Wednesday, January 31, 2024

 “The simple truth is that if you had a mere kernel of faith, a poppy seed, say, you would tell this mountain, ‘Move!’ and it would move. There is nothing you wouldn’t be able to tackle.”  (Matthew 17: 29, The Message Bible)

               For want of a nail the shoe was lost. For want of a shoe the horse was lost. For want of a horse the rider was lost. For want of a rider the message was lost. For want of a message the battle was lost. For want of a battle the kingdom was lost. And all for the want of a horseshoe nail.

My Lego project, a British double-decker bus, had been going very well. But, then, I couldn’t get a small piece to attach to the back of the bus. I tried and tried. I tried to force it a little but it still wouldn’t hold in place. I spent twenty minutes trying to solve the problem to no avail. The similar piece on the other side fit perfectly. It was quite frustrating. I was about to go and get the crazy glue when I noticed that there was a tiny, little piece – smaller than my pinky fingernail - that was missing. Once I had it in its proper place the obstinate piece snapped right in.

                All for the want of a tiny piece of Lego.

                It is all in the details. Sometimes, it is the little things that count or matter. It is the little particulars that help make the big things work out better. We are probably more familiar with Jesus’ saying that if we had the faith the size of a mustard seed, we could move mountains. What he is saying, in part, is that our strength comes from paying attention to finding the little  pieces that put our faith to work in our lives.

                It is easy to lose touch with our faith. Faith can sometimes shrink because of our lack of attention. It becomes detached from our lives – goes missing. But we need faith, our trust in God, to help make the bigger life picture take shape and hold together.

                O you of little faith, an exacerbated Jesus would sometimes lament.

                Now, unfortunately, some people have used Jesus’ words about the poppy seed or mustard seed faith to criticize others for their falsely-perceived lack of faith in the face of crises and calamities. It is very mean-spirited when one is facing, let’s say, the serious illness or dying of a loved one.  It is a cruel use of this text and makes the other person feel like a failure when their faith doesn’t get the results they had hoped or prayed for. Or it makes God a failure. 

                But that is not Jesus’ intent.  Quite the opposite. Jesus is telling us not to give up even in the direst of situations. He is affirming that even the smallest flicker of faith can make a difference in our struggles, in our challenges, in our trials and tribulations. Sure, we always need to find ways to increase our faith, to grow and mature in our faith, but I don’t think God has a faith meter in which we need to measure a minimum level before God cares.

                Jesus is letting us know that even in the toughest situation, the smallest flicker of faith that seeks out God finds an encouraging, uplifting, loving response from God. “There is nothing you wouldn’t be able to tackle.”   

                But it also challenges us with the question about what is missing in our lives?  What small piece of our spiritual make-up is missing or needs to be found and added so that our whole faith is up to the tasks at hand? It is one thing to keep the spark of faith alive but it is another when we let our faith atrophy all-together because we have ceased to pay attention to the details that keep it alive and healthy. Prayer. Scripture reading. Worship. Fellowship.

                “My counsel for you is simple and straightforward: Just go ahead with what you’ve been given. You received Christ Jesus, the Master; now live him. You’re deeply rooted in him. You’re well constructed upon him. You know your way around the faith. Now do what you’ve been taught. School’s out; quit studying the subject and start living it! And let your living spill over into thanksgiving.” (Colossians 2: 6 -6, TMB)

Dale      

Wednesday, January 24, 2024

“Give, and you will receive. Your gift will return to you in full—pressed down, shaken together to make room for more, running over, and poured into your lap. The amount you give will determine the amount you get back.” (Luke 6: 38, New Living Translation)

                We have been hearing a lot about “skimpflation” lately in the news.

                Skimpflation happens when food manufacturers reduce the amounts or the quality of their products to save costs. The products cost the same to us, the consumers, but we are not getting the same goods as we did before. Cereal boxes may be the same size but have less weight of contents. A granola bar was once labeled as being covered in milk chocolate; now all it promises is a “chocolatey coating.” Chip bags are smaller. A popular energy drink has 14% less fluid.  One pizza chain cut its chicken wings from eight pieces to six. We’re paying the same prices, maybe more, and getting less.

                These are tough times. The economy has been very slow in recovering from the pandemic. People are also having to stretch their hard-earned dollars to make ends meet. Food banks have never been so busy or so short of food, sometimes. Homelessness is extensive. Skimpflation seems to have pervaded our culture on many levels.

                Yet, Jesus, far from rich or prosperous himself, dependent on others for his daily bread, spoke against skimpflation. Not that he used such a modern word, but, more likely, he was thinking about miserliness, selfishness, stinginess, greed, hoarding, building our own bigger barns while others go without. We hold back rather than give forward. We hold out rather than hand out.

