Wednesday, August 30

            Our three-year-old grandson, William, has had quite a wonderful summer. He and his family visited us in Nova Scotia for a week. Events included a campfire, a picnic at the provincial park and a visit to a fossil museum where there were dinosaur models. Then a week ago or so his parents bought him a new bicycle (with training wheels) and helmet which he has taken to like a fish to water. To cap it all off when they were recently visiting our daughter and fiancé’s home in Goderich, his Dad discovered a right-handed baseball mitt just his size. It is glued to his hand.

            William is as passionate about baseball as is his Dad and his Grandfather. He can name almost all the starting Blue Jays and announces them with great gusto – Josh Donaldson, Russell Martin and his favourite player, Troy Tulowitzi. He will pretend that he is one of them or has one of us pretending when we play ball. He will sit on my lap and watch a game, asking about what is happening. Who knows – maybe he will grow up and become a professional baseball player. (I have my eye on a snazzy BMW sportscar he can buy Grandpa when he starts making the big salary of pro ball.)

            So out of curiosity can you name the Ten commandments – in order. Can you list the nine Beatitudes without peeking at Matthew 5?  Can you name each and every one of the twelve disciples of Jesus and not refer to Matthew 10? I am betting that, like me, you most likely forgot Thaddeus. Can you recite the seven deadly sins or the seven great virtues?  To save you looking these up, the sins are lust, pride, anger, gluttony, envy, sloth, and greed, and the virtues are chastity, temperance, charity, diligence, patience and kindness. Can you list the fruit of the Spirit? “The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control,” (Galatians 5:22-23).

            Now simply knowing such things doesn’t make you a superior Christian or even give you bragging rights over non-Christians, any more than William knowing the names of the Bluer Jays makes him a professional, baseball player. It takes using the knowledge in a way that edifies and empowers us to become the right-wise kind of person God wants us to be. I once met an elderly man who had almost memorized the whole Bible and could quote chapter and verse with ease. It put me to shame. Except that he was a mean, critical, judgmental, negative, old cuss.  As usual, Jesus gets the last word, saying to his opponents: “You’re off base on two counts: You don’t know your Bibles, and you don’t know how God works,"  (Matthew 22:29, The Message).

            So, if you were able, from memory alone, to fill out the lists I gave you, good for you. I will gladly give you a gold star, or a Jesus sticker. My Sunday School superintendent, when I was a kid, used to give out live guppies for us children who could name all 66 books of the Bible. I still sing the songs that helped us memorize those books.

            But being a true son of Adam or daughter of Eve is far more than just memory work, more than regurgitating favourite verses or having all the answers to some Biblical trivial pursuit game. The real test is whether one has grasped the deep and abiding value of a life lived like Jesus, and is reflected in a life that has been gripped by the power of God through his Word.

Dale.

Wednesday, August 24, 2016

            Ain’t technology grand? When I retired last year, I jammed ten years’ worth of sermons onto a single thumb-drive. That’s about 45 sermons a year, each about 20 minutes, each sermon taking about five to six hours to create and write, all adding up to – well, you do the math. I shredded all the hard copies.

I am not sure why exactly I am holding on to all these sermons. I haven’t done so when I have left my other churches. I have a very strong aversion to “dipping into the barrel” as they say and preaching a re-treaded sermon.  But this time, there were a couple of sermon series over the years that I hope to edit and refine and maybe turn into a book or two.

We bought a new desk-top computer for me to work on. I had begun to transfer the sermons over to the new computer when the thumb-drive went kaput. I did not panic although strong words were used. Certainly, I thought, in this day and age, that there would be some wizard techie who could work their magic and voodoo and help me get the material off the drive.

After our summer vacation I took the thumb-drive into the computer place. They reverently took my precious thumb-drive and told me that they would send it off to some mysterious Lourdes for such devices and phone me in a few weeks with what needs to be done and an estimate to do it. They warned me it could be as much $300. I winced. Technology may be grand but it doesn’t come cheap.

