Mark 5:1-20 (Feb. 22, 2009)

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Mark M3 February 22, 2009

Text: Mark 5: 1-20


Big Idea: Through Jesus Christ, we are set free from evil.

This past week a woman driving with her young son in the back seat was gunned down in a targeted hit as she passed through a quiet Surrey neighbourhood Monday morning (hold up paper).

The four-year-old boy was distraught but not wounded, despite several bullets being shot into the driver's side window of the new Cadillac.

This past week a man was shot dead and a teenager wounded by gunfire as a result of an altercation that happened as a result of an early-afternoon home invasion Tuesday at a Fraser Street house here in Vancouver.

Most people consider Canada a peaceful country, but in the last couple of weeks it seems like here in Metro Vancouver there has been some kind of shooting of violent crime reported in the media every day.

Stephen Pinker, who has taught at Harvard and MIT wrote a Pulitzer Prize nominated book called The Blank Slate: The Modern Denial of Human Nature, argues against the popular notions that human beings are blank slates or noble savages.

Professor Pinker traces the pattern of cruelty that has come up repeatedly in history, cutting across all the lines of our political systems: evil is perpetuated by left-wing political systems like communism, right-wing political systems like fascism. There has been tremendous evil in the midst of democracy like the United States where they had slavery. Even in a country with a reputation as peaceful as ours, we’ve seen a lot violent crime.

Solzhenitsyn said the line separating good and evil passes not through states, nor between classes, nor between political parties either--but right through every human heart

Donald Miller in Blue Like Jazz says, “What is wrong with the world? I am what’s wrong with the world--it is me and it is you.”

The Bible affirms that, on the one hand, we are made in the image of God—glorious, like no other creature. But, on the other hand, we have been tainted by sin, and, therefore, have the shadow side.

Part of the reason that Jesus Christ came into our world was to destroy that darkness in us and in the world.

This morning, as we continue our series in the Gospel of Mark, we are going to look at how Jesus Christ confronts evil in a person.

If you have your Bibles, please turn to Mark 5:1-20:
Jesus Restores a Demon-Possessed Man


1 They went across the lake to the region of the Gerasenes. [a] 2 When Jesus got out of the boat, a man with an evil [b] spirit came from the tombs to meet him. 3 This man lived in the tombs, and no one could bind him anymore, not even with a chain. 4 For he had often been chained hand and foot, but he tore the chains apart and broke the irons on his feet. No one was strong enough to subdue him. 5 Night and day among the tombs and in the hills he would cry out and cut himself with stones.

6 When he saw Jesus from a distance, he ran and fell on his knees in front of him. 7 He shouted at the top of his voice, "What do you want with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? In God's name don't torture me!" 8 For Jesus had said to him, "Come out of this man, you evil spirit!"

9 Then Jesus asked him, "What is your name?"

"My name is Legion," he replied, "for we are many." 10 And he begged Jesus again and again not to send them out of the area.

11 A large herd of pigs was feeding on the nearby hillside. 12 The demons begged Jesus, "Send us among the pigs; allow us to go into them." 13 He gave them permission, and the evil spirits came out and went into the pigs. The herd, about two thousand in number, rushed down the steep bank into the lake and were drowned.

14 Those tending the pigs ran off and reported this in the town and countryside, and the people went out to see what had happened. 15 When they came to Jesus, they saw the man who had been possessed by the legion of demons, sitting there, dressed and in his right mind; and they were afraid. 16 Those who had seen it told the people what had happened to the demon-possessed man—and told about the pigs as well. 17 Then the people began to plead with Jesus to leave their region.

18 As Jesus was getting into the boat, the man who had been demon-possessed begged to go with him. 19 Jesus did not let him, but said, "Go home to your own people and tell them how much the Lord has done for you, and how he has had mercy on you." 20 So the man went away and began to tell in the Decapolis [c] how much Jesus had done for him. And all the people were amazed.

The text tells us that Jesus went across the lake to the region of the Gerasenes (v.1). It was at night and Jesus was sailing with his disciples to the region of Gerasenes, a place where the people were not Jews. We know that because these people were keeping pigs and the Jews regarded pigs as unclean.

Jesus goes to a graveyard in this place and comes face to face with a man who is possessed by an evil spirit (v. 2). Now some of us may think that in ancient times when they met a person with mental illness or seizures that they didn’t understand—because they couldn’t Google the symptoms and find out the real cause—they attributed those symptoms to evil spirits. This, of course, happened in certain times, but the writers of the Gospels as we see in the words of texts like Matthew 4:24 were able to distinguish between people who had had some kind of mental illness or seizures and those who were afflicted by demons.

The Bible teaches that just as there is a personal force of good in the world: God, there is a personal force of evil in the world: Satan.

Many people dismiss the idea of Satan, partly because of caricatures of Satan as a cartoon figure dressed in a red body suit with a pitchfork and horns. Obviously that’s simply a stereotypical representation, but the Bible affirms that just as there is a personal force of good in the world, God, there is also a personal force of evil, Satan.

Some people think that to believe in personal evil is naïve. But believing in personal evil is actually a more comprehensive way to look at the world. When we see evil in the world, whether it is the story of a woman from Nova Scotia like Penny Boudreau, who murdered her 12-year-old daughter to keep her boyfriend, or whether it is genocide that we have seen in places like Rwanda, the Balkans, or Iraq, you either conclude that the reason why people perpetuated this kind of evil against people who, in some cases, were family, friends, neighbours that got along with for years was because they had bad genes or because they had bad upbringing. And certainly evil, in many cases, may be the result of genetic predisposition toward violence or because of bad upbringing, but some of the evil we have seen in our world (the holocaust, the genocide in Rwanda, the evil Japanese perpetuated leading up the World War II) is more plausibly explained by the fact that there is some kind of personal evil in the world that guides us along and provokes us, as well.

When I was working in Japan and I would ride the subways of Tokyo, sometimes I’d look at the Japanese people on the train and think hmm… they don’t look like natural born killers, they just look sleepy. I can’t help but believe that part of the reason they were led to commit such horrific violent crimes leading up to and during World War II was because they were also led along by some kind of force of evil.

That is not to say that human beings are not responsible for the evil they perpetuate. It is simply saying, as the Bible affirms, that the forces of evil are outside of us as well.

Just as there is a personal force of good in the world, God, there is also a personal force of evil.

The man that Jesus encounters here in Mark 5 has been possessed by evil. When the man saw Jesus from a distance, he ran and fell on his knees in front of him, and shouted at the top of his voice, “What do you want of me, Jesus, son of the Most High? In God’s name don’t torture me!” This is the voice of the demon speaking from within the man. The demon (named Legion because there were many demons--the size of Roman legion was typically between 4000-5000), begged Jesus, “Do not send us into the sea!” There was a large herd of pigs nearby on the hillside and the demons begged Jesus to send them into the pigs. Jesus gave them permission. The evil spirits came out, went into the pigs, and a herd of about 2000 in number rushed down the steep bank into the lake and were drowned.

