Running away

I read somewhere last week that the Bible is all about people running away from God. It got me thinking, especially about my own life. My mother accused me of always wanting to run away, probably because at 17 I dropped out of school to sail with the navy and to get away from everything for a while and figure out some things in my head and heart. Even when I came back home again, I was always looking to leave, trying to find ways to go somewhere else. I always attributed this to having itchy feet, not wanting to set down roots but wanting to see the world and try different things. Now when I married my wife, she wanted to keep her roots in Thunder Bay, our hometown and I kind of went, "Oh no!" The joke in our home is that I brought God into leaving Thunder Bay again by following his call into ministry.
The thing is, as I look back, I was running away from my roots because I often felt I didn't fit in. I was a dreamer in a culture that was focused on the practical, I loved theater and the stage because I could lose myself in other peoples' lives and ways of interpreting the world around me. Part of it was also a running away from God because I wasn't sure I could live up to who he wanted me to be, and because I often felt the the world of faith was too small and restrictive.
Yet as I think back, I can see that no matter where I went, no matter how much running I did, whether physically or in my head and heart, God was always right there using this urge to run to help me see how big he is and how big the world of the Christian faith really is. In running away, I was always running to something else. I needed to figure out what I was running to. In some ways I'm still running away, not from a place, but from ways of understanding and seeing God that keep God small and ineffective and I am running towards a way of understanding God that allows me to see him as the God whose ways are not my ways, as the God who holds all creation in his hands and yet who became one of us. I ran from seeing God only in the church and through words, to seeing a God who is at work in the world bringing hope, justice, forgiveness, grace and more, and who calls us to join him in his work. To a God who is greater and more wonderful than I can ever imagine; and I have a pretty amazing imagination!
I've been part of the Ministry to Seafarers (M2S) for about a month and a half and  I am working with a wonderful team that has been helping me learn how to see God working in the lives of seafarers, even if we only get to connect with them for a couple of hours, or even minutes at a time. The team at M2S has reminded me that we are part of a greater network of centers around the world from many different Christian traditions that are engaged in the same ministry; and even though we may never meet each other, God is working through all of us to be his presence in the lives of the seafarers. I've had some pretty cool conversations with men who worship God from various Christian traditions and am learning to appreciate their faith and ways of understanding God.
In our church we are fellow-shipping with a growing number of people in our community who are from various Christian and cultural traditions who are interested in who we are and perhaps becoming part of our church family and I realize that they are also helping me gain a bigger picture of who God is and how he is working as I get to hear their stories of who they are and how God has brought them here.
Are you running away; where are you running to? If you're reading this, likely you know Jesus in some way and I invite you to try running towards Jesus and God. No matter where you run, God is there, so invite him to run with you and show you more of who he is and he'll bring you to the place you've been running to.

Je suis Charlie?

"Je suis Charlie," the new rallying cry for freedom of speech and a declaration of freedom from fear of terrorism. As a Quebecer, I resonate with emotions of our French brothers and sisters across the ocean even though my French is horrible and I grew up an anglophone from Ontario. Yet I wonder at the same time, can I really say "Je suis Charlie?" I ask this because of the nature of the Charlie Hebdo magazine. It's a smaller satirical magazine with the goal to be provocative, and provocative it is. All faiths, all politicians, all subjects are fair game for their sarcastic and deliberately provocative cartoons and articles. In some ways, this attack was not unexpected as the magazine has been threatened in the past, but it was still terrifying and simply evil.
But now I sit here reflecting on all that has occurred, looking at the newest cover of this week's edition with a cartoon of Muhammad holding a sign saying "Je suis Charlie" with the caption "Tout est pardonne" meaning "All is forgiven," and I wonder about it. The goal is not to provoke Muslims according to the editor, but it is going to provoke simply by portraying Muhammad in cartoon form and declaring all is forgiven will not lessen the provocation because the ones who carried out the attack are not seeking forgiveness, but are seeking justice according to their version of Islam.
Words and images are powerful and say much more than we often intend once it leaves our desks and enters the public consciousness. With such power, I believe words and images need to be used wisely. Jesus is called the "Word" by John; a sign of the power Jesus holds and the words he spoke. Jesus was also condemned by his own words, misapplied by the witnesses, and led to his death. Martin Luther King Jr used words well and wisely and they also led to his death because words can inspire others for justice and change within a society and the values it holds, but at the same time we've seen the misuse of words to inspire others to acts of terror and evil. With such power can we honestly say we believe in the right of complete freedom to say what we want without the responsibility that rights come with of using wisdom to use words and images in ways that build up a community and culture rather than tearing others down?
As a Christian, I know that I cannot put my values onto a magazine that lives and works within an intensely secular, and often extremely anti-religious culture, but at the same time I believe that Christians do need to at least raise the questions in the public forum of what is a society's responsibility to affirm the legitimacy of the others' faith and how they practice it when it does not infringe on anyone else's sensibilities, such as the Muslim's prohibition on portraying their prophet in images. I believe a strong society is marked by respect and honouring each other. Satire has its place, I've been known to be a bit sarcastic at times myself, but you can provoke a discussion without crossing the line into hurtful and disrespectful sarcasm. But it takes someone to begin to talk about it and raise the issue into public realm. People are talking about this now, last night on the metro (subway), I overheard three university students talking about this very thing.
Freedom of speech: Yes! But with wisdom and the desire to build a strong unified and yet diverse society guiding how it is practiced. Just my few words.

