblance to my son Jesus in your day to day life?

Me: I don’t know Lord. Help me through this.

          God: When you look at my son, what do you see? When you pray and talk to me, what gives you the certainty that I’m listening?

Me: When I look at your son, I see this amazing person who knew you inside out and knows me inside out. I see my savior whom I want to follow to the end of my life. And I know you are listening because otherwise I would never have gone down this road of questions. More than that, I know you are listening because you are not letting me off the hook.

          God: Good and that brings us back to the original question. If I am your Father, what’s the family resemblance? 

I spent the next two months mulling the question over. I told Gerard what God had given me to talk about today. I talked with my friend Joan, I talked with my sister Sylvia and I talked with my sister-in-law Joy. I read a book called “Loving your Children on Purpose”. I prayed a lot; and slowly the things that I believe God wants us to think about today took shape in my mind. 

One of the things that I began to reflect on were the attributes of God. What did I know about God, the person I call my Father? What did I know about Jesus, the person I call my Lord and Savior? What are their characteristics and which of those had I apprehended over the years in how I conducted myself as a person, a wife, a mother, a grandmother, a friend and so on. What was it that God had wanted me to learn? 

I would wager that most of you would be able to immediately name some of the most salient attributes of God:  God is love; he is just; he cannot look upon evil; he is omnipotent, omniscient and omnipresent. God is divine and holy, he is eager to forgive; he defends the fatherless and the widow; he does not condemn and he seeks our fellowship.  

When we examine the attributes of Jesus, we are immediately struck by the family resemblance he has to the Father. Jesus is sinless, he is love, light and bread. Jesus is just and confronts our hypocrisies; he is a prayer warrior and does not act out of his own accord but in accordance with his Father—our Father. He gives us life and fills us with the Holy Spirit. He is our Savior and our redeemer; King of Kings and Lord of Lords. He is our rabbi and he invites us to follow him; invites us to know God through him. 

Those are pretty steep attributes and I do not pretend that I will ever come close. So understanding the character of God, the character of Jesus and my own human frailties how can I translate that information into how I live?

But when examine Jesus’ life as in the Bible, I am struck by the humanness of his ministry. In John 2 beginning at verse 3 Jesus’ mother tells her son that the wine for the wedding has run out. Jesus replies “Dear woman, why do you involve me? My time has not yet come.” But then he goes ahead and he creates wine out of water superior to what they had been given up to then. Jesus in this act teaches me about honoring my father and my mother. How often have our parents made requests of us as adult children that we have been less than gracious about fulfilling? Do we become irritated with our parents as they grow old; short-tempered with their infirmities? And when that happens what do our children see? 

Someone once sent me a story on e-mail that went something like this. A grandfather was becoming increasingly fragile and had a difficult time eating his food. He would often spill things on himself and there would be a mess around the plate at the dinner table and below his chair. One day his son, after a bad day at work became so short with his dad that he grabbed his father’s plate, put it on the floor and said, “if you’re going to eat like our dog, you might as well eat on the floor like the dog.” The grandfather silently sat on the floor.

The next day the dad saw his son carefully making a clay dish and so he asked his son what he was doing with such care. The boy looked at his dad and said “I’m making you a dish dad so that when you get old you can sit on the floor and have a dish to eat from just like granddad.” 

So often our actions speak so much louder than any words we can give our children. It is how we treat the book-ends of our family members—the young and the old—that shows our character to those who are watching. It’s the magnifying glass of who we really are.

Another thing that I found Jesus doing is that he honored his father in keeping the festivals of the faith. The festivals were given to remind people of the presence of God in their lives, of his care in times of trouble and of his promises to all mankind. The festivals were also an important time to pass on the stories about God to the generations that came later. In Leviticus 23:1-2 we read “The Lord said to Moses,’Speak to the Israelites and say to them: ‘These are my appointed feasts, the appointed feats of the Lord, which you are to proclaim as sacred assemblies.” And in Exodus 12:26 we read “And when your children ask you ‘What does this ceremony mean to you?’ then tell them…” 

How many of us relate the power of God in our lives to our children and our grandchildren? Have we told our children how God has worked in our lives and has brought us out of difficult situations or have we just told them the stories about our lives without mentioning the hand of God?  

One of the most powerful stories of God’s grace in my family history is the story that was told to us by my mom in their escape from communism. My mom stated how in 1940 there were many soldiers in Riga Latvia—Latvians, Russians, Germans. It was not unusual to see soldiers in groups walking down the street. But one day as she was coming home from work she saw a group of Russian soldiers arm in arm coming toward her on the sidewalk. She said she had the feeling that they were taking over the whole road. She walked past them and went home where she told my dad that they had to leave Riga now. God had given her the sign that Russia would be taking over Latvia. My dad was a god-fearing man and respected mom’s vision.

They told their families what had happened, their decision to leave and invited them to come with them. All but my grandmother, my mom’s mom, jeered at this and told them they were fools to go—Germany would never let the Russians have Latvia. But mom and dad chose to follow the sign—God not Germany was in charge. They packed their suitcases, locked the doors to their home, left all their possessions behind and left on a ferry to German-occupied Poland. Forty eight hours later the borders were closed. My dad’s brother was sent to Siberia never to be seen again. My mom’s brother went underground and was eventually located by the Red Cross after the war.  

God continued to be with my mom and dad throughout the war years as they moved from place to place in Europe and eventually led them to Canada. This and the other stories of God’s goodness grounded our faith and I hope will eventually ground the faith of my children and grandchildren as well.

Stories give our children roots and they honour our Lord because he lives in our stories as well as in our lives. 

But let me go back to the festivals and examine the Christian festivals. How do we celebrate Advent, Christmas, Lent and Easter, our Pentecost and Epiphany? Do our children have any idea where the festivals came from and why they are important to us? Is their first word “Jesus” as the holidays approach or “Santa Claus” and “Easter bunny”? Who ordained our celebrations? When did the mixture of paganism and Christianity combine? Do we teach our children the stories of our church history and the events that led us from celebrating God’s feasts as described in the Bible to the Christian feasts that are a shadow of the original feasts? Are we imbued, as Jesus was, with the stories of God, who he is and how he moves through history? 

As I continued to look at the human attributes of Jesus I became more and more interested in this topic. I do want to exhibit the family likeness, I do want to be  “covered in the dust of [my] rabbi”. I remembered reading a book where that phrase originated. It came from the habit of scholars following their rabbi so closely—not just the teaching but the actual physical proximity of the person—that they would be covered with the dust from his sandals as he walked along the road. I believe that when we begin to walk with Jesus—not just reading the Bible but literally walking with him every day so that we are “covered in his dust” that we will begin to develop that family resemblance.

Jesus, our rabbi gave us two commandments which mirror the commandments given to Moses on tablets of stone—to love God with all our heart and all our soul, all our mind and all our strength, and to love our neighbor as ourselves. 

