Wednesday, August 26, 2020

“I said to myself, ‘Come on, let’s try pleasure. Let’s look for the ‘good things’ in life.’ But I found that this, too, was meaningless. So I said, ‘Laughter is silly. What good does it do to seek pleasure?’” (Ecclesiastes 2:1 1-2, New Living Translation)

                 “I think I’m having fun now.”

                Profound words of our five-year old grandson, Henry. We were sent a video of him enjoying roasting marshmallows in a fire-pit down at the dock at their cottage. Would all of life be so content as with nothing more than the enjoyable, sweet taste of a fire-roasted marshmallow. Wait until you taste S’mores, kiddo. Your head will explode.

                I had a friend who used to always be pestering me whether I was doing anything for fun. Frankly, I didn’t really understand the question, and I never had an answer that satisfied him.  His idea of  fun was not necessarily my idea of fun. But it does bring up the question: what is the definition of “fun”? How do I know whether I am having fun or not?  I expect the minute one asks these “penetrating” questions about fun, whatever I am doing ceases to be fun any more.

                I haven’t done any fishing in a very long time. But when I did go fishing back in the day, it was fun just to let my little aluminum skiff drift in the currents of the lake on a warm summer afternoon, dangle my line in the water, light up a good cigar and hope that I really didn't catch anything. It was too much effort to take the fish off the line. I could do that all afternoon. For somebody else, that would be so boring as to drive them loopy.

Is fun the same as enjoyment? Is fun the same as pleasure? Does fun always have to be raucous, busy and over-the-top? Some people find it fun to take one of those stomach-turning, wild rides at an amusement park.  Personally, I prefer a really good meal at a quiet restaurant. Fun for me is a day with any or all of my grandchildren.

                Fun is in the eye of the beholder.

                The old grouch who wrote Ecclesiastes scorns any idea that the meaning of life is found in pleasure or, for our purposes, having fun. Perhaps, some might feel you aren’t supposed to disagree with anything in the Bible, but I disagree with the writer on this issue. Perhaps, he is pondering those pleasures that go to excess, that need artificial stimulants, anything that comes at other people’s expense or embarrassment.  (I have always hated practical jokes.)

                I would argue that laughter is not silly at all but a necessary part of life. There are certain things in life that put a smile on your face. There are many things that make us laugh, giggle, chuckle, guffaw and make our eyes twinkle with amusement.

Joy, fun, and pleasure add mightily to the vitality of human living. It is food for the soul. It is nourishment for the spirit. It is sustenance for long days and weary nights that we all go through.

Christianity has had a bad rep, albeit well-earned to a large degree, of being a religion that eliminates having any fun. It is perceived as a faith of “thou shalt not ________” and there is a long list of what fills in the blank.

It is too bad that we can ignore the idea that Jesus was a bit of a party animal. Maybe that is too strong of an image, but we see him  in the Gospels as someone who enjoyed a good food, good wine and good company. He loved being with children. He attended weddings. He was always at somebody’s house for a meal.  He told stories about banquets. Angels danced in one of his parables. He hosted his own feasts on hillsides. Despite his very serious and somber mission, he found the enjoyable side of life and reveled in it.

He wanted life’s  happy fullness to be infectious. “I have told you these things so that you will be filled with my joy. Yes, your joy will overflow!” (John 51:11, NLT)

Smile, Jesus loves you! Now that’s hilarious! But it puts a smile in my heart.

Dale

 

Wednesday, August 19, 2020

“Again, the Kingdom of Heaven is like a fishing net that was thrown into the water and caught fish of every kind.” (Matthew 13:47, New Living Translation)

                 Our grandson, Spencer, has acquired a fascination with the things of the ocean, partly because of his favourite animated show, The Octonauts. Recently, for his fourth birthday, we gave him a small aquarium set including five colourful tropical fish. We helped him set it up. He has been taught how to feed them and care for them. Although there has been one fishy death, so far so good.

                It has brought to mind that I used to have tropical fish and did so for many years. In fact, watching Spencer and his aquarium gave me the itch again. My interest started when I was a pre-teen. Our Sunday School superintendent, Tom Stovell, raised fantail guppies. He ran a S.S. contest in which if we memorized and recited the 66 titles of the books of Bible, we would receive two guppies. There were even two songs which dittied through the names of the books of the Bible, one for each testament. I remember them both still, and sometimes will use the songs to find those hard-to-find prophets like Habakkuk or Haggai. I started out with two guppies and my interest expanded from there, for quite some time. At least, they are a lot easier to care for than goats or donkeys!

