Luke 15:1-10 Finding the Lost

Back when I was 15 and in Air Cadets, we were on a winter survival weekend just outside Thunder Bay, when my best friend, Pat and I decided to take the snowmobiles out for a spin on the lake after dinner on a cloudy really dark night. As we skimmed along the snow and ice of the lake, we enjoyed the brisk winter night until we decided to head back to camp and realized that we had gotten ourselves turned around and couldn’t find the camp anymore. We tried to follow our tracks back, but because there were so many tracks criss-crossing all over the lake, that didn’t help. As we drove around the lake, Pat suddenly spotted a light shining in the dark, waving back and forth. Our captain had gone out onto the ice and was waving a spot-light into the night sky to bring us back. When we drove up, the captain was freezing from standing in the bitter cold, but he didn’t curse us or even punish us, he was simply happy that we were back safely. As I let this story of Jesus and the Pharisees settle into my heart this week, this memory of my captain standing there in the cold and freezing for Pat and I, wouldn’t go away. 

It was a picture of what I think Jesus is getting at here. Jesus is drawing a crowd as he travels around teaching the people about God, inviting them to trust God’s love and commitment to them, calling them to repent and believe. But it’s not the Pharisees and teachers of the law who recognize that Jesus is from God, instead it’s the sinners and tax collectors who gather around Jesus to hear what he has to say. Now for the Jews, hearing was more than simply listening, hearing means that you listen and them put what you’ve heard into action into your life.

Now the proper people, the ones who seem to have their lives all together, are muttering, “This man welcomes sinner and eats with them.” This is said with a bit of a sneer and a sense that they’re better than Jesus, what’s Jesus thinking, eating with people like that. Jesus just doesn’t seem to care about the laws God put into place to keep the nice people separate from the scummy people, Jesus doesn’t seem to understand or care about who proper people should hang around with or eat with. You need standards after-all. Jesus actually hangs out with sinners as if they were family or kin, as if they were acceptable.

So, Jesus tries to explain to the Pharisees through a series of parables why he’s with the sinners. Jesus wants to help them see why he’s hanging out with the sinners, why it’s so important. Jesus asks them to imagine that they’re shepherds. The shepherd is a common image in Jewish thought and usually refers to leaders in Israel. One of the most well known passages of the shepherd as leader comes from the prophet Ezekiel who talks about uncaring shepherds in chapter 34 and tells the people that God himself will come and seek and rescue his sheep and care for them. The idea that God is a shepherd to his people is also found in the well-loved shepherd psalm, “The Lord is my shepherd I shall not be in want.”

Jesus asks, “Suppose one of you has a hundred sheep and loses one of them. Doesn’t he leave the ninety-nine in the open country and go after the lost sheep until he finds it? And when he finds it, he joyfully puts it on his shoulders and goes home.’” The shepherd loses a sheep and leaves the ninety-nine sheep in a safe place where they can keep eating and goes to look for the lost sheep. This is what a shepherd does. Sheep have a natural tendency to wander away, following the grass without often being aware of any danger, going off on its own without really thinking. There’s nothing more helpless than a lost sheep: they have no natural defenses against lions, eagles, wolves or other predators. The shepherd doesn’t easily give up, he goes after the lost sheep until he finds it.

Video of looking for lost sheep https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ov6pyr8FM1I

We often picture the shepherd strolling through the fields, keeping an eye out for the lost sheep. It’s always a sunny day and not too hot in our minds. We never think that it might be dangerous for the shepherd, we only see a cute lamb wandering on rolling hills, the shepherd finds the sheep, easily lifting the sheep onto his shoulders and strolling back to the flock. But the reality is different, sheep have a way of finding themselves in odd and often dangerous places. The shepherd needs to work hard and even risk his life at times to save the sheep from their own foolishness. Even while getting a sheep out of a dangerous situation, they will often fight against the shepherd. Carrying a 100 pound sheep who is struggling and wiggling on your shoulders is hard work. Do you get why the shepherd calls his family and friends together to celebrate finding the lost sheep? It takes a lot of effort to find, save and bring home a lost sheep. It’s not like walking the trails at Chickakoo and coming across a small lamb, picking it up, putting it on our shoulders and heading home; this is about a full-grown sheep in rough country needing to be found and saved.

The meaning of the parable is no secret. Even in the Old Testament, prophets like Isaiah were calling those who’ve drifted away from God lost sheep. Isaiah 53:6, “We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to our own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.” Our going astray is usually not about deliberately going out and doing what we know is wrong and hurting God, someone else or ourselves. Most of the time we’re like sheep, nose to the ground following our appetites, whether it’s food, pleasure, power, or whatever, and then, as Tim Keller says, we take the good things God gives us and make them gods, they become more important to us than Jesus. Rosario Butterfield describes how Jesus saves us his sheep, Jesus comes untouched by the original sin that distorts, the actual sin that distracts, and the indwelling sin that manipulates. Jesus is no puppet on the strings of Satan, as we too often are. And when Jesus fulfilled the law by dying on the cross and rising by his own power to sit at God the Father’s right hand, he gave his people the power to overcome the sin that enslaves them. He gave us his blood to wash away our sins, he gave us his Word to instruct and heal us, and he sent the Holy Spirit to lead us in conviction and repentance of sin and to comfort us by the assurance that his saving love is rock solid.