sharing what you believe

This past week has been full and exciting as I am now a half-time pastor and half-time chaplain for the Ministry to Seafarers here in Montreal. It's with a bit of trepidation that I take on this new chapter for the next 8 months. There is always the concern for my family as both positions are ministry oriented and if you are in ministry, you don't just shut off because you're not physically present; you stay engaged and now I'm engaged in two places.
But even in this first week, one major difference has jumped out at me: as a pastor, mostly people seek me out for conversations about God, about faith and spirituality and with all that goes on in ministry in a church, I find I don't engage in much intentional going out and inviting others into a relationship with God. However, as a chaplain I'm the one doing the seeking out, going to the seafarers to engage them in conversations about God, faith and spirituality. The end goal is the same: that people come to know God and are invited to accept Jesus' invitation to follow him, yet the way it's done is completely different in approach. It's also reminded me that we call our congregations to be like chaplains, to seek out others to make disciples of others as they walk the road of discipleship themselves. It's not easy and I've already gained a huge appreciation for other chaplains and for what I've been encouraging my congregation to do.
Yet it is also not as frightening as I first thought. My identity is as a child of God and just like I invite others into my home for a meal, or to a movie, I find that making disciples is mostly about extending an invitation to come along my own walk with God. This makes it much less intimidating and oriented to building a relationship and planting seeds rather than feeling it's all on me. There will be many opportunities to also water these seeds and seeds other chaplains or people have planted by sharing my story of faith and the Biblical stories of Jesus and God's relationship with humanity, and finally, I pray that I might also see harvest times. Yet it is the Holy Spirit doing that, I'm here, and so are you, to do the farming. May your planting, watering and harvesting be blessed greatly.

Praise, Praise, Praise and more Praise

I'm amazed at how quickly Advent has come and gone. Time flies by so quickly at this time of year, which is the main reason I make it a point at this time of year to sit down and read through the birth stories of Jesus and let them simply sink into my heart and soul. This means slow reading, letting each of the scenes rest for a while in my imagination and heart as they settle inside, coming together in a story of simplicity and great depth, of bewilderment and questions, of trust and faith, messiness and more.
This year the overarching theme that has risen up within me from the settling inside is praising God. Beginning with Elizabeth and Mary, moving onto the angels and shepherds, then to Simeon and Anna and finally the Magi; they all respond with praise and worship. Their immediate situations don't change; as far as that goes, Mary's situation became much more difficult, along with Joseph's, and yet praise is the primary response to the news and coming of Jesus.
The shepherds go back to tending their sheep, still despised by most of the townspeople, the Magi go home, swinging around Jerusalem, Simeon and Anna are never heard from again and likely pass away shortly afterwards, the angels head back to heaven where Jesus isn't there, at least for a time. Still, though nothing seems to change on the outside, the response is praise!
What's your response to Jesus' birth? Is it praise? Is there something preventing you from praising God? Last week I received news my father was in the hospital again and his heart is not so strong anymore. Naturally, the first thing was to pray for healing and for God's presence with my dad, but then it struck me, is this going to keep me from praising God? Christmas has a bitter sweet place inside of me since my mother died just before Christmas and my brother died just after Christmas, both many years ago, yet when Christmas comes, the memories come back too. Then the what ifs kicked in, what if my dad died as well? Would I, could I still praise God right now? As I worked this through inside myself, I realized there is so much to give praise for: my dad knows Jesus, he taught me about Jesus and showed me how important it is that knowing about Jesus impacts how I live, not just what I think, that belief shapes what I do and who I am as a person. My dad is not afraid of death because he knows death is not the end because of Jesus. As the oldest son, and a rather stubborn son at that, my dad and I haven't always been close, but over the last decade, we've grown closer as we've learned to appreciate who the other person is. Another thing to give thanks for and to praise God for.
But how about you, do you give praise only when God answers your prayers the way you want or expect? That's rather simply and shallow if that's the only time you praise God. Can you give praise when God says 'no.' Do you give praise for the ordinary everyday kinds of things? Things like family, friends, food on your table, a roof over your head, your health, beauty around you, neighbours and a neighbourhood to be in, jobs, your mind, your church family, and so much more. They may not be perfect, but then you aren't either.
And of course you are invited to join Mary, the shepherds, angels, magi and others in praising God for his goodness, for the gift of his son who came in order to die for us that we might once again be right with God. Praise God! You can come praise God because of the gift of the Holy Spirit who is also Emmanuel, God with us; meaning you are never alone, God is always with you, no matter your circumstances. Praise changes you even when your situations don't because praise creates gratefulness and joy, shining light and hope even if the darkness is deep.
By the way, my dad should be alright, but the day is coming, sooner or later when I shall have to say those good byes, but the Christmas story brings me to a place where I can praise God no matter what comes.

