A Moment with the Minister

A moment with the minister,

Sunday 14^th July 2024

 Please read our passage from St. Mark 6:14-29 from whatever translation you have.

Ok…How many of you have had the experience of looking back at your life and lamenting (perhaps over and over) a mistake you wish you wouldn’t have made? I think we’ve all done that at one time or another.

How many of you have had it keep you up at night?

That nagging, awful feeling of blame and guilt that just won’t let you go.

The nightmares, the sleepless nights! We can be awfully hard on ourselves sometimes. (And if we are honest, sometimes we are just as hard on others for their sin).

Wrestling in itself is not bad. It helps us discern right from wrong. It helps us learn and grow. It’s part of our human entanglement with our conscience and with God. But when our torture and turmoil gets out of hand, and anxiety sets in, we can become downright haunted by a past that just won’t let us go. That’s when we tend to push God out and take to imposing punishments on ourselves. Unlike God, sometimes, we can be unrelentingly punitive.

Unrepenting, obsessive, unredeemable guilt is a kind of sin, a self-imposed spiritual desert that keeps us isolated, in bondage, and in a vice grip, and refuses to allow us to be redeemed. As humans, in fact, we can become so obsessed with punishing ourselves, so entrenched in fear, that we forbid ourselves God’s grace. We push away the very God who could heal us.

That’s part of the story of King Herod in our Gospel passage this weekend.

And if this sort of thing is a part of your/our/my life story, remember, Jesus joyfully went to the cross 2,000 years ago, died, and rose from the dead to life eternal, to give us forgiveness for all our sins, which includes forgiveness and freedom from all our guilt and shame!!!

Shalom,

Pastor Mark

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A Moment with the minister:

Sunday 07^th July 2024

St. Mark 6:1-13

Many preachers can remember the first time they stood up to preach in front of their own parents, in front of the congregation where they grew up. It’s actually very hard to preach there; everyone remembers you when you were little and all the trouble you got into. They remind you that you are simply the son of Dick and Mary, nothing more. Besides, when I once preached there, I had not yet started seminary, I was not qualified.

Multiply that up a lot to allow for the fact that Jesus’ message was different. He wasn’t just another synagogue preacher, telling people how to obey God’s law, offering God’s hope for the future, explaining from the prophets something about when the Kingdom might come. He was saying, on His own authority, that the Kingdom was now at hand, then and there. Where He was, the kingdom was. And if there was any doubt on the matter, He was doing things, miracles that demonstrated it.

But in Nazareth there was doubt, and Jesus didn’t do very much in consequence. This is the odd thing. They had heard what He’d done in Capernaum and around the lake shore; now they were teasing, mocking, challenging Him to do the same back home where everyone knew Him. You see, the hometown crowd knew that Jesus had simply grown up being a local carpenter, and he never went to be schooled under the best of Rabbis or any Rabbi for that matter, in training to become a Rabbi on His own. There must have been that underlying sense of ‘who does He think he is ‘cause He’s certainly not qualified to be any sort of professional Rabbi.’

I think, though, that there was more to it than just putting the ‘local boy made good’ in His place. The kind of kingdom Jesus was talking about was not the sort of kingdom His contemporaries wanted to hear about. When the good folk of Nazareth had such an excuse for rejecting Him, they took it with both hands. They didn’t need to believe such a dangerous message; they could dismiss it as ‘Oh, He’s just the local handyman’. As if that made any difference. Actually, like Mary mistaking Jesus for the gardener in John 20, there may be a hidden irony here: Jesus is indeed the one who can fix things, the one who is putting up a ‘building’, the living Temple of the Lord, the one people should go to, to get things sorted out.

And as so often in Mark, there is a pointer here towards the time when Jesus would go to the city the Messiah might think of as home, Jerusalem, to the Temple where a Messiah ought to go, and yet even there He was once again rejected, this time with fatal consequences. Already at this stage of the story we are being pointed forward to see where it will all lead.

Then fresh from the (according to our world’s standards) failure of a short stint in His hometown, Jesus and the disciples turn their backs on Nazareth, and head to all sorts of other little villages, there to share the message of God’s love, of God’s Kingdom. No time to wallow in the pain of rejection from the hometown folks, they’ve got to get moving sharing the message.

They became heralds of God’s Kingdom, and so are we!

Shalom,

Pastor Mark

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A moment with the minister,

Sunday 30^th June 2024

 ²⁴ Jesus went with him, and all the people followed, crowding around him.²⁵ A woman in the crowd had suffered for twelve years with constant bleeding. ²⁶ She had suffered a great deal from many doctors, and over the years she had spent everything she had to pay them, but she had gotten no better. In fact, she had gotten worse. ²⁷ She had heard about Jesus, so she came up behind him through the crowd and touched his robe. ²⁸ For she thought to herself, “If I can just touch his robe, I will be healed.”²⁹ Immediately the bleeding stopped, and she could feel in her body that she had been healed of her terrible condition.

³⁰ Jesus realized at once that healing power had gone out from him, so he turned around in the crowd and asked, “Who touched my robe?”

³¹ His disciples said to him, “Look at this crowd pressing around you. How can you ask, ‘Who touched me?’”

³² But he kept on looking around to see who had done it. ³³ Then the frightened woman, trembling at the realization of what had happened to her, came and fell to her knees in front of him and told him what she had done.³⁴ And he said to her, “Daughter, your faith has made you well. Go in peace. Your suffering is over.”            St. Mark 5:24-34 NLT

 “Touch in Church:”

What is all this touching in church? It used to be a person could come to church and sit in the pew and not be bothered by all this friendliness and certainly not by touching.

I used to come to church and leave untouched. Now I have to be nervous about what’s expected of me. I have to worry about responding to the person sitting next to me.

Oh, I wish it could be the way it used to be; I could just ask the person next to me: How are you? And the person could answer: Oh, just fine, And we’d both go home…strangers who have known each other for twenty years.

But now the minister asks us to look at each other. I’m worried about that hurt look I saw in that woman’s eyes.

Now I’m concerned, because when the minister asks us to greet one another, the man next to me held my hand so tightly I wondered if he had been touched in years.

Now I’m upset because the lady next to me cried and then apologized and said it was because I was so kind and that she needed a friend right now.

Now I have to get involved. Now I have to suffer when this community suffers. Now I have to be more than a person coming to observe a service.

That man last week told me I’d never know how much I’d touched his life.

All I did was smile and tell him I understood what it was to be lonely.

Lord, I’m not big enough to touch and be touched! The stretching scares me.

What if I disappoint somebody? What if I’m too pushy? What if I cling too much? What if somebody ignores me?

“Pass the peace.” “The peace of Christ be with you.” “And also with you.” And mean it. Lord, I can’t resist meaning it! I’m touched by it, I’m enveloped by it! I find I do care about that person next to me! I find I AM involved! And I’m scared.

O Lord, be here beside me. You touch me, Lord, so that I can touch and be touched! So that I can care and be cared for! So that I can share my life with all those others that belong to you!

All this touching in church — Lord, it’s changing me!

What was it our bold friend said 20 centuries ago? “If I but touch his robe, I will be healed.”

Shalom,

Pastor Mark

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A moment with the minister,

Sunday 23^rd June 2024 

³⁵ As evening came, Jesus said to his disciples, “Let’s cross to the other side of the lake.” ³⁶ So they took Jesus in the boat and started out, leaving the crowds behind (although other boats followed). ³⁷ But soon a fierce storm came up. High waves were breaking into the boat, and it began to fill with water.

³⁸ Jesus was sleeping at the back of the boat with his head on a cushion. The disciples woke him up, shouting, “Teacher, don’t you care that we’re going to drown?”

³⁹ When Jesus woke up, he rebuked the wind and said to the waves, “Silence! Be still!” Suddenly the wind stopped, and there was a great calm.⁴⁰ Then he asked them, “Why are you afraid? Do you still have no faith?”

⁴¹ The disciples were absolutely terrified. “Who is this man?” they asked each other. “Even the wind and waves obey him!” St. Mark 4:35-41 NLT

Jesus and His disciples were experiencing some amazing results of ministry together, when Jesus said that it was time to go, head across the Sea of Galilee. As they did so, Jesus fell asleep in the boat and soon the disciples, 4 of whom were professional fishermen, became terrified of the fierce storm that arose. Amazingly, as this violent storm was taking place, Jesus still slept.

When John Wesley was going to America from England, he found himself in the middle of a storm. This was in the days before his Aldersgate experience. He was frightened to death. He frantically ran around the ship seeking shelter. In the process, he came across a group of Moravians who were singing and calmly praying. No fear. No panic. Not even among the children. Wesley could not believe this, and he asked the source of their strength. They replied: “We have Jesus as our Saviour.”

If we do not understand who it is that is in the boat with us, then our fear of the storm outside and our fears of the storms within us have the power to paralyze us. When Jesus awakened, He rebuked not only the storm but the disciples. “Why are you afraid,” He asked. “Have you no faith?” Now, let us be clear about this. The promise that is made to us is that of God’s very presence. In the midst of the storm, God will be in the boat with you. In Jesus He is with us always.
You need not panic, though the situation may appear bleak. The Lord of the Church is in the boat with you. The Lord of History is in the boat with you. You need not become immobilized. The Lord of all creation is in the boat with you. That is the promise: Emmanuel.
Will the clouds dissipate immediately? That’s never promised. Will you no longer have to struggle with problems? That’s never promised. Will you henceforth prosper, as some T.V. ministers assure you? That’s never promised. God promises us Himself, Emmanuel. God lives within us by His Holy Spirit.  God’s presence got Noah through the storm. It got the ancient Hebrews through the 40-year wilderness experience. It got Mary through her pregnancy. It got Jesus through the crucifixion, and it will be sufficient to get us through every storm in our lives.

Shalom,

Pastor Mark

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A moment with the minister,

Sunday 16^th June 2024

 ²⁰ Yes, just as you can identify a tree by its fruit, so you can identify people by their actions.                                   St. Matthew 7:20 NLT

 Yes, it is true, the saying about ‘does the walk match the talk?’ As someone once said to me, “I’d rather see your sermon than hear it.”

“Where one man reads the Bible, a hundred read you and me.”—Dwight L. Moody (evangelist through the second half of the 1800’s).

Shalom,

Pastor Mark

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A moment with the minister,

Sunday 09^th June 2024

 16 “I have told you these things so that you won’t abandon your faith…

⁵ “But now I am going away to the one who sent me, and not one of you is asking where I am going. ⁶ Instead, you grieve because of what I’ve told you. ⁷ But in fact, it is best for you that I go away, because if I don’t, the Advocate won’t come. If I do go away, then I will send him to you. ⁸ And when he comes, he will convict the world of its sin, and of God’s righteousness, and of the coming judgment.   St. John 16:1, 5-8  NLT

A few years ago in the Rose Bowl parade in Pasadena, a float stalled. Frustrations increased quickly because other floats could not move, and this event was televised around the world. Mechanics quickly descended upon the stalled float, searching all over for the problem. Finally, someone had the presence of mind to check on the fuel level of the vehicle. It was empty, out of gas. This became even more embarrassing when the crowd realized that the float’s sponsor was one of the major oil companies.

Did you know that Christians can run out of gas too? It happens all too frequently. A Christian’s inner resources can be depleted by struggles, temptations, trouble, grief, all sorts of things that move us to take our eyes and hearts off Jesus. Unless that Christian is receiving fresh resources from a reliable source, he or she will be in trouble.

We have such a source, available and inexhaustible. That source is the Holy Spirit.

As Chuck Swindoll wrote, “What fuel is to a car, the Holy Spirit is to the believer. He energizes us to stay the course. He motivates us in spite of obstacles. He keeps us going when the road gets tough. In short, he is our spiritual fuel.”

Shalom,

Pastor Mark

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A moment with the minister,

Sunday 02^nd June 2024

 Please read St. Luke 7:36-50, the narrative of when Jesus was invited to a dinner party by Simon the Pharisee and what happened there.

There was a certain young woman who was nervous about meeting her boyfriend’s parents for the first time. As she checked out her appearance one last time, she noticed that her shoes looked dingy. So, she gave them a fast swipe with the paper towel she had used to blot the bacon she had for breakfast.

Arriving at the impressive home of her potential in-laws, she was greeted by the parents and their much-beloved, but rotten-tempered, poodle, Cleo.

Well, the dog got a whiff of the bacon grease on the young woman’s shoes and followed her around all evening. Wouldn’t leave her alone. At the end of the evening, the pleased parents remarked, “Cleo really likes you, dear, and she is an excellent judge of character. We’re absolutely delighted to welcome you into our little family.”

Cleo may very well have been a great judge of character but that night, I’m afraid it was the bacon grease that won out.

According to our passage of Scripture, the Pharisees didn’t think Jesus was a very good judge of character.

Damaged Goods. That’s what the Pharisees saw in the sinner woman who interrupted the dinner party, but Jesus saw the woman very differently. Thankfully Jesus sees all of us the same way…what way is that?

Shalom,

Pastor Mark

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A moment with the minister,

Sunday 26^th May 2024

¹⁶ “For this is how God loved the world: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life.¹⁷ God sent his Son into the world not to judge the world, but to save the world through him.           St. John 3:16, 17

In 1981, a Minnesota radio station reported a story about a stolen car in California. Police were staging an intense search for the vehicle and the driver, even to the point of placing announcements on local radio stations to contact the thief.

On the front seat of the stolen car sat a box of crackers that, unknown to the thief, were laced with poison. The car owner had intended to use the crackers as rat bait. Now the police and the owner of the VW Bug were more interested in apprehending the thief to save his life than to recover the car.

So often when we run away from God, we feel it is to escape His punishment. But what we are actually doing is trying to elude His rescue.

For God so LOVED the world…

Shalom,

Pastor Mark

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A moment with the minister,

Sunday 19^th May 2024

 The Holy Spirit Comes

“2 On the day of Pentecost all the believers were meeting together in one place. ² Suddenly, there was a sound from heaven like the roaring of a mighty windstorm, and it filled the house where they were sitting. ³ Then, what looked like flames or tongues of fire appeared and settled on each of them. ⁴ And everyone present was filled with the Holy Spirit and began speaking in other languages, as the Holy Spirit gave them this ability.

⁴² All the believers devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching, and to fellowship, and to sharing in meals (including the Lord’s Supper), and to prayer.

⁴³ A deep sense of awe came over them all…”         Acts 2:1-4, 43

On most of our calendars, we can see Christmas and Easter and Thanksgiving clearly marked. But not so with the day of Pentecost. Pentecost, which Sunday 19^th May celebrates this year, is about the coming of the Holy Spirit of God into the world in a very different way than ever before. It is the celebration of God breaking through the boundaries of time and space, and opening the world for the re-creating power of His love. Pentecost is about the freedom of the Spirit to blow wherever He wants to. Without Pentecost the whole of the Christ event – the birth, life, death, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus – remains imprisoned in our history as something to remember and maybe reflect on.

But with Pentecost the Spirit of God comes to dwell within us so that we become living Christs here and now, enabling each of God’s children to claim the Spirit as our guiding Spirit, strengthening us and challenging and equipping us for everything God calls us to be about for His glory. The very same Spirit of God Who inspired Jesus as He walked our earth 2000 years ago and Who raised Jesus from the dead, is the same Spirit Who lives in us and inspires us today!

Will we live by the Spirit, allowing Him to bear fruit within us and through us to reach the world?

Shalom,

Pastor Mark

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A moment with the minister,

Sunday 28^th April 2024

¹² This is my commandment: Love each other in the same way I have loved you. ¹³ There is no greater love than to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.

Jesus, in St. John 15:4, 5               New Living Translation 

This weekend is known in the church as Christian Family Sunday, and in our culture as Mother’s Day. I came across this several years ago and thought it uniquely captures something about mothers.

 JOB DESCRIPTION:

Long-term team players needed for challenging permanent work in an often chaotic environment. Candidates must possess excellent communication and organizational skills and be willing to work variable hours, which will include evenings and weekends and frequent 24-hour shifts on call. Some overnight travel required, including trips to primitive camping sites on rainy weekends and endless sports tournaments in faraway cities. Travel expenses not reimbursed. Extensive courier duties also required.

RESPONSIBILITIES: Must provide on-the-site training in basic life skills, such as nose blowing. Must have strong skills in negotiating, conflict resolution and crisis management. Ability to suture flesh wounds a plus. Must be able to think out of the box but not lose track of the box, because you most likely will need it for a school project. Must reconcile petty cash disbursements and be proficient in managing budgets and resources fairly, unless you want to hear, “He got more than me!” for the rest of your life. Also, must be able to drive motor vehicles safely under loud and adverse conditions while simultaneously practicing above-mentioned skills in conflict resolution. Must be able to choose your battles and stick to your guns. Must be able to withstand criticism, such as “You don’t know anything.” Must be willing to be hated at least temporarily, until someone needs money to go skating. Must be willing to bite tongue repeatedly. Also, must possess the physical stamina of a pack mule and be able to go from zero to 60 mph in three seconds flat in case, this time, the screams from the backyard are not someone just crying wolf. Must be willing to face stimulating technical challenges, such as small gadget repair, mysteriously sluggish toilets, and stuck zippers. Must screen phone calls, maintain calendars, and coordinate production of multiple homework projects. Must have ability to plan and organize social gatherings for clients of all ages and mental outlooks. Must be willing to be indispensable one minute, then an embarrassment the next. Must handle assembly and product safety testing of a half million cheap, plastic toys and battery-operated devices, plus know exactly where all the different charging cables are. Also, must have a highly energetic entrepreneurial spirit because fund-raiser will be your middle name. Must have a diverse knowledge base, so as to answer questions such as “What makes the wind move?” on the fly. Must always hope for the best but be prepared for the worst. Must assume final, complete accountability for the quality of the end product. Responsibilities also include floor maintenance and janitorial work throughout the facility.

