Easter - First Day of New Creation

Easter celebrates the start of the new creation!

Anglican Bishop N. T. Wright has written extensively on Jesus, the early believers and their church and especially about the amazing resurrection of Jesus, something no one was expecting, and an event that started a movement that set out to change the world.  In his book “Simply Jesus” on page 191:

“When Jesus rose from the dead on Easter morning, he rose as the beginning of the new world that Israel’s God had always intended to make.  That is the first and most important thing to know about Easter.”

“This is the real beginning of the kingdom.  Jesus’ risen person - body, mind, heart and soul - is the prototype of the new creation.  We have already seen him as the Temple in person, as the jubilee in person.  Now we see him as the new creation in person.”

In his book “Surprised by Hope”, Wright has a whole chapter:  “Reshaping the Church for Mission: Living the Future”.  He tries to get us excited about Easter:

“Easter is about the wild delight of God’s creative power . . . It’s about the real Jesus coming out of the real tomb and getting God’s real new creation under way . . . This is our greatest festival . . . This is our greatest day.”

He goes on to say that we each have a role to play in advancing this kingdom in this very real world of space, time and matter, we should not simply give up on this world.  “We must, rather, claim it for the kingdom of God, for the lordship of Jesus, and in the power of the Spirit, so that we can go out and work for that kingdom, announce that lordship and effect change through that power.”

Wright points out that if we are to be the agents of change for God’s kingdom, we must accept “that the whole world is now God’s holy land, we must not rest as long as that land is spoiled and defaced.  This is not extra to the church’s mission.  It is central.”

Working for this kingdom is a huge responsibility, and he adds “when the church is living out the kingdom of God, the word of God will spread powerfully and do its own work.”

He ends the book with one of his Easter sermons, in which he says, “When the final resurrection occurs, as the centerpiece of God’s new creation, we will discover that everything done in the present world in the power of Jesus’ own resurrection will be celebrated and included, appropriately transformed.”

Lots to get excited about, lots to do to work toward the fulfillment of this new creation!

The Day We Call Good Friday

On this day we commemorate the execution of a man who claimed to be the Messiah for the Jews.  For those who believed him and were watching at the time, it looked like just another bitterly disappointing tragedy.  Other would-be messiahs had risen to prominence and had been crushed and executed by the Romans, so the disappointed onlookers had little hope for any other outcome.

But what was unfolding was an event of cosmos shaking significance: evil was being defeated on that Friday and a new kingdom would be launched on Sunday. 

Reflecting on Jesus’ crucifixion, a concise and powerful depiction of the meaning of the cross is found in Brian McLaren’s book “Generous Orthodoxy”, page 105:

“Absorbing the worst that human beings can offer - crooked religiosity, petty political systems, individual betrayal, physical torture with whip and thorn and nail and hammer and spear - Jesus enters into the center of the thunderstorm of human evil and takes its full shock on the cross.  Our evil is brutally, unmistakably exposed, drawn into broad daylight, and judged - named and shown for what it is.  Then, having felt its agony and evil firsthand, in person, Jesus pronounces forgiveness and demonstrates that the grace of God is more powerful and expansive than the evil of humanity.  Justice and mercy kiss; judgment and forgiveness embrace.  From their marriage a new future is conceived.”

Excerpts from today’s meditation by Franciscan friar, Richard Rohr:

“Jesus hung in total solidarity with the pain of the world and the far too many lives on this planet that have been "nasty, lonely, brutish, and short.” After the cross, we know that God is not watching human pain, nor apparently always stopping human pain, as much as God is found hanging with us alongside all human pain. Jesus forever tells us that God is found wherever the pain is, which leaves God on both sides of every war, in sympathy with both the pain of the perpetrator and the pain of the victim, with the excluded, the tortured, the abandoned, and the oppressed since the beginning of time. I wonder if we even like that. There are no games of moral superiority left. Yet this is exactly the kind of Lover and the universal Love that humanity needs.

“What else could possibly give us a cosmic and final hope? This is exactly how Jesus redeemed the world "by the blood of the cross.” It was not some kind of heavenly transaction, or "paying a price" to God, as much as a cosmic communion with all that humanity has ever loved and ever suffered. If he was paying any price it was for the hard and resistant skin around our souls.”

