3 John Faithfulness

 

Have you ever had a friend who hurt you? Maybe they shared something unkind about you with someone else, or maybe they ignored you at school or at a party and made you feel sad and like you’re not even their friend anymore? Faithfulness is one of those character traits that we look for in people because it shows that the person is mature and trustworthy. The Dictionary of Bible Themes defines faithfulness as “commitment to a relationship with God or fellow human beings, seen in that loyalty, devotion, and service which is a reflection of God’s own faithfulness. Scripture points to the faithfulness of Jesus Christ as an example for believers.”

Our faithfulness flows out of God, a reflection of his faithfulness to us. All you need to do to get a sense of how faithful God is to us is read the Bible, beginning in Genesis, especially Genesis 3 and then follow how God sticks with humanity even though we keep throwing his faithfulness to us back in his face time and again as we keep choosing other gods over God. I say ‘we’ because we’re no different than the people in the Bible. Tim Keller says that we tend to take the good things that God blesses us with and turn them into gods by making them more important in our hearts than God himself. As I look at my own life, I realize that it’s done so easily, without even knowing it at the time. It takes a deliberate choice each day to follow Jesus above everything else. It kind of hit me as I was studying for this sermon, that just as I feel hurt and betrayed when a friend or loved does something that makes you feel unloved or small, that God must feel hurt too when I’m not faithful to him and choose other things to love more than him. I think that many people forget that God feels things too; Jesus lived life deeply and emotionally. Faithfulness is a 100% commitment. For those of you who are married, can you imagine the response if you told your spouse that you figure 85% faithfulness is good enough? Yet we do that to God pretty regularly.

In John’s third letter, John’s writing to a dear friend, Gaius. We first meet Gaius as a travelling partner of Paul in Acts 19 and 20. Paul also mentions Gaius in his first letter to the church in Corinth, where we discover that Paul had baptized Gaius into the faith, “My brothers and sisters, some from Chloe’s household have informed me that there are quarrels among you. What I mean is this: One of you says, “I follow Paul”; another, “I follow Apollos”; another, “I follow Cephas”; still another, “I follow Christ.”  Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Were you baptized in the name of Paul? I thank God that I did not baptize any of you except Crispus and Gaius, so no one can say that you were baptized in my name.” Paul challenged the people in Corinth to remember that Jesus is the center of our faith, not Apollos, Cephas or even Paul. Paul’s calling them back to faithfulness to Jesus.

Scott Hoezee writes about 3 John, “The major, major theme of John, and in the Gospel of John, too, and in I John, this whole idea of the truth; and the truth is, as we know, and as we will learn from other parts of this letter, the truth is the truth about Jesus, and the truth that He was God’s own Son, and the truth – that is the right teaching about Jesus – orthodoxy – leads to orthopraxis, which is to act in a right way. So, orthodoxy leads to orthopraxis – right teaching leads to right practice; and in Gaius’s case, this is an exercise of hospitality. Love – sacrificial love of Jesus – showing itself in hospitality to these people who have come to him and he has taken in.”

John shares with Gaius, “They have told the church about your love. Please send them on their way in a manner that honors God. It was for the sake of the name that they went out, receiving no help from the pagans. We ought, therefore, to show hospitality to such people, so that we may work together for the truth.” Faithfulness to Jesus leads to faithfulness to others who are also followers of Jesus. We are called to live together in community together, to be family together as the church, to show the world what faithful healthy relationships look like in the kingdom of God. This is why John calls out Diotrephes who puts himself and his place in the church above being a blessing to others, even other followers of Jesus.

In John 14, Jesus says, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” Jesus is saying that our life needs to be formed on his teaching and example, he is the way we should live; our life is based on the truth, on being faithful to him alone; and Jesus is the life that he talks about when he says in John 10:10, “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.” Gaius, as John says, is faithful to the truth, walking in the truth. Gaius’ faithfulness to Jesus is seen in his faithfulness to these people who have come in Jesus’ name to bring the good news of Jesus to those who still haven’t heard of Jesus, or haven’t committed to following Jesus yet. This is what being faithful to Jesus is all about; it’s not simply believing the right things, it moves into doing right things; it’s about taking the command to go make disciples and making it central to our lives as we follow Jesus. It’s about commitment and faithfulness to the local church, committing to work with each other, using our gifts and resources to share the gospel, to be a blessing in our community, seeking justice and mercy for those overlooked and oppressed and being faithful to our community. Faithfulness is all about relationships of trust and commitment to God, each other, and the people of our community. This is at the heart of our faith and faithfulness to Jesus.

Faithfulness, as part of the fruit of the Spirit, and our character, shapes all our relationships. This is why marriage is often used as an image of Jesus’ relationship with the church, because marriage is a relationship fully rooted in faithfulness to each other. Some one asked me once why the church insists that couples get married instead of simply living together, at least at first to see if they fit together and I told the person that marriage is rooted in promises to each other, it’s a relationship based on commitment rather than feelings because feelings change, but commitment doesn’t, and because it shows that you recognize that marriage is about loyalty, devotion and serving each other. Living together only shows the other person that their commitment to your relationship is based on how long it satisfies them, makes them feel good, instead of faithfulness and sacrifice for the other person.

Faithfulness builds up the other person, leading us to say like John the Baptist does about Jesus, “He must become greater; I must become less.” The band Casting Crowns says it this way,

“Cause I’m just a nobody

Trying to tell everybody

All about Somebody who saved my soul

Ever since You rescued me

You gave my heart a song to sing

I’m living for the world to see Nobody but Jesus.”

Because we are all created in the image of God, we’re all called to be encouragers and builders up of all people, pointing them to Jesus where they can experience Jesus’ love and faithfulness to us. This is part of showing the world what the kingdom of God is all about, what faithfulness to God looks like.

