Wednesday, March 6, 2019 - Ash Wednesday

“I take back everything I said, and I sit in dust and ashes to show my repentance.” (Job 42:6, New Living Translation) 

[Before I begin, everything which I said last week about anticipating a new grandchild in September now goes double.  Our daughter Katie and her husband Gary are also expecting in September. The more, the merrier!]

                Smudges!

                I don’t know about your childhood but I can remember my mother taking out a Kleenex from her purse, wetting it in her mouth with spit and giving me a spit-wash because there was a smudge on my face. It was yucky then and seems as much so today as I recall it.  But heaven forbid if I were to go into church with a smudge on my face – what would people think?

                Yet today, with it being Ash Wednesday and the beginning of Lent, many a person will be leaving their churches with smudges on their foreheads. It is a symbolic action indicating one’s repentance and the beginning of spiritual preparation for Good Friday and then Easter or Resurrection Sunday. It may be accompanied by a day of fasting and prayer.  Some people will give something up for Lent – another symbolic gesture of self-sacrifice as one walks with Christ towards his Cross and the ensuing and unique gift of New Life and New Hope for all of us.

                What will people think if they see a person with a smudge on their foreheads today? I doubt that many will connect a little dirty smudge with faith or spirituality. This isn’t a part of my Baptist tradition but I have used ashes in many an Ash Wednesday service. For example, I have had people write down on slips of paper some hurt, grudge, personal problem, habit or sin which they would like to put away from themselves. Then we have burned those slips of paper with prayers of confession, along with prayers asking for forgiveness, and asking for God’s assistance for the future.  These actions can be very cathartic and liberating. They represent the “taking back” the things that smudge up our lives.

                Ashes are treated very carefully and respectfully in the Jewish rituals and ceremonies of sacrifice in the Old Testament. They are not just tossed to the side of the road and trampled upon and soon forgotten. The refuse of burnt offerings, the unseemly left-overs so to speak, need to be handled with utmost care and deposited in a special spot reserved just for this use, often near the altar. There were special ash buckets or pots used for the ashes’ removal. The priests had to change garments both before and after handling the ashes. In one instance a special purple cloth must cover those ashes. (Interestingly, purple is the liturgical colour of Lent.)

                At the beginning of the book of Job, our tragic hero sits on an ash-heap, ticked off at God and the world, facing his misery and torment with nothing like the patience of Job. From the ashes of his life he demands a trial or fair hearing in which God must state his case against Job and justify the reasons for Job’s pain and suffering. Job is a proud man and believes that he has done nothing to deserve such treatment. But out of his ashes Job never denies God nor abandon his faith. In the midst of his ashen protests he defiantly and faithfully speaks some of the most beautiful words in scripture, “For I know that my redeemer lives and that at the last he will stand upon the earth and after my skin has been thus destroyed then in my flesh I shall see God.” (Job 19:25, New Revised Standard Version)

                In the end he is still sitting on his ash heap but he recognizes that the ashes represent his repentance and he discovers a new-found reverence and need for this great big God in his life. He doesn’t get an easy, simple or perfect answer to all his questions but he gets all the answer he really ever needs.  Job gets a new beginning and a fresh start.  This is what repentance is all about.

God is not giving away spit-washes. We need to take our ashes seriously and bring them back to the altar of God’s Love, Grace and Mercy.  His loving action as in the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, is a fully deep and thorough cleansing of our hearts, souls and spirits, as in the words of the Psalm, “Wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.” (Psalm 51:7, NLT) 

Dale

Wednesday, February 27, 2019

“Everyone who heard about it reflected on these events and asked, ‘What will this child turn out to be?’ For the hand of the Lord was surely upon him in a special way.” (Luke 1:66, New Living Translation)

                If you can’t trust your own children, whom can you trust?

                A little while back, Nick and Erin invited us to come for this past week-end, part of which was to look after the our two grandsons while they went to a “bank appointment” on Saturday.  We didn’t need to be asked twice. A weekend with William and Henry is a real joy!

                On Saturday morning Nick and Erin headed out to their appointment. We played a lot of video games. The boys helped Grandma bake a chocolate cake. More video games. We all were having a great time.

                When Nick and Erin returned, they confessed to us that they had told us a little fib about the reason for their alleged “bank appointment”. They then produced an ultra sound photo of our new-to-be grandchild. They were announcing their pregnancy to us. The baby is due in September.  But we are already very excited about our ever-growing family and couldn’t be happier for them and us.

