A Thought For The Week Of October 26, 2015

"Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective." (James 5:16) The idea of confessing our sins - and, more than that, "to each other" - is an intriguing one. It's a concept that I suspect many Protestants especially would rather set aside on the grounds that it sounds a little bit like the Roman Catholic confessional. And, of course, we've been conditioned as Protestants to the idea that we need to confess our sins only to God. We are our own priests; we have direct access to God; that's that. And, of course, I don't want to deny the belief in the priesthood of all believers. We do all have direct access to God. And so, I hope that we all take time to confess our sins to God. And if we offer them with a sincere and repentant heart and attitude, God hears those prayers, and God forgives us. After all, such prayers are powerful and effective. But what about the instruction that we should confess "to each other." There's probably a knee jerk reaction against those words - even, I confess, by me. Do I confess all my sins to other Christians? Well, of course not. I confess them to God, I believe they're forgiven, and I move on. I don't bare my soul to other Christians on a regular basis. But I do see the point and value of the concept. It's accountability within the community. I think it's probably even therapeutic to be able to unburden yourself to another person that you trust. But perhaps there's the rub. Trust. Do we really trust each other - even within the church? To an extent, certainly, but I'm not sure we trust each other enough to actually do what James tells us to do. Does that make us bad people? Or at least bad Christians? No. It makes us human, I guess. When there's something we find in the Bible that we just can't live up to, it's nice to know that God that God forgives us and gives us grace to move on.

October 25, 2015 sermon: Three Things We've Learned From Job

Then Job replied to the Lord: “I know that You can do all things; no plan of Yours can be thwarted. You asked, ‘Who is this that obscures My counsel without knowledge?’ Surely I spoke of things I did not understand, things too wonderful for me to know. “You said, ‘Listen now, and I will speak; I will question you, and you shall answer me.’ My ears had heard of You but now my eyes have seen You. Therefore I despise myself and repent in dust and ashes.” ... After Job had prayed for his friends, the Lord made him prosperous again and gave him twice as much as he had before. All his brothers and sisters and everyone who had known him before came and ate with him in his house. They comforted and consoled him over all the trouble the Lord had brought upon him, and each one gave him a piece of silver and a gold ring. The Lord blessed the latter part of Job's life more than the first. He had fourteen thousand sheep, six thousand camels, a thousand yoke of oxen and a thousand donkeys. And he also had seven sons and three daughters. The first daughter he named Jemimah, the second Keziah and the third Keren-Happuch. Nowhere in all the land were there found women as beautiful as Job's daughters, and their father granted them an inheritance along with their brothers. After this, Job lived a hundred and forty years; he saw his children and their children to the fourth generation. And so he died, old and full of years. 

(Job 42:1-6,10-17)

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  And so, today we come to the end of the story. Job’s is a difficult story for us to deal with, either because so much of what happens to Job – so many of his troubles, so many of his tragedies and so many of his fears – either mirror our own or serve as an uncomfortable reminder to us of how easy it can be for things to be going well for us one day and then have everything collapse the next, although such, I suppose, is the way of the world. There are no guarantees. Those of us who find ourselves blessed in a worldly sense need to remember to be thankful for what we have because none of it is ours by right and all of it is so very fragile, and those who from time to time may feel as if they’re being cursed in a worldly sense need to try to hold on to the hope that God offers to us all. Through it all, there’s the reminder to all of us that in a life of faith there is no room for pride, because, to use an old phrase “there but for the grace of God go I.” In a month whose central celebration is that of Thanksgiving, the story of Job is a powerful reminder for us to be grateful in all things and for all things. It’s a reminder for us also to be both compassionate to and understanding of those who are less fortunate than we are, because their misfortune doesn’t make them any less worthy of the love of God, and certainly, therefore, it doesn’t make them unworthy of our compassion.

     In today’s reading, we come to the end of the Book of Job, and for Job, in the end things worked out pretty well. With God’s help he made it through the dark times that he faced and he rebuilt his life quite successfully. In fact, he emerged as a wealthy man. Such material blessings won’t always come to those with faith. Job isn’t normative in that sense, but what the story does teach us is that God will see us through our difficulties. The 23rd Psalm gets read at many funerals, and I often remind those in attendance that this most famous of psalms doesn’t promise that we’ll avoid dark valleys, but it also doesn’t tell us that we’ll get stuck in them. Instead, we’re told that we’ll “walk through” those dark valleys we face. If we get nothing else out of our look at the Book of Job, that in itself is worthwhile – the reminder that no matter how tough our times might be, we will get through them, if we remember to depend on God for the strength. But if that learning alone is worthwhile, there are still other things we’ve learned from Job, and I want to offer you what might be the three most important learnings we get from this story after that most basic principle that I just shared, with you. What three things do we learn from Job?

