Merry Christmas from the Smiths

Merry Christmas from our herd to yours, and all the best in 2013

Christmas Dinner

A number of people have come up to me over the last few days and asked me about our plans to celebrate the Lord’s Supper as a part of our Christmas Eve worship service. Why would we celebrate communion again in December when we have already celebrated it on the usual first Sunday of the month? Why would we celebrate communion on one of the ‘high holidays’ that brings in everyone even loosely connected to the church? Why would we celebrate communion on Christmas Eve in a year where circumstances and schedules have led a good number of the other big Evangelical churches in town not to have a service, and knowing therefore that there will be many people from other congregations in our midst?

And perhaps most importantly: What does communion have to do with Christmas?

I think I’m going to leave the answer to that final question for those who come to our service on the 24^th (I don’t want to give you any more reason to be distracted during my brief message than Christmas Eve already gives you!), but I hope I can quickly answer some of the other ones here today.

Why celebrate communion again?

For the same reason there always seemed to be peas on your plate when you came to the dinner table as a child – because it’s good for you. This meal is not merely something that we need to check off of our list and say that we've done it once a month like changing the water filter in our Brita dispenser (not that most people are that vigilant about that either), it’s a meal that was given to us by God to nourish the church. It is real spiritual food that connects us to Christ and to each other and in our celebrating of it, it makes us strong.

A.B. Simpson, the founder of the Christian and Missionary Alliance, the family of churches of which EAC is a part famously opined: 

“Roman Catholics teach that in the Lord’s Supper the bread and wine are converted into the actual flesh of Christ (but) it would do us no good if we could actually eat the flesh of Christ; it would be profane cannibalism. But if we can receive that which lies back of His flesh, His vital strength into our being, that is all we need. And that is the real substance of the resurrection body. He is the embodiment of life and power, and by the Holy Spirit He imparts to us that life and power as we worthily receive the sacrament and discern Him in it.”

This meal therefore is a meal that the church desperately needs to dine upon. There is no such thing as having dined too much at this table.

Why celebrate communion on one of the ‘high holidays’ when everyone who is even loosely connected to the church seems to attend?

One of the questions that has been raised to me has to do with how communion will make ‘outsiders’ feel? Will there be an awkward moment when the invitation is given and some feel compelled by their conscience not to partake?

To that question my response is another question: Is the Christmas Eve service primarily an outreach event or is it a worship service? And my contention is that is the latter. I am of the conviction that the best way for the church to witness to the unbelieving world is to be who we were called to be. To do what Christians are supposed to do in every place and venue. That means of course being the hands and feet of Christ to the lost and poor; being the balm of healing to the broken and broken-hearted; being examples of righteous living to a world that is losing its moral centre; being people who offer love and forgiveness to people who have wronged them; and being the authentic worshiping community of God when we gather together to worship. I think that our worship is highly evangelistic, because in our times of authentic worship of God we show the world who we really believe Jesus is. Our worship teaches people about God more than just about anything else we do in the church – how we relate to God, how we show reverence, how we structure our services and what we say and do reveals the heart of our faith. Watering down our worship service to make it more comfortable for any particular group, be they inside or outside of the faith, demonstrates a heart to please people more than pleasing God. (Galatians 1:10)

Now if you were to tell me that the purpose of the Christmas Eve service was outreach – then I would likely concede that the nature of the event justifies a different approach – but Christmas Eve is first and foremost a worship service for people to come and celebrate the birth of the Messiah, to remember the unequaled sacrifice of Christ in humiliating himself with flesh (Philippians 2), and to give glory and thanks to God for his unmerited love toward us.

Why celebrate communion in a service when we know that a great many people from other congregations and other traditions will be joining us?

This is a strange year indeed. By an uncoordinated series of events a number of the other Evangelical churches in town will not be holding their own Christmas Eve services and will instead be encouraging their people to attend ours if they are looking for somewhere to go. We will in all likelihood have a good number of people who come from traditions that have a slightly different understanding of doctrine than we do at EAC – and that is a wonderful thing.

In fact, more than being a discouraging factor in choosing to celebrate communion this Christmas Eve, that gives us reason even more to set the table and have our Christmas Dinner together. Gordon T. Smith (no relation) in his book A Holy Meal does a better job of explaining why than I ever could so I’ll just let you read his words to make my point.

The basis of our gathering should never be thought of in doctrinal terms - so that those with whom we fellowship at the Lord's Supper are those who agree with our reading of the biblical text or our particular theological or doctrinal heritage. In the Lord's Supper we declare our unity not only with those immediately present, a particular gathering of Christians, but also with all Christians everywhere. 

 Each time we gather we do so on the assumption that all Christians are, as a matter of principle, welcome at this table, this observance. We "discern the body" (1 Cor. 11:29) each time we gather and celebrate the church catholic - women and men from every nation and tribe and language. We "discern the body" each time we welcome guests among us who come from other theological or denominational traditions. To exclude someone from the table because he or she is not of our denomination or church tradition is to fail to discern the body of Christ. Thus a guest in our midst is a potent way in which we can demonstrate that our fellowship is with all Christians - represented by this guest in our company. 

 Christ himself hosts us at the meal. In this event we are in fellowship with the Lord of glory. And in this event we are accepted by Christ as we welcome others even as Christ welcomed us (Rom. 15:7). Christ reminds us of his love and peace and receives us into his company. He draws us to one another, for in Christ there is no male or female, slave or free, Jew or Gentile (Gal. 3:28), east or west, rich or poor. All of this anticipates the consummation of the kingdom when we will see Christ face-to-face and gather from every tribe, tongue, and nation - Palestinian and Israeli, Irish Catholic and Irish Protestant, Tutu and Huti. We are all one in Christ. In the Lord's Supper, we experience a foretaste of this. More than anything else we say or do, the Lord's Supper enables us to receive the peace of Christ, and to be a means by which the peace of Christ comes to or world. p.55,56

This is why I believe that setting the table and preparing the elements of the Lord’s Supper is more than appropriate for our Christmas Eve service. I’d encourage and invite you to come out and join us at Estevan Alliance Church at 7:00pm on December 24 to find out why Christmas is the perfect time to experience this as well.

God bless you and Merry Christmas,

Chris

The War on Christmas

I have had a lot of people asking for the recording of this past Sunday's half-sermon, half-history lesson called 'The War on Christmas', unfortunately for everyone (including me - I wanted that one for my portfolio) we suffered some type of computer malfunction on Sunday morning and the recording was lost.

Not wanting to disappoint however, what I am doing instead is putting the full text of that message up on this blog for anyone who wants to review what I was talking about on Sunday. I don't generally like doing this as a pastor because when you say something from the pulpit that doesn't sound quite right you always have the (legitimate!) defense that you misspoke in the heat of the moment; but when you put something in writing that doesn't quite sit right there is obvious forethought and intent - so I know that by doing this I'm opening myself up to some potential criticism.

Another thing that you should know if you are reading this as someone who heard it live on Sunday is  that what I say from the pulpit does not exactly comport to what is in my script. The more excited or passionate I am about a topic the more prone I am to going of script and talking through my points rather than my text; minimizing some points in my script and expounding on others as I feel led in the moment. This past Sunday I did a fair bit of that, so while the message will be the same in broad strokes, structure and application, you may remember it a bit differently than you read it.

Lastly - one final caveat. I don't write my sermons to be read - I write them to be preached. That  means that you shouldn't have very high expectations of grammar, punctuation or proper sentence structure in what follows. I warn English majors everywhere to harden your resolve before reading this- I've gone through and fixed the most offensive errors but done little more. For what  it's worth - here is the message:

The War on Christmas

The Gospel of Mark Volume 2

December 9, 2012

Key Text Mark 13

Merry Christmas, we are at war.