ADVANCEMENT/PROMOTION POSSIBILITIES: Virtually none. Your job is to remain in the same position for years, without complaining, constantly retraining and updating your skills, so that those in your charge can ultimately surpass you.

PREVIOUS EXPERIENCE: None required, unfortunately. On-the-job training offered on a continually exhausting basis.

WAGES AND COMPENSATION: You pay them, offering frequent raises and bonuses. A balloon payment is due when they turn 18 because of the assumption that college or university will help them become financially independent. When you die, you give them whatever is left. The oddest thing about this reverse-salary scheme is that you actually enjoy it and wish you could only do more.

BENEFITS: While no health or dental insurance, no pension, no tuition reimbursement, no paid holidays, and no stock options are offered, job supplies limitless opportunities for personal growth and free hugs for life if you play your cards right.

Thank-you Mom!

Shalom,

Pastor Mark

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A moment with the minister,

Sunday 28^th April 2024

¹² This is my commandment: Love each other in the same way I have loved you. ¹³ There is no greater love than to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.    Jesus, in St. John 15:4, 5   New Living Translation 

 If you study the life and words and parables and sermons and actions of Jesus, you will find an eternity’s worth of things we should do. But there was precisely just one thing which was so vital that Jesus actually went so far as to phrase it into a command.

That command sounds somewhat peculiar: it is the command to love each other. We are to love one another, cherish one another, even lay down our lives for one another, if need be, and it is all an extension of being a branch on Jesus the true vine. But we need to realize that the love Jesus commands us to live by is called “agape” which is the Greek word for self-sacrificing, putting others first, sort of love. Precisely what Jesus modelled! And just maybe Jesus commanded it of us because agape love does NOT come naturally to us, not at all.

Perhaps, Jesus knew that if we could do just this one commandment, everything else would follow. If you bring a child to an ice cream shop, you won’t need to start issuing rules which insist that the child order a cone, eat it, enjoy it, find it delicious, and so just generally have fun! Once the child gets to the shop, the rest follows.

So also with love: if we can’t do this, nothing else will work, either. If we can, the rest follows.

Shalom,

Pastor Mark

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A moment with the minister,

Sunday 28^th April 2024

⁴ “Live in me. Make your home in me just as I do in you. In the same way that a branch can’t bear grapes by itself but only by being joined to the vine, you can’t bear fruit unless you are joined with me. ⁵ “I am the Vine, you are the branches. When you’re joined with me and I with you, the relation intimate and organic, the harvest is sure to be abundant. Separated, you can’t produce a thing.” 

                             St. John 15:4, 5  The Message translation  

Across the country elementary schools, high schools, colleges, and universities are or soon will be holding their graduation ceremonies. For the graduates this is oftentimes a bittersweet occasion. What makes it a time of mixed emotions is not only the accomplishment of finishing school, but also the recognition that soon many of their friends will be going separate ways. And so some of the final conversations that classmates will have with each other is the desire to stay in touch, to stay connected. Because if friendships are going to last or grow stronger or develop more deeply, people have to stay connected with each other.

Jesus Christ is our King, our Lord and Saviour, and our best friend. As Christians, we know this. But like any friendship, it is a relationship that must be cultivated. When it is, great blessings follow. If it is not, the friendship, the connection, the joy of knowing that He is genuinely interested and involved in our life can grow distant, become buried, or even be lost.

Today Jesus talks to us about these things. He provides us with an illustration of the importance and blessing of staying connected.  In John’s gospel Jesus uses the natural metaphor of a grapevine and branches that remain connected to Him, the Vine, to describe how we bear the fruit of His love in and through our lives.

Shalom,

Pastor Mark

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A moment with the minister:

Sunday 21^st April 2024

Please read St. Luke 24 again this week, but perhaps from a different translation.

In putting a puzzle together, some people separate all the colours first. That seems like a slow way to start, so I generally look for all the straight edges first, build the frame, and then try to fill in the rest of the puzzle pieces from there. For more of a challenge, do this without referring to the picture on the box. Yes, you might know in general terms that the finished scene would be a landscape, or the Golden Gate Bridge, or something else, but that would be enough. Just as I don’t have the patience to sort hundreds of pieces into colours, sometimes I don’t have the patience to scrutinize the picture to find just the right spot for a single puzzle piece. By trial and error, eventually figuring it out.

As two of Jesus’ disciples travelled on the road from Jerusalem to Emmaus, their conversation centered on everything that had happened in the last number of days. We might say they were puzzling over all that had happened. They seemed to have all of the facts—all of the pieces of the puzzle—but they didn’t yet know the significance of each one and hadn’t yet been able to put all of the pieces together so that they made sense. They didn’t yet have the complete picture.

Then Jesus gives them a run through all the Scriptures, which actually has much to say about Him. And the picture is coming together for them: their hearts burned within them as the stranger opened the Scripture for them. Then they got a real good glimpse at the whole picture when Jesus broke bread with them. They didn’t recognize Him as being Jesus through the way Jesus broke bread with them because they were not with Jesus in that Upper Room when Jesus did it with the 12 disciples. These were two other followers of Jesus. BUT, they most likely recognized Him when Jesus handed them the pieces of bread, with His hands outstretched, revealing His wounds.

Jesus disappeared and the two head back to Jerusalem to share the news that they now see the picture from God because they know Jesus is alive!

Shalom,

Pastor Mark

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A moment with the minister:

14^th April 2024

Please read the whole of the Emmaus Road narrative in St. Luke 24:13-49

EMMAUS

The 2 Sundays after Easter are usually when things are pretty much back to normal after the Easter week celebrations. We humans tend to look forward to each next “big” event in our lives, which for our congregation is the 37^th Anniversary of KEPC on Sunday 05^th May 2024, followed then by the next big event: Mother’s Day on Sunday 12^th May.

For many years now, following Easter Sunday, I would focus the whole worship time together around “Doubting” Thomas from St. John 20. Then the second Sunday after Easter I would focus the worship time from St. Luke 24, around The Road to Emmaus. Basically, that is about two followers of Jesus getting out of Jerusalem, and away from the painful experience of bearing witness to the crucifixion. They were in deep conversation when, in a dramatic moment, a stranger began to walk with them. They did not recognize that stranger as the resurrected Lord Jesus.

“Emmaus” is a place where people go when they want to get away from it all when their hopes have been dashed and dreams destroyed. So often, we walk with our heads down, so engrossed in our own pain that we fail to recognize the One who is able to help us: “their faces downcast” (v.17).

Even though they failed to identify this stranger as the Christ, they still knew a lot about Him. Even that was not enough to bring them peace: “but we had hoped that he was the one” (v.21). How many people have head knowledge without heart knowledge? They knew the message well, as the two disciples told the stranger all about what Jesus, a prophet who did powerful miracles, had done in His 3 year ministry, but they ended with stating how awful it was that Jesus who they thought was the Messiah ended up dying and being buried. Then they tell this stranger that some of their close friends tried to tell them that the body of Jesus was missing and that angels said He is alive.

Head knowledge; until this stranger clarified the real purpose of Christ’s coming, and the ramifications of His death and resurrection: “Did not Christ have to suffer these things and then enter his glory?” (v.26). This stranger then led these two disciples on the most intense and liberating Bible study imaginable, showing them how God’s truth revealed everything about the life, ministry, death and resurrection of Jesus, to accomplish God’s goals.

The moment of recognition, when their head knowledge settled into their hearts, came as they quieted their hearts and sat at a table with Jesus: “Their eyes were opened and they recognized him” (v.31). We all have our own experiences of receiving and believing that Jesus is the Christ, and when we do, the results are dramatic: “It is true! The Lord has risen” (v.34). That meant these two followers of Jesus were transformed from witnesses to the crucifixion, to witnesses to the Resurrection!!!

Every Sunday is a celebration of the greatest “big” event ever: the Resurrection of Jesus the Saviour!!!

 

Shalom,

Pastor Mark

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A moment with the minister:

The First Sunday After Easter, 07^th April 2024

When I was leaving high school to begin University, a leader in a different church gave me a couple of books to read. He said they would help guide me in my journey to fulfill God’s call in my life. One was a devotional book of daily thoughts based on scripture passages. The other book was full of stories about the sorts of faithful men of God that God had blessed and used because they never doubted.

I started reading this one first, hungering to be like them. I got halfway through the book and put it down, never to pick it up again. I had so many questions, so many thoughts of doubt, that I felt I could never be like any of them. I thought that God would surely never bless me or use me to touch other people’s lives with the love of Jesus. I didn’t know then things I know now.

Most Christians think the great believers of the faith never doubted. They know about the faith of the famous Christian leaders, but not about their inner struggles. One Christian leader at the turn of the 20th century wrote in his autobiography: “My religious faith remains in possession of the field only after prolonged civil war with my naturally skeptical mind.” The Scottish reformer, John Knox, wrote of a time when his soul knew “anger, wrath and indignation, which is conceived against God, calling all his promises in doubt.” Read the diary of Increase Mather, one of the great Puritan leaders, and find this entry: “Greatly molested with temptations to atheism.”

We sing Martin Luther’s great hymn, “A mighty fortress is our God,” and we suppose he never questioned his faith, but he once wrote, “For more than a week, Christ was wholly lost. I was shaken by desperation and blasphemy against God.”

In today’s Scripture passage we find that kind of faith-struggle even among one of the twelve disciples, Thomas. Here’s a man who seems to me to be a disciple for a time like this because we live in an age that questions everything. Perhaps we can learn something from Thomas about how to handle our questions and doubts. Ask the questions, honestly and with a heart willing to search for answers. Express our doubts, without letting the doubts control our living.

I’ve discovered that our Presbyterian little booklet called Living Faith has it right: in the chapter on what is faith, it has two sections: Faith; and then, Doubt. An earthy Presbyterian theologian named Frederick Buechner said this about doubt: “Whether your faith is that there is a God or that there is not a God, if you don’t have any doubts you are either kidding yourself or asleep. Doubts are the ants in the pants of faith. They keep it awake and moving.”

Thomas expressed his faith full of doubts about the resurrection of Jesus. The other disciples didn’t fry him because of his doubts, they didn’t throw him out of the then fledgling church, they didn’t even give him a nickname about it. Jesus didn’t even chastise him or judge him for expressing his doubts. But Thomas didn’t remain in that doubt any longer as he gave the one absolutely, unequivocal statement in the whole gospel of the Divinity of Jesus when seeing the Risen Jesus before him in the upper room, when he said, “My Lord and my God!”

And then Jesus said, “You believe because you have seen Me. Blessed are those who believe without seeing Me.”

Shalom,

Pastor Mark

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A moment with the minister:

Easter Sunday 31^st March 2024

 

Who doesn’t like a sneak peak?!

 

I might be dating myself by asking this question, but do you remember Blockbuster Video? I do—vividly. As a young man when the store first arrived in 1985, Blockbuster Video became a regular staple in many of our lives. Going to Blockbuster, stock up on their overly-buttered popcorn, and rent the latest Disney release. Once home, you would impatiently pop the movie into the VHS player, pray it didn’t need to be rewound (remember how long that could take?), and binge on the popcorn.

 

But what I remember loving almost more than the movies we rented were the previews. Back then, those three-to-five-minute sneak peeks at the start of the VHS tape were my chance to get a first look at what movies were coming soon to a theater near me. Those previews were a glimpse at what was to come.

As we continue to reflect on and celebrate the season of Lent leading into Easter, I can’t help but think of one of my favourite “sneak peek” moments in the Bible. According to the gospel of Matthew, three days after Jesus’ crucifixion and burial, some women came to tend to His body. Suddenly, they felt the earth shake, were met by an angel who rolled back the stone that was sealing Jesus’ tomb, and received potentially the most important message in all of Scripture: “He is not here, for He has been raised” Matthew 28:6.

While I have read this story many times, have you ever wondered, ‘If Jesus isn’t in the tomb, why does the angel roll away the stone?’

We could conclude that this happened simply to prove Jesus’ body wasn’t there, but perhaps there is another angle: It’s to let the women look in, to see that the tomb is empty. With the stone rolled away, these women are not only given proof of a raised body but become the very first people to be given a glimpse—a sneak peek—into resurrection life.

Think back on your own life. Can you remember a time when God rolled a stone away and gave you a glimpse into resurrection life? A preview of what is to come?

In a world that can at times feel overwhelmingly tilted toward suffering and death, we need to cling to those resurrection moments when we witness the power of Easter Sunday in our lives—big and small.

A blessed Easter to each of you!!

Shalom,

Pastor Mark

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A moment with the minister:

Lent 6, Palm Sunday 24^th March 2024

Romans 8:1-4 (NLT)
“¹  So now there is no condemnation for those who belong to Christ Jesus.
²  And because you belong to him, the power of the life-giving Spirit has freed you from the power of sin that leads to death.
³  The law of Moses was unable to save us because of the weakness of our sinful nature. So God did what the law could not do. He sent his own Son in a body like the bodies we sinners have. And in that body God declared an end to sin’s control over us by giving his Son as a sacrifice for our sins.
⁴  He did this so that the just requirement of the law would be fully satisfied for us, who no longer follow our sinful nature but instead follow the Spirit.”

In the Garden of Eden, Adam and Eve hid when they sinned. Their nakedness was symbolic of their sin being exposed. Immediately after sinning, they covered themselves with fig leaves. This is symbolic of religion. Religion says, ‘You have sinned! You had better go and cover yourself up so you can be accepted by God.’ Grace says, ‘You can’t cover up your sin no matter how hard you try. But God, who is good, will cover, forgive, and forget your sin as a gift for you.’ Check out Genesis 3:21: “And the LORD God made clothing from animal skins for Adam and his wife.”

This picture of God sacrificing an animal and clothing Adam and Eve was a precursor to what Jesus would do for all humanity. Think about Galatians 3:27: “You were baptized into union with Christ, and now you are clothed, so to speak, with the life of Christ himself”.

Religion says, “Clothe yourself.” Grace says, “God will clothe you with his precious Son, Jesus.” Religion says, “Hide your sin.” Grace says, “God hides us in his Son” (Col. 3:3). If you are a follower of Jesus, your acceptance, God’s love for you, and every spiritual blessing you receive, are solely because you are clothed in Jesus.

Palm Sunday is the start of Holy Week, and we are so grateful that on that first Palm Sunday Jesus did not let Himself be distracted by the crowd cheering Him on. Jesus knew they didn’t understand where He was really heading to: the cross. Jesus rode through the gate into Jerusalem fully understanding that He was going to sacrifice Himself, The Passover Lamb, to offer the world the gift of new life in Himself!

“It is not only by grace alone that we become God’s people but by grace alone we remain his people.”  Dr. Dale Ralph Davis (pastor, professor)

Shalom,

Pastor Mark

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A moment with the minister

Lent 5, Sunday 17^th March 2024

“For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing, it is the gift of God”         Ephesians 2:8

How many times have we heard those words, about grace and our salvation?!  When we have spent lots of time in the Church, sometimes we can inadvertently become deaf and immune to the stunning power of this truth from God.  I drove past a school last week which has a sign out front with a saying on it. This time it said: “Lent means…” My first thought was, seriously, that’s what you are advertising what Lent means?! Here we are in the fifth week of Lent. Part of Lent can be understood as a time of reflection on the depth of our relationship with God and the fathomless depth of His covenant love for us and all His creation, and what the cost was to fully express it all through the life, death, and resurrection of His Son Jesus.

A crucial foundation of our Christian faith is the Biblical truth that people are saved by the grace of God.  The Christian author C.S. Lewis said that God’s grace is the big distinction between Christianity and all other religions.  God’s grace means that there is nothing YOU have to do for your salvation.  God’s grace means that there is nothing you HAVE to do for your salvation. God’s grace means that there is nothing you have to DO for your salvation.  It’s all been done for us in Jesus.

Through the gift of His grace God says something like this to us: Here is your life.  You are here because the party wouldn’t have been complete without you.  Here is the world.  Beautiful and terrible things happen in your world.  But don’t be afraid for I am with you, always!  Nothing can ever separate us.  I have guaranteed this through My Son, Jesus.  It is for you that I created the universe; I LOVE you!!!

There is only one catch, like any other gift, My gift of saving grace can only be yours if you reach out and accept it.  The gift is in His Son Jesus.

This Lent, and Easter, and always, thank the Lord for the free gift of His amazing, saving grace by which God adopts us into His family through His Son Jesus!!!

Shalom,

Pastor Mark

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A moment with the minister:

Lent 4, Sunday 10^th March 2024

12 Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a huge crowd of witnesses to the life of faith, let us strip off every weight that slows us down, especially the sin that so easily trips us up. And let us run with endurance the race God has set before us. ² We do this by keeping our eyes on Jesus, the champion who initiates and perfects our faith. Because of the joy awaiting him, he endured the cross, disregarding its shame. Now he is seated in the place of honor beside God’s throne. ³ Think of all the hostility he endured from sinful people; then you won’t become weary and give up.⁴ After all, you have not yet given your lives in your struggle against sin.           Hebrews 12:1-4  NLT

Colorful preacher Clarence Jordan was once taken on a tour of one of the greatest churches in America. As the tour guide brought him to the very front of the church where he could look up at the altar, the guide said: “Do you see that cross? It’s a gold cross. It was donated by one of our wealthiest members in memory of his wife. That cross, Mr. Jordan,” he continued, “which is covered with gold leaf, cost over $750,000.”