 Jesus, and likewise God, is synonymous with generosity. “From his abundance we have all received one gracious blessing after another.”  (John 1:16, NLT) Jesus is God’s generous gift for us: “You know the generous grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. Though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, so that by his poverty he could make you rich.” (2 Corinthians 8:9, NLT) Trust in this generosity is of paramount importance: “And God will generously provide all you need. Then you will always have everything you need and plenty left over to share with others.”

And that is the thing here – our willingness to give, share and provide for others because God has been so generous with us. “Yes, you will be enriched in every way so that you can always be generous. And when we take your gifts to those who need them, they will thank God.” (2 Corinthians 9:11, NLT)

In others words, don’t be skimpy when it comes to helping others. It comes with the journey of following Jesus.

A few weeks ago, I came out of the grocery store with my fully laden, food bags. There was a young man, standing the cold, by the door. He asked me for some spare change. Who carries spare change anymore? I certainly didn’t have any. I put my bags in the back and got in the car. But, for some reason, I was bothered by this brief encounter. Something niggled at me. Jesus’ voice? Perhaps.  I looked in my wallet and there was a ten-dollar bill in it. My first thought was that ten dollars was a bit rich for a handout to a stranger. Who knows what he really wanted the money for? But Jesus wouldn’t let me go. So, I got back out of my car and went to the man and gave him the ten bucks. He was very grateful.

I share that story not to pat myself on the back or to be praised; there have been lots and lots of times I have ignored and walked by someone who was panhandling. But the incident sharply reminds me that I have received directions from Jesus to be generous when I can. Don’t be skimpy, Jesus says. Why give 50 cents if you can give more!

“But generous people plan to do what is generous, and they stand firm in their generosity.” (Isaiah 32:8, NLT)

And although there are plenty of scriptural encouragements that we will be rewarded for our generosity, I don’t think that this should be our motivation alone. Our motivation is God’s Love as is evidenced in Jesus Christ.

“And I am praying that you will put into action the generosity that comes from your faith as you understand and experience all the good things we have in Christ.” (Philemon 1:6, NLT)

Dale

Wednesday, January 17, 2024

“When I was a child, I spoke and thought and reasoned as a child. But when I grew up, I put away childish things.”  (1 Corinthians 13: 11, New Living Translation)

                I like to tease my friends who are avid, long-suffering Toronto Maple Leaf hockey fans, that even though I was a passionate Leaf fan when I was a kid, now that I am an adult, I have put such childish notions behind me. (Such gall, coming from a miserable fan of the last place Ottawa Senators.)

                But perhaps there is still a little child left in me.  This week, I have begun to build another Lego set. It Is a big, red, British double-decker bus. I hope that it goes better than my last Lego set, a large pirate ship. So many of the pieces were too small for these arthritic hands to handle and get in place. (That’s my story and I’m sticking to it.) I gave it over to my daughter and seven-year-old grandson, a Lego enthusiast, who finished it. (Oh, the humiliation to be bested by my seven-year old grandson!)

                This Lego set says right on the box that it is meant for 16 years old and plus. I am well into the “plus” category by a wide margin. The age qualification means that this set is designed for “older” folk who have the patience, the ability to carefully read the instructions, the perseverance and intellect, the stamina and persistence to handle such an immense project. (Well, maybe, I don’t qualify after all.) After all, there are thousands of pieces and pain-staking instructions that only a more mature person, supposedly, can understand and follow. Am I adult and mature enough to handle it? We’ll see.

                Paul believes, very strongly, that one’s Christianity needs to grow and mature into an adult faith. “To be perfectly frank, I’m getting exasperated with your childish thinking. How long before you grow up and use your head—your adult head? It’s all right to have a childlike unfamiliarity with evil; a simple no is all that’s needed there. But there’s far more to saying yes to something. Only mature and well-exercised intelligence can save you from falling into gullibility.” (1 Corinthians 14: 20, The Message Bible) This is quite the expansion of the original text, but it makes an excellent point. There comes a time when we must graduate from children’s Sunday School and make into the adult classes. We should never stop learning or growing in our faith but there must be a profounder wisdom, a deeper clarity, a richer understanding as we grow in our faith.