  The first thing I would suggest to you is that we learn from Job to live not by feelings but by faith. Our society today celebrates feelings above all else. Counsellors instruct their clients to get in touch with their feelings and to learn to be comfortable expressing those feelings. I have no argument with that advice. God created us with emotions, so to keep them completely bottled up would be to be less than human. That doesn’t mean wearing your emotions on your sleeve, so to speak, but it does mean to at least be in touch with what you’re feeling. That can be a slippery slope though. Being in touch with your feelings can easily become a form of idolatry, as we start to let ourselves be led by our feelings, then controlled by our feelings and ultimately dominated by them. “If it feels good it must be OK.” That becomes a common justification for engaging in actions we know darn well we shouldn’t engage in. Job reminds us to be not without feelings but to always remember to ensure that our feelings are subordinated to our faith. Feelings don’t guide us; faith guides us. Our emotions are not our god – we have only one God. After Job lost his family, his wealth and his health, he expressed his feelings, but in the midst of it he kept his faith in God. “The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away. May the name of the Lord be praised.” We live in uncertain times – economically, environmentally, socially, politically. We live in uncertain times. In the midst of the uncertainty, may we also say “may the name of the Lord be praised.”

  The second learning I hope you take out of this look at Job is to avoid the temptation to try to figure everything out, and to learn to accept the fact that there are some things that only God has the answers for. Curiosity is a great thing. If we weren’t curious most of the scientific marvels of our age would have gone undiscovered. So, yes, curiosity is a great thing, but remember too that “curiosity killed the cat!” Some things are best left to God. That’s not a cop-out, nor is it blind faith. It’s an acknowledgment that we need to become comfortable with uncertainty and with mystery if we’re going to be in a relationship with our God. After everything that happened to Job, he and his friends tried to figure it out together. They debated, they deliberated, they argued - and in the end they couldn’t figure it out. Maybe the point is that we don’t have to figure everything out. We don’t have to understand the reason behind every difficulty, every disappointment, every divorce and every death. Sometimes perhaps we need to simply accept that only God has all the answers, and stop tormenting ourselves trying to comprehend the incomprehensible. When those uncertain times come upon you and you find yourself asking that unanswerable “why” question – try to remember the example of Job, and remember to simply trust in God, because only God has all the answers!

  The final thing I hope you learn from Job is not to live by your misfortunes but rather by your blessings. I know a lot of people who live by their misfortunes. They feed off them hungrily, they wail about them incessantly, they shed tears over them constantly, they complain about them bitterly, and they take the joy out of their lives. I understand the temptation. When things aren’t going well, it’s hard to try to focus on the blessings, because the apparent curses are so powerful. And it’s OK to vent sometimes. But at some point faith has to teach us to let go of venting. And we should be able to do that because blessings there are – blessings there always are, and with God’s blessing, we’ll make it through the storms we face, and the sorrows we endure and through every ridiculously unfair situation life throws at us. With God’s blessings, Job made it through his and with God’s blessing we’ll make it through ours.

     So,  what have we learned from Job? What would Job tell us today if he were here? I have no doubt that he’d say, based on his own experiences: don’t live by feelings but by faith, don’t try to figure everything out because only God has all the answers, and don’t live on your misfortunes but on God’s blessing because God’s blessing will see you through. As the Rev. Scott Hoetzee wrote, “The only hope for a truly 'happy ending' for us all is that we truly do serve a God of all grace who is rich in mercy and compassion and kindness.” Just ask Job. He knew that - and he made it through!

A Thought For The Week Of October 19, 2015

"And also the Glory of Israel will not lie or repent; for he is not a man, that he should repent." (1 Samuel 15:29) I'm writing this shortly after having come back from the local polling station to cast my vote in Canada's federal election. It struck me that this was an interesting verse to be reflecting on during election day. Really, when you get right down to it (and unfortunately) what basically seems to characterize the feeling of voters - in my opinion at least - is probably distrust. We really don't believe that the politicians are going to do the things they promise us they're going to do. In other words, we don't believe that they're honest.That's a shame, really, but I do believe it's an accurate assessment of where we stand and of what people's attitudes are. And it strikes me that it's therefore very important to have someone or something to put our trust in without having to worry about whether they might let us down.And, ultimately, isn't that the real value of faith? This verse talks about the fact that, unlike people, God will not "lie or repent" or (in the words of some translations) "change his mind." God is faithful, and God will not change. This reminds me of one of the affirmations of the New Testament - that "Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever." In a society in which people (even those who lead us) let us down on a regular basis, it's good to have someone we can place our faith in and never be let down. Politicians make us a lot of promises - but what has God promised us? God has promised to be with us, to love us, to forgive us and to give us eternal life. Those are big promises - and we can have faith that these promises will be kept.

