Wednesday, June 26, 2024

“Then the Lord God planted a garden in Eden in the east, and there he placed the man he had made. The Lord God made all sorts of trees grow up from the ground—trees that were beautiful and that produced delicious fruit. In the middle of the garden, he placed the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil… The Lord God placed the man in the Garden of Eden to tend and watch over it. “ (Genesis 2: 8 -9, 15, New Living Translation)

               “They paved paradise and put up a parking lot.”  (Joni  Mitchell)

                Or in this case, the city plans to put in pickleball courts on a small piece of land called Bonnerworth Park. I think calling it a “park” is a bit of an overreach. It is basically a very large empty piece of grass and dirt with a small sandlot ball diamond and a really ugly, cement  skateboard park nearby. We are not talking trees, flowers, fountains and some serene piece of nature in which to meditate and pray.

                But not that long ago, they built a senior’s apartment complex next to the park. This is where NIMBYism comes to play. People are up in arms over the creation of the pickleball courts in Bonnerworth Park. There was a huge rally at City Hall just last night. There are “Save Bonnerworth Park” signs sprouting up on people’s lawns. There is a lot of NIMBYism in our city be it over small apartment buildings, road changes, shelters, etc. All cities have it; ours is perhaps more noticeable because we are just a small city.

The seniors don’t want the pickleball courts because of the nose and traffic. Pickleball is a relatively new sports fad, sort of like ping pong on a small tennis court. I’ve watched pickleball for about five minutes – really, really boring. Better to play than watch, I guess. It does not strike me as a very noisy, rambunctious, boisterous game but what do I know? Nobody complains about the lawn bowling club just across the street. And you know how rowdy those lawn bowlers can get.

The public outrage, limited as it may be, would make you think that they were indeed paving over  paradise.

But every since God put humankind in Eden, the relationship between nature and humankind has been complicated. We are told through Adam and Eve to be good stewards of the planet, “to tend and watch over it.” But not long after, they botch it and got tossed out of the Garden. And we have been looking for it ever since and still botching it. Think of all the good farm land that has been plowed under for highways that we don’t really need. Think of the beautiful shorelines of our Great Lakes which were taken over by factories, plants and manufacturers or the rivers into which has been dumped chemicals and the like. Think of strip mining or lumber deforestation. Think of forest fires. Urban sprawl. Over fishing.  Bonnerworth Park is a small spit in the ocean.

            Don't it always seem to go
            That you don't know what you've got 'til it's gone
            They paved paradise, put up a parking lot.

I don’t know about you but I am almost weary to be the bone about environmental stories – climate change, natural disasters, heat warnings like they were the apocalypse, endangered species, carbon taxes which I don’t understand at all, etc. It’s not that I don’t care but there is nothing much that I personally can do about these global issues beyond getting my recycling out. Maybe I should join the climate protesters and the like but they seem for the most part to be a little too radical in their action’s.

But it is important, I know, for each of us to do our small part to be good stewards of this planet. Perhaps, the City would do well to put in a beautiful, small landscaped park instead of the hot tarmac of a pickleball court.

But as summer begins, a most beautiful time of the year, please stop, pause, take in the beauty around you. Soak it in. Enjoy the scenery. Listen to the birds. Breathe deeply. Quiet your soul. Watch out the for the unexpected taste of paradise.  Once, when we were in Florida, I was sitting out enjoying the morning sunlight when a flamingo flew over and its plumage caught the rays of the sun and “exploded” in a ball of florescent pink. It was a sacred moment in so many ways.

        This is my Father’s world,
        And to my list’ning ears
        All nature sings, and round me rings
        The music of the spheres.
        This is my Father’s world:
        I rest me in the thought
        Of rocks and trees, of skies and seas—
        His hand the wonders wrought. (M. Babcock)

Dale

Wednesday, June 19, 2024

“The Lord himself watches over you! The Lord stands beside you as your protective shade. The sun will not harm you by day, nor the moon at night.”  (Psalm 121: 5 -6, New Living Translation)

                Oh, no! The moon is drifting away from earth! Oh, what shall we do?