Spirituality: what is it to you?

Over the past few weeks I've heard a number of people quote statistics that say the province I live in, Quebec, is "spiritual" but not religious and been thinking about what it means to be spiritual. I've been reading Eugene Peterson's Subversive Spirituality to prepare for our deep discipleship group's reflection for next month on spirituality, and now, honestly, I still can't define exactly what spirituality, or being spiritual, really is. People in church will say they're not being spiritually fed, or they'll say they're spiritual and don't need to attend the church and I'm never sure exactly what they want or who they're saying they are. Mostly I see people who aren't much different than any of my neighbours who never go to church or even believe in God.
What struck me with Eugene Peterson's book is a comment he made about spirituality, he goes something like this: when we are healthy and good in our relationship with God we don't think a whole lot about spirituality, but if we're off the track in some way with our relationship with God, we blame it on the church's lack of focus on spirituality. It seems to me that spirituality is mostly about living right with God and with others and when we start living in a way that causes us to drift away from God's ways, or we get into dysfunctional or unhealthy relationships with others, all of a sudden we get a desire for "spirituality" and we start looking to find a way to "feel" good about ourselves again, usually meaning we're trying to find a way to justify the way we're doing things, or the way we're living, then we say we're tapping into our "spirituality." I think most times we're just fooling ourselves instead.
Maybe we need to get back to a simpler faith instead, live according to how God calls us to live with him and each other. The problem is this is a lot easier said than done since the way to live God's way is to live with love; healthy love where we are looking out for the best for others, not the artificial love Hollywood would have us believe is real love. A young man blamed me for not warning him how hard it was going to be to live like a follower of Jesus. When I asked him what he meant, he told me he was finding it really hard to live in a way that focuses on helping others to see what living in healthy ways is. He realized that this is what loving your neighbour is all about. But that means caring a lot and being willing to take a chance to confront his friends, co-workers and even family when he would notice something in what they were doing or how they living that was hurting themselves or others. Yet when I pushed him on how he was doing with God, he mentioned that by working so hard at really living out this loving your neighbour thing, that his relationship with God was stronger than he expected. He had thought because his friends and others ignored his advice so often, that he would feel guilty because of his lack of success, instead he believes he understands God's love for us a lot better now since we're so often like his friends, not really listening to God's advice.
Perhaps spirituality is simply nothing more than reading our Bible more faithfully to get to know God better, and than living out the way of living Jesus laid out for us. It's not about "feelings," but about a commitment to a deep caring of the people around us, along with talking with God through prayer, and spending time with God's people who are trying to live the same way so you can encourage each other, help each other and worship God together.