God is love and he has created us in his image—with the capacity to love Him and to love others. And what does that love look like? It is a gift given to us freely without strings attached. God created us to be free to love him or to reject him. But he does not reject us when we reject him. In Matthew 5:45 Jesus states, “You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor and hate your enemy’. But I tell you: Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you that you may be sons of your Father in heaven. He causes the sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.” 

What does that kind of love look like in our daily walk with our children, with our grandchildren, with our in-laws—never mind our friends here at church or the person who cut you off as you were driving and made you late for your appointment last week. What do our children see when we threaten them with “wait ‘till your father gets home?” In 1 John 4:18 it is written that “Perfect love casts out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love.” Do we model unconditional love to our children as God has done through Jesus Christ who died for us while we were yet sinners? Do we add punishment to the consequences our children experience when they transgress or can we, like our Father quietly allow the consequences of their behavior lead them to ask for forgiveness and guidance in the future just ask we ask for forgiveness and guidance from God? Do we let our children be free to make their mistakes or is our love conditional on how they please us? 

Can we forgive 7 X 77 times the transgressions of our friends when they ask for forgiveness or do we harden our hearts and want “our pound of flesh” before we can let go? Is it more important to be right in our own eyes than it is to forgive?

Do we praise our spouses or run them down like grass under a lawn-mower? It seems to me that we often hear words that belittle or embarrass a spouse couched in so-called humor that is intended to be a jab, a pain. Can we deal with our feelings openly and take them to Jesus or do we continue to do a passive-aggressive power trip towards our spouse until compliance is accomplished?

Do we feel good about allowing our children to explore their strengths and their weaknesses in the safety of our homes and our church family or do we want to show them that we are in charge and we have the power to do and say what we wish while they remain on the sidelines? Do we teach our children that love is conditional on their performance or do we teach them that we will always be there to assist them with life’s difficult journey? 

In our extended families as well as at church, do we invite everyone to use their gifts without fear of criticism, giving a hand when it is required, or do we gossip and criticize from the sidelines?

As I looked at the human life of Jesus I found that there are the attributes that we can copy—love, respect, truth, helpfulness. And how do we cultivate that family resemblance? I believe that there are two things that will help us become more like the man Jesus, one: that we commit everything we think and do to prayer just as he did, and second, quoting my teenage hero, Paul writing to the Ephesians: “watch what God does, and then you do it, like children who learn proper behavior from their parents. Mostly what God does is love you. Keep company with him and learn a life of love. Observe how Christ loved us. His love was not cautious but extravagant. He didn’t love in order to get something from us but to give everything of himself to us. Love like that." (Ephesians 5:1-2, The Message)

One Lord, One Body

John 6: 28 -35, Romans 12: 1 - 8

Rev. Dorne Cornish

The last two Sundays I have stressed the importance of worship in the life of the church, setting forth the premise that it is the very foundation which gives life and meaning to the church; it is a special time for the gathering of the church, a time when God is especially with us. I also spoke of the tension we all experience, the struggle we have to set our minds not on human things but upon divine things. The failure to set our mind on divine things blocks or inhibits our ability to see God, whose desire is to reveal and make Himself known to us.

This morning I want to attempt to take this line of thought a step further by looking at the church. Here the shortcomings of the English language quickly become apparent. We use the word ‘church’ in different ways. We talk about going to church; the church as the place where we meet; the institution which we manage. Of course we also know, as we have been taught since Sunday school that the church really is people. As the song says: “I am the church, you are the church, we are the church together.” We will not read in scripture anything about “going” to church.

The Bible, however, makes clear in a number of places that the church is intended to be the body of Christ on earth. That was the reason for its constitution. So fundamental is this that Paul, in his 1^st letter to the Corinthian church, writes that before we partake of the Lord’s Supper we are to first examine ourselves “and only then eat of the bread and drink of the cup. For all who eat and drink without discerning the body, eat and drink judgment against themselves.” (1 Cor. 11:28,29)

The critical thing here is that we are able to “discern the body”, that we able to see ourselves as constituting the body of Christ in this place and in the world. The church is more than just another organization, a service club or a community of like-minded people. It is different because it is animated by the Holy Spirit, it is a living organism wherein Christ dwells. Indeed, as Jesus said to His disciples when He first appeared to them following His resurrection: “As the Father has sent me, so I send you.” (John 20:21). As Jesus was sent into the world under the authority of God and the empowerment of the Holy Spirit so too is the church “sent” under the authority of God and the empowerment of the Holy Spirit, to be the embodiment of Jesus in carrying out His ministry in and to the world.

While there are many things that could be said about the church and its constitution, this morning I want to focus upon only two that are fundamental to its being the body of Jesus the Christ.

In speaking of the church as being one body with many members Paul makes the point that every member is a “gifted” person” “Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit; and there are varieties of services, but the same Lord; and there are varieties of activities, but it is the same God who activates all of them in everyone." (1Cor. 12:4-6) Everyone has something to offer, something to contribute to the well-being and functioning of the church. To drive this home Paul affirms: “to each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good.” (1Cor. 12:7)

This means that everyone in the church has something to offer, a contribution to make to the common good, for building up the church, the living body of the risen Jesus the Christ. It is a contradiction of the gravest kind for someone to think or say of themselves that they have nothing to give; it is the same as saying “God has not given me any gifts, I have not been blessed by the Holy Spirit.” And that is simply not true. In his letter to the Ephesians Paul begins by blessing God the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, “who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places.” (1:3) In other words, as a church, we lack nothing: each individual member has been blessed with a gift for the common good, for the building up of the body of Christ. Again, to quote Paul: “…speaking the truth in love, we must grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, from whom the whole body, joined and knit together by every ligament with which it is equipped, as each part is working properly, promotes the body’s growth in building itself up in love.” (Eph. 4:15-16)

Paul reminds us that “We have gifts that differ according to the grace given to us; prophecy, in proportion to faith; ministry, in ministering; the teacher, in teaching; the exhorter, in exhortation; the giver in generosity; the leader, in diligence; the compassionate in cheerfulness.” How then are we to live? Paul makes it pretty clear: “Let love be genuine; hate what is evil, hold fast to what is good; love one another with mutual affection; outdo one another in showing honor. Do not lag in zeal, be ardent in spirit, serve the Lord.” (Romans 12: 6-11)

My first point then is that we are a gifted people; each person has an important contribution to make to the well-being and functioning of the church, the very body of the risen Christ.

