Sunday is Only the Beginning

When I first started this blog three and a half years ago, I found that one of the hardest initial things to decide upon was a blog title. I wanted something that would be catchy, yet somewhat meaningful; something that was timely and yet something that would be enduring as my ministry and circumstances would inevitably change over the years. In the end after much prayer and contemplation I decided on the title "Sunday is Only the Beginning" as it summed up both my ministry philosophy and my hope for the church. The tag-line for my blog is "the end of the church service is the beginning of the Christian life," and for me that encompasses what I believe my role as a pastor/teacher is for the congregation that I'm serving. The worship service was never supposed to be the be-all and end all for the Christian, but rather a place of empowering, equipping and commissioning to go and live a missionary life wherever God has placed you.

So this morning as I got up to spend some time with God before music practice I came across Luke 3:7-18 in my lectionary readings and I instantly felt resonance with this idea that Sunday is the beginning (and not the end) of it all. Here is what it says:

John said to the crowds that came out to be baptized by him, ‘You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Bear fruits worthy of repentance. Do not begin to say to yourselves, “We have Abraham as our ancestor”; for I tell you, God is able from these stones to raise up children to Abraham. Even now the axe is lying at the root of the trees; every tree therefore that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.’ 

And the crowds asked him, ‘What then should we do?’ In reply he said to them, ‘Whoever has two coats must share with anyone who has none; and whoever has food must do likewise.’ Even tax-collectors came to be baptized, and they asked him, ‘Teacher, what should we do?’ He said to them, ‘Collect no more than the amount prescribed for you.’ Soldiers also asked him, ‘And we, what should we do?’ He said to them, ‘Do not extort money from anyone by threats or false accusation, and be satisfied with your wages.’ 

As the people were filled with expectation, and all were questioning in their hearts concerning John, whether he might be the Messiah, John answered all of them by saying, ‘I baptize you with water; but one who is more powerful than I is coming; I am not worthy to untie the thong of his sandals. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. His winnowing-fork is in his hand, to clear his threshing-floor and to gather the wheat into his granary; but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire.’ 

It's an interesting story with quite the application I think for the contemporary church. Here are a group of people who have come to worship - more than that, they have come to submit to the will of the Lord in baptism (something that as a church we need to learn a lot about!) and yet Christ's first reaction to their worship is to call them a brood of Vipers! How would you feel if that was how you were greeted on a Sunday morning by your pastor? He proceeds to give them further grief for their practice of 'playing worship' when the occasion called for it while not backing up that profession of faith with their lifestyle.

I think that Jesus here is coming down hard on the idea that worship is a compartmentalized aspect of our lives that exists in its own little bubble for 1 hour a week. He's ripping to shreds the notion that Sunday morning faith is sufficient to call oneself a disciple. Our lives must bear fruits worthy of repentance - which is to say that it's not enough to live as though there is no God six days a week and then come to church and seek forgiveness on the seventh. If your worship of God does not produce fruit throughout the rest of the week and the other areas of your life, Jesus warns that the axe is at the root and the fruitless will be cut down and thrown into the fire! I know that we don't like to reflect on the judgment of God on believers in our Evangelical Christian sub-culture - but Jesus is far more concerned with judging those on the inside of the community of faith than those on the outside!

In response then to Jesus exhortation, people start asking the right questions: "What then shall we do?" Or another way of putting it, "How now shall we live?" And Jesus' response continues with the same theme: Don't be greedy, but practice generosity (2 coats, food when your neighbour is hungry, etc). Don't cheat people, but treat them fairly; don't exploit people but show them justice; be satisfied with what you have and don't be obsessed with having more (a LOT of people in our culture could learn something from this last one). Jesus is showing them that professions of worship need to be backed up by fruitful lives - that is lives that bear the fruit of the Gospel in everyday settings.