Jordan responded, “Shucks! Time was you could get one for free!”

And that’s true. Offend enough of the right people and you can always get a cross for free. Jesus didn’t pay $750,000 for His cross. All it cost Him was His life.

Os Guinness tells a story in his book No God But God about something that happened in the Soviet Union years ago.

“In one of their periodic efforts to eradicate religious belief in the Soviet Union,” says Guinness, “the Communist Party sent KGB agents to the nation’s churches on a Sunday morning. One agent was struck by the deep devotion of an elderly woman who was kissing the feet of a life-size carving of Christ on the cross.

“Babushka [which means Grandmother],” he said. “Are you also prepared to kiss the feet of the beloved general secretary of our great Communist Party?”

“Why, of course,” came the immediate reply. “But only if you crucify him first.”

Clever response, but Jesus had no desire to crucify His enemies. Instead, He chose to take upon Himself the judgment and penalty for their sins, and He died on the cross to forgive them/us all !!!

Shalom,

Pastor Mark

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A moment with the minister:

Lent 3: Sunday 03^rd March 2024.

“³² Two others, both criminals, were led out to be executed with him.³³ When they came to a place called The Skull, they nailed him to the cross. And the criminals were also crucified—one on his right and one on his left. ³⁴ Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, for they don’t know what they are doing.” And the soldiers gambled for his clothes by throwing dice.”    St. Luke 23:32-34 NLT

Lent is a season in the Christian Church when the people of God reflect a bit more upon the free and yet costly forgiveness offered through Jesus Christ. When Jesus was nailed to the cross and put into place in between two thieves, Jesus prayed something astounding. He had been arrested and sentenced to death on false charges. He had just been nailed on a cross and hoisted up into place there to die an excruciating death. And without any malice, or bitterness, or hatred, but only compassion and deep love, Jesus said in Luke 23:34 “Father forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.” And He died, for the sins of the world.

Forgiveness is hard work. Granting amnesty, giving grace, isn’t easy. One of the most beloved Christian hymns of the centuries is ‘Amazing grace’. Many of our hymns and Christian praise songs are all about the grace of God in our lives. We preach about and talk lots about the gracious, forgiving love of God. We are even thankful for the Lord’s forgiveness in our own lives. But when someone, (and sometimes that someone is self), including someone close to us, screws up and hurts us, and sometimes that means our family, why is it so hard to offer this sort of compassionate, undeserved forgiveness? Often it is difficult because we take our eyes off Jesus, and we want the offending person to realize just how much they have hurt us, and sometimes we just want them to linger in our hurt(fulness) before we consider offering a fresh new beginning through the gift of gracious forgiveness.

The apostle Paul describes in Romans 5:1-11 how, while we were still sinners, while we were actually God’s enemies, Jesus died for us, to reconcile us to God. God’s grace is a costly gift, and it’s most needed and most spectacular when it’s least deserved.

And it just may be more true than we care to realize, that those who care about us the most hurt us the most, and those we care about the most we hurt the most. So, if the people in our lives, including the ones closest to us, experience grace-filled forgiveness and love from us, they might see in us a clearer reflection of the heart of Jesus!

Shalom,

Pastor Mark

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A moment with the minister:

25^th February 2024. Lent 2.

⁴³ “You have heard the law that says, ‘Love your neighbor’ and hate your enemy. ⁴⁴ But I say, love your enemies! Pray for those who persecute you! ⁴⁵ In that way, you will be acting as true children of your Father in heaven.”  St. Matthew 5:43-45  NLT

In this second week of Lent, as we journey together with Jesus towards His cross and then to the empty tomb, we hear this weekend something that Jesus said, about forgiving our enemies. I’m sure we have heard this before from Jesus, but how often do we wonder just what does that look like for us? For Jesus it looked like a cross, from which Jesus prayed for God the Father to forgive His enemies. Here from the heart of Henri Nouwen come some beautifully practical thoughts about what it looks like for us:

“Whenever, contrary to the world’s vindictiveness, we love our enemy, we exhibit something of the perfect love of God, whose will is to bring all human beings together as children of one Father. Whenever we forgive instead of getting angry at one another, bless instead of cursing one another, tend one another’s wounds instead of rubbing salt into them, hearten instead of discouraging one another, give hope instead of driving one another to despair, hug instead of harassing one another, welcome instead of cold-shouldering one another, thank instead of criticizing one another, praise instead of maligning one another . . . in short, whenever we opt for and not against one another, we make God’s unconditional love visible; we are diminishing violence and giving birth to a new community.”

Shalom,

Pastor Mark

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February 18, 2023

A moment with the minister in the Christian season of Lent:

Q:      What do pancakes have to do with Lent?

A:      Traditionally, pancakes are eaten on Shrove Tuesday, the day before Lent begins. (This year, Shrove Tuesday was 13^th February). Shrove Tuesday was a day to have fun, dance, and play before beginning the special time of thinking about the depth and cost of Jesus’ love. We call this special time, Lent. Some people used to fast or not eat much during the season of Lent (40 days till Easter). Pancakes were eaten to use up the fat, eggs, and butter in the house.

Q:      What do ashes have to do with Lent?

A:      Ash Wednesday follows Shrove (Pancake) Tuesday, and is the first day of Lent.  Ashes remind us of deadness. In Old Testament times, dust and ashes were used as signs of sorrow and repentance.  In some Churches on Ash Wednesday, ashes (from last year’s palm branches which were burned) are rubbed on people’s foreheads to remind them of Jesus’ sorrow as He went to the cross, as well as reminding us that Jesus died on the cross to forgive people their sins, hence repentance as well.

Q:      What does the colour purple have to do with Lent?

A:      Each of the six seasons of the Christian Church year has a colour that goes along with it.  The colour purple is associated with Lent because purple is a royal colour, a colour of kings. Purple reminds us that Jesus is the King of all kings.

Q:      What do palm branches have to do with Lent?

A:      We use palm branches on Palm Sunday (the week before Easter), to help us remember the story of Jesus riding into Jerusalem on a donkey. Palms were a sign of hope. When a tired and thirsty traveler was in the desert and saw a palm tree that was good news for it meant an oasis was near. Palm branches were used in victory celebrations.  Although the crowds of people at that time didn’t realize it, Jesus was now just a week away from the greatest victory ever – over sin and death! This was prophesied about in Zechariah 9:9.

Q:      What does the cross have to do with Lent and Easter?

A:      The cross was the cruelest form of punishment the Roman Empire used against lawbreakers.  Jesus, Who never sinned, never broke any of God’s laws, was crucified on a cross for us and all the world.

Sometimes people wear a cross (necklace or earrings) as a reminder of how much Jesus loves us.

Q:      What does a crown of thorns have to do with Lent or Easter?

A:      Crowns full of beautiful jewels were worn by kings and queens. But Jesus is no ordinary King.  Before Jesus was crucified, the Roman soldiers made fun of Jesus their prisoner.  They sarcastically asked Jesus if He was the King of the Jews. To make even more fun of Him, the soldiers made a crown of sharp thorns and pressed it onto Jesus’ head. Now we think of the crown of thorns as a powerful picture of the depth of God’s love for us and all the world.

Q:      What does the empty tomb have to do with Lent and Easter?

A:      Everything! Jesus died on the cross and His lifeless body was put into a stone tomb and the tomb was sealed.  It was discovered to be empty on Easter morning and for 40 days Jesus, risen from the dead and very much alive, appeared to countless people before His ascension back to heaven. Our whole Christian faith hinges upon this one truth: the empty tomb. The resurrection of Jesus from the dead guarantees our sins’ forgiveness and our hope for eternal life!

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February 11, 2023

MARK 9:2–13  The Transfiguration

² A week later, Jesus took Peter, James and John away by themselves, and went up a high mountain. There he was transformed before their eyes. ³ His clothes shone with a whiteness that no laundry on earth could match. ⁴ Elijah appeared to them, and Moses too, and they were talking with Jesus.

⁵ ‘Teacher,’ said Peter as he saw this, ‘it’s great to be here! I tell you what—we’ll make three shelters, one for you, one for Moses and one for Elijah!’ ⁶ (He didn’t know what to say; they were terrified.)

⁷ Then a cloud overshadowed them, and a voice came out of the cloud: ‘This is my son, the one I love. Listen to him!’

⁸ Then, quite suddenly, they looked round and saw nobody there any more, only Jesus with them.

⁹ As they came down the mountain, Jesus instructed them not to talk to anyone about what they had seen, ‘until’, he said, ‘the son of man has been raised from the dead’. ¹⁰ They held on to this saying among themselves, puzzling about what this ‘rising from the dead’ might mean.

¹¹ ‘Why then’, they asked him, ‘do the experts say “Elijah must come first”?’

¹² ‘Elijah does come first,’ he replied, ‘and his job is to put everything straight. But what do you think it means that “the son of man must suffer many things and be treated with contempt”? ¹³ Actually, listen to this: Elijah has already come, and they did to him whatever they wanted. That’s what scripture said about him.’

I remember the first time I saw through a microscope. I was in grade 5 and while I don’t remember what we were all looking at, I do remember that feeling of awe and amazement at what we could see through such a piece of equipment. It opened a whole new world to me, to my class! Things that we didn’t know existed were suddenly a part of reality! Seeing life through that sort of lens meant that life would never be the same again; everything now has the potential to be more than it seems.

Jewish scriptures and traditions tell of various events like this, when the veil of ordinariness that normally prevents us from seeing the ‘inside’ of a situation is drawn back, and a fuller reality is disclosed. (If you are wondering about another such eye-opening reality for a moment, in the Bible, check out 2 Kings 6:8-17).

Most of us don’t have experiences like this (nor did most early Christians, so far as we know); but unless we allow sceptics to bully us we should be free to affirm that this sort of thing has indeed happened to some people (usually completely unexpectedly), and that such people usually regard it as hugely important and life-changing.

In the narrative we have about the transformation, or transfiguration of Jesus, the 3 disciple with Jesus on the mountain top, Peter, James, and John, most likely had their proverbial socks knocked off with this peeling back a bit of the normal boundary of reality. As verse 6 tells us, the three of them were terrified. But what are we to say? Can we look at the whole thing (as Jesus had previously urged Peter to look at things) not just from a human point of view, but from God’s point of view? With caution and humility, we might try.

So let’s take a step back. What has happened in the gospel so far? Jesus has, metaphorically speaking, led the disciples up the high mountain of a new view of God’s kingdom. In extraordinary actions and puzzling but profound words he has unveiled for them what God is up to. Those ‘outside’ look and look, but never see; the disciples are having their eyes opened, so that they can see for the first time the inner reality of God’s kingdom, and the central truth that—even though he doesn’t look like what they might have expected! – Jesus really is the Messiah. Thus, the story so far keeps telling us about eyes being opened, in several senses, and it all concentrates on Jesus Himself and God’s kingdom that is arriving with Him.

Now Jesus takes the disciples literally up a high mountain, and something similar happens, though on another level. Western culture is increasingly realizing, what most other cultures have never forgotten, that the world we live in has many layers, many dimensions, and that sometimes these dimensions, normally hidden, may appear. Then, like a child with a microscope, we can look for a moment into a different reality, gasp with wonder, and ever afterwards see everything differently.

What was the inner reality of Jesus’ work? He was continuing and completing the tasks of the great prophet Elijah, and, behind him, of the greatest prophet of old, Moses himself. Now they reappear, with the veil of ordinariness drawn back for a moment, and Jesus is with them, shining with a brilliant light.

This is a rather bright and clear sign that Jesus is not just indulging in fantasies about God’s kingdom, but that He is speaking and doing the truth. It’s a sign that He is indeed the true prophet, the true Messiah. That, too, is what the heavenly voice is saying. Jesus is God’s special, beloved Son. Elijah and Moses were vital in preparing the way; Jesus is finishing the job.

It seems we rarely ever have an experience like those 3 disciples did; but when we do, it is no wonder we call it a mountain top experience! And we may not understand all the ins and outs of this scene painted for us in Mark 9, BUT, we are all still invited by the heavenly voice of God to listen to Jesus, God’s beloved son!!

Shalom,

Pastor Mark

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A moment with the minister, January 28, 2024:

^“36 You must be compassionate, just as your Father is compassionate. ³⁷ “Do not judge others, and you will not be judged. Do not condemn others, or it will all come back against you. Forgive others, and you will be forgiven.”  St. Luke 6:36,37         NLT

Even though we know the old saying, “You can’t judge a book by its’ cover”, it seems that our culture pushes people to make such quick, and shallow judgments, whether it is based on appearances, on behaviour, language, or on something we might have heard. How many people have you, or I, or we simply “dismissed”, given the cold shoulder to, because we have decided (that’s a euphemism for judging) that they are not worth our time, effort or something else? Jesus also said that while the Romans could make someone carry their load and walk with them for one mile, God’s children should gladly do that for two miles. Perhaps Jesus was suggesting that if they spent that extra time with the Roman, they would discover their common humanity and realize they are people too, and then would eventually stop the judgmentalism. It’s walking in someone’s shoes.

The Dutch pastor and theologian Henri Nouwen puts it beautifully:

“To the degree that we accept that through Christ we ourselves have been reconciled with God we can be messengers of reconciliation for others. Essential to the work of reconciliation is a nonjudgmental presence. We are not sent to the world to judge, to condemn, to evaluate, to classify, or to label. When we walk around as if we have to make up our mind about people and tell them what is wrong with them and how they should change, we will only create more division. Jesus says it clearly:  “Be compassionate just as your Father is compassionate.  Do not judge; … do not condemn; … forgive” (Luke 6:36-37).”

In a world that constantly asks us to make up our minds about other people, a nonjudgmental presence seems nearly impossible. But it is one of the most beautiful fruits of a deep spiritual life and will be easily recognized by those who long for reconciliation.

When we are free from the need to judge or condemn, we can become safe places for people to meet in vulnerability and take down the walls that separate them. Being deeply rooted in the love of God, we cannot help but invite people to love one another.  When people realize that we have no hidden agendas or unspoken intentions, that we are not trying to gain any profit for ourselves, and that our only desire is for peace and reconciliation, they may find the inner freedom and courage to leave “their guns at the door” and enter into conversation with their enemies.

Many times this happens even without our planning.  Our ministry of reconciliation most often takes place when we ourselves are least aware of it.  Our simple, nonjudgmental presence does it. And such is possible through the presence of God’s Spirit in our hearts as we seek to draw closer to Him.

Who do we all too easily judge or criticize?

How can you be a nonjudgmental presence to the people in your life?

Shalom,

Pastor Mark

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January 21, 2024

“¹⁶ So we have stopped evaluating others from a human point of view. At one time we thought of Christ merely from a human point of view. How differently we know him now! ¹⁷ This means that anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone; a new life has begun!

¹⁸ And all of this is a gift from God, who brought us back to himself through Christ. And God has given us this task of reconciling people to him. ¹⁹ For God was in Christ, reconciling the world to himself, no longer counting people’s sins against them. And he gave us this wonderful message of reconciliation. ²⁰ So we are Christ’s ambassadors; God is making his appeal through us. We speak for Christ when we plead, “Come back to God!” ²¹ For God made Christ, who never sinned, to be the offering for our sin, so that we could be made right with God through Christ.”

2 Corinthians 5:16-21 NLT

Forgiveness is the heart of the gospel and the foundation of every meaningful relationship. The ability to give and receive genuine forgiveness declares to the world that we are authentic in our walk with Christ. Our lives become open testimonies to the world that His message of reconciliation is real.

Paul shares with us how the beauty of God’s message of reconciliation was given to us so that we can in turn give it to the world. The miracle of forgiveness brings healing not only in our lives but also in the lives of those we forgive. It binds up the hurts that try to keep us stuck and broken, and frees us from the prison of offense. Forgiveness unleashes the blessing of God in your life and the one you forgive. When we choose to forgive, we are being more like Christ than at any other time in our lives.

Is it time to reach out to the person who hurt you? Don’t wait. Your breakthrough is waiting for you to pick up the phone, send out the text, or write the letter.

But what often keeps me from forgiving someone?

“He who is devoid of the power to forgive, is devoid of the power to love.” —Martin Luther King Jr. (civil rights leader, clergyman)

Shalom,

Pastor Mark

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January 14, 2024

“God told them, “I’ve never quit loving you and never will. Expect love, love, and more love!”  Jeremiah 31:3  The Message translation

 

“The Lord your God is in your midst,
a mighty one who will save;
he will rejoice over you with gladness;
he will quiet you by his love;
he will exult over you with loud singing.”   Zephaniah 3:17   ESV

 

“¹² Put on then, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, ¹³ bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive.”  Colossians 3:12 ESV

 

“Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children. ² And walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.” Ephesians 5:1

 

“See how very much our Father loves us, for he calls us his children, and that is what we are!”   1 John 3:1   NLT

 

This week I re-read these words that Rev. Dr. Henri Nouwen wrote in 1992, in his book, “Life of the Beloved: Spiritual Living in a Secular World”, and they spoke to me as much now as they did then.

