Wednesday, February 24, 2021 – Second Week of Lent

“Believe me, woman, the time is coming when you Samaritans will worship the Father neither here at this mountain nor there in Jerusalem… But the time is coming—it has, in fact, come—when what you’re called will not matter and where you go to worship will not matter. It’s who you are and the way you live that count before God. Your worship must engage your spirit in the pursuit of truth. That’s the kind of people the Father is out looking for: those who are simply and honestly themselves before him in their worship. God is sheer being itself—Spirit. Those who worship him must do it out of their very being, their spirits, their true selves, in adoration.”  (John 4: 21 – 24, The Message Bible)

           “I am king of the castle and you’re a dirty rascal. Nyah! Nyah!”

No doubt, you probably  played this little children’s game when you were a kid. You would find a small hill of dirt or a large snow bank or a pile of boxes or climb some furniture and getting to the top first, you declared with smug superiority and derision that you were the king or queen of all that you survey and everyone else is below and beneath you. Fun, eh?

It may be a meaningless and somewhat pointless children’s game but when grown-ups play this game out in their areas of living, thinking, behaving, worshipping, belief systems, it is usually poisonous. When people take over mountain tops, it becomes all too easy to yell at everyone below, throw stones at those you deem beneath you, act smug and superior, and feel that you are in the superior position of power, authority and holy righteousness.

The problem is that there is always someone over on the next mountain who feels just the same way. And the next mountain to that one and so on. That’s an awful lot of sanctimony, name-calling, hollering and stone-throwing coming from those various mountains.

Don’t get me wrong. Mountains can be used for… well, mountain-top experiences. Where would Moses be without Mt. Sinai? What about Jesus and the mount where he experienced his shining moment? But maybe, that makes the point that mountains like these belong first and foremost to God. They are God’s territory, symbols of his realm and rule. “The Lord is great and should be given much praise, in the city of our God, His holy mountain.” (Psalm 48:1, New Living Translation)

Sometimes, you and I are privileged to climb the mountain and experience something awesome. “Who may go up the mountain of the Lord? And who may stand in His holy place? He who has clean hands and a pure heart” (Psalm 24:3-4, NLT).  We don’t own the mountain. It takes humility and meekness to dare ascend. This is God’s holy ground, not yours or mine.

                But sadly, people love to argue that their mountain is best. They insist that their mountain is the only true mountain. Politics and the Christian church are especially susceptible to the vanity of screaming from the top of mountains that their way is the right way, the only way, and anyone who doesn’t agree, they become the dirty rascals.

                Jesus gets caught between two mountains, the one the Samaritans said was the right mountain for their worship and the other was the one on Jerusalem which all good Jew knew was the right mountain. There was much bitter animosity and hostility between the two groups over this issue alone.

                Jesus’ words brings us back down to earth and knocks us off our peaks of superiority, smugness, self-righteousness and haughty pride, “where you go to worship will not matter. It’s who you are and the way you live that count before God.”  We don’t get to sit on top of our little personal mountains and get to judge others, criticize them for what they think or who they are. We don’t get to declare anyone a dirty rascal because they are different and have different opinions or have made different life choices. We don’t get to disqualify others from our perches of vanity and sneering judgement.

                Jesus wants us to get off our high horse, to mix our metaphors. Anyone can come before God at any time, in any way, without limits, without living up to any one else’s expectations, without fear of reprisals from those who think they are better, and without being disqualified because they don’t measure up in some way. “It’s who you are and the way you live that count before God.” The opinions of others are a lot of noise of clanging cymbals, annoying but still just noise. It’s God’s opinion that matters most.

                So, let’s all get off our mountains and stop hounding, badgering, insulting, judging and prohibiting others from making their own climb into the loving arms of God. “For by the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think of yourself more highly than you ought to think, but to think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned” (Romans 12:3, New Revised Standard Version).