Part of the reason that God became a human being in Jesus Christ was to confront the evil in the world and the evil in us. Jesus announced that the Kingdom of God, God’s rule over the world, was coming into the world through him, and through his death on the cross Jesus Christ would defeat the forces of darkness in the world.

So what does this story have to show us?

Part of what the story shows us is that evil binds us.

The man in the story has great power. People have tried to bind him in iron chains by hand and foot, but they have not been able to subdue him.

In the Faustian legends a person gives his soul to evil in exchange for some kind of power: youth, knowledge, wealth.

When we give ourselves over to evil in some way, like the man in the story who has been in chains and confined to this grave yard, we do gain some kind of power, but like the man story, we are also enslaved in some way.

In some cases, the enslavement is obvious.

If we give ourselves to drugs, we gain pleasure, but also enslavement.

But, in other cases, the enslavement may be more subtle.

Jim Collins, author of acclaimed business leadership books like Good to Great, wrote about the dynamics of the scandals at Enron and Worldcom…

As people compromised their integrity they gained certain things: money, power… but they also get trapped through their choices.

Collins says if you told these executives 10 years ahead of time, "Hey, let's cook the books, cheat people out of their pensions, and all get rich," they would never go along with it.

But that's rarely how most people get drawn into activities that they later regret. When you are at step A, it feels inconceivable to jump all the way to step Z, if step Z involves something that is a total breach of your values. But if you go from step A to step B, then step B to step C, then step C to step D…then someday, you wake up and discover that you are at step Y, and the move to step Z comes about much easier.

In Milton Mayer's essay, "They Thought They Were Free," he explains the process this way: A farmer never notices the corn growing minute by minute. But if he stays in the field long enough, he wakes up one day to discover that it has grown over his head. The people who get involved in scandals weren't necessarily bad at the outset. But through a series of gradual steps, they ended up in bad situations—in over their heads…. They are trapped…

Perhaps a less obvious form of compromise would be people who give themselves to work and the advancement of their careers—they gain power and money as they advance through their careers there is a sense in which they are possessed now by their work.

When we give ourselves to evil in either a big or small way, we get some kind of power or benefit in return, but we find ourselves enslaved…

The story shows us that when it comes to confronting evil in ourselves and in other people that we need, not just good education and discipline, but we also need the grace of God to deliver us. Education and discipline are important, but we also need the intervention of Jesus Christ.

The respected psychiatrist and writer Gerald May in his wise book, Addiction and Grace, tells the story of a middle-aged steel worker who had been struggling with alcohol addiction for many years. He had reformed his behavior with alcoholism at least 7 times and had been dry for as long as 8 months at a time. He had been involved in AA. He had hit several rock bottoms, but they did not free him. His wife had left him twice because of his drinking, and his children seldom visited. He managed to keep his job, but it was in jeopardy because of his erratic performance. His attempts to stop drinking had been complicated and turbulent, full of failed resolutions and eroded will power. He often experienced periods of condemnation and depression. But one day as he was walking down a sidewalk everything changed. It wasn’t that he decided to quit. It was just that he didn’t take the next drink. He still exercised discipline and intention, but as he described it later, “I didn’t find the desire to drink any more, just to not drink.” He continued with AA because it helped him to stay vigilant.

Grace.

Chris Reynolds, who has been part of this community for a little over a year, shared with me how he had this experience a few of weeks ago. He and his son Mark, an alcoholic who has been sober for 13 months, went to Mark’s one-year AA anniversary, expecting about 30-50 people, but there were 700 in attendance--about 150 patients and former patients, and the rest were supporters. Chris said they started the day with the 30-day patients who were just happy to be sober. The next group of people to share were the 60-day sober patients, then 90-day sober patients, followed by the 6-month, and the group that had been sober for one year.

Chris noted that the longer the group had been sober, the more they tended to thank God for looking over them and delivering them. Chris said, in fact, in the 1-year group 80% thanked God for helping them stay sober.

At this I’m going to invite someone who is part of our community to share his story.

At times the home I grew up in was a stressful and unpredictable place to be.

My parents struggled with the addictions and dysfunction that plagued the families they grew up in–


One day when I was in grade school, I found pornographic magazines underneath my parent’s mattress.

These magazines were a powerful presence in our home. When I was alone, I would take them from under the mattress, retreat to a secluded corner of the house and look at them

It wasn’t long before I was compulsively looking at pornography.

I grew up with a hole in my heart, craving what we all need-- affirmation, acceptance

and affection. I used pornography and the rush of masturbation to sooth my anxiety and to escape my insecurity and isolation

My addiction continued through high school During my 1st year at university

my roommate introduced me to internet pornography and the evil of my addiction to porn sunk its claws even deeper into my soul.

During my final year of university, I committed my life to Christ, but my addiction continued. One year after graduating university I married my wife Sage and again I quickly found myself turning to pornography to sooth the anxiety of work and marriage

By this point I had been exposed to a Christian view of pornography and I realised I was betraying my God and my wife. But after more than 12 years of almost daily masturbation and hours and hours of looking at pornography, I couldn’t stop. I felt bound, enslaved to the evil of sin

Like the demon possessed man that Jesus encountered who cried out and cut himself with stones, I too felt tortured by the evil of my addiction So many times after looking at pornography, I collapsed in a heap of shame and guilt. Each time I got on my knees [kneel]and cried out to God in repentance, after promising God, that this was the last time I’d berate myself. It was as if I was taking a whip

and beating myself with it.--“You’re worthless, you’re repulsive, you’re unlovable.”

Eventually, I came to believe that if anyone, including my wife, including God, if anyone knew what I did behind closed doors, they would not, could not love me.

Since God knew my secret, I believed He did not love me and therefore He refused to help. I couldn’t really worship at church. When I tried to praise God, it was like voice in my head began to whisper “pornography, pornography.” I went crazy trying to discern if it was the convicting voice
of the Holy Spirit, or, if it was the condemning voice of the enemy keeping me away from God.

In January 2005 my wife and I moved from the States to Vancouver, but unfortunately my addiction followed me to Canada. At Regent College I took a course on addiction and began to learn about the cycle of addiction .I went to a conference at Trinity Western held by a world renknown Christian psychologist who specialised in sex addiction. I read books and wrote papers on porn addiction, but I couldn’t get free.

A year later a good friend of mine lured me into a “Bible Study,” which turned out to be Living Waters support group for people struggling with issues of sexual and relational brokenness.

I shared my story with other guys in that group. The belief that no one could love me

if they really knew me was exposed as a lie of the enemy when I confessed my sin. The other members of the group didn’t reject me as I shared my deepest darkest secrets.

But just like the demon possessed man in the story Ken read, it was an encounter with Jesus Christ that brought healing into my life. In one of our meetings, while the group leaders prayed with me, God gave me a picture. In this picture I saw myself--bruised, bloodied and dirty. I was all-alone, isolated in my shame

Then, I saw Jesus kneeling beside me and he told me that some of my wounds had been inflicted my others, but most of them were self-inflicted. Under intense condemnation I had been beating myself with cords of shame and self-hatred.