The second point I would make is very much related to our giftedness. In his letter to the Corinthians Paul, in talking about our being in the body of Christ, makes this remarkable affirmation: “God has arranged the members in the body, each one of them, as He chose.” (1Cor. 12:18)

And you thought you were here of your own accord! We are here because God has chosen us, each one of us, to be an integral functioning member of this body; we each have something to contribute for the common good, for the building up of the body and we do that as we build up and encourage one another, using the gift with which we have been blessed. It is easy to be critical, to sit on the sidelines and complain, to tear down instead of building up, to resist change (and there will be change in a healthy growing body). God has put the body together according to the gifts with which He has graced us so that the body lacks nothing. And if there is a perceived lack it is only because someone is not using the gift which God has given them.

We are a chosen people, a gifted people. We need to understand that if we are to discern the body correctly. Every person here is here of God’s choosing and is His gift to the body. What a difference it would make if we were to see, not only ourselves, but each other in that light. Look around you, at those sitting near you: each person is God’s gift to you, each brings something vital to the well-being of the body of Christ that congregates in this place, as do you. Let us now take a moment of silence as we prayerfully seek to discern the body we have been chosen to be.

The last two Sundays I have stressed the importance of worship in the life of the church, setting forth the premise that it is the very foundation which gives life and meaning to the church; it is a special time for the gathering of the church, a time when God is especially with us. I also spoke of the tension we all experience, the struggle we have to set our minds not on human things but upon divine things. The failure to set our mind on divine things blocks or inhibits our ability to see God, whose desire is to reveal and make Himself known to us.

This morning I want to attempt to take this line of thought a step further by looking at the church. Here the shortcomings of the English language quickly become apparent. We use the word ‘church’ in different ways. We talk about going to church; the church as the place where we meet; the institution which we manage. Of course we also know, as we have been taught since Sunday school that the church really is people. As the song says: “I am the church, you are the church, we are the church together.” We will not read in scripture anything about “going” to church.

The Bible, however, makes clear in a number of places that the church is intended to be the body of Christ on earth. That was the reason for its constitution. So fundamental is this that Paul, in his 1^st letter to the Corinthian church, writes that before we partake of the Lord’s Supper we are to first examine ourselves “and only then eat of the bread and drink of the cup. For all who eat and drink without discerning the body, eat and drink judgment against themselves.” (1 Cor. 11:28,29)

The critical thing here is that we are able to “discern the body”, that we able to see ourselves as constituting the body of Christ in this place and in the world. The church is more than just another organization, a service club or a community of like-minded people. It is different because it is animated by the Holy Spirit, it is a living organism wherein Christ dwells. Indeed, as Jesus said to His disciples when He first appeared to them following His resurrection: “As the Father has sent me, so I send you.” (John 20:21). As Jesus was sent into the world under the authority of God and the empowerment of the Holy Spirit so too is the church “sent” under the authority of God and the empowerment of the Holy Spirit, to be the embodiment of Jesus in carrying out His ministry in and to the world.

While there are many things that could be said about the church and its constitution, this morning I want to focus upon only two that are fundamental to its being the body of Jesus the Christ.

In speaking of the church as being one body with many members Paul makes the point that every member is a “gifted” person” “Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit; and there are varieties of services, but the same Lord; and there are varieties of activities, but it is the same God who activates all of them in everyone. (1Cor. 12:4-6) Everyone has something to offer, something to contribute to the well-being and functioning of the church. To drive this home Paul affirms: “to each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good.” (1Cor. 12:7)

This means that everyone in the church has something to offer, a contribution to make to the common good, for building up the church, the living body of the risen Jesus the Christ. It is a contradiction of the gravest kind for someone to think or say of themselves that they have nothing to give; it is the same as saying “God has not given me any gifts, I have not been blessed by the Holy Spirit.” And that is simply not true. In his letter to the Ephesians Paul begins by blessing God the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, “who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places.” (1:3) In other words, as a church, we lack nothing: each individual member has been blessed with a gift for the common good, for the building up of the body of Christ. Again, to quote Paul: “…speaking the truth in love, we must grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, from whom the whole body, joined and knit together by every ligament with which it is equipped, as each part is working properly, promotes the body’s growth in building itself up in love.” (Eph. 4:15-16)

Paul reminds us that “We have gifts that differ according to the grace given to us; prophecy, in proportion to faith; ministry, in ministering; the teacher, in teaching; the exhorter, in exhortation; the giver in generosity; the leader, in diligence; the compassionate in cheerfulness.” How then are we to live? Paul makes it pretty clear: “Let love be genuine; hate what is evil, hold fast to what is good; love one another with mutual affection; outdo one another in showing honor. Do not lag in zeal, be ardent in spirit, serve the Lord.” (Romans 12: 6-11)

My first point then is that we are a gifted people; each person has an important contribution to make to the well-being and functioning of the church, the very body of the risen Christ.

The second point I would make is very much related to our giftedness. In his letter to the Corinthians Paul, in talking about our being in the body of Christ, makes this remarkable affirmation: “God has arranged the members in the body, each one of them, as he chose.” (1Cor. 12:18)

And you thought you were here of your own accord! We are here because God has chosen us, each one of us, to be an integral functioning member of this body; we each have something to contribute for the common good, for the building up of the body and we do that as we build up and encourage one another, using the gift with which we have been blessed. It is easy to be critical, to sit on the sidelines and complain, to tear down instead of building up, to resist change (and there will be change in a healthy growing body). God has put the body together according to the gifts with which He has graced us so that the body lacks nothing. And if there is a perceived lack it is only because someone is not using the gift which God has given them.

We are a chosen people, a gifted people. We need to understand that if we are to discern the body correctly. Every person here is here of God’s choosing and is His gift to the body. What a difference it would make if we were to see, not only ourselves, but each other in that light. Look around you, at those sitting near you: each person is God’s gift to you, each brings something vital to the well-being of the body of Christ that congregates in this place, as do you. Let us now take a moment of silence as we prayerfully seek to discern the body we have been chosen to be.  

ON WHAT IS YOUR MIND SET?

July 25, 2010

Matthew 16:13-23

Rev. Dorne Cornish

Last Sunday I spoke of worship as being the foundation of the Christian life. All else, all Christian ethics, believing, social action, understanding of who God is and who we are flows from our experience of worship.

It is the place, and the action, whereby we are met by God who reveals Himself to us as we attend to Him. During the week we avidly read our newspapers, watch the news on T.V. to try to keep up with the state of the world. But on Sundays, in worship, we are reminded there is another world more important than the first… a world of which we are citizens in Messiah Jesus our Lord.

I made the claim that it is one thing to know about Jesus; it is quite another to “see” Him in all His glory and experience His presence with us…a presence made real in worship for our God is a God of revelation, a God who is eager to make Himself known to us. And “see Him” we must if we are to know Him in any life-changing way.

I would like to follow up on that theme this morning by raising a question: What is it that prevents us from “seeing” Jesus; what is it that keeps us from experiencing “God in our midst”? After all, God is a God of revelation. He yearns to reveal Himself to us, to make himself known in ways that will profoundly affect how we live and how we relate to one another and to the world around us.