 Dale

 

Wednesday, February 17, 2021 – Ash Wednesday

“So here’s what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him. Don’t become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You’ll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you.” (Roman 12: 1 – 2, The Message Bible)

                 There is nothing like “doing church,” i.e. worship, from the comfort of my recliner on a Sunday morning. I get to pick my own time for tuning in to the virtual service from Whitby Baptist church on YouTube. I don’t have to dress up. I don’t even have to get out of my PJ’s if I don’t want. I can get my second cup of coffee, put my feet up and settle in for the not-too-long service. For an old-coot recluse like me, I don’t have to socialize with other church folk, don’t have to wait around after the service, don’t have to give an offering.

                What’s not to like? When church starts up again after the pandemic, they had better put in cushy recliners in place of the hard, wooden pews – with coffee cup holders. PJs are optional.

                Easy, entertaining worship sounds appealing, doesn’t it?  We want our worship to be comfortable, familiar, relaxed, enjoyable, pleasant, and non-threatening. Sing songs we know. Say the right things in the right order.  Truth to be told, many of us would like the whole practice of our Christian faith to be comfortable, uncomplicated and simple. In and out, easy-peasey, no fuss, no muss. We have our ticket to heaven booked, so let’s sit back and put our feet up until then.

                But these words from Romans shatter the illusion of an easy and comfortable lifestyle of practicing our faith in Christ. The apostle Paul lifts us out of our easy chairs. Alternate translations point out that “to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God – this is your true and proper worship,” (New International Version).  As the Message Bible explains, worship is not just a Sunday morning affair for 60 minutes or so, it is the holistic experience of dedicating all of one’s life to God through Jesus Christ. “Take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering.”

                Living a worshipful  life accepts that being faithful is hard work sometimes.  It means being intentional about how we go about doing even the most normal of routines so that we reflect the love of God toward others. It may mean that we are actively looking for opportunities to practice the love of God. This life-style worship accepts the hard challenges, the sacrifices, the risks, the tests on the way to follow Jesus’ Way.  There are many joys, surprises, successes, victories as we worship God with our whole lives, but it is not ever just easy, convenient and comfortable.

                Too often, our worship tends to focus on us and what God can do for us. We give God an hour of our time, and expect God to take care of us the rest of the week. But Paul’s definition of a worship life, a life that is holy and pleasing to God, reverses this relationship between God and ourselves. God is the real audience and our worship, Sunday morning and every day, is to give to God our utter and complete desire to serve him and honour him. It is hard to do that from an easy chair.

                “You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind.” (Matthew 22:37, New Living Translation)

                As we begin the Lenten season, a time for personal reflection, repentance and renewal, may we offer God our lives in a more vigorous, dynamic, holistic spirit of worship.

                It is way bigger than what’s on YouTube!

 Dale

 

Wednesday, February 10, 2021

 “The master was furious. ‘That’s a terrible way to live! It’s criminal to live cautiously like that! If you knew I was after the best, why did you do less than the least? The least you could have done would have been to invest the sum with the bankers, where at least I would have gotten a little interest. Take the thousand and give it to the one who risked the most. And get rid of this ‘play-it-safe’ who won’t go out on a limb. Throw him out into utter darkness.’” (The Parable of the Talents, Matthew 25: 26 -30, The Message Bible)

                 You have been chopped!

                Those are the words that none of the four, young professional chefs want to hear about the dishes they have prepared for judging.

The Food Network show is called, not surprisingly, Chopped. There are three rounds:  appetizers, main entrée and dessert. For each round, each competitor is given a basket holding four or five ingredients which they must use in their dish. They can add any other ingredients of their choosing but the judges had better taste the basket ingredients – or else. Usually there is always one outlier in those ingredients; something from out of left field like pickled jelly beans or something weird like that. They are given a time limit to prepare, cook and present their dishes to three culinary celebrities chefs for their judgment, chefs like Martha Stewart. Those judges can be very critical and particular in their critiques.

After each round, one chef gets chopped. He or she is eliminated from the competition. A young, talented chef has his or her dish exposed as being not up to snuff. No excuses, no second chances. The cover is dramatically taken away from the offending dish and we, the viewers, watch the losing chef’s face as their pride and ego take an embarrassing hit. Most of them are gracious in losing. But you can usually see it in their eyes that being chopped has hurt.