                “This will continue until we all come to such unity in our faith and knowledge of God’s Son that we will be mature in the Lord, measuring up to the full and complete standard of Christ.” (Ephesians 4: 13, NLT)

                Today, my colleague, friend and pastor, the Rev. Dr. Peter Holmes, Yorkminster Park Baptist Church, wrote his excellent, on-line devotional on Jesus’ words, “For the Kingdom of God belongs to those who are like these children. I tell you the truth, anyone who doesn’t receive the Kingdom of God like a child will never enter it.” (Luke 18: 16 17, NLT) He wrote, “Obviously, none of us can go back to our childhood, but the consensus is that Jesus was affirming both the wonder and the trust that come so naturally to children.” I couldn’t agree more.

                But I don’t think, for a moment, that Jesus is contradicting Paul or visa versa. Rather, I see both ideas as sides of the same coin, of a complete and whole faith. Too often we may think that maturity or adulthood is serious business. As we become older, some of us become more skeptical, even cynical, or others become more rigid and intolerant of changes and differences. Some throw off their faith as being for children, but not for them. Others think that as adults they can do, say, act as they please. This is not what Paul is writing about and it is what Jesus is correcting.

                One can be an adult and mature in our faith and not lose our imaginations, our spirit of wonder, our appreciation of simple joys, our belief in the future. If anything, these seemingly child-like qualities are a sign of an active and lively, mature faith. It means seeing the world through the lens of Jesus’ great and gracious Love.

                “So come on, let’s leave the preschool fingerpainting exercises on Christ and get on with the grand work of art. Grow up in Christ. The basic foundational truths are in place: turning your back on ‘salvation by self-help’ and turning in trust toward God… God helping us, we’ll stay true to all that. But there’s so much more. Let’s get on with it!” (Hebrews 6: 1, TMB)

 Dale

Wednesday, January 10, 2024

“When the crop began to grow and produce grain, the weeds also grew.”  (Matthew 13:26. New Living Translation)

                Weeds have a bad reputation, biblically speaking.

                Weeds are signs of lost opportunities, broken faithfulness, corrupt living. In Hosea, God vents his displeasure over the fickle hearts of his people: “They spout empty words and make covenants they don’t intend to keep. So, injustice springs up among them like poisonous weeds in a farmer’s field.” (Hosea 10: 4, NLT)  Or listen to this  piece from Proverbs: “One day I walked by the field of an old lazybones, and then passed the vineyard of a slob; they were overgrown with weeds, thick with thistles, all the fences broken down.” (Proverbs 10: 30 - 34, The Message Bible)

                Both texts could easily be background material for Jesus’ Parable of the Sower.

                But the reason I am writing about weeds today is because of the comic strip, Agnes, a precocious, ten-year old, odd-ball who lives in a trailer park with her grandmother. Her best friend is a sarcastic, witty girl with the peculiar name of Trout.  This past week, Agnes decided that she is going to try to rehabilitate a weed. “Through rehabilitation and soul cleansing forgiveness, they will become lovely flowers.” As the story progresses, Trout asks how it is going. Agnes replies, “I praise it when it exhibits flower tendencies. I condemn it when it lapses into the sinful world of weediness.” When Trout protests that a weed is just that, a weed, Agnes responds, “It’s weediness has been forgiven.”

                I have told you the story of preaching a sermon, suggesting that there were components of weeds that we might think about emulating as Christians – like their resiliency, their perseverance, their ability to grow under adverse conditions. I was taken to task by one person who strongly objected to the analogy, feeling “weedy enough” a lot of days. Point well taken when considering Jesus’ own interpretation of his parable, “the field is the world, and the good seed are the children of the kingdom; the weeds are the children of the evil one…” (Matthew 13: 38, NLT)

                I get it: weeds are really bad; harvest bearing plants are really good!

                But I can’t help think that Jesus also has a great deal of Agnes’ determination to overcome the weediness in our living, “which the master cultivator, weeds and prunes and ties up and waters and thoroughly irrigates and so tames the jungle of habits and passions.” (4 Maccabees 1:29, NLT) The Love of Jesus seeks to cultivate a goodness from the depths of the roots of our souls. He nurtures the best in us and persuades us to toss the useless, weedy bits into the compost. In the end, our weediness is forgiven which doesn’t mean that we should remain weeds but work to turn ourselves into fruit bearers for the Kingdom of God, full of good works, loving thoughts, caring hands, open hearts, healthy minds.

                “Get rid of all bitterness, rage, anger, harsh words, and slander, as well as all types of evil behavior. Instead, be kind to each other, tender hearted, forgiving one another, just as God through Christ has forgiven you.”  (Galatians 4: 31 -32, NLT)

                We are going to need Jesus’ help to get beyond our weediness. We usually can’t do it by ourselves. To throw my own words into my face, weeds are tenacious, persistent, pervasive, invasive. Left alone, they can take over. We need the attention of Jesus Christ to help us conquer the weeds and become far better.