 

“Over the years, I have come to realize that the greatest trap in our life is not success, popularity, or power, but self-rejection. Success, popularity, and power can indeed present a great temptation, but their seductive quality often comes from the way they are part of the much larger temptation to self-rejection. When we have come to believe in the voices that call us worthless and unlovable, then success, popularity, and power are easily perceived as attractive solutions. The real trap, however, is self-rejection. . . . As soon as someone accuses me or criticizes me, as soon as I am rejected, left alone, or abandoned, I find myself thinking, “Well, that proves once again that I am a nobody.” . . . My dark side says, “I am no good. . . . I deserve to be pushed aside, forgotten, rejected, and abandoned.”

 

Self-rejection is the greatest enemy of the spiritual life because it contradicts the sacred voice that calls us the “Beloved.” Being the Beloved constitutes the core truth of our existence.”

 

May you realize in deeper and deeper ways just how beloved of God you are, so that our belovedness will inspire our daily life of loving and forgiving the way God in Christ loves and forgives us!

 

Shalom,

Pastor Mark

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January 6, 2024

^“21 Then Peter came to him and asked, “Lord, how often should I forgive someone who sins against me? Seven times?”

²² “No, not seven times,” Jesus replied, “but seventy times seven!”  St. Matthew 18:21, 22     NLT

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“⁶ When we were utterly helpless, Christ came at just the right time and died for us sinners. ⁷ Now, most people would not be willing to die for an upright person, though someone might perhaps be willing to die for a person who is especially good. ⁸ But God showed his great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners. ⁹ And since we have been made right in God’s sight by the blood of Christ, he will certainly save us from God’s condemnation. ¹⁰ For since our friendship with God was restored by the death of his Son while we were still his enemies, we will certainly be saved through the life of his Son. ¹¹ So now we can rejoice in our wonderful new relationship with God because our Lord Jesus Christ has made us friends of God.” Romans 5:6-11  NLT

There are two sides to forgiveness: giving and receiving. Although at first sight giving seems to be harder, it often appears that we are not able to offer forgiveness to others because we have not been able or perhaps unwilling to fully receive it. Only as people who have accepted forgiveness – God in Christ has forgiven us – can we find the inner freedom to give it. Why is receiving forgiveness so difficult? It is very hard to say, “Without your forgiveness I am still bound to what happened between us. Only you can set me free.” That requires not only a confession that we have hurt somebody but also the humility to acknowledge our dependency on others. Only when we can receive forgiveness can we give it.

To forgive another person from the heart is an act of liberation. We set that person free from the negative bonds that exist between us. We say, “I no longer hold your offense against you” But there is more. We also free ourselves from the burden of being the “offended one.” As long as we do not forgive those who have wounded us, we carry them with us or, worse, pull them as a heavy load. The great temptation is to cling in anger to our enemies and then define ourselves as being the offended ones, and wounded ones, because of them. Forgiveness, therefore, liberates not only the other but also ourselves.

It is the path of freedom for the children of God, the path Jesus journeyed as He was not only the offended One (because of our sin) but also the One who freely took our sin upon Himself in order to offer us His forgiveness.  Who are we to do anything less or to limit how often we offer forgiveness?!!!

Shalom,

Pastor Mark

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December 29, 2023

“For God in all his fullness was pleased to live in Christ.” (Colossians 1:19) New Living Translation

“The Word became flesh and blood,
and moved into the neighborhood.
We saw the glory with our own eyes,
the one-of-a-kind glory,
like Father, like Son,
Generous inside and out,
true from start to finish.”    St. John 1:14 The Message

The Infinity/Humanity Barrier is Breached in Jesus:

Do you think you could contain Niagara Falls in a teacup? Does anyone pretend to understand the awesome love in the heart of the Abba/Father of Jesus that inspired, motivated, and brought about Christmas?

God entered into our world not with the crushing impact of unbearable glory, but in the way of vulnerability, and need. On a wintry night in an obscure cave, the infant Jesus was a humble, naked, helpless God who allowed us to get close to Him.

The Bethlehem mystery will ever be a scandal to all who seek a triumphant Saviour and a prosperity Gospel. The infant Jesus was born in unimpressive circumstance. His parents were of no social significance, and His chosen welcoming committee were all losers: dirt-poor shepherds.

“Pious imagination and nostalgic music rob Christmas of its shock value. But the poor in spirit at the stable tremble in adoration at the in-break of God Almighty. Because all the Santa Clauses and red-nosed reindeer, 50-foot trees, and thundering church bells put together create less pandemonium than the infant Jesus when, instead of remaining a statue in a crib, He comes alive and delivers us over to the fire that He came to light.” Brennan Manning in Lion and Lamb

The scandal that we can be grateful for as we enter into another New Year, is precisely that God became one of us and meets us in the mayhem, the mundane, the ordinary life we live one step at a time, where He reminds us that His love is for us, with us, and within us no matter what!!! It is our privilege and blessing to participate with God in sharing that truth with everyone and anyone!

Shalom,

Pastor Mark

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December 24, 2023“Visitors from the East”

2 Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea, during the reign of King Herod. About that time some wise men from eastern lands arrived in Jerusalem, asking, ² “Where is the newborn king of the Jews? We saw his star as it rose, and we have come to worship him.”

³ King Herod was deeply disturbed when he heard this, as was everyone in Jerusalem. ⁴ He called a meeting of the leading priests and teachers of religious law and asked, “Where is the Messiah supposed to be born?”

⁵ “In Bethlehem in Judea,” they said, “for this is what the prophet wrote:

⁶ ‘And you, O Bethlehem in the land of Judah,
are not least among the ruling cities of Judah,
for a ruler will come from you
who will be the shepherd for my people Israel.’”

⁷ Then Herod called for a private meeting with the wise men, and he learned from them the time when the star first appeared. ⁸ Then he told them, “Go to Bethlehem and search carefully for the child. And when you find him, come back and tell me so that I can go and worship him, too!”

⁹ After this interview the wise men went their way. And the star they had seen in the east guided them to Bethlehem. It went ahead of them and stopped over the place where the child was. ¹⁰ When they saw the star, they were filled with joy! ¹¹ They entered the house and saw the child with his mother, Mary, and they bowed down and worshiped him. Then they opened their treasure chests and gave him gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh.

¹² When it was time to leave, they returned to their own country by another route, for God had warned them in a dream not to return to Herod.” St. Matthew 2:1-12 (NLT)

Everywhere you look these days, it appears “gift giving” is the most important aspect of Christmas. There was a story on the news this past week about how Canadians will be either spending around $500 on everything for Christmas this year which includes food, gifts and decorations, or other Canadians who are spending somewhere between $500 and $1,500 on all those things of Christmas. For so many, the reason for the season is really not the reason for the season. It is more about doing Christmas than it is celebrating the Lord’s birth; than it is about being caught up in the wonder of the great gift of the Son of God!

If you had to look back across the years and identify one Christmas gift that stands above all the others, what would it be? My guess is it would not be an expensive something, as much as it would be a gift of special meaning — something that you treasured even though its value to another might be minimal. A gift received from someone who loved you and honored you is what made the present meaningful. Can the same be said about the motivation for our gift giving?

In the Christmas story, the Magi “opened their treasures and presented him with gifts” (Matt. 2:11). What is it that you present to our Lord as we celebrate with our families and Church family? I was thinking about that biblical phrase, “They opened their treasures.” What would that mean to you? What treasure would you offer our Lord at this Advent and Christmas Season and beyond? Perhaps…

— A renewed commitment to the Lord.

— Your promise of daily interaction with the God the Father as His child.

— A commitment to guard your heart and to flee those things that might negatively entrap you.

— A more sensitive commitment to the least, the last, the lost, the lonely, the left out; all for whom Christ died.

— Perhaps a disciplined and vigilant attitude toward a healthy lifestyle. You are a temple of the Holy Spirit of God.

— To love Him back.

To me, hopefully to you, that would characterize genuine gift giving. Your treasure becomes His gift. “Thanks be to God for His indescribable gift” (2 Cor. 9:15).

Be blessed and be a blessing.

Shalom,

Pastor Mark

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A moment with the minister: Advent 3, Sunday 17^th December 2023

^6-7 While they were there, the time came for her to give birth. She gave birth to a son, her firstborn. She wrapped him in a blanket and laid him in a manger, because there was no room in the hostel.       St. Luke 2:6, 7    The Message

⁷ She gave birth to her first son, wrapped him in cloths and laid him in a manger—there was no room for them to stay in the inn.           St. Luke 2:7         Good News Translation

⁷ And she brought forth her firstborn son, and wrapped him in swaddling clothes, and laid him in a manger; because there was no room for them in the inn.        St. Luke 2:7  KJV

⁷ She gave birth to her firstborn son. She wrapped him snugly in strips of cloth and laid him in a manger, because there was no lodging available for them.               St. Luke 2:7 NLT

No room at the Inn.

In 1981, on Christmas Eve, Moore Memorial Church in Shanghai, China, held its first official service in 20 years.  After the communist victory in 1949, it was still possible to attend Church for a few years, but gradually all the churches were closed.  This particular Shanghai church was converted into a warehouse in 1959.  An elderly physician, Dr. Li, who studied in the United States in the 1930s, was a member of that church.  He said that on Christmas Eve in 1959, something compelled him and his wife to leave their little two-room apartment and walk through a cold drizzle to the church, dark and padlocked though it was.  As they drew close to the church, they became aware of other silent walkers, from every side street they came, alone or in twos or threes, converging on the church square.  Soon literally hundreds of people were standing shoulder to shoulder in the dark courtyard of the church.  Newcomers took up their post on the sidewalk.  For over two hours as midnight passed, and Christmas day came, they stood in the rain – no hymns, no choirs, no sermon, only the heartfelt knowledge that He is born, He is with us, in unspoken communion around that boarded up church that had been turned into a warehouse.  And would you believe, that that same observance which began on Christmas Eve in 1959 continued every Christmas Eve for 21 years, until the church was finally opened on Palm Sunday in 1981, when they baptized 20 converts.

People gathered there that Christmas Eve to stand silently – against the law – to celebrate Him Whose coming is the light that shines in the darkness, and which the darkness cannot and will not overcome. They came together, even when the government said there is no room here or anywhere for faith to meet, they came together to worship and be in silent awe of the One Who was also told there is no room here for you.

Is there room for Him in our hearts, in our lives, in our homes today?

Shalom,

Pastor Mark

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December 8, 2023

“The sheepherders returned and let loose, glorifying and praising God for everything they had heard and seen. It turned out exactly the way they’d been told!” (Luke 2:20, The Message)

No Church Christmas program is complete without its little band of burlap sack or bath-robed shepherds. Frightened by the angel’s sudden appearance, they marvel at the Good News from the angel and rush to Bethlehem. As they return to their flocks, they praise God and tell all who will listen about the birth of the chosen Child. They leave the stage, and we hardly give them another thought.

But why did the announcement come to them at all? Why should they receive history’s greatest birth announcement? In Christ’s day, shepherds stood on the bottom rung of the social ladder. They shared the same unenviable status as tax collectors and dung sweepers and prostitutes.

What an affront to the religious leaders who were so conspicuously absent from the divine list of those to be notified about this greatest event!  Even from birth, Jesus moved among the lowly. It was the sinners, not the self-righteous He came to save (Mark 2:17).

As we gaze on nativity scenes and remember those burlap sack shepherds, let’s not lose sight of the striking irony. A handful of shepherds, marginalized by the social and religious elite, were chosen to break the silence of centuries, heralding the Messiah’s birth.

May the peace and joy of the Saviour Jesus overflow in your life this Advent and Christmas seasons!!!

Pastor Mark

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December 2, 2023

“1 In the beginning the Word already existed.
The Word was with God,
and the Word was God.
² He existed in the beginning with God.
³ God created everything through him,
and nothing was created except through him.
⁴ The Word gave life to everything that was created,
and his life brought light to everyone.
⁵ The light shines in the darkness,
and the darkness can never extinguish it.

⁶ God sent a man, John the Baptist, ⁷ to tell about the light so that everyone might believe because of his testimony. ⁸ John himself was not the light; he was simply a witness to tell about the light. ⁹ The one who is the true light, who gives light to everyone, was coming into the world.”  St. John 1:1-9  New Living Translation

The five-year-old nephew of the bride was chosen to be in charge of carrying the rings down the aisle. At the wedding rehearsal he was unusually unruly. He kept leaping out at people, baring his teeth at, and then chasing the flower girls. He growled and snarled as he practiced going down the aisle. He brandished the pillow like a pistol. Finally, his mother pulled him aside and demanded to know why he was behaving so badly.

“But Mom,” he explained, “I have to act fierce — I’m the ‘Ring Bear.’”

Like so many of us that little boy misunderstood just what role he was supposed to play. He thought he was called to be big, imposing, fearsome, large and in charge. He thought he was to BE the “star of the show.” He thought the spotlight was his.

But he wasn’t supposed to BE a bear, he was supposed to offer the supportive role of “ring bearer.” His role was important. The pastor, not to mention the bride and groom, needed those rings down front. But the focus of the wedding ceremony was not on the ring bearer. The reason for the wedding celebration was not him.

In the words Dr. Seuss gave to the Grinch after his conversion to the happy ways of the Who’s down in Whoville: “Maybe Christmas doesn’t come from a store. Maybe Christmas – perhaps – means a little bit more.”

It usually takes a big winter storm to remind us that we all really have the same “favorite things” — electricity and plumbing. When a big blow shuts off the power and we are suddenly stranded in the dark we immediately go looking for a light. The first person who forges out into the dark and finds the flashlight is appreciated, but it is the light itself that everyone craves.

This Advent season, in fact, in every season, we are all called to bear the light. Don’t be the light. Don’t seek the spotlight. Bear the light. So that Jesus can: Shine, Jesus, Shine. We don’t need more of the spirit of Christmas. We need more of the Spirit of Christ.

Shalom,

Pastor Mark

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November 25, 2023

“So, how much do you think you earned during your lifetime of work?

Did you always submit your taxes as best you could?

Did you ever grumble, or judge people?

How many friends did you make? What about enemies?

How many people worked under you? Did you ever let them know you were the boss?

How many cars did you have? Were you the envy of your neighbours?

How big was your house?

What shape is your RRSP/RRIF in?

How many friends do you have on Facebook, or followers on X?

How far did you move up in your career? And just how did you move up?

How much influence did you have on people?”

And there are countless more questions like these, all of which reveal our culture’s focus on things that don’t last. If any of these would be the questions that Jesus will ask when He comes in His glory at the end of time, many people would feel they could approach that Judgment day with good confidence.

But when Jesus returns, He won’t be asking any of those sorts of questions. The question He will ask is probably the one that we are all least prepared for. It is the question from St. Matthew 25:31-46: “What have you done for the least of mine, who are all part of my family?”

(Please read that passage).

This is Black Friday weekend with Cyber Monday coming up, in which countless numbers of people shop for deals to get more stuff. Actually, it has been advertised that we could get these deals for several weeks now.

How much of my life, of our life as a congregation, of your lives, advertises Jesus for people through our caring for the least, the last, the lost, the lonely, the left-out brothers and sisters of our Lord?

Just wondering about all this,

Shalom,

Pastor Mark

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November 17, 2023

Please read St. Matthew 25:14-30.

This is not an easy passage to understand, but to help a bit, this comes from the book “Hearing God” by Dallas Willard.

“Far too commonly, no doubt, we think of God as did the man in the parable of the talents who regarded his lord as “a harsh man”.  He was, accordingly, afraid of his master and in his blindness, proudly gave him back exactly what “belonged” to him.  Such a person could not enter into the joy of his master because – misconceiving their relationship as he did – he could neither enter into his lord’s mind and life nor open his own life to his lord.  He actually abused his lord by taking him to be interested only in getting his own back, while the lord for his part was really interested in sharing his life and goods with others.  In the same way we demean God immeasurably by casting Him in the role of the cosmic boss, foreman or autocrat, whose chief joy in relation to humans is ordering them around, taking pleasure in seeing them jump at His command and painstakingly noting down any failures.  Instead, we are to be God’s friends (2 Chronicles 20:7; John 15:13-15) and fellow workers (1 Corinthians 3:9).”

We tend to have a difficult time believing that our highest calling and opportunity in life is to love God with our whole being, and then living with God in this relationship that is intimate, vital and personal.

Shalom,

Pastor Mark

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November 4, 2023

“The Lord will mediate between nations
and will settle international disputes.
They will hammer their swords into ploughshares
and their spears into pruning hooks.
Nation will no longer fight against nation,
nor train for war anymore.”                   Isaiah 2:4   NLT

This year as we mark Remembrance Day this weekend, we do well to honestly remember and give thanks for the multitude of men and women who served in the cause of seeking to end wars and help bring peace to our country and in our world! Remembering them and honouring them does not mean we are glorifying war, far from it.

We see on the news every day now the destruction and deaths in two wars, one between Russia and Ukraine begun in February 2022, and one between Israel and Hamas in Palestine just last month. Our denomination has been issuing statements and writing official letters about the conflict between Israel and Palestine since 1967. But no matter where you stand on this current conflict between these two peoples, there is an overwhelming amount of death and destruction.

I have attached the latest letter from the Moderator of the PCC, the “head” of our denomination for you to read and reflect upon.

Asking for the Lord of peace to fill your heart and life with His peace that passes human comprehension, and for the Lord of peace to lead these peoples, and indeed our world to the point of turning “swords into ploughshares”.