Jesus is telling the Pharisees that he’s the good shepherd from Zechariah who has come to find the lost sheep and bring them back home and every time a person comes back to God, it’s party time, “there’s rejoicing in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents.” The sinners that Jesus is accused of eating with are the lost that Jesus has come to find and bring home. The sinners have responded to Jesus’ call to “Come follow me, repent and believe for the kingdom of God is near.” By eating with these sinners, Jesus is giving us a small glimpse of what waits for us, a banquet feast where Jesus is our host and we’re washed clean of our sin, healed from our sin, and being reconciled to our heavenly father who is number one in our lives again.

Jesus is inviting the Pharisees and us to join him in seeking the lost and bringing them home to the father again. This isn’t easy clean work, it’s hard, messy and sometimes dangerous; talk to our brothers and sisters in places like Syria, Egypt and other countries who have given their lives when going after the lost. We may get discouraged because we don’t see any results and yet we also believe that when God works in their lives, calling them to himself, that they’re unable to resist his call on their hearts, so we don’t give up. We’re called to go and make disciples because we deeply love our neighbours and want them to be with us at Jesus’ banquet. This is all about bringing home the lost, those who have forgotten that they’re children of God, loved deeply by their father. When the Holy Spirit moves them to accept Jesus as their shepherd, as their saviour, what an amazing time to celebrate!

Luke 17:11-19 Giving Thanks on Thanksgiving Day

Harvard Health magazine writes, “Gratitude is a thankful appreciation for what an individual receives, whether tangible or intangible. With gratitude, people acknowledge the goodness in their lives. In the process, people usually recognize that the source of that goodness lies at least partially outside themselves. As a result, gratitude also helps people connect to something larger than themselves as individuals — whether to other people, nature, or a higher power.” It also has health benefits including being “strongly and consistently associated with greater happiness. Gratitude helps people feel more positive emotions, relish good experiences, improve their health, deal with adversity, and build strong relationships.”

Gratitude is a virtue and shows us a lot about where our hearts and souls are at. We see this especially in this story about 10 lepers who meet Jesus. Leprosy is an infectious disease that causes skin sores, nerve damage, and muscle weakness that gets worse over time. People feared leprosy in Jesus’ time and lepers were isolated from everyone else, considered unclean and not allowed in the temple. People believed that leprosy was God’s punishment for sins. In this simple story we see people who are outsiders and who respond to Jesus with faith, the belief and trust in things unseen, as Hebrews puts it. Reading this story in Jesus’ life, I tried looking at it as if I was one of the lepers.

The sun is out and the day is hot. We’re sitting together, all us lepers and we can see people going and coming from the village. We don’t want to admit it to each other, but deep inside we’re hoping to see some of our loved ones, praying to our God that they are doing alright since we can’t take care of them or protect them. Life hasn’t gone the way we thought and each of us keeps looking back at our lives wondering what we did that was so wrong and evil that God has decided to punish us with this dreaded disease that has caused everybody, including our families to reject us and cast us out. Even though there are 10 of us here, we each suffer alone knowing that our life and death is going to be painful and filled with great suffering. Then we see a group of people coming towards the village and one of the other lepers cries out that it’s Jesus, he knows this because he had seen Jesus before and heard him teach about God, but he had also heard a story that Jesus had actually healed another leper, that he actually touched the leper when he healed him. Can it be that Jesus isn’t afraid of leprosy? If he can heal me, that means Jesus has power from God to heal and in healing us shows us that God forgives us from the horrible sin that brought this disease on us.

Suddenly there’s hope, we climb to our feet and move towards the road to the village so we can all out to Jesus, praying to God Almighty that he will hear us and have pity on us. We can see some of them notice us and draw away from us in fear and horror and we begin to cry out, “Jesus, Master, have pity on us.” Will Jesus hear us, will he help us, can he help us, was the story true? So many questions go through my head as we see Jesus stop. As Jesus stops, we stop shouting, waiting to hear him. “Go, show yourselves to the priests,” Jesus tells us. Could this mean, is it possible that our leprosy is gone, otherwise why tell us to go to the priests.

One of the other lepers starts running to the road that goes to Jerusalem where the priests can be found, and without even thinking, I start to follow him. As I’m running down the road, I look down at my hands and the sores are gone, my feet feel healthy for the first time in a long time. Then I remember that in the excitement of everything, I had forgotten to thank Jesus. I stopped and called out to the others, but they keep running. I turn around and come to Jesus and I throw myself at his feet, tears pouring out of my eyes, it’s the first time since I discovered I had leprosy that I could come close to someone not cursed by God. All I could say was “Thank you, thank you, thank you.” The tears were choking my throat because I realized that I could come close to God in the temple, that my sins could be forgiven and washed away.