Jesus then took out a small white cloth and began to rub away the blood and dirt.

While he told me he would help me begin to heal. God, who I thought wouldn’t come near me because of the evil of my sin, showed up at my side.

He touched me and gave me the gift of an intimate experience of his love and acceptance. For the first time in my life I felt I was fully known by God and others and I was still fully loved .

It has been over three years since I have viewed pornography. Only a few years ago I would have thought this kind of freedom was impossible.. I still experience temptation from time to time, but it does not have the same power over me.

Jesus Christ, the Living God, in an act of grace poured out his love into the depths of evil and brokenness within my soul.

And His Grace has made all the difference.


Education and discipline are important, but for our healing we need the intervention of Jesus Christ and grace to break the power of darkness in us.

How do we become people who are whole? In the story in Mark 5 we read that the man who was demon-possessed was living in a graveyard among the tombs. The Jews of Jesus’ day believed that graveyards were unclean, that if you came in contact with a dead body you would be contaminated in some way. We may not share that perspective today, but intuitively we know that there are certain things that can make us unclean spiritually. Part of the way that we move toward wholeness is by making decisions that will prevent us from unnecessarily being tainted by the powers of darkness.

Part of what it means to move toward wholeness is to not expose ourselves to situations where we may be vulnerable. If we are tempted with pornography, we’ll use some kind of internet filter like covenant eyes or as someone I know does, you get rid of your computer at home and television.

Temptations to alcohol means that we’ll practice HALT. If we are hungry, angry, lonely or tired, we’ll call a friend who will support us and hold accountable.

Keeping ourselves pure may involve choices regarding not dabbling in the occult or sexual activities outside of God’s will or even harbor pride or bitterness—which according to the Scriptures can become an entry point for the devil.

The demons are exorcised in the text through a simple word of Jesus. Typically, in the ancient world whenever someone wanted to drive out some kind of evil spirit they would do so by invoking the name of a higher God, but Jesus doesn’t--he simply speaks and commands the demons to leave. Why? Because Jesus is God in the human flesh, there is no “higher power” than himself.

If we want to be free from the powers of darkness, we will become people who turn to Jesus in our temptations, in our vulnerability, when we have sinned…

We will receive his love and deliverance.

This man is set free with the simple word of Jesus.

If we want to be set free we will turn to the Word of Jesus and the Word of God.

When Jesus was tempted in the desert, he responded by reading the Word of God which has great power. According to Ephesians 6, the Word of God is the sword of the Spirit.

I understand from the testimonies from missionaries who are in parts of the world where demon manifestation is more common, one of the most effective ways to deliver people from demons is to simply read the Scriptures, the Word of God, over people. One of the best ways that we can experience the cleansing of our own hearts is by immersing ourselves in the Word of God which has power.

In times of temptation I have found it especially helpful to memorize passages of Scripture that relate to the temptation and to recite those. There is power, healing power, in the blood of Christ, also in the Word of Christ, in the Word of God.

We read in Mark 5, v. 12 -13, that Jesus sent the demons out of the man and into the pigs and that they died in the waters. Throughout the centuries certain commentators have wondered if the waters symbolized baptism, which according to church tradition is a powerful means by which spirits are banished. We do not know whether the waters symbolize baptism. I doubt it, but we do know that across the centuries followers of Christ have pointed to their baptism as a means of overcoming darkness in their lives. Martin Luther routed the devil by writing, “I have been baptized” on his desk.

Through baptism, as commentator Dale Brunner points out, “Believers have a circle of protection drawn in blood around them into which evil spirits may not come. Evil spirits may shout over us, shout over the circle to frighten us, but they cannot touch us within the circle of baptismal grace, for through baptism we have been made part of God’s family which means that God is now responsible for us as a father, and he has equipped us with the Holy Spirit.”

So, if you have never been baptized, and you know that you want to live under the protection of God, then be baptized.

Some of us here may be offended by that (I don’t into this in great detail. You can ask me afterwards if you want to know.) But what we do know is that in this community of Gerasenes the people would not have been upset so much that pigs died, but that they had lost the money represented by the pigs. By sending the demons into the pigs, Jesus is saying human beings are worth more than all the money in the world.

But a few years later Jesus would show this man and us in the ultimate just how much we matter to him.

The man in our story was naked in the tombs, was chained and had cut himself with stones.

Jesus would one day become naked, allow himself to be fastened to the cross, and cut himself so that he and we could be free. He absorbed in his body sin and our shame so through him we could be set free.

As we are drawn to go to Jesus into love deliver power, we will be set free.

Too Busy Not to Pray

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Mark M2 February 15, 2009

Title: Too Busy Not to Pray

Text: Mark 1:32-39

Big Idea: When we spend time in silent prayer before God, we can know we are the beloved and experience healing.

Back in the 1960s TIME magazine featured the opinion of an expert on time management.

This expert asserted that, because of the advances in technology that were happening in the 1960s, by the 1980s, people would have to radically cut back on how many hours per week they worked.

This expert claimed, “The great challenge is going to be what people will do with all their free time.”

How many of you would say, “I have so much time I don’t know what to do with it?”

How many of you would say, “I don’t have enough time.”

Contrary to what that expert on time management said in the 1960s—ironically many of our electronic time-saving devices have made us busier….

New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman, says that “we live in a state of ‘continuous partial attention.’” “Continuous partial attention” means that while you are answering your e-mail, and talking to someone, your cell phone rings and you have a conversation.” (use prop).

You are now involved in a continuous flow of interactions in which can only partially concentrate on each… we have many things demanding our attention.

Few people in the history of the world had as many demands on his attention as Jesus had during the years of his public ministry…

Last Sunday we began a new series in the Gospel of Mark, and we saw how when Jesus was about 30 years old, he was baptized in the Jordan River by his cousin, John the Baptist. We saw how heaven was torn open and a voice from heaven, God’s voice, said of Jesus, “You are my beloved Son, my priceless treasure. In you I am well pleased.”

We also looked at how Jesus was then filled with God’s Spirit and led into the wilderness for 40 days, where he was tested. After being tested in the wilderness, Jesus begins his public ministry.

A new door is being opened to God through Jesus Christ, and so Jesus Christ preaches, “Repent. Turn your lives around and enter this door. Enter into a life with God. The Kingdom of God has come.”

Jesus began to recruit disciples saying, “Come. Follow me and I will make you fishers of people.” Jesus then begins a teaching ministry at the local synagogue in Capernaum. At the synagogue he was approached by a man possessed by an evil spirit. Jesus delivered that man from the evil spirit. Jesus also healed Peter’s mother-in-law who had been in bed with a fever. When people heard about Jesus’ power over demons, over sickness, over nature, as you can imagine, everyone wanted to get an appointment with him. The whole town gathered at the door of Peter’s mother-in- law to see Jesus.

If you have your Bibles, please turn to Mark 1: 32-39.

