Questions to shape our life

I've been reading John Dear's book, "The Questions of Jesus," and realising how good it is for me to wrestle with Jesus' questions. It's not even all that important to always find the "right" answer since the benefit for me is in wrestling with the questions themselves. Too often when we discover the answer we stop thinking while Jesus' questions are meant to keep us thinking. So for the next while I'm going to wrestle with some of Jesus' questions here. The first question I've been wrestling with is "Who do you really say I am?" a really good question because it forces me to think about who I really believe Jesus is and then I have a decision to make, will I allow that to shape who I am.

 

Before Jesus asks the disciples who they say he is, he asks them, “Who do the crowds say I am?” There’s a variety of answers, “Some say John the Baptist; others say Elijah, who was one of the most powerful prophets from their past, and still others, that one of the prophets of long ago has come back to life.” Prophets were fascinating to the people, seen as different; always calling the people back to God’s way of doing life and leaving status quo behind.

 

It’s only after Jesus hears from his disciples what other people are saying about him that he asks them, “Who do you say I am?” It’s interesting that this question comes after Jesus first asks who the crowds say who he is. The underlying question is whether I’ll be swayed by what the crowd believes. Jesus asks me the same question, “Who do you say I am?” Think about this question for a moment, “Who do I say Jesus is?” Jesus asks me this question with respect, he wants to hear me identify him and choose him; he wants to know who I really think he is and he puts me on the spot by asking it straight out. I need to spend time with this question.This is the heart of my faith and life, who I say I believe Jesus is and how am I going to respond.

 

Good old Peter immediately speaks up, “The Christ of God.” I love Peter because like him, my own mouth often runs off before my brain filter kicks in, but this time, it's a good thing. Peter has seen what Jesus has done in giving them power when they were sent out to preach the kingdom of God, Peter saw Jesus take the bread and feed the hungry crowd, and he has no doubt who Jesus is, though he doesn’t necessarily understand what being the Messiah or Christ means. Peter rejects the crowd’s claim of Jesus as a prophet, confessing Jesus as more than just a prophet, accepting, confessing Jesus as the promised Messiah, the one from God. Peter’s words are right, but his understanding of who Jesus is, is influenced by what he wants instead of who Jesus is showing himself to be. Peter wants a king on a throne. As with many people, there’s a lot of self interest in Peter’s confession.

 

I have to ask myself how my own understanding of who Jesus is influenced by my own wants or society’s picture of who Jesus is? Do I really placed my complete trust in Jesus, following Jesus as closely as I can or do I follow at a distance, waiting to see if the direction Jesus is taking me is the one I want to go in? Jesus lets the disciples in on what it means that he’s the Messiah Peter confesses him to be. I know I have to keep going back to the Bible to keep my image of Jesus in line with what God says and not who I want Jesus to be.

It’s not enough to simply confess Jesus as Messiah. Even the demons confess that Jesus is the Messiah. Luke shares the story of the man possessed by an evil spirit that Jesus meets in the synagogue. When the spirit sees Jesus it cries out, “Ha! What do you want with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are—the Holy One of God!” I can say the words, “You are God’s Messiah,” believe it and still not be a follower of Jesus just like the demons. This is harsh, but truth. Jesus doesn’t promise changed circumstances in my life as a reward for confessing him as Messiah and following him, instead Jesus asks me, “Who do you say I am,” and then warns me that following him is going to be costly and even painful.

 

Jesus warns that the cost of following him is high. Suffering and sacrifice doesn’t just happen because God wants me to suffer, it comes because I start to live counter-culturally and my values, morals and priorities change and come into line with Jesus'. It's about becoming less self-centred and more Jesus-centred; opening my eyes to what is going on around me and taking seriously who Jesus tells me I need to be then and there, and sharing respectfully with others who Jesus is, what he expects, and why.

A New Beginning Again!