Faithfulness to our communities flows out of our faithfulness to God. God has placed us where we are for his reasons, in a place to live out our faithfulness to him. We are all human beings created in the image of God. Faithfulness to Jesus means loving God with everything we are, seriously studying and knowing his Word so that we can live out his image and values in our community out of God’s love for them. By living out Jesus’ truth in love, we show our community what truth is, what truth looks like in a world muddied with many opinions based on how the person feels at the time, or on how it benefits them over others. Jesus reveals truth: we’re all broken sinful people who need a perfect saviour who is God and human to take our sin away and make us right again with God and each other. This Saviour, who is Jesus, then calls us to live out his truth love to Him and to each other through acts of sacrificial love through the good works prepared for us to do to show our faithfulness to God.

 

 

 

 

  

 

 

 

Song of Songs 1:4-7; 2:2; 2:14; 4:1-7; Psalm 139:13-14 Wonderfully Made

This is a difficult message for me because I have a wonderful wife and great kids and grandkids, some of whom have wrestled hard with images of self-worth and respect because of how they’ve been treated. The message this morning is about brokenness and hurt: how we’re hurt and how we hurt each other. We have all been impacted by what we are going to be talking about this morning. We live in a good country, but there are areas where our culture fails us. Companies hi-light all our flaws and then offer their solutions to our failure to not be beautiful or cool enough. They have hyper-sexualized our youth and women and this creates low self images as the images of women and girls online and on tv are so photoshopped they never even come close to showing a real woman or girl.

When we are told we aren’t beautiful enough or good enough, when we’re told that we need to value ourselves by what we look like or by what we have, we need to remember who we are: deeply loved children of God. I know it can be hard to remember that when you look into the mirror and all you see are your faults, when you look at your accomplishments and wonder if that outfit, that car, that boat or house might make you feel like you’re somebody, remember that none of that is important to your heavenly father; all that’s important to God is that you know you’re loved and valued by him.

Today we’re looking at a couple of issues that the church has always found it hard to talk about, pornography and gender issues. Yet if we don’t become comfortable talking about these things from a Biblical approach, our youth are left to learn from media and impressionable friends who want to be loving and not say that any kind of lifestyle is wrong because they might offend someone. It doesn’t matter if you’re a grandparent or parent or unmarried, our youth need us to become comfortable talking about these things. They are being exposed to these things already as young as 9 or 10 outside the home. They need us.

Pornography tears us down, especially women, making them into objects to serve our lusts rather than as beautiful and precious people created in the image of God. Our kids are encountering it earlier and earlier. Porn hurts people. It promises easy relationships with no ties, but then wraps our hearts and minds in powerful chains of lust and shame. It destroys our relationships, taking away the image of God in each of us. Porn turns our real people relationships into things to be used and thrown away. If you no longer please. I’ll swipe left.

The Song of Songs is a love poem in the Bible. It’s part of the wisdom literature that tells us how to live wisely in our relationships as men and women. Because we’re being conditioned to see others simply as objects for our own desire, the Song shows us how a man and woman should show and express love and respect to each other. In the Song of Songs, the woman feels down about herself, her skin is too dark, she works at a common job, she’s not pretty. She turns to one she loves, calling him to tell her where he grazes his flocks so she can come to him in the daylight as a respectable woman, one with honour and pride in herself, even though her looks may not measure up to the daughters of Jerusalem. She knows she’s precious. She respects herself, refusing to be like a veiled woman beside the flocks of his friends, a reference to prostitutes and an echo to the story of Ruth and Boaz and how Ruth trusted that Boaz would treat her with respect and honour when she came to him at the threshing floor in the evening.

The man responds to her and builds her up, encouraging her. This is how we are supposed to respond to each other, building up and encouraging them to be whom God has created them to be, showing respect. Pornography takes our dignity away from us; the ability to really get to see and know the other person and the image of God in the person. As you read through the poem, the woman speaks highly of the man, expressing her admiration for him, showing him respect and honour. The man responds with words of admiration, expressing his love with beautiful words, using the beauty of creation to describe her beauty. He proclaims it to the world. Last week we touched on how men and women are created equal but different; men needing respect and women needing love. This is expressed in the Song of Songs.

The discussions on gender and homosexuality are tied to the porn epidemic because it all revolves around our image of ourselves and how our identity is rooted in our sexuality. We live in a so-called tolerant culture that says you have to accept everyone, that we have to embrace and endorse the other person, even if we disagree with their values. This is especially true about moral issues. If you disagree with someone over the moral values, you are declared wrong, intolerant, and then shamed. The tolerant quickly become intolerant of those they disagree with. This is what our youth face when they say they hold onto a historical Biblical interpretation of sexuality. They’re told they don’t fit in today’s tolerant society. There are a lot of our youth and adults today who are walking wounded, wanting to fit in, tempted to change what they believe and accept what our culture says is right because they’ve been rejected and even shunned.

I’ve been wrestling with our culture’s definition of tolerance. This is where the Bible comes in. I believe a healthier approach to working through moral issues is not tolerance, but love. It begins with knowing where our identity comes from. Our culture tells us that our sexuality, ethnic roots, and gender are our core identities. When I turn to Scripture, God reminds us of who we are: we are people created in the image of God, fearfully and wonderfully made, masterpieces in the eyes of God, precious to him, valued greatly by Jesus, loved enough to die for as King David reminds us, “For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful; I know that full well.” We’ve been adopted into God’s family: beloved daughters and sons of God, princesses and princes in the kingdom of heaven. This is our first and primary identity, this is where we find our strength and life direction. As children of God, we choose to trust him and what he teaches us in the Bible.

It’s important to learn to see ourselves and each other through the eyes of God. Paul reminds us in 1 Corinthians 3:16–17, “Don’t you know that you yourselves are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in your midst? If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy that person; for God’s temple is sacred, and you together are that temple.” Paul carries on this same theme in Ephesians 2:22, “And in him you too are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit.” God has made us his home! When we hear the Bible with ears of love, we can engage our critical culture and keep our hearts and lives strong when meeting people who believe differently than we do about homosexuality and the other gender issues our culture and church are wrestling with. But it begins with us being clear on what we believe, talking about what we believe, and basing it on God’s word. Culture keeps changing while God’s Word has remained a strong firm foundation for thousands of years.