In the 16^th chapter of Matthew there is that exhilarating moment when, in response to Jesus’ question: “who do you say that I am?” Peter, with a flash of insight blurts out: “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.” We can only speculate what impact this had on the disciples, to suddenly see Jesus in this new light. The Messiah! Son of the living God! What an astounding revelation! We can only imagine how stunning this revelation was. How their hearts must have leapt within them.

Jesus, in response, spoke directly to Peter: “Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father in heaven” (Jesus is here pointing out that Peter didn’t figure this out for himself; God has revealed the truth to him…it is God who has made this revelation to Peter) He goes on: ”And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not prevail against it.” (This is a play on words in Greek that does not translate well into English. The Greek word for rock is Petra so Jesus is saying: “You are Petros and on this Petra I will build my church.”)

There are those who believe Jesus was saying that Peter himself would be the foundation, or the leading figure of the church, but I rather think, with others, that it is the revelation that Jesus is indeed the Son of the living God that will be the foundation upon which the church will be built. Peter saw Jesus for who He was, the Son of the Living God, and it was on this truth that the church would be established.

What a moment that must have been, not only for Peter but for the others gathered there. With what perfect clarity Peter saw Jesus as the Messiah. Could their lives ever be the same again? Sadly, it did not last. Because at that point things changed as Jesus began to teach them that “He must go to Jerusalem and undergo great suffering at the hands of the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and on the third day be raised.” How could this be? This was not what was expected of the long-awaited Messiah! He was expected to overthrow their enemies and restore Israel to her rightful glory as the chosen people of God. The coming of the Messiah was to signal the coming of a new age of judgment and righteousness for the whole world. What was this nonsense of Him suffering and being killed? This was not what they were expecting!

Peter would have none of it. Rebuking Jesus, he blurted out: “God forbid it, Lord! This must never happen to You.” 

And then comes those chilling words Jesus spoke to Peter: “Get behind me Satan! You are a stumbling block to Me; for you are setting your mind not on divine things but on human things.” Then Jesus told His disciples, “If any want to become My followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for My sake will find it.”

Here we have set before us the tension that has plagued the church since its inception: the tension between “divine things” and “human things”. Certainly Peter knew this tension. It was Peter who later denied that he even knew Jesus, not once but three times, because he was afraid for his own well-being. In effect he was prepared to deny Jesus in order to keep himself safe.

How like Peter we are! How often we make decisions based on our personal likes and dislikes, our own well-being, focusing on human things and what concerns us rather than upon divine things and opening ourselves up to the will of God and the leading of the Holy Spirit. We too often act as though the church belonged to us rather than seeing it as the church of Jesus Christ. We forget that the church exists, not for the sake of its members but for the sake of its non-members in the service of its Lord.

When we set our minds on human things we too often miss what God is doing. This is most critical when it comes to worship. I certainly know this tension in a very personal way. After 17 years of pastoral ministry when I began a ministry in Adult Christian Education I found myself sitting in the pew on Sunday mornings. It was an interesting experience and I found myself busy critiquing what was going on, analyzing the different ways worship was conducted in churches of various denominations; often thinking “why do they do it that way? I would do it differently. I think it would be more effective if….” One day I realized I had my mind so set on human things, things that were of minor importance, that I was missing out on the experience of worship. So caught up in my own likes/dislikes I was not even aware of the divine nature and spiritual component of worship.

Over the past while there have been a number of congregations within our Presbytery that have fallen on difficult times. Lines have been drawn, sides taken usually over minor issues blown out of all proportion. In every instance the focus has been on human things, not on divine things. Personal likes and dislikes rule the day and fuel the acrimonious debates.

Usually such disputes center on power struggles, who is going to do what, who is going to have the final say, with little regard for the things of God, the God we are called to worship and serve. In one situation one of the complaints was that with the reconfiguration of the chancel to accommodate a worship team with their various instruments the choir would have to navigate two steps to get into the choir loft. Two steps! It was just one of a series of petty disputes over how worship was to be conducted but together they resulted in a split and a serious loss of members.

We shake our heads; but could it happen here? Of course it could. Any change in “our way” of doing things is sure to bring complaints. Some don’t like the choir sitting with the congregation during the service (after all everyone knows the proper place for the choir is in the choir loft – besides, that is the way we have always done it.) We have belonged to two congregations that had the choir loft in the balcony (that was where the organ was as well); another had the choir, all gowned, leave the choir loft after the anthem and sit among the congregation with their families; we have also attended churches with the choir loft split, half sitting on one side of the chancel and half sitting on the other side facing each other.

Personal likes and dislikes over-ride the fact that we have been called to worship that God in a mystical/spiritual way might meet us, reveal Himself to us in a meaningful life-transforming way. Where do we get the idea that we come to be entertained or that the worship service is for our sakes alone? Have you ever heard, or yourself said: “I didn’t get anything out of that service; I didn’t understand what he was taking about; I didn’t like the selection of hymns today; if I had known he was preaching I would have stayed home?”

One of the most moving services I have attended was in Beijing a few years ago. Our tour group arrived at a large Chinese church, unannounced, for the 9 o’clock service. It was the first of three services during the day, each filled to capacity in a sanctuary that seated 800 worshippers. We arrived 15 minutes before the service began and had to sit very near the back. Everything was in Chinese, not a word of English was spoken. And it was a most moving experience simply because we were caught up in the sense of adoration, the wonder and awe of being in the presence of God as the Holy Spirit moved people to worship in spirit and in truth. Though we understood not a word yet God spoke to us through those words. It is always that way when we set our minds on divine things and not on human things.

It is not big things that cause dissension in the church or keep us from losing ourselves in the act of worship. Usually they are minor, petty things that cause problems. We are good at turning mole hills into mountains. I recall one congregation that had a major fight over coffee cups. They had been using styrofoam cups and the decision was made by Session to switch to regular cups because of the pollution caused by the disposal of the styrofoam cups as well as the cost of using them. Angry voices were raised, at first by a few but others soon joined in. “Who do they think is going to wash all those cups? I’m certainly not going to do it, I simply won’t drink coffee any more.” And so it went. Can you think of anything more petty than that? We wouldn’t expect our children to behave in such a childish manner.

I well remember visiting my home town church a few years back. The old brick church had been replaced by a new building. But the sanctuary had something the old church had not: a lectern. A retired licensed lay-preacher took me aside and complained about having two pulpits in the sanctuary. Who had ever seen such a thing. I explained to him there was only one pulpit, the other was a lectern and explained its use. Many sanctuaries have both a pulpit and a lectern. But he would not hear me. He did his best to organize opposition to having a lectern. Fortunately, he found little support for his position and it was laid to rest.