I'm looking forward to the long weekend, the last long weekend of the summer, for a couple of reasons. I always enjoy an extra day off and relaxing on my deck out back with family and friends. Weather wise, it looks like it's going to work out great this year! Don't get me wrong, I love my work as a pastor, but time with family and friends gives me the energy to be a good pastor, and a little extra time with them at the start of the new church year is always appreciated. It's rather ironic that on Labour Day I try to do as little labour as possible!
The second reason I look forward to this particular long weekend is that it's the start of a new church year, a new beginning again. In September everything looks exciting and fresh, all those involved in our ministries are filled with hope that God is going to do something amazing this year through them and in them. Our mistakes and failures are behind us and have hopefully given us new wisdom for how we move forward with hope.
New beginnings are definitely a gift from God: I'm thinking of times like Professions of Faith, re-affirmations of faith, weddings, the start of a new church and school year, New Year's Day, baptisms, and more are all times to stop, reflect back and look ahead with hope and joy as we step out fresh and new in heart and mind.
These are times for me when my faith gets a boost as I remember again that this is all in God's hands, I'm here for the ride and to do my part the best I can with all the experience and wisdom that comes from the past and can be applied now to the year ahead. My prayer is that this is also a time of hope, renewed faith, and trust for all of you as our churches and ministries get revved up for a new beginning again!

Young people, faith and life

This summer I had the pleasure of spending 6 long days with 9 high school young people and a co-leader who was willing to lose sleep and join in the energy and excitement of being a young person again and sleeping on air mattresses a few hours every night, but who was also willing to share her own life experiences while listening closely and with respect to the lives and stories of the youth. It's the best week of the year for me, something I look forward to every year. Spending the week serving different communities in the North-eastern part of North America with young people who are eager to make a difference in other peoples' communities and lives and who want to make the world a little better place to be, even if just a little bit. This week of serving and worship reminds me that one of the reasons we are here is to serve others because this is how we serve Jesus best. After all, faith without works is dead, as well as that deep truth that what we do for others, we also are doing for Jesus himself. 

I'm often asked by people, "What is the meaning of life," and "Why am I here?" This week with the young people every year reminds me that life is about the simple things; about caring about others and helping where we can, about friendships and connecting with others, and about sharing why we follow Jesus. Faith is not just what we believe, it is also how and why we live the way we do. There is a joy and enthusiasm in our young people for life that many of us adults can benefit from, this is why I love being a pastor and being able to spend that week with our youth; every year I probably learn more from them than they do from me!

This week has also changed the way I am a pastor. It has taught me that ministry is more about time together with people than doing programs, that the Bible and faith and our relationship with God is about everyday ordinary things and not complex theological and doctrinal systems. I need to learn and know theology and doctrine, but the goal is to be able to teach it in normal language in a way that shapes how we live and understand our day to day lives as followers of Jesus. 

Thank you to all the young people and my co-leader for another wonderful week and helping me to stay close to God and become more and more the person God has created me to be. 