                This morning, I read an article that informed me that the moon is slowly drifting away from earth – at a rate of 1.5 inches a year. I am sure that doomsday folk will be quoting texts like Matthew 24, verse 29: “Immediately after the anguish of those days, the sun will be darkened, the moon will give no light, the stars will fall from the sky, and the powers in the heavens will be shaken.”  But at such a slow pace, they might have to wait a while for the Second Coming. I think what matters here is that this drifting moon means that our days are getting longer, more than 24 hours. Just what we need - longer hot days, longer work hours, longer school days, longer times waiting, longer everything!  Yikes!

                When God created the earth, he began by creating light. (Perhaps, he simply wanted to be able to see what he was doing through the rest of Creation.) God saw that this new light was good. Day and night were established. By the fourth day of Creation, God created “lights in the dome of the sky to separate the day from night.” (Genesis 1:14) This included “two great lights” – the sun and the moon. It was a good day indeed. “Give thanks to him who made the heavenly lights - His faithful love endures forever; the sun to rule the day, His faithful love endures forever and the moon and stars to rule the night. His faithful love endures forever.”  (Psalm 136: 7 -9)

                These lights like the sun and the moon remind us of God’s constancy, faithfulness, creative power and eternal Presence in our world. “When I look at the night sky and see the work of your fingers - the moon and the stars you set in place - what are mere mortals that you should think about them, human beings that you should care for them?” (Psalm 8: 3 - 4)

                The moon is an important part of many religions and cultures. It is romanticized in poetry and song. When the moon eclipses the sun, that is a big deal.  Every full moon has a nick name. e.g. this month it is the Strawberry Moon. The moon, of course, affects the tides. The moon’s cycles determine the months and years. There is nothing more beautiful than a full moon shining across the waters, laying a golden, yellow path of light. “You made the moon to mark the seasons, and the sun knows when to set.” (Psalm 104:19)

                The thought of the moon drifting away is almost like thinking that God is drifting away. We take a lot of things for granted, just assuming that things are always going to be the way it has always been. Our loved ones will always be there. The church will always be there. Our friends will always be there. Our freedoms will always be there. Our good health will always be there. Our financial resources will always be there. Our faith will always be there when we need it. The moon will always be there. God will always be there. Complacency sets in.  We may not notice the slight changes that erode our relationships with others or with God. We may not notice the creeping separation between ourselves and the sources of Light that we have always counted upon.

                We cannot stop the moon from its slowly drifting path nor should we even worry about that. But we can address our own drifting from the sources of Light. We can resolve to take back the distances we have lost by paying more careful and intentional attention to the sources of goodness, life, faith and sacredness. Let’s not take for granted God’s Love, Grace, Forgiveness and Mercy. Let us not neglect those actions which bring us closer to Jesus Christ. Let us not become nonchalant about our family, friends, fellow believers, even strangers. Those things pull us apart.

We need to be closer together, closer to God and Christ. Closer to the Light: “The Word gave life to everything that was created, and his life brought light to everyone. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness can never extinguish it.” (John 1: 4 -5)

                “May he equip you with all you need for doing his will. May he produce in you, through the power of Jesus Christ, every good thing that is pleasing to him. All glory to him forever and ever! Amen.” (Hebrews 13:21)

                Forever and ever. For many, many moons. And that’s a long, long time!

 Dale

Wednesday, June 12, 2024

“Therefore, my beloved, just as you have always obeyed me, not only in my presence but much more now in my absence, work on your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who is at work in you, enabling you both to will and to work for his good pleasure.” (Philippians 2: 12 -13, New Revised Standard Version)

               I think I would rather have surgery on my other shoulder than have to deal with our cable/internet/telephone provider who shall remain nameless. It’s a bit of a long story but bear with me and I hope it will connect to today’s text.

                Last August, when our basement was flooded and had to be gutted to fix the problems that were caused, our communications hub was affected by the outcome. As we plugged things back in, everything worked but our cordless phones. So, I phoned our provider. A nice young woman answered. She asked for our password. I didn’t have a clue. Sorry, but she couldn’t help unless  I gave our password. I didn't even know I had a password.  She had my phone number, street address.  Didn’t matter; no password, no help. I gave her the name of my firstborn, my mother’s maiden name, all the names of our dogs we ever had (slightly exaggerating). Still, no password, no service.