32 That evening after sunset the people brought to Jesus all the sick and demon-possessed. 33 The whole town gathered at the door, 34 and Jesus healed many who had various diseases. He also drove out many demons, but he would not let the demons speak because they knew who he was.
Jesus Prays in a Solitary Place


35 Very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house and went off to a solitary place, where he prayed. 36 Simon and his companions went to look for him, 37 and when they found him, they exclaimed: "Everyone is looking for you!"

38 Jesus replied, "Let us go somewhere else—to the nearby villages—so I can preach there also. That is why I have come." 39 So he traveled throughout Galilee, preaching in their synagogues and driving out demons.

Word had gotten out that Jesus had this power to heal and deliver people, so we read in verse 33 that the whole town gathered at the door of Peter’s mother-in-law because they had heard Jesus was there. According to vs. 36, everyone wanted to see Jesus. This is an extremely busy time in Jesus’ ministry. His popularity has skyrocketed. Oprah and Mi-Jung Lee, Larry King and Peter Mansbridge want to interview him. Everyone wants his attention. Everyone wants to see him.

What happens to most of us when there are a lot of people or things demanding our attention? When new doors of opportunity are opening to us?

We get busier. We pray less.

What does Jesus do? In verse 35 we read that Jesus very early in the morning, when it was still dark, got up, left the house, and went off to a solitary, literally a quiet, lonely, place where he prayed.

For most of us, the busier we get, the less we pray, but Jesus was different. The busier he got, the more he prayed. Why was that? The busier Jesus got, the more he realized that he needed to remember who he was and whose he was.

He needed to remember the words of his baptism, where God says of him, “You are my beloved Son, my priceless treasure. In you I am well pleased.”

In the desert, Jesus had three temptations: to turn stones into bread--to rely on something other than God for his sustenance; to jump off the pinnacle of the temple and to have an angel swoop down and rescue him--to do something spectacular; to impress others and to be popular; to worship Satan in exchange for the Kingdoms of the world--to compromise his integrity in order to gain power and influence.

As Jesus is active in his public ministry, the same temptations no doubt present themselves to him—the temptation to put his security in something other than God, the temptation to be defined by what he does, by what people think of him, by his power and his influence.

By coming before God in prayer, Jesus once again is reminded that the core truth of his existence is that he is beloved by God his Father.

Now, we don’t know the exact content of what Jesus prayed in Mark 1, but we do know that every time Jesus prayed (except once—when he was on the cross), he would begin his conversation with God with the word, “Abba,” which is the most intimate, personal word that a person could use for God. It would be equivalent to our “Daddy,” “Papa”.

When Jesus taught his disciples to pray, he said, “Begin your prayer with the word, ‘Abba.’”

The essence of prayer is to come before God recognizing we are in the presence of a strong, good, and loving father.

As we come to God in prayer we, of course, ask God to give us the daily things that we need. We pray for the forgiveness of sins, but, according to Jesus, it is not the beginning point of prayer. The beginning point of prayer is to the simple awareness that we are in the presence of our loving Father, our Abba.

When we are busy, the temptation that we face is to be defined by the things that we do, what people think of us, what we have, our influence. We can be swept away by this kind of powerful current…

As a high school student, a large part of my feelings of self-worth depended on how well I did or did not do in sports (that now has shifted to work for me).

Is there something in your life that powerfully shapes how you feel about yourself?

If you’re a student, you can be tempted to define yourself by your grades.

If you’re pursuing a career, you can be tempted to define yourself by how well you’re doing in your work.

If you’re a mom, you can be tempted to define yourself by how your kids turn out.

There is nothing wrong with accomplishment, but the problem is when we begin to define our worth by what we do, or have, or by what others think of us.

Spending time in prayer and solitude before God is like the string on a kite. It can keep us from having our identity completely blown away by either success or failure… it helps us define ourselves by something other than success or failure… it helps know that our core truth of who we are is that we are beloved.

Henri Nouwen in Beloved says that the real work of prayer is listening to the voice who calls you the beloved. It is being alone with the one who says you are my beloved. I want to be with you. Don’t go running around trying to prove to everybody that you are beloved. You are already beloved.

Thomas Merton pointed out, “In prayer we discover what we already have… Everything has been given to us in Christ. All we need is to experience what we already possess.”

Spending time with God in prayer can slow us down enough to hear the voice that calls us the beloved.

But, practically, how do we actually come before God so that we can hear the voice that calls us the beloved? When we pray, we tend to talk and not listen, so how do we come before God in a way that enables us to listen? We come before God in silence.

But this is hard to do. If you have ever tried to spend time in silence before God, you are aware of how hard that can be. Even spending 5 or 10 minutes in real silence before God can be challenging.

(take a moment for silence).

Here are some approaches I’ve used.

When we spend time in silent pray before God, all the things that we feel we ought to be doing come to mind... Henri Nouwen once said that when we pray the thoughts jump around in our minds like monkeys jumping around banana trees.

One of the things that can help to still our mind is to place ourself in a posture of physical stillness. Physical stillness can facilitate interior stillness (use prop chair).

What I typically do is sit on the front portion of a chair (I don’t lean back), take a few, deep, slow breaths and seek to centre myself. I am quite restless and my mind tends to wander.

One of the things that helps me most to come quietly into the presence of God is to repeat a simple sacred word. For me, it is the word, “Wait.” Others have used a sacred word like “Jesus,” “love,” “trust,” “mercy,” “peace.” Some like to use just a brief phrase, a brief prayer like the ancient Jesus prayer—“Jesus Christ, Son of the Living God, have mercy on me, a sinner.” Or, more briefly, “Jesus, have mercy on me.” If you will repeat this Jesus prayer slowly as a way of focusing the mind, it will still the mind and set your heart on Jesus.

If your mind tends to wander in prayer, the advice of the contemplatives is to give your mind something simple to do by using a prayer word or phrase. At first, this practice may seem wooden, but in time the use of prayer word “Jesus” “trust” “mercy” can become a natural part of who we are and how we pray.

(Pause for prayer)

Another way to keep our minds from wandering is to memorize a passage of Scripture and to repeat it slowly in our minds. As part of my solitude these days, I like to do a very gentle, contemplative jog early in the morning between 5 and 6. I will recite slowly 1 Corinthians 13. It is a wonderful reminder of God’s love and his call for us to love as he loves—love is patient, love is kind, it does not envy, it does not boast.

My wife Sakiko loves to journal. With a new baby she does not have time to write long journal entries, but journaling helps her recollect the joy and the gifts of everyday life, to experience gratitude and God in the ordinary. Journaling can help focus our mind (prop)

If I’m reading a book like Life of the Beloved by Henri Nouwen and something really strikes me, I may journal about it and from time to time go back to it (prop).

Something else we can do to focus on God’s love for us is to be mindful of the analogs of God’s love for us in daily life. For example, you may have an especially-loving parent or grandparent who becomes an analog of God’s love for you. I am blessed to have parents whose love for me and my siblings is a picture of God’s love for us. Or, if you are married, perhaps the love you experience with your spouse is an analog of God’s love for you.