October 18 2015 sermon: A Truly Divine Plan

Then the Lord answered Job out of the whirlwind: “Who is this that darkens counsel by words without knowledge? Gird up your loins like a man, I will question you, and you shall declare to me. “Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth? Tell me, if you have understanding. Who determined its measurements - surely you know! Or who stretched the line upon it? On what were its bases sunk, or who laid its cornerstone when the morning stars sang together and all the heavenly beings shouted for joy?

(Job 38:1-7)

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     A few years ago, an eight year old girl in the United States decided that she wanted a puppy. That certainly doesn’t make her unique, but her story is an interesting one nonetheless. Her father, you see, wasn’t enthusiastic about her getting a puppy. He apparently didn’t think she was either mature enough or responsible enough to care for a dog. So he made her a promise that he was sure would put the idea to bed forever. He would get her a puppy, he said, if he was told to get her a puppy by the President of the United States. You’d think that would be a rather daunting roadblock standing in the way of the little girl getting her puppy, but this was a very determined little girl. And so, she wrote a letter to the President, explaining in great detail why she thought it would be a good experience for her to have a dog, put it in an envelope, addressed it and dropped it in a mailbox. Sure enough, a few weeks later, an envelope from the White House addressed to the girl’s father appeared in the family’s mailbox. In a hand-written and signed note on White House stationary, George W. Bush proceeded to explain to the girl’s father that he, personally, loved dogs, and that, while it was obviously the father’s decision, he thought that children learned a lot about responsibility by having dogs and that it would be good for the little girl. Well, the little girl’s father couldn’t really go back on his promise. He now had in his hands a hand-written and signed note from the President of the United States saying essentially “get the girl a dog!” I trust that the dog and its family are now living happily ever after - all because of a most unexpected reply to a little girl’s plea.

     As we continue our month long journey through some of the stories in the Book of Job today, that story about the little girl is a lot more relevant than you might think. Last week we spoke about how frustrating it is when God doesn’t give us the answer we want when we ask a question. Job had been dealing with this frustration for some time now. In today’s reading we’ve jumped ahead 15 chapters since last week, and Job is still in the midst of it We’ve seen that Job had gone through terrible tragedies and that he had experienced a terrifying feeling of being isolated from God. He may well have come to the conclusion that God was never going to give him a direct answer to his questions.He may well have been on the verge of giving up hope. And then - all of a sudden - it happened! All of a sudden (and probably quite unexpectedly) God spoke! Job must have been startled. I suspect that, in spite of all the pleas he had made, Job wasn’t really looking for a conversation with God. Maybe he was doing nothing more than venting. If he had any expectation at all, perhaps he was looking for some sort of sign (a vision, a dream, a picture burned into his morning toast, perhaps) but he almost certainly wasn’t looking for God to engage him in a dialogue. But the passage does not say that this was a vision or a dream, and there’s no toast mentioned. The passage says that God spoke. Audibly and clearly, Job heard the voice of God. It seems that in spite of his righteousness, this was not an everyday occurrence for Job - it’s probably even less so for us! I work under the philosophy that says that when God speaks - we should listen, so I think we need to consider pretty carefully what God said here in response to Job’s pleading for an answer. Maybe that will help us to figure out what God might say to us in our times of hardship.

     What I really noticed in this passage is that although God is answering Job, God isn’t giving Job the answer that he wants. Last week, I suggested that God always answers us; it’s just that we don’t always like the answer God gives us. Here we have the biblical foundation for that statement. In legal terms, Job had asked God either for an indictment - which would lay out in detail what he’s accused of having done wrong - or a verdict - which Job confidently assumed would be “not guilty.” He got neither. Instead, God answered Job’s questions with - wait for it - a question! Now that must have been frustrating for Job. His blood pressure shot way up at that moment. We ask questions because we want answers, because we’re tired of seeking out the answers on our own and because we want someone else to answer the questions for us. When our questions get answered with more questions, then all we have are more answers to seek.. And that’s what Job was now facing - not only had God not answered him; God had given Job another question to ponder and another answer to seek. You might say that this was a challenge to Job from God; not the sort of comfort we usually think of when we turn to God in times of great hardship.