That’s certainly the impression you would get if you’ve listened to much of the mainstream media over the last 5-10 years during the holiday season. We are at war against the radical forces of secularization, political correctness, multi-culturalism and post-Christian society. We are at war with those who would take this country’s Christian heritage and cast it aside for something that represents the new way of thinking about Christmas – a Christmas without Christ.

We are under attack. We are attacked every time someone puts up a holiday tree, every time a school holds a winter concert, every time someone dare wish you season’s greetings instead of Merry Christmas. We are at war, and in the spirit of our battle I want to provide you a with a good old fashioned war story as a part of our Advent celebrations this year – today our journey through the Gospel of Mark brings us to the ominous chapter 13. My apologies to anyone here this morning who suffers from Triskaidekaphobia – that is the irrational fear of the number 13 (yes that is a thing) because today’s text will probably do nothing to abate that fear.

Today we look at a passage of scripture often referred to throughout church history as the Little Apocalypse. If you’ve been following our series closely, you’ll notice that we skipped over the last part of chapter 12 to get here today – that’s because I have to lead worship next week and I lost the coin toss between Waylon and I as to who would have to preach this text – We’ll back track to cover the end of chapter 12 next week before moving into chapter 14 on the 23^rd. Mark 13 is probably the most enigmatic passage of scripture in the gospels. It has consternated and terrified preachers for hundreds of years because of its strong end-times overtones. And you don’t have to have spent a long time in the church to understand that people are particularly sensitive about their end times theology and expectations, so preaching on a passage like this is virtually impossible to do without stepping on some toes. I’ve resigned myself to the fact that I will probably frustrate some of you here today because I’m going to poke holes in some ideas that you’ve long presumed about this text – that’s okay, I’m more concerned as a preacher with fidelity than popularity so I’m just going to preach what the Lord has revealed to me through study and prayer.  But I’m going to need some help in that account, so I’d ask you as we begin to join me in prayer as we look together at the war on Christmas.

Let’s Pray.

What we have here today is a war story.

It is not a matter of any serious debate amongst Biblical scholars about WHEN the Gospel of Mark would have been written. It is generally agreed to have been written in the thick of the Jewish Roman war that stretched from AD66 to AD74. It seems to be a given, considering the text of chapter 13 especially that Mark was writing to a community that was watching these events unfold and was looking for a context into which they could process what they were seeing happen; which is why Mark gives us this unique and specific account of Jesus words dating some 35-40 years before these events to help them understand the times in which they were living.

From history we know with certainty that in the month of June of the year 66 there was a revolt led by the Jewish zealots that caught Rome off guard. The revolution – their own classical version of an Arab spring quickly spread from Jerusalem to the nearby provinces of Idumea, Perea, and Galilee and by November of that same year Rome’s response would be felt. Cestus Gallus, the Roman Legate of Syria led his forces into Jerusalem to put down the insurrection. He successfully occupied the northern part of the city and brought it back under Roman occupation and control, but when he tried to march on the Temple mount he was turned away by surprisingly effective resistance by Jewish guerrilla fighters who inflicted on his forces significant losses causing him to flee to the coast where he sent an emergency message to Rome. Against all odds, outnumbered and outmatched the Jewish freedom fighters had scored an improbable victory over Rome and the mood in the city was elation!

But just like we have seen in the fallout of the contemporary Arab Spring revolutions, a power vacuum is rarely filled without further hardship. The different groups within Jerusalem began to fight each other over who would control this new independent Palestine and as they teetered on the brink of their own civil war Rome returned with a vengeance.

Vespasian – who is remembered by history among the greatest of Rome’s generals, and who was soon to become emperor himself – was dispatched by Rome to bring the power of the Empire to bear on these rebels. He gathered legions from Egypt and Syria and with 6 thousand heavily armoured troops began his march down through Galilee into Jerusalem. This time the guerrillas were no match for the superior forces and strategy of Vespasian and in short order Rome had retaken Galilee, Perea and Western Judea. In June of 68 Vespasian was about to begin his final siege of Jerusalem when the unexpected occurred. The revolutionaries received another reprieve – this time from an unexpected source. Rome was in civil war. Nero was dead and there were no less than four candidates trying to succeed him as Emperor. Vespasian had been urgently recalled to Rome and the siege of Jerusalem was abandoned leaving it in the hands of the Zealot coalition.

For 18 glorious months Jerusalem was free from occupation while Rome sorted its stuff out. For 18 months the word on the lips of the Jewish resistance was that Yahweh had spared them not once but twice. God was fighting alongside his people just as he had in all the stories they had grown up reading about in the Scriptures. Rome was certainly coming back when the new Emperor was finally agreed upon and for 18 months the Jews were allowed to prepare for the final battle between the people of God and the evil empire – a Battle that they undoubtedly saw in eschatological hues.  This was their moment, supporters travelled throughout the region calling all true Jews to the defense of Jerusalem. This surely would be the beginning of the messianic age, and the final restoration of David’s kingdom. When that final battle came though – Vespasian who had succeeded in his bid to become Rome’s new emperor sent his top general Titus to complete the siege of Jerusalem. It took Titus only five months and by the fall of AD70 – Jerusalem had fallen and the Temple itself had been burned to the ground.

Now that is history. An uncontested, highly verifiable history of events in the holy land in the latter half of the first century after Christ – knowing these things I would ask you to think again about our text today and consider what exactly it says.

Now to say flat out that there is only one way to see this story would be disingenuous. It would be disingenuous not because there are differing opinions among contemporary teachers about the context – for that is true of any passage in Scripture. I doubt you could find a single verse in the bible that is not contested by someone to some extent, and this holds all the more true about apocalyptic passages like this one – but I say that instead because there are three different ways that we can come at this text today, three different perspectives on these same events, three different vantage points at which we can, and I believe must, interact with this story.

The first is the vantage point of Jesus. Where in the story of Jesus and the Temple are we? We’ve been tracking along this Passion Week narrative for a couple months now, and Jesus has had a lot to say about the Temple, the temple authorities, Jewish cultic practices and the future of what I have called project Israel. What does this little apocalypse have to do with all of that and how does it connect to the stories surrounding it.

The second is the vantage point of Mark. We have to remember that all of the books of the Bible were written to very specific communities in specific cultures, in specific times, experiencing specific circumstances. Mark did not write his Gospel in a vacuum – rather he had a very specific reason for telling the story of Jesus the way he did and for including the details that he did and omitting the details that he omitted. We’ve talked at length before about the very intentional structure of the gospel as a biography of Jesus and if the scholarly consensus is right – this biography was written to a people in the middle of this Jewish-Roman conflict which is very important for how we read this story.

And the third vantage point is ours. None of the books of the Bible were written to us – we are simply too far removed from the events of the biblical times to be the intended audience for these documents – but we know that by the Holy Spirit’s involvement in the work of Inspiration – all Scripture is written FOR us. There is a message within this text for us today – and I am convinced that it is a message for this season as well (stick around to see how I manage to pull that one off!) But to understand this vantage point correctly we must first familiarize ourselves with the other two. So let’s start with Jesus and go from there.

The story from vantage point of Jesus

Jesus is pronouncing judgment on the temple once again. Where the Jews expected the Messiah to be the source of Yahweh’s divine intervention to preserve their way of worship – Jesus is sitting on the Mount of Olives prophesying its destruction.