A couple of years ago I was on the east coast to do some speaking. I had the opportunity to spend a little time with my younger sister’s family in Montreal. My brother-in-law came to pick me up at the airport. We arrived at their home, right when my younger sister was arriving home with her 5-year-old daughter Juliana. When Juliana got out of the car, she ran around the back end with her short little legs, shouting, “Uncle Ken! Uncle Ken!” She came and gave me a hug and said, “I haven’t been able to sleep because I have been so excited about your coming.” To me, that was a picture of God’s love for me—his eagerness to know me.

Last Sunday I talked about how as a new father I am taken aback by the sense of the love that I have for our 7-month-old son, independent of anything that he has done or accomplished. He comes as an analog of God’s love for me.

(Part of the reason why it is so important to experience life in community is because it is often through people that we experience most fully and completely the love of God.)

What are the things that cause you to feel God’s love for you?

Meditate on it.

When we come before God in silence and solitude, sometimes what we hear and sense is not God’s love for us, but some pain that we have experienced. Blaise Pascal, the scientist and Christian philosopher, observed in Pensees that “all of the unhappiness of men arises from one single fact—that they cannot stay quietly alone in a room.” Pascal said that the reason that human beings cannot sit alone in a room is because when we sit alone in a room and something disturbing or painful arises in our consciousness, we have nothing that can bring us comfort, so we don’t want to think about it too deeply. So we try to manage our lives through what Pascal calls diversion. We require lots of activity and excitement to distract ourselves. In solitude and in silence it is true that disturbing and painful things can arise in our hearts, but that can also be an occasion to turn to God and receive his love.

Last month I came across this story of a man who wanted to be strong for his wife, to be able to initiate without fear, to be able to give his whole heart to her. But he grew uncertain with her, hesitant, made him fearful. As he spent time thinking about it, he realized that there were parts of his heart he had lost or left behind with other girlfriends that had broken up with him, and that he needed to get his heart back. He described being on a trip where this pain surfaced again. He felt so vulnerable to the beautiful women he met on that trip. It was not primarily for sex, but a vulnerable yearning for some broken place in his heart that was crying out for medication. In his journal, this man named John wrote this: “O merciful God, come to me in this place, this very place in my heart. I give this to you. I choose you over Eve. I choose your love and friendship and beauty. I give my aching and longing and vulnerable heart to you. Come and heal me here. Sanctify me. Make me whole and holy in this very place.” John said, “I prayed it over and over day and night—whole and holy.”

If, in our times of solitude, pain arises in our heart, we can give that hurt place to God and invite him to bring healing and holiness. Martin Laird, in his extraordinary book on contemplation, Into the Silent Land, describes a woman who had some very real pain from her childhood. One day her mother walked into her bedroom as she sat looking at herself in the mirror. Her mother said to her, “I hope you don’t think you are beautiful.” She was in fact beautiful in every season of her life—as a young girl, as an adolescent, a young adult, a mature woman. She was beautiful, but she believed she was ugly. When she was a teen-ager, she won a highly-prized scholarship to study ballet, but her mother said, “Why would they give you that? Everybody knows you have got two left feet.” So although she danced to great acclaim all over the world, she believed that she was a klutz with two left feet. All this plays over and over again in her head. Even if she is not conscious of it, the video plays again in the background like dark music.

But she did find solace. She took long walks out on the Yorkshire moors. If she walked long enough, her mind would begin to settle. The expanse of scented heather was scented balm that soothed the throbbing anger and fear and pain. She described how on one occasion her anxiety began to drop like layers of scarves. Suddenly she was aware of being immersed in a sacred presence that upheld her in everything. And while this experience out on the moors happened only once, it proved to be a real turning point in her life. It drew her into the way of prayer.

In prayer and solitude before God, we can experience God’s healing and God’s love as we offer those things to God.

After Jesus’ cousin John the Baptist was brutally beheaded because of his proclamation of God’s word, Jesus withdrew to a solitary place to be with God.

Before facing his own death, Jesus withdrew to pray, saying “Abba”. Our pain and our anxiety can be occasions for us to come before God in silence and solitude and experience his love and healing.

As we spend time in the presence of our Abba Father, and realize how deeply we are loved by him, we will be healed of our pain and the broken places in our heart. We will also be healed of our compulsions and the temptations to define our lives by what we do, by what we have, what others think of us, and our influence.

And when that happens, we will become more content, more at peace as we become more conscious of the treasures that God has given us and the treasure that we are in his sight.

While Jesus is praying, his disciples come to him and they say, “Everyone is looking for you!” And we read how Jesus leaves that place and preaches the good news that people can enter into a relationship with him, and we see him offer healing to a leper, a complete social outcast. We see Jesus love others, set people free. As we understand how loved we are and that our lives are not defined by what we do or what others think of us, then ironically we are freed to become an instrument of healing in the world.

Thomas Merton said that the purpose of life is not to try to get out of life as much as we can, but to recollect ourselves so they can give ourselves away.

While it is important to know what are our unique talents as we serve, many have said “is not so much what we can do, but who we are” that will be the most enduring gift we offer others.

The most profound contribution that we will make to the world will be not what we do, but who we are.

It is wonderful when we can do something for a neighbor—to loan them some tools, to offer counsel to a friend or a colleague, to help a kid with homework, to bring healing to a patient, to serve a meal for a homeless person.

But as Henri Nouwen rightly says there is a greater gift than all of this. It is the gift of our own life that shines through all that we do—to offer our joy, our inner peace, a sense of well-being that comes from being with the Father.

Stu Gardner did many things. As a teacher he taught, he wrote, he was active as a board member and member of the choir and prayer team here, but his greatest gift was the gift of who he was--his passion for God, vulnerability, joy and compassion, and it was who he was, more than what he did, that has blessed us most.

It is as we spend time in silence and solitude before the Father, we become the kind of people who, like Stu, are able to offer who we are to the world.

So, spending time in prayer and solitude before God is not an end, in and of itself. We hear the voice of the beloved. We experience healing. Out of these gifts we become people who, in turn like Jesus, can bring life, peace and healing to the world.

Mail from Vancouver (05/9/6)

先日上智大学の先生が、メードインジャパンのキリスト教についての考察をくわえられたとのお話をうかがいましたが、こちらに来ている日本人のクリスチャンから、どうして日本の教会は伸びないのかという話を聞きました。



こちらの教会では、スモールグループというのが盛んで、その中で平信徒の lay leader が育っていき、グループが１０人以上になると、また分かれて、新しいスモールグループが生まれ、増殖していきます。　何千人、何万人という規模のメガチャーチも、スモールグループなくしては存立し得ず、スモールグループに属さない人は教会にも属さないというのです。



日本では、そういう素人がリーダーやメンター、つまり助言者として相談や指導にあたる人がおらず、したがってスモールグループもなく、すべての負担が牧師にかかってきます。　ですからバーンアウトして辞めていく牧師が多いようです。



また牧師夫人に対するプレッシャーも圧倒的なもので、疲労困憊した夫人達は、とかく精神的肉体的負担から。元々優しい人も次第にコワイ顔になっていくそうです。　



たとえば、結婚式にしても、日本では、お掃除から披露宴まですべて牧師夫人の役目。　カナダやアメリカなら、たとえ教会で披露宴をしても、そうしたサービスは外部のケーターリングに頼むのが常識です。



そういう負担が増えると、心優しい人でも次第に意地悪になり、人を裁くパリサイ人のようになってしまうようです。　つまり厳格な律法を遵守することを主張し、これを守らない者を厳しく裁き、汚れた罪人として非難するわけですが、実はイエスこそそうした偽善者を憎み、激しく攻撃したのでした。

Beloved ( Feb 8, 09 )

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Mark M1 February 8, 2009

Title: Beloved

Text: Mark 1: 1-13

Big Idea: We can face any “what” if we know we are the beloved.