     As I reflect on God’s challenge to Job, what really stands out to me is that although God gives no direct answer to Job, there’s also no sense of condescension - God doesn’t patronize Job and God doesn’t consider him unworthy of receiving an answer. Instead, God’s reply to Job is really an invitation for Job to consider God’s plan - not just God’s plan for Job, but God’s plan for all of creation, and how Job’s experience fits into that. There’s some really interesting language used here. “Gird up your loins like a man,” God said. I actually almost chuckle every time I read that! But it wasn’t an insult, in the way we might think of “be a man” today. It was actually a show of respect. God was challenging Job to challenge God - and that, I think, is a connection for us today. God challenges us in the same way. In a sense, God said to Job, “don’t wallow in self-pity” (because that’s essentially what Job had been doing.) “Come to me instead, with all your questions and complaints, and we’ll work this thing out together.” I suspect that God delights in these kinds of encounters - because once Job accepted that finding solutions rather than just presenting complaints was what really mattered there was an opening for building a deeper relationship with God based on a better understanding of God. So Job is invited to embark with God on a journey of discovery, and all of us are invited to join with God on a journey of discovery - one that begins with our questions and with our sincere desire to determine God’s answers.

     God’s challenge to Job begins with a question: “Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth?” and then: “Tell me, if you have understanding.” The irony here is that Job can’t possibly have the understanding that God is speaking of. When God “laid the foundation of the earth,” Job didn’t exist, after all. To truly understand something we haven’t experienced is impossible. God’s plan for creation, laid out before anything even existed, is beyond our ability to fully comprehend. So, in essence, God’s response to Job was: “you’re welcome to begin this quest with me, but understand that it’s a quest that will never end, because you’ll never be able to fully understand me.” That’s also our greatest challenge, isn’t it? To commit ourselves in faith to a relationship with God even though there are so many things about God that we can never fully understand; that will simply remain a mystery. And what we discover is that as things turned out, Job could live with that. Job could live with divine mystery, as long as he could be assured of divine presence, and as long as he knew that there was a divine plan being furthered, and that he was a part of it. So, by this exchange (even though God sounds a bit harsh) Job finally understands that he hasn’t been deserted by God in his time of greatest need. He could still enjoy a relationship with God. Nothing he was experiencing would change that, and with that assurance Job could move on. And Job’s assurance is our assurance: even in the face of divine mystery in our lives, there is a still a divine presence in our lives, and there is still a divine plan being worked out at least partly through our lives. We may not understand it fully, but we are a part of it. As Paul would write centuries later to the Christians in Rome, “in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.” And, folks - those who are “called according to [God’s] purpose?” That’s us!

     I began my remarks today with the story of the little girl who must have been surprised to get an answer to her pleas from the president of the United States. I suspect it may have been even more surprising for Job to get an answer from God. “I have a plan,” God said, “and your life and all its experiences are a part of that plan.” God answers us as well, in ways that we can’t fully understand, and our challenge is to follow Jesus, even when we’re not always sure where it is that he’s taking us. That’s something I’ve had to learn; that’s something I still find myself struggling with at times. “Why here and not there?” “Why this and not that?” “Why now and not later?” The frustrating thing is that I can’t figure out the answers to those questions any better than you can or any better than Job could - but I know this: there is a truly divine plan at work, and I’m somehow a part of it, and so are you. In the words of an old gospel song: “I don’t need to understand, I just need to hold his hand.”
   

   

A Thought For The Week Of October 12, 2015

"Jesus called out to them, 'Come, follow me! And I will make you fishermen for the souls of men!'" (Mark 1:17, Living Bible) I sometimes wonder: how did Jesus know how to call? I suppose divine guidance and Jesus' own divine nature is the obvious answer, but just from a plain reading of the text I still wonder. What made James and John stand out as those to be the first called by Jesus? Then, my mind jumps forward to our day and situation: what makes any of us stand out as those to be called by Jesus? I can understand the concept that it's pre-destined: that God already knows who God is going to call. That's fine, but since God often works through us, I start to wonder how we know who to call, since there are times when we have to act with discernment to try to tell people that they are called by God to certain types of service. That's not always easy, because my experience has been that - unlike James and John - people today don't always respond with great enthusiasm when told that we perceive God has called them. So, how do people know they're called and how do we know that someone is to be called? The text doesn't give us firm guidance. All we know is that Jesus looked and knew. There were probably others around at the time; surely James and John weren't the only ones there. But somehow Jesus knew. There were no interviews, questionnaires or references required. He just knew. As the body of Christ today, identifying those who are called has become a cumbersome process, but perhaps it should start very simply: we just know, and we go from there. And as the person being called, perhaps the key is to start to trust the community that's calling you. As in many things in today's world, we have individualized the process of call. "I need time to think ... pray ... reflect ... meditate ... ponder ... consult ...," etc. etc. It becomes OUR decision, when in fact the decision about whether we're called has already been made by God. Listening to the community might be the best way to discern our gifts and our calling. James and John didn't take time "to pray about it" to decide if Jesus was right that they were called. They just responded. Maybe we should all try that. And if we did - rather than avoiding God's call on our lives, perhaps we'd have a healthier faith and a healthier church!