Shalom,

Pastor Mark

Letter-to-the-Prime-Minister-re-violence-between-Hamas-and-Israel

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October 28, 2023

“⁸ For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— ⁹ not by works, so that no one can boast. ¹⁰ For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.”  Ephesians 2:8-10  NIV

A single event on a single day changed the world. It was 31^st October 1517. Brother Martin, a monk, and a scholar had struggled for years with his church, the church in Rome. He had been greatly disturbed by an unprecedented indulgence sale. The story has all the makings of a Hollywood blockbuster. Let’s meet the cast.

First, there is the young bishop—too young by church laws—Albert of Mainz. Not only was he bishop over two bishoprics, he desired an additional archbishopric over Mainz. This too was against church laws. So Albert appealed to the Pope in Rome, Leo X. Part of the De Medici family, Leo X greedily allowed his tastes to exceed his financial resources. Enter the artists and sculptors, Raphael and Michelangelo.

When Albert of Mainz appealed for a papal dispensation, Leo X was ready to deal. Albert, with the papal blessing, would sell indulgences for past, present, and future sins. All of this sickened the monk, Martin Luther. Can we buy our way into heaven? Luther had to speak out.

But why October 31? November 1 held a special place in the church calendar as All Soul’s Day. On November 1, 1517, a massive exhibit of newly acquired relics would be on display at Wittenberg, Luther’s home city. Pilgrims would come from all over, genuflect before the relics, and take hundreds, if not thousands, of years off time in purgatory. Luther’s soul grew even more sickened. None of this seemed right.

Martin Luther, a scholar, took quill in hand, dipped it in his inkwell and penned his 95 Theses on October 31, 1517, and nailed them to the Wittenberg doors. These were intended to spark a debate, to stir some soul-searching among his fellow brothers in the church. The 95 Theses sparked far more than a debate. The 95 Theses also revealed the church was far beyond rehabilitation. It needed a reformation. The church, and the world, would never be the same.

One of Luther’s 95 Theses simply declares, “The Church’s true treasure is the gospel of Jesus Christ.” That alone is the meaning of Reformation Day. The church had lost sight of the gospel because it had long ago papered over the pages of God’s Word with layer upon layer of tradition. Tradition always brings about systems of works, of earning your way back to God. It was true of the Pharisees, and it was true of the medieval Church. Didn’t Christ Himself say, “My yoke is easy and my burden is light?” Reformation Day celebrates the joyful beauty of the liberating gospel of Jesus Christ.

What is Reformation Day? It is the day the light of the gospel broke forth out of darkness. It was the day that began the Protestant Reformation. It was a day that led to Martin Luther, John Calvin, John Knox, and many other Reformers helping the church find its way back to God’s Word as the only authority for faith and life and leading the church back to the glorious doctrines of justification by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone. It kindled the fires of missionary endeavors, it led to hymn writing and congregational singing, and it led to the centrality of the sermon and preaching for the people of God. It is the celebration of a theological, ecclesiastical, and cultural transformation.

So, we celebrate Reformation Day. This day reminds us to be thankful for our past and to the Monk turned Reformer. What’s more, this day reminds us of our duty, our obligation, to keep the light of the gospel, the truth of Jesus the Saviour, at the centre of all we do.

Shalom,

Pastor Mark

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October 21, 2023

See St. Matthew 22:15-22; the challenge of the religious and political experts trying to trap Jesus with a question about taxes.

Imagine how you’d like it if you woke up one morning and discovered that people from the other end of the world had marched into your country and demanded that you pay them tax as the reward for having your land stolen and for allowing you to continue living, living in your stolen land! That sort of thing still causes riots and revolutions, and it had done just that when Jesus was growing up in Galilee.

One of the most famous Jewish leaders when Jesus was a boy, a man called Judas, had led a revolt precisely on this issue of having to pay taxes to Rome. The Romans had crushed it mercilessly, leaving crosses around the countryside, with dead and dying revolutionaries on them, as a warning that paying the tax was compulsory, not optional. The Pharisees’ question came, as we would say, with a health warning. Tell people they shouldn’t pay, and you might end up on a cross. Which is one of the two outcomes the religious leaders were hoping for.

At the same time, of course, anyone leading a kingdom-of-God movement would be expected to oppose the tax or face the ridicule and resentment of the people. That was the other result the religious leaders were hoping for by trying to trap Jesus with their question. Surely the whole point of God becoming king was that Caesar wouldn’t be? If Jesus wasn’t intending to get rid of the tax and all that it meant, what had they followed Him from Galilee for? Why had they all shouted Hosanna a few days earlier?

Let’s be clear. Jesus wasn’t trying to give an answer, for all time, on the relationship between God and political authority. That wasn’t the point. He was countering the Pharisees’ challenge to Him with a sharp challenge in return. Was it, after all, they who were compromised? Had they really given full allegiance to their God? Were they themselves playing games, keeping Caesar happy while speaking of God?

We can only fully understand what Jesus was doing when we see His answer in the light of the whole story. Jesus knew—He had already told the disciples—that He was Himself going to be crucified, to share the fate of the tax-rebels of His boyhood. He wasn’t trying to wriggle out of personal or political danger. He was continuing to walk straight towards it. But He was doing so on His own terms. His vocation was not to be the sort of revolutionary they had known or had been looking for. The kingdom of God would defeat the kingdom of Caesar, not by conventional means, but by the victory of God’s love and Resurrection power over the empire of death, which was a far greater empire than Rome itself. And that’s what the next story is all about, in Matthew 22:23-33.

Shalom,

Mark

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October 14, 2023

⁴ As you come to him, the living Stone—rejected by humans but chosen by God and precious to him— ⁵ you also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. ⁶ For in Scripture it says:

“See, I lay a stone in Zion,
a chosen and precious cornerstone,
and the one who trusts in him
will never be put to shame.”

⁷ Now to you who believe, this stone is precious. But to those who do not believe,

“The stone the builders rejected
has become the cornerstone,”                 1 Peter 2:4-7 NIV

Jesus renews people, gives them new life and purpose through the power of His compassionate love.  By God’s gracious love He changes, transforms people from the inside out.

There is an old story told about a monk who found a precious stone, a rare jewel.  It was nearly as large as his hand.  The monk picked it up and put it in the bag of his possessions.  A short time later the monk met a traveller who said he was hungry and asked the monk if he would share some of his provisions.  When the monk opened his bag, the traveller saw the precious jewel and immediately asked the monk if he could have it.  Amazingly the monk gave the jewel to the traveller.  The monk understood the truth that everything he possessed belonged to God.

The traveller departed quickly, overjoyed with his new and very valuable possession of the jewel.  However, several days later he came back searching for the monk and he made this request of the monk: “Please give me something more valuable than this, more precious than this jewel.  Please give me that which enabled you to simply and easily give me this precious stone.”

With great thanksgiving for the precious gift of Jesus,

Shalom,

Pastor Mark

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October 7,2023

^5-6 Remember, our Message is not about ourselves; we’re proclaiming Jesus Christ, the Master. All we are is messengers, errand runners from Jesus for you. It started when God said, “Light up the darkness!” and our lives filled up with light as we saw and understood God in the face of Christ, all bright and beautiful.

^7-12 If you only look at us, you might well miss the brightness. We carry this precious Message (Jesus) around in the unadorned clay pots of our ordinary lives. That’s to prevent anyone from confusing God’s incomparable power with us. As it is, there’s not much chance of that. You know for yourselves that we’re not much to look at. We’ve been surrounded and battered by troubles, but we’re not demoralized; we’re not sure what to do, but we know that God knows what to do; we’ve been spiritually terrorized, but God hasn’t left our side; we’ve been thrown down, but we haven’t broken. What they did to Jesus, they do to us—trial and torture, mockery and murder; what Jesus did among them, he does in us—he lives! Our lives are at constant risk for Jesus’ sake, which makes Jesus’ life all the more evident in us. While we’re going through the worst, you’re getting in on the best!

^13-15 We’re not keeping this quiet, not on your life. Just like the psalmist who wrote, “I believed it, so I said it,” we say what we believe. And what we believe is that the One who raised up the Master Jesus will just as certainly raise us up with you, alive. Every detail works to your advantage and to God’s glory: more and more grace, more and more people, more and more praise!

^16-18 So we’re not giving up. How could we! Even though on the outside it often looks like things are falling apart on us, on the inside, where God is making new life, not a day goes by without his unfolding grace. These hard times are small potatoes compared to the coming good times, the lavish celebration prepared for us. There’s far more here than meets the eye. The things we see now are here today, gone tomorrow. But the things we can’t see now will last forever.  2 Corinthians 4:5-18 The Message

If you are living, you’re going to face hard times.  And when those storms hit you, they can shake you to your core.  Yet within that vortex of weakness and despair lies a very tangible and real hope.  When all that you held on to as stable and predictable starts to crumble around you, you will find a new strength that springs out of your weakness.  It will overcome you and lift you up when you least expect it and when you most need it.  It’s a strange paradox; when you’re weak, you can actually tap into a secret reserve of strength that God has stored up for you. None of us like to feel broken.  We want to feel strong, in charge, full of courage.  We want to stop feeling so frail, so human.  We would not choose to be crushed, to feel rejected, to feel spurned.  We would not choose to be heartbroken.  But we don’t get to choose what breaks us.  We only get to choose how we respond.  We can never escape our weakness.  So why don’t we embrace it?

St. Paul compared how the power of God shone through his weakness, to the light that shone from a flame through thin clay pottery.  Corinth was known for manufacturing cheap clay lamps.  Precisely because of their thinness, these vessels cast more light.  This frail form also made it clear that the light came from another source, so Paul added that in his case, frailty ought to make it more obvious that the power comes from God and not himself (v. 7).  The more cracked we are, the more the light of Jesus is revealed through our brokenness, and then there will be no confusion about where the light comes from.
As lamps, we may feel like cheap, thin, transparent earthen vessels similar to the ones manufactured so long ago in Corinth.  But God sends us out into a dark world, where everyone around us has their own pain and brokenness to contend with and so many are walking and living in darkness, desperate for light.  Our world needs to see God through our weakness more than through our strength.  It’s remarkable how effectively God uses our own hard times and brokenness to help others.

So, for this Thanksgiving weekend, what do you think about thanking God for shining His love, power, and glory through your brokenness?

Shalom,

Pastor Mark

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September 2, 2023

“Then Jesus said to his disciples, “If any of you wants to be my follower, you must give up your own way, take up your cross, and follow me.”  St. Matthew 16:24  NLT

“I have decided to follow Jesus”, the story behind the song

The lyrics to this song were inspired by words that were first uttered around 150 years ago in northeast India, in a Garo tribe in the region then called Assam.

A group of missionaries spreading the message of love, peace, forgiveness, and hope in Jesus came into these communities. They were not welcomed. But one local man, Nokseng, along with his wife, and two children choose to find out more about Jesus and they became Christians. Nokseng’s faith was contagious, and other villagers began to accept Jesus too.

The village chief was livid and summoned all the villagers together. He then called Nokseng’s family to appear before him – he demanded they renounce their faith in public, or face execution. Moved by the Holy Spirit, Nokseng bravely said:

“I have decided to follow Jesus.”

Enraged at Nokseng’s refusal to deny Christ, the chief ordered his archers to shoot the two children. As both boys lay dying on the floor, the chief asked again: “Will you deny your faith? You have lost both your children. You will lose your wife too.”

But Nokseng bravely replied:

“Though no one joins me, still I will follow.”

The chief was beside himself with fury and ordered the wife to be arrowed down. In a moment she joined her two children in death. Now he asked for the last time, “I will give you one more opportunity to deny your faith and live.” Facing death, Nokseng said the final memorable lines:

“The cross before me, the world behind me. No turning back.”

He was shot dead like the rest of his family. But with their deaths, a miracle took place. The chief who had ordered the killings was so moved by the faith of Nokseng and his family that he began to question his own beliefs. He wondered: “Why should this man, his wife and two children die for a man who lived in a far-away land on another continent some 2,000 years ago? There must be some remarkable power behind the family’s faith, and I too want to taste that faith.”

In a spontaneous confession of faith, the chief declared, “I too belong to Jesus Christ!” When the crowd heard this from the mouth of their chief, the whole village was overwhelmed and ultimately they all gave their lives to Jesus.

It sounds incredible, but it’s also a painful story. Nokseng’s incredible determination and resolute faith in the face of such terrible abuse, couldn’t save his family, but did start a revival in that village – and ultimately Nokseng and his family were embraced and welcomed into eternal life with Jesus.

Today, here in Kitchener, and in many places in our world, we may not face such persecution due to our faith in the risen Lord Jesus, but still Jesus’ words to all His followers ring true:

“If any of you wants to be my follower, you must give up your own way, take up your cross, and follow me.”

Shalom,

Pastor Mark

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August 26, 2023

¹³ When Jesus came to the region of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, “Who do people say that the Son of Man is?”

¹⁴ “Well,” they replied, “some say John the Baptist, some say Elijah, and others say Jeremiah or one of the other prophets.”

¹⁵ Then he asked them, “But who do you say I am?”

¹⁶ Simon Peter answered, “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.”

St. Matthew 16:13-20  NLT

The Christian author of dozens of books on the power of stories for sharing the good news of Jesus, Fr. William J. Bausch tells a story that says it as well as it can be said. The story says that God created the heavens and earth and everything in them. He created them by His words. God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. This happened with everything. God was proud of His work. He was especially proud of the man and woman which He made.

But the devil was jealous and angry. One day when God was enjoying the man and woman, the devil slithered up to God and asked him why he liked those strange human creatures so much. When God opened His mouth to speak, the devil craftily put a bond upon God’s tongue. God could not speak, not even one word! Since God’s creative power was in His words, the sly old devil had bound God’s power.

The devil laughed at God and then proceeded to corrupt man and the woman. Aeons went by, and the devil came back to scoff at the silent God and mock Him. God responded to this by holding up one finger. “One?” asked the devil. “Are you telling me that you want to say just one word?” God nodded. The devil, thought, “I suppose that even God could not do much with just one word.” So the devil removed the bond from God’s tongue. Then God spoke His one word in a quiet whisper. He spoke it for the man and the woman. It was a word that gathered up all the forgiveness, love, and creativity God had stored up in His heart during His long silence. His one word was “Jesus.” And that is the word that changed everything.

Shalom,

Pastor Mark

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August 18, 2023

²¹ Then Jesus left Galilee and went north to the region of Tyre and Sidon.²² A Gentile woman who lived there came to him, pleading, “Have mercy on me, O Lord, Son of David! For my daughter is possessed by a demon that torments her severely.”

²³ But Jesus gave her no reply, not even a word. Then his disciples urged him to send her away. “Tell her to go away,” they said. “She is bothering us with all her begging.”

²⁴ Then Jesus said to the woman, “I was sent only to help God’s lost sheep—the people of Israel.”

²⁵ But she came and worshipped him, pleading again, “Lord, help me!”

²⁶ Jesus responded, “It isn’t right to take food from the children and throw it to the dogs.”

²⁷ She replied, “That’s true, Lord, but even dogs are allowed to eat the scraps that fall beneath their masters’ table.”

²⁸ “Dear woman,” Jesus said to her, “your faith is great. Your request is granted.” And her daughter was instantly healed.”                NLT

What would you think if I told you that on your tombstone would be inscribed a four-word epitaph? Well, you might respond, it would depend on who would write this epitaph–an enemy or a loved one. It might also depend, you might say, on how well this person knew and understood you. If a newspaper critic wrote of a concert pianist the four words: “He was a failure,” you could always say: That was his opinion. But if one of the world’s great musicians wrote, “He was a genius,” then you are apt to take the remark more seriously.

There was a character in the Gospel who Jesus once described with four immortal words: Great is your faith. She was a Canaanite woman who came from the country to the north of Palestine, a country hostile to the Jews. She was presumably married, she had at least one child; but that’s all we know about her. We don’t know whether she was a good woman or a bad woman. We don’t know her name. All we know of her is that in this single encounter with Jesus, He spoke to her this four-word epitaph: Great is your faith.

Only four words but they are enough to make her immortal. We can trust these words as being true because the expert on faith spoke them. Jesus searched for faith, as a gem collector would fine jewels. He did not often find it in his disciples. On no occasion that we know of did He ever say of Peter, James, and John: Great is your faith. More often the words He spoke to them: You of little faith.

On only one other occasion did Jesus praise a person for their faith. Interestingly, that was a Roman soldier stationed in Capernaum (Matthew 8:10).

We regard this Canaanite woman with more than just an academic interest. She awakens in us a feeling of admiration, perhaps even envy, because she stands where most of us would like to stand…

Shalom,

Pastor Mark

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August 11, 2023

“But Jesus spoke to them at once. “Don’t be afraid,” he said. “Take courage. I am here!”  St. Matthew 14:27 NLT

“But now, O Jacob, listen to the Lord who created you.
O Israel, the one who formed you says,
“Do not be afraid, for I have ransomed you.
I have called you by name; you are mine.
² When you go through deep waters,
I will be with you.
When you go through rivers of difficulty,
you will not drown.”            Isaiah 43:1, 2  NLT

The Christian author and artist Joni Eareckson Tada writes that she loved horseback riding as a child and was determined on her little pony to keep up with her older sisters. As their horses waded toward midstream in a river swollen by rain, Joni found herself staring into the rushing waters that swirled around the shaking legs of her pony. She recalled being mesmerized by the circling waters and then feeling dizzy, frightened and then beginning to lose her balance in the saddle.

That was exactly when one of her sisters called back to her: “Look up Joni – keep looking up!” So, when Joni took her eyes off the swirling waters and focused on her sister, she regained her balance and finished crossing the river.