It doesn’t take much for us to lose sight of Who it is we are called to serve, when we set our minds on human things instead of divine things. When I hear petty griping, complaints about this or that, I ask myself the question: “Is this what Jesus had in mind when he willed the church into being? As the noted Paul Harvey said, when speaking of the church, “We’ve drifted away from being fishers of men to being keepers of the aquarium.”

After his stunning rebuke of Peter Jesus went on to tell His disciples: “If any want to become My followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow Me. For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for My sake will find it.” John, in his first letter echoes Jesus words: “Do not love the world or the things in the world. The love of the Father is not in those who love the world; for all that is in the world - the desire of the flesh, the desire of the eyes, the pride in riches - comes not from the Father but from the world.”

If we are to be met by God in worship, if the Holy Spirit is to have His way with us, if the church is to be the body of Christ on earth as Jesus envisioned, it will only happen if we set our minds not on human things which only distract us, but upon divine things. And so the question I would leave with you, a question that each person can only answer for him or her self is very simple: “Upon what and upon whom do you set your mind ?

If You See Me

July 18, 2010

Exodus 40: 34 - 38, 2 Kings 2: 1 - 12, Mark 9: 2 - 8

Rev. Dorne Cornish

It was an exciting adventure. Since that fateful day when Jesus had walked along the shore of the Sea of Galilee and began to call a select few to follow Him and become His disciples, they had been, as it were, on a roller-coaster ride. They had seen remarkable things, healings, the feeding of the multitude, heard unbelievable words of wisdom and teaching. They knew that this Jesus of Nazareth was an exceptional person and their devotion to Him increased the longer they were with Him.

Then one day His message took a frightening turn and He began “to teach them that the son of man must undergo great suffering, and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise again.” (Mark 8:31) This was not at all what they had in mind and Peter undoubtedly spoke for all of them when he rebuked Him for saying such a thing. Jesus, in turn, rebuked Peter with harsh words: “Get behind me, Satan! For you are setting your mind not on divine things but on human things.” (Mark 8:33)

According to Mark’s scheme of events it was about a week later when Jesus took Peter, James and John and led them up on a high mountain apart, by themselves. And while there a remarkable occurrence took place. Before their very eyes Jesus was transfigured. Luke, in his telling of this event (9:29) says “The appearance of His face changed” and His clothes became dazzling white. But not only that: “There appeared to them Elijah and Moses, who were talking to Jesus.” Now, I don’t know about you, but I think, about that time I would have taken off and headed down the mountain! But the reaction of the three with Him is interesting. They were terrified, as we might expect, but they did not run and it was Peter who responded in a very positive way: “Rabbi, it is good for us to be here” (Mark 9:5)  In fact he did not want to leave, but suggested that three tents be erected, one each for Jesus, Elijah and Moses.

This story has much in common with the story of Elijah and Elisha. Elijah knew that his time had come, but Elisha could not, would not accept it. Elijah tried to dissuade Elisha from following him, first to Bethel, then on to Jericho, and finally to the Jordan River. The prophets tried to prepare Elisha: “Do you know that today the Lord will take your master away from you?” they asked. “Yes, I know” he answered, “Be silent!” ( Don’t talk about it!) and he refused to leave Elijah. How could he go on without him? How could he carry on if Elijah ws to be no more? Suddenly, as they walked along, Elisha had an amazing experience: “A chariot of fire and horses of fire separated the two of them, and Elijah ascended in a whirlwind into heaven.”

Then, taking up Elijah’s mantle that had fallen from him in his ascent, Elisha realized that the God of Elijah was still with him. The 50 prophets who had accompanied them had not seen what he had seen. They imagined that Elijah had simply been led off by God’s spirit into the mountains or to a hidden valley. But Elisha knew for he had seen what they had not seen.

What are we to make of these two stories? I would suggest to you they have everything to do with the very essence of worship. Now, I know that our Sunday worship is rarely as dramatic as the events recounted in these stories. But we need to be reminded that our Sunday worship is central to the Christian life. All else, all Christian ethics, believing, social action, understanding of who God is and who we are, flows from our experience of worship. In the transfiguration, the disciples of Jesus were given a preview of who He is and His meaning for their lives. That is us in Sunday worship for when worship is as it is meant to be we are given a glimpse of who Jesus is. We are also given a glimpse of who we are meant to be, namely, those who have been encountered by a God who graciously makes Himself known to us.

It is not surprising that worship came to have such a central place in the Christian faith. There is a saying in Judaism, minhaq Israel torah, which translates; “The customs of the Jewish Nation became law.” It expresses the idea that the very soul and spirit of the Jewish people is aware of the importance and holiness of certain practices and therefore respond by adopting those practices as fundamental to Judaism. In the Midrash (a Jewish commentary) it is said: “A group gathering for the sake of Heaven (i.e., God) is so powerful that it is guaranteed to have lasting effects.”

The book of Exodus is all about the formation of the Jewish people and community: the coming together as a nation in slavery…the exodus…Sinai, where they received the Torah…and their commission to be a priestly kingdom and a holy nation. And in the book of Exodus there are two accounts of the requirements for, and the building of, the tabernacle or sanctuary. The book ends with the second account, as though to put a special emphasis on the importance of the sanctuary. One Jewish commentator notes: “Is it not…fitting to conclude Exodus with the glowing national achievement of bringing God’s presence into the world through the tabernacle?” (i.e., the tent of meeting; where the people congregated: the place where God was known in a special/mystical way)

Christian worship then, is the experience of revelation, when the veil is pulled back and we see Jesus with stunning vividness and clarity. It is in worship that we are given to see beyond the mundane and ordinary to another reality. We are given a glimpse of the reality of “God with us”. This is the whole point of worship. This is why worship is so central to our faith and why we keep coming back again and again. During the week we avidly read our newspapers, watch the news on T.V. to try to keep up the state of the world. But on Sundays, in worship, we are reminded there is another world more important than the first, a world of which we are citizens in Jesus Christ our Lord. The tabernacle, the sanctuary is a constant reminder of God’s presence, the sacred place where He is to be met and known.

Does God reveal Himself to us today, as he did to Elisha, or to the disciples on the mountain? I believe He does, and I am sure many here today can testify to those moments in their lives, we call them mountain top experiences, when in some inexplicable way God makes His presence known. Words alone cannot explain such experience. We can only say: “It was like…” or “It was as if….”

J.B. Phillips, noted Bible translator and author, was a good friend of C.S. Lewis. One day he was working at his desk in his office when he sensed someone had entered the room. He turned and was both surprised and pleased to see C.S. Lewis sitting in a chair. They spent a pleasant hour together. Then J.B. turned to get something from his desk and when he looked around again C.S. Lewis had quietly left. As he sat pondering this strange turn of events his housekeeper came into the room. “I am very sorry to have to tell you this” she said, “but I just received word that C. S. Lewis died just an hour ago.”