Friends, I can't tell you how many times I've caught myself singing a song of praise and dedication to God and then walking out of the building and living an utterly selfish and fruitless life. I wish it wasn't so frequently but I'm ashamed to say that it is. I need to be reminded time and time again that Sunday is not the end of my week (which is an especially heinous temptation as a pastor who week after week is working towards Sunday) but the beginning of a new way of living. I don't think that it is merely coincidental that the resurrection of Christ, and the subsequent Christian tradition of worship happened on the first day of the week - I think that there is something deeply significant about it. I think that God was demonstrating for us in Jesus that this is a new beginning, a new opportunity to be reconciled to God through the resurrection power of Jesus, and that as the resurrection is mirrored week after week in the worship of the Church that we also have the opportunity to make changes and be renewed for a missional life into the world. Sunday is, and always has been, only the beginning!

Then as we get to the end of the passage we come back to the familiar story that John was pointing people to Jesus as the Messiah, but once again there is the looming threat of judgment for those who are fruitless (in this case the imagery of wheat and chaff is used instead but the point is the same), and yet when Luke finishes telling this story he ends it with the most peculiar statement:

So, with many other exhortations, he proclaimed the good news to the people.

Judgment. You brood of vipers. The Axe is at the root, and the fruitless will be thrown into the fire. The wheat will be separated from the chaff and the later will be burned up. This is good news?

Yes! This is good news. It's good news that Christ has made a way for us to follow him in true discipleship rather than lifeless rote worship. It's good news that the people of God will be known for a different type of living than the rest of the world and that as the old song says, "they will know we are Christians by our love."It is good news that the baptism Jesus is offering will not simply wash away dirt but will purge away the root causes of our sin and fill us anew with the Spirit's power to live lives worthy of our worship. It's good news that Sunday wasn't the end of it all, that worship was not simply a once per-week box to check off our list of things that keep God happy, but that instead it is designed for the Christian as an integral and important starting point for a fruitful life of true discipleship.

In other words, the end of the worship service is the beginning of the Christian life. Sunday is only the beginning. I'm looking forward to seeing many of you here at The Bridge this morning so we can all begin together again!

Until next time,

Chris

A Prayer for our government

I came across this in my daily reading today and it struck me that perhaps this is how I should be praying for my government regardless of its political stripe. If the people of God prayed this way how different would our country look?

-Chris

Psalm 72

Give the king your justice, O God,
and your righteousness to a king’s son.
May he judge your people with righteousness,
and your poor with justice.
May the mountains yield prosperity for the people,
and the hills, in righteousness.
May he defend the cause of the poor of the people,
give deliverance to the needy,
and crush the oppressor.


May he live while the sun endures,
and as long as the moon, throughout all generations.
May he be like rain that falls on the mown grass,
like showers that water the earth.
In his days may righteousness flourish
and peace abound, until the moon is no more.


May he have dominion from sea to sea,
and from the River to the ends of the earth.
May his foes bow down before him,
and his enemies lick the dust.
May the kings of Tarshish and of the isles
render him tribute,
may the kings of Sheba and Seba
bring gifts.
May all kings fall down before him,
all nations give him service.


For he delivers the needy when they call,
the poor and those who have no helper.
He has pity on the weak and the needy,
and saves the lives of the needy.
From oppression and violence he redeems their life;
and precious is their blood in his sight.


Long may he live!
May gold of Sheba be given to him.
May prayer be made for him continually,
and blessings invoked for him all day long.
May there be abundance of grain in the land;
may it wave on the tops of the mountains;
may its fruit be like Lebanon;
and may people blossom in the cities
like the grass of the field.
May his name endure for ever,
his fame continue as long as the sun.
May all nations be blessed in him;
may they pronounce him happy.


Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel,
who alone does wondrous things.
Blessed be his glorious name for ever;
may his glory fill the whole earth.Amen and Amen.


The prayers of David son of Jesse are ended.

It all began with tacos

It all began with tacos.

That’s what I told you on Sunday morning when most of you were completely blown away by the surprise appearance of our international worker Lois Franklin to sign our new seamless link agreement, but I think that in light of how God moved all the pieces in this story, I owe you a further explanation than that.

Three weeks ago we on staff at The Bridge Church were totally at a loss as to what we were going to do with regard to a theme for Welcome Sunday (I mean we knew that we weren’t going to go Polynesian again, but beyond that we were stumped). All we knew is that we were going to have a lunch after the service to celebrate, and so it was suggested that we ask our kitchen volunteers what they thought we could do for food and see if any ideas came out of that. The next week when we heard their response only one suggestion seemed to have the ability to gain any traction with our ministry staff – tacos!