They phoned me about a week ago. The estimate was $600 and no guarantee that they could recover all the data. I will wait until there is a better and cheaper cure!  Fortunately, I did get about 5 years onto the desk-top computer including one of the sermon series I plan to work on.  I shall now by an external hard drive and use it for back-up. Live and learn.

We jam a lot of things into our lives, retaining memories of all the significant events that have happened to us, both good and not-so-good. The writer of Psalm 90 seemed to be having a particularly hard day and seems a little bitter about life. He seems to be overwhelmed by the futility of his mortality “You turn us back to dust…,” (Psalm 90:3, NIV)). He resigns himself to the reality that human life doesn’t have much value in God’s eyes, “For all our days pass away under your wrath and our years come to an end like a sigh,” (90:9).  He is a person looking at the thumb-drive of his life and asking, “We live for seventy years or so (with luck we might make it to eighty), and what do we have to show for it?” (Psalm 90:10, The Message). 

But then his attitude changes and his faith pick up. It is not as bad as he feared. There is a “cure” for his loss of hope and his feeling of loss of meaning and purpose to his life. The Psalmist finds the source of that hope in the same God to whom he had been complaining.      

Come back, God—how long do we have to wait?—

                        and treat your servants with kindness for a change.
             Surprise us with love at daybreak;
                       then we’ll skip and dance all the day long.
            Make up for the bad times with some good times;
                      we’ve seen enough evil to last a lifetime.
            Let your servants see what you’re best at—
                     the ways you rule and bless your children.
           And let the loveliness of our Lord, our God, rest on us,
                     confirming the work that we do.
           Oh, yes. Affirm the work that we do!  (Psalm 90: 12-17, The Message)

Dale

Wednesday, August 17, 2016

             My mother turns 94 today. She lives in a nursing home in Kingston. My brother who also lives in Kingston, with much assistance from my sister who lives in Ottawa, does the bulk of looking after any needs that the nursing home might not. I am the “baby” of the family. Although Mom likes to muse from time to time about packing her bags and moving out of the residence she really understands that this is “home”.  Most of the time Mom seems to feel safest to stay in or near her room as walking has become hazardous and her sight is almost totally gone, although it amazes me what she can see sometimes.

Oddly, my Mom and I are much closer now than ever.  When I was a teenager, for instance, it was battle after battle, lots of yelling both ways, and frustration and friction for us both. It was a battle of two very stubborn wills.  She has said to me a few times that she shouldn’t have tried to raise me the same way she did my older siblings. But for all that she and my Dad didn’t really do so badly.  

Our long, telephone calls now are generally great conversations about family news, what we have been doing, laughing at some of things going at the residence and chuckling about herself when she gets herself in some predicament because she is too impatient to wait for staff to arrive (a reputation of which all the staff are very aware and evidently how I came about my severe impatience). I should phone more often than I do but it is amazing how time gets away on one.

Respect for one’s parents ranks right up there with honouring the Sabbath. “Each of you must respect your mother and father, and you must observe my Sabbaths. I am the LORD your God,” (Leviticus 19:3). Look, I know that there are some terrible parents out there. If I read one more story about some idiot adult leaving their child locked up in a stifling hot, steamy car while they go into a casino or a shopping mall, I might scream. But as I have said before parenting doesn’t come with an operator’s manual. Even good parents make mistakes and may be wrong occasionally. Still, best efforts by our parents deserve our understanding, patience, and respect. “Honor your father and your mother, so that you may live long in the land the Lord your God is giving you,” (Exodus 21:5). There is no excuse for elder abuse, even though I understand that frustration, exasperation and irritation can arise with an obstreperous senior. (I plan to be one, so look out Soble kids!) But as they say, try a little tenderness, and show them some love. It might not change them, but it will help you.

So thanks, Ma!  (She hates being called “Ma.”) Happy Birthday! And yes, I am wearing clean underwear.

Dale

 

Wednesday, August 10, 2016

Look out world! Entering life’s arena, on August 6^th, weighing in at 9 lbs and 7 ounces (heavy-weight championship material), cute as a button, head full of black hair, is the newest family edition – Spencer Albert Costa. He’s the first child for Gary and Katie and our 3^rd grandson. Heaven help us all when in a few years the three boys, William, Henry and Spencer, are conspiring some unholy mischief together.

