Wednesday, November 24 – ADVENT ONE

As he [John the Baptist] preached he said, “The real action comes next: The star in this drama, to whom I’m a mere stagehand, will change your life. I’m baptizing you here in the river, turning your old life in for a kingdom life. His baptism—a holy baptism by the Holy Spirit—will change you from the inside out.” (Mark 1: 7 -8, The Message Bible)

                 Most of my life, I have been very poor in the ability to wait for someone. You’d think I had more important things to do than wait for someone to get ready to go when I want, or someone to arrive on time when they said they would, or to be there when they said they would or do what they were supposed to do. I dislike waiting for a taxi, for example, or waiting for someone to pick me on the rare occasion I am not driving. I am a pacer, a clock watcher, growing anxious about the time.

                I come by it honestly. My mother always had to arrive a half-hour in advance of the starting time of anything. When ordering in a restaurant, if the food was not in front of her within 15 minutes after ordering, she would begin to sputter how slow the service was. I have been really trying to slow down my expectations and impatience since I have retired – with some success.

What’s the hurry!

Perhaps, John the Baptist was beginning to wonder when the Messiah was finally going to show up. After all, he had been preparing his whole life for that moment when the one whose sandals he was unworthy to untie would make his appearance. Then, look out world! You think John was a hell-fire preacher, you haven’t seen anything yet, once the Messiah begins his work. “He’s going to clean house—make a clean sweep of your lives. He’ll place everything true in its proper place before God; everything false he’ll put out with the trash to be burned.” (Luke 3:17, The Message) John can hardly wait.

Jesus shows up and the show is finally on the road.

Or is it? A little while later John finds himself in prison, his ministry faltering to an ignominious close.  Who could have blamed him if he was beginning to wonder whether it had been worth it?  And Jesus? There appears to be some sense of doubt, disillusionment perhaps, confusion as to what Jesus was really about. John sent two of his disciples to Jesus and asked, “Are you the One we’ve been expecting, or are we still waiting?” (Matthew 11:3, The Message)

Jesus has not been  brandishing a willowing fork, but using a whole new approach to his style of Messiahship. “Go back and tell John what’s going on: The blind see, the lame walk, lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, the wretched of the earth learn that God is on their side.” (Matthew 11: 4 – 6, The  Message)

Then Jesus asks “Is this what you were expecting? Then count yourselves most blessed.”

Trust Jesus to ask the tough question. Is this what you were expecting? People enter into Advent/Christmas with high expectations about family, gifts, quality time with friends, travel plans and having an ideal Christmas. But it doesn’t always happen that easily and we are left somewhat disappointed.

Same with our faith expectations. We expect all the glory to come our way ASAP. But our church lets us down, our pastor lets us down, our fellow believers let us down, our prayers let us down; we fail ourselves in keeping the verve of faith.  We may even feel that God has let us down. This Jesus-thing doesn’t seem to be working the way we thought it would. Skepticism settles in. Disillusionment takes it toll. Doubts creep in.

Are you the one, Jesus or, or is there something else I should place my faith in?

            Perhaps we need to rethink some of our expectations, our models, our  boxes in which we have put Jesus?  I am not suggesting that we lower our expectations or tamper our aspirations. But let us consider how we might open up our hopes to encounter the true, life-giving presence of Jesus Christ. Just let him be the Christ the way he wants – full of love, compassion, healing, grace, forgiveness, mercy and Presence. Don’t suck the air out of Advent with your version of Christmas but let the fresh Spirit of the Coming One renew your hope, give you peace, grant you joy and surround you with love.

                If this is what you are expecting, then count yourself blessed!