So we were going to eat tacos, and it seemed only logical that we should then follow that idea down the rabbit hole and give the whole morning a fiesta theme. This was to be our ‘Fall Fiesta’ and the whole morning would take on that flavour. Mexican themed Kids Ministry sign-up, check. Nachos and salsa on the tables for snacking during the service, check. Getting the kids involved in some worship in Spanish, check. We were covering all the bases.

Now a few weeks before that I had been given the task of taking all the work that had been done over the past year on the seamless link agreement with Lois (who happens to be serving in Mexico City) and putting it into a final form that all the involved parties were happy with. Between all the involved parties at the local, district and international levels we had managed to agree on the content of the covenant and were ready to sign but we still had to arrange a time and way to get it done. The document needed four signatures – two were at The Bridge, one was in Regina and one was in Mexico City, so at best we were looking for some sort of signing ceremony with a lot of follow-up paperwork to get all the required signature on the documents. The idea of signing a seamless link in absentia is a little disappointing but at least we might be able to add a little sizzle to the moment if we signed the document during our Fall Fiesta, so we tentatively planned to do it that Sunday even though Lois would be in Mexico and it was way too short notice to get Shauna from the district office out to be present at the ceremony. We contacted Lois to ask if that would work for her to do a Skype call on the 15^th and I emailed Shauna just as an FYI to let her know what our plans were and left it there.

Now at this point you can say that we were running with a lunch idea and planning a service around it that was totally in our control. You could say that the whole morning was the result of good (or lacklustre, depending on what you thought of the theme) planning and that God had yet to show up and make his presence felt. But stick with me through these next developments and tell me if you still feel the same way.

On September 4, in the morning I got a reply from Shauna about our plans to sign the seamless link on the 15^th and here is what she said:

“I can be at the service on Sept 15 as I'm in Winnipeg on Saturday, Sept 14. I can easily stay over an extra night and be there for the service as a rep for not only SL but also for Lois if you think that would be valuable for your congregation.”

 We had no expectations of Shauna being able to come, but God had arranged for her to already be in town, and to NOT have a commitment on Sunday morning!

Then, the next day, September 5, Wendy received a phone message from Lois that was passed onto me via email which said:

“Lois Franklin can get a flight back to Canada for about $120, seat sale ends tonight at midnight.  However, she cannot fly via seat sale until the 16th of September (Monday). Even so, she would still do the skyping for Welcome Sunday, the 15th of Sunday, to sign the SL Covenant.  Would you like her to come out to The Bridge Church later on in the week and on Sunday, Sept 22nd, do the real signing?  She is open to that.”

 Lois was going to be here? But not until the 22^nd? Had we run ahead of God? Should be have delayed? Should we postpone the signing by a week so that she could be here? I faced a quandary with only hours to make a decision. We had already gone public with the Fall Fiesta, we had already confirmed Shauna’s attendance. Having Lois present would be amazing, but should we go back to the drawing board to make it happen.

That was a difficult night for me. Eventually I emailed Lois back and invited her to the service on the 22^nd but indicated that we would like to still go ahead with the signing on the 15^th. I was unsettled in my heart, but was convinced logically that I had made the right decision.

The next morning I woke up to an email from Lois:

“Pastor Chris,I work very closely with a woman from the States. She sent me today an Air Canada offer to Canada. I thought if I got a deal it would be nice to go for the SLA signing. As I looked at it, I realized that it was flying to Canada from the States, and not from Mexico. With the offer I couldn't fly until the 16th. But because the offer is not for me I could be there for the 15th. So, the question for you is would you like me there on the 15th. I need a holiday badly and I am thinking that it would be good for me to go. I was planning a beach trip, but if it sounds good to you, I'd like to be there.”

 I took that email as confirmation from God that we were on the right track and the plan to surprise the congregation with Lois’ presence was hatched. Along the way we had help from a select group of people who were in on the whole thing, but by and large nobody knew. Not the Board of Elders, not Shauna Archer, not the worship team, not even all of the technical team who would be so instrumental in pulling this off.  And then as the day neared and happened we had other confirmations that this was the right day. September 15 just happened to be the day of the National Proclamation of the ‘Grito” – the Mexican Declaration of Independence and a huge holiday there. When we did the fake Skype call to Mexico in the service Kris and Tim in the booth were supposed to make it look like Skype had crashed – well it really did crash – no faking required!