Peter had the same problem once he started walking on the water heading towards the Lord Jesus. When he looked down at the waves driven by the storm winds, he took his eyes off Jesus and began to sink.

How much like Peter we all are at times in our lives. How easily we can let our circumstances transfix us so much so that we lose our spiritual and therefore life-giving balance. We become dizzy with fear and anxiety, with overwhelming worry. Before we know it, we are out of balance, needing to hear Jesus remind us with His great love, “Don’t be afraid. Take courage, I am here.”

Shalom,

Pastor Mark

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August 4, 2023

Psalm 19 (NIV)

1 The heavens declare the glory of God;

the skies proclaim the work of his hands.

2 Day after day they pour forth speech;

night after night they reveal knowledge.

3 They have no speech, they use no words;

no sound is heard from them.

4 Yet their voice goes out into all the earth,

their words to the ends of the world.

If we are lucky or unlucky enough (depending on your perspective) we might have one or two power failures a year. You know, when the lights go out and the TV and internet don’t work, and maybe if it is severe enough, even the wireless networks go down and cell phones are useless. Whether it lasts a few hours or a few days, do we lament and complain about the unplanned and unprepared for disruption to our schedules? Or do we take advantage of that unscheduled slowdown to notice God in the creation all around us, in the people near us, and do we settle our souls, without all the normal distractions power gives us?

Hopefully we can do this when we are on holidays each year, and yet, we don’t need to wait for power outages, or holidays to spend some time every day reflecting on our Lord and His love in our lives, in life all around us!

Shalom,

Pastor Mark

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July 7, 2023

As I read and re-read the Gospels, it becomes more and more apparent to me that the Jesus I find there was extraordinary at simplifying our busy and complex lives.  What’s more, He invites us into a relationship of simplicity: “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.  Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.  For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” (Matt. 11:28-30, NIV)

The Message Translation puts Jesus’ words here this way: “Are you tired? Worn out? Burned out on religion? Come to me. Get away with me and you’ll recover your life. I’ll show you how to take a real rest. Walk with me and work with me – watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won’t lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you. Keep company with me and you’ll learn to live freely and lightly.”

Jesus knew we would face the temptation to complicate our lives with religion.  He knew we would be inclined to put limits and demands on ourselves that would slowly and subtly bring us to breaking points.  In fact, it had already happened before Jesus’ birth.

Jesus was a rabbi, and as a teacher, one of His primary responsibilities was to interpret the Torah (the first five books of the Bible) for His followers.

The Torah is the holiest of Scripture to the Jews, and included within it are the Ten Commandments as well as 613 additional Laws about worship, cleanliness, marriage, nutrition, and every other aspect of Jewish life.  Any given rabbi’s interpretation of the Torah consisted of ‘hedges’, which were additional oral laws or rules designed to protect the Law (this includes the extra 613).

A rabbi would have had thousands of little laws or hedges he taught as his interpretation of the Torah, his suggested way of living.  This way of living was referred to as that rabbi’s yoke, and every rabbi had a distinctive yoke.

The Jewish law was immense in itself, yet the Hebrew people had to follow not only the biblical law but also the extraneous yoke of their rabbi of choice.

Jesus invites His followers into a new way, a way to enter into His life.  He promises us that we will find rest from the complexities of our hedged-up religiosity.  Remarkably, the yoke Jesus offers doesn’t add weight to our shoulders; it removes it.  The rest we gain from following His way begins with taking His yoke on us – His way of life. He promises us that His yoke is different: it is easy and it is light.

Shalom,

Pastor Mark

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July 1, 2023

“You cannot serve both God and money.” (Matthew 6:24)

“Anyone who loves his father or mother more than me is not worthy of Me.” (Matthew 10:37)

Jesus taught both these statements. The first one we can more easily understand, but then the second one above is much harder. These incredible statements strike right at our inclination to make a good thing, such as family, into an ultimate thing. Jesus knows how easily we can twist one of God’s good gifts into an ultimate desire. It can take a place He alone is worthy to hold in our lives.

And yet so much of our contemporary religion is focused on God’s gifts rather than on God. We use God as a means of building or repairing our families; we use him as a therapist; he is our political adviser and our financial planner. From God’s hand we seek family, position, power, and wealth—but do we actually want God himself?

Sometimes when we look at God, when we turn to God, we may see a reflection of our own consumer selves living within a very consumerist society—we can tend to see God as a divine vending machine and we expect God to hand out everything that we desire, in fact what we think we deserve. And when God fails to do that for us, we get upset with Him and even can eventually turn our backs on Him.

Often when we focus only on what we think God should be giving us, on what we think we can get out of Him, we fail to experience the peace and hope of His presence. Do we want a relationship with God, or do we want only what we think God should give us, and that becomes what we think we deserve from God, the divine vending machine. A vending machine doesn’t love, or care.

But when God looks at us, He sees His beloved child, created in His image, a child who is wholly and dearly loved.

You are and always will be His beloved child!!!

Shalom,

Pastor Mark

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June 23, 2023

“And if you give even a cup of cold water to one of the least of my followers, you will surely be rewarded.”

Jesus, in St. Matthew 10:42   NLT

Hospitality versus Entertaining

Karen Mains distinguishes between hospitality and entertaining: Entertaining says, “I want to impress you with my home, my clever decorating, my cooking.”

Hospitality, seeking to minister, says, “This home is a gift from my loving heavenly Father. I use it as He desires.” Hospitality aims to serve.

Entertaining puts things before people. “As soon as I get the house finished, the living room decorated, my house cleaning done–then I will start inviting people.”

Hospitality puts people first. “No furniture–we’ll eat on the floor! The decorating may never get done–you come anyway. The house is a mess–but you are friends–come home with us.”

Entertaining subtly declares, “This home is mine, an expression of my personality. Look please, and admire.”

Hospitality whispers, “What is mine is yours.”

Jesus calls us all to serve, to hospitality, without bias, without favouritism.

Shalom,

Pastor Mark

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June 16, 2023

Jesus said: “Are you tired? Worn out? Burned out on religion? Come to Me. Get away with Me and you’ll recover your life. I’ll show you how to take a real rest. Walk with Me and work with Me – watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won’t lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you. Keep company with me and you’ll learn to live freely and lightly.”  St. Matthew 11:28-30, The Message

When we forget that Christianity is all about a relationship with Christ and we start to settle for the kind of Christianity where we check off our to-do lists for God, then we inevitably experience the emptiness of religion. Religion is all about humanity trying to work its way into God’s approval, and that always leaves an emptiness and ache in the soul. Two things are certain when we turn faith into religion and try to do all the right things to get God’s approval. Number one: you feel empty inside. Number two: you always fail. That’s because there is no way in the world that on our own we could work our way up to ever earn God’s approval.

This is the point of the Christian faith. Since we could never work our way up to God, Christ came to us and took on Himself all our sins and failures so we could experience a full relationship, a fulfilling relationship with the heavenly Father. This is a relationship solely based upon the grace and unfailing love of God.

That means that we can even be grateful for those times in our lives when we feel the emptiness of religion for then those times can open us up to truly wanting the real depth of relationship with God that Jesus freely and gladly offers us.

Lynn Austin said that “My soul’s longing for God is as never-ending as my physical need for water.”

Shalom,

Pastor Mark

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June 9, 2023

“So you cannot become My disciple without giving up everything you own.” St. Luke 14:33

In this whole passage from Luke 14:25-35 Jesus uses five illustrations, or images to help people understand the cost of commitment to Jesus that He calls us to: family; a cross; building a tower; going to war; and salt.

In the spring of 2015, a 39-year-old college professor from Venezuela ran the famous Boston Marathon. The professor’s name is Maickel Melamed. He had run four previous marathons, but this was his first time running the coveted Boston race. For Melamed it was the culmination of six years of training that had begun with his running just 500 yards the very first time.

What makes Maickel Melamed’s story unique is that he finished the Boston Marathon in last place. And he finished last because Maickel Melamed has a form of muscular dystrophy that severely impairs his mobility so that his run is more like a very slow and laborious movement of left and right strides.

The Boston Marathon course is brutal, hilly, and difficult. It begins early Monday morning, and the average runner finishes in a little over 4 hours. Maickel Melamed finished the race in slightly less than 20 hours. He crossed the finish line in the dark in a pelting rain with a flock of supporters cheering him on.

He was interviewed shortly after completing the race and here is what he said, “It was hard on the body, but in the soul everything is shining.”

Committed followers of Jesus will someday say something like that about the cost of being a disciple of Jesus: “It was hard on the body, but in the soul, everything is shining.”

Shalom,

Pastor Mark

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June 2, 2023

²⁸ Then Jesus said, “Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. ²⁹ Take my yoke upon you. Let me teach you, because I am humble and gentle at heart, and you will find rest for your souls. ³⁰ For my yoke is easy to bear, and the burden I give you is light.” St. Matthew 11:28-30    NLT

In the midst of all our busyness, feeling worried, scared, frantic, overwhelmed, and like you’ve got nothing left to give…

This prayer from Rev. Dr. Henri Nouwen can help speak into our soul:

“Dear God,

Speak gently in my silence.

When the loud outer noises of my surroundings

and the loud inner noises of my fears

keep pulling me away from you,

help me to trust that you are still there

even when I am unable to hear you.

Give me ears to listen to your small, soft voice saying:

“Come to me, you who are overburdened, and I will give you rest . . . for I am gentle and humble of heart.”

Let that loving voice be my guide.

Amen.”

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Pentecost Sunday, 28^th May 2023

“On the day of Pentecost all the believers were meeting together in one place. ² Suddenly, there was a sound from heaven like the roaring of a mighty windstorm, and it filled the house where they were sitting.³ Then, what looked like flames or tongues of fire appeared and settled on each of them. ⁴ And everyone present was filled with the Holy Spirit and began speaking in other languages, as the Holy Spirit gave them this ability…

⁴² All the believers devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching, and to fellowship, and to sharing in meals (including the Lord’s Supper), and to prayer.”  Acts 2:1-4; 42     New Living Translation

Have you ever heard of “broken English?” Did you know “broken English” is an actual language? North Carolina Judge Jesse Caldwell tells the story of a Vietnamese woman who was waiting her turn to be examined in a crowded hospital emergency room. She gradually became aware of a frustrating “non-conversation” being attempted a few seats down. A nurse was trying to ask a new patient for some details on her illness. The patient spoke Spanish. The nurse did not.

The Vietnamese woman listened for a minute then realized that while she didn’t speak Spanish, she did understand the broken-English bits and phrases the Spanish speaking patient offered as answers. Because of her own experience of learning to communicate in “broken English,” the Vietnamese woman could hear the heart and gist of what this other woman was trying to say. The Vietnamese woman offered to “translate” the broken English of the Spanish speaker into something the nurse could understand. She was so successful at bridging the brokenness of their languages that eventually the Vietnamese woman was hired by the hospital as a kind of generic translator. Brokenness was the common language spoken by all hospital patients.

The Day of Pentecost and the season of Pentecost (now until near the end of November) remind God’s people that:

The Holy Spirit speaks through broken people to a broken world, using language every broken heart can hear and understand.

Because we know what it is like to be broken by hatred, we can speak the healing love of Christ’s sacrifice.

Because we know what it is like to be broken by despair, we can speak the healing hope of Christ’s forgiveness.

Because we know what it is like to be broken by doubt, we can speak the healing faith in God’s promises.

Because we know what it is like to be broken by illness, we can speak of the healing wholeness of Christ’s resurrection.

Because we know what it is like to break down doing church — program church, purpose-driven church, seeker-sensitive church, organic church, missional church, NCD church, simple church, we can stop doing church and start doing Pentecost.

The church of Jesus Christ is alive and well. In fact, Christianity is still the fastest growing religion in the world. But it’s growing not in the North and West, but in the South and East. Why the difference? Why is Christianity surging in the South and East and not in North America and Europe?

Because where the body of Christ is growing the people aren’t trying to do church. They’re doing Pentecost. They are by the gift of the Holy Spirit and their dependence on Him, they are living like the first disciples did, relying on the Spirit and not relying on programs, styles, or even church buildings. I wonder what that means for us in the Church of the North and of the West?

Shalom,

Pastor Mark

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May 13, 2023

The entire Bible is the story about a God who incessantly, compassionately, relentlessly loves His creation and went to great lengths to restore people to live in a loving relationship with Himself, and with all of God’s creation.

Here’s how one verse – probably the most famous verse in the Bible – puts it: “For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have everlasting life.” (John 3:16, NKJV).

This verse was written by John who was one of Jesus’ closest disciples.  Toward the end of his life, decades after Jesus’s death and resurrection, John wrote, “This is real love – not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as a sacrifice to take away our sins” (1 John 4:10).

This is real love.  This is true love.  Not that we loved God – we didn’t, and even now, we aren’t always the best at loving him – but that God gave the best of Himself to save the worst.  We had done nothing to earn or deserve His love, but He unconditionally and extravagantly lavished His love on the whole world.

And one of the simple ways He continues to do this, is through a mother’s love, a family’s love, and the love from the family of all God’s people.

Think about that for a few minutes and let it sink in.

Shalom,

Pastor Mark

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May 6, 2023

Happy 36^th Anniversary KEPC!!!

“Be joyful always; pray continually; give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.”  1 Thessalonians 5:16-18

Thirty-six years ago we began as a small group of people meeting together at Crestview Public School to worship God, and to be a congregation of God’s Church.  During the first stage of our life as a congregation we went through many changes, many decisions, and some turmoil.  We journeyed from a small congregation where everybody knew everybody else in a school, to another school while we got funding in place for a church building to call home, and then worked on erecting it.  Then in 1992 we moved into our current place, amidst much celebration and thankfulness.  In 1995 our first minister, Rev. Rob Shaw accepted a call to another congregation, and in 1996 Pastor Mark arrived.

We have had good times and some stressful times as a people of God.  We have experienced many things, both painful and joyful, yet always the Lord has been faithful and has blessed us, giving us many, many reasons to give Him thanks in all circumstances!!!

God is good all the time!  All the time God is good!  When we take the time every day to give thanks to God for His blessings in our lives it becomes much more natural to be joyful always as the Lord instructs His people to be in Christ!

As your pastor I have so much to be thankful for here!!  I thank the Lord for each person who comes to KEPC to experience the grace, love, truth, and forgiveness of God.  I am thankful for: everyone who serves on one of the teams of Session; everyone who helps lead and love the children in our Sunday School, serves by welcoming people each Sunday; shares in the musical worship of Almighty God; helps count the collection; helps clean both the inside and the outside of our facility; each person who commits to praying every day for the work of Christ in our lives and beyond; each of the elders as together we seek to love and serve the whole congregation;  each of the Bible study people over the years as they meet to grow in faith and to serve others; my family as they support me in ministry among you all!!!  I am thankful for supportive and challenging people here who desire to grow in their journey with Christ.

But most of all I am thankful for the wonderful and liberating love of Jesus Christ, the awesome faithfulness of God the Father and the gentle, Holy presence of the Spirit of God in me and all His people!!!

Thank the Lord for His ongoing faithfulness in our lives and in our life as a congregation!!!

Shalom,

Pastor Mark

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April 29, 2023

St. John 10:1-11, 27, 28  The Message

10 ^1-5 “Let me set this before you as plainly as I can. If a person climbs over or through the fence of a sheep pen instead of going through the gate, you know he’s up to no good—a sheep rustler! The shepherd walks right up to the gate. The gatekeeper opens the gate to him and the sheep recognize his voice. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. When he gets them all out, he leads them and they follow because they are familiar with his voice. They won’t follow a stranger’s voice but will scatter because they aren’t used to the sound of it.”

^6-10 Jesus told this simple story, but they had no idea what he was talking about. So he tried again. “I’ll be explicit, then. I am the Gate for the sheep. All those others are up to no good—sheep rustlers, every one of them. But the sheep didn’t listen to them. I am the Gate. Anyone who goes through me will be cared for—will freely go in and out, and find pasture. A thief is only there to steal and kill and destroy. I came so they can have real and eternal life, more and better life than they ever dreamed of.

¹¹ “I am the Good Shepherd. The Good Shepherd puts the sheep before himself, sacrifices himself if necessary.

^{27, 28} My sheep recognize my voice. I know them, and they follow me. I give them real and eternal life. They are protected from the Destroyer for good. No one can steal them from out of my hand.

In many parts of the world the herding of sheep is done from behind the flock, utilizing herding dogs and people, but from behind. In the Middle East sheep herding was/is done from the front. The shepherd walks ahead of the flock of sheep, and calls out, they listen and follow.

So when in John 10 Jesus used this analogy to describe Himself to the people, while a few of them might have understood, the scripture tells us that most didn’t get it. In verse 10 Jesus said that He came to give real and eternal life, more and better life than people could ever dream of (The Message). The NIV puts it this way, “I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.” The NLT says it this way, “My purpose is to give them a rich and satisfying life.”

When we hear this, doesn’t something deep within us say, ‘Yes, that’s what I want/need”? We want a fuller life, a deeper life, to love well, get messy and not care, to be free to fully enjoy this life. So what stops us? One thing that prevents us from living the sort of rich, full, deep life Jesus came to give us, is busyness. How many people do you know have said when they were near death, “I wish I had lived a busier life.”? Very few people indeed!

The other reason that we are not experiencing this deep, full life is that we tend to neglect being still in God’s presence. And that really hinders our ability to hear and listen to God’s voice speaking to us. Jesus tells us here in John 10 that the only way to live life to the fullest is to remain close to Him, so close that we regularly hear His voice, know His voice, and follow Him.