Malcolm Gladwell, author of the Tipping Point, in his book Blink writes:

“Researchers did a study in which they had [2] groups of students answer 42 Trivial Pursuit questions. ½ were asked to take 5 minutes beforehand to think about what it would mean to be a professor and write down everything that came to mind.

Those students got 55.6% of the questions right. The other ½ were asked to first sit and think about soccer hooligans. They ended up getting 42.6%.”

That’s a 13 percent difference

“Psychologists [asked] black college students [to answer] 20 questions from the GRE…

(which is the standardized test for admission to graduate school). When the students were asked to identify their race on the pretest question… the number of items they got right was cut in half.” That simple act of identifying their race was sufficient to prime them with all the negative stereotypes associated with African Americans and academic achievement – and the number of items they got right was cut in half.”


Gladwell demonstrates that how we perceive ourselves has a powerful impact on how we live and perform.

Jesus’ self-identity shaped the way he lived and overcame.

Even as 12 year old boy Jesus had a clear sense that he, in a special and unique way, was God’s son and so during a trip with his parents to Jerusalem, Jesus felt drawn to spend extra time in the temple.

When Jesus is 30, he is really clearly affirmed in his identity by God.

Jesus’ cousin, John the Baptizer, has been preparing the way for Jesus. John the Baptizer recognizes that, in Jesus Christ, God is opening up a door for people to enter into a life with God that had never been possible before. And so, John the Baptizer calls people to repent.

Repentance simply means that we turn away from our sins toward God. Repentance isn’t just about giving up certain sinful or destructive habits, but it is redirecting our lives toward God.

John calls people to turn and go through the door that is being opened by Jesus and to enter into a life with God. Baptism was a sign that people were turning to God and entering into a life with God (being immersed into a life with God).

If you have your Bibles please turn to Mark 1: 1-13:

(We are beginning a new series in the Gospel of Mark.

Part of the uniqueness of Mark, which is the earliest Gospel, is that Mark shows us the both the humanity and power of Jesus Christ. In this message we’ll focus on two scenes: Jesus’ baptism and his testing in the wilderness and how they relate to each other.)

1 The beginning of the good news about Jesus the Messiah, [a][b] 2 as it is written in Isaiah the prophet:
"I will send my messenger ahead of you,
who will prepare your way" [c]—

3 "a voice of one calling in the wilderness,
'Prepare the way for the Lord,
make straight paths for him.' " [d]

4 And so John the Baptist appeared in the wilderness, preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. 5 The whole Judean countryside and all the people of Jerusalem went out to him. Confessing their sins, they were baptized by him in the Jordan River. 6 John wore clothing made of camel's hair, with a leather belt around his waist, and he ate locusts and wild honey. 7 And this was his message: "After me comes the one more powerful than I, the thongs of whose sandals I am not worthy to stoop down and untie. 8 I baptize you with [e] water, but he will baptize you with [f] the Holy Spirit."

The Baptism and Testing of Jesus

9 At that time Jesus came from Nazareth in Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan. 10 Just as Jesus was coming up out of the water, he saw heaven being torn open and the Spirit descending on him like a dove. 11 And a voice came from heaven: "You are my Son, whom I love; with you I am well pleased."

12 At once the Spirit sent him out into the wilderness, 13 and he was in the wilderness forty days, being tempted [g] by Satan. He was with the wild animals, and angels attended him.

John is saying turn your lives around because a door to God is being opened to you through Jesus Christ. John urged people to enter the door to a life with God and was baptizing those who wanted to experience this new life with God.

As John is baptizing people in the Jordan River, he baptizes Jesus as well.

As Jesus is coming out of the water, the invisible curtain of heaven is torn open (a violent expression), and God says of Jesus, “You are my beloved Son, my priceless treasure. With you I am well pleased.”

Later in the Gospels we see Jesus transfigured in the light of presence of God. This is seen by Jesus’ disciples, Peter, James and John. And again the Father says, “This is my beloved Son in whom I well pleased. Listen to him.”

What is God saying to us in these words in baptism and transfiguration?

He’s saying at least 2 things.

As gifted commentator Dale Bruner says one of things God is saying is, “All I want to say and all I want to show you about me, I’ve made known in my son Jesus. If you want to hear me, listen to Jesus. If you want to get to know me, get together with Jesus.”

But there is a second meaning in the voice that is similar to the first. All the love that we hear in the voice of God the Father for his one, true Son, Jesus Christ, is also offered to us when we join our lives to Christ, when we unite our lives to him through baptism (i.e., when are immersed in the water of baptism and the reality of God), when we become a son or daughter of God.

When we give our lives to Christ, when we are baptized (or immersed) into his personhood, when we become a son or a daughter of God, God the Father says of us, “This is my son whom I love and in him I am well pleased. This is my daughter whom I love. In her I am well pleased.”

The essential foundation in a journey with God--knowing that we are deeply loved by God.

When Sakiko and I were in Japan earlier this year, she bought a best-selling book written by a Japanese psychiatrist on raising children. This psychiatrist is not a Christian, but based on his extensive experience and research as a psychiatrist working with hundreds of children and their parents in Japan, he has discovered that that when kids get into trouble, let’s say in adolescence, parents assume it is all because they did not discipline their children sufficiently. Obviously, discipline is an important part of parenting, but this psychiatrist, based on his experience working with hundreds of children, parents and families, says that the reason that an adolescent may be acting out is not because he or she wasn’t disciplined hard enough when they were young, but because they do not feel loved. They feel ignored, so they are acting out.

For a child to grow up in a healthy way—it is essential that he or she feels loved.

Richard Rohr, the respected Franciscan, in his book, From Wild Man to Wise Man, says, “We cannot be ourselves, we cannot be our own man, until we have been someone else’s little boy. We need someone who is older than us to love and bless us, even after our mistakes.”

A few weeks ago, I came across the story of a man who went to his aging father and told him how he desperately needed his love and validation. He described a scene he loved from the movie Braveheart, where William Wallace’s closest friend Amish is blessed by his father. His father says, “I can die a happy man to see the man you have become.” The man asks his father to do the same for him. His father’s response? Silence. He looked down at the table, and then he said, “I can’t. My father never did that for me.”

We have a need to be loved and validated by a father figure.

Yet, like this man, there are many who have never really experienced that.