Maturity and Gratitude

Preaching through Ephesians has been good for me this fall, and I hope good for our church too. One theme that has jumped out to me is maturity. How mature are you as a follower of Jesus? Maturity looks like knowing what you believe so that you're able to engage with our culture wisely, recognizing both the good and the wrong, and working towards healthy communities. It looks like serving others instead of yourself, it looks like unity (as I talked about in my last post), and maturity looks like gratitude. All of these things that reflect maturity, except the first which contributes to and shapes the others, are all outwardly looking attributes.
The one that strikes me the most however is gratitude. The most mature followers of Jesus I know are those who look at their lives, no matter how difficult their lives have been, no matter how much suffering they have experienced, they're all able to thank God regularly and sincerely for who He is and how He is present in their lives.
I have a 3 year old grandson living with us, and it's an amazing blessing because I see the wonder in his eyes as he sees and learns something new. I've learned to appreciate the world around me all the more again as I look at it through his eyes. But I'm also often reminded that he is a child and has a lot of growing up to do before he becomes an adult, which is alright since he's only 3 years old. What I've learnt again is how children can be so happy one moment and then how angry and upset they can be the next minute simply because something has not gone their way, or because they don't have something they suddenly want. This is because children are inherently focused on themselves. The goal as parents and adults is to help them grow out of this self preoccupation, and yet the church seems to often to be filled with children in adult bodies concerned about themselves first and often unwilling to be sacrificial in their relationships with others. I will take some responsibility for this as a pastor in not teaching and equipping our members well enough, but at some point, it is also a personal responsibility for each follower of Jesus to grow up and become spiritually mature.
Gratitude allows us to be sacrificial because we've learned to trust that God is with us, that he loves us and is working out all things for our good even if we don't always understand why some things happen the way they do. A spirit of gratitude reflects on how much we already have instead of what we don't have, it does not focus on what others have that we don't. Grateful Christians know that they can be part of a church and not always need everything to go their way; they look at what God is doing now instead of constantly harking back to the "good old days," and look at how they can build up the church to create an atmosphere of blessing.
As we head into advent, join me in counting our blessings. Write them down, share them with others, and if you're struggling with this, ask others what they see in your life that you can be grateful for. Sometimes we need others to remind us of how blessed we really are and how much we can be grateful for.
Personally, these are just a few of  the things I am grateful for: my wife, my children and grandchildren. I am extremely grateful for a church community that is growing closer together and are becoming more deliberate in being followers of Jesus, for a church community who has allowed me to make mistakes and helped me grow as their pastor. I am grateful for God who continues to work to save His creation and sent His son Jesus to save us from our sin that we might experience God's blessings.

Unity

The last few weeks have had me thinking a lot about unity in the church and how often the church is known more for its disunity instead of its commitment to stay together through thick or thin. Our church connected with other churches in the area to celebrate a conference with speakers coming in who focused on unity in the church and among the different churches and denominations and traditions represented among the churches participating. It was good to work together and to reflect on what we can learn from each other and what we have in common in worshiping God, rather than focusing on our differences.
I'm teaching through Romans during a weekday class and one of Paul's great desires for that church is unity, and on Sundays this fall I've been working though Paul's letter to the church in Ephesus and the theme of unity is strong throughout the whole letter.
Paul talks in Ephesians about being mature and how unity is a sign of maturity in the church and I made the connection in my head with Jesus' prayer in John 17, "  "My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one— I in them and you in me—so that they may be brought to complete unity. Then the world will know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me." When you grow up you become more willing to give up things so that you can bless others. In the church, it looks like this, "I'm willing to let you have things your way because I want you to be blessed. I'm willing to accept that we will not always agree, even about what the Bible says, but our relationship with Jesus and each other is more important than my insisting on being right." 
How many breakups in the church or relationships are based on wanting things your own way instead of caring about unity? How often have we said that unity is important, but when it gets too uncomfortable and things don't go our way often enough, we go our own way? 
I believe that too many Christians often don't really care enough about what Jesus has taught or desired about unity. Too many are more concerned about their own level of comfort and their own desires than Jesus'. How else do we explain the number of church splits or Christians who leave their churches for another because the new one better serves them rather than work on  your relationship with the church? 
Hard words, but the call for unity in Scriptures, especially in the New Testament is challenging me to reflect on my own heart and relationships; both with God and others and how committed am I to others and how often do I walk away from people because it's too much effort to express grace and work  through our differences. I may put fancy words around my decisions, but often it comes down to what I want and what's easiest for me, a mark of childish thinking instead of maturity. 
It's in unity within the Body of Christ, the church, that the world sees that God has sent Jesus and that God loves the world even as God loves Jesus. Isn't unity worth all the effort and sacrifice it takes if that's true? What might that look like where you are?