Dale

Wednesday, November 17, 2021

Therefore, God elevated him to the place of highest honor and gave him the name above all other names,  that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue declare that Jesus Christ is Lord,  to the glory of God the Father. (Philippians 2: 9 -11, New Living Translation)           

                This Sunday is the last Sunday of the church year – The Reign of Christ Sunday. But I have an advent hymn running through  my head and If I don’t get it down on “paper”, it’ll drive me crazy! For whatever reason beyond my ken, it can be sung to the tune of Blessed Assurance, with a  little finagling, (using eighth notes in a few places to gather the words). If it is any good, anyone can use it with my full permission. If anyone does use it, I would like to know, out of curiosity. If not, at least it is out of my head…

In the voices of angels, hear of God's hope,

Allaying our worries, doubts and our fears.
In the voices of angels, God gives us hope,
Promising his love throughout the whole year.

Chorus:
Here comes the Christ Child; lift up your voice.
Here comes the Christ Child; let us rejoice.
This is our Story.
This is our Song.
Here comes the Christ Child, alleluia!

In the voices of angels, hear of God's peace,
Calming our spirits, troubles and storms.
In the voices of angels, God gives us peace,
Gath’ring us in his all-loving arms. (CHORUS)

In the voices of angels, hear of God's joy,
Bringing us laughter, pleasure and smiles.
In the voices of angels, God gives us joy,
Chasing away sadness with the gift of a Child. (CHORUS)

In the voices of angels, hear of God's love,
Sharing compassion, both caring and kind.
In the voices of angels, God gives us love,
Calling us to share it with all humankind. (CHORUS)

 

Dale

 

Wednesday, November 10, 2021

Then God looked over all he had made, and he saw that it was very good! (Genesis 1:31, New Living Translation)

                It was wonderful to sit out back basking in the sun on an atypical warm November day this week. November is my least favourite month as it is usually cold, gloomy and often sometimes even  snowy or, at least with nasty storms. At least, that is how I remember how it used to be.

                Perhaps it’s all because of climate change that November is losing its bad-guy reputation and I should be championing the Climate Conference in Scotland that is currently trying to get many nations to agree to ways to battle climate change. But that sun sure felt good. Nevertheless, I wish them well, although I remain skeptical that anything of real significance will get done; just ironically, more hot air.

                Yesterday, I was reminded of the great beauty of our planet. Susan and I took a private tour of the stained-glass windows in Northminster United Church. These windows were designed by our beloved friend Ron Wilson who passed away not all that long ago. We have several  of Ron’s paintings – one sits on the wall above this work station. He especially captures the grace, beauty and wonder of nature scenes.

                Each of the nearly twenty windows is a wondrous depiction of nature’s beauty, each portraying a  scene out of nature. It is almost like a tour of Creation. Butterflies in one, a wind blown cedar in another, lambs in yet another, a rain storm, loons. Words cannot do them justice; full of colour, movement, vibrancy, life. Like Creation itself, they were all very good.

                Interestingly, the one design which Ron needed to be persuaded to do was the window depicting a human family. I am not sure why because he has masterfully designed a window of a young family,  holding hands, a child being carried on a  dad’s back, all obviously enjoying the world they are surrounded by. Perhaps in the back of Ron’s mind was the thought that although humankind is a part of God’s Creation, we are messing up this whole having-dominion-over-it-all thing. Let nature speak for itself and leave us out of it. But I am guessing.

                It is often discouraging  to hear what is happening to our world because of climate change, a human-made catastrophe in the making. I try to do my little part but I end up thinking what good have I really done. There are still forest fires, oil spills, plastic islands in our oceans gathering more plastic by the day,  ozone holes, et al. I am not sure that my little blue box once a week on the curbside is going to fix much of that.  But each of us needs to do what we can.

                There are those who deny or diminish the effect of climate change. Our government wants to build more highways for more cars, although they are extolling the virtue of electric vehicles. Oil producing provinces loathe any pressure on reducing carbon totals. Big countries like China won’t even participate in the talks in Scotland even though they are one of the world’s biggest polluters. So what are you and I supposed to do?