Then she suggested that I give her the serial number off the modem. I told her that even if I could see the numbers in the dark, I wouldn’t be able to read them as they were too small. She suggested I use a magnifying glass. That’s when I asked for her supervisor and got the same runaround. He finally condescended to look at our service. He told me that everything looked just fine on their end and we needed to basically work out the problem for ourselves and gave us a couple of suggestions that might help. As my mother might say, it was enough to make a preacher swear. But with the help of a stranger, I actually did get the phones working again.  I am sure that there is red flag on our account that warns their customer service people of a rude, crotchety old man. Tough!

                Phones went out again this week. I was readying for battle when Susan took over. She was sweetness and light and faced none of the issues I had. Again, they tried to fix it from their end but couldn’t. We needed a modem upgrade. They could mail us a new one or we could go the store and pick it up ourselves. We had to go down into the basement and figure out all the many cords which needed to be unplugged, go to their store, go through their rigmarole for the exchange of modems and then go back home and try to remember where all the cords should go. We were given a help sheet, just in case. I don’t know what it would actually take to get a service call. It always seemed that we had to work out the fix for the problem ourselves for the most part. Phones seem to be working. Good news is that we now have a password. Yippee!

                It seemed that the cable company wanted us to work it our on our own. As long as everything was fine on their end, we needed to work out the solutions or go the extra mile and make the effort to solve our issues.

                Paul tells his readers to work out their salvation with fear and trembling. God has freely set things right between him and us through Jesus Christ. We have salvation by grace. Everything is just fine on God’s end. Now, it is up to us to figure out what to do with this marvelous gift of salvation. We have all the necessary parts. We have the instructions i.e. the Bible. We have the help of fellow believers. God has gifted us with talents, skills and abilities and hopefully, the intelligence to figure out how to make this salvation system work.

                Although Paul affirms that salvation is a gift and we can’t work to earn it, he is certainly not opposed to good works. In fact, he insists upon it. Good works are the necessary response to the salvation we have been given. Neither God nor Jesus can do good works for us – we must work these things out for ourselves. It is not enough to know the password – Jesus Christ – one has to work out the responsibility of one’s faith in order for it to be in good working order. (Maybe, Jesus is more like the modem, in some ways.)

                “Remember, there is only one foundation, the one already laid: Jesus Christ. Take particular care in picking out your building materials. Eventually there is going to be an inspection. If you use cheap or inferior materials, you’ll be found out. The inspection will be thorough and rigorous. You won’t get by with a thing. If your work passes inspection, fine; if it doesn’t, your part of the building will be torn out and started over. But you won’t be torn out; you’ll survive—but just barely.” (1 Corinthians 3: 11 -15, The Message)

                My mother also had another saying, God helps those who help themselves. It may be exasperating if all we do is wait for God to “fix” all our problems when we ourselves need to work with God and do our part in living up to his gracious Love and Mercy. We are God’s partners throughout his plan for salvation. “And I am certain that God, who began the good work within you, will continue his work until it is finally finished on the day when Christ Jesus returns.” (Philippians 1:6)

Dale

 

Wednesday, June 5, 2024

“But when the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, then he will sit upon his glorious throne. All the nations will be gathered in his presence, and he will separate the people as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. He will place the sheep at his right hand and the goats at his left.” (Matthew 25: 31 -33, New Living Translation)

               I like goats. They are smart,  sassy, playful, mischievous and bounding with energy. If I was twenty years younger, I would like to have a small hobby farm with several goats and a couple of donkeys thrown in for good measure. Susan gave me a book a few years ago entitled Raising Goats for Dummies.

                I do have a support/therapy goat – more precisely, a screaming goat.  Okay, it is a little plastic goat which sits on a little plastic stump. When I press down on it, it lets out an unholy and un-goatlike scream.  I use it when the Blue Jays are playing badly (I might wear it out by season’s end). I press it when my app games frustrate me. I press it when the grackles are gorging themselves at the bird feeder and letting no other bird near. Sometimes, I just press it and let the goat scream for no apparent reason other than it feels good.