It’s not about convincing others that what we believe is right and what they believe is wrong, that seldom makes a difference. When we root ourselves in loving God and loving our neighbour, we engage our culture best by being determined to see the image of God in each other, engaging them with respect and honour while sharing with them God’s love. I always seem to come back to Jesus, to the people he encountered and how he treated them. Jesus meets a Samaritan woman at a well. He knows that she’s been married 5 times before and now is simply living with a man, but he treats her with respect and honour and she becomes his first missionary; all because he treated her with basic love. then there is the woman that is thrown down into the dirt before Jesus because she was caught in an adulterous situation. Jesus gets down in the dirt with her and starts writing in the dirt, and when her accusers slink away, Jesus asks her where her accusers are and she tells them they’re gone. Jesus then tells her that he’s not going to judge her either, but he also adds, “Go and sin no more.” Jesus shows compassionate love to her and he wants what is best for her, which is why he told her to go sin no more. We need to be talking with each other and with our youth and children about sexuality, as uncomfortable as it may be at times for us. We study the Bible, we study science, and we humbly engage in conversations with each and our culture about who God calls us to be as his children.

People are changed when they see what we are for, rather than what we’re against. As we trust in God’s love for us, we trust that what God has revealed in the Bible about what healthy relationships and identity are, is what’s best for us. We also acknowledge the brokenness that sin has brought into the world.

We, without apology to our culture, shape our lives and loves on how God has called us to live, based on love rather than the intolerant tolerance we encounter today. One thing we do need to remember is that we are called to love those who believe differently than we do, we need to treat them with respect as people who are wonderfully made as they work through who they are.

We are wonderfully created, loved by God, and challenged by God to live as his people in the way of Jesus. Through Jesus’ love flowing through us, we show it looks like to be free to be who God calls us to be. Being a follower of Jesus is not about what we are against, but about who we are and what we do as Jesus’ followers: love each other and all our neighbours in active ways, serve our community in love in real practical ways, and sharing with them who Jesus is and how much he loves them, and how Jesus is calling them to follow his way: to trust his truth so they can experience and full blessed life.

 

 

Genesis 2:15-25; Ephesians 5:21-33 It’s Not Good to Be Alone

 

Creation is a beautiful story of how God created everything “good” and “very good.” Genesis 1 and 2 shows us a God who is intimately involved with creation, making sure that everything fits beautifully together. Then we come to Genesis 2:18 where we come to the very first “not good” in the Bible, “The Lord God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him.” We are then given the story of the creation of Eve, the partner for Adam that makes God’s “not good” “good.” Adam responds to the gift of Eve, “This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called ‘woman,’ for she was taken out of man.” That is why a man leaves his father and mother and is united to his wife, and they become one flesh.” Adam is no longer alone.

There’s a great deal of loneliness today. Angus Reid in June 2019 showed that there’s a lot of lonely Canadians. The survey asked: How often do you wish you had someone to talk to, but don’t? 41% of Canadians often or sometimes feel this way. 47% feel lonely and wish they had more friendly human contact, 35 % wish they had more good friends, and 62% wish their own family and friends would spend more time visiting and socializing with them. One notable pattern is that women under 35 tend to express greater feelings of loneliness than other age groups. Four-in-ten Canadians say that they sometimes or often wish they had someone to talk to but don’t, this sentiment rises to six-in-ten among young women.”

It’s not good to be alone and people will search for a relationship to ease their loneliness, even choosing relationships that may be unwise or even unsafe. I’ve walked with too many people who have found themselves in such relationships and find the hurt is greater than the loneliness. Same-sex marriages, couples moving in together before marriage, those who are in polyamorous relationships are all searching for someone to ease their loneliness because they’re experiencing the “not good” of being alone that God responds too in Genesis 2. We may disagree with their choices, but it’s important to understand why they make these choices: they’re looking to feel wanted and loved, a relationship where they’re accepted and belong.

God responds by creating a “helper suitable for Adam,” who turns out to be Eve. This is the foundational verse that the church turns to when it defines marriage, “This is why a man leaves his father and mother and is united to his wife, and they become one flesh.” This is one of the ways that God gives us to find a way out of loneliness. There’s a beautiful image here of becoming one again after Eve was created out of the side of Adam. It shows the strength of the marriage relationship. In Ephesians 5, Paul teaches about marriage where both the husband and wife are built up and encouraged to become who God has created them to be. Because men and women are equal but different, Paul has slightly different approaches to marriage for them. He starts by reminding them that a strong marriage is one where the man and woman submit to each other. In such a marriage, both partners are focused on making sure that they are focused on helping their partner become the person God has created them to be. In such a marriage, there’s no focus on rights, but on responsibility, on encouraging and building each other up. A strong marriage is one where each partner is focused on supporting the other partner to discover and develop the potential God has placed in them.

Paul recognizes that men and women need slightly different things from each other. Men need to feel respected by their wives. This may be sexist, but most men want to be their wife’s hero, to be her protector and provider. Most times, a husband who feels disrespected feels like a failure, especially if his wife is critical of him around others. Most women seek to be loved, cherished, and desired by their husbands; to be precious in the heart of their husbands and loved for who they are, not simply for what they look like. This is why Paul calls the husbands to love their wives with a sacrificial love that is willing to give up everything for their wives. Paul uses Jesus’ sacrificial love for the church, a love so strong that he willingly gave his own life for our sin so we could be washed clean and made right with God again, as an example for the husbands to follow. In such a marriage, there is no loneliness.