                God made Creation for us to enjoys its beauty, possibilities, wonders and fruits.  God gave humanity the task of being caretakers, responsible custodians, and guardians of the earth’s riches. We are more than a sixth-day afterthought. We are essentially tasked with protection and security of the earth and all its resources. If I was at the Scotland conference, I would simply read the Creation narratives out of Genesis. At the end, I would close my Bible, look at those world leaders in the eyes and say to them: “We have a good thing going here. Now, don’t mess this up. God is watching.”

                As for you and me, keep on doing our best, even it seems small in comparison to what needs to be done. It was interesting to see how the world cleaned itself up during the pandemic. So we know if we try together that our voices, our actions, our understanding, our commitments can collectively make a significant difference.

                “For the beauty of the earth… Lord of all, to Thee we raise this our hymn of grateful praise.”

Dale

Wednesday, November 3, 2021

The misfits among the people had a craving and soon they had the People of Israel whining, “Why can’t we have meat? We ate fish in Egypt—and got it free!—to say nothing of the cucumbers and melons, the leeks and onions and garlic. But nothing tastes good out here; all we get is manna, manna, manna.” (Numbers 11: 5 -6, The Message Bible)

                 Happy garlic week!

                I bet a lot of you didn’t know that this is Ontario Garlic Week. I know I didn’t until I read about it today. There may even be a garlic festival near you. A whole week just to celebrate a small, smelly, taint-your-breath, ordinary vegetable which we use to spice up our meals.

                Garlic is a favourite ingredient of mine. I use it a lot. I make mouth watering, delicious garlic spare ribs. I always use it my stews. I prefer my steaks au naturel but I don’t mind using garlic on them either. Lamb chops always have to have garlic.

                There are medicinal qualities to garlic. It is believed that garlic can reduce cholesterol, increase your immune function, lower blood pressure to name a few things.  It’s a small price for smelly breath although its pill form has no odour.

                Let’s all lift up our voices for garlic!

                The Israelites have grown weary of wandering in the wilderness. Some long for a return to Egypt where they remember having food like leeks, onions and garlic. Of course, what they are too easily forgetting is that they were also slaves in Egypt. Having garlic came with a heavy price – making bricks without straw. (Exodus 5: 6 -9) Nevertheless, the people were wanting to return to their former state so that they may enjoy the savouriness of their past lives of slavery.

                God had given them manna – a bread-like plant. But they were sick and tired of this bounty.  Let’s go back. What’s  a few extra bricks if we can  have fish and vegetables and leeks, onions and garlic. Oh my!

                Hindsight can sometimes be 20/20. But also, sometimes, remembering what we think were the good ol’ days can be a trap. We prefer to see the past through rose-tinted glasses and extol all the virtues we think we once had. But we overlook the heavy cost of those things; forgetting the labour, the pain, the suffering. If we feel we are stuck in the present, the past can look pretty good. No matter how much God has provided for us we want something more, something better, something we think we are missing. Even if it means returning to that which once held us in  its power and grip, it seem a better if not bitter pill to swallow.

                Paul proclaims that because of the extravagant work of Jesus we have been freed from the slavery of sin. “Christ has set us free to live a free life. So take your stand! Never again let anyone put a harness of slavery on you.”(Galatians 5:1, New Living Translation) Once we gain our freedom through Christ there should be no going back to  former ways of living which may have caused us misfortune, domination, or labouring under powers that wish to do us no good.

But the temptation is always there, isn’t it – to allow the past to dictate our feelings in the present and for the future. To complain that God is letting us down. To whine about what we don’t have. To wish for the past even if that past was not really to our benefit.

Do we want God or do we want garlic?

Do we want freedom or do we want leeks?

Do we want salvation or do we want onions?

Nobody ever said or promised that gaining the Promised Land was a simple, easy venture. It has its frustrations and challenges. But if I need to make a choice between onions, leeks and garlic from my past and the banquet feast God has in store for us in the future if I but continue to trust God for all my needs today,  just pass the salt and I will be on my way!

Dale