And then there was the response. Particularly the response of Shauna who had been kept in the dark. We knew when we saw your faces as Lois walked in that it was all worth it. The signing of the covenant was just perfect – with everyone there, and the celebration afterward was extra special because Lois could be with us.

Afterward people kept thanking/congratulating me on a great service – but this week when I told them I had nothing to do with it there was no trace of false modesty. I really had nothing to do with it. It all started with tacos, and God filled in the rest. What an amazing experience to be a part of God moving in a church like this.

Now if you’ll excuse me I’ve got a long day ahead, which I’m punctuating this evening with a taco meal of my own. Good things begin with tacos, so I wonder what God is going to do next?

Father of the year

I have great kids.

I know that you would be surprised to hear me say anything different than that, but I really do. Jack, Harry and Penelope are three of God’s greatest blessings in my life. Every day they find surprising ways to bring joy and beauty into my life and if for some twisted reason my mind ever wanders into that dangerous “what if” territory where I hypothesise what life might be like without them – it always ends with tears and an emotional exhaustion just from considering the possibility.

Now that I’ve told you what you expected to read let me tell you the whole truth.

Spoiler alert: Parenthood is hard, and some days I’m not entirely sure that I’m any good at it. There are days when I feel like the worst father in the world. Some days my kids are unruly or irresponsible or just plain defiant and I feel like I can’t take them anywhere. On those days I wonder if I’ve invested the time and energy required in properly disciplining them so that they have the guidance that they will need to grow to be respectful and well mannered adults; on the other hand, some days I feel like I’m nothing but an ogre who yells at them for spilling the milk and has no patience for their nattering questions and clumsy steps toward self-discovery and independence. On those days, after my blood pressure lowers, I often sit and wonder if they know that I love them at all.

Perhaps some of you can relate.

Lately I have been reading 1 Samuel in my devotional time and along with a friend who is reading through the book with me, we have been focusing on the character of Eli. Eli was a man who I share a lot in common with: we were/are both in vocational ministry, we both led/lead people in worship of God, and we both had/have two sons, and we were/are both somewhat defined by our excess rotundity (not sure if that is an actual word but it seems to fit the bill).  And as I have been reading his story I have been profoundly struck by how his story is a story about fatherhood.

Eli is identified as having two sons, both men who have followed in their father’s footsteps into the priesthood; Hophni and Phinehas. From the first time we are introduced to them in 1Samuel 2 it is made clear by the narrator that these two priests are absolutely awful men. They abuse their position as priests of the Most High God to satiate their own gluttonous desires for meat and to satisfy their own lustful desires for sex. They are hedonists dressed up in priestly garb and God is not amused.

I could probably do a whole study just on these two characters and come up with a whole host of dire applications for people who go into vocational ministry without bringing the sinful nature under the Lordship of Christ – but Hophni and Phinehas are not the topic of this post – they only serve as symptoms of the root sickness that I think lies with their father. Because not only did Eli raise these two wicked men (and thus in some way is responsible for who they became) but he also knew about their indiscretions, and had the authority to do something about them (both as their father and as the Judge of Israel) but opted not to. His son’s sin became his sin and God ultimately cut down his legacy as a result of his ambivalence.

But no matter how awful his sons were and how God judged Eli for their behaviour – Eli is always more closely associated with another young man – a man who did not stray from the path laid out for him by God – the man who would go onto succeed Eli as the leader of Israel: Samuel the prophet.

In the first part of 1 Samuel we see the story of Samuel’s conception (well not THAT story, but the part about God intervening and blessing a barren woman with a son) as well as the story of Samuel’s dedication, and his calling. Samuel was entrusted to Eli by his parents to be given to the ministry of God and that call to ministry that he received while under Eli’s tutelage is probably the most well known story about Eli in the scriptures.