                As for the fib, well, I am pretty sure that this is not the first time that Nick has misled me…  But under the circumstances who’s to complain?

                What will this child turn out to be? This question which was asked about the child whom we know became John the Baptist is an intriguing question for any parent or even grandparent. The world is bursting both with opportunities as well as challenges for today’s children. Therefore, it is so important to ensure that each and every child is loved, nurtured, encouraged, be well-taught with good values, affirmed, and be given every chance to grow and develop in healthy ways in mind, body and spirit.

                What will this child turn out to be? Certainly, we pray for a healthy child - ten fingers and ten toes and two ears all right where they are supposed to be. But beyond the physical characteristics we  begin to imagine a world in which this about-to-be little one finds his or her place, makes his or her mark,  expresses his or her personality, and becomes the whole person he or she will become.

                Parenting is hard these days. Sometimes we wish we could wrap our children in bubble warp and keep them safe and well. Good parenting takes a lot of patience, constancy, determination, perseverance, good humour, courage, fortitude and a great deal of love and perhaps a dash of good luck every now and then.  To give one’s child a firm foundation in core values and character-building ideals is the onus on every parent, grandparent, or even, as it is on our own family, aunts and uncles. “My child, listen and be wise: Keep your heart on the right course.” (Proverbs 23:19, New Living Translation)

                In some ways, a new-born is a blank slate. How we surround that child with a positive, healthy environment goes a long way as to defining what this child will become.

                Then perhaps, when all is said and done, someone will recognize the sacred heart and soul of the child and discover how the hand of the Lord is upon them in a very special and unique way.

                Without the honey and locusts, I hope!

Dale

Wednesday, February 20, 2019

““Do not judge others, and you will not be judged. Do not condemn others, or it will all come back against you. Forgive others, and you will be forgiven.” (Luke 6:37, The New Living Translation)

                For the first time ever, I have been summoned for jury duty toward the end of March.  I am curious although I am told by others who have done it that it can be a long, tedious process and one might not even get to be chosen in the end. Nevertheless, I am keenly interested in what goes on.

                The accompanying letter to my summons argues that this is my civic responsibility. It also warns me what might happen if I try to shirk it off.  So, I will toddle off and go from there. Maybe I will get to sit on a real juicy case of some kind.

                It is a serious onus to be on a panel of people whose task it is to judge another human being, regardless of what the charge or accusation may be against them. The decision which a jury makes has major and often long-term consequences upon the individual who is under such severe scrutiny.  It is not to be taken lightly.

                 As a Christian I am also beholden to core values such as the forgiveness of others, the avoidance of passing quick and narrow-minded judgment, treating others as I would be treated, turning my other cheek even in the face of violence against me.

                But I would argue that we have become a very judgmental culture and in so doing we have become a very unforgiving and hard-hearted society. We have become skeptical or dubious of apologies and admissions of guilt. We hold on to grudges, mistakes, sins, and embrace these accusations, allegations and even true facts as permanent, life-time charges against those who have committed the deeds. There are few second chances today. And I understand that mere simplistic apologies can’t and won’t fix the terrible atrocities that some have experienced in their past but that doesn’t mean we should never try.

                But it is hard, isn’t it, to determine that fine line between choosing forgiveness and tolerance and choosing not to accept bad behaviour, sinful actions, immoral conduct and serous crime.

To be honest, there have been times when I would just as soon let God or Jesus do the judging. They are far very better equipped to do it than I ever could or would. But neither does that or Jesus’ guidelines take me off the hook as to what it means to face wrongness, sinfulness, atrocities, the mistreatment of others, social ills and those who violate cultural taboos. I can’t bury my head in the sand and hope I never get some sort of existential “jury duty” in the world in which I live. Don’t treat evil with more evil but don’t let it get hold or win the day either. These are not facile choices. They really matter to me and to others whom I face. It makes a difference how I apply judgment in people’s lives.