Such experiences are received, not achieved. They are not something we command. But there are spiritual practices that may help create the conditions for such experiences, as our Jewish ancestors discovered so long ago and which led to the institution of the sanctuary and congregational worship. What is known from such experiences is not merely another bit of knowledge or a new piece of information, but another reality: it is an experiential awareness of the sacred, of God with us.

When Elisha pleaded with Elijah to give him a double share of Elijah’s spirit Elijah makes an intersting reply. “You have asked a hard thing;” he said, “Yet, if you see me as I am being taken from you, it will be granted to you; if not, it will not.”

“If you see me”. Have you ever looked for something and failed to see it, even though it was “right there” all the time? I recently was looking for a book in my library and simply could not locate it. A few days later I happened to glance up and there it was right in the middle of a shelf where it had been all along. Why hadn’t I seen it? It had a different cover than I had remembered, but it was right there in front of me.

I think we sometimes miss what God is doing, or those moments when He would reveal Himself to us, because we are not looking with any degree of expectation…we don’t expect Him to reveal Himself to us. And when He does, we too often dismiss it as a figment of our imagination. We make a grave mistake when we try to box God in by our definitions or restrict Him or the work of the Holy Spirit by our determination of what is acceptable and what is not. The great theologian Karl Barth says that the paramount question we must ask ourselves is “Do we desire the presence of God? Do we dare to go whither we are being led ?” This was behind the statement Elijah voiced to Elisha when he said: “If you see me as I am being taken away from you, it will be granted you; if not it will not.”

Taking mystical experiences seriously has direct implications for how we think about God and God’s relationship to the world. Mystical experiences imply the immediacy of access to God. If God or the sacred can be experienced, then God is, in some sense, “right here” now, in this very moment, accessible and knowable in this place. And that changes everything about how we view the world and ourselves in it. And it changes the way we worship.

This was the experience of the early disciples, as Paul makes clear in his second letter to the church in Corinth. “For it is the God who said ‘Let light shine out of darkness’ who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.”

To know about Jesus is one thing. To “see” him is quite another. And so it is we gather week by week, congregating together in worship. May we come each week expecting to “see” Jesus in all His glory; may we come with open hearts and open minds knowing that He is present in our midst wanting only to reveal and make Himself known in deeply personal ways. May our worship consist of those wonderful, transforming, transfiguring moments when we experience in particularly vivid, undeniable ways the presence of the living and ever present Christ.

For in such moments of worship, when our world is blessed by the revelation of God, we know that we are created for communion with Him in Christ Jesus. And so may it be that each week, as we congregate together, we will join our voices with that of Peter on the mountain top and proclaim anew: “It is good for us to be here.”

Lost and Found

(Godisnowhere)

Luke 15:1-10; 2 Corinthians 1:1-11; Psalm 130:1-8

July 11, 2010

The Rev. R.C. (Bob) Garvin

Have you ever been lost? Have you ever lost anything? You are heading into any area of Vancouver you don’t know very well, hit construction and a poorly marked detour and, after several blocks and turns, you are lost. I’ve lost my keys – have you seen them? With this cold, I’ve lost my sense of smell. Such are relatively minor losses. But sometimes our sense of loss or of being lost is major.

I was laid off and hence lost both my meaningful work and financial security.

I lost my spouse, my parent, my child because death took him or her from me.

I lost my reputation because of a false charge or rumour.

I lost hope that we would ever get beyond the mess we are in. While it started out as a mole hill comment, through miscommunication and misunderstanding it grew to a mountain and the congregation lost its harmony and peace.

Sometimes the losses we face are simply annoying but at other times they are devastating. We can be overcome with depression, despair, fear or loneliness. Our life becomes devoid of joy and purpose. So I ask you: what is your experience with losing something or someone; with feeling totally lost?

To help us wrestle with this I want to consider the highlights of three parables of Jesus. One of his chief teaching methods was the parable or story. Our scripture this morning dealt with the lost sheep and the lost coin. Not read was the third story, the lost brothers. Let’s look first at the context of these three stories.

“Now all the tax collectors and sinners were coming near to listen to him. And the Pharisees and the scribes were grumbling and saying, ’This fellow welcomes sinners and eats with them”. ( 15:1-2) The religious leaders, the Pharisees and scribes being among them, had no use for two groups of people. The tax collectors also referred to as publicans were Jewish citizens who had agreed to work for the Roman government as tax collectors. They contracted to pay a certain amount to the Roman authority and collected taxes from their fellow citizens to fulfill their contract. Their own income was derived for over taxation and extortion. They were regarded as traitors and apostates.

The second group were the sinners. These were the many people who ignored the Pharisaic demand on obeying the letter of the law. The laws of the Lord were ten in number – the Ten Commandments – but to interpret these the legalists had added over 600 laws. For example, the fourth commandment was: “Remember the Sabbath day and keep it holy”. No work was to be done on the Sabbath. What constituted work? How much weight could you carry or how far could you walk on the Sabbath and not be considered working? Some thirty-nine laws had been written to define what was deemed work for the Sabbath. Those dubbed sinners couldn’t care less about such laws.

But Jesus met with, talked with, and ate with these publicans and sinners. For this He was condemned and in answer to this He told three parables to teach that He had come to call people to repentance, to grant them forgiveness and to enable those lost from God’s presence to be found, to be saved. The first parable concerned the shepherd who had care of one hundred sheep but lost one in the wilderness. In many locations grass and water were scarce, the hills were rocky, and predators were ever watchful for a stray sheep. The shepherd knew his sheep and they knew him. He was responsible for their safety. So on count, if one was missing, the shepherd would set off to find the lost. Once found, the shepherd returned to his comrades who shared his joy that the lost had been found. Jesus comment was: “I tell you, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents that over ninety-nine who need no repentance.” Jesus said He had come to seek and save the lost. Great joy resulted when the lost was found. Praise God!

The second parable concerned the lost coin. A woman had ten silver coins but discovered one was missing – a significant loss as that coin represented one day’s pay for a laborer. She had to find that coin – not an easy task as the laborers’ houses were small, poorly lit with only one small window and an earthen floor. Often the floor was covered with dried reeds and rushes so finding a coin was akin to finding the proverbial needle in a haystack. So she lit a lamp and searched carefully until she found the coin. She called her friends and said, “Rejoice with me, for I have found the coin that I had lost.” Jesus commented: “So I tell you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents.” Jesus came to seek and save the lost. Great joy resulted when the lost was found. Praise God!

A lost sheep. A lost coin. The next parable was about two lost sons. In the story of the lost sheep, it became lost as it inadvertently wandered away. The coin was lost through no fault of its own – somehow it was knocked to the floor. But the two sons were lost because of their deliberate choices. Under Jewish law of the day a man’s estate could be administered either before or after he died. So the younger son’s request was not unusual. His share was one third as the eldest son received a double share. So here the young fellow was—free to do what he wanted and with lots of money to make that happen.

