Wednesday, December 20, 2017 

"This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you.”  (John 15:12)

                Love is the energy that crackles through the Fourth Sunday of Advent. It brings its companions hope, peace and joy under one stable roof in Bethlehem.

                But what, if anything, can be said anew about love that hasn’t already been said or written?  What the world needs now is love, sweet love, as the song goes. But what kind of love, whose love, and is love alone really sufficient for the needs and problems of the world?

                A very long time ago, I was a student chaplain for a summer at the Juvenile Correctional Institution in Cobourg. There were maybe fifty so children who had found themselves in trouble and were incarcerated at Brookside. Ages ranged from 10 years to preteens and teens,

                One of my tasks was to lead Wednesday morning chapel services. Attendance was mandatory. Although my parish were children, they were a tough group of children, mostly from broken or single parent homes, and had already led some rough lives for some so young. Some of the older teen age girls were into prostitution. Many of the boys had been caught and convicted for break and entering (i.e. robbery). Most smoked and could swear and curse with the gruffest of any sailor. Many were manipulative and cunning and looked for and took any advantage of softness heartedness from a newbie, green behind the gills chaplain.

                At my first chapel service I used the familiar passage from 1 Corinthians 13 about love. I had found a modern translation which I thought the kids might relate to better. I gave a brief meditation on the text and ended the service with prayer. That’s when one of the boys, maybe 10 or 11  years old stood up and  ranted angrily that he was  sick  and tried of hearing about “love, love, love. Who cares about love?” Or words to that effect, having deleted the cursing that went with it.

                What does a birth, even of a Christ child, have to say to that young lad or anyone who is sick and tired of hearing about Love, especially if and when they are experiencing so little of it in their personal lives? I have never forgotten that episode and even though I have often preached about love since I have tried not to be glib, shallow or use the typical religious clichés that go with it.

                It strikes me that Jesus issues a commandment that we should love one another. Obviously, he understands that love doesn’t just always bubble up automatically. It is not the immediate go-to response which finds its voice quickly and directly. Sometimes, we have to be commanded to love. We have to be directed and instructed and urged to love -  whether we like it or not.

                But love as a commandment also suggests that love is not just an emotional response but

it is a thoughtful, intentional and deliberate enterprise. Vagueness, sweeping generalities and nebulous ambiguity are not sufficient in the proper exercise of love.

                But there is one other qualification, because this Love is grounded in the person of Jesus, the one born in Bethlehem. In one of the rare instances in the Gospels Jesus actually is heard to speak of his own personal Love for the people. Now this Love is shaped and organized and measured by the quality of Love that was evident in Jesus. This makes an enormous difference. We now know and understand what Love looks like.  It brings healing, justice, peace, well-being, acceptance, inclusiveness, compassion, good works and deeds. These are the qualities and substance of the Kingdom which is to come, but which we can help to bring some it to pass in the here and now by our acts of his Love. “And let us consider how to provoke one another to love and good deeds…” (Hebrews 10:24) Interesting use of the word “provoke”; nobody has ever said loving is easy or comes cheaply.

                “If I speak with human eloquence and angelic ecstasy but don't love, I'm nothing but the creaking of a rusty gate. 

If I speak God's Word with power, revealing all his mysteries and making everything plain as day, and if I have faith that says to a mountain, "Jump," and it jumps, but I don't love, I'm nothing. 

If I give everything I own to the poor and even go to the stake to be burned as a martyr, but I don't love, I've gotten nowhere. 

So, no matter what I say, what I believe, and what I do, I'm bankrupt without love. Love never gives up. Love cares more for others than for self. 

Love doesn't want what it doesn't have. Love doesn't strut; doesn't have a swelled head; doesn't force itself on others; isn't always "me first"; doesn't fly off the handle; doesn't keep score of the sins of others; doesn’t revel when others grovel; takes pleasure in the flowering of truth; puts up with anything; trusts God always; always looks for the best; never looks back; but keeps going to the end.

Love never dies.”  (1 Corinthians 13: 1 – 8, The Message Bible)

                Susan and I pray that all of you will have a wonderful, happy and blessed Christmas!

Dale

Wednesday, December 13, 2017

 “As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love. If you keep my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commands and remain in his love. I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete.” (John 15: 9 – 11)

                

                Joy fills the third Sunday of Advent with its enthusiasm for new life and its fulsome, creative gift of pure happiness in the light of God’s Love.

What might make you so wonderfully, completely, utterly happy? So happy that you think that you are going to burst. So happy that there is nothing else that you could possibly hope for. So happy that the smile on your face says it all. So happy that your joy knows no bounds.

                Susan has asked me what I would like for Christmas. I am having a hard time coming up with any sort of substantive list. I used to joke that I wanted a road race set – but she actually got me one last year. How cool is that! Now I like getting Christmas gifts as much as the next person but what fills me with real happiness more than anything is the anticipation of being with our family on Christmas Day, especially our three little grandsons. I am sure that I will sit in the middle of the festive merriment with a smile on my face and have a sense that life is good, very good.