Another relationship God gives us so we don’t have to be lonely are deep strong friendships, especially same-sex friendships. Not everyone is created for marriage. The Bible speaks highly of those who choose singleness over marriage; Paul even encourages us to be single in 1 Corinthians 7, but the possibility of aloneness and loneliness is high when you’re single. Throughout the Bible we see examples of friendships where people find the support, encouragement, and intimate relationships we all need. Intimacy in these friendships is not physical, but a depth of relationship where you are able to safely share the deepest parts of yourself, it’s a relationship where you can be vulnerable about what you feel, believe, and even doubt and know that you will be supported and encouraged. In my experience, women are more comfortable with these kinds of friendships, though the number of young women who experience loneliness surprised me. Many men seem to fear these kinds of deep friendships. Part of that fear seems to come from being misunderstood. This is mostly a North American thing as men in most other cultures are more open to these kinds of close deep male friendships.

These are friendships where you know you’re loved and accepted, where you know that you’re an important part of their life. In the Bible we see this in David and Jonathan’s relationship, where Jonathan, son of the king, knows that David is going to be the next king instead of himself, and yet he fully supports, encourages, and even protects David from his own father. We see it in Barnabas and Paul’s friendship where Barnabas puts his own reputation on the line because he believes in Paul and his call from God to bring the Gospel news to the Gentiles. Even Jesus has a closer friendship with John than with any of the other disciples. Ruth leaves her own country and people for the sake of Naomi. All these friendships involved sacrifice, encouragement, acceptance, and love.

A third relationship God gives us so we don’t have to be alone or lonely is the church. One of the ways the Bible describes the church is as a family. Robert Frost writes, “Home is the place where, when you have to go there, they have to take you in.” This is because you are connected through blood and committed relationships, even if they can be strained at times. We’re connected through the blood of Jesus, who has chosen us to be his own; placing us together in the church to help us grow more into who God calls us to be. The person you don’t particularly care for in church is there because God knows how embracing that person as your family can help you become more like Jesus. Family is also the place where you can be yourself, a place to take off the masks we wear outside the family in order to belong and be accepted. I do wish the church family can be such a place for everyone, even though I know it’s hard because to do so you need to feel safe. Everyone needs family. The challenge in many churches is to move from cliques and small circles of friendships to being family, to deliberately inviting others into our homes and circles, to care deeply enough to make those sometimes uncomfortable first invitations to those on the fringes of the church, to those who are alone, to honestly accept people and create places for them.

The reality about people is that we will all fail each other at times. Yet we keep reaching out to each other, practicing reconciliation when needed, because it’s not good to be alone. God offers us one relationship that will never fail, a relationship with Jesus through the Holy Spirit. Jesus tells us in John 14, “If you love me, keep my commands. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another advocate to help you and be with you forever—the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you. I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you.” God promises us he will be with you. Part of my life journey has been learning and embracing this, knowing that there are times I may feel alone but don’t have to feel lonely because Jesus is always with me through the Spirit. This fills me with strength and hope that loneliness can be conquered, beginning in the church.

Ephesians 2:1-10 Goodness

 

Today is Pentecost, the day that Jesus sent his Spirit. The Holy Spirit is the gift of Jesus that keeps reminding us of who Jesus is, his life and teaching, and the hope that we have in belonging to Jesus. This all flows out of the kindness, the goodness of God. The word for goodness, agathos in Greek, includes the idea of generosity and doing what’s right. All these different aspects of the fruit of the Spirit are all interconnected and intertwined with each other.

Last week we saw kindness as being the opposite of meanness, goodness goes in a slightly different direction. Goodness is a deliberate choice of right over wrong and the constant fight against all moral evil while choosing and following all that is morally good. Goodness is an active choosing of Jesus’ way over our way or Satan’s way. This is why goodness is connected so closely to doing, it’s actively living out Jesus’ way in our lives as Jesus tells us in Matthew 5, “In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.” It’s all about pointing people to God through how we live, through the things we do. As Paul reminds us, “For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.”

We do good works, not save ourselves, but out of gratitude to God who is “making us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved. And God has raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Jesus Christ, in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness, or goodness, to us in Christ Jesus.” Paul doesn’t want us to think for even a second that anything we do saves us from our sin. It’s Jesus all the way. As Richard Carlson writes, “Our works have not saved us, but they are part of the goal God had in mind in saving us. Hence good works are not simply the by-products of our conversion but were pre-planned and pre-prepared by God.”

These good works show the change that the Holy Spirit makes in us through Jesus’ crucifixion and resurrection. When God created humanity in his image, we were created good and very good. Sin changed that, this is why God sent Jesus and the Holy Spirit, to reverse the effects of sin in us and begin the process of making us good and very good once again. This is what we call sanctification. This is a life long process, which is why we’re reflecting on growing the fruit of the Spirit in us, no matter how old we are, because we all have growing to do.

Pete Armstrong talks about Barnabas, the only one willing to take a chance on the angry murderous Saul after Saul became a follower of Jesus, “We have all been around exciting people who are passionate about the wrong things. What did Barnabas encourage them towards? “He encouraged them all to remain true to the Lord with all their hearts” (Acts 11:23c). Perhaps this was his way of saying: Remember this day always. Remain true even when temptation comes. Remain true when the culture goes against you. Remain true when you are threatened with your life (a reality for the early church and for many believers around the world today). Barnabas had a beautiful way of encouraging them toward the truth of the Lord, who loves us with all His heart.” Phillip Yancy marvels at the love and grace of God, “God wants something more intimate than the closest relationship on earth, the lifetime bond between a man and a woman. What God wants is not a good performance, but my heart. I do “Good works” for my wife not in order to earn credit but to express my love for her. Likewise, God wants me to serve ‘In the way of the Spirit”: not out of compulsion but of desire.” Good works flow out of our love for God, but also out of our newfound love for our neighbours.