This Sunday, 30^th April we are blessed to have a guest preacher, Rev. Dr. Roland DeVries, share with us something about learning to listen to our Good Shepherd’s voice.

Shalom,

Pastor Mark

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April 22, 2023

Please read St. Luke 24:13-53

Sometimes Emmie and I like to do jigsaw puzzles. You can put such puzzles together a number of different ways. You can start by separating the pieces according to colour. If you can work on a large surface, then you have room to spread out, with all of the blue pieces in one pile, all of the red pieces in another pile, all of the dark pieces together, and so on. For this initial sorting, you’re not concerned whether a blue piece was part of the sky or part of the water, or if a dark piece was part of a tree trunk or the side of a barn. Those finer distinctions will come later as you continue trying to put the puzzle together.

As you work at it, you could sometimes carefully examine a single puzzle piece and hold it up to the completed picture on the box, until that aha! moment when you would find its exact spot. Suddenly you could see that the bit of blue was indeed water, and the darker part of the puzzle piece is part of the riverbank.

For other people this method doesn’t work. Separating all the colours first seems like a slow way to start, so instead you could look for all the straight edges first, build the frame, and then fill in the rest of the puzzle pieces from there, putting together particular shapes next, like buildings, or a boat on the river. For more of a challenge, some people tackle a puzzle without referring to the picture on the box. By trial and error, you could eventually figure it out.

2,000 years ago, as two of Jesus’ followers travelled on the road from Jerusalem to Emmaus, their conversation centred on everything that had happened there over the last number of days. Jesus seemed to enter into Jerusalem on a high note, people celebrating Him. But then came the sombre evening Passover meal with His disciples, and going to the Garden where Jesus was arrested. Then all His disciples abandoned Him as Jesus is put on trial, beaten, then crucified, and dies. But 3 days later apparently Jesus is no longer in the tomb, and some people even said they saw Him alive and well.

We might say they were puzzling over all that had happened. They seemed to have most if not all of the facts—all of the pieces of the puzzle—but they didn’t yet know the significance of each one and hadn’t yet been able to put all of the pieces together so they made sense. They didn’t yet have the complete picture.

That’s one reason why this Emmaus Road journey with two Jesus followers and Jesus Himself is so heartening, so wonderful. The Author of life itself helps the followers to put the pieces all together, so that once they see and realize what the big picture is, they are ecstatic, and run right back to Jerusalem to let the 11 hiding disciples know the Good News!

We don’t have the big picture of our own lives, but we can completely trust that the one who conquered death journeys with us always, right to the very last piece of the puzzle!!

Shalom,

Pastor Mark

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April 15, 2023

Text: the whole Bible, and the whole of our lives.

The Tree of Life in Genesis (2:9) and then the Trees of Life in Revelation (22:1, 2) are the bookends of the story of human history. That tree is at the beginning of our story, and it will be at the climax of our story. And because in between these two bookends of the Tree of Life, we find the tree on which Jesus was crucified, we discover that we are not some random cosmic accidents. We have a story. Our little story is actually shaped by those two trees, the Tree of Life at the beginning and end of the Bible and the Tree of our new life in the middle of the Bible, the Tree which Jesus died upon. At the very end everything will be set right.

In the meantime, our lives are given meaning and purpose because of the tree Jesus died upon. The death and Resurrection of Jesus guarantees that everything we experience in this life will also be set right. Meanwhile we live, in Rob Bell’s memorable phrase, “between the trees.” After the Genesis tree, before the Revelation tree, we live between the trees, and in light of the Tree of our new life in Jesus. Beginning, middle, end. Creation, fall, redemption. Father, Son, Spirit. Yesterday, today, tomorrow.

We live between the trees. But God is eternal. Jesus said: “I am the Alpha and the Omega,” and this title recurs: “who is, and who was, and who is to come.” Alpha is the first letter of the Greek alphabet. “In the beginning”—stretch as far down that direction as you can imagine, and then go infinitely further—God existed. Omega is the last letter. “Before the mountains were born or you brought forth the whole world, from everlasting to everlasting you are God.” God is with us and is moving us from one tree to the other tree, in love and with His life. This is part of the hope we have through the Resurrection of Jesus!

In the season of Easter,

Shalom,

Pastor Mark

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April 8, 2023 – Easter weekend 2023

Jesus Appears to the Disciples

³⁵ Then the two from Emmaus told their story of how Jesus had appeared to them as they were walking along the road, and how they had recognized him as he was breaking the bread. ³⁶ And just as they were telling about it, Jesus himself was suddenly standing there among them. “Peace be with you,” he said. ³⁷ But the whole group was startled and frightened, thinking they were seeing a ghost!

³⁸ “Why are you frightened?” he asked. “Why are your hearts filled with doubt? ³⁹ Look at my hands. Look at my feet. You can see that it’s really me. Touch me and make sure that I am not a ghost, because ghosts don’t have bodies, as you see that I do.” ⁴⁰ As he spoke, he showed them his hands and his feet.

⁴¹ Still they stood there in disbelief, filled with joy and wonder. Then he asked them, “Do you have anything here to eat?” ⁴² They gave him a piece of broiled fish, ⁴³ and he ate it as they watched.

⁴⁴ Then he said, “When I was with you before, I told you that everything written about me in the law of Moses and the prophets and in the Psalms must be fulfilled.” ⁴⁵ Then he opened their minds to understand the Scriptures. ⁴⁶ And he said, “Yes, it was written long ago that the Messiah would suffer and die and rise from the dead on the third day. ⁴⁷ It was also written that this message would be proclaimed in the authority of his name to all the nations,^[f] beginning in Jerusalem: ‘There is forgiveness of sins for all who repent.’ ⁴⁸ You are witnesses of all these things.   St. Luke 24:35-48

When in his early 90’s Billy Graham had been invited to receive an honour award from his hometown of Charlotte, North Carolina. So he bought a new suit, and when the ceremony came, Rev. Graham also got up to speak at the podium. He said:

“I’m reminded today of Albert Einstein, the great physicist who (in December 1999) was honored by Time magazine as the Man of the Century. Einstein was once traveling from Princeton on a train, when the conductor came down the aisle, punching the tickets of every passenger. When he came to Einstein, Einstein reached in his vest pocket. He couldn’t find his ticket, so he reached in his trouser pockets.

“It wasn’t there. He looked in his briefcase but couldn’t find it. Then he looked in the seat beside him. He still couldn’t find it.

“The conductor said, ‘Dr. Einstein, I know who you are. We all know who you are. I’m sure you bought a ticket. Don’t worry about it.’  Einstein nodded appreciatively. The conductor continued down the aisle punching tickets. As he was ready to move to the next car, he turned around and saw the great physicist down on his hands and knees, looking under his seat for his ticket.

“The conductor rushed back and said, ‘Dr. Einstein, Dr. Einstein, don’t worry. I know who you are; no problem. You don’t need a ticket. I’m sure you bought one.’ Einstein looked at him and said, ‘Young man, I, too, know who I am. What I don’t know is where I’m going.’

Billy Graham continued, “See the suit I’m wearing? It’s a brand-new suit. My children and my grandchildren are telling me I’ve gotten a little slovenly in my old age. I used to be a bit more fastidious. So, I went out and bought a new suit for this luncheon and one more occasion. You know what that occasion is? This is the suit in which I’ll be buried. But when you hear I’m dead, I don’t want you to immediately remember the suit I’m wearing. I want you to remember this:

“I not only know who I am. I also know where I’m going.”

Indeed, he did. And that’s because of the risen Christ!

The Christian social activist Ron Sider said: “If Jesus didn’t come back from the dead, nothing else matters. If Jesus did come back from the dead, nothing else matters.”

I may have told you about the music director who overslept and failed to show up for the church’s Easter sunrise service. The next Easter, the pastor called him very early in the morning and said, “Jesus has risen . . . and this year, you better, too!”

I would say to you that Jesus is risen, and you will, too!

Shalom,

Pastor Mark

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April 6, 2023

Maundy Thursday

But Peter declared, “Even if I have to die with you, I will never disown you.” And all the other disciples said the same. Matthew 26:35

I suspect that I’m not alone in my intimate familiarity with the taste of my own size 14’s. I’ve had my mouth full of toes more than I care to admit. The irony is that it mostly happens with the best of intentions.

Peter was no doubt sincere when he declared to Jesus that he would die before disowning Jesus. Picture the scene . . .

Jesus and the disciples had just shared the Passover meal in the upper room. Jesus has told them many things, both encouraging and alarming. He has shared with them a new covenant; the anticipation of the prophets was now being realized. But he has told them that He is going away and that somehow, that is good for them. And then Jesus tells them that that very night, they would “all fall away on account of him.”

What a thing to say! To the men who had given up everything to follow Him, Jesus now tells them that they do not have the courage to stay with Him. Perhaps it sounded like a challenge. And Peter was never one to shrink from such a thing; his words are immortalized in the story and in most of our minds. We have perhaps thought the same, that we would rather die than disown Jesus. But maybe in our innermost thoughts, we are glad that we have never faced such a decision.

“Even if I have to die with you, I will never disown you.” But Peter didn’t know what was coming. His heart was in the right place. He wanted to stand and be faithful. To show Jesus just how much He meant to Peter.

We know how the rest of the story goes. Poor Peter can’t even stay awake, let alone stand by Jesus when the moment comes. He tried, but got it wrong.

The part of the story that amazes me is Jesus’s compassion for the brash men who made claims of being strong and diligent and faithful to Him. He knew their weakness and loved them anyway. They did all abandon Him. And Peter called down curses upon himself rather than admit he knew Jesus. And still, Jesus loved him and used him. That gives me hope. Jesus came for people like Peter, for people like me who want to stand straight but find their spine isn’t equal to the task. He came for you too.

Prayer: Jesus, are there times when I have not stood with or for you? Help me to see the times when I can say, “yes, I know Him.” Give me the courage and the voice to speak up when I am asked about you.

Shalom,

Pastor Mark

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April 1, 2023

Palm Sunday

“I urge you, brothers, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God—this is your spiritual act of worship.” (Romans 12:1, NIV)

“Please turn in your hymnals to page 158,” says the pastor, “and bring your sheep to the front to be slaughtered.”

That’s not exactly what we hear in church every weekend. In the Old Testament, worship and sacrifice went hand-in-hand, but today these two are not as easily connected. Maybe they should be.

Do we ever grumble about a praise song or hymn that was so old, or so blah. Have we ever complained about the music in general, about the children, about some adults, about the preacher, about the choir, about the time, about the noise? When we do it’s not our finer moments. It’s normal and okay to have preferences. But what is concerning is how we respond when things are done in worship that don’t fit someone’s personal preferences.

Complaining and grumbling reveal a heart of selfishness and entitlement. On the other hand, I can choose to sacrifice having it “my way.” I can peacefully and joyfully sit through a song I don’t like, realizing that the church is not there to serve me. I am here to worship God—the God who unselfishly sacrificed His Son for me and all of us!  Could you imagine how noisy worship would be with animals present every week?! J

Thankfully we don’t offer animals to God anymore (too messy on the carpet), but we are still called to sacrifice in our worship gatherings. Let’s keep our preferences aside and turn our focus on God. After all worship is all about God.  And as St. Paul reminds us in Romans, everywhere and in everything that we live sacrificially for God is true worship.

“The church exists to train its member through the practice of the presence of God to be servants of others, to the end that Christlikeness may become common property.”  William Adams Brown (clergyman and theologian)

Shalom,

Pastor Mark

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March 24, 2023

Lent week 5, 2023

“You have been believers so long now that you ought to be teaching others.” Hebrews 5:12

He walked confidently up to the pastor one Sunday morning, introduced himself and said he’d been attending for over a month. The teaching met his standards, he said; the music was acceptable, and he was content with the children’s and youth ministries. He was married, he said, and had several children. When the pastor asked where they were, he explained that they weren’t yet allowed to attend; he wanted to first check us out to make sure the products and services were in line with what he felt his family needed.

This wasn’t so much about theology as it was about customer service. Actually, this wasn’t so much about worship of God either as it was about church shopping on behalf of his family, looking to find a church that would meet their personal needs.  I understand this on one level, but don’t on another.

Since we’ve grown up in a society that over the last 50 years has increasingly promoted individualism, that we are the center of the universe, we evaluate everything on its ability to meet our needs. Every church pastor in our culture has had people leave their churches because they’re not “being fed” or their family’s needs aren’t being met.  I know that we’re all the sheep of God, and sheep require a shepherd to feed them. But there must come a time when we become like shepherds helping in the feeding of others. In North America we have heard that we are facing a crisis of being overweight. Is this also true in the arena of personal spirituality? Are we too much about being fed and too little about exercising our faith, feeding others, caring for others with Christ’s love? Too little about serving as Jesus came to serve, setting for us the example?

Do I need to make any changes in my life as a follower of Jesus so that I become less and less focused on simply meeting my needs, and more and more focused on truly worshipping the living God with all of my life?

Shalom,

Pastor Mark

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March 18, 2023

O Lord, you have examined my heart and know everything about me” (Psalm 139:1).

Have you ever felt like your prayers were sluggish at best?

There have been times in my life when it seemed as if everyone wanted me to pray aloud at group gatherings. So I would pray, in properly respectful yet down-to-earth tones, choosing my words carefully. And afterwards people said, “oh you should be a pastor”.  Well God did call me to be a pastor but I fell into the trap of mimicking my public “performances of praying in front of people” in my private times with God. It was during one of these times, late at night, that I felt God trying to speak to my heart: ‘Mark, exactly who are you praying for?’

For too long I had been so bent on shaping my prayers for audiences that I’d forgotten I was whispering directly into the ear, the heart of God.

I learned something anew: When we come to God in prayer, we must come as we are. No amount of flowery words will impress God. He knows our sinful thoughts and secret desires better than we do. We can’t fool him with impressive praying.  Just pray as I am, share from my heart to His, and listen.  I’m still learning this.

No, if we want to be people who passionately pursue intimacy with God, we must first and foremost have the courage to approach Him honestly, completely revealing who we are, what we’ve done, and how we feel each time we call His name. To do less than that is an insult to God and to the miracle of prayer he’s given us.

So consider this, when you/I pray, are we always aware that we’re whispering directly into the ear/heart of God? Jesus certainly did, especially when He hung on the cross.

In prayer, it is better to have a heart without words, than words without a heart—John Bunyan (British writer & preacher)

Shalom,

Pastor Mark

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March 11, 2023

As we journey with Jesus through the season of Lent, heading towards Holy Week with the trial, crucifixion, death, and burial of Jesus, we are reminded in John 4 about exactly who Jesus would be dying for.

St. John 4:1-42 is the story of Jesus’ conversation with a Samaritan woman at Jacob’s well. The story stands in stark contrast to the conversation Jesus had with a religious leader named Nicodemus in St. John 3:1-17 (which we spoke of last Sunday). The Gospel of John uses contrast as one of its major literary devices.

Jesus travelled through Samaria on His way to Galilee. The Jewish people–who lived in Judea to the south and Galilee to the north–despised the people of Samaria. This was a 700-year feud. The rivalry started in 1 Kings 12 when Jeroboam rebelled against King Rehoboam. Ten of the twelve tribes of Israel seceded from the united kingdom, thus splitting the children of Israel into two kingdoms. The capital of the rebels was Samaria in the north. This split into northern and southern kingdoms meant that the centre of worship was still in Jerusalem in the south, therefore the people in the northern kingdom had no access to the worship centre. They then built their own worship centres, each one with a golden calf. But they then infused the local religious beliefs of pagan gods and styles of worship into their own. Then the Assyrians conquered the northern Kingdom and by the time of Jesus these people of God had become so inter-married with foreigners that they were no longer considered real Jews.

The heart of the Good News of salvation in and through Jesus is revealed through the contrasts in these two stories. First century Palestine was a patriarchal society. In this story a woman sees who Jesus really is, trusts him, and shares the good news with her entire village, while a powerful man (a Jewish religious leader) remains befuddled. There are two possible reasons why the man is named, and the woman is not. First, Nicodemus shows up later in John’s gospel and defends Jesus (see John 7:45-52), thus he needed to be identified. Second, while Nicodemus represents a particular person as well as a particular group of people (the Jewish religious leaders who should know), the woman represents the world. She represents all the “outsiders” that the religious elite hated but that God loves. Being unnamed makes her a universal figure. Not only this but, Jesus breaks down the insider vs. outsider dichotomy upon which most religious systems are constructed. The good news of Jesus’ message is for all people, the world.

The setting of each scene in John matters. Things that happen in Galilee tend toward the positive message. Things that happen in Jerusalem expose the darkness and blindness of the religious establishment. Here it is obvious that the religious leader is in the dark and the religious outsider stands in the light.

Further, Jesus said at the end of his conversation with Nicodemus,

“For all who do evil hate the light and do not come to the light, so that their deeds may not be exposed. But those who do what is true come to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that their deeds have been done in God.” (John 3:20, 21) The woman was honest with Jesus about who she was and was open to receive something from him: Living Water. She stood in the light.

Nicodemus wanted to talk about proper doctrine and the faith. The woman trusted Jesus and acted on it. She quickly proclaimed to her people what she had seen and experienced in Jesus. And they all came out to meet Jesus, and many of them believed on Him. Jesus told Nicodemus that God loves the world in John 3:16. The world means all the people outside of the religious elites’ inner circle of “God-loves-only-us” club. The woman demonstrates to the reader who Jesus meant by the world. It includes all people, even a woman from Samaria.