Through my tears I could hear Jesus speaking again. He asked, “Were not all 10 cleansed? Where are the other nine? Has no one returned to give praise to God except this foreigner?” Then I knew that Jesus was from God, because how else could he have known that I was the only Samaritan among the other lepers. Imagine, wonder of wonders, Jesus healed me even though I’m not even a Jew! He’s changed my life! He’s made me clean, inside and out, I’m no longer rejected, I’m accepted, and could it also mean that God accepts me too even though I’m only a Samaritan? Jesus turns to me, “Rise and go; your faith has made you well.” It is well with me, well with my body and well with my soul. Praise the Lord!

We’re celebrating Thanksgiving Day and as followers of Jesus we know that our greatest reason to be thankful, to be grateful to Jesus is for saving us from our sin, from the soul sickness that comes from being sinners. Jesus cleans our souls, but through faith, he also brings healing, restoration and hope into our lives. Jesus changes us, makes us well. And so we live with a spirit of gratitude because we know that we’ve done nothing to deserve God’s blessings, it’s all about God’s grace and Jesus’ unconditional love for us. Through our faith, which itself is a gift from God, we find salvation and new life and we respond with thankfulness to Jesus and give our lives over to him.

Luke 13:22-30 Belonging

When I was 13 I joined the Air Cadets and at 17 I joined the HMCS Griffon, the Naval Reserve. I joined both for the same reason, I wanted some place where I felt like I belonged, where I was accepted for who I was. Both the Air Cadets and Naval Reserve demanded my commitment and to accept their values and goals to remain part of both organizations. We all have a need inside us to belong, to know that we’re part of something, usually something bigger than us that gives us some kind of foundation in our life to move forward on. This is why kids have their secret groups with passwords and secret handshakes, this is why some teens are drawn into gangs. I’ve often found myself amazed that so many churches are shy about demanding this kind of commitment. I’ve also found that when I join something that demands my commitment, I value it more and work harder for it.

We are created to belong, yet so many people search for a place to belong. Many people struggle with feelings of being left out, not included, of not being seen or recognized, of always living life on the outside looking in to everyone else’s life filled with joy and happiness. This is why social media is so addicting, because people look into the lives of the people in their groups to see if they are being included and still part of the group. If they see others enjoying themselves and they didn’t know about it, they feel a sense of being left out and even cast out. They then might search for places and groups in their community to join and belong. Some reach out and gather a few people around them who are also looking for someplace to belong and they may use a need or cause to build a sense of community among each other so they might have a place where they belong.

There are even members in the church who experience this, wondering if they really belong, wondering if Jesus sees them, accepts them. This is the kind of the thinking and feeling that lies behind the question Jesus is asked about being saved, “Lord, are only a few people going to be saved?” The expected answer to the question of how many people are going to be saved is, “Don’t worry, there might only be a few saved, but you are definitely one of the few.” After-all, this is Jerusalem, the place of the Temple and they’re the Jews, God’s people, so of course Jesus is going to reassure them that they belong, they’re part of God’s “in group.” But Jesus takes the conversation in a different direction, to a parable about narrow doors, a feast, and people outside who are weeping and gnashing their teeth and never really gives them a straight forward answer. Jesus doesn’t answer the question about how many people are going to be saved, but instead focuses on the who and how.

“Make every effort to enter through the narrow door, because many, I tell you, will try to enter and will not be able to.” My first thought is, ‘what is Jesus getting at here?’ then, as I tried to listen more carefully to what Jesus said, I begin to get some idea of what he’s getting at here. Jesus uses the phrase “Make every effort to enter through the narrow door,” and I took a look at the words Jesus uses here. ‘Make every effort’ in Greek is about striving, working towards, struggling, having a focus. Somehow it feels wrong to believe that my salvation depends on me making every effort to get in the narrow door, so Jesus must be pointing to something else instead.

We need to hear Jesus’ words that come before this. Jesus talks about repenting or perishing. Repenting is about changing our life in response to God’s grace and forgiveness. Jesus goes on to heal a woman on the Sabbath, which according to the religious leaders was wrong because it was considered work. Jesus is frustrated with these people and accuses them of caring more about their animals than about this woman. Then just before this story of the narrow door, Jesus tells the people that the kingdom of God is like yeast, starting small and growing in us. All these things point to the importance of relationships with God and with each other. Jesus is the one who saves us from our sins through his sacrifice on the cross, Jesus is the one who offers us new life, offers forgiveness and grace; the stuff Jesus wants us to strive for is a deeper relationship with him. As John 3:16 reminds us, “God so loved the world that he gave his only Son that whoever believes in him should not perish, but have eternal life.” That’s a relationship statement, believing in someone is about trust and trust comes out of relationship.

The struggle is against our own desires, our tendency to focus on ourselves instead of Jesus because our own will is so strong. This is what Jesus is getting at when he talks about those who try to enter and will not be able to. These people are looking to get in, but there’s no real effort made, nor a deep desire beforehand. They’ll have all kinds of excuses, “We ate and drank with you and you taught in our streets,” but they never cared enough to actually build a relationship with the owner of the house. They want the benefits of belonging without the effort. I’ve had people say that Jesus is playing mean here by rejecting people, but if you’re looking to find a place where you belong, it happens when you respond to Jesus’ invitation to come follow him, to find your rest in him, to find your identity in him.