What are these good works that God has prepared for us to do? Is everything nice we do a good work? We can go to the GEMS for some insight from the Old Testament, Micah 6:8, “He has shown you, O mortal, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.” Baking cookies for your neighbour, mowing their lawn, or shoveling their driveway after a snowstorm are good things. But maybe we need to go deeper into what the good works God has prepared for us to do are. Are there things in our community that are broken, systems that hurt rather than help? Are there gaps in our community that those who are poor, oppressed, in need of help and compassion fall through unseen and uncared for? The Bible has always been concerned for the entire community, not simply the wealthy and comfortable. God’s goodness is about righteousness and justice, about standing up against moral evil and actively engaging in building God’s shalom and kingdom in our community. Imagine investing your life in doing God’s good works with him!

We have some amazing people and organizations doing good works in our community right now: YU Turn and Stepping Stones, the Broomtree Foundation, the foodbank, along with government organizations such as FCSS and Neighbourlink. There are great needs in our community because of the economic climate in our province and COVID. Family breakdowns and abuse are up, drug and alcohol abuse are up, many more people are struggling with mental health. There are no shelters in Lacombe for those who are homeless, there is no emergency woman’s shelter in Lacombe, or a parent in crisis support group. Bethel is a church that loves doing, it is a church filled with loving servants, but perhaps we need to be more deliberate in how we serve, in the good works we’re engaged in.

Jesus challenges us when it comes to doing good in Luke 6:31–35, “Do to others as you would have them do to you. “If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? Even sinners love those who love them. And if you do good to those who are good to you, what credit is that to you? Even sinners do that. And if you lend to those from whom you expect repayment, what credit is that to you? Even sinners lend to sinners, expecting to be repaid in full. But love your enemies, do good to them, and lend to them without expecting to get anything back. Then your reward will be great, and you will be children of the Most High, because he is kind to the ungrateful and wicked.”

Doing good to people we don’t know, for those who we don’t care for, even those who have hurt us is the challenge of Jesus. It’s easy to take care of each other. To discover God’s good works for us takes listening to our community, watching what is or isn’t happening around us, getting to know the people of our community by serving in places like the Broomtree, YU Turn, FCSS, and other organizations in Lacombe that are working to make our city a better place to live. It takes spending time getting to know our neighbours, the clerks in the grocery stores, the other parents at the swimming pool or lake, talking to those serving in our local government about the needs they see and how they see we could bring more shalom, justice, and health into our community. These are the kinds of good works that cause others to wonder about the God we follow, this is how we can be part of how God changes lives and communities.

This kind of effort as a church and as individuals reveals how God’s goodness is shaping us, how the goodness of the fruit of the Spirit is growing in us and using us to lead others to Jesus. Us doing good works reveals God’s goodness. Paul writes to Titus, “For the grace of God has appeared that offers salvation to all people. It teaches us to say “No” to ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in this present age, while we wait for the blessed hope—the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us to redeem us from all wickedness and to purify for himself a people that are his very own, eager to do what is good.”

Nadia Bolz-Weber writes, “We are gifted by God for good works. We are subjects of not only God's grace, love and mercy, but also of God's gifts. Sometimes we even say yes to God's yes, which is when the gospel is unleashed in our lives and challenges our self-reliance. This is when things get really exciting.” It’s good to live an exciting life partnering with God to transform lives and our city through God’s goodness and the good works he’s prepared for us to do.

 

 

Romans 11:11-24 Kindness

 

In Romans 9-11, we see Paul’s heart for the Jews. He’s happy for Gentiles who are coming to Jesus and the faith communities that are growing like crazy, but Paul’s not seeing his many of own people respond to Jesus as their Messiah. Paul’s wondering if God’s plan is to use the Gentiles to bring the Jews to Jesus by stirring up jealousy in the Jews. At the same time, Paul’s warning the Gentiles to not get too smug about being grafted into Jesus. It’s only by God’s kindness that they’ve been grafted into Jesus, not because they’re so special in themselves. Paul encourages the Gentiles to instead pray that God will extend his kindness to the Jewish people too.

When you read through Scripture, kindness is a key attribute of the character of God. The Hebrew word hesed is often translated as kindness, though it’s much more, it’s about long-lasting loyalty and commitment. The Greek word christotes is translated as kindness. Our society feels like it’s becoming meaner and harsher. Social media can be an ugly place and kindness can be hard to find. The saddest part is that there are Christians on social media that are as mean and unkind and sarcastic as non-Christians. Instead of changing the culture on social media, too many Christians have become part of the social media culture.

It’s going to take Christians who are serious about Jesus to be part of the change on social media. I am challenging everyone who’s on social media, whether it’s Facebook, Instagram, Tiktok or any of the other platforms, to commit to only being an encouraging presence of kindness who builds others up. This includes politics. If you cannot say something nice about those in government or anyone else, offer up a prayer for them instead. Be a presence of kindness rather than hate and meanness. Kindness is about desiring what is best for the other person, it’s about showing tender concern, it’s about who you are as a person, part of your character. Kindness is sacrificial, focusing on being a blessing. Ephesians 4:31–32, “Get rid of all bitterness, rage and anger, brawling and slander, along with every form of malice. Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you.”

While many non-Christians would like to know Christians and learn about what we believe, many non-Christians also see Christians mostly act negatively. John Atkinson writes, “What we do and say affects the non-Christians around us far more than it does the Christians. Pastor Lee Strobel said one of the most profound things I have ever heard. I'm paraphrasing because I can't remember the exact quote, "for those of us who call ourselves Christians, we need to know that the hypocrisy meter is scanning our lives." In other words, those who have chosen not to believe are looking for us to fail so they can justify their non-belief.”

Kindness is having a generous spirit, a desire to say or do something that makes a person feel valued, cared for, and cherished. That’s what we saw in the video. In Romans 11, Paul tells us that the kindness of God is the foundation of our salvation. Scott Hoezee writes, “Paul sees kindness as a fierce strength of God. Kindness is the spring from which saving grace flows into our hearts.  Kindness is a disposition of God—that as a Fruit of the Spirit we are to imitate—that makes him prone to reach out to lost sinners such as we all otherwise would be.  Yes, Paul also writes here, there can be a severity to God, too, and at the moment, Paul sees the Jews on the receiving end of that severity.  But there is little doubting which of the two Paul sees as being the core driving force for God: it’s kindness.  Kindness has already won the day and maybe, maybe, maybe even for Paul’s Jewish sisters and brothers it will finally win the day for them too.  But for the rest of us: don’t forget that kindness has saved you.  Let that set the tone for the rest of your life.”