October 11, 2015 sermon: The Answer We Don't Want To Hear

Today also my complaint is bitter; his hand is heavy despite my groaning. Oh, that I knew where I might find him, that I might come even to his dwelling! I would lay my case before him, and fill my mouth with arguments. I would learn what he would answer me, and understand what he would say to me. Would he contend with me in the greatness of his power? No; but he would give heed to me. There an upright person could reason with him, and I should be acquitted forever by my judge. “If I go forward, he is not there; or backward, I cannot perceive him; on the left he hides, and I cannot behold him; I turn to the right, but I cannot see him. God has made my heart faint; the Almighty has terrified me; If only I could vanish in darkness, and thick darkness would cover my face!

(Job 23:1-9 & 16-17)

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     Well, yes, there is a certain irony to hearing a story about Job on Thanksgiving weekend. After all, Job had little obvious reason to be thankful - but that alone is perhaps enough reason to consider Job’s story today. I mean, it’s possible that there are some of you here today who for one reason or another don’t feel very much like being thankful. We don’t often think of you folks at these festive times of the year. In that way, Thanksgiving is a little bit like Christmas. The calendar and the culture tell us to be happy and thankful and yet any of us might be facing circumstances today (right at this moment) that make being happy and thankful a difficult thing indeed. Maybe a deeper look at Job’s story might help us to understand why we should be thankful even when thankfulness might not be the normal response to our circumstances. Leading up to today’s passage, Job had faced three calamities: he had lost his wealth, his health and his family, and now Job is doing something that all of us want to do every now and then: filled with fear or desperation or grief, we look to God and we say “why?” “Why me?” “Why now?” And we wait for an answer. Sometimes it seems as though God isn’t listening and we start to wonder if God has abandoned us in our moment of deepest need. Some people see so much hardship that they reject the very idea of the existence of God. “Would a loving God allow this?” they wonder. That’s not an easy question to answer, but it’s one we do struggle with from time to time. Leith Andersen, in a book uncomfortably entitled When God Says No, writes that,

... for every story of answered prayer, there are a thousand stories of unanswered prayers - many of them asked by godly saints on their knees pleading with God. God needs no defence. But [we] need an explanation.

     There’s nothing wrong with wanting an explanation. Even Job wanted an explanation. Job was an upright, blameless and genuinely good man who loved God - and yet he lost everything, and Job demanded an explanation: to paraphrase, “Why me, God? I didn’t deserve this!” And Job was right! He didn’t deserve any of the terrible things that had happened to him - and isn’t that so often the case? Bad things happen to good people, and there doesn’t seem to be any justice in it. We say that God is good, but then we’re confronted by the reality that life isn’t fair. When we face that contradiction - when we feel that we’ve been treated unfairly by God, whose goodness we so passionately believe in - what can we do? Job had been talking to three of his friends. Friends are supposed to support you, but their advice was that Job should repent. They assumed that Job was being punished for something, but Job knew better. He didn’t deserve what had happened. It was unfair, there was no justice in it and so instead of repenting, Job argued with God! He was mad, and he let God know it! That’s an important lesson, I think - it’s OK to be angry with God, and when we’re angry with God we don’t just have to swallow it and mouth pious words that we really don’t feel at that moment in time - we can tell God we’re angry. That’s a good thing - because all of us feel unfairly treated by God sometimes, and if we deny that, our anger and resentment against God builds to the point at which it destroys our relationship with God. And feeling anger toward God at least gives us a chance of rebuilding our relationship with God, because if we’re angry with God we’re believing that there’s a God there to be angry with.