                There is something very peaceful and calming about simply watching  fish swim around in an aquarium.  

                There are a lot of great fish stories through the Bible, everything from Jonah and the whale to the several gospel stories that brought together Jesus and his fishermen disciples. Jesus always seemed to have a proclivity of knowing where the best fishing holes were.

In our text, Jesus used a fishing analogy to suggest that discipleship meant casting a wide net to embrace people of all sorts, shapes, colours and sizes. Jesus’ Kingdom is very inclusive and indiscriminate about whom it takes in. There is in this parable the reality that evil has no place in God’s big aquarium, i.e Kingdom.  But besides that, God’s net is big and wide.

I have always enjoyed the gospel stories in which the disciples are frustrated, disappointed and exhausted by a night of futile fishing. Jesus comes along and tells them to fish in a different spot or throw their nets on the other side of the boat. Suddenly the disciples have more fish then they know what to do with. Pretty good for a carpenter, eh?

We are reminded that sometimes we need to be more creative and innovative in our ways of reaching the world with God’s Grace and Love. Old methods and tired approaches come up empty and bear no results. Jesus helps us to see with new eyes that by using a fresh tactic that we, too, can find the inclusiveness that is demanded of Gods Kingdom.  Sometimes, we think too small, are too selective, or too particular that we miss out on the abundance of life that is swimming all around us and which fits into God’s loving embracing net.

There are risks in letting out our nets of love into deeper waters. Evil loves to tangle those nets up and snarl them and tear holes in them. But the overall results outweigh the risks. God’s Love remains abundant and generous even in long nights and futile days.  We need to have faith like Peter who said to Jesus after being told to cast their nets again, “Master, we worked hard all last night and didn’t catch a thing. But if you say so, I’ll let the nets down again.” (Luke 5:5, NLT)  He was glad he did!

            Wide, wide as the ocean, high as the Heaven above;
            Deep, deep as the deepest sea is my Savior's love.
            I, though so unworthy, still am a child of His care;
            For His Word teaches me that His love reaches me everywhere.

Dale

 

Wednesday, August 12, 2020

“I tell you the truth, you can say to this mountain, ‘May you be lifted up and thrown into the sea,’ and it will happen. But you must really believe it will happen and have no doubt in your heart.” (Mark 11:23 -24, New Living Translation) 

                It’s not always the mountain which is in the way that might block you; it’s the immovable huge boulders.

                For whatever reason, our house seemed randomly picked by the gas company to have a new gas meter and gas line installed into the house. They warned us way back in June. They showed up last week to begin the digging and installation. After an hour or so of  excavation at the side of the house, one of the workers came to the door to tell me that they had encountered a very, very large rock over the gas line somehow. How it got there, nobody seems to know. But it was in the way and they didn’t have the right equipment to dig it out. They would have to come back.

                They arrived yesterday with a backhoe and a small bulldozer. Guess what – they still couldn’t get the massive boulder out. Apparently, it is really, really big! Maybe not mountain size, but considerable. Maybe it was the peak of one for all I know.

What do you do when you face a large immovable object? Go around it. Makes sense.  Job done.

I am always challenged by Jesus’ words which, on first simplistic and superficial glance, suggests that if I just have enough faith, God will answer my prayers without question and without fail.  Even a mustard seed worth of faith might be adequate. I have encountered many sincere Christians who felt they have failed their loved ones, themselves and God, when based on these verses, their prayers were not answered as they had hoped. They despaired because they believed their faith was weak and inadequate. Mountains in the shape and size of illnesses, cancer, grief, hardships, depression, anxiety, fears, pandemics even, didn't slide off into the depths of the ocean and disappear forever.

Jesus is, of course, speaking metaphorically but nonetheless these are powerful verses to try and understand. Let’s immediately rule out that this is some sort of God’s blank cheque for us to fill out and for God to pay out.  People who might use this verse of enhancing their personal prosperity and welfare are out of line.

