Wednesday, June 27, 2018

“When you produce much fruit, you are my true disciples. This brings great glory to my Father.” (John 15: 8) 

                Don’t you just love strawberry season this time of year?

                There is just something extra good about local, home-grown strawberries. They have more taste and are sweeter and yummier than the imported strawberries we get the rest of the year. Strawberry shortcake. Strawberries and ice cream.  Strawberries and whip cream. Fresh strawberry jam. Strawberries on my cereal.  Church strawberry socials. The season is all too short.

                My dad loved strawberries. As soon as they hit he market he would start buying quarts of them no matter the price. He would have them three times a day. I am not much different.

                Often, those strawberries which we buy at the grocery store look absolutely fantastic. They are usually very big, plump and luscious looking.  But take one bite and they can be almost tasteless and disappointing.  If you closed your eyes you might not know that it was a strawberry. Whereas, the local berries, maybe smaller, are packed with flavour and taste and a delight to eat.

                Fruitfulness is a big theme in scripture.  Jesus said, “You can identify them by their fruit, that is, by the way they act.” (Matthew 7:16 NLT)

                To carry the analogy forward, there are those who say they follow Jesus and act very piously and devoutly, but their inactions speak louder than all their fine sounding words. Better are those who follow Jesus and translate his principles into actions of love, mercy, compassion, hope, justice and helping others. “Don't fool yourself into thinking that you are a listener when you are anything but, letting the Word go in one ear and out the other. Act on what you hear!” (James 1:22, The Message Bible)

                It can be challenging to be fruitful, especially when so much of the culture these days is full of the pesticides of selfish individualism, fear of others, social media criticism, the pressure to conform, spiteful political leadership and so many poor, role models.  

                The one very remarkable thing about Jesus, perhaps above all else, was his refusal to give in to his culture and simply go back to Nazareth and re-open his father’s carpenter’s shop. In light of the criticism and rebuke he received that would have been the easiest thing to do. But Jesus wouldn’t stop caring or helping or speaking up for those who had lost their voices or had no power or who were vindictively ignored or abused by powers both political and religious.

                Jesus’ Vision was to plant the Good News of God’s Love and produce a kingdom people who would abound in an abundance of fruitful lives, actions and deeds. Fruit withers and rots when left on the vine or tree. It needs to be picked (chosen) and to be used for nourishment, to feed others, to benefit ourselves and others.

                 “May you always be filled with the fruit of your salvation—the righteous character produced in your life by Jesus Christ —for this will bring much glory and praise to God.” (Philippians 1:11, NLT) 

Dale

Wednesday, June 20, 2018

“If you see that the donkey of someone who hates you has collapsed under its load, do not walk by. Instead, stop and help.”  (Exodus 23:5)

                On Father’s Day, Susan and I went to visit the Primose Donkey Sanctuary, not far from Peterborough. And no, you wise guys, she did not leave me there.

                This is a place which takes in abused, neglected or abandoned donkeys or donkeys whose original owners can no longer adequately care for them. There had to be twenty or thirty donkeys and mules of all sizes, shapes, colours, and each with a unique story as to how they got there.  One female was badly undernourished and painfully thin, so the proprietor, Sheila Burns, was amazed when just a week after arriving at the sanctuary the frail donkey gave birth to a foal. Now she and her offspring live a safe, happy, healthy life on the farm. A couple of the donkeys are in their late forty years of age.

                I really like donkeys. They are smart, friendly, affectionate, like company, have a sense of humour, know their own mind, and this sanctuary brings out the real characters of donkey-dom.  Our guide knew each donkey or mule by name. It is hard to believe why anyone would abuse these beautiful animals but we heard some very sad and horrible things being done to them.

                Did you know that donkeys need to grieve the loss of one of their own when one of them dies? They need to see and smell the body so that they have a sense of closure.

                The text from Exodus has many complexities. We might think that it really doesn’t have anything to say to most of us who live very modern, urban, secular lives.  Most of don’t have donkeys in our driveways.

                But I see it this way. Jesus has much to say about those who don’t like us, mistreat us, bully us, abuse our friendships, take advantage of our good graces and by and large demonstrate animosity towards us. Most of what he says is quite a test of our Christian temperament.  “You have heard the law that says, ‘Love your neighbor’ and hate your enemy.  But I say, love your enemies! Pray for those who persecute you!”  (Matthew 5: 43)

                This is very hard a lot of the times. We’re more apt to say when we see someone with whom our relationships are sour and now full of resentment and anger that if something goes bad for them that it serves them right. It is hard to be loving when that unlovable, despicable so-and-so is need of our help. It is hard to lend a hand when our fists are closed in bitterness and hatred.

                But I am very sure that Jesus meant every word of it.

                The verse also reminds me of the Parable of the Good Samaritan. I am sure you know it well. A Jewish man has been mugged and robbed and left by the side of the road. Two prominent, pious, religious leaders saw the man but deliberately passed by on the other side so as to avoid ritual contamination or not wanting to be late for their important appointments or just not wanting to get involved. But a despised Samaritan stops, bandaged the man’s wounds, put the injured man on his own donkey and took him to an inn and paid for his stay while he healed.

                Score one for the donkey!

                “Go and do likewise!” (Luke 10:37)

                Need I say more?

Dale

Wednesday, June 13, 2018

“Peter declared. ‘I have never eaten anything that our Jewish laws have declared impure and unclean. But the voice spoke again: ‘Do not call something unclean if God has made it clean.’” (Acts 10: 14 -15) 

                I am a sucker for lists -  the top ten sort of thing. So, this morning an article on the sixteen most dangerous foods caught my immediate attention. Oh my!  They were almost all of my favourite things – hot dogs, potato chips, soda pops, french fries, fried foods, fast foods, margarine, chocolate milk even, white bread, breakfast cereals, packaged cookies, red meat, etc. Probably no great surprise, although funnily enough the one food that I rarely eat on that list is fat-free products.