1.     The revolt is not the beginning of the Kingdom of God

Jesus said to them: “Watch out that no one deceives you. Many will come in my name, claiming, ‘I am he,’ and will deceive many. When you hear of wars and rumors of wars, do not be alarmed. Such things must happen, but the end is still to come...At that time if anyone says to you, ‘Look, here is the Messiah!’ or, ‘Look, there he is!’ do not believe it. For false messiahs and false prophets will appear and perform signs and wonders to deceive, if possible, even the elect. So be on your guard; I have told you everything ahead of time.

Mark 13:5-7, 21-23 (TNIV)

The end that Jesus is speaking of is the final destruction of the temple that he has been speaking about for the last few days. The functional destruction of the temple was about to take place with the crucifixion of Christ on Friday, but God had plans to allow Rome to finish the job before the end of the century. Jesus knew this, and knew that it needed to happen to fulfil God’s plan for his new work through the Church to grow past its Jewish antecedent.

We also know from historical accounts that with the end times implications of this type of war for the Jews, and the belief that Yahweh himself had twice interceded on their behalf in this conflict, that the third and decisive battle would be led by the Messiah himself. Even during the time of Jesus there was a real interest in the arrival of the Messiah – but that interest was in a very narrow interpretation of who the messiah was to be. As we talked about last week and have touched on before, the Jews were looking for a warrior king to re-establish the Davidic dynasty and lead the Jews out from under the oppression of the Roman Empire. Jesus was not prepared to be that type of messiah but it didn’t stop the Jews for looking for one who was. This coming conflict would provide fertile ground for many claims of messiahship – something that historians have also found plenty of evidence of.

The important message that Jesus is telling Peter, James, John and Andrew that day overlooking the Temple is not to begin to now – or later on – to doubt his words. The Temple is going to be destroyed. No last ditch heroics, the arrival of one with messianic claims,  or seeming divine intervention on the Jews behalf will change that. Political revolution is NOT how the Kingdom will be inaugurated – don’t’ be led astray by the many who say it will be.

2.     This revolt is the end of the world – for the Jews

One of the things that gets people all tied up in knots in this passage are the allusions to Daniel and Isaiah that Jesus sprinkles in his description of future events. People get all wound up thinking that this cannot possibly be just about the destruction of the temple; even though all the words surrounding these allusions have to do with a specific historical event that is extensively documented and verifiable, and even though the context of the teaching itself seems to clearly point to that end; they maintain that this is a prophecy of cosmic destruction and the end of the world; the sun being darkened, the moon not giving light and the stars falling from the sky and what not.

First of all you need to understand that apocalyptic literature as a genre is not meant to be read literally – just like we understand that parables as a genre in the bible, or poetry as a genre in the bible are meant to be read metaphorically, so apocalyptic literature functions the same way. They are pictures that are painted with words to describe the indescribable. The unfathomable and the terrifying. We have no trouble understanding that when Jesus talks about the good Samaritan that he is not referring to a literal person –but rather a character illustration; when Solomon says to his lover in the Song of Songs:

How beautiful you are, my darling!

    Oh, how beautiful!

    Your eyes are doves.

We know that he doesn’t literally mean that she is some grotesque creature with birds for eyes – he’s being poetic.

So we have to first of all let the genre dictate how we understand a given text – but that’s not to say that Jesus’ inclusion of these apocalyptic images are any less stark and shocking for the four disciples sitting at his feet while he gives this description. They are shocking because they are talking about the end of the world. They are talking about a comic unravelling of sorts – it just wasn’t the end of the world as we understand it.

We’ve talked about this before – particularly when we looked at Jesus clearing the temple, but for the Jews the destruction of the temple WAS the end of the world because of the special place the Temple occupied in their theology.

Remember that Sunday I gave you a really big and impressive (if not generally useless) word to describe the function of the temple for the Jews? It was the spatiotemporal location of God on Earth. That is to say it was where God existed in space and time.

Remember how I also told you that the Temple was the place where Heaven and Earth intersected; that in the holy of holies they overlapped and intertwined making the temple a place like no other on earth? And how every God fearing Jew saw the temple as an enduring sign of God’s covenant with his chosen people Israel. It was a monument in many ways to Israel’s special place in God’s plan for humanity?

For these reasons the Temple was the centre of the cosmos, the thing that held creation together – to see it destroyed was akin to witnessing the end of the world for the Jews of Jesus’ day. The apocalyptic language was more than appropriate for what they were hearing about and it holds true for Mark’s audience as well.

The story from the vantage point of Mark

Mark wanted his fledgling community to resist the call of patriotism to fight a doomed battle because

3.     This war is not the fight that the Church should be fighting

Wars and rumors of wars are what Mark highlights in Jesus teaching. This correlates nicely with the way that news of military engagements circulated in the classical world. There were no telecommunications in those days so rumors of troop movements, battles, coming sieges and the like seemed to travel on the wind as one person told another and then travelled and spread the news. The rumors would have undoubtedly been swirling around the civil war in Rome and the question of when (not if) Rome would get its ducks in order and come back for the final battle with the Jews.

All the while Mark’s community, feeling a natural connection to the Jews even though we are fairly certain most of them were gentiles, and those who were Jewish would almost be under ethnic obligation to go back and fight for Jerusalem. But Mark highlights the words of Jesus that tell them to do the exact opposite.

“When you see ‘the abomination that causes desolation’ standing where it does not belong—let the reader understand—then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains.  Let no one on the housetop go down or enter the house to take anything out. Let no one in the field go back to get their cloak. How dreadful it will be in those days for pregnant women and nursing mothers! Pray that this will not take place in winter, because those will be days of distress unequaled from the beginning, when God created the world, until now—and never to be equaled again.

Mark 13:14-19 (TNIV)

Mark is warning his community (remember that THEY are the ones this passage is written to) that when they see the desecration of the Temple (the abomination that causes desolation is most commonly understood to be some sort of pagan profanity of the most holy place) that the time to flee is at hand. A persecution unlike anything they have yet experienced is about to be unleashed upon the remnant when Jerusalem finally falls, that when the empire’s energy is not devoted to crushing Jerusalem it will be redirected to crushing the Jews (and those associated with them like the church). Mark even interrupts Jesus words to throw in his own little editorial statement here – let the reader understand. He’s serious about what he’s saying and he wants his people to get the message through the veiled apocalyptic language of Jesus.

The story from the vantage point of the post-modern Church

So what is the lesson of this prophecy and its fulfilment for us today? What does it teach us about Christmas? Well on the surface there isn’t a lot that is seasonal here. Only Matthew and Luke give us insights into the nativity and although John doesn’t deal with the birth of Christ he at least waxes theologically about the incarnation at the beginning of his Gospel. Mark is the only Gospel without ANY reference to what we celebrate at Christmas – but what Mark does have to show us is the ethic of how to live within a hostile culture and maintain our identity as the people of God. And we feel the need for that type of teaching most pointedly at Christmastime.

We said it at the beginning – we are at war. And so I want to share with you the lessons that Mark has for wartime Christianity that we learned through our study of the text:

1.     Political revolution is not how the Kingdom comes

Well we need to hear carefully what Jesus was saying, that the Kingdom is not won by political advances. You cannot, despite how many have tried throughout history, legislate authentic Christianity. We cannot lobby, petition, or protest the gospel into the hearts and minds of a post-Christian society.

If we have lost the culture, then we have lost the culture but let’s not lose the people as well in our battle to have the culture back.

