Posted on: September 15th, 2024 by St. Stephens Downsview
Introduction
I want to share with you some words from John’s gospel, chapter three, verses 14 to 15. Jesus said, “And just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in Him may have eternal life.”
Early this past week, while visiting another Anglican congregation, I joined them for their afternoon Eucharist. During the confession and absolution, the priest typically says, “Dear friends in Christ, God is steadfast in love and infinite in mercy. He welcomes sinners and invites them to his table.” However, on this occasion, the celebrant altered the words to: “He welcomes us and invites us to his table.” This change struck me as conspicuous, especially for those used to hearing the original wording. I don’t know why the celebrant made that change, but it got me thinking about our modern-day sensitivities toward language, especially when it comes to the word “sinners.”
The Significance of Words
Our sensitivities might deem words like “sinners” as harsh or outdated religious speak, potentially unhelpful for our self-esteem. We might worry about the psychological impact of repeatedly thinking of ourselves as sinners. However, it’s crucial to remind ourselves that sin is more than merely doing the wrong thing. It represents a fundamentally broken relationship between God and creation, a malady remedied solely by the gift of salvation through Jesus Christ.
Losing the language of sinery and sinners could dilute the message and power of the gospel. If we fail to name that which is broken within us, we might soon find we have little need for the remedy. Acknowledging our sin is crucial because recognition of the problem is the first step towards seeking the cure provided by God through Jesus Christ.
Teaching the Next Generation
The application for baptism states that children must be taught their need for repentance and faith, which means they must be taught that they are sinners. Without this recognition, there can be no genuine repentance. This teaching is profoundly counter-cultural, going against contemporary beliefs that espouse inherent goodness and self-sufficiency. Yet, this acknowledgment of sin is essential for spiritual growth and is deeply embedded in our faith journey.
The world often wants us to think that we are good, mostly good. While there is a positive affirmation in recognizing our part in God’s good creation, we must also acknowledge the brokenness and distortion caused by human sin. Our thoughts, words, and actions impact others and the physical world around us. This mutual impact is evident in phenomena like climate change, reminding us that we are part of creation, not owners of it.
The Remedy for Sin
Acknowledging our sin allows us to see the depth of our brokenness and begin the journey to recovery. Much like the Israelites in the wilderness who were saved by looking at the bronze serpent, we are called to look upon Jesus Christ lifted high upon the cross. This unexpected remedy—Christ crucified—proclaims the wisdom and power of God to heal and save us from sin.
Paul’s letter to the Corinthians highlights how unexpected this remedy was to Jews and Gentiles of his day. Yet, Christ crucified remains the essential remedy for our sin. It’s not about our righteousness, but our faith in the remedy God provides.
Conclusion: A Call to Faith
In faith, when we are baptized into Christ, we are reborn into God’s new family, the universal church. This new life in Christ calls us to walk in daily communion with God, allowing the fruit of the Spirit—love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, and self-control—to grow within us.
Friends, as we prepare to baptize our little ones, let us embrace this newness of life and commit them to God. Let us fix our eyes upon Jesus, acknowledging our brokenness and embracing the remedy that only He provides. In doing so, we find salvation and eternal life, freely given by God through Jesus Christ, our Lord.
Posted on: September 1st, 2024 by St. Stephens Downsview
Friends, I want to share with you this morning some words from the letter of James, chapter 1, verse 18. There, James writes that in fulfillment of His own purpose, He gave us birth by the word of truth so that we would become a kind of first fruits of His creatures. In just over two weeks from now, the Thursday evening Bible study will begin a study of the book of Job. As I’ve said a few Sundays ago, Job falls squarely within what is called Israel’s wisdom tradition, asking the basic questions about the life of wisdom—how we live wisely in this world and its connections to the good things or the bad things which happen to us in this life.
We all experience some good, we all experience some bad. Is there a way to live in such a way that determines whether one happens or the other? If you’ve ever read the book of Job, you will know that it begins by making it clear that Job was a man whose righteousness was unmatched. There was none to be found in the whole earth like Job, yet, before the end of the first chapter, servants come to Job, one right after the other, all bringing news of tragic loss to this righteous man. And Job loses everything. All of his property. All of his children. All that he has, he loses everything.