                Biblical goats have a right to scream. Goats are regular fodder for burnt sacrifices, especially for sin offerings.  “That is why I am sacrificing burnt offerings to you— the best of my rams as a pleasing aroma, and a sacrifice of bulls and male goats.” (Psalm 66:15) Come to think of it, I do like curried goat, but I digress. Levitical law describes how a flawless goat will have the sins of the people heaped upon its head and be sent out into the wilderness to face almost certain death, giving us the term “scapegoat,” someone to blame, often unfairly, when things go wrong.

                Then, of course, we have Jesus’ parable about the sheep and the goats. The sheep come out smelling like pure-as-the driven-snow lambs and the goats come our smelling like, well, like smelly old goats. In sports, GOAT means Greatest Of All Time. In Biblical terms a goat is a lost cause.

                I can empathize a little with the goats. They are not innately bad, just thoughtless. They fail to recognize those moments around them in which they could be active agents of Jesus Christ. Maybe they are too busy frolicking, playing around, being mischievous, bleating, butting heads to care about the social injustices that surround them. There is an implied sense that they think they know Jesus or would recognize him if they bothered to look, but they don’t. Or, at least, they only expected to see  Jesus where he belongs – in church, in holy places, in sacred texts, in their own familiar herds. Despite all the Gospel evidence to the contrary, the human goats don’t relate to Jesus’ ministry to the poor, the hungry, the homeless, the outcast, the broken, the sick, the imprisoned, the thirsty. They blow their chance to, at least, join the sheep.

                It is enough to make a person scream.

                But the portrayal is enough to make me ask how often in a week  do I miss some opportunity to do something  good for someone else? It is so easy to pass by on the other side. It is simple to turn off the news and live in my own little private corner of the world.  I am not talking about doing something religious, something saintly, something pious but a simple act of kindness, compassion and caring.

                There is a children’s Sunday School song that has the repeated lines in one of its many verses, “Don't wanna be a goat…nope.” The title verse goes: “I just wanna be a sheep. Baa, baa, baa, baa. I just wanna be a sheep. Baa, baa, baa, baa. I pray the Lord my soul to keep. I just wanna be a sheep. Baa, baa, baa, baa.”

                Thankfully, Jesus is the Good Shepherd and I hope and believe that he will yet make room for even us goats if we heed the warning in the parable to get off our little plastic wooden stumps and make a difference with a little love.

                Baa, indeed!

Dale

Wednesday, May 29

“But now you have arrived at your destination: By faith in Christ, you are in direct relationship with God. Your baptism in Christ was not just washing you up for a fresh start. It also involved dressing you in an adult faith wardrobe—Christ’s life, the fulfillment of God’s original promise.” (Galatians 3:25 -27, The Message Bible)

             Perhaps, the Church is not fading away as I sometimes fear.

The evil one certainly used Covid to do a lot of damage to Jesus’ Church but the Church has always had to resist the storms of forces rising against it from without and sometimes, sadly, from within. But it has always had remarkable resilience even in the face of challenges.

                On Sunday, we watched on-line as five youth were baptised during the service at Yorkminster Park Baptist Church in Toronto. Imagine that, five young people eagerly and willingly embracing Jesus Christ and his Church. Shout out to the faith nurturing abilities of our church. Five young people have publicly proclaimed Jesus Christ as their Lord and Saviour. Wow!!!

                I remember once in my church in Pointe Claire, Quebec, hosting a group of high school students from a nearby high school. It was as “school trip” during their religious studies period. When I showed them the baptismal tank in the sanctuary, there were several reactions – shock, amusement, curiosity, fascination, incredulity to name a few. The baptismal event represented an unfamiliar world to most of them. It was strange.

                And that’s okay. It is a symbolic act which makes us different as we pass through the waters. It’s not meant to be just ordinary or “normal”. We are imitating the death and resurrections of Jesus in a symbolic form. It causes a disruption in the ways we were living and sets out new and fresh guidelines for our future ways of living. It represents a new road map. A baptized individual has “put on Christ, like putting on new clothes.” (New Living Translation) It is a show of faith and self-understanding. It is both proclamation and profession. It comes with new expectations and fresh responsibilities. It should ascribe to a growing maturity and a resolve to follow Christ under whatever life has in store for us. “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, NLT)

                Baptism doesn’t make us any better than any one else. It doesn’t mean that life will be all honey and roses. It doesn’t mean that we are experts on faith and belief. I see baptism as more of a doorway, one with a huge welcome sign over the top of the door. Jesus has knocked and we have dared answer. Once we step through that door, we are committed to walking in a new life. We are taking the first steps of a life’s journey. Baptism is but the beginning, our first steps of faith and practice.