At best, when faced with these real-life dilemmas, I simply need to take Jesus’ words to heart: “Look beneath the surface so you can judge correctly.” (John 7:24, NLT) Or from the Gospels, I need to pay better attention to these words: “It's easy to see a smudge on your neighbor's face and be oblivious to the ugly sneer on your own.” (Matthew 7: 3, The Message Bible)

On a much more mundane or ordinary level, in the corners and edges  of the world in which we regularly live, in our homes, neighbourhoods, churches and communities, trying to create a decent community, fostering relationships,  building harmony and togetherness, Jesus’ words make a lot of practical, everyday sort of sense: "Don't pick on people, jump on their failures, criticize their faults - unless, of course, you want the same treatment. Don't condemn those who are down; that hardness can boomerang. Be easy on people; you'll find life a lot easier.” (Luke 6:37, The Message Bible)  

Dale

Wednesday, February 13, 2019

“Jesus took the five loaves and two fish, looked up toward heaven, and blessed them. Then, breaking the loaves into pieces, he kept giving the bread and fish to the disciples so they could distribute it to the people.” (Luke 9:16, New Living Translation)

                Recently, I finished an “adult” version of a Lego set which I had received for Christmas. Well, the box claimed it was for ages 12 and up, so I certainly qualify. It was 2049 pieces altogether, some pieces so small that they were about a quarter of the size of the nail of my pinky finger. The instruction booklet alone was 278 pages, painstakingly taking me through each bit of construction, piece by piece, step by step. There were seven stages, each stage coming in 2 or 3 plastic bags, each bag clearly marked as for what stage it was for. I did a stage a day, taking about 2 to 3 hours per each.

                The end result was an old fishing store named Anton’s Bait Shop. There was some amazing detail to the store, both inside and out. There were four Lego characters.  Working from the base up  I had to put together every inch of the shop. There were little tiny lobsters for the crates and sitting on little plastic pieces for ice. There were crabs and seagulls, a cat, fishing poles, life preservers, tools, money even, and on and on.  A whole wall comes open or the roof comes off to reveal the insides of the store. The design is quite ingenious. It was sometimes challenging for my arthritic hands to handle some of the smaller pieces or manage to fit them in to some very tight places. I used tweezers when I could.

                When I first looked at all the pieces, the size of the instruction manual or the smallness of what I was dealing with, it felt a little overwhelming and daunting. But I got it done. There were no missing pieces. In fact, the kit gave me extras of many of the smallest pierces (at least, I hope they were extra!)

                I am never, ever taking it apart! It will be passed on to my children and my grandchildren to fight over!

                I can hardly blame the disciples’ skepticism and reluctance when Jesus challenged them to feed the crowd of over 5000 people to whom Jesus had just finished speaking and healing. That is a lot of pieces of humanity who were tired and hungry.  The disciples had urged Jesus to send them all away to fend for themselves, “for we are in a deserted place.” Right away, our ears should perk up - a wilderness is almost always a sign that God is going to do something special.

                We always seem to make excuses when faced with a daunting and challenging project. “Let the pastor do it.” “Let the government do it.” “Find someone else to take care of it.” “It’s not my job.” “I don’t know how.” “It’s too hard.” “I’m busy!” “We don’t have the resources or the money to do it.” The disciples were no different when Jesus told them to feed everybody: “But we have only five loaves of bread and two fish,” they answered. “Or are you expecting us to go and buy enough food for this whole crowd?” (Luke 9:13, NLT)

                Their cold calculations didn’t add up to the challenge they faced.  But Jesus did not give up and abandon the project of providing a meal. He poured himself into the venture. Were 5000 people a number too big? He couldn’t and wouldn’t ignore them. “He took the five loaves and two fish, lifted his face to heaven in prayer, blessed, broke, and gave the bread and fish to the disciples to hand out to the crowd.” (Luke 9:16, The Message Bible)

                The pieces of bread and fish came together to make a full meal, , enough to feed every single person on that hill, a foreshadowing of the abundant life that will be part of the New Reality (i.e. the Kingdom) that is yet to come. “Give us our daily bread.” Feed me ‘til I want no more. And make sure my neighbour gets fed too, as much or more than I am fed.  There are enough pieces for everyone.

                In fact, there is more, extra, left-overs, additional bits and pieces that will feed us not only today but tomorrow as well.

                Imagine that!

Dale

Wednesday, February 6, 2019

“But the gateway to life is very narrow and the road is difficult, and only a few ever find it.” (Matthew 7:14, New Living Translation)

                My GPS failed me! Just when I needed it, it let me down.

                There we were on a Saturday night, headed to the Keg restaurant in Oakville to take Susan’s Mom and Dad out for dinner to celebrate my father-in-law’s birthday. I had studied my Google maps before we left and I thought I knew how to find the restaurant. But I obviously hadn’t remembered what I thought I had seen – some road just south, off of Dundas St.  I was in the area but I had not yet found the right road, even after a couple of pass-bys where I was almost sure it was supposed to be.