### The Unpredictable Nature of Life
Many in Job’s day lived within a predictable worldview where bad things happen to bad people, and good things happened to good people. So the good or the bad that happened to you in this life was understood to be a sort of indication of the kind of person that you were. And so the book presses the question: How do we live faithfully within a world that is perhaps a little more unpredictable than we might have thought? How do we continue to live faithfully?
Job was a righteous man beyond dispute, yet all of these terrible things happened to him. Our present time is likewise fraught with unpredictability. There’s the ongoing war between Russia and Ukraine and many other places around the world, increasing conflicts between the government of Israel and Hamas, now threatening to widen across the entire region. There is a recent declaration of MPOX as a public health emergency of international concern. Closer to home, there is the unpredictability of the aftermath of presidential elections with our neighbors to the south. What is the world going to look like after November?
In Canada, there are serious challenges with providing housing, providing health care, and concerns about the cost of living. I went into the store the other day, and a container of milk that once cost $5.90-something now costs more than $7.00. I have to start giving my children water. The cost of living is increasing. Just the other week, the Federal Labor Board had to intervene to order thousands of rail workers back to work, preventing what would have been an economically devastating work stoppage in the nation.
### Living Faithfully Amidst Uncertainty
With tragic news seemingly coming from every direction, we might, like Job, ask the question: How do we continue to live faithfully in a world that seems so unpredictable? It seems as if the bottom is always ready to fall out. How do we live faithfully? As we soon head into fall when the leaves begin to change color and life seems to begin to fade, today’s readings are particularly timely and helpful. They inspire us to live the faith we confess in the presence of the God who loves us, the source of beauty, and the depth of our heart.
At the heart of the faith we confess is this grand movement from death to life. We see it most clearly in the life of this One who has overcome the power of sin and death and has brought us to life and immortality. That is what Christianity is about—this movement from death to life. James writes in fulfillment of His own purpose, He gave us birth by the word of truth so we would become a kind of first fruits of His creatures. We are the first to be brought forth with the expectation of more to come.
### The Call for Renewal
Let everyone be quick to listen, slow to speak, slow to anger. Your anger does not produce God’s righteousness. Therefore, rid yourselves of all sordidness and rank growth of wickedness and welcome with meekness the implanted Word that has the power to save your souls. It sounds like the seed being planted—the implanted Word that has the power to save your souls.
Here then, friends, is the foundation, the starting point for new life, for a new spiritual beginning, right in the midst of the old, right in the midst of the unpredictable. That is when we welcome the implanted Word of God and allow it to germinate, to grow, to bring forth fruit, a new life in our lives.
If there was ever a time that we needed a new beginning or new life, it is now. So as we consider what it means to be the people of God, what it means to remain steadfast, that’s what we are called to do. What does it mean to remain steadfast? Stay steadfast like Job. And to live faithfully in the midst of an unpredictable world. This world needs steady people, right? This world needs stability.
### Embracing the New
In our Gospel reading for today, the Pharisees, whom we heard about, had hearts that had become so hardened in their attempts to obey all these traditions of the elders, so much so that they could not welcome with meekness and with humility the new thing that God was doing right in their midst through Jesus Christ. Here was the living Word, and they could not receive it. They were so consumed with the tradition of the elders, with the external rituals of purification, that they missed the point. Purity is fundamentally a matter of the heart. That’s where it begins.
Jesus said there’s nothing outside a person that by going in can defile. But it is the things that come out that defile. He says from within, from the human heart, that evil intentions come. Jesus was and is fundamentally about the business of changing hearts. I can’t change your heart. Your neighbor can’t change your heart. Only God changes hearts. Jesus is about the business of changing hearts.
Our lives are transformed, and then when our lives are transformed, we see the world around us being transformed. His Word is not just His Word—it is literally life-giving. It is life-changing. It is world-changing. It is meant to have a tangible and measurable impact within this world.