                I have encountered a few people who wanted to be baptized but were shy of making such a public show of faith. They asked for a private ceremony. I tried to persuade them that part of the awesome experience is to do so in a public way. I have baptized youth who saw it as a ticket not to go to church any longer as teens. But maybe something has stuck that will do them well in adulthood.  I have baptized a person in her nineties. That was a thrill. I have baptized someone with a physical handicap. We adapted the tank. I have baptized someone in a back yard swimming pool. I have baptized one or two who were way bigger than I was. Every baptism is a unique, small miracle of sorts. Especially, once you know that I am terrified of deep water. For a while I had to suck up my courage to just get in the tank even though the water was only up to my waist. It sounds silly but it did get better the longer that I was in pastoral ministry.

                Baptism is not then for the faint-hearted. It is an action which defies worldly standards and secular norms. Just as the minister takes the candidate by the hands to lower the person into the water, so Jesus takes us by our hearts and raises us up to walks with him. We are making a bold statement – that we belong to Jesus Christ.

                Hallelujah!

Dale

Wednesday, May 22, 2024

“How beautiful on the mountains are the feet of the messenger who brings good news, the good news of peace and salvation, the news that the God of Israel reigns!” (Isaiah 52:7, New Living Translation)

“The time promised by God has come at last!” he announced. “The Kingdom of God is near! Repent of your sins and believe the Good News!” (Mark 1:15)

             It is enough to give me heartburn or indigestion.

Every morning, while having my breakfast of toast and coffee, I watch the headline news on CP24 out of Toronto. Every morning, it seems to be a litany of shootings, stabbings, hit-and-run fatalities, weather disasters, wars and sleazy trials. Bad news is rampant.  I am just skimming the surface by only reading the headlines, but I’m not sure I want to hear or know the whole stories behind and beyond those headlines. After breakfast, I go on-line to Google News and CBC news and Peterborough Examiner. I must be a bearer for punishment as it is more of the same. I may read a couple of stories that pique my curiosity. I stick mostly to sports but even that is disappointing if one is a Blue Jays’ fan.

I need some Good News. More than just how a fireman rescued a cat stuck up in a tree.  Something that is real good news. Something that makes me pause and consider its truth and purpose. Something that speaks to me and sparks some hope, joy, understanding and invites me to live in a world which is under the guidance and purview of God, rather than overrun by sin, violence, hatred, evil, humanity’s foibles and failings.  I need some good news that resists those stories, that challenges those stories, that overcomes those stories, that promises me that there is way more to life than just these stories.

Then Jesus enters my world - your world.

Something begins to change. God is closer than we thought. The winds (i.e. Holy Spirit) of radical change are beginning to blow. There is an alternative to the bad news of the world. Jesus is now the supreme difference maker in our world. He gives you and me a real chance to survive in the midst of worldly chaos, confusion and disturbance. As the angel predicted at the very outset: “Don’t be afraid!” he said. “I bring you good news that will bring great joy to all people.” (Luke 2: 10)

Throughout the book of Acts, which chronicles the activities of the early church the message about Jesus is always referred to as Good News. “This is the message of Good News for the people of Israel—that there is peace with God through Jesus Christ, who is Lord of all.” (Acts 10: 36) But just for Israel but for all people everywhere and anytime. The world in those days was no better or worse than the world we live in, but the Good News rises above the din and invites us to share in its power and encouragement: “We have come to bring you the Good News that you should turn from these worthless things and turn to the living God, who made heaven and earth, the sea, and everything in them.” (Acts 154: 15)

The apostle Paul usually refers to the message about Jesus as Good News: “I do everything to spread the Good News and share in its blessings.” (1 Corinthians 9:23) This Good News which includes salvation, redemption, freedom, all because of Jesus Christ, separates us from the world, even though we should never give up on the world. “This same Good News that came to you is going out all over the world. It is bearing fruit everywhere by changing lives, just as it changed your lives from the day you first heard and understood the truth about God’s wonderful grace.”  (Colossians 1:6)

Good News for you and me – Jesus loves you and me. Good News – we are not alone. Good News – we are not abandoned. Good News – God is at work in this world, even against the powers and principalities who oppose him.  Good News – there will be peace and salvation.