                So I stopped on a side street to consult with my trusty Google maps on my cell phone and discovered, to my dismay, that it wouldn’t download properly. I still couldn’t find my way. It gave me a blank screen and then told me that it couldn’t connect me to the app. How frustrating.

                We ended up eating at another restaurant and had a great time just the same. All’s well that ends well.

                My kids laugh at my poor tech know-how. So, I took the phone in to my provider. It turns out that the location finder was not activated. Who knew I had a location finder button? She did this and then that and in less than 30 seconds I was connected.

                There is a parable in this experience I suspect. Or at least a metaphor or two.

                In our text Jesus has reminded us that it is not as easy as we may think to achieve that level of life which is full of love, grace, harmony and shalom as we think. Some people make very poor choices and may end up lost and confused and wondering why their moral compass has mislead them.

Some chase down dead-ends and take detours. Some start out on the best road  but are easily distracted and head off in other directions.

Some think that they have the right direction all figured out and then hit a bump in the road, have an accident or find themselves at the side of the road and wonder when and why it all went wrong.

Some keep trying to find their way but stubbornly never stop to ask for the proper directions and waste their time and end up elsewhere than what they had intended.

                It is a little disappointing or discouraging to hear Jesus say that few of us ever actually find the real, deep, meaningful, purposeful, joyful source of Life, both now and everlasting.  But I don’t think he means for us to give up either. Afterall he also said, “Keep on asking, and you will receive what you ask for. Keep on seeking, and you will find. Keep on knocking, and the door will be opened to you.” (Matthew 7:7)  

The Good Life that we seek may take some careful navigation in order to make the right and best choices to get ourselves on the right road and then stay the course.  We will have to trust the coordinates that Jesus has set out for us with his directions for love, forgiveness, mercy, compassion, truth, justice and all forms of righteousness.

“Let me hear of your unfailing love each morning, for I am trusting you. Show me where to walk, for I give myself to you.” (Psalm 143:8, NLT)

Dale

               

Wednesday, January 30, 2019

“For my thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways my ways, says the Lord.” (Isaiah 55:8, New Revised Standard Version) 

A sentence in my devotional book by Walter Brueggemann has caught my interest over the week-end.  He wrote, “We may ponder how God’s extraordinary power may yet unsettle our settled ordinary.”  (Gift and Task, p.56)

He uses some examples from the Bible in which the personalities could have settled for the ordinary, the obvious, the inevitable, the predictable, or the safest thing. Instead God encouraged these people to push their expectations, to look further, to open up their limitations and boundaries and experience something new and different and sometimes even radical in their lives.  He uses the phrase “it would be ordinary” for these folk to simply go along with the usual and normal responses to their situations -  looking out for number one, resigning themselves to their “fate”, and accepting the consequences.

But instead the love from God initiates and elicits a new and more lively imaginative hope that runs counter to the ordinary. Take any of the healing stories in the Gospels, for example. But two stories stand out for me. 

The first is the Samaritan woman whom Jesus met at the well and who engaged in a lively, smart, personal dialogue with Jesus that centred on her ordinary life – made ordinary by endless trips to the well, doing the same old thing over and over again, dragged down by several, possibly failed marriages. Jesus interrupted the ordinary routines of her life and challenged her to make better choices and take a leap of faith.

The other example is the paralyzed man who had sat at the pool-side in Jerusalem for thirty-eight years waiting for his opportunity to be put in the water for a chance to be healed. The ordinary was that he was perpetually disappointed. The ordinary was constant failure and frustration. The ordinary was always just another day at the pool. Jesus interrupted that fruitless cycle and invited the man to take a bold, new, audacious step away from his oh-so familiar and ordinary existence and was made well. “My Father is still working and I also am working.” (John 5:17, NRSV)

Brueggemann makes the point, “The gospel is inherently subversive of all the ordinary protocols that we assume as tried and true. The oft-reiterated truth of the gospel is that the power of the God is not contained within the claims of business as usual.”

“Nor are my ways your ways!” says the Lord. This seems to be often expressed by the spectacular ability of Jesus to intrude upon the ordinary and make us aware that there is more to the world around us.