2.     The shift to a post-Christian society only seems like the end of the world

Just as the Jews saw the destruction of the Temple as the end of the world, the final battle upon which the fate of the cosmos was hanging in the balance – we are sometimes prone to seeing the celebration of this holiday, and the accompanying acknowledgement of cultural Christianity, as the last straw for Canadian (or western) society. But just like the destruction of the Temple was the end of an era of the work of God, but not the end of his working, the end of the Christian west is the end of an era of Christianity for sure, but it doesn’t need to be the end of the world. We have opportunities now to live out radically authentic Christianity without the fear of confusing with the dominant culture. When we celebrate Christmas we are making a statement now, not just doing what has always been done. When we say Merry Christmas to someone it says something about who we are in the context of a world that doesn’t really know what that means anymore. In many ways this new world that we are increasingly finding ourselves in gives us the opportunity to shed the baggage that was part and parcel with cultural Christianity and re-introduce our own culture to the Word made flesh, in a way that is more raw, and authentic than anything we could have ever done in a Christian culture. This is not the end of the world but the beginning of an exciting new opportunity for ministry. We all get to be missionaries, and we don’t even have to leave our street. And lastly,

3.     We must make sure we are not drawn into the wrong wars

Just like Mark was imploring his community, we need to ensure that we do not get caught up in wars that are not ours to fight. We have a very specific and clear mandate about the way we are to engage society – and it’s called the Gospel.

You must be on your guard. You will be handed over to the local councils and flogged in the synagogues. On account of me you will stand before governors and kings as witnesses to them. And the gospel must first be preached to all nations. Whenever you are arrested and brought to trial, do not worry beforehand about what to say. Just say whatever is given you at the time, for it is not you speaking, but the Holy Spirit.

Mark 13:9-11 (TNIV)

This season of Advent – the run up to Christmas is about us witnessing to the world about the Word who was made flesh for us. It’s about going into a post-Christian society not with weapons of war, vainly attempting to create our own idea of what a Christian society is to look like, but instead with love and good news. When the Angels appeared to the shepherds on that first Christmas night, what was their message? Was it ‘be afraid because we’re here to take back what is ours?’ Was it, we’re here to tear down all your false understandings of what the Messiah is going to be and sternly correct you until you fall in line? No – it was “Do not be afraid. I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people.”

We have Good news this Christmas, so why are we scolding the world with stern faces for their lack of understanding of what Christmas is rather than joyfully seeing the opportunity to witness to them?

I’ll end with this. Last week I was hit a few times by emails from well meaning people passing around a YouTube video about the War on Christmas. It was a well produced propaganda song encouraging Christians not to shop anywhere this holiday season that eschewed the traditional “Merry Christmas” for a more generic “Happy Holidays” or “Season’s Greetings.” It was an attempt to start a protest movement against the secularisation of Christmas. I understand why it bothered them so much that people were missing the true meaning of the holiday. I understand that their desire is to have Christ proclaimed from every store front this holiday season. I know where their hearts are – but isn’t there something very, very wrong about their approach?

Where is the good news? Where is the Church’s witness to the world when we sound the call to arms rather than the call to evangelism? How does our militant mentality reflect the heart of the Gospel? I actually got angry when I saw this video repeatedly hitting my inbox. I got angry because we are once again giving the world a reason to tune us out. We are once again giving the world a reason to write us off. We are once again gearing up to fight a war that we have no right participating in. We are NOT at war, we are messengers of peace. We are not called to deliver ultimatums; we are bearers of the good news. When I see a store that says season’s greetings or someone putting up a holiday tree or am privileged to attend a winter concert at my child’s school – I know I’m somewhere that needs some of the good news, and the world has been kind enough to light up a big sign telling me so.

Brothers and sisters don’t buy into the lie of the War on Christmas; don’t believe that it’s the end of the world. Don’t get caught up in a war that you have no business being a part of when your calling is to be messengers of peace. The world has changed, and I hate to be the guy who has to say it, but just like second temple Judaism, it’s gone for good. Let’s not waste this Christmas by lamenting over what was lost and instead embrace the new opportunities that God has given us to be missionaries to our world. Merry Christmas to all and Do not be afraid. We bring the world good news of great joy that will be for all the people.

The tyranny of "Stuff" Part 4 - Resolve

So it has begun.

This year, to live up to my Advent resolutions I am making some changes to allow "stuff" less control over the season.

Firstly, I am getting rid of some (not all, baby-steps remember) of my remaining Transformers collection. I've got a bunch of them now listed on ebay for a song. Take a look here and if you know anyone in the market for collectible toys send them my way.

Secondly,  I am (or I should say that we, as a family are) prioritizing accumulating experiences over accumulating things. That means that there will only be stockings under the tree this year for presents from each other. That's not because we can't afford it (I don't want anyone thinking that the poor pastor and his family can't afford Christmas), but because we have chosen to spend our money on time together rather than on toys we play with by ourselves (and that includes the grown-ups). Besides, our kids have so many other people in their lives that love them and send them gifts that I doubt they will notice.

And thirdly, I am not going to allow my own insecurities to drive my consumer decisions this Christmas. I will not spend more than is reasonable on any gift I purchase and I will not buy into the lie that my value to that person is dependent on how much I 'wow' them with their present. I will spend more time writing Christmas cards (well I already have, the post office deadlines are ridiculously early) and invest more time in people rather than presents.

Because in the end, Christmas is about what has already been done. It's about a gift that has already been given. It's about a work that is already complete. It's not about making my life better by adding to it more stuff, it about recognizing what I already have. It's about recognizing what has been done for me, by God, when the eternal Logos took on flesh and dwelt among us. Christmas is about incarnation, and I think that the best thing that I can do this holiday season to celebrate that fact is to live in such a way that Christ is incarnated a little bit in me. So that's my plan this Christmas.

What are you doing to make this season meaningful this year? I'd love to hear your stories in the comments below.

In Christ,
Chris

The tyranny of "Stuff" Part 3 - Christmas Insecurity

I have a problem with Christmas shopping. I am no good at setting boundaries. Perhaps that comes from my upbringing where year after year my parents would spend far more than they realistically afford to give us kids everything we wanted for Christmas, or perhaps it comes from my own brand snobbery that I talked about yesterday. Whatever the reason, I have a great deal of trouble sticking to a budget at Christmas time.

My wife on the other hand has no such compunctions. She was raised in a family where everyone agrees on a dollar (pound) limit o what they will spend and then ruthlessly stick to it. She is a marvel of efficiency when gift shopping, it's either in budget or it’s not in the cart meanwhile I literally writhe with discomfort at the thought of giving such a 'cheap' gift to someone I care about.

This makes no sense to Jo. After all, she reminds me, would I feel the least but slighted or offended if the roles were reversed and I was receiving rather than giving the gift? Of course not, my parents raised me better than that. So why then am I so averse to sticking within a reasonable budget when I'm shopping for others?

If I'm brutally honest (and hey, why stop now?), I think it has to do with a deep sense of insecurity. Not that I’ll ever admit it (so if you tell anyone I said this I’ll deny it) but I think I try to justify people's affections by doing right by them with the right gift. I subconsciously try to buy people's love by overspending at Christmas time and putting myself and my family in a bad place financially.

And it’s not just at Christmastime. Joanna jokes that when we were dating she thought she was marrying money. I would take her out for dinner regularly, spend money to woo her like it was going out of style and generally never let her pay for anything. When we got married though what she discovered was that all she really married into was stupid. And she now had my credit card statements to prove it.

In the book of Galatians, The Apostle Paul is writing to a group of people who were completely unworthy of inclusion in God’s redemptive plan. They were sinners, outsiders and idolatrors. They were worshippers of pagan Gods and idols who had been grafted into the family of God by grace. But as they are coming to this deep understanding of who they are in Christ, as they are coming to realise the implications of their adoption there are voices from the outside who start to whisper in their ears that they are not good enough. A group of ‘Judaizers’ try to convince them that they need to do more, that they need to work harder, that they need to jump through more hoops in order to truly be loved by God – and they start to believe the voices. So Paul writes this letter to correct that insecurity and tell them the truth about who they are.