I Don't Walk Alone

It has been a very stressful few months as a pastor and as a father. There has been death, illness, family brokenness both in the church and in my own family. Now there has been good stress as well with 2 couples coming for pre-marriage counselling and the possibility of a couple of adult baptisms, a beautiful gift for the people being baptised and our church, as well as a wonderful mission trip with high school youth from our church and community (my favourite week of the year!). Normally the summer is a time to slow down and relax, but that has not been the case this year and it has finally caught up to me; thankfully vacation is here next week and I can get away with my wife and we can spend some relaxing time together.
One of the things I've finally learned after years in ministry is to ask people to walk alongside me as I walk alongside others, both as a pastor and friend. I cannot do it all alone. I have been fortunate these past few months to have good elders and friends walk with me and help me as I ministered to others, especially those who have been touched by death and suffering. Having another person's perspective and wisdom helped me to understand much better some of the dynamics involved. This is important since we have such a multicultural church community, but mostly it gave me strength and courage knowing that I'm not walking alone and someone else understands what is going on. Even in the wonderful moments, such as having a co-leader on the mission trip who really understands life and has a great deal of life wisdom, was a blessing as she shared in a deep way her own walk of faith with young people who are wrestling with God and who He is, and living that same kind of life she did at their age.
Jesus had a small group of disciples he relied on for friendship and to confide in; even Jesus didn't walk alone, he chose to include others in his work and journey, but he also included them into his heart and his own struggles. I'm beginning to appreciate the wisdom found in many of the proverbs that we often hear but don't really get until life opens your eyes to their truth. This past year I've learnt the truth in the proverb, "If you want to go fast, go alone, but if you want to go far, go together." This includes ministry; it is amazing when you depend on your own strength, talents or wisdom how quickly life can bring you to your knees and you're all alone. Walking with others, inviting them to join you gives you people who will lift you up when you fall, support you when you are tired, and even take over when you need to rest. More importantly, it creates friendships and trusting relationships, something that is more precious to me every year as I learn how rare and difficult these relationships are to keep.
If you are walking alone in order to go fast, I invite you to slow down and invite others to join you in your journey so that you may go far and deep in your walk with God and your walk with others.

Life through the eyes of a child

Having our daughter and grandson living with us is a beautiful blessing and I've discovered that my grandson helps me understand what life should be like. The world is a wonderful place for Real, a place where there are people who love  him and are always willing to stop for a moment to tickle him, hug him, or make strange and funny faces and noises at him. Got to wonder at the adults who are making the faces and noises :)
Real is always ready to laugh, at least when he's not hungry or his diaper isn't too full, and he's always willing to discover something fascinating and new. A dandelion ready to let go of its seeds is the best toy, at least until the seeds are off, a squirrel running along the branch outside our living room window is the most entertaining thing in his life at that moment. Running and bumping into our dog Babette and trying to grab her tail as she runs away provides moments of pure joy. Then, when Real runs out of energy for a few moments, he comes with his arms out high to be held and cuddled with his bottle until his energy and curiosity is replenished.
Imagine our faith life like that, an endless curiosity about Jesus and the world, a desire to explore and discover what lies around the next corner, grabbing pleasure as it comes by, then slowing down and watching as creation happens right in front of us. Imagine where our first reaction is trust, where we head out into the world every morning with our eyes wide open; looking forward to experience what lies ahead of us in the day and excited about the opportunities to see God around us and with us. Imagine a place where people are willing to stop, offer a hug, a smile or even a laugh with complete strangers because they fascinate us and we want to know more about them. And then, when we get tired, we stop and turn to God with our spiritual arms held up, ready to be held and hugged for a while until our energy is replenished again.
My grandchildren have opened up the world to me again, showing me how amazing it really is. It's too bad that we so easily become cynical, that many people purposely cultivate a cynical view of life because its 'cool'. I'm becoming child-like again and life holds much more joy again. I think Jesus knew what he was talking about when he told us we need to be more like little children. Try it, I think you'll like it!