Gives us lots to think about . . .

But, wait a minute, Sunday’s coming!

Skeletons in the Closet

Most anyone sitting down to read the New Testament will take a glance at the first chapter of Matthew and quickly skim over the long list of names, many of them pretty hard to pronounce anyway.  But Matthew might have been up to something here that deserves a second look.  If you read over the list of names, there are four women in the list, in brackets.  Let’s take a look at them:

First there was Tamar, who we meet in Genesis 38.  She married one of Judah’s sons, who died before they had children.  It’s a complicated story, but Tamar disguised herself as a prostitute to seduce Judah to have his child, the child that would be part of the genealogical line leading eventually to Jesus.  Respectable people would have considered this to be a “skeleton in the closet” of Jesus genealogy, but Matthew makes sure he lists Tamar right there for the world to read.

The next bracketed woman in the list is Rahab.  Now the Rahab we meet in the book of Joshua was described as a harlot in the city Jericho, not your society lady.  This may not be the same “Rahab” listed in Matthew, as there is a Jewish tradition that Rahab married Joshua, and the Rahab in Matthew had a child by Salmon to be part of Jesus genealogy.

The next is Ruth, a very decent person, but she came from Moab [east of the Dead Sea, and often an enemy of the Israelites]; she would likely have been avoided by good self-respecting Jews.

The fourth woman mentioned is Bathsheba, but she is not mentioned by name but is noted in the account as “the wife of Uriah”, which makes the mention even more scandalous, as it reminds us of the whole sordid incident: Uriah, husband of Bathsheba, was murdered by order of King David by having the soldiers retreat from him in battle.  At the time, Uriah's wife was pregnant by David through an adulterous affair.  This is not the kind of story most self-respecting people would like to tell about their families, but Matthew airs it prominently in the genealogy of Jesus.

Why would Matthew take great pains to drag out these skeletons in the closet?  Could it be that there was a lot of tongue wagging going on about Jesus’ own mother before he was born?  Joseph was all set to wed Mary and discovered that she was already pregnant, and certainly not by him.  He was set to call the whole thing off, but was assured by an angel of the real and amazing story.  Nevertheless, you can bet the local gossips had a lot to say about the situation, and Joseph and Mary probably had to put up with quite a bit from the mean tongues around them.

Joseph and Mary knew the miraculous pregnancy and the awesome responsibility that was to be theirs, but you can bet the local gossips had their own explanations.  Could Matthew have subtly been reminding people that situations that self -respecting people would call “skeletons in the closet” became an integral part of the family tree of Jesus the Messiah?

And what about us? Who among us doesn’t have a few skeletons in the closet? Do we think we could be of no use to God because of things in our past? Matthew reminds us that God used all these people, skeletons and all, to be part of the family tree of Jesus. So if any of us has a skeleton that is bugging us, talk to God about it; God can handle it.

Learn to Fly in 2012

Welcome to 2012.

This is the year we are going to learn to fly; that's the ambition Pastor Jeff is inspiring in us and for us as people who gather together at Community Life Church.

Isaiah 40:31 says: "but those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength.  They will soar on wings like eagles; the will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint."

Here on Grand Manan we are used to seeing gulls swooping and soaring gracefully, even in gale force winds.  In fact, they are more agile in the air than eagles (but Isaiah didn't have the advantage of living on Grand Manan to be able to watch gulls in their agility and power in the air).  Can you imagine being able to do that?

Of course in our own strength, it would be impossible.  Just like being fully the human you were intended to be would be impossible in your own strength.  But take a deep breath, breathe in the Spirit of Jesus and let his Spirit work in you and you can start to be what you think is impossible in your own strength.

Want inspiration in this impossible task?  Look at Jesus.  He lived as the ultimate expression of what it is to be human.  He was the most fully human person who ever lived.  That is what he meant when he called himself "son of man".  Biologically and literally, Jesus couldn't be a "son of man" since he was born of a virgin.

In that time and culture "son of" meant "the ultimate expression of".  So when Jesus was referred to as "son of God", that was a way of saying that Jesus was the ultimate expression of God.  You want to know what God is like?  Look at Jesus.

Jesus often referred to himself as "son of man".  You want to know what the ultimate human person is like?  Look at Jesus.