Thank goodness life is not like that!

Oh, wait -  Jesus’ parable about the use of talents or lack thereof jabs us in the eye, stabs us in the soul,  takes aim at our actions. Dang it!

Two of the competitors in the parable take the master’s money and using their abilities, their smarts, their acumen, they doubled their boss’s investment. Pretty impressive.  But the third servant, taking no chances, simply digs a hole and buries the money safely away.

Guess who gets chopped?  “And get rid of this ‘play-it-safe’ who won’t go out on a limb. Throw him out into utter darkness.”

Why did the third servant do “less than the least”? Why did he give far less than his best effort? Why did he not in some way to take what he had been given and increase its benefit and use?

Why do we do less than the least? It is a worthy question for any of us to ask ourselves. Why do you or I cop out when there is some profitable enterprise, especially in the name of our Master, to be done? Some task that would benefit and enrich the day in which we live.  Some investment of our time, talents and treasures that might uplift, encourage and shape the day in which we live. Using our assets, abilities and capabilities to make a small but mighty difference in the day in which we live.   

There are three significant parables in Matthew 25. All three have  in common the message about the risks of neglecting to "take care of business” in active discipleship which is expected and commanded of us by the Master. Lazy and careless bridesmaids are shut out of the wedding. Chopped! A weak servant is cast into darkness. Chopped!  Followers fail to see Jesus in the needs of others and face “eternal punishment.” Chopped!

Now a loving, kind, gracious, understanding, tolerant God wouldn’t do that to you or me, would he?

Who does he think he is? Martha Stewart?

Dale

 Wednesday, February 3, 2021

“Don’t overlook the obvious here, friends. With God, one day is as good as a thousand years, a thousand years as a day. God isn’t late with his promise as some measure lateness. He is restraining himself on account of you, holding back the End because he doesn’t want anyone lost. He’s giving everyone space and time to change.” (2 Peter 3|: 8 -9, The Message Bible)

                 Time flies when you are having fun, eh?

                On the other hand, lately, I have been losing track of time altogether. Last week, I thought Thursday was actually Friday. Every day seems like every other day under Covid lockdown. It certainly sometimes seems that one day feels like several days; maybe not a thousand years but time sure can drag. The same old monotony of doing the same old routines and habits gets to be a bit boring and all-too predictable. I don’t know how God does it for all eternity. I am as reclusive as it comes, I admit, but even I will be glad to get out and about.

I should be using my time more profitably than playing computer games, building Lego sets and watching TV. The old cynic who wrote Ecclesiastes puts it this way, “One might live a thousand years twice over but still not find contentment. And since every person  must die like everyone else—well, what’s the use?” (Ecclesiastes 6:6, New Living Translation)  Not very inspiring, is it?

There is a scriptural counter argument to the pessimistic view which the Teacher expressed.

“Make the most of every opportunity in these evil days.” (Ephesians 5: 16, NLT)

This is challenging, I admit.  Let’s be more scripturally specific.

“Therefore, whenever we have the opportunity, we should do good to everyone— especially to those in the family of faith.” (Galatians 6: 10, NLT) I don’t think that Paul is necessarily limiting our good works to be just for other believers but practicing our good works with our fellow believers makes us better prepared to take them beyond the proverbial walls of the church. We all should be looking for those people who need our voice of caring to make these interminable days feel a little fresher and brighter. Reach out and touch someone – virtually speaking. For now, until this pandemic is over.

It is hard to be patient while the days reel out. Where are the vaccines? Where are our leaders? Where are the answers? For some, where is God during this prolonged time of time of illness and fear?

Our text from 2^nd Peter suggests that God is giving us the maximum time possible to work things out, to do better, to figure out the value of life, to give “everyone space and time to change.”  If there is one thing any of us can do from our armchairs and sofas, we can pay attention to the condition of our hearts, minds and souls, adjust our priorities,  fine-tune our moods and attitudes, check our values and resolve to do better and make the most of the opportunity.

Every moment of every day is precious.  Find a way to celebrate these strange days and make the most out of them the best you can.

Hang in there. Believe it or not, time is one our side.

Dale