While he had lots of money, he had lots of friends and fun. When the money was gone, so too were the friends and fun. Growing up in relative ease and comfort he now had to get a job and earn his way. But the only available job to a Jew was despicable - feeding pigs. He did not even have enough to eat. He was totally lost from his father and his home. He came to his senses and returned home to admit his failure and ask for a job that he might at least eat. But the loving father felt otherwise as his lost son was home and that called for a celebration. Here was forgiveness and joy. Jesus came to seek and save the lost. Great joy resulted when the lost was found. Praise God!

Enter the elder son. Coming in from working in the field he heard music, laughter and joy. What was going on, he queried? When he heard the news of his brother’s return he refused to join the party. His father came out and entreated him but there was no way the elder would change his mind. His attitude showed his years of working with his father were grim duty. He lacked sympathy in referring not to his brother but to his father’s son. He was self-righteous and indignant. He was unable and unwilling to follow his father’s lead and forgive the errant younger son. So the elder also was lost – lost to his family, his father, his rightful place. Rejecting his father’s grace, the elder son had no forgiveness, no joy.

So I repeat the opening questions: have you ever lost anything? Have you ever been lost? I’m certain most of us would say, yes. Some of our darkest hours are dominated by that sense of lostness. Because of misunderstanding and miscommunication individuals, groups and congregations can loose harmony and cooperation. Because of accidents or incidents we can suffer great loss through no fault of our own. We can make poor decisions which result in negative consequences and loss. We can be faced with critical illness, unemployment or under employment, addictions, and the death of a loved one with a resultant tremendous sense of loss. And sometimes in this we cry out: God, where are you? God, why did You let that happen to me? God, don’t You care?

I want to share with you part of the story of Christine Frye. In the sixties Christine was an Intensive Care Unit nurse in Ottawa. Then for eight years she was head nurse in the Dialysis Unit. During that time she experience increasing depression and anxiety resulting in a major breakdown. She began to write psalms or poems much like the style of the Biblical Psalms. In due course she published these in a book entitled “Through the darkness”. There are two sections of poems: “Into the Darkness”, and “Turning points”. I want to share with you a psalm from each section, as I believe many of us can relate to them.

“Into the Darkness”

O Lord, where are you?

From the bottom of the black pit

Of doubt, anxiety and indecision,

My heart cries out to you.

I hear no answer.

I am afraid, Lord.

Give me courage!

Don’t write your answers in thunder and lightening;

Don’t overwhelm me with earthquakes and euphoria!

But touch me gently, Lord.

Give me a quiet spirit,

The confidence to cope,

The assurance that you know and care.

Lord, I am trying to believe in you –

Forgive my unbelief.

God, in your unbelievable mercy

Replace my doubt with an awareness of you.

Fill my life,

Answer my needs.

Respond to my cries.

My Lord, where are you? (30)

“Turning Points”

Praise the Lord, O my soul;

Sing to the Lord, heart and voice.

You have given me life and breath;

Your loving care surrounds my being.

You created the sunset and the blue sky,

And filled the fields and gardens with flowers;

Your love abounds in the presence of friends –

In their kindness and concern, your care is known.

My soul once cried out to a distant God,

And no God could it find.

Then in the midst of my anger and doubt,

You made your presence felt.

Your spirit has grown real to me,

In grief,

In loneliness,

In sickness,

And my spirit responds in thanksgiving.

Praise the Lord, O my soul;

Let my whole being rejoice

In your everlasting love. (74)

GODYOUARENOWHERE: “God, you are no where” or “God you are now here”. Lost and found.

There are times when the bottom has fallen out of our world, when life is hell. There are times when we experience great joy and exhilaration, when life is heaven. There are times when everything goes along as expected, when life is normal. God never promised a life free of downers, of lostness. Paul once put it this way: “we were so utterly, unbearably crushed that we despaired of life itself.” (2Cor 1:8) He then went on to say that God has rescued them from that extreme lostness and he had confidence that, should problems arise in the future, God would rescue them again.

The psalmist cried: “Out of the depths have I cried unto you, O Lord. Lord hear my voice” (130:1). He also exclaimed: “It is God who remembered our low estate and rescued us from our foes. O give thanks to the God of heaven for His steadfast love endures forever". (136:23ff)

Lost and found. Whatever your kind of loss, our Good Shepherd cares and will lead you through the valley of lostness. It was Jesus who said: “I will be with you all the days”. Thanks be to God!

Advance the Gospel

Philippians 1:12-26

May 9, 2010

Sermon by Gerard Booy

Last week we talked about partnership in the gospel. We saw how Paul thanked God for the Philippians and especially for their partnership in the gospel, their co-partnership in the grace of Christ. And at the end of that passage he prayed for them, for their love to increase so that they may be able to discern what is best, be pure and blameless and be filled with fruit of righteousness.

Today we get a glimpse of just what that might be. What is the most important thing? In the passage that we’ve read we see Paul’s discernment, and how he overcomes obstacles by focusing on that which is essential, and we witness how his life therefore bears fruit of righteousness.

The important thing for Christians is to advance the gospel.

I don’t know about you, but I am ashamed by Paul’s commitment to the gospel. He is completely, single-mindedly committed to the gospel of Christ. That is what counts for him. His personal trials and circumstances take second place to the progress of the gospel. There is therefore no sense of self-pity in Paul, even though he had more than enough hardships to wallow in if he wanted to.

· He is under house-arrest awaiting trial and has been imprisoned for a long time. For two long years he has been incarcerated in Caesarea, then followed a long difficult trip to Rome, a trip that included them being shipwrecked on Malta, and finally he arrived in Rome where he was confined to a house, chained to a guard twenty four seven. You could feel sorry for self over this.

· Then there was the matter about the envy and rivalry of some of the Christians in Rome, people who were using his situation against him and for their own benefit. They were not heretics who proclaimed a different gospel, they just did not like Paul and made life difficult for him. Again, if he wanted to, he could really feel sorry for himself.

· He is torn between his own desire to be with the Lord and experience the fullness of communion with Christ, and his responsibility towards the church; between that which would be best for himself versus that which would be best for the church. Paul is engaged in an intense inner struggle. But in all of this, we never get any sense of self-pity.

To the contrary, he is completely selfless. What does it matter if those rival preachers stir up trouble for me? The important thing is that they preach Christ. I desire to be with the Lord but if it is necessary for you that I stay, I’ll choose that. Paul is a servant of Christ and the church through and through. There is no sense of the selfish ambition that marks the lives of his rivals.

Paul’s got staying power and a strong sense of purpose. He is grabbed by the message of Christ. How does he put it? For me, to live is Christ, and to die is gain.