Shalom,

Pastor Mark

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March 3, 2023

Lent is an important tool in the inescapable battle that rages in all our hearts between worship and service of the Creator and worship and service of the creation. Lent calls us to remember once again that sin reduces us all to idolaters somehow, in some ways. It gives us a season to take time and reflect on things that have taken too strong a hold on us, things that we have come to crave too strongly and love too dearly. It reminds us that often things that we are holding onto tightly have actually taken an even tighter hold on us.

What has you in its hold? Don’t rush to answer. Stop and give this question some consideration.

• • What do you feel you can’t live without?
  • What has the ability to make or break your day?
  • What has the power to make you very sad?
  • What can produce almost instant happiness?
  • The loss of what would leave you a bit depressed?
  • What do you tend to attach your identity to?
  • What tends to control your wishes?
  • What do others have that causes you to envy?
  • If you could get just one thing, what would it be?
  • The absence of what tempts you to question God’s goodness?
  • What does your use of money tell you about what’s important to you?
  • What fills your fantasies and your dreams?
  • What would the videos of your last six weeks reveal about what has you in its hold?
  • What physical idols tempt you most?
  • What relational idols attract you the most?
  • Is there a place where you’re asking the creation to do what only the Creator can?

Let go of things you tend to prize. Let this season of sacrifice loosen your hands and free your heart. Let go of some of your comforts, things that have perhaps comforted you too much, so that your heart is free to seek a better Comforter.

Shalom,

Pastor Mark

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February 25, 2023

Here as we have begun time in the Season of Lent, I thought I would share with you a beautiful prayer by Alex Early, called:

A Ragamuffin’s Prayer

”Jesus, you have no idea how bad I’ve been.

Yes I do. In fact, I expected worse out of you than you expected out of yourself.

Jesus, what if I don’t ever get any better?

I’ll always love you.

Jesus, what if I do it again?

We’ll cross that bridge when we get there. I’ve got a plan.

Jesus, what if I just give up on you?

I’ll never quit on you.

Jesus, how do you expect me to forgive ______ when they’ve been so hurtful to me?

Just give them what you get from me. Grace. Just charge it to my account.

Jesus, but what about how insensitive they’ve been to me?

Charge that to my account too.

Jesus, I’m tired.

I’ll be your rest.

Jesus, are you mad at me?

You’re the apple of my eye. My beloved.

Jesus, what do you want me to do for you?

Don’t be so quick to work for me. Everybody wants to work for me. I want you to know me and live in my love and acceptance of you.

Jesus, what if I fall asleep when I pray?

I’m happy you feel comfortable in my presence. Rest well. I’ll see you when you wake up.

Jesus, what if I don’t understand all of the Bible?

I am the Word of the word.

Jesus, I don’t know where I belong.

You belong with me.

Jesus, what if I’m lazy?

You’re not lazy. You’re just distracted. We can change that.

Jesus, I’m mad.

I’ll take your anger.

Jesus, I’m disappointed.

Keep looking at me.

Jesus, I’m sad.

I know. I see you right there. Want to talk to me about it?

Jesus, I’m drunk.

You’re my friend.

Jesus, I stole.

I’ll take care of it.

Jesus, I’m lustful.

Give me your heart.

Jesus, I hate myself.

My love for you will drown your hate of you.

Jesus, they told me I could lose my salvation. Is that true?

If you could lose it, don’t you think you would’ve lost it by now? I don’t drop anything. Especially my people. You’re safe.”

Shalom,

Pastor Mark

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February 17, 2023

From the Sermon on the Mount, St. Matthew 5:13-16, The Message:

“Let me tell you why you’re here. You are here to be salt seasoning that brings out the God flavors of this earth. If you lose your saltiness, how will people taste Godliness? You’ve lost your usefulness and you’ll end up in the garbage. Here’s another way to put it. You’re here to be light, bringing out the God colors in the world. God is not a secret to be kept. We’re going public with this, as public as a city on a hill. If I make you light bearers, you don’t think I’m going to hide you under a bucket, do you? I’m putting you on a light stand. Now that I’ve put you on a hilltop on a light stand, shine. Keep open house. Be generous with your lives and by opening up to others you’ll prompt people to open up with God, our generous father in heaven.”

Do I want to be salt and light in my actions, to be salt and light in my attitude, to be salt and light in my availability?  Am I open to the opportunities God brings my way every day?

I believe when we are available to what God does, we become His hands and His feet, salt and light in a world that needs salt and light. Salt and light, Jesus said, need to be true to their nature or they’re not salt and light. They’re useless. If we’re followers of Christ, God is inviting us to be true to His nature.

Jesus uses this very common thing to say, “You are to be salt in the world.” What does that mean? You are to be a preservative. Salt was used to keep things from spoiling. Salt is an enhancer. It made things taste better. Who wants to eat corn on the cob without salt? For those of you on a low salt diet, I’m sorry, because salt brings out the flavor. It brings value to what it’s added to.

Here’s what Jesus is saying. As a believer, you’re to bring value to where you are. You may be the only Christian where you work and that isn’t easy. God is inviting you to bring value, to be salt. You may be the only Christian in your family. God is inviting you to bring value to those relationships, to be salt and light. What would the world be like without light? Light illuminates; light attracts; light dispels the darkness. The most important light in my house isn’t an expensive halogen; it’s the little night light because that’s the one which helps us in the middle of the night. It shines a path. It dispels the darkness and no matter how dark it gets, the darkness can never extinguish the light.

God is inviting you and me to be salt and light, to make a difference, God’s difference in people’s lives!

Shalom,

Pastor Mark

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February 11, 2023

Jesus’ Self-Portrait: The beatitudes.

Jesus says: “Blessed are the poor, the gentle, those who mourn, those who hunger and thirst for uprightness, the merciful, the pure in heart, the peacemakers, and those who are persecuted in the cause of uprightness” (Matthew 5:3-10). These words offer us a self-portrait of Jesus. Jesus is the Blessed One. And the face of the Blessed One shows poverty, gentleness, grief, hunger, and thirst for uprightness, mercy, purity of heart, a desire to make peace, and the signs of persecution.

Part of the message of the Gospel is this: Become like Jesus. We have His self-portrait. When we keep that in front of our eyes, we will soon learn what it means to follow Jesus and become like Him.

Jesus, the Blessed One, is poor. The poverty of Jesus is much more than an economic or social poverty. Jesus is poor because He freely chose powerlessness over power, vulnerability over defensiveness, dependency over self-sufficiency. As the great “Song of Christ” so beautifully expresses: “He … did not count equality with God something to be grasped. But He emptied himself, … becoming as human beings are” (Philippians 2:6-7). This is the poverty of spirit that Jesus chose to live. Jesus calls us who are His followers to live our lives with that same poverty.

Shalom,

Pastor Mark

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February 4, 2023

This weekend every year our denomination recognizes the invaluable work & witness of Presbyterian World Service & Development.

So here is a little bit of info about:

Presbyterian World Service & Development

For over 75 years, PWS&D has been working with partners overseas and Canadians here at home to make positive changes in our global village. PWS&D has a wide variety of programs that work to help communities overcome poverty, recover from emergency situations and provide new futures of hope for vulnerable people.

PWS&D works with churches and organizations seeking to transform their communities by promoting justice, peace and the integrity of creation. PWS&D supports people and communities according to their need and regardless of faith.

With the generous support of Presbyterians in Canada we are working with local partners around the world to address the root causes of poverty and create new futures of hope and opportunity through programs addressing:

Food security: Communities are learning innovative and sustainable agriculture practices to increase crop yields, improve nutrition, and build resilience to environmental changes.

Livelihoods: Families are empowered to meet their basic needs through education, skills training and small business development. When one person becomes self-reliant they are able to improve their quality of life, shape their future, and lift up others in their community.

Health: By ensuring mothers and children receive the medical care they need, caring for people affected by HIV and AIDS, and providing access to water and sanitation programs, families and communities are growing healthier and stronger.

Human rights: Injustices are combated through a shared commitment to human rights, with a special focus on promoting and protecting rights for women, children, workers, subsistence farmers, persons with disabilities, and refugees.

Refugees: No one is a refugee by choice. By sponsoring refugees to Canada, and advocating for and supporting refugees and displaced people around the world, families are able to rebuild their lives without fear of persecution.

Emergency relief: In the aftermath of conflict and disaster, immediate and long-term relief ensures the most vulnerable people have access to food, shelter and medical attention, and are able to recover from economic loss and emotional trauma.

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January 27, 2023

Bible Verse: “Therefore I tell you, her sins, which are many, are forgiven—for she loved much. But he who is forgiven little, loves little.” Luke 7:47

“If I am able to look at the world with the eyes of God’s love and discover that God’s vision is… of an all-giving and forgiving father who does not measure out his love to his children according to how well they behave, then I quickly see that my only true response can be deep gratitude.”   Henri J. M. Nouwen, The Return of the Prodigal Son 

Imagine you and your neighbour work at the same manufacturing plant, until one day you both lose your job. Soon, you’ve both missed payments on your home, and before long you’re both called down to the bank, “Come in and let’s talk.”

You see your neighbour sitting in the lobby, and the man behind the oversize mahogany desk calls you into his office first. “You’ve missed some payments.”

Yeah, I know.

“You owe $35,000 on your loan.”

Yeah, I know, but it’s more than I’ve got.

“But here’s what I’m going to do,” the banker says, “I’m going to write off the loan.”

You skip out of his office and past your neighbour and declare, “What a top-notch banker!”

Your neighbour goes in for her turn and has the same conversation, but her debt was $350,000! Both of you are grateful, but who’s the bigger fan? Your neighbour, right? She’s a raving fan; everywhere she goes, she says, “You’ve got to meet this banker!”

This is the story Jesus tells in Luke 7:41-43, minus the mahogany desk.

“Simon,” Jesus says to His dinner host, who’s struggling with the sinful woman washing Jesus’ feet, “Which of them will love him more?”

Simon replied, “I suppose the one who had the bigger debt forgiven.”

“You have judged correctly,” Jesus said, (Luke 7:42b-43).

When Simon tried to define this woman by her sin, Jesus flipped it around and defined her by His forgiveness.

“Her many sins have been forgiven—as her great love has shown” (Luke 7:47). She’s a raving fan.

The lie tells us that the worse our sin, the less eligible we are for redemption. But Jesus tells us that the worse our sin, the more grateful we are for redemption—the more grateful we are for Him.

Jesus, the more sinful I am, the more grateful I will be. This statement flips my own logic upside down and inside out. Show me how to rest in Your forgiveness with a grateful heart. Amen.

Shalom,

Pastor Mark

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January 21, 2023

“Then those who were at table with him began to say among themselves, “Who is this, who even forgives sins?” And he said to the woman, “Your faith has saved you; go in peace.”” Luke 7:49-50

Please read the whole passage of St. Luke 7:36-50

“Deliberate cruelty is not forgivable. It is the one unforgivable thing, in my opinion, and it is the one thing of which I have never, never been guilty.” Blanche DuBois, A Streetcar Named Desire by Tennessee Williams

“But you don’t know what I’ve done.”

No, I don’t, but I can guess:

Here you could name any number of serious, and what most of our world consider the unforgiveable sins, offences.

That list could go on and on, and we struggle to forgive ourselves. Surely a holy God cannot forgive us or love us either. And so we’re desperate to know: Is there any hope?

Luke 7:36-50 holds an example of God’s answer for us. Jesus has been invited to dine with one of the Pharisees named Simon. Jesus is reclined for dinner, propping his weight on one elbow, and extending his feet away from the table (this was the way they ate dinner in those days), when a woman enters the story.

“When a certain immoral woman from that city heard Jesus was eating there, she brought a beautiful alabaster jar filled with expensive perfume.”(Luke 7:37)

“Immoral” or “sinful” in this passage can be translated “line crosser.” Imagine the awkward hush that fell upon the room as she entered. Imagine the heightened tension as she cried on the guest of honour’s feet and wiped them clean with her hair. Such a gesture further proved her sinfulness, for a woman of good social standing would have kept her hair covered at all times, and most certainly would not have entered that room.

Let me ask you, what might you have done if this were your dinner party? You invited the pastor over, and a prostitute is now kissing his feet — would you speak up?

Jesus’ host says nothing, but he does mutter something to himself, “If [Jesus] were a prophet, he would know who is touching him and what kind of woman she is—that she is a sinner” (Luke 7:39).

Ironically, Jesus knew his thoughts and spoke directly to them: “Simon, I have something to tell you…” (v. 40).

Jesus is about to speak into Simon’s thoughts toward this woman. The days of ostracizing those considered too sinful needed to end. Jesus spoke of how when God forgives the people we typically think ought to be unforgivable, those forgiven people are so touched and set free by such loving forgiveness that they in turn love back deeply.

Jesus, open my ears to hear what You have to say about those irredeemable moments in my life and in the lives of others. You allowed a woman marked by poor choices to engage with You intimately. This is my hope. Lead me into this intimacy. Amen.

Shalom,

Pastor Mark

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January 14, 2023

“¹⁰ Anyone who speaks against the Son of Man can be forgiven, but anyone who blasphemes the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven.” Luke 12:10 NLT

Please also read Colossians 3:1-17

 “To sing a wrong note is insignificant, but to sing without passion is unforgivable.” – Ludwig van Beethoven

Is there a line you can cross—a point of no return—that declares you unforgivable? Some of the more philosophical types are thinking, Ah, yes. Absolutely. There has to be a line.

But where would that line be?

Perhaps you’d respond, “Hitler,” because Hitler always comes up in these conversations. I mean, surely a man who kills one person might find forgiveness and redemption. Perhaps even an individual who kills six others can be forgiven. But 6 million? The line must exist somewhere between 6 and 6 million. And if we argue this is true of Hitler, then it’s an easy jump to argue it’s also true for human traffickers, mafia hit-men, terrorists, — the list can go on!

Are there certain people who are beyond redemption, who are unforgivable?

It’s time for the theologians to jump in, saying, “In Luke 12:10, Jesus drew a line! He says that ‘anyone who blasphemes the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven.’ This is the line of unforgiveness—the point of no return.”

But what does it mean to blaspheme? Scripture repeatedly teaches that a role of the Holy Spirit is to draw us into a relationship with God. So, if the Holy Spirit tries to draw you into a relationship with God, and you say, “No, thanks,” then you’ve blasphemed His Spirit. To say, “No, thanks,” is the spiritual equivalent of giving the Holy Spirit the finger. Endlessly rejecting God’s saving work is, according to God’s word, unforgivable.

Did you notice what isn’t written in Luke 12:10? It doesn’t say that anyone who has killed 6 million people will not be forgiven. Nor does it say that terrorists, or liars, or cheaters, or murderers, won’t be forgiven.The idea that the worse your sin, the less eligible you are for redemption, for forgiveness is a lie. It cannot stand in light of Jesus.

If you’ve bought into that lie for yourself or for others, the Scriptures have some really great news for you!!!

Jesus, I have a list of things I think should be beyond forgiveness. But if my list doesn’t match Your list, then it’s time to crumple mine up and toss it in the trash. Give me eyes to see the world not only as a people who need Your redemption, but also as a people who can experience Your redemption, starting with myself. Amen.

Shalom,

Pastor Mark

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January 7, 2023

“Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.” Hebrews 13:8

And, please read Ephesians 4:1-32.

Here is but a small part of that chapter: “³¹ Get rid of all bitterness, rage, anger, harsh words, and slander, as well as all types of evil behaviour. ³² Instead, be kind to each other, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, just as God through Christ has forgiven you.”  NLT

 “I wondered if that was how forgiveness budded, not with the fanfare of epiphany, but with pain gathering its things, packing up, and slipping away unannounced in the middle of the night.” – Khaled Hosseini, The Kite Runner

The Kite Runner is an incredible book. It’s not an easy story, but it’s a powerful one about two boys who do everything together, including kite fighting. Amir fights the other kites, while Hassan chases down their kite when the string is severed. When Hassan takes longer than usual to return, his friend goes searching for him and finds Hassan cornered in an alley. Too afraid to help, Amir cowers in the shadows as the bullies abuse his friend in cruel and perverse ways. Amir then pretended he never saw a thing, crossing a line into unforgivable territory – not by doing something sinful, but by neglecting to do something good. The two boys–once like brothers–experienced a wall in their friendship.

Another literary example is Fantine in Les Misérables, a prostitute who walks the streets, desperate and despondent. The songs sung by her character are filled with tangible hopelessness, as Fantine is convinced she’s crossed the line into the unforgivable and declares herself unlovable.

What’s your story? Are there events and choices you’ve made which haunt you, telling you that you’re beyond redemption? Do you listen to the voice of hopelessness that tells us we’re irredeemable. Do we pay too much attention to the lie that says, “The worse your sin is, the less eligible you are for redemption and the more unlovable you are.”

There is no line of demarcation declaring us too filthy and too wretched for Jesus.

“Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever” (Hebrews 13:8). Just as He embraced broken people then, He’ll embrace people who sin now. So, if you’re convinced that a holy God will never find you lovable, we’ll spend our weekends this month being reminded by His truth that “Jesus loves me this I know!”

Lord, it’s one thing to say You came to save sinners, but it’s an entirely different thing to know my own sin and still believe that You love me. This month, soak me in the truth that sin doesn’t disqualify me from Your love. Indeed, soak my soul in Your truth that Jesus died and rose again to forgive my sins! Amen.

Shalom,

Pastor Mark

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