It’s like marriage or any other relationship that’s meaningful. You need to put effort into it; if it’s all about you, the relationship will never grow any deeper. It’s like any relationship, if you don’t work on it, if you don’t make an effort to build your relationship, it shows that either it isn’t really important to you, or you’re so self-centered you put all the responsibility for the relationship on the other person. The people Jesus is talking about heard the words of Jesus, but never took them to heart, never allowed Jesus’ way and words to shape their hearts and lives, their minds and souls. They listened and then quickly forgot because it wasn’t about them. So then because they felt entitled, they believe they should be let into the house where there’s a feast happening simply because they should be allowed in, even though they never bothered with having a deep and meaningful relationship with the owner. They want what Dietrich Bonhoeffer calls ‘cheap grace,’ where people believe that God is obligated to forgive them and offer them grace but they don’t need to make any effort on to respond to God’s grace. Jesus died, we’re forgiven and therefore never need to change.

A true relationship changes you. It changes you because you care so deeply about the other person that you focus more on them than on yourself. Jesus speaks in parables and calls us to listen, and when a rabbi calls you to listen, it’s expected that you will respond to what you hear. Listening is not passive, it’s active. As you change in order to please the other person, they change because you have shown that this relationship is important to you and you are invited into their heart, you find a person and place where you belong. At the heart of this parable, that’s what’s going on. The narrow door is a relationship with the owner of the mansion, the host of the feast, with Jesus and our Father in heaven. It’s about working towards allowing Jesus to shape our lives, our desires, our focus and our goals. Jesus doesn’t say how many or how few will be saved, he points to the way to experience belonging to the Father through having a relationship with Jesus. Yet when you listen, the feast is filled with people from all over who have worked at their relationship with the host and are now inside. 

The comfort comes from knowing that Jesus reaches out to you first and never gives up reaching out to you to have a deeper relationship with you because he wants you to belong, he wants you to know that the feast is for you, that the narrow door takes you home.

Luke 8:16-18 Hiding Our Lamp

When I was in the naval reserve, I was on the emergency response team. We were trained to respond to any emergency that might happen while at sea: a breach in our hull, medical emergencies, and fire fighting. I remember the first time I went into the training center and we were suited up in our fire fighting gear, given the equipment we would need, and then sent into a burning building that simulated a ship’s engine room. It was so dark we couldn’t see our hands in front of our masks. The first few moments were spent fighting the panic that arose because of the pitch blackness, then as we opened the hatch, the flames provided us with some light and there was actually relief at having the light from the flames, even though fire is a serious issue on a ship. Our training officer talked us through this afterwards, and mentioned how the very fire we have to fight also gives hope that we could fight it because it gave light when all the power was shut off to that area. Whenever I read about light in the Bible, I remember that experience because the darkness was so overwhelming.

This is a short parable, it’s more of an image or picture instead. It’s also tied to the parable of the farmer sowing seed, sowing the word of God, that we looked at last week. Jesus ties them together by repeating the importance of hearing and listening. Jesus ends the parable before by saying, “The seed on the good soil stands for those with a noble and good heart, who hear the word, retain it, and by persevering produce a crop.” In this parable or picture, Jesus ends it by warning us, “Therefore consider carefully how you listen. Whoever has will be given more; whoever does not have, even what they have will be taken away.” That feels so unfair! Now Jesus calls himself the light of the world in John 8, John the Baptist who prepared the people for the coming of Jesus said about Jesus, “the true light that gives light to every man was coming into the world.” Now since Jesus is the light of the world and giving his light to us and we’re concealing it, why would he keep giving it to us?

Light is a powerful image in the Bible. When Jesus calls himself the light of the world and says that his followers will never walk in darkness but have the light of life, he’s talking about heart and life stuff. We talk about the darkness in our souls and hearts when things are really hard and hope feels far away. We talk about darkness when we hear about evil going on in the world. Then there are those times when we want to strike out with everything we have because of hurt or anger and we recognize that there is even the possibility of evil inside our own souls. This is why it’s important to allow Jesus to have your heart and life to chase that darkness out of you. The darkness retreats when you allow Jesus’ words, his teaching, his life, his call to love even your enemies to shape your response to the world, to shape who you are. Our world has a hard time with evil, not wanting to seem judgmental or racist or whatever, but Jesus offers a different approach, focusing first on our own hearts and then working to shape the places he places us so they’re places of fairness, righteousness, justice, grace, encouragement, love and health.

Darkness hates light because light exposes evil and darkness for what it is and drives it back. The darkness tried to snuff out the light of the world by nailing Jesus to the cross, branding him a traitor and blasphemer. But the darkness didn’t realize that on the cross the light of the world shone even brighter, taking our sin in himself so that we are washed clean, bathed in light and made right with our father in heaven again, forgiven and free from the darkness sin creates in us. When the darkness claimed victory over the light, the light shone even more radiantly into every corner of the universe, defeating and driving the darkness back.