Birth is a wondrous miracle. As I held my grandson for the first time this week, the psalmist’s word came to mind. “Oh yes, you shaped me first inside, then out; you formed me in my mother's womb. I thank you, High God - you're breathtaking! Body and soul, I am marvellously made! I worship in adoration - what a creation!  You know me inside and out, you know every bone in my body; you know exactly how I was made, bit by bit, how I was sculpted from nothing into something. Like an open book, you watched me grow from conception to birth; all the stages of my life were spread out before you, the days of my life all prepared before I'd even lived one day,” (Psalm 139:13-16, The Message).

Would that every child be treated with the blessing and respect that these words imply. Would that every child be wanted, loved, nurtured, kept safe, encouraged, taught well, given solid and good values to live by, and given every God-given opportunity to discover who they are and what levels they may someday achieve.  I think of the way Luke described Jesus’ developmental years: “And Jesus matured, growing up in both body and spirit, blessed by both God and people,” (Luke 2: 52, The Message). Not bad for a kid born in a stable!

As we watch the Olympics this week, front and centre are those parents who totally committed themselves to help their son or daughter reach this high level of competition in their respective sports. Long practices, early mornings, long travel trips, the financial cost and sacrifices, consoling them through loss and failure, cheering them on to success. Of course, not every child is going to grow up into an Olympic athlete, but every child should experience the same level of parental commitment and love to watch their child grow, thrive and realize their specific and unique potential.

Parenting never comes with an instruction manual. Sometimes, a parent is flying by the seat of their pants. Sometimes it is trial and error.  Always it is learning by experience. But as long as parents and we as grandparents are committed to the optimum welfare of our children and grandchildren, it increases the likelihood that they are going to turn out (eventually) just fine.

“Start children off on the way they should go, and even when they are old they will not turn from it,” (Proverbs 22:6, NIV).

Dale

Wednesday, August 3, 2016

            [It has been a beautiful month in Nova Scotia.  But it is time to reconnect…]

 

            The small, butterscotch-coloured moth fluttered vainly and uselessly, even if tirelessly, against the glass. It was stuck between the inner screen and the closed door. It had been there all night. Despite what it did and no matter how hard it flapped its wings, it was impossible for it to get through the glass. To its credit or perhaps ignorance it wasn’t going to give up. But unless someone opened the door, this little moth was stuck and going nowhere. So I cranked open the door.

Then I went and made a cup of coffee.

When I came back I expected the moth to be long gone.  But there it was, still fluttering futilely against the glass, even though freedom was a few inches away. If I could speak moth, I might have said, “Hey dummy, fly to the right; the opening is right there.” Instead I reached in and gently guided it into the opening where it finally flew free into the morning light and fresh air. It didn’t even bother to stop and say thank-you!

The moth’s action has made me stop and think about how sometimes people find themselves stuck in bad situations and no matter how hard they think they are trying to get free their efforts remain ineffective and unsuccessful. Glass ceilings and brick walls throw up impasses that thwart every effort one makes to break free. We flutter vainly, continuously, exhaustingly, hopelessly, with the good world so frustratingly close that one can see it from just inside the emotional, physical, spiritual, economical, psychological glass panes which we are banging against; but no matter what one does, how hard one tries, we are stuck between the screen and the glass door.

God opens a door.  Call it transformation, rebirth, redemption, love, grace, but God opens a door.  Some folk just keep banging their wings against the glass anyway. “The truth will set you free,” Jesus once said. The truth is that you or I don’t have to be stuck between the glass and the screen.  Sometimes, God has to give us a nudge to find the opening.  But real freedom is the ability to fly into the Light, to soar on our sore wings and feel the Spirit lift us up on the breezes of God’s hope and joy. Real freedom is letting go of useless, repeated patterns and finding the difference a few “inches” can make.

“For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened,” (Matthew 7:8)

Why are you still beating against the glass?

Dale