““I am the true vine, and my Father is the vine grower… Live in me… In the same way that a branch can’t bear grapes by itself but only by being joined to the vine, you can’t bear fruit unless you are joined with me. I am the Vine, you are the branches. When you’re joined with me and I with you, the relation intimate and organic, the harvest is sure to be abundant. Separated, you can’t produce a thing. Anyone who separates from me is deadwood, gathered up and thrown on the bonfire. But if you make yourselves at home with me and my words are at home in you, you can be sure that whatever you ask will be listened to and acted upon. This is how my Father shows who he is—when you produce grapes, when you mature as my disciples.”  (John 15: 1, 4 -8, TMB)

                Now, where did I put my hoe? I’ve got some weeding to do.

Dale

Wednesday, January 3, 2024 – Epiphany (January 6)

Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea, during the reign of King Herod. About that time some wise men from eastern lands arrived in Jerusalem, asking, “Where is the newborn king of the Jews? We saw his star as it rose, and we have come to worship him.” (Matthew 2: 1 – 2, New Living Translation)

                Christmas isn’t over ‘til the Magi show up in Bethlehem. And, by gum, our Christmas tree stays up and lit until then (or, at least until on of our adult kids come and help us take it down.)

                Mind you, in today’s troubled Middle East, I doubt the Magi would even get across the border into Israel. Bethlehem is a city inside the Palestinian borders. This is dangerous territory.   Most Christmas services were cancelled in Bethlehem this past year because of the war. If the Wise Men showed up seeking to gain entrance to go as far as Jerusalem, I expect they would be denied.  Being likely from Arab states today like Iran or Iraq or Syria, they would-be highly suspect. They might even be arrested or worse, shot at. But today, they would be very unwelcome diplomats.

                Especially so, since the message they brought to Jerusalem and King Herod was the “Good News” of a regime change. “Where is the newborn king of the Jews? We saw his star as it rose, and we have come to worship him.” No political ruler, especially a despot like Herod, either past, present or future, wants to hear that their replacement is at hand, that they are about to be deposed or ousted from their position of power. Herod was cagey, at first, pretending to be interested but all along he was planning to violently eliminate any threat to his power. Not much different between then and now, is there? “The kings of the earth prepare for battle; the rulers plot together against the Lord and against his anointed one.” (Psalm 2:2, NLT)

                There is a recurring theme in the Christmas story from beginning to end that the coming of the Messiah is indeed a peril to world powers. In Mary’s Magnificat, she exclaims, “His mighty arm has done tremendous things! He has scattered the proud and haughty ones. He has brought down princes from their thrones and exalted the humble.” (Luke 1: 51 -52, NLT) The old man, Simeon, upon seeing the baby Jesus at the temple in Jerusalem, was provoked to prophesy: “This child is destined to cause many in Israel to fall, and many others to rise. He has been sent as a sign from God, but many will oppose him.” (Luke 2: 34, NLT) The reality of Jesus Christ is a major obstacle to the powers and principalities, a force to be reckoned with “against evil rulers and authorities of the unseen world, against mighty powers in this dark world, and against evil spirits in the heavenly places.” (Ephesians 6:12, NLT)

                The Magi invite us to circumvent the Herods of this world, and go find the Messiah, even if it is in Bethlehem. “But you, O Bethlehem Ephrathah, are only a small village among all the people of Judah. Yet a ruler of Israel, whose origins are in the distant past, will come from you on my behalf.” (Micah 5:2, NLT) The world is at stake.

                But let me bring this into our own personal realties, too. Let me dare ask you and me where our loyalties lie? Do we need a regime change in our own hearts and souls? Are we clinging to the power of sin and immorality like they were the divine rights of kings and queens? Have we crowned ourselves on the thrones of our own egos, self-importance, pride, arrogance and conceit? Do we pretend to want to also worship the New King but really have no honest or sincere intention of actually doing so? The faster we get Christmas over, the better.

                Regime changes are tough. They are costly. They turn the world upside down and inside out. The birth of the Messiah is especially noteworthy. The arrival of the Word made flesh is God’s intervention in a world that is wrong side up, both on the world’s political stage and also on a personal level. This particular Regime Change replaces old definitions of power with fresh demonstrations of justice, peace, compassion, hope and, of course, love.

                We have choices to make. Do we seek what’s in Jerusalem or who is in Bethlehem?

    We saw his star as it rose, and we have come to worship him.

                “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, NLT)

Dale