Now the boy Samuel was serving the Lord under Eli. The Lord’s word was rare at that time, and visions weren’t widely known. One day Eli, whose eyes had grown so weak he was unable to see, was lying down in his room. God’s lamp hadn’t gone out yet, and Samuel was lying down in the Lord’s temple, where God’s chest was. The Lord called to Samuel. “I’m here,” he said. Samuel hurried to Eli and said, “I’m here. You called me?” “I didn’t call you,” Eli replied. “Go lie down.” So he did. Again the Lord called Samuel, so Samuel got up, went to Eli, and said, “I’m here. You called me?” “I didn’t call, my son,” Eli replied. “Go and lie down.” (Now Samuel didn’t yet know the Lord, and the Lord’s word hadn’t yet been revealed to him.) A third time the Lord called Samuel. He got up, went to Eli, and said, “I’m here. You called me?” Then Eli realized that it was the Lord who was calling the boy. So Eli said to Samuel, “Go and lie down. If he calls you, say, ‘Speak, Lord. Your servant is listening.’” So Samuel went and lay down where he’d been. Then the Lord came and stood there, calling just as before, “Samuel, Samuel!” Samuel said, “Speak. Your servant is listening.”

1 Samuel 3:1-10 CEB

Eli is commonly associated with the type of mentorship of the young Samuel that guides him onto the will of God and helps him become the great leader that he ends up as – however most of our Sunday school/popular Christian retellings of Eli and Samuel end at verse 10. Rarely have I heard about what the Lord says to young Samuel. Rarely do our flannel graphs have pre-cut scenes for the word of destruction and judgment that the young boy is tasked with delivering to his mentor. God is not happy with Eli, and his stewardship of his sons and so God is going to cut them off.

The Lord said to Samuel, “I am about to do something in Israel that will make the ears of all who hear it tingle! On that day, I will bring to pass against Eli everything I said about his household—every last bit of it! I told him that I would punish his family forever because of the wrongdoing he knew about—how his sons were cursing God, but he wouldn’t stop them. Because of that I swore about Eli’s household that his family’s wrongdoing will never be reconciled by sacrifice or by offering.”

1 Samuel 3:11-14 CEB

And so I come back to idea that the story of Eli is a version of my story.

In Eli I see exemplified my own weaknesses and my own proclivities even as we work in similar professions with the goal of serving God.

In Eli I see a man who struggled with self-control and his own personal demons. A man who was eventually killed by his own excessive obesity which perhaps gives us insight into his broader disposition – a man who was unwilling to get off his hind-quarters to do what he knew needed to be done. A man who was excessively lazy.

In Eli I see a man who gave his whole life to his call to ministry – rising to the position of Judge over Israel and high priest of Shiloh – yet all the while we see evidence that he did so at the cost of abandoning his higher calling to the sons he was entrusted with by God.

In Eli I see a man who knew how to teach someone to follow God. A man who was a worthy mentor for the greatest of the Israelite judges and a good steward of the future ruler of Israel – yet he was also a man who didn’t give that type of mentorship to his sons. Samuel received the love and guidance from Eli that should have rightfully been for Hophni and Phinehas and as a result the whole family was judged harshly by The Lord.

Eli is my cautionary tale.

Eli is God’s reminder to me that there is more to my life than what happens within the sandbox of church ministry. Eli is a warning that I will be judged by how my children turn out – not that I have the power alone to determine their fate (even the greatest parents sometimes raise children who turn into terrible adults), but that how I parent them does matter and that intentionality, patience, love, affirmation and discipline are not things that I am allowed to be too tired to give them at the end of a long and difficult ministry day. Eli is the embodiment of the lesson that no matter what I accomplish in building into the lives of the people I minister to as a pastor – if I’m not at least equally invested in building into the lives of my children that I have failed.

And make no mistake, no matter what you learned on the flannel graph growing up, Eli failed.

And so today I’m choosing to learn from Eli’s example. Today I’m choosing to go home from work and love my kids with every ounce of my energy and love. Praising them, listening to them, working with them and yes, even disciplining them, because they, along with their mother, are God’s greatest calling upon my life; because they deserve better than I have so often given them and because the story of Eli frightens the crap out of me. I only pray that after living this way tonight, I’ll have the energy, the drive and the will to live the same way tomorrow.

Or I could simply sit around on my fat rear-end like Eli.

The choice is mine.

Thanks for listening.