When Jesus says, “No one lights a lamp and hides it in a clay jar or puts it under a bed. Instead they put it on a stand so that those who come in can see the light.” You can almost see Jesus do a forehead slap kind of thing. This is a ‘Duh!’ kind of statement, like why even bother wasting the fuel and risking burning down everything you own, risking harm to your family and loved ones if you’re not going to use the lamp for what it’s meant for. So, what’s this lamp light that Jesus is referring to here?

Light is Jesus and the hope he offers because he chases the dark away. A tiny light can be seen from a long way away. In the dark our eyes search for light. On cloudy nights when the stars and moon are hidden behind thick clouds and you’re far away from the city lights, you can feel the darkness settle over you and your eyes instinctively search for light. This is why light houses were so important because in storms, when darkness was deep and heavy over the water, the beam of light from the light houses could cut through the darkness and warn and guide the ships into safety. It’s the same in our hearts and lives, even when everything seems dark and hopeless, we can’t seem to help but to keep searching for hope, for light to shine into our troubles and chase them away, our hearts keep searching for Jesus even when we don’t realize it at first.

People will look for that light from governments, justice systems, and other people, but the better light, the light that can shine into every corner of our hearts and lives and chase the darkness completely away is Jesus. When you accept Jesus as your Lord and Saviour and offer your life over to him, his light floods into your life. Your circumstances may not change, but the darkness that creates fear and feelings of helplessness begins to be driven back by the light of the gospel of Jesus Christ because you don’t walk alone because Jesus is always with you and changes you and your heart as you embrace him closer and closer. He calls you to hear the word of God and put it into practice. These are those whom Jesus calls his mother, brothers and sisters, his family, as he tells us a few verses later.

The light of Jesus is welcoming. Jesus talks in this short parable about people coming in, experiencing hospitality and acceptance and a place to rest with others. This is about relationships, we’re created to be in community and Satan tries to isolate us, make us feel as if we are alone. Jesus spent a lot of time around dinner tables, a natural place of hospitality with those who were considered outsiders and sinners bringing hope and light into their lives. The light of Jesus brings clarity into our lives, guiding us, showing us ways forward that bless us and others.

In Matthew 5, Jesus calls us the light of the world. We have the gospel message that God never gives up on us, desires a relationship with us, and goes to the cross to let us know that. Jesus calls you to let your light shine before people, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven. Our good deeds show Jesus’ love in our world, helping us build relationships so that we can share the light of the world, Jesus, with them, inviting them to accept Jesus and to let his light shine in their lives as he does in ours.

Luke 8:4-15 The Farmer and the Field

Stories have the power to touch us in deep ways  because a good story uses images and pictures that are close to us and help us understand with both our head and heart what the story-teller is trying to get across to us. A story can change us in deep life altering ways. Growing up in the church, it was the stories of Jesus’ grace filled encounters with people that finally got to me and helped me to give my dreams and life over to Jesus: the stories of Jesus and the Samaritan woman, the woman caught in adultery, of Zacchaeus the tax collector; all people who lived on the fringes of society, not really accepted by the people around them and yet embraced and shown acceptance by Jesus. Then there are the stories of the lives of Mother Teresa, Nelson Mandela and others who inspired me to completely trust Jesus and search for his call on my life.

Jesus is a master story-teller, able to touch the hearts and souls of the people around him, teaching us to see the world through the eyes of God. Often, we only see what’s directly in front of us like a horse wearing blinkers to keep it staring only ahead in a narrow line, unable to see the amazing things of God that surround us. In the stories of Jesus, we meet his Father over and over again. Jesus reminds us that God is our father and his love and his desire is for us to come home to him. He uses the images of everyday life to show us what the kingdom of God is all about. Because of this, the people were fascinated by Jesus and came from all over the area to hear Jesus speak.

The Jewish people were looking for a messiah, God’s promised messiah whom he was sending and would save them. The people kept looking back to the good old days when their own king sat on the throne in Israel. It’s kind of like today, where so many followers of Jesus keep looking back to the good old days when politicians and leaders listened to the church and Christianity was the dominant force in society. So many followers of Jesus continue to be shocked that our governments no longer listen to churches and shape society around what the church tells them is right and wrong. This past week the Alberta government threatened to pull finding from any school that refuses to allow GSAs. The problem with looking back to the good old days is that they often aren’t nearly as good as we think they are. There’s a reason God sent his people Israel into exile and let them be conquered by their enemies, there’s a reason why so many people have walked away from the church and Christianity in our own life-times. We too often focused on the sin, forgetting how much Jesus loves the sinner. We forget we’re also sinners.

Jesus is the Messiah, but he doesn’t come to set up a throne, instead he uses stories to show us the true kingdom of God. A large crowd is gathering around Jesus. He often taught outside the cities where more people could gather around and hear him, so I’m imagining Jesus standing on a small hill surrounded by farmers’ fields when he sees a farmer working in the field, planting seed. In Jesus’ day the farmers planted their seed by taking it in their hands or a scoop and scattering the seed in a side to side motion over the ground. Jesus says, “A farmer went out to sow his seed. As he was scattering the seed, some fell along the path; it was trampled on, and the birds ate it up. Some fell on rocky ground and when it came up, the plants withered because they had no moisture. Other seed fell among thorns, which grew up with it and choked the plants. Still other seed fell on good soil. It came up and yielded a crop, a hundred times what was sown.”