He tells them that they are heirs with Christ, children according to the promise given to Abraham and that they have been fully adopted into the family of God. They are loved by virtue of what God has done, not by virtue of what they do. So in chapter 4 Paul lays bare the futility of their insecurities:

Formerly, when you did not know God, you were slaves to those who by nature are not gods. But now that you know God—or rather are known by God—how is it that you are turning back to those weak and miserable forces? Do you wish to be enslaved by them all over again? You are observing special days and months and seasons and years! I fear for you, that somehow I have wasted my efforts on you.

Galatians 4:8-11 (TNIV)

Not many of us in the church are turning back to Pagan worship these days. Not many of us are committing apostasy and turning to other religions because we don’t think we can cut it as Christians, but MANY of us are turning back to ‘weak and miserable forces’ of things that are ‘by nature not gods.’ We search for significance in status, we search for importance in wealth, we search for fulfilment in the accumulation of goods and we search for approval through giving the best gifts at Christmastime. I know that I’m not alone in this struggle a quick Google search reveals pages and pages of articles about people dealing with overwhelming stress in the search for the perfect gift. Why? Because we equate the gifts we give with our value in the eyes of the person we’re shopping for; we really, deep down, want to earn – or at least justify the love that they have for us and we do that through the consumer activity of Christmas.

The reality though is that what your mother taught you when you were a kid, is still the rule of the day: It’s the thought that counts. If the person you shop for would, love/appreciate/value you any less if you got them a ‘cheaper’ gift, then perhaps they’re not worthy of your time in the first place. And more importantly – as Christians we know that our true value is not found in the eyes of other person, but through the way we are seen by Christ. We are told by the Christmas story that the God of the universe gave us the gift of his only begotten Son – a gift of immeasurable value – so that we could be adopted as his children and brought into the family.

Another of my Advent resolutions for this year is to give gifts with a stress free attitude. Not because I don’t care about the people I’m shopping for – I care a lot – but because I know that I am secure in Christ and that nothing I buy, and no amount of money that I spend can change that one bit.

In Christ,

Chris

The tyranny of "Stuff" Part 2 - Vacation vs. Hibernation

It gets cold here.

There is no other way to put it. I grew up in Southern Ontario where we do have winter, and occasionally we even get snow days – days when copious amounts of big wet snowflakes fall in one night and the roads are virtually impassable. But here in the Prairies we get cold days. We get days when the temperature is so cold that even us hardened westerners can’t in good conscience send our kids into the wintery abyss. So it’s no surprise that in this part of the world we have adapted to our climate by practicing some sort of civilized hibernation.

It’s not an uncommon story for people who have moved here from warmer parts of the world to find this place somewhat inhospitable – not just with regards to the climate, but the people as well. From the time the temperature dips below zero our neighbours become strangers, we exit our houses into our garages, drive our cars out of our garages and then reverse the routine when we return home. We don’t stop and linger for conversations over the fence and the only time we’re outside where we have the opportunity to interact with our neighbours for extended periods of time we are bundled up and pushing and conversation killing snow-blower to clear our driveway in the shortest possible time. We hibernate during the winter.

And because we hibernate we have developed a culture of investing in our homes that doesn’t exist in other parts of the world in the same way. We buy bigger TVs, louder stereo systems, more video games, we have more comfortable furniture, bigger toy boxes and consume more media than people in other parts of the world. We hunker down for the winter and make sure that we have everything we could want and need so that we don’t need to come out until spring. In some indirect sort of way, our climate encourages consumerism.

I always thought this was normal. Perhaps you do too. Even in Southern Ontario, where the weather is somewhat less extreme this was the cultural practice. But then I went and married someone from across the pond. And I was introduced to a culture that sees things differently. I married someone where the culture is to spend money differently. Not that they are somehow morally superior, or less consumeristic but they express it in different ways. In a place where the climate does not encourage hibernation people tend to spend less on their entertainment centres, they tend to build less extravagant home theatres, the kids tend to have fewer toys and on a strictly square footage basis, the homes tend to be smaller.

What drives this cultural difference? A cultural value that places experience over stuff.

A 2007 study by the Center for Economic and Policy Research shows the disparity between the European mindset and the North American. Only Japan and the USA have less paid vacation than us and I think that we are likely strongly influenced in our cultural values by the USA, a country which stands alone among wealthy nations as the only country with zero requirements for paid vacation.

I think that largely as a result of the cultures in which they exist, Europeans spend much more per-capita on holiday expenses and North Americans spend much more per-capita on luxury items. This is the difference between hibernation and vacation. In fact, according to the United Nations World Tourism Organisation (UNWTO) Europeans travel more than all other people groups combined! Interesting, perhaps, but what does all of this economic mumbo jumbo have to do with Advent?

This is where it all comes together for me. Last week I saw a Facebook meme travelling around that encouraged people to spend twice as much time with their kids and half as much money on them. It was trite advice given in a tongue and cheek sort of way but it really resonated with my experience of the last month. This past November, for the first time since our honeymoon 9 ½ years ago, we took a family vacation that was just for our family. That means a trip that was not rolled into a ministry event or conference, a trip that was not about visiting family and exposing our children to their Grandparents, Aunts, Uncles and Cousins, a trip that was just the five of us in the mini-van for long hours of driving and uncomfortable amounts of quality time together. And it was awesome. For the first time in way too long, I got to know my kids better; I got to reconnect with my wife; we had the chance to enjoy making memories that will (hopefully last a lifetime) and I started to question whether all this hibernation was taking its toll on us.

It’s no secret that I am a materialistic person. If I ever gave you the impression otherwise, I’m sorry – that was a lie. I am. I’m a toy collecting, gadget craving, technology obsessed, consumeristic schlub. I wish I could tell you that it wasn’t the case, but it is. God still has a lot of work to do in my heart to purge me of this vice – but one of the things he’s already working on is my desire to channel my consumerism into areas that have a more lasting and redeeming impact than the way I have traditionally spent my money.

That means, as I shared yesterday, no more buying children’s toys. That means prioritizing spending money on experiences this holiday season more than spending money on stuff. As a family we made the decision this year that all of our holiday spending would go toward that vacation we had in November, so we gave ourselves permission to do a little more when we were away than we would have anyways – we traded stuff for memories and I don’t for a second regret the trade. In Luke 13 Jesus, when talking about greed teaches the crowds with a parable about a greedy farmer who thinks he can hoard his bumper crop and find rest and security in the abundance of his stuff. Notably in verse 15 he says:

“Watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; life does not consist in an abundance of possessions.”

Luke 13:15 (TNIV)

I think that this verse is an important one for me this Advent. It’s a lesson that I need to understand how little value I have really received from my investment in stuff over the years and how much more reward I have received even in a very short time from experiences. Because next year, when our TV seems too small, and our Wii seems outdated and my iPhone seems unbearably archaic I’ll still want more stuff, but the memories that I have made with my family won’t expire. Not for me, and hopefully not for them either.

My Advent resolution for today is to place a higher value on vacation than I do on hibernation. What is God leading you in this Advent season?

In Christ,

Chris

The tyranny of “Stuff” Part 1 - Advent Transformation

So it’s Advent. The season of expectation and the season of celebration and if I am to believe what I see on television this season – the season of shopping. Probably the last thing you need to read is another pontificating hypocrite telling you how bad you are for spending all that money on gifts that you and your loved ones don’t need and probably won’t appreciate by this time next year anyways. I’m not going to sit here from my keyboard and lecture you on your consumer choices this Christmas, because frankly I have no moral authority to do so.