     The most frustrating thing, perhaps, is that generally speaking God doesn’t argue back. As every person who’s ever been married knows, it’s a lot more satisfying to argue with someone when the one you’re arguing with shouts back at you! But God doesn’t do that, and in part that’s why Job confesses that he’s terrified. His terror doesn’t spring from the awful things that have been happening to him, but because of the sudden distance he feels from God. He’s suddenly discovered that he can’t find God anywhere, no matter where he looks; no matter which way he turns. God just seems strangely absent. He’s angry and he’s frustrated and he’s frightened - and those feelings grow because he can’t find God, even though he knows that God is everywhere. That sense of God’s absence when your life has been devoted to God is overwhelming. Because - you know - God knows everything; God is aware of our troubles. Why shouldn’t we be angry with God for not taking them away? Well, as I suggested last week, if belief in God took away all our problems then our relationship with God would be a sham, based not on love but on gain. The mark of a true relationship isn’t selfish gain, but selfless commitment, and the love of God is shown not by God taking away our troubles but rather by God sharing our troubles.

     As Christians, perhaps reflecting on Job helps us understand Jesus better. God became incarnate in Jesus to bridge the gap between the human and the divine. Faith in Jesus assures us that God is with us; it tells us that God is not so removed from us as to be unable to understand our troubles. Here, perhaps, is where we begin to understand how and why we should be thankful even in hard times - because thanks to Jesus, God is with us; because in Jesus, God became one of us; because through Jesus God understands what we feel and why we feel it because God has felt it. Jesus lived and died; Jesus suffered pain; Jesus knew the heartache of being betrayed; Jesus laughed and cried and ate and drank; Jesus loved and suffered the grief involved with losing those he loved to death; Jesus knew what it was like to have God say “no” to his heartfelt prayers - “Father take this cup from me” (another way of saying, “Please don’t let me go to the cross”);  and, on the cross, Jesus knew what it was like to feel abandoned by God - “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me.” In so many cases, Jesus seems to ask the same question as Job - the same question we all sometimes ask - “why me, God.” When we have troubles, it can be annoying when someone says “I know what you’re going through,” because you know darn well that they don’t know what you’re going through. Usually, it’s just an empty platitude. But Jesus does understand, and when God says “I know what you’re going through,” God really means it.

     It might feel sometimes as if God doesn’t answer us, but that isn’t true. There’s always an answer. It’s just that sometimes it’s an answer we don’t want to hear. Many people fall into the trap of believing that when they ask God for something, the only possible answer should be “yes,” and yet we all know that “no” is an equally valid answer to any request. When people speak of unanswered prayer, what they really mean is that they didn’t get the answer they wanted, but God is not a genie in a bottle who pops out and offers to grant our every wish. That’s a fairy tale - God is real! The answer we want won’t always be the answer we get. A child might want chocolate cake for breakfast - but any responsible parent will say no - because even though the chocolate cake would taste good to the child, it wouldn’t be good for the child. And, hopefully, the child eventually grows up and learns why they couldn’t have chocolate cake for breakfast. Faith is similar. Perhaps the important thing is that with God’s help we learn from the troubles we face rather than simply having God make it all better. After all, it’s really “no” that teaches us about relationships - that they’re not about getting; they’re about giving. That they hold together in good times and in bad times. That there would be no relationship between God and us if God simply gave and we simply took.

     After the end of World War II, a message was found scrawled on the wall of a basement in Cologne, Germany where many Jews had been hidden in a desperate attempt to escape the Holocaust. In those horrible times, an anonymous author had written these words: “I believe in the sun even if it isn't shining.  I believe in love even when I am alone.  I believe in God even when He is silent.” Today, as Christians, we believe and we give thanks to God because whatever our circumstances and whatever our lot in life, God is good. We give thanks to God because through Jesus God is always with us, even if we sometimes raise a few barriers. We give thanks to God because God is our God and we are God’s people - even if we sometimes get a bit frustrated and even angry with each other. We give thanks to God even if, sometimes, God responds to our prayers with the answer we don’t want to hear. So, whatever your circumstances this weekend and whatever has been happening in your lives, I wish you all a very Happy Thanksgiving. Give thanks, indeed, because God is with us. We are not alone. Thanks be to God!