Jesus explains the story, telling us that the seed is the word of God. The farmer scattering the seed scatters it generously, he’s not stingy in throwing the seed around because the more generous he is in scattering the seed, the larger the crop. When we hear Jesus talk about the word of God we hear the word ‘Bible,’ but for the people listening to Jesus they heard something else. They heard Jesus say the teachings and calls of the prophets to return to God was being scattered into their hearts, the wonder and beauty in creation itself was calling them to God, the words of the Torah was being planted in their lives and the still quiet voice of God was being set into their hearts, minds and souls, calling them to be with God and listen to his voice, his love, and his call on their lives. God’s word is not only the words in this wonderful book he’s given us; it’s every way he’s reaching out to us.

Jesus explains that the soils the seed falls on are the heart conditions of the people. Some people will never accept Jesus no matter how often they hear the word of God; it’s like the seed on the pathway. Some people believe the word of God when they hear it, but there’s no depth in their hearts and lives for the word of God to be nourished and grow, so it fades away after a while like the rocky soil. Other people hear and accept the word of God, but then get distracted by the worries and pleasures of the world and so the word of God is choked out and Jesus gets forgotten.

The majority of the seed falls on fertile ground where it multiples like crazy. These people accept the word of God and it changes their lives! Today, these are the people who accept Jesus as their Saviour, knowing that they’re sinners unable to save themselves and need Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross to make them right with God again. This changes their lives; life becomes an expression of gratitude and grace because know they’re forgiven and accepted and want everyone else to experience the same life changing relationship with Jesus. This is what Jesus is getting at when he says the good soil “stands for those with a noble and true heart, who hear the word, retain it, and by persevering produce a crop.”

When I hear this story of Jesus, it gives me hope. The word of God is getting scattered around generously and there’s plenty of opportunity to hear it and grow your relationship with God through Jesus. I know my heart and I know it’s not always good soil in there. There are rocky places and plenty of thorns in my heart and life. Remember, Jesus is using the image of a farmer for a reason, a farmer is always working his fields to make them better. I remember growing up helping out on my uncles’ farms, every spring they headed out into the fields to pick rocks, the first crop of the year as one of my uncles said. They worked hard every year to expand their fields, turning over new fields after clearing them and getting rid of the weeds and thorns. It’s hard work to create good soil.

If you feel as if your faith isn’t as exciting as when you first accepted Jesus, it feels like life is dusty and dry, Jesus reminds us that he’s the living water and is willing to water our souls and work with us to pick the rocks out of our lives that try to prevent the word of God from setting deep roots in our hearts. When worry creeps in and creates fear and anxiety, when your life begins to revolve around the next toy, the newer car, the next promotion or big deal, Jesus reminds us that true joy and meaning are found in a relationship with him. He offers you peace and brings meaning and purpose as he invites you to join him in growing the kingdom of God, beginning with your own heart.

Jesus comes to bring new life, he goes to the cross to deal with those rocks, thorns and hard soils in our hearts that are there because of sin and washes them away and brings forgiveness, acceptance and grace. As Jesus ends the story, he reminds us that hearing and embracing the word of God is the heart of God’s kingdom. You were led here this morning by the Holy Spirit in one way or another to open your heart to the living water, the new life found in Jesus, to get your heart soil worked over by the Holy Spirit to get you to Jesus or to give you a story from the Master Story-teller to scatter this week wherever the Holy Spirit leads you.

Genesis 2:4-25 Breath of Life

The last few months I’ve had many conversations about life and death as a pastor, a son and brother. This week an old friend connected again through Facebook and our conversation was about death and life, but this time emotional and spiritual death and life. Her marriage ended and, in this crisis, she gave herself completely to Jesus, finding new life in him. That’s why when I was reflecting on this story, the theme of life jumped out at me. There’s much to this simple story, but this morning let’s think about life: who it comes from and how, who we are, and what it’s all about. 

Life comes from God. Everything in the world has its beginning in God. In Genesis 1, Moses tells us that God spoke and life appeared. But now he gives life differently; in a personal, intimate loving way. God takes dirt, and like a potter, shapes it into a human being. Humanity comes from creation itself, intimately tying us to creation. But after God shapes this human out of dirt, it lies there; still just a clod of earth.

Life doesn’t come from God speaking this time, “the Lord God formed a man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being.” God gets close and personal in giving us life, breathing life into us. The word for breath is the same word for spirit. God breathed his spirit into us, helping us understand what it means to be created in the image of God. God’s spirit gives us life. God’s image comes from his life-giving spirit. The form of our bodies is wonderful because God creates masterpieces. Psalm 139 reminds us “we are fearfully and wonderful made.” Your body, whatever its shape or size is beautiful and wonderful, a gift given by God. Our life is God given and this means you are precious to him, a beloved child, a dear friend of Jesus. Meaning and purpose come in being God’s beloved and being made in his image. Developing and taking care of God’s creation is the bonus part. The life we receive from God is eternal, there’s no death in the life we’re given, but a full life in relationship with our creator.