Over the years I have spent far more than I should have on things that do not last, and even more than that on myself for things that probably have an even shorter shelf life of significance. Lately I’ve been feeling very convicted of this fact and realize that perhaps I need to change something in my life before I dare talk to anyone else about changing theirs. And that doesn’t mean that I make one grand gesture and feel I’ve earned the right by doing so to look down on people who haven’t done the same – but rather I need to enact sustained life change that alters my priorities and makes me a person more in line with what Jesus wants to do through me. So over the next week I want to share with you some things that I have realized I need to repent of and change in my life if I want to be the type of person that I think honours Christ by my consumer choices. Today I start with my toys.

“…When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me.”

–        1 Corinthians 13:11

If you have ever been in my office you will understand that I have a ‘hobby’ of collecting Transformers. I am enamoured with the toys, the fiction, the engineering that goes into them and the characters that I grew up with as a child. Over the years my collection has grown, and shrank, and grown and shrank. I have culled the herd once by parting with a toy every day of the season of Lent in 2011 and I culled the herd a second time when I sold about 30 figures last Christmas to pay for my wife’s iPhone (which is really just trading one sort of consumerism for another). For those who have known me over the years it would certainly seem that I have curbed my enthusiasm for the toys but up until the end of this summer I was still spending money on buying toys that largely just sat on display in my office.

This September I came to a point of internal crisis when I decided that I couldn’t any longer justify spending my hard-earned money on children’s toys that aren’t being played with by children. So I haven’t spent a dime on Transformers since August and it feels great. But I still have all these toys sitting on my shelf, many of them in unopened boxes, imported from Japan. Many of them the same toy over and over, just with minor colouring changes to incite schmucks like me to spend 4-5 times the average retail price for a toy I already have just so I can have the special edition limited-release version of a toy that I will never open an play with for fear of diminishing it’s value. How does any of that honour God?

So this Advent season I’ve resolved to put childish things behind me (or at least get the ball rolling on what will be a long process). Some toys I have already taken off my shelf and given them to my boys. No longer to collect dust but to be played with (an in the process learned that only one of my boys really appreciates them). Some other ones I want to randomly give away to other kids – likely the common figures that you can (or could have in the past) found on the shelves in Wal-Mart. Some of the more valuable un-opened pieces (particularly the imports) I will try to sell and recoup the money for more God honouring purposes (I am not promising to give the proceeds away from these sales as I have in the past, although I may at some point do some of that I believe that God can be honoured by my own consumerism when it is responsible and mature as well) and some I will still keep for sentimental purposes.

I don’t expect that you will walk into my office after Christmas and find a complete absence of Transformers on my shelves but I do suspect that you will notice a difference and that the collection will only decrease from here on out as I learn to put childish things behind me.

This is just the first step in my Advent journey. Tomorrow check back to hear my thoughts on hibernation and holidays.

In Christ,

Chris

Launching out

This past weekend, five of us from Estevan Alliance Church had the awesome privilege of travelling to Hamilton Ontario to bear witness to the birth of a new work of God through the official launch of a new church.

Over the next few weeks at EAC you're going to be hearing about our trip from each of the people who went but one of the highlights of the weekend for me was being invited to participate in the official commissioning service by the parent congregation, Gateway Church in Caledonia. We were welcomed into their service with humbling hospitality and were given the opportunity to share, read scripture, serve communion and even preach - along with their own people and the members of the Ancaster church plant.

Gateway is pretty on the ball with getting their sermons online for their podcast so I was not surprised to find when I checked yesterday that the recording of Steve (Gateway's pastor), Aaron (the pastor of the Ancaster church plant) and I available to listen to.

In the shared sermon time each of us took turns telling our stories of how we got involved with this venture and talked about how the lessons of the Hall of Faith (Hebrews 11) resonate and bring illumination to the work God is doing through these three congregations. If you are a part of EAC and were not able to be at Gateway for this service (which is somewhere in the neighbourhood of 98% of you) I would strongly encourage you to listen to the recording to get some important background on this amazing work of God that we, as a gracious blessing from God, get to be involved with.

Take a listen and spread the word - God is on the move!

Launching Out

Have you lost your voice

I know that this is something that will be somewhat controversial, but lately as many of you know I've been engaged in a study of the sacrament of Christian water baptism and as you are likely aware, the greatest conflict within Christendom over baptism has always been (and will likely be until Jesus returns) the issue of infant baptism versus confessional (believers) baptism. Now I'm not particularly interested in getting into that debate here today as I am firmly planted in a tradition of believer's baptism, but as I have pondered what it means to live out that conviction a second order question comes to the forefront of discussion - what does it mean to repent and be baptized? (Acts 2:38)

If we are to maintain that baptism needs to come out of a conscious decision to respond to Christ and believe on him, then how do we define those crucial terms 'believe,' 'decide' and 'respond?' Do we mean to say (as has often been practiced) that to believe means to understand and that to decide means to have all the relevant information to make an informed choice and that to respond means to undertake a fully thought out and rationalized action based upon the empirical data that we have processed? My experience in Evangelical churches throughout most of my life reflects that approach to this quandary. We want to ensure that people understand fully the commitment they are making when they go through the waters of baptism and we want them to have a fleshed out understanding of salvation with at least a rudimentary understanding of Christian theology, so we have developed complicated systems of checks and balances to ensure that is the case. We put them through classes to teach them what's important, we have them interviewed by the elders to make sure that they were actually paying attention in those classes and to make certain they are good candidates for the rite and we make them jump through a series of other hoops before we will give them permission to respond to God as Scripture mandates them to. Along the way we pay lip service to the idea that baptism is a type of beginning and not a type of ending (to borrow the language of my former senior pastor, baptism is an initiation, not a graduation) but our practice frequently conveys the exact opposite message.

In the Bible however we get a very different picture of baptism. We get a picture of a rite that comes from God, is enacted by God and that we play our part by responding to him out of obedience. It is not a rite that is always (or even often) preceded by understanding; it is not a rite that marks the completion of a long season of preparation and study, it is not even inherently confessional in nature. Ben Witherington III in his book on baptism called Troubled Waters makes the case that baptism is not so much a statement as it is an appeal. It is an appeal to God in obedience that we would be counted with Christ in his death and resurrection and would receive the baptism of fire and Spirit promised by John when we was awaiting Jesus. Belief, in that sense only need be as robust as is required to call out to God who can save us.

All of that has been said to set the table for the larger question of what qualifies as belief in the Christian church? What do believe that makes us Christian? Or more specifically, to what extent to we have to believe to be saved?  What I have been struggling with in that vein is the issue of child-like faith and what role children can and should play in the corporate worship of the church. The question behind the question is in what ways can a child respond to God?

I am becoming increasingly convinced as I study and pray and observe the church and children within it that their confessions of faith are just as significant and sufficient as those of adults. That as they respond to Christ with the understanding they are capable of demonstrating that God is pleased and welcomes their worship to the same extent that he welcomes ours. When a four year old confesses in their heart that 'Jesus loves me, this I know, for the Bible tells me so' it is as complete a confession of faith as when an adult recites one of the great creeds of the faith. Jesus does not set any threshold for our commitment to him beyond all of us, so why do we think that all of a child's faith and devotion is somehow less than enough?

You can extend this argument to other groups that lack the ability to respond the way we might consider typical. The mentally handicapped are capable of great love and devotion and by the same Holy Spirit that draws us into relationship with him are capable of a robust and world changing relationship with God, but many of them would not be able jump through the hoops that we set for proving their belief.

Many of our friends and loved ones, as they age, face the challenges of different types of dementia or Alzheimer's disease that rob them of the capacity to confess Christ in what we would consider to be sufficient ways, but we do not generally believe that God excludes them from full participation in worship.