If we enter into a relationship with God, adopted into his family… God says to us, “I am delighted in who you are. You are my beloved son, my beloved daughter.” He says to you and he calls you by name, “My beloved daughter”—you, and he calls you by name. “My beloved son… and I am delighted in you.”

As a new father, I feel a deep love for our son Joe that is independent of anything he’s done or accomplished—7 months… Some of you are parents of infants—how do you feel about your baby?

If we as imperfect parents, feel that way about our babies (nieces and nephews) how much more will our Father in heaven who is perfect love us?

The text tells us then that the Holy Spirit comes upon Jesus in the form of a dove. The text translates the phrase “Spirit descending on him.” The original Greek intensified this and can read, “The Spirit was descending into him,” indicating that Jesus was equipped and fulfilled for his ministry by the Holy Spirit.

Through our union with Jesus Christ, through our baptism into him, we too can receive the life and energy of the Holy Spirit. He will equip us and empower us for all that we need to do and all that God calls us to.

The Holy Spirit in Romans 8 also bears witness to our spirit, that we are the beloved sons and daughters of God. In Romans 5 we are told that the Holy Spirit sheds abroad in our hearts a sense of being loved by God. The way we know are beloved is not only a matter of understanding intellectually that we are loved by God, but it is also a matter of the Holy Spirit making that truth known to us.

Then our text tells us in verse 12: At once the Spirit led Jesus out into the wilderness. He was in the wilderness 40 days being tempted by Satan.

Being loved by God and favored by him, does not necessarily mean that we will live a life of ease and prosperity in a worldly sense. Being loved and favored by God means that we will spend at least part of our life in the wilderness place where we are tested. The word in our text in vs. 12 can be translated either “tempted” or “test.”

Strictly speaking, God tests us, but doesn’t tempt us. In the Book of James we are told that God never directly tempts us to sin—that’s what Satan does—but that we are tested by God.

What is the difference between tempted and tested? As commentator Ben Witherington and others have pointed out, the difference between tempted and tested is NOT necessarily a difference in the particular circumstance that a person is facing, but the purpose of the challenge. God allows us to experience adversity, to be tested to strengthen our character and to purify us. Satan, on the other hand, tempts us in order to destroy our character.

God will at times lead us into the wilderness to test us so that we can be strengthened.

The affirmation that we are loved by God is obviously a gift, but the wilderness is also a gift.

Paul Tournier, the Swiss doctor, has written a book called Creative Suffering. Tournier was an orphan and he soon came to realize that many of the great religious leaders of the world were virtual orphans or had suffered in some significant way. Moses’ parents had to give him up as a baby because of the persecution of the Jews in Egypt. Confucius lost his father at age 1. Pascal lost his mother at age 3. We know from general observation that many of the people that we would consider to be the most developed are those who have suffered greatly. Nelson Mandela spent 27 years in prison in Robben Island.

The affirmation of knowing we are loved is a great gift, but so is the wilderness because the wilderness is a place where we are tested and refined.

The order of Jesus’ affirmation, being followed by his being led by the Spirit of God into the wilderness, is significant. We can face the tests of the wilderness if we know who we are… if we know that we are the beloved.

Henri Nouwen in his book Life of the Beloved says:

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.

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

The temptations to success, power, and popularity are the temptations that Jesus faces in the wilderness, but the temptation behind these temptations may well be the temptation to not believe that God loves him.

Though Mark which is this earliest and most concise Gospel does not specifically name the tests that Jesus faced in the desert, the other Gospel writers do.

Jesus spent 40 days in the wilderness. 40 days without food. He was obviously hungry. The tempter Satan came to him and said, “If you really are the Son of God, cause this stone to become bread.” Jesus answers by quoting Scripture (the Book of Deuteronomy), “It is written that people do not live on bread alone.”

Like Jesus, we can be tempted to rely on something other than God to sustain us.

In these times of financial crisis, it is especially tempting to rely on money or our work or what we have to give us a sense of security.

In times of financial difficultly, we can be tempted to worry and to hoard what we have.

But, if we really know that we are loved by God, if we know we are the beloved, we don’t need to be overcome by worry about money. We don’t need to hoard.

The temptation behind the temptation to build our lives on what we have is the temptation to believe we are not truly loved by God.

According to the other Gospels, the tempter comes to Jesus in the wilderness, and says to him, “If you really are the Son of God, then tell these stones to become bread.”

Satan here tries to get Jesus to doubt God’s love for him. Satan suggests--if you really are loved by God--then you would have enough to eat.

This tactic of Satan is the same one he used on Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. Satan approaches Adam and Eve and asks, “Did God really say you could not eat of any tree in the garden?” God actually never said that. God permitted Adam and Eve to eat of every tree in the Garden of Eden, except the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

Satan twists what God has said and suggests that God has prohibited Adam and Eve from eating of any tree in the Garden of Eden. Satan shifts Adam and Eve’s focus from all that God has provided to God’s one prohibition.

One of the primary ways in which Satan will tempt us is by causing us to doubt God’s goodness and God’s love for us by getting us to believe that if truly follow God’s way, if we truly trust him, we will somehow miss out.

As a teenager I believed in the existence of God but I had a suspicion in the back of my mind that if I really gave over my life to God, I would miss out in the excitement of a bad-boy life. Sometimes as an adult I’m tempted to believe—if I really fully follow God’s way, I’ll miss out. Of course, the temptation behind that temptation, is to believe God doesn’t really care for me, doesn’t have my best interest in mind.

Another temptation we will face is to build our lives on what we do rather than on God’s love for us.

The second test that Jesus faced in the wilderness involved the Devil leading him up to a high place, showing him in an instant all the kingdoms of the world. That high place involved a trip to Jerusalem where Jesus was made to stand at the very pinnacle of the temple. And Satan suggested that if Jesus were the Son of God, he could prove it by jumping off the top of the temple, and surely the angels would save him from harm, and the crowds below would gasp in awe when they realized just who he was.

Jesus responds by saying, it is written, “Do not put the Lord your God to the Test.”

As Henri Nouwen observes, Jesus here is faced with the temptation to do something spectacular.

If the temptation of turning the stone into bread was to be defined by what we have, the temptation to jump from the temple would be defined by what we do.

Part of the way that we can know whether we are tempted to be defined by what we do is by asking ourselves, “Am I unnecessarily too busy?”

Henri Nouwen, in his book The Beloved, says this:

There is absolutely no reason for most people to be as busy as they are. You want to earn more money than you need. You want to watch more television than you need. You want to read more books than you need to read. You want to keep in touch with too many friends. You want to travel too much. You can even be busy with looking for the meaning of solitude! (Nouwen 2007 p. 11-12)

If you are busy, very busy, ask yourself, “Why am I so busy? Perhaps you want to prove something. Why are people so busy? Perhaps they want to be successful in their life or they want to be successful or they want to be popular or they want to have some influence. If you want to be successful, you have to do a lot of things; if you want to be popular you have to meet a lot of people; if you want to have influence, you have to make a lot of connections… Sabbath frees us from our drive to have success: more money, more popularity, more influence.