Kindness is strength. It builds up and encourages those whom others ignore or mock. When we treat someone who has been cruel to us with kindness, we’re going way past being nice. Jesus tells the story of a Jewish man who is mugged and his own people, a priest and a Levite won’t stop to help him, but a Samaritan who is despised by the Jews stops, helps, and even uses his own money to help the man recover from the mugging. That’s kindness at work, that’s being like Jesus. Loving the unlovable reveals a deep and powerful kindness. Paul reminds us in Colossians 3:12 “Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience.” Kindness is central to who we are as followers of Jesus; rooted in God’s kindness to us.

Paul uses the image of branches grafted into the tree or vine to show God’s kindness to us. It’s the same image Jesus uses in John 15, “I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful… This is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples.” Paul reminds the Gentile believers that they’ve been grafted into the church, into Jesus; not because they’re special, but because of Jesus’ kindness. Paul reminds Titus, “But when the kindness and love of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy. He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit.”

If we’re getting our life from Jesus, drinking from the life we receive from being grafted into Jesus, then we should be looking more and more like Jesus, and one of the ways is kindness, growing more kind as we grow in faith and life. Kindness needs to be practiced if we’re going to grow in kindness. It doesn’t just happen. Kindness is practiced and lived out in relationship with each other and with those in our community. Tom Long says, “kindness is what allows us to see every person as an image-bearer of God…” I love this, kindness is rooted in how you see other people, recognizing them as worthy of kindness because they’re created in the image of God and loved by God.

To grow in kindness, turn to Jesus’ life. Learn from him what kindness looks like. Allow the Spirit to soften your hearts and experience Jesus’ kindness to you. Kindness is intertwined with the love, joy, peace, and patience we’ve already reflected on. When you talk with or about someone you deeply disagree with, how does it go? How do you describe them, do you truly care about them, want what is best for them; do you encourage and build them up, do you have compassion for them?

Sunday evenings we’re listening to the Report on Healthy Sexuality, reflecting on issues such as pornography, gender, the LGBTQ, and marriage. These are issues where there’s deep disagreement between the church and our society, and within the church. How we relate to each other is a witness to our faith and Christian character. Genuinely loving and listening in order to understand those who disagree with us on these and other moral and ethical issues lets them know that we really care about them, that we desire what’s best for them, and that we desire to be faithful to God. While we may disagree, this doesn’t mean we have to see them as enemies.

Wesley Baines writes on Beliefnet.com about “Oskar Schindler’s choice to be kind to 1,200 Jews during the Holocaust. An ethnic German and a Catholic, Schindler bought a Jewish-owned enamelware factory called Rekord Ltd., changing the name to Deutsche Emalwarenfabrik Oskar Schindler in 1939. Schindler employed Jewish workers from the nearby Krakow ghetto—a Jewish ghetto created by the Nazis, from which they exploited Jews for forced labor. But while these Jews were basically slaves in Schindler’s enamelware factory, he went to great lengths to ensure they were protected.

Schindler repeatedly bribed SS officers to not deport his workers to extermination camps, adding an armaments manufacturing division to his factory so that he could claim his Jewish workers essential to the war effort. When Krakow was liquidated, and many of its Jewish inhabitants sent to their deaths, Schindler let his workers stay safe within the walls of his factory overnight so that they would not be taken.

Later, Schindler convinced the SS to convert his factory into a branch of Plaszow concentration camp, and brought in Jews from other camps as well, protecting them from the brutality of the Nazis at great personal risk, even going so far as to falsify armament production numbers so as to continue safeguarding his Jewish workers, only shutting down operations the day that the Soviets liberated the local concentration camps. Schindler’s act of kindness saved the lives of over a thousand people.”

Dr. George Cladis writes, “we’re called to be an agent of God’s kindness in the world, exhibiting the richness of God’s grace and presence to those around us. Kindness in Scripture implies a sustained relationship. It isn’t that hard to practice our faith on Sunday mornings at church…but what about the rest of the week? Imagine if we took what we believe into our unique spheres of life, and spilled out the kindness of God there?” This week, go, invest yourself in living out Jesus’ kindness wherever he leads you.

 

James 5:7-12 Patience

 

When I think of patience, I think of the prayer, “Lord, please give me patience, and give it to me now!” In many ways, I relate to that prayer. Patience can be hard and some people struggle with a lack of it more than others. It seems rather ironic that this sermon is coming on the first Sunday back into lockdown! Patience is defined as the capacity to accept or tolerate delay, trouble, or suffering without getting angry or upset, or annoyed without losing your temper or becoming irritated. Patience is keeping a spirit of calmness and peace in times of turmoil, upset and stress.

Patience seems to be getting harder and harder to practice. There are a lot of reasons for why patience seems harder now: we keep moving in and out of isolation as COVID is now in our own community and each time we’re a close contact we need to isolate ourselves from contact with others. We’re already practicing physical distancing and this is creating stress and loneliness affecting mental health. We’re living in closer quarters than normal, constantly being asked to be flexible, and there’s change on change in so many of our routines. This challenges our ability to be patient with others, ourselves, and even God. On this Sunday when we honour mothers, I honour how much patience so many of you have had to grow in this past year! Being a mother, teacher, counsellor, referee and more has called for much patience and grace this past year!