Probably the most poignant example that I can give however is of children themselves. While we as evangelicals (generally those not practicing infant baptism) have no hard theology to support this position, I have yet to meet an evangelical who believes to any extent that their children are as one author described 'little pagans' and that consequently, children who die via miscarriage, still-birth or at a very early age are somehow hellbound because they didn't make a coherent confession of Christ. No, to even consider such a position would be seen by most evangelicals as monstrous. When faced with those difficult questions we almost universally make an appeal to the character of God being gracious and compassionate and to his unending mercy and love as we rest in the knowledge that he does not hold accountable those who are mentally unable to respond to his grace with a conscious decision. So why do we hold them to that impossible standard?

I am convinced that Jesus holds us accountable for what we can understand, and expects us to respond according to what he has revealed to us up until that point. So when a young child asks Jesus into their heart because that is the extent of what they can comprehend, they are fully in the family of God. God accepts their confession of faith, as simple as it may be, as a full commitment of all that they are. And when a child asks, as the Ethiopian Eunuch does in Acts chapter 8, 'why can't I be baptized?' then we should do all we can to help that child respond to God in obedience, instead of stifling them in their relationship with Christ by imposing impossible requirements upon them. And when a young child asks their parents about communion and after being told what it is, desires to participate in the meal of the family of faith, then it is my conviction that they should be allowed to dine with their spiritual family in the meal that nourishes the church. Anything less than this sort of acknowledgement of child-like faith puts we learned Christians in the awkward position of wearing millstone shaped pendants.

The reality of the situation is (as is demonstrated in the story of the widow's mite) is that Jesus isn't interested in how much we know, he's interested in how much of us we are willing to give to him. To those who understand much, much is expected; but to those who understand less the same 100% is the standard we are called to follow. I would hazard a guess that as a percentage of full devotion, the child who sings Jesus loves me this I know, at the top of her lungs on a Sunday morning may be more committed to Christ than the seminarian in the front pew.

As I have been pondering these things over the past while There has been a song that I have been listening to by a band called Gungor that sums up the issue in a powerful way, here are the lyrics:

Let church bells ring
Let children sing
Even if they don't know why, let the sing 
Why drown their joy
Stifle their voice
Just because you've lost yours

May your jaded hearts be healed - Amen

Let old men dance
Lift up their hands
Even if they are naive let them dance
You've seen it all
You watch them fall
Wash off your face and dance

May your weary hearts be filled with hope - Amen

-Gungor, Church Bells

The Gospel of Mark in 14 Minutes

This past weekend at our fall Board of Elders retreat, the pastors and elders of the church got together  and we read the Gospel of Mark together, out-loud in one continuous sitting. It was a powerful exercise in hearing the story of Jesus proclaimed from beginning to end, in context as the author intended it to be read. The whole exercise took about 80 minutes to complete and many new observations and epiphanies occurred as the various parts of the gospel came together to form a story that is rife with correlations, connections and internal structures that are missed when we take it in bite sized portions. It takes almost an hour and a half of investment to read all sixteen chapters of the gospel out loud, but my my estimation you can probably finish it in around half that time just reading silently to yourself (depending of course on your reading speed - it took me about 45 minutes) and I would heartily recommend to everyone that you take the time to do so - because reading the gospel (any of the gospels - and most of the books of the Bible, really) in context means reading them comprehensively from start to finish.

It's only when you can familiarize yourself with the story from beginning to end that you can start to see the big picture that the writer (in this case John Mark) was trying to paint, not only events and signs and miracles, but intent and motive and trajectory along with nuance. One person who has done such comprehensive study and reflection on the gospel is one of my favourite scholars, Ben Witherington III. Dr. Witherington has taken his years of study on the earliest gospel and condensed it into a 14 minute video presentation where he highlights the story of the Gospel of Mark from the beginning to the end and frames it as the story that John Mark wanted to tell.

As we're just entering into the third act of Marks Gospel this month with our preaching series at EAC I'd encourage you to invest the time it takes to get a comprehensive perspective on the story by reading it from beginning to end in the coming weeks. If you can invest the time to do it in one sitting, all the better. And if you have 14 minutes to spare today while you are checking your Facebook and surfing the web - I'd encourage you to watch this video and learn something new about this earliest story of Jesus.

Chris

This is not the end

I'm working on a funeral for a dear saint who has just gone to be with her Lord and I have the immense privilege of preaching the good news of the resurrection - and while I'm preparing the message I just can't get this song out of my head. What an amazing hope we have in Jesus.

This is not the end - Gungor

This is not the end
This is not the end of this
We will open our eyes wide, wider

This is not our last
This is not our last breath
We will open our mouths wide, wider

And you know you’ll be alright
Oh and you know you’ll be alright

This is not the end
This is not the end of us
We will shine like the stars bright, brighter

The Goal of the Gospel

I'm going to quote this video on Sunday in the sermon so I thought it would be good for you context seekers out there to see the whole clip. This is part of a message by Skye Jethani on the goal of the Gospel and I think he's nailed it.

Enjoy

Confessions of a Pastor III

Forgive me Lord for being the type of pastor in my heart that I too often deride with my lips. Forgive me for the hypocrisy of my attitude and the selfishness of my dreams.

Forgive me when I look out at a half-full sanctuary and fantasize about having 50 more people in the pews instead of praying for the 20 specific people that I notice are missing.

Forgive me when I lie awake in bed, dreaming about how great it would be to gain respect or notoriety from my peers for growing a big church instead of longing for a “well done” from my God from shepherding a faithful church.

Forgive me when I long to see more conversions and baptisms in my church without thinking about, or even knowing sometimes, the people I’m longing to see converted or baptized.

Forgive me when I dream of starting ministry programs that reach out to a certain demographic rather than doing ministry to help specific people.

Forgive me when I get swept up in the excitement and flash of a new program or method or strategy that I’ve seen somewhere else and become obsessed with applying it upon my context without asking if it comports to your will for my church.

Forgive me when I’m more concerned with keeping the peace than following faithfully, and forgive me when I’m more concerned with being right then living in an authentic community of reconciliation and restoration.

Forgive me when I think more highly of myself than I ought to, and forgive me when I doubt your sufficiency to make me better than I am.

Forgive me Lord when your children become a means to an end instead of the treasure you died for. Forgive me when I commodify the church in my heart and engage in the spiritual sin of big-picture ministry. Forgive me when I believe that the ends justify the means and believe that there is an acceptable level of collateral apostasy for building a “successful” church.

Forgive me Lord for all my best intentions and lofty plans, for my noble goals and “Christian” dreams, the things that occupy too much of my thinking and prayer – when they don’t align with the things you actually desire. Forgive me for blindly worshipping the false god of the business of church instead of the real and living Lord of the Church.

Help me God to escape from this self-imposed prison of faulty expectations, from this distorted image of what a pastor should be and how a church should function and instead to embrace my calling as a shepherd of the flock – a hired hand who tends someone else’s sheep. Allow me to see the church through your eyes and to lead this church into your will for her.

Help me follow you as they follow me.

In the name of the great shepherd of the sheep, Jesus Christ,

Amen.

Confessions Part II

Rumours of my greatness may have been slightly exaggerated.

If you know me, you will know that I try to live my life very openly so that you see who I am. I'm very open on mediums like Facebook, Twitter and this blog so that you know what I'm reading and what I'm learning and so that you hear my heart as your leader. The truth of the matter however, and lately I've been convicted of this in my heart, is that if you think my online persona is representative of the real me, you don't really know me at all.