A Thought For The Week Of October 5, 2015

"Then [Abraham] said, 'May the Lord not be angry, but let me speak just once more. What if only ten can be found there?' He answered, 'For the sake of ten, I will not destroy it.'" (Genesis 18:32) It's a difficult story, this account of the fate of Sodom. It's a story we prefer not to think about because it holds up to us the fact that our actions carry with them consequences. But however much we may shy away from the literal details of the story, that's the basic message. But that jumps ahead in the story. I'm struck in the whole passage (Genesis 18:16-33) by Abraham debating with God; seeking to change God's mind; pushing God to essentially lower His expectations. When people are in grief, one of the stages is bargaining. We often portray that as something that people should move through and get over, and yet here it seems to me that Abraham is engaging in a form of bargaining. A lot of our prayers are in the nature of bargaining, or trying to convince God to do "this" instead of "that." Maybe the biggest lesson I take from this story is that if we're going to bargain or debate with God we should do it for others and not for ourselves - just as Abraham bargained not for himself, but for Sodom and its people. That's in keeping with the gospel. Which brings me to Jesus. I see Jesus in this story, even though it was written long before Jesus was born. How do I see Jesus? Well, Abraham bargains God down a lot. Finally, all it takes is ten righteous people to spare Sodom. But we know how the story turns out. There aren't ten righteous people. Truth be told, there aren't any truly "righteous" people. At best we can be faithful; at worst we fall into self-righteousness. But true righteousness is beyond our ability and the natural consequence of not being righteous isn't pleasant to say the least! Enter Jesus! The one human being who was truly righteous and whose righteousness is imparted to us! Even in this very early story I see clearly both the human problem and the divine solution to it.

October 4, 2015 sermon: The Tests

There was once a man in the land of Uz whose name was Job. That man was blameless and upright, one who feared God and turned away from evil. ... One day the heavenly beings came to present themselves before the Lord, and Satan also came among them to present himself before the Lord. The Lord said to Satan, “Where have you come from?” Satan answered the Lord, “From going to and fro on the earth, and from walking up and down on it.” The Lord said to Satan, “Have you considered my servant Job? There is no one like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man who fears God and turns away from evil. He still persists in his integrity, although you incited me against him, to destroy him for no reason.” Then Satan answered the Lord, “Skin for skin! All that people have they will give to save their lives. But stretch out your hand now and touch his bone and his flesh, and he will curse you to your face.” The Lord said to Satan, “Very well, he is in your power; only spare his life.” So Satan went out from the presence of the Lord, and inflicted loathsome sores on Job from the sole of his foot to the crown of his head. Job took a potsherd with which to scrape himself, and sat among the ashes. Then his wife said to him, “Do you still persist in your integrity? Curse God, and die.” But he said to her, “You speak as any foolish woman would speak. Shall we receive the good at the hand of God, and not receive the bad?” In all this Job did not sin with his lips.

(Job 1:1 & 2:1-10)

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     Probably every night, someone somewhere steps up to a podium, taps a microphone and says “testing, testing.” No one pays much attention because this, of course, is not the main event of the evening, although I have been to meetings at which the sound test has actually been far more interesting than the keynote speaker! Still, no one listens to the sound test in the expectation that anything profound is about to be said. We ignore things like that. It’s been a while since I’ve heard these words on television, but many of us probably remember them: “this is a test of the emergency broadcast system.” Those tests were so frequent during the Cold War that I wonder if anyone would have actually paid any attention if something was actually happening and it wasn’t a test! To me, back in the 60’s and early 70’s, tests of the emergency broadcast system were basically unwelcome intrusions into the truly important work of watching cartoons! But not all tests are unimportant. School exams are important of course, as we work our way through the education system and demonstrate that we can apply the things we’ve learned. And tests of faith matter, too. Last week, we spoke about four different circumstances in which James recommended prayer: when we’re in trouble, when we’re happy, when we’re sick and when we’re sinning. James advice was a test of sorts: will we stay faithful in prayer and, by extension, to our relationship with God, regardless of our circumstances.

     Tests of faith aren’t uncommon, and they’re often tragic. A little over a week ago, three children and their grandfather died north of Toronto when hit by a drunk driver. How do you deal with that from a faith perspective? And yet the mother of the three children said with great confidence in the midst of an unimaginable test, that she believed her children were with God. Just a few days ago I conducted a service for a baby who had died unexpectedly shortly after birth. My faith wasn’t shaken, but words were hard to come by. What does one say to try to help a family through such a horrible time?

     Well, this week - and through the rest of October - we’re going to discover that a man named Job illustrates an Old Testament theme that life itself and all its varied circumstances is a test, with the guidelines for the test laid out in the biblical covenant between God and Israel. As Christians, we rejoice in being a part of a new covenant: the cup of the new covenant in the blood of Jesus, as we’re reminded every time we celebrate Holy Communion, and we face tests of our faithfulness to that covenant, and I want to consider the testing of our commitment to the new covenant by reflecting on the testing of Job’s commitment to the old covenant.