Each one of us can be more fully and completely human than we are.  Breathe in the Spirit of Jesus; let the Spirit of Jesus work fully in you, providing you the strength to do what you thought to be impossible in your own strength, and learn to soar and swoop like seagulls, with the excitement of life as it is meant to be lived.  Like Jesus did.

So, let's learn to fly in 2012!

Time

Time: something we all have, some a little, some more; time is with us every moment.  Sometimes time seems to drag by slowly, like when we are in hospital waiting to heal, other times it zips by in the blink of an eye.  And everyone agrees that the older you get the faster time goes by.

Last week, we were all reminded to change our clocks; and our clocks told us we had an extra hour last Sunday morning, an extra hour to do things we wanted to do right at that moment.  Today, as we remember the veterans who served in wars both long ago and recent, and as we join elderly Second World War vets, we see how the time that has marched by since the war has not dimmed their memories of the time spent in the horror of war.  Ask one of these vets about the time that has gone by and you might get a response like “it seems like only yesterday”.  Moments like these make us keenly aware of time.

Have you watched your child walk across the stage to get a graduation diploma? Don’t you play those few seconds in slow motion in your mind? Have you bitten into a peach and slowly sucked the juice and savoured every moment?  Have you watched in awe as the sun rises?  What moments time can give us!

In English we use “time” in different ways.  Time can be measured in hours and minutes, as in “what time is it?”  Or time can be a memory, as in “that was a great time we had yesterday”.

In New Testament Greek, time is a little more clearly expressed with two different terms.  We have “chronos” which we might call “clock time”, which measures time which passes by and answers the question “how much time?” And we have “kairos” which could literally be “fullness of time”, or “that special moment in time that you savour”.

It is interesting how often we savour a moment of time and call it “beautiful”.  The Greeks did too; their word for “beautiful” shares its root with the word for “hour”.  To be beautiful is to be “in one’s hour”.  A rose in bloom - fragile, fragrant, fleeting - is “in its hour”.  Someone young trying to look older, or someone old trying to look young; these are both offensive to this Greek idea of beauty.  To be truly beautiful, be “in your hour”.

We have all heard, "time is what you make of it". We all have to deal with “chromos” time as it marches by.  And sometimes we think that we can help it pass by pleasantly by entertaining ourselves with things or toys.  But it still passes by and we feel that something is missing.

If we choose, on the other hand, to see what we can do for others, to bring beauty to someone else’s life, we discover moments of beauty, moments of fullness of time.  We can also receive these moments of fullness of time in meditation and in contemplation, which is also known as contemplative prayer.  And in times of true worship, we can experience moments of fullness of time.

“Chronos” time happens to you; it happens to all of us.  Seeking to have entertainment happen to us leaves us empty as the time marches by.  “Kairos” time happens in you.  The fullness of time grows from within, and expresses the moment of beauty in blessing others.

Think about it.  Whatever time you have is yours.  You can let it happen to you; or you can seek to have it grow in fullness of time within you.  It’s up to you.

Celebrating Thanksgiving

When we say “Thank you”, we are acknowledging that someone has done something good for us, and we are reflecting just a token of that goodness back.  On this Canadian Thanksgiving weekend, as we enjoy turkey feasts with family, let’s think about what it means to say “Thank you” to God.

We are told God created man “in his own image”.  What do you suppose “in his own image” means?  When you look in a mirror, what do you see?  You see your own image.

Just maybe we were created to be mirrors for God, to see the goodness of God, the love of God reflected.  We were created to reflect God back to God in worship, and to reflect God to others around us through blessing them and to reflect God into the rest of creation in stewardship. 

We are told over and over that God is love; therefore, we were created to be mirrors, to reflect God’s love back to God, and reflect God’s love to all around us.

Jesus said in Matt 22:37-39: “’Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul and with all your mind.’  This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbour as yourself’”

Jesus told us this is what we are supposed to do because that’s how God loves us, and we were created to be mirrors to reflect God’s love back to God. And we are also to reflect God’s goodness and love to those around us [Love your neighbour... ], and also reflect God’s goodness and love to ourselves [... as yourself].

Why haven’t we been doing that? Well for one thing, I think we have been following Adam and Eve’s example and gulping down the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.  We have made religion all about rules of what’s right and what’s wrong, who’s good and who’s bad, judging ourselves and judging others.  After we have gorged ourselves on the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, we are so busy judging right and wrong, judging who’s good and who’s bad, that we get distracted from what we were created to do: reflect God’s love and goodness.