                Maybe we can understand Jesus’ words in light of this. Under the banner of Jesus, the Father has gathered his family together with love.  This unique and special bond between Jesus and his Father encompasses the rest of the human family.  Experiencing this Love has the benefit of gifting us with such utter joy because it is so freely, generously, openly given. It is not dependent on material things or possessions. This joy does not depend on what others should be doing for you or me.  This joy does not rely on having the most toys. This joy does not trust in power, superficial pleasures, or worldly appetites.

                This God-gifted Joy is the satisfaction that as a child of God you are loved, no matter what; no matter how messed up things might be right now; no matter how unhappy life’s circumstances are trying to make you; no matter how sad and fearful you may be. “You will have pain, but your pain will turn into joy... no one will take your joy from you.” (John 16:20, 22)  Why? Because God abounds in his Love for you.

                I think this mood and spirit of joy is captured very well by Jesus’ beatitudes in Matthew’s Gospel. When God loves us, the joyful outcomes surpass all our expectations:

                "You're blessed when you're at the end of your rope. With less of you there is more of God and his rule. 

"You're blessed when you feel you've lost what is most dear to you. Only then can you be embraced by the One most dear to you.

"You're blessed when you're content with just who you are - no more, no less. That's the moment you find yourselves proud owners of everything that can't be bought.

"You're blessed when you've worked up a good appetite for God. He's food and drink in the best meal you'll ever eat. 

"You're blessed when you care. At the moment of being 'carefull,' you find yourselves cared for. 

"You're blessed when you get your inside world - your mind and heart - put right. Then you can see God in the outside world.

"You're blessed when you can show people how to cooperate instead of compete or fight. That's when you discover who you really are, and your place in God's family.

 "You're blessed when your commitment to God provokes persecution. The persecution drives you even deeper into God's kingdom. 

"Not only that - count yourselves blessed every time people put you down or throw you out or speak lies about you to discredit me. What it means is that the truth is too close for comfort and they are uncomfortable.” (Matthew 5: 3 – 12)

                Rejoice, Jesus says. Rejoice and be glad! God has your back!

                “Do not be afraid. I bring you good news that will cause great joy for all the people.” (Luke 2: 10, The Message Bible)

Dale

Wednesday, December 6, 2017 

“Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled, and do not let them be afraid.”   (John 14:27)

                In this world of ours the message of Peace as the second tenet of Advent strives to be heard above the din and chaos.

                There is a painting that hangs above my desk in my mini-office, painted my good friend Ron Wilson. It pictures an empty Muskoka chair sitting on a dock by a quiet lake on a lazy summer afternoon. It is serenely peaceful and I wish I was sitting in that empty chair.

                In my increasing older years, I am becoming more wistful about finding some spirit or sense of long-term, deeper, inner peace. There are times I just want to shut the world out, turn off the TV or radio, not read my emails, not go on the Web, tune out the noise, let the world go by in its big hurry, not do anything or go anywhere, and simply get lost in the peace and quiet. There are times when a recluse’s life looks kind of appealing.

                “Glory to God in the highest heaven and on earth peace among those whom he favours.” (Luke 2:14) That was a pretty bold if not audacious promise to make. Easy for angels to boast!

Peace seems to be an elusive quality of life. Our peace is disturbed by a host of thoughts, issues, concerns, debates, choices, and questions. Our peace is shattered by illness, disease, losses, struggles and weariness. Our peace is challenged by doubts, obligations, duties, circumstances. Our peace is stretched thin by much that is out of our control and beyond our influence.

                Sing that part about “peace on earth” again to me, please! Loudly!

                But then I also remember Jesus’ words, “Blessed are the peacemakers for they will be called children of God.” (Matthew 5:9) The very Peace I am longing for does not come from shutting myself off from the world, nor by ignoring what is imperfect or flawed either in my life or in the immediate world around me. Peace is not realized by my passive, escapist disregard of what is making it feel so unpeaceful.

                Jesus’ peace comes by engaging the circumstances which we are in with actions, words, deeds that pour love on troubled, chaotic waters. If I am not part of the solution then I am part of the problem. His Peace is not just a quiet, dull life but a Life that is full and abundant and trying to make a difference in the world around me. Maybe not a big difference, but a difference just the same: some act of kindness, generosity, compassion, and by displaying a faith in a much bigger picture, one which is full of the Grace and Love of God.

                I will find real, lasting peace through the Way of Jesus. As far as I know, although he enjoyed his quiet times, he seldom took time longing for a Muskoka chair to pass the time away. He found peace in the people he healed, the friends who followed him, the children who surrounded him, the joy of his intimate relationship with his Father, and the challenge of being all he was called to be.

                Maybe that is why the chair in the picture is empty!

Dale