                Go away from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man!

                The argument is that these products contain too many empty calories or too much sugar or nasty additives and chemicals, or are not nutritious enough, or has too much salt, or are too heavy in trans fats or hold other sneaky and insidious things like taste and joy and pleasure. Eventually, if we insist eating these foods on a regular basis we are all going to die of cancer, diabetes, heart failure, digestive calumny or obesity. I was so upset that I had to eat a chocolate cookie right away.

                Taste and see that the Lord is good, indeed!

                Peter has a vision in which he is challenged to rethink his strict, religious, food diet. As you may know Jewish folk observe many restrictions in their diet, e.g. no pork. But in his vision God presents Peter with a cornucopia of a variety of foods, many of the animals forbidden.  He is troubled when God tells him it is OK to eat anything that he saw. But God insists. Peter remains puzzled by the vision and its interpretation. But it was important enough to have happened three times.

                I doubt that the vision had much to do with food as it was to teach Peter about the all-inclusive nature of God’s Kingdom Project. It was a mission to all persons: “In this new life, it doesn’t matter if you are a Jew or a Gentile, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbaric, uncivilized, slave, or free. Christ is all that matters, and he lives in all of us.” (Colossians 3:11, NLT)

                Walter Brueggemann wrote regarding this text that Peter had to unlearn what he most trusts, well schooled in purity codes of his religious community. “He is summoned away from his legacy of purity and cleanness to a new world.” (Gift and Task, p.204).

The old, dogmatic rules don’t work in the light of God’s Love through Jesus Christ. They get in the way of true community and fellowship. These stringent dietary restrictions spawn disunity and disharmony within the family of believers. (As it did within the early Church between some Jewish Christians and the Gentile Christians.)  We judge others and refuse Table fellowship – one of the most potent symbols of our togetherness in Christ –  to those we think don’t fit in or act differently or don’t obey our rules or maybe, occasionally make a mess at the table from time to time.

                “Blessed are those who thirst for righteousness for they will be filled.” (Matthew 5:5)

                I grant that the list of dangerous foods does remind me that I should be more conscious of my diet and what I eat. Peter’s vision is a reminder to us as Christians, at least, and thereby setting an example for others, that deciding who is unclean and unfit for our company is anathema to God’s Kingdom.  Too many Christians, especially, are overly concerned about who is or who is not welcome at the Table and want to keep the Great Feast all to themselves.

                “The unlearning must have been a shock and threat to Peter, but he does not resist for long. We face no lesser task.” (p.204)

Dale

Wednesday, June 6, 2018

She replied, “That’s true, Lord, but even the dogs under the table are allowed to eat the scraps from the children’s plates.” (Mark 7: 28) 

                Both dogs have completed their annual check-ups and had their various shots just this morning. As vet bills go it was pretty mild – just under $500 for them both. Over the years we probably have spent thousands and thousands of dollars on our pets, and for the most part, with the exception of a couple of emergencies and crises, the costs have covered mostly the basic necessity of maintaining healthy dogs. We never quite get used to the expensive visits to the veterinary but it simply comes with the territory of having and enjoying pets.

These costs are certainly not meager table scraps but as we love our dogs greatly we pay the costs of loving them. Needless to say, they love us back unconditionally. One probably needs to be a pet owner to understand the commitment and the deep bonds and sometimes the sacrifices a pet owner makes.

There are two incidents in the Gospels where a woman challenges Jesus. Both woman are outsiders; carry cultural baggage and are struggling to find their place in the world. One episode is the well-known exchange between Jesus and the Samaritan woman at the well (John 4). But our text is found in the other three Gospels – a foreigner, a Gentile, requests that Jesus help her daughter, described as having an unclean spirit tormenting her.

To our surprise, perhaps, Jesus, at first, is disinclined to attend to her need. In fact, he is kind of rude: “First I should feed the children—my own family, the Jews. It isn’t right to take food from the children and throw it to the dogs.” (v.27) Perhaps, Jesus was a little miffed as it seemed he was hoping for a day off (v.24).  Some might argue that this was an object lesson for his disciples to open the discussion of the Gospel being for all peoples everywhere and he never intended to ignore the woman’s needs.

But the woman stood her ground. She wouldn’t let Jesus off the hook. She didn’t let him get away with the slights he had made. It was a Me -Too moment!  She was not going to take a back seat to the banquet which God was preparing. She belonged at the table. Even dogs got the table scraps and she was no dog! Snap!

Jesus appreciated her spunk and boldness and so acted on behalf of her daughter. By the way, Jesus also valued the frank interaction between himself and the Samaritan woman at the well.  Both incidents affirm that the Good News needs to spread its healing wings beyond the old boundaries of gender, race, pedigree and culture. The Kingdom of Jesus Christ is inclusive and comprehensive. Sometimes, just as Jesus was, we Christians (i.e.  the Church) need to be reminded of this reality and get it right.

Some people treat their dogs and cats better than they treat people. They are more generous and lavish towards their pets and give very little to humanitarian causes and efforts. We certainly need to be kind to our animals and take care of them, but we also have a responsibility for members of the human race, to lift them up and not put them down, to reach out a helping hand and not a closed fist, to treat even the poorest of humanity with dignity and respect instead of judgement and shame.

What we do for Fido and Kitty can surely be shared with others.  

Dale