This medium, as well intentioned as I may be in making use of it, does not show you the real me. As transparent and authentic as I try to be in my online activities I sabotage that authenticity, both consciously and unconsciously so that you see the type of man and pastor that I want you to think I am. Not that I intentionally mislead, or misrepresent myself by what I post, but I'm coming to the realization that I censor myself, and filter my activity so that you only see the best of me and that no one sees the rest of me.

For example, I don't post many blogs about the fights I have with my wife, or the times I lose my temper with my kids. I don't write many status updates about foolish and selfish ways that I often spend money, or tweet about my struggles with resentment and anger with some people. I don't preach many sermons about my own struggles with sin or the spiritually dry seasons that I sometimes go through just like anybody else. I don't share during prayer times that I sometimes hate my job, or have conflicts at work or wonder if it's time for a change.

I filter these these things out of my online persona because consciously or unconsciously I want you to think I have it all together. Because deep down I want you to think I'm worthy of being your pastor, your leader, your shepherd. So I project outwardly the illusion that I'm past all of that stuff. That I have the perfect marriage, that I'm an ideal father, that I'm a spiritual giant and a seasoned prayer warrior - and while there are days when those things may be true - they are just as often nothing more than wishful thinking on my part.

So what is my point in all of this? Well i guess I just wanted to come clean with you all. I wanted to get that off my chest and let you know that you and I aren't all that different. And beyond that cathartic release I want you to know that I, like you have my good days and my bad days and that I'm as much in need of God's grace and mercy as you are. I want you to know that when I preach a sermon that may be somewhat difficult to hear, or that makes you really uncomfortable or that convicts your conscience - I've had to preach it first to the man in the mirror and he has had to wrestle with the implications in his life too. I want you to know that when I point my finger at the church and accuse you of missing the point of something foundational and crucial in the Gospel, that I'm completely aware of the three fingers pointed back at me. But most of all I want you to know that as you journey together as the church through this long and winding road called Christian discipleship, I'm not just the guy who's on the radio giving directions - I'm walking with you. Not just on the mountain peaks, but through the valleys and deserts as well.

My name is Christopher Smith, and if you are a member of the EAC family - I am your pastor, but more than that I'm your brother, your fellow sojourner and hopefully, your friend. That is my confession for today.

Reflections on Christian Community

This past week I re-entered the world of academia. It’s been eight and a half years since I was actually a student in any real capacity but this week I stepped back into that world with both feet by taking the first, of what will be many, courses at Briercrest Seminary towards what will one day become my MA in Theological Studies. In the time between my college graduation and this week I had taken the odd seminary course here and there, and attended the occasional seminar for training and equipping but this was the first time in a long time that there was something significant on the line. If I failed one of those courses in the past I would have been really disappointed in myself and would have questioned if I had worked hard enough to warrant the money spent - but I still would have achieved the goal of learning something. I would have still received equipping for my ministry and vocation and I eventually would have gotten over it. This week however there is much more on the line, with the start of this class the clock is now ticking on a degree that is going to take dedication, hard work and ruthless intentionality to complete without abandoning my full-time position as the pastor of Estevan Alliance Church - and I’m not ashamed to tell you that I find that a little intimidating.

Umm... something like this

Even more than that though was the social anxiety that came from entering into an established community as the ostensible outsider - the one who doesn’t belong. I was concerned that because I was taking a course usually reserved students much farther along in their degree programs that I would end up swimming with sharks and that the intellectual calibre of the discourse would be so far over my head as to render me the embodiment of the village idiot in this community of scholarship. I was worried that my classmates would be happily settled in their own closed-off social groups and that I wouldn’t find anywhere to fit-in or connect relationally with them. It was like the first day of school all over again - but worse, it was the first day of school.

Unsurprisingly, my fears have largely proven unfounded. Classes it turns out will be challenging, but not insurmountable; the calibre of classroom conversation was a stretch (and at times I had to really pay attention and quickly google a few terms on my notebook!) but I was able to engage in the discussion; and I found my classmates and professor to be warm and open relationally and by the end of the week I felt like I was part of the community.

More even than that though I was especially blessed by the conversations I had with many of my classmates about their research topics (this class was Research Methods and Design, a prerequisite for entering into a masters thesis project or ministry related research project - basically major scholarship on a narrowly focused topic) and the things they were learning about God through their scholarship.

I was blessed by my conversations with Phil, who is studying the concept of worship as discipleship, and how what we believe and practice in corporate worship sets the pattern for all that we do throughout the week. My interactions with him caused me to consider and re-affirm the crucial importance of what we do when we gather together as the Body of Christ and how that corporate experience cannot be replaced by other programming - it’s central to what it means to be the church. Phil challenged me to think about what our worship says about God - that is, if someone only knew about God from what they observed at our worship services - what sort of picture of God would they have? As a pastor I have to admit I haven’t given that nearly enough consideration and it’s caused me to come to the Lord in prayer and reflection about that.

I was also blessed by my conversations with Steve. We talked football (soccer - Steve is from the NW of England and I think that he was impressed that I’ve seen a match at the Hawthornes) and ecclesiology and a lot about what biblical eldership looks like. I was so encouraging to hear that in his studies on the topic that he has come to many of the same conclusions about the role of biblical elders that our board has been wrestling through over the past couple of years. It was encouraging and at the same time challenging, because it reaffirmed that the role of elder in the church is not an easy calling. As Steve put it, if people really knew the cost and the call of eldership there would be a lot fewer people willing to let their name stand for nomination. 

I was excited to learn about Kelsey’s research project that is focusing on a biblical theology of suffering through the lens of famous figures who persevered in their suffering and never got better. How we too often view suffering only as a trial to be overcome, ignoring the wealth of biblical literature that points to a God who enters into suffering and uses it for his glory and purposes. We tend to over look the people who allowed their suffering to be a crucible that refined them for a specific purpose and whom God used to accomplish amazing things - the prime example being a man like William Wilberforce, who despite is constant physical infirmity and weakness fought tirelessly to alleviate suffering of a more dehumanizing kind affecting millions of people around the world through the abolition of slavery in the British Empire. We often forget when thinking about Wilberforce that he suffered most of his adult life and then died three days after witnessing his motion pass parliament. It’s an amazing thing to consider.

These stories an more are representative of my experience this week in the community of Briercrest Seminary - but more than that they are illustrative of how life in the community of the church is supposed to be. Perhaps it’s been a long time (if ever) that you’ve sat down and talked about a masters-level research project on spiritual issues with someone - but every week you sit down next to someone in church who has been learning things about God. Every week you bump into people to whom God has been revealing himself in new and exciting ways. Every week we talk to people who have had “aha” and “eureka” moments in God’s Holy Word - and we need to foster the type of community where those things are shared with one another. My professor this week spoke on a number of occasions about the privilege of being involved in a Christian community of scholarship - where ideas are freely exchanged and feedback is solicited and extended because we’re all working for the glory of God and the edification of his Church. He spoke of this of course in contrast to secular scholarship where ideas, theories and thesis are held close to the chest for fear that someone else might run with your ideas and get the grant money that you so desperately need to perform your research - but I have to wonder if in the church we don’t sometimes think more like these secular scholars than their Christian equivalents? God has placed us in a community where we can share, sharpen and celebrate our ideas, observations and experiences with one another - why are we so often reticent to do so?

If I learned nothing else this week (and I learned a lot!), it was the value of talking about what we’re learning with each other. Not so that we can sound smart, or to make people think that we’ve got it all figured out (I didn’t meet anyone this week that did) but so that we can glorify God, build each other up and sharpen our understanding of what God is teaching us. Christian community is a blessing, and I for one don’t want to waste it.

These are my reflections on my first week at school, now to go and do some more homework!

-Chris