Life isn’t meant to be lived alone. After Adam is given life, God brings all the creatures of creation to Adam to see what Adam will name them. God is getting Adam to show him what he sees in the creatures God created. I wonder what Adam saw in each of the creatures that caused him to create names like crocodile, giraffe, hippopotamus or even snail or worm. After all the creatures come, not a single one is found to be a suitable helper for Adam. He’s alone. God’s there, but it’s not the same as having someone who’s like you, whose life reflects yours, who experiences life like you do.

Loneliness is experienced by so many people today. It’s a chronic problem. I’m certain that there are some of you who wrestle with loneliness, having no one that you feel you can share with, that you are able to experience life deeply with, who understands you, or wants to and tries to understand you. We may be connected to others through our smart phones and social media accounts and still many people struggle with loneliness.  Natalie Shoemaker writes, “More and more adults report feeling lonely. It's not just the elderly, but younger adults 18 to 24 that are reporting these feelings of isolation. John Cacioppo and Stephanie Cacioppo from New Scientist write that loneliness is becoming a modern epidemic, even when we're more connected than ever, these thoughts of being alone together are breaking us down. Humans are social creatures--we thrive in groups and decline when we're alone for too long, often becoming depressed. But the Cacioppos explain that loneliness doesn't just mean being physically alone, it can also mean feeling like you're on the social perimeter of a group.”

This is why so many LGBTQ persons and people from minorities struggle with loneliness and feelings of isolation. Jesus created the church to be a place where people can find community, belonging and acceptance. Churches often have focused on sin and separation from sin, but Jesus challenges us to examine our own lives before judging others. We’re not going to change anyone by judging them, but when we welcome them as persons created in the image of God, given life through God’s breath, the Holy Spirit brings new life. Brennan Manning puts it this way, “Jesus comes for sinners, for those as outcast as tax collectors and for those caught up in squalid choices and failed dreams. He comes for corporate executives, street people, superstars, farmers, hookers, addicts, IRS agents, AIDS victims, and even used-car salesmen. Jesus not only talks with these people but dines with them—fully aware that his table fellowship with sinners will raise the eyebrows of religious bureaucrats….” Jesus loves us as we are as he offers life and his love and acceptance. We are all sinners being offered grace and hope by Jesus.

So, what does God do about Adam’s loneliness? He puts Adam to sleep, takes a rib from his side and creates a woman. She’s a suitable helper, ezer is the word used, a word that God later uses to describe himself. Ezer’s not about position, but about relationship that fits each other. We’re not meant to be lonely. I wrestled with loneliness for a long time even though I have a wonderful wife and many friends. It was only after Jesus' words that he would never leave us alone sunk deep into my heart and soul that the loneliness really left. I enjoy being alone, but I no longer experience loneliness because I've allowed Jesus a place front and center in my life. There are times when being alone is good, but alone is different from loneliness. Relationship is part of the image of God. God is three persons in one, he’s a community that blesses and builds each person up. The church is to be community too; building relationships with the lonely, those on the fringes of society, the people overlooked, unloved and rejected. Jesus was accused of living too closely with the sinners, the drunkards, the impure. This is where we are called to live too.

God breathes into dry dead places, giving life and fullness and hope. The prophet Ezekiel is taken by the Spirit of God to a valley filled with dry bones. Hear what happens next, Ezekiel 37 (NLT) “Then he said to me, “Speak a prophetic message to these bones and say, ‘Dry bones, listen to the word of the Lord! This is what the Sovereign Lord says: Look! I am going to put breath into you and make you live again! I will put flesh and muscles on you and cover you with skin. I will put breath into you, and you will come to life. Then you will know that I am the Lord.’” ... Suddenly as I spoke, there was a rattling noise all across the valley. The bones of each body came together and attached themselves as complete skeletons. Then as I watched, muscles and flesh formed over the bones. Then skin formed to cover their bodies, but they still had no breath in them. Then he said to me, “Speak a prophetic message to the winds, son of man… ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says: Come, O breath, from the four winds! Breathe into these dead bodies so they may live again.’” So, I spoke the message as he commanded me, and breath came into their bodies.” God breaths new life into his people, he brings hope and transformation, he gives us himself still today.

In John 20, Jesus has risen from the grave after dying on the cross for our sin. He meets his followers who are together in a locked room in fear, John 20 (NLT) “Suddenly, Jesus was standing there among them! “Peace be with you,” he said. As he spoke, he showed them the wounds in his hands and his side. They were filled with joy when they saw the Lord! Again, he said, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I am sending you.” Then he breathed on them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive anyone’s sins, they are forgiven. If you do not forgive them, they are not forgiven.” Jesus breaths on them, this is how Jesus gives them the Holy Spirit! Through the Holy Spirit comes belonging, new life, hope, the experience of forgiveness and grace, the gift of community and relationship in the community of the church.