Eating and God

I love the Food Network. There is something wonderful about watching people who love food create these wonderful dishes and share their love with us through the screen. Then being able to go online and try them myself is one of those small precious gifts that make life full. To be in the kitchen and taking all the various ingredients and mixing them together, adjusting the amounts to suit the tastes of the people who are going to be eating it is one of the most relaxing ways to spend an afternoon. It's like being on a mini retreat, connecting back to the basics of life: family, friends, food and God; after-all, he's the one who created all the ingredients and placed all their potential in them so that if you put them all together the right way, you can bring a smile of pleasure to almost anyone's face. You meet God in the washing, the cutting and mixing as you notice the different textures, the colours, the smells and aromas of the food. I imagine God smiling as he was creating the various plants, structuring their textures, giving them their colours, and putting into each plant the potential of how they will interact with other plants, whether flowers, roots, stalks, leaves or even bark to create new and unique tastes that the people still to be created with discover through experimentation and imagination.
I love cooking for others and then sitting back and watching them enjoy the food. As a church we gather together regularly to eat with each other in pot-lucks where we are able to cook for each other and then sit together and share what we've brought while being able to eat some of the love that others have brought. Now I will be honest and confess that dessert is my favourite course of the pot-luck, though I do need to exercise some strict discipline on myself as I approach the tempting offerings on the table.
Food is a powerful way of drawing people together. Last night my wife and I had the great blessing of being invited out by good friends to join them at a small neighbourhood restaurant with a small jazz band. There is something special about eating together, about sharing food, even in being gently forced to eat a piece of baklava I was trying to exercise discipline in not eating, though I must admit I did not put up much of a fight! The conversation flows around the different courses, the words interspersed with the eating and sharing of the food. There is a great deal of sharing and caring and joy that happens in these conversations. This morning, as I thought about the joy of last night, I thought about Jesus inviting us to his meal, inviting us to gather around his table to share the food he provides. This meal is also filled with conversation between our host Jesus and us his guests, and I'm appreciating  more and more how this meal shapes our relationship with Jesus and God. It draws us closer to each other and to God as we gather around the table, and the conversation is filled with sharing and caring and joy. There is a lot more that could be said, but the image of going to heaven and joining Jesus at his banquet table is gaining more meaning and becoming more special for me all the time.

Family and Knowing Each Other

Last week my wife Joyce and I were able to spend a few days with some of our children and grandchildren. Living over 6 hours away from them means that I don't get to see them nearly as often as I would like. The older grandchildren know that when grandpa comes it's time to get tickled, do the roller-coaster and earthquake in the big rocking chair, and get horsy rides; all the fun grandpa stuff. The younger grandchildren are always a little more restrained at first because grandpa isn't there very often so it's almost as if we need to get to know each other again. Thankfully, as they get older this happens less and less. Wednesday evening, as we walked in the door, Carysa, our daughter Marie's youngest girl, who was really shy last time I came in February, came running up wanting to be lifted up and hugged! However Madison, our son Jacob's youngest daughter, kind of looked at me and figured mommy was a safer bet, at least for the first evening anyway. By the time we left on Saturday, even Madison was comfortable with grandpa again. It took time together again to build that relationship of trust, to get to know each other again.
It strikes me that it's the same thing in our relationship with God. I often hear people say that they don't have time to engage in devotions during the day; that life is so busy that taking time to connect with God through reading the Bible or praying or getting together with a few other followers of Jesus to learn more about who Jesus is and what he taught. I'm thinking that their relationship with God must be similar to my relationship with my grandkids; they know I'm somewhere, but I don't have much impact on their lives except for a few days at a time where we get to play and rock and sit with each other. We love each other, but don't really know each other all that well.
When our relationships are based on occasional get togethers, how much impact do we really have on each other? I don't have much influence or impact on my grandkids' lives because I'm not part of their daily, or even weekly lives, I'm just a visitor in their lives. Their parents have the most influence in their lives and I pray that my influence on my children's lives carries into my grandchildren's lives, especially in their relationship with God. But as I look within my own family, I'm reminded that I also have a Father that I need to visit with regularly, who wishes to have an impact on my life, to show me what the new life through Jesus looks like; Jesus, our oldest brother who came here to lead us back to our Father and heal that relationship which had been broken. Father is always there, waiting for me to want to visit. He sent us a beautiful letter to help us know him better, but wants more personal visits so we can get to know each other even better. The big thing is it needs time, time out of our so often busy lives, and yet time that we can't afford not to set aside if we really want to experience what it is to be his daughter or son.
Are you only a visitor with our Father; do you want more? Does following Jesus really make a difference in your life; change who you are and impact your values and how you live? It's only going to happen if you have time together; a choice you make.