We, on the other hand, are such fair-weather followers of Christ. We can be so concerned with what people think about us, and how they treat us, much more so than our concern for what they think about Jesus. We need so much approval. We are so concerned with our comforts and with having things easy. We are so easily discouraged when things don’t go our way, so quick to pack our bags and leave when the cost becomes too high. We are so easily distracted by both good and bad things. We can be so confused as to the purpose of our faith and of the church. No wonder that there is so much burn-out among us.

Because Paul’s sense of purpose is clear, he is able to see how his circumstances actually serve to advance the gospel. Not just that, we also see him turn those horrible circumstances around and use them to advance the gospel. The Philippians are concerned about him, but this letter is his way of saying to them, ‘Don’t worry about me. I am well because the gospel is well.’

· Consider for a moment the situation with the praetorian guards. Paul is chained to a guard day in and day out. What do you do when you are forced to be in each other’s company all the time? Eventually you talk. And what do you think Paul talked about? We also know from Acts 28 that Paul was allowed visitors. So what happened when the Christians came to visit Paul? They talked; Paul encouraged them, explained the gospel and prayed with them. And the guard had to be there and take it all in. Paul also wrote letters while in prison, letters like this one. We know that his practise was to have someone write it while he dictated the letters. And the poor guard had to listen to the Bible being written. As these guards rotated and over time, it became clear to all why Paul was there, that he was in chains not for a crime he committed, but for Christ. They probably talked among each other and some came to faith in Christ. This circumstance, his arrest, served as a lamp stand for the Light (Karl Barth).

· Another example of his circumstances serving the progress of the gospel is the effect it had on the Christians in Rome. They lived as it were in the lion’s den, tight under the nose of Caesar. These Christians lived in fear for much of the time. They met in the dark catacombs, out of sight, and secretly marked the way to their meeting places with the sign of the fish. One might think that constant danger and fear, and the limitations put on them would be a deterrent for faith, that Paul’s imprisonment would make them think twice, but far from it. The Christians are encouraged to speak. Seeing Paul, witnessing his courage, his bold testimony and hope, and the effect of his witness on the guards gave them new courage and hope. Their fears diminished. They learned to trust and became bolder in their witness. More people are talking and they are talking more freely.

· A third example of a circumstance being used to advance the gospel is Paul’s attitude about the rival preachers. Their motives and attitude are indeed lamentable, but that is not the most important thing. The bottom line is that they are proclaiming Christ. And Paul is able to acknowledge that and rejoice in it.

This made me think about how we measure our situation? How do we respond to our circumstances? When I think about myself and what I see in other Christians around me, I realise immediately how deeply we have fallen prey to the culture of success and prosperity of which we are a part. Deep down we think that the gospel can only be advanced when we are having fun; when we are successful according to the standards of the world; when we are personally fulfilled and stimulated; when faith and church are there to benefit me. We’ve got gospel success and personal benefit terribly mixed up.

Why would that be? I can’t speak for each of you individually, but I know it happens when I practice faith for what I can get from it, when faith is seen as something I do for myself, rather than a service of gratitude that we render to God and others in the name of Christ. It happens when church membership replaces discipleship. It happens when Christian ministry/service becomes something I do for the church rather than a calling to serve God and the world. For me it goes hand in hand with the degree to which pastoral ministry becomes running a church. It happens when the money factor becomes too important and when raising money becomes our main focus. No wonder then that we are so often under our circumstances.

And then I return to the Bible text and read this story, the story of a man who had every reason to be under his circumstances, and I notice that he is not under his circumstances; he is under the gospel; he is in Christ. He has one purpose that affects all he does and says, that changes his outlook on everything that happens and his approach to life’s situations. Paul’s purpose is to advance the gospel. He says it in different ways throughout the text (to preach Christ, to exalt Christ in my body, your progress and joy in the faith), but they all boil down to essentially the same thing – the progress of the gospel.

This sense of purpose puts any seeking of personal benefit, any thoughts of comfort, and any feelings of self-pity firmly in place. Now we can look at life differently, now we can rejoice in spite of and amid your circumstances. In the centre of this text, at the heart of the text are two statements about rejoicing (verse 18), both tightly linked to Paul’s sense of purpose. This letter, written from prison, is the most joyful in the New Testament. Calls to rejoice and exclamations of joy filter through from beginning to end. Why then is there so little joy in our faith? Could it be because we so often miss the point? Could it be that we are too Martha-like, too busy with many things while we neglect the most important thing?

A clear sense of purpose restores joy. It also creates hope, hope in spite of bleak circumstances. The word that Paul uses is an interesting one. It is used only twice in the New Testament, here and then in Romans 8:19 where it expresses the eager expectation with which the groaning creation waits for the children of God to be revealed. Hope is to have an eager expectation; it is to be like a child who counts the sleeps to a birthday or to Christmas; a child who can’t wait for the day to come and who longs for the day with everything in him or her.

Paul is under the gospel and on top of his situation. And his purpose is clear.

How is this possible? The text offers a few reasons. It is possible because Christ lives. Paul has Christ before his eyes. Christ is everything to Paul. To live is Christ. His own needs for comfort, for approval, for success, for safety, even for life diminish in the light of the much deeper need to see Christ exalted (Spiritual formation Bible). With Christ so firmly established in Paul’s heart and mind, he is able to take himself out of the equation. He does what the author to the Hebrews teaches: running the race, he keeps his eyes upon Jesus.

The text offers a second reason, namely the work of the Holy Spirit. This is not, and can never be, our own doing. In verse 19 Paul recognizes the work of the Spirit in him. The Spirit strengthens, purifies, and inspires Paul. The Spirit opens doors for the message (some very unusual ones at that). And Paul realizes that he is reaping where Christ through the Spirit has sown.

A third reason is given – your prayers (verse 19). We should never underestimate the value of our prayers for one another. The prayers of the Philippians and the work of the Spirit are closely connected. Prayers and Spirit are put side by side in the text; they go hand in hand. Prayer is how we work with the Spirit; it is how we join forces with the Spirit in advancing the gospel and supporting each other in ministry. Prayers are of great value, not just because of the emotional support we draw when we know others are praying for us, but because of the grace that is at work when we join forces with the Spirit.

And the last reason is the love and commitment of the Philippians, of the Body of Christ for him and he for them. They become more important to him than himself; their progress and joy in the faith takes precedence over his personal desires. He has, in the famous words, a “why to live for” and “can overcome almost any how”. Without a strong sense of call, without commitment to the progress of the gospel, we would not be able to stay the course. Our courage would evaporate, we would become more and more distracted, and more and more divided, we would succumb to our circumstances, and our discipleship would suffer.

Only with our eyes fixed on Christ will we be able to run the race with perseverance and joy. May we be able to say with integrity, “for me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.”