If you’re searching for life, hope, and community, Jesus invites you to come to him because he loves you, accepts you. As Jesus followers, we’re here to walk with you so your loneliness can be a thing of the past, so you can experience the full life Jesus offers you. For those of you who are experiencing the blessing of life in Jesus, the call to you this morning is to pay attention to the people Jesus places in your path, be quick to build into those relationships, and even more quick to invite them to come to know Jesus with you so they can experience new life as part of the community of Jesus.

Genesis 1:1-2:3 Creation: Order out of Chaos

I remember my grandfather telling us this story and including the creation of things like unicorns and dragons into the story. He made it a story of awe and wonder filled with visions of spinning galaxies and incredible creatures, all created by an amazing God who loves diversity and beautiful things. It reminds me that this is an origins story, a story of the God who is behind the existence of this universe and all universes and everything in them. It reveals to us who God is and what kind of a God he is.

“In the beginning,” what a great start, it takes us all the way back to when there was nothingness. We read that “the earth was formless and void,” a good translation, but the Hebrew can also be translated that “everything was chaos and the Spirit of God hovered over the chaotic wasteland or wilderness.” When you translate it this way, you get a better picture of what God is all about here; it’s about entering into that chaos and creating order and beauty and wonder out of a wasteland.

How many people do you know whose lives are filled with chaos, who feel as if they are wandering aimlessly in a wasteland, looking for a way out, for a new beginning, new hope, new life? The Bible and the Holy Spirit point us to God and Jesus as the source of new beginnings, new life and hope. We get a picture of this in how God goes about creating everything.

“Let there be light.” Light is key for life, a counter to darkness and a symbol of life and hope, a guide in the darkness. Light is good, Jesus calls himself the “light of the world,” the source of hope in the world, shining into our lives and the life if the world. God begins the process of separating: light from darkness, water from water, and water from land. In a chaotic life, separation is important: unhealthy from healthy, brokenness from wholeness, self-desire from Jesus’ desire, old from new. The Spirit that hovers about the chaos at the beginning is given to us by Jesus to lead us into new life be separating us from the unhealthy in our lives, from the brokenness in our lives, from self-desire into embracing Jesus’ desire for our lives filled with health and wholeness.

The next part of creating order and beauty out of chaos in filling the land, air and water with life and light. “Then God said, “Let the land produce vegetation: seed-bearing plants and trees on the land that bear fruit with seed in it, according to their various kinds… Let there be lights in the vault of the sky to separate the day from the night and let them serve as signs to mark sacred times, and days and years, and let them be lights in the vault of the sky to give light on the earth… Let the water teem with living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth across the vault of the sky… Let the land produce living creatures according to their kinds: the livestock, the creatures that move along the ground, and the wild animals, each according to its kind.” Can you imagine the amazing sight of empty land, water, and heaves filling with life, teeming with movement and variety and sound? Everywhere you turn there are new creatures to discover, new colours to see, new experiences to wonder at. Life is amazing and full and abundantly delightful.

This is God’s desire for you, this is why Jesus came, so that you might be filled with living water and the bread of life. Jesus came and went to the cross so that you can experience an abundance of hope, love, forgiveness, acceptance and grace; that you might have life, and have it to the full, as Jesus tells us in John 10. It’s not Jesus’ intention that you wander in a spiritual wasteland, he went to the cross to defeat Satan and death and to draw you back to his Father and into his love. The cross leads us to confession and repentance and an abundant life lived in gratitude to Jesus as new creations in Jesus.

Then God does the unimaginable, he creates a new creature in his own image to develop, tame, lead and love this creation into releasing its potential, this amazingly full, abundant, living creation to become all that God has created it to become. God blesses this humanity as he blessed the living beings before; to create new life and bless the life already created. God provides all creation with everything it needs and he looks and is pleased with what he sees, declaring, “It is very good.” God’s very good is magnificent, glorious, a masterpiece without compare.

Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cor1haQXkYg  by John Steele

You are a part of this magnificent, glorious masterpiece. You are the image of God, washed clean, given new life by Jesus, recognizing that image of God in everyone you meet. This is why question and answer 1 of the Heidelberg Catechism rings so powerfully to me: What is your only comfort in life and death? That I am not my own, but belong with body and soul, both in life and in death, to my faithful Saviour Jesus Christ. He has fully paid for all my sins with his precious blood and has set me free from all the power of the devil. He also preserves me in such a way that without the will of my heavenly Father not a hair can fall from my head; indeed, all things must work together for my salvation. Therefore, by his Holy Spirit he also assures me of eternal life and makes me heartily willing and ready from now on to live for him.

This is why we focus so much on sharing our faith, on inviting others to join us in our journey of life following Jesus because Jesus desires that all people might have life and have it to the full rather than wandering through spiritual wildernesses. We are called to help people to discover this God who has created them in his image, this Jesus who offered up his own life so that they can experience new life in him. Jesus has made it possible for all people to experience new beginnings as he brings order out of chaos so they can experience with us the very good of creation. If you are hungering for beauty and wonder, come to Jesus, get to know God the creator and he will give you eyes to see the wonders all around you, filling your heart and soul with the beauty that lies all around you.