Patience is part of the Fruit of the Spirit, and maybe one of the hardest parts to grow in. This is where the church comes in. Melissa Slocum writes, “Our ancient Christian faith teaches us much about the path to holiness. It is usually countercultural, slow, includes some suffering or persecution, and requires persistence, patience, devotion to God through prayer, and devotion to God’s people through service. Like prayer, patience is a discipline that we learn, practice, and get better at over time.” Just like fruit on a tree doesn’t appear overnight and needs to be cultivated, pruned, and nourished, so too, patience is something that is grown, cultivated, and nourished as well. The only issue is that many people don’t bother because it’s hard. They use excuses such as, “This is the way I was born,” or “God made me this way,” or even, “Impatience is a positive thing because it gets right to the heart of the issue and we get stuff done.”

I love how James uses the farmer as an example of patience. Part of the reason is that they don’t have a choice, they have to practice patience otherwise they will drive themselves crazy. But it still doesn’t always come naturally. Growing up, I remember one farmer saying that growing patience was part of growing his faith because it was part of growing his trust in God, trusting that God is in control. That doesn’t mean he didn’t work hard at farming, but he recognized what was in his control and what wasn’t.

When James talks about patience, he does so with the knowledge that Jesus is coming back. We read this and wonder, because James is writing this about 2,000 years ago, but the idea is still relevant today, we don’t know when Jesus is returning, so we need to go about our work as mature Christians, this is why James warns us against grumbling against each other. Grumbling shows a lack of maturity and a lack of trust and faith in God. This hurt when I first read it; it shows me how much growing up I still have to do at times.

Rev. Frederick Buechner writes, “So to wait for Christ to come in his fullness is not just a passive thing, a pious, prayerful, churchly thing. On the contrary, to wait for Christ to come in his fullness is above all else to act in Christ's stead as fully as we know how. To wait for Christ is as best we can to be Christ to those who need us to be Christ to them most and to bring them the most we have of Christ's healing and hope because unless we bring it, it may never be brought at all.” Rev. Buechner reminds us that when we live with the expectation of Jesus’ return, we are more invested in being more like Christ to others, and I would add, more engaged in inviting others to join us in following Jesus as Lord and Saviour.  

Melissa Slocum gets to the heart of the importance of growing the fruit of patience in our lives, “Teens live in the in-between world where they are no longer children but not yet adults. They are constantly encouraged to be patient and told to wait until they are older. But are we as adults giving them good examples of how to be patient, or of what to do while they wait? Teaching patience requires wisdom, discipline and, yes, patience. While we wait patiently for answers to prayer or direction for our lives, we cannot simply be idle. As Christians we are called to engage with the world by serving the least, the last, and the lost; and we are commanded to maintain our individual spiritual disciplines of prayer, presence, gifts, service, and witness.”

Do our teens, children, and community see a people who are patient and gracious to one another, living out this part of the fruit of the Spirit with each other? What kind of a witness are we? Do they see us practicing patience in life, especially at this time when there are so many people in the news acting out in defiance against the various levels of government, do they see us treating each other respectfully even in our disagreements over many of these same issues, or do they see grumbling people? Listening to each other in order to understand the other person is a strong step in growing patience. Does our community see us concentrating on serving the least, the last, and the lost as we take our eyes off of our own wants and concentrate on who Jesus is calling us to be in making disciples for him? Being aware of what’s going on around you, helping someone else gets your focus off yourself and helps grow patience. Take time each day to write down 3 things you are thankful for; gratitude helps grow patience. Practice gratitude instead of grumbling.

James goes on to use the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord as an example of patience; James connects the ability to persevere in hard times to having learned how to be patient because they knew that Jesus was coming back. But it made me think, how were the prophets able to be patient and persevere through the persecution and even martyrdom? Heather Hughes says, “Patience requires hope because we need to know how a story ends in order to keep going through the painful parts.” This is where the prophets’ and our patience come from, we know the end of the story! Then I realized that their patience was rooted in hope, the hope of knowing that Jesus was coming back and that when he does, he’s going to set things right. Trust in Jesus helps grow patience, knowing the Jesus won against Satan and sin when he died and was raised up from the grave for our sins, and that we will all be raised up from the grave into a new life; a life where our struggles are over and we’re able to live into who we really are as Jesus’ followers, as God’s children.

Living into God’s patience and our hope in Jesus helps us to also grow grace into our hearts and souls. God himself practices patience, Peter reminds us 2 Peter 3:9, “The Lord is not slow in keeping His promise as some understand slowness, but is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish but everyone to come to repentance.” God’s patience comes out of his love for us and wanting everyone to come to repentance, back into a good relationship with him again. Yet, as I think about my own struggle with impatience, I realise that the times I’m most impatient is when I feel disrespected. Each time we sin, we disrespect God, so when you think about God’s patience, thank him for his grace to you.

I love how the song goes, “Amazing grace, my chains are gone;” the chains of sin and impatience and grumbling begin to break because of Jesus; the chains of impatience and immaturity are broken and we grow in patience and grace with each other. This helps us to become more who we are called to be as followers of Jesus; Paul calls us in Ephesians 4 to, “As a prisoner for the Lord, then, I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received. Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love.”

Remember who we are, God’s children, followers of Jesus called to be like Jesus and make disciples who look like Jesus. We do this by loving each other, living with patience with others. Richard Mouw puts it this way, “God did not give up, either on human beings or on the larger creation that he loves. He set out to call to himself a redeemed people who would show the world how he originally intended human beings to conduct their lives. And finally, he sent Jesus to save individuals but also to reclaim the whole creation.” Patience is part of the Fruit of the Spirit that reveals the maturity of our faith and our love for God and others.

Psalm 34 Peace

 

The Hebrew word for peace is shalom. Shalom is one of those words that is wonderfully deep with meaning, a word translated often as peace, but a peace that is filled with wholeness and health, especially in right relationships with each other. Peace is not simply the absence of conflict, but is flourishing of who you are, for both yourself and the community. Peace is about a lack of anxiety and worry, and for followers of Jesus, this comes from trust in God and a healthy relationship with God marked by obedience, worship, and praise. When someone from a Jewish background greets you with "Shalom" they are offering you a blessing for health and wholeness that is centered in God.