Come, Lord Jesus, come!

 Dale

Wednesday, May 15, 2024

“Wherever your treasure is, there the desires of your heart will also be.” (Matthew 6:21, The Living Translation)

                I am not so much a techno-phobe as I am a techno klutz. Just ask my children. I get by with the basics on my computers and cell phone as long as it doesn’t get too complicated – which doesn’t take much. But generally, I am not too keen on getting whatever is the latest technological gadget that is out in the market.

                Which is why I am not interested in the gizmo they have been pushing on TV ads – a heart monitor that is linked to your cell phone. Just place you index fingers on a small pad and it will send your heart rates to your cell phone. Yikes! Just what I need (not) – something that will invite me to obsess about the condition of my heart. Am I having a heart attack yet? No? Ok, what about now? Wait. What about now?  Perhaps, if one has a serious heart condition, it might be helpful but people have their noses buried enough already in their hand-held devices. Do I really need another futile distraction in my day? Mind you, sitting in my big blue, comfy recliner, it may remind me that I, at least, have a pulse.

                Not that acknowledging that one has a heart condition is a bad thing.

                I am drawn to Jesus’ words about the connection between the heart and our desires.  Here’s the Message rendition: “Don’t hoard treasure down here where it gets eaten by moths and corroded by rust or—worse!—stolen by burglars. Stockpile treasure in heaven, where it’s safe from moth and rust and burglars. It’s obvious, isn’t it? The place where your treasure is, is the place you will most want to be, and end up being.” Jesus once challenged his critics for their hypocrisy: “For whatever is in your heart determines what you say.” (Mathew 12:34) Their hearts were bitter, judgmental, scornful. Jesus went on to say, “A good person produces good things from the treasury of a good heart, and an evil person produces evil things from the treasury of an evil heart” (12:.35).

                In biblical terms, the heart was the symbolic source of one’s emotions, feelings, motives, character and passion.  Our hearts can turn on our neighbours or family and friends. ”Neighbors lie to each other, speaking with flattering lips and deceitful hearts.” (Psalm 12: 2) We can feel discouraged, forsaken, lonely, lost “Why am I discouraged? Why is my heart so sad?” (Psalm 42:5) If one is apart from God, one has a heart condition: “Only fools say in their hearts, ‘There is no God.’ They are corrupt, and their actions are evil; not one of them does good!” (Psalm 53: 1) Or in Jesus’ words, “For from the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, all sexual immorality, theft, lying, and slander.” (Matthew 15:19)

                It is hard to change the desires of one’s heart. It can be hard to go from some bad thoughts to good thoughts. It can be a challenge to turn our hearts inside out from selfishness to loving kindness. It can be a test of our character to let go of all the unrealistic desires of our hearts and rediscover a different heart rhythm that embraces others, that seeks love, that seeks God in the goodness of life. “Create in me a clean heart, O God. Renew a loyal spirit within me.” (Psalm 51: 10)

                Jesus gave us his advice about the heart: “Don’t let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God, and trust also in me.” (John 14:1) It may sound somewhat sentimental to say, “I have given my heart to Jesus” but to connect our hearts’ desires based, not on or by the world’s standards, but based on the Love and character of Jesus is good medicine for the heart. Jesus’ heart encourages our hearts to beat with Love, forgiveness, mercy, compassion, justice and good works. “I am leaving you with a gift—peace of mind and heart. And the peace I give is a gift the world cannot give. So don’t be troubled or afraid.” (John 14:27)

                It is smart to do a heart physical check-up, so why not give your spiritual heart a check-up?

                “God blesses those whose hearts are pure, for they will see God.” (Matthew 5:8)

 Dale