More to the point, prayer is our ability to join in communication with God and express to him our hearts, souls and minds; no conditions, no holds barred. “Never stop praying. Be thankful in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you who belong to Christ Jesus.” (1 Thessalonians 5:17 -18, NLT) We can be assured that God listens. In his generous love God sends us the power to endure, to cope, to see beyond the “mountain”, enabling us to get through or even around what appears to be hopeless and we feel helpless

God’s power emerges in our ability to stand tall, face the problem and trust that, no matter what, God is a force to be reckoned with in any and every situation. Trust is the key here, trust that no matter what, God has not abandoned us or the people we love. God can work in the most dire of circumstances. The results may be different and difficult for us to understand or accept. Yet we can face and even conquer great challenges with God’s grace and love working in and through our most difficult moments.

    “The valleys will be filled, and the mountains and hills made level.                                                              The curves will be straightened,                                                                                                                   and the rough places made smooth.                                                                                                              And then all people will see the salvation sent from God.” (Luke 3:5-6, NLT)

Dale

Wednesday, August 5, 2020

“One day Jesus was praying in a certain place. When he finished, one of his disciples said to him, “Lord, teach us to pray...” (Luke 11:1, New Living Translation) 

                Last week, my car was rear-ended when I was stopped at a stoplight. Everyone was okay and the damage to my vehicle was very, very minor. But because it is a lease car, I decided to do my due diligence so that my Subaru dealer doesn’t complain at the end of the lease. I reported the incident first to the local collision centre and  then phoned my insurance company.  To make a long story short, I ended up talking to four different people about this minor accident with a potential of a fifth, should I pursue my claim.

                It is a good thing that our personal communication with God does not work like the insurance business. If it did it might sound like this. I call it:

 “The Fable of the Wonky Donkey”

                Mr. Nobody had a donkey. But the donkey’s hindquarters did not coordinate with his front quarters. He was wonky donkey.  So, Mr. Nobody took his wonky donkey to the vet. She took down all the particulars: his name was Spunky, he was two years old, he had long ears, he was gray and had brown eyes. He was wonky. She took several pictures of Spunky for his records to be kept at the vet’s clinic. But she didn’t think his wonkiness was too serious and sent Mr. Nobody home with a few pain killers.

                But being a conscientious donkey owner, he was still concerned about Spunky. So, he phoned Mrs. Elderberry, the   coordinator of Fairweather Baptist Church’s prayer chain and asked that his donkey be put on the prayer chain. He explained that Spunky was a wonky donkey. Mrs. Elderberry diligently took down all the particulars. Spunky was two years old, with long ears, gray and had brown eyes. He was wonky. Dutifully, she sent the word through the prayer chain with the details and soon all six women were praying for Spunky the wonky donkey.

                The prayer for Spunky was intercepted first by Angel Bob in the Prayer Brokerlink Bureau. It was his job to sort out prayer requests and send them off to the right department. He took his job very seriously, no matter the size of the prayer. He listened very carefully and meticulously took down all the particulars. Spunky was two years old, with long ears, gray and had brown eyes. He was wonky.

                Angel Bob decided that this prayer request needed to go to the Equine Division. He phoned Angel Marylou and told her that he had a prayer request for a wonky donkey.  She was very concerned. She thoroughly took down all the particulars. Spunky was  two years old, with long ears, gray and had brown eyes. He was wonky.

                Once she had recorded everything, Angel Marylou contacted Angel George.  Angel George was a donkey specialist. He knew everything there was to know about donkeys. He painstakingly took down all the particulars. Spunky was  two years old, with long ears, gray and had brown eyes. He was wonky.

                Mr. Nobody had a dream that night in which Angel George spoke to him. He was saddened to hear that Spunky was wonky. His recommendation was to take Spunky to a very expensive specialist who would evaluate Spunky and decide an equally expensive treatment.

                Mr. Nobody thanked the angel but couldn’t help but ask whether his prayer would ever reach God’s ear. Angel George replied that that was not how the system works. Heaven had middle management bureaucracies to help streamline the whole prayer network.  God didn’t have the time to handle every prayer request, personally.

                Mr. Nobody listened to the explanation and asked, “Perhaps, I could speak to your supervisor. Is St. Peter available?”

The End

    Jesus  said to them, “When you pray, say: “ Our Father, who art in heaven…”

    What a relief!

Dale