     Job was tested in order to answer this question: how sincere was he in his love for God? It was a valid question, and Satan (who makes one of his very few Old Testament appearances in this passage) was right to ask it. After all, Job had been a rich and successful man. He had everything that anyone could possibly have asked for: money, power, family - and he loved God, but Satan argued that Job loved God only because God had been good to him and allowed him to prosper. The first test Job faced, which we didn’t read this morning, was to have his possessions taken away from him. How sincere would Job’s faith prove to be once he had lost everything? Job passed that test - the story tells us that after losing everything, Job “did not sin or charge God with wrongdoing.” Still, Satan wasn’t satisfied. He wanted a more difficult test: “... stretch out your hand now and touch his bone and his flesh, and he will curse you to your face.” God gave permission for this second test, and Job was stricken with a terrible disease. How sincere would Job’s faith prove to be when his own well-being was at stake. Again, Job passed the test - “Job did not sin with his lips.”

     Our Christian faith, of course, is tested from time to time. We suffer illness, poverty, grief and injustice (and if we don’t suffer any of those things Satan may be saying to God right now - what about that person?) and through it all we wonder why we should remain faithful to God in the face of it all. Why remain disciples of Jesus? What’s in it for us? Faith doesn’t take all our problems away, so what’s the point of faith? A new covenant we may well be under, but we have the same problems after we become Christians as we had before we were Christians and our faith is still tested, just as Job’s was: will we remain faithful to God in those tough times that test our faith? When we see things that are so horrible as to be unimaginable? When things happen to us that just make no sense and that seem so unfair? Will we stay faithful? Not remaining faithful in bad circumstances may not mean that a person is actually without faith, but it should move us all to reflect on what faith is really about. What kind of relationship does God want with us? The point of all those times when our faith is tested is to allow us to see if we’re motivated by a pure and unselfish love for God. In Job’s case, he remained faithful to God in the midst of adversity and he demonstrated the sincerity of his faith with simple and yet profound words: “the Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away. Blessed be the name of the Lord,” and “shall we receive the good at the hand of God, and not receive the bad?” Those tests proved Job’s faith to be an unselfish faith, and they demonstrated an essential point about the nature of God: even though bad things might happen, God is good.

     Victor Frankl, a Viennese psychiatrist, survived the Auschwitz death camp and actually came out of the experience with a new understanding of the meaning of life. In a 1956 book called Man’s Search For Meaning, Frankl wrote, 

If there is meaning in life at all, then there must be a reason in suffering. Suffering is an ineradicable part of life. … The way in which a man accepts his fate and all the suffering it entails, the way in which he takes up his cross, gives him ample opportunity - even under the most difficult of circumstances - to add a deeper meaning to his life.

Job would have understood those words.

     Thankfully, we don’t generally undergo the types of tests faced by either Job or Victor Frankl, or the mother who lost her three children, or the parents whose baby I buried last Thursday. But if we avoid those extremes, there is still an element of testing to a Christian life and faith: a testing of our commitment to the new covenant. Do we turn to Jesus out of pure and unselfish love? We have to ask from time to time what it is that makes us respond to Jesus. Surely it’s not for personal gain. All of us here today must have suffered in some way at some point in our lives from some kind of trouble: grief, finances, health, conflict, employment. Jesus and our faith in him didn’t spare us from facing those troubles, and yet we’re here - offering him our devotion and expressing our faith. We must be here then not because of what Jesus does for us (although he does far more for us that we can ever give adequate thanks for) but rather simply because of who he is to us. He’s our Lord, our Saviour and our Friend. And today, we’re called to demonstrate our love for Jesus.

     In a few moments we’ll celebrate the Sacrament of Holy Communion. When Paul wrote about Holy Communion in 1 Corinthians, he made testing an essential part of the sacrament: “Examine yourselves, and only then eat of the bread and drink of the cup.” The point is not to examine ourselves to see if we’re sinless, but really it’s to examine ourselves in order that we realize that we’re not sinless. That’s what matters today, because the whole sacrament is built around the forgiveness of sin. This remembrance of Jesus’ sacrifice is, to us, a sign of love: our love for Jesus and his love for us. When we receive the bread and partake of the cup we participate also in the divine love that Jesus demonstrated on the cross. Once we examine ourselves, we realize that our worthiness to be at this table is not because we’re worthy. It’s because Jesus has made us worthy - and it’s because Jesus has extended the invitation.