### Living Out Our Faith
The Pharisees simply could not get on board with this shift from the old, much like in party politics that we see today. They were determined to make things seem new by their own efforts. How often in our own social, political, professional relationships, or in our own spiritual lives have we tried to convey the outward impression that all is well when the inward reality, just beneath the surface, is that there is very little life and mostly decay? We try to make things seem new by our own efforts.
As we think about what it means to be the people of God in an ever-changing and unpredictable world, let us be reminded that this new life we anticipate in Christ does not first begin with our own efforts. It doesn’t begin with our own plans. It doesn’t begin with our own strategies. But with God. It begins with God. It always begins with what God has implanted and is implanting in each of us, and what He will bring to fruition according to His time and purposes.
Our calling is not new; we have always been called to receive what God gives and act faithfully in obedience to it. Whatever it is, it is right in front of us. What is new is the renewed call to welcome this kind of renewal itself. In other words, we can’t think of ourselves as stones. Amen. But we must always be willing to welcome this implanted Word of God. James writes, be doers of the Word and not merely hearers who deceive themselves. He says, religion that is pure and undefiled before God the Father is this: to care for the orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself unstained by the world.
### A Renewed Life in Our Community
So what might this new life look like in the life of this parish as a gathered community of believers in this place and beyond these four walls? What might this new life look like? It might look like considering the needs of our neighbor ahead of our own in whatever it is that we’re doing. It might look like serving the needs of the vulnerable in our midst, so much so that it almost looks like we’re washing their feet. That’s what the new life looks like. It might look like having the moral courage to admit our wrongdoing when we do wrong and then seeking the path of forgiveness and reconciliation. It might look like striving to live more simply in our choices and in our actions, and what we do day by day so that others may simply live.
Some of you may have heard that nowadays there’s something that’s called the under-consumption core or the under-consumption movement, where people are learning how important it is to live within your means. That’s not new, but apparently it’s a new movement. Live within your means and share with other people. Don’t buy more than you need. Give generously. Life is shorter than many of us often think, and time passes very quickly—faster than we realize. In another couple of months, I’ll be marking a milestone birthday. I’m still in denial. The time goes quickly, let me tell you.
So let us not waste our lives, friends, on frivolous endeavors and pursuits. But let us make it our aim to please this One who has created us. This goes much deeper than simply talking up or bragging about all the things that we do, which seem religious on the surface, because that too is a temptation. Emerging in this new life is about placing ourselves in a position of finding and indeed making space to be attentive to the living Word of God. What God is up to in our midst, keeping our eyes open.
### Engaging with the Word
Advent is coming soon. And what do we say in Advent? Keep awake. Keep alert. Pay attention. Many of us have been engaging in the study, meditation, and discussion of the Word through morning prayer and evening prayer, Tuesday evening, and Thursday evening Bible studies, or studies of the Word on our own. Some of you just had the wonderful opportunity to travel to Lancaster to see the live production of Daniel—a stellar example of faithfulness in the midst of change and unpredictability.
What is critical for us as followers of Christ is that we actually engage the written and living Word in a way that is meaningful and transformative. It’s not about opening your Bible and leaving it on the desk or putting it there to hold open the door. Actually engage it, read it, study it. I’d love to see so many more of us come together to engage in the study of God’s Word.
That’s how we begin to grow, receive that implanted Word. This transformation is a matter of the heart. As we strive to live faithfully in the midst of change and unpredictability, the proof will be our love for one another, the care that we show. Jesus talks about looking out for the orphans and the widows, right? What care are we showing to the vulnerable? The service we give to one another, especially the most vulnerable in our midst.
God is giving us every opportunity to live into a religion that is more than just words, a ministry that depends upon us welcoming and responding in love to the living Word.
Let us pray:
Blessed are you, Lord, our God, and the lover of our souls, the source of all beauty and the depth of passion. Strengthen and inspire us to do the Word we hear and to live the faith we confess. Amen.