So reflecting the goodness of God and the love of God back to God is how we worship.  Consider Hebrews 12:28, 29 (Wright’s translation): “Well, then: we are to receive a kingdom which cannot be shaken!  This calls for gratitude!  That’s how to offer God true and acceptable worship, reverently and with fear.  Our God, you see, is a devouring fire.”

What about our God being a devouring fire?  How does that reckon with the statement that God is love? How can we say “God is love” and also say “God is a devouring fire”?

Recently Pastor Jeff talked about trying to contain God’s love being like trying to hold Niagara Falls in a teacup.  Could it be that God’s love is so huge, so all consuming, so intense, that we just can’t look at it directly? 

Perhaps the writer of Hebrews imagines love so intense it is like a devouring fire, love so intense you can’t look at it directly, but worship reverently and with fear.

Do you like the warmth of the sun on a nice summer day? Have you tried staring at the sun?  Imagine God’s love, like that, only a whole lot more so; God’s love showers us with warmth and goodness, but it is so intense and powerful that we humans just cannot bear to look at it directly.

So the writer of Hebrews tells us that being deeply thankful to God for his awesome and overwhelming love is “how to offer God true and acceptable worship, reverently and with fear”.

A deep, deep thankfulness cannot be contained; it just has to overflow to pour out blessings on others.

On this Thanksgiving weekend, take away this thought: Saying “thank you” is reflecting back a little of the goodness done for you.  As humans, we have been created to be little mirrors to reflect the goodness of God, the love of God, back to God, to others and finally to ourselves.

And so finally, have a wonderful Thanksgiving Sunday; be the mirror you were created to be.  And just go out and bless someone!

Adam and Eve's downfall

Most of us are familiar with the story of Adam and Eve disobeying God and eating the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. 

Have you ever wondered, of all the trees, why would God pick this one? Why wouldn’t God want people to know good and evil?  Richard Rohr, in his book “Things Hidden” provides us with some thoughts on this that might be helpful:

“We hear our story of humanity’s original sin in Genesis 2.  But this sin, as we’ve called it, really doesn’t look like sin at all; in fact, wanting knowledge feels like virtue! Hasn’t that ever bothered you? “You may eat indeed of all of the trees in the garden, but of the tree of knowledge of good and evil you are not to eat” (Genesis 2:17).  Now why would that be a sin? It sounds like a good thing!

“In the seminary we called it moral theology.  We ate bushels of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, trying to decide who was good and who was bad.  On other levels, it unfortunately refined and even created the very judgmental mind that Jesus strictly warned against (See Matthew 7:1,2: "Do not judge, or you too will be judged.  For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you").

“But when we lead off with our judgments, love will seldom happen.  If the mind that needs to make moral judgments about everything is the master instead of the servant, religion is almost always corrupted.

“Some would think that is the whole meaning of Christianity, to be able to decide who’s going to heaven and who isn’t.  This is much more a search for control than it is a search for truth, love or God.”

Rohr continues:

“I guess God knew that would be the direction that religion would take.  So God said, “Don’t do it. Don’t eat of the tree of knowledge of good and evil.” What he’s trying to keep us from is a lust for certitude, an undue need for explanation, resolution and answers.  Frankly, it makes biblical faith impossible.

“The major heresy of the Western churches is that they have largely turned around the very meaning of faith, not knowing and not needing to know, into its exact opposite - demanding to know and insisting that I do know!  The original sin, brilliantly described, warned us against this temptation at the very beginning.”

Rohr concludes:

“So you see perhaps why false moral certitude is presented at the very beginning of the Bible as the original sin.  It clears the way for faith, hope and love, all three (see 1 Corinthians 13:13).”

This is a humbling and sobering thought: the original sin is setting myself up as knowing with certainty what is right and what is wrong and judging everyone accordingly! 

And any moral certainty I might think I have can block the way of deep faith, certainly blocks the way of humility and very certainly blocks the way of love.  Something to think about.

(Rohr, Richard: "Things Hidden: Scripture as Spirituality", pages 37-39, St. Anthony Messenger Press, 2007)