A lot of things can take away our sense of peace: for some people, a spider takes away their sense of peace, for others it might be traffic or politics. Those in the presence of suffering for long periods of time can lose a sense of peace, stress is a peace killer, and today there’s FOMO: fear of missing out that prevents many from having peace. Anger poisons peace. Life can be hard for many reasons and can make it hard to experience peace.

Psalm 34 leads us to peace even though the actual word "peace" or "shalom" is only mentioned in verse 14 where we’re called to seek peace and pursue it. It’s about healthy relationships with God and others. Psalm 34 hi-lights how God’s people experience peace. In verse 4 we read, “I sought the Lord, and he answered me; he delivered me from all my fears.” God knows how easily we become afraid, even when we don’t admit our fear to ourselves.

There’s a lot going on around us that can create fear, young people often find it hard to find decent paying jobs, many who have jobs are not always certain they’ve be able to keep them in this economic climate, education is becoming more expensive, and there’s the pandemic. There’s those who have health issues, relationship issues, emotional and mental health struggles and it can feel like there is fear around every corner. Fear prevents us from experiencing peace, so David calls us to seek the Lord and he will deliver us from all our fears.

In verse 9, we’re told to “Fear the Lord, you his holy people, for those who fear him lack nothing.” It sounds a little ironic to be told to fear the Lord right after being told that the Lord delivers us from our fears, yet it’s good to fear the Lord. Think about who God is, creator of the universe, creator of life, King of kings, Lord of lords, more powerful than any other being in the universe, more powerful than Satan, our great enemy. We should be afraid of God, but it is a fear that is also shaped by awe and wonder, by trust and love. Because God is great, because of who he is we can have peace because everything is under his control; there’s nothing and no one more powerful than our God.

In verse 10, we are reminded that when “we seek the Lord, we lack no good thing.” God provides for his people. David trusts that when God’s people need his help, that God will be there for his people. In verses 15-22, David reminds us that God is actively listening to us, paying attention to us, and is close to us. Verse 19 says, “The righteous person may have many troubles, but the Lord delivers him from them all,” and then in an echo to Jesus’ crucifixion, “he protects all his bones, not one of them will be broken.” We will face trouble, but we can experience peace in our hearts and souls, knowing that God sees and gives us what we need to make it through. In Matthew 6, Jesus tells us to “seek the kingdom of heaven and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to us.” Jesus is talking about all our physical and spiritual needs.

Peace is about the state of your soul and spirit. You can be in conflict or trouble and still experience peace because you're centered on Jesus. Peace models grace, humility, forgiveness, and working hard at determining God's will in the situation. Peace isn’t something you wait for, God wants you engaged in life, but doing life his way and God says he will fill you with his peace. This is the sense of what Jesus is talking about in John 14, “All this I have spoken while still with you. But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you. Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid." Jesus is telling the disciples that he's giving them the gift of the Holy Spirit so they'll be equipped to continue his work when he leaves, but with the peace of knowing that they’re not alone and God is with them, protecting and guiding them.

Jesus offers us peace. This peace is the ability to experience calmness when things are crazy bad around you, it’s about experiencing hope and knowing we don’t have to worry because God is working out all things for our good, even if the things don’t feel good. It’s knowing that God is consistent, not changing his mind about who he created us to be, he’s the calm cove in a storm, the rock that never crumbles. Peace is a gift, and like any gift, we can accept it or reject it. David tells us in verse 14, to turn from evil and do good. You grow in maturity when you allow the Holy Spirit's guidance to shape your actions, guiding you not only in what you believe, but also in how you live your lives. Doing good things brings peace, something I’ve often experienced. It means you’ve taken your eyes off yourself and are thinking of others.

Many of those who cannot find peace find it difficult to trust God, forgive others because they feel God is not fair. People struggle with worry and fear because they want life to go their way instead of trusting God, others allow anger to simmer inside, while others are unable to forgive. When stuff like this sits inside your heart, it poisons your spirit and soul, making it hard to seek or experience peace or pursue because ultimately, you've decided that Jesus is not strong enough or loving enough.

Jesus is the Prince of Peace of Isaiah 9, willing to fill you with his peace, but at some point, you need to say, "God, I now give you my heart and soul and allow you complete control of not only my life, but of my heart, mind, and feelings. I trust you that you know best for me and that in doing this I will find your peace." Jesus offers you peace; peace with God, peace within your own soul, peace with others as Jesus' peace soaks deep into your heart, soul and mind to shape you more into his image. It’s hard to do this on your own, mentors, mature Christian friends who live out peace in their lives, your pastor, all are people to turn to and ask to invest in you and help you grow Jesus’ peace in your life. It won’t always be easy because it will likely call you to change how you see God and yourself.

This doesn't mean that every relationship will work out, or that you won’t struggle at times. It doesn't mean there will be no more tears or even anger, but it does mean that because of Jesus’ crucifixion and resurrection, God's Spirit is with you reminding you that God loves you, forgives you, and who accepts you as you are, but loves you too much to allow you to stay just like you are. Our peace does not come without sacrifice. Our peace with God comes through Jesus' sacrifice on the cross. To experience peace, become a living sacrifice to God, giving him your whole life and trusting that who he is calling you to be through Scripture. Submit yourself completely to Jesus. Peace flows out of the worship found in the opening verses of this psalm; we’re saved from our fears because we know God. Look for the beauty around you, let it help you experience God’s presence. Music, a creek tumbling down its bed, a mountain scene on a bright sunny day, children playing, a mother or father hugging their child, couples in love, a beautiful poem that stirs your soul all help connect us to God’s presence.

Grab your Bible and immerse yourself in the stories of God's relationship with humanity, join with others to praise God and hold nothing back, and develop a prayer life that’s more about listening to God and praising him than about your requests. Read and listen to God's acts of love and commitment, hear his promises to never abandon and leave, open your heart to the presence of the Holy Spirit, allow it to soak into your soul, and peace will begin to soak into your soul. You will discover joy in life and greater shalom in your relationship with Jesus and others.