By stepping outside the ordinary I am not suggesting that we take up sky-diving, climb mountains, or move to a new country. But I am suggesting to open our spirits to the energy and movement of God’s Spirit, to look at ourselves and our neighbours and our world with renewed vision and a different set of criteria than the ordinary that the politicians, the media and the culture insist we cling to. Let the Spirit of Jesus Christ interrupt the fashionable, the presumptions, the assumptions, the tired old beliefs, the dogmatic approach, the weary traditionalism that weigh us down and keep us living sinful and empty lives.

There is a better way!

Jesus said, not in a spirit of exclusivism but in a spirit of invitation and welcome, "I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me” (John 14:6) Jesus is saying that one does not need the Roman Way, the way of the pharisee, the way  of old laws and prohibitions, the way of accepting the ordinary and mundane and inevitable, the way of blindness, limping, paralysis and blindness, the way of Sin, but the Way with God is altogether a new and different Way, the Way to renewal, to discover a new and fresh experience of Creation itself.

Dale

Wednesday, January 23, 2019

“But God told Samuel, ‘Looks aren't everything. Don't be impressed with his looks and stature. I've already eliminated him. God judges persons differently than humans do. Men and women look at the face; God looks into the heart.” (1 Samuel 16:7, The Message Bible) 

                Beauty, so some say, is only skin deep.

                One source gives some British noble, Sir Thomas Overbury,  credit for coming up with  this proverb in 1613. But I might argue that Samuel had it first, long before then. Overbury was writing about his wife and her “carnal beauty” and I doubt she much appreciated it, although maybe he appreciated her mind as well as her good looks. Samuel was talking about one of Jesse’ strong, good-looking sons, Eliab, whom he rejected for kingship over Israel and chose the little shepherd boy David, the baby in the family.

                I had some skin removed last week for some small bit of basil-cell skin cancer on my right ear. I get the stitches removed today. I am assured that there is no grave or serious danger in this type of skin cancer. I will remain as handsome as ever.  It seems just another sign of growing older.

But it has reminded me of the stories of Jesus and his encounters with those who were lepers during those times. Now leprosy, biblically speaking, may cover a multitude of skin diseases and not just what we now know as true leprosy or Hansen’s disease. Canker sores, ugly rashes, and other skin deformities and abnormalities had all the same effect on the poor souls who suffered them – ostracization from their families and communities, shunned by the world around them and avoided by everyone. They were deemed as unclean, defiled, sinful and unapproachable. It is said that they were forced to wear bells around their necks so as to let the good citizens know they were in the vicinity.

Their skin made them ugly and unwanted.

So, what comes out of the Gospels is Jesus’ willing approach to meet lepers, interact with them and of course, in a number of cases, heal them from their skin diseases. In some cases, we are told he would touch them to do so. He did not run away; rather he ran toward them.

                It would be likely that his actions would disgust some of the “clean” population. It might have put fear into them to keep their distance from Jesus, too, before he contracted the same disease. Many may have thought he was crazy to have anything to do with lepers. It was scandalous and highly impious for Jesus to relate in any way with “these kinds of people.”

                But since Jesus was acting as God would act, he would look deeper than the superficiality of  flawless skin. I am assuming that Jesus, too, looked deeper into the heart, soul and spirit of the person and saw more than the blemishes, scars, physical flaws, and ugliness that lay on the surface.

                Jesus looked through the community’s shallow standards of beauty and acceptance and broke down barriers that kept people from community, from fellowship, and replaced rejection and judgement with acceptance, love and inclusion.

                Perhaps, there is no greater example of his Kingdom values than his breaking the shackles of judging people by superficial, artificial criteria instead of embracing them in the fellowship of Christian love and grace. He was clear that this responsibility was also passed on to his church: “Heal the sick, raise the dead, cure those with leprosy, and cast out demons. Give as freely as you have received!” (Matthew 10:8)

                It then challenges me not to assess people based on the colour of their skin, the beauty of their faces, their disabilities, their sexual orientation, the poor clothes which they wear, the hungry look in their eyes, or whatever their so-called differences may be which all too often condemn these, our brothers and sisters, to live outside our acceptance and love. Some Christians can be the worst for perpetuating leper status, in the broadest sense of the word, on people who don’t fit their ideas of purity and norms. Talk about body-shaming!

                Thank goodness, we have Jesus who stands as a bold corrective to these dogmatic definitions of beauty. Men and women may look at the face but God looks at the heart.

Dale