The temptation to do be defined by what we do is also directly connected with our sense of being beloved by God.

If we doubt that we are God’s beloved, if we doubt God’s goodness and that he can provide for us, if don’t know who we are and whose we are, we will be driven to busyness, to do things, to impress others, ourselves, to be spectacular.

But we can overcome this test if we know who--that we are the beloved--and whose we are—we can rest.

Another test we may face is the test is the test of whether God is good, or not.

When Jesus was in led into the wilderness and then went without food for 40 days, Satan tempted Jesus by questioning whether God was really good.

Rachel Barkey who along with her husband Neil and her kids Quinn and Kate has been part of this community knows about this question.

In an email Rachel recently wrote she says:

For those who have not yet heard, recently cancer has returned--the cancer has spread to my liver and bones.

There is no cure.

And everyone is wondering "how long" and the truth is, we don't know. It is likely several months but it could be less or it could be more.

This is, by far, the hardest part of this for me: leaving Neil, Quinn and Kate. Serving them is my joy. Loving Neil and helping him has been the most wonderful privilege I could ask for. And being a mother has been a gift that I did not deserve. Quinn and Kate are treasures that were entrusted to me for a time and I am grateful that I was able to be their mother for these years. I struggle, of course, with the knowledge that I will not be there for them for much longer and wonder what life will be like for them without me. But I wrestled with this years ago, as some of you will remember, and was gently reminded that there is One who loves them even more than I do. And so He gently reminds me again.

We are overwhelmed, once again, by the love and care being offered and given by our family and friends. Thank you so much for your words of comfort and offers of help. And especially for your prayers.

Last Friday night in the hospital, as Neil sat on my bed and we wept together at the news we had just received, we said, "God is still good." And He is. We will not doubt Him now when the road ahead is dark. He will use this for good and for His glory. There is no doubt. And, in the depths of my sadness, that makes my heart glad.

Even in the wilderness and sadness—if we know that we are beloved , our hearts paradoxically, like Rachel’s, can be glad.

What we believe about our identity will shape how we face life… whether it’s a test… or death itself. If we know we are the beloved, we will overcome.

2008 Christmas Homily

Homily for Christmas Concerts December 13-14, 2008
Shepherds in the night, shepherds in the night, shepherds in the night saw a glorious sight.
Shepherds in the night, shepherds in the night, shepherds in the night saw a glorious sight.
Many of the great scenes of the Gospel story take place at night…
We’re told in the Gospel of Luke (as the choir has just reminded us):
“that shepherds watched their flocks by night…”
“a child is born at night.”
“the baby Jesus has his first meal at his mother’s breast at night”
The Gospel begins at night… in darkness…
Shepherds in the night, shepherds in the night, shepherds in the night saw a glorious sight. When they saw a light.
The Gospel begins in darkness… but then enters light…
The Gospel writer Luke tells us…
And an Angel of the Lord appeared and the glory of the Lord shone around them…
Darkness, light.
Our lives are lives are also a mix of darkness and light…
One of my favorite documents is called 7 Up. It’s not about the fizzy pop drink.
The premise of the movie is from a quote by the Jesuit missionary Francis Xavier… “Give me a child until he is 7 and I will give you the man.”
(Some of you parents may have children who are 7—I see you are a little worried.)
7 Up features 14 British children whom we meet at age of 7 and who are from different social classes and backgrounds.
As 7 years olds they are asked what do you want in life? Where do you think you’ll go to school? Do you have a girl friend or boy friend? What do you think of rich people, poor people?
Then every 7 years when they are 14 years old, 21, 28, 35, 42, 49, the TV crew revisits these kids, now turned adults, and we see where they are now (and compare that to where they said they’d hoped as we flash back to earlier interviews).
The purpose of the film originally was to demonstrate (at least in England) that when you are 7 years old your path is pretty much set for life, based on your personality and character, but also on your social position.
But the film ends up offering a window into the nature of life itself, and how things can change… suddenly without warning.
Sometimes things go according to plan—sometimes things go very differently than we envision…
John Lennon once sang: "Life is what happens, when you're planning other things..."
Charles who was at an elite private school at age 7 singing Latin… said then, “I may go to Oxford.” At 21 says, “It was good I didn’t get admitted to Oxford—looking back that probably for the best. Oxford turns the same cookie cutter students.”
Tony, a working class boy from London’s East End, wants to be a jockey and has a singular day at the big races, but finishes last, and ends up a taxi driver.
Some liked Suzy and John are transformed and healed by marriage, others experience heart break, a divorce…
Neil a person who is raised in middle class home--but ends homeless at 28 ends up and at 42 is city councilor.
Nobody really knows what lies ahead…
Sometimes there is light… sometimes there is darkness…
So it is with our lives.
Do you remember being 7 years old and the dreams that you had in grade 2?
When I was 7 years old, our family was living in England, as well. I read a kid’s version of David Livingstone’s biography—the explorer and medical missionary to Africa. I think, “When I grow up, I think I would like to be a medical missionary to Africa like David Livingstone… to work hard in the field, and have someone one day come up to me, tap me on the shoulder and say, ‘Dr. Shigematsu, I presume?’"
But, then when we moved to Canada when I was nearly 8--probably like many of you guys here, who grew up in Canada, I dreamed of being a hockey player… (watching Bobby Orr and Guy Lalfeur inspired me).
Sometimes life goes according to our plans… sometimes it doesn’t…
Sometimes we end up in our dream job and sometimes we end up out of a job.
Sometimes we are in a relationship that makes us feel like we were destined to be with that other person and at others times we wonder what did I so bad in a past life that I’m stuck with this lazy partner of mine? Or why am I alone? Why did I outlive my child?
Sometimes there is light and sometimes darkness…
Some times dreams come to pass and sometimes they don’t…
We’re living in interesting times…
Our government teeters in chaos.
Mumbai has experienced its own 911.
The worst financial crisis since the great depression looms before us.
What the Gospel tells us, what Christmas tells us is that if our lives are joined with Christ’s--the light will ultimately overcome the darkness…
The words of the angel spoken to the shepherds continue to speak to us:
10 But the angel said to them, "Do not be afraid. I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. 11 Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is the Messiah, the Lord. 12 This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger."
13 Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying,
14 "Glory to God in the highest heaven,
and on earth peace to those on whom his favor rests."
What the Christmas tells us is that despite the seismic shifts of our life—sometimes sometimes joyful, sometimes painful—ultimately our lives be marked by good…
Frederick Buechner, the Vermont pastor and writer, has described the Gospel a comedy….
…not in the sense that we understand the term today;
…but in the exact literary sense of the word;
Shakespeare’s plays plays are tragedies, which end in death or comedies, which end in love and marriage…and happiness…
The Gospel has tragic moments, real pain….
But, the Gospel is a comedy, in the literary sense of that word, in that it shows us that in the end, if our lives are joined with Christ’s…there is new life… reason to laugh and celebrate and joy and hope.
In Christ, the light of God has come and light has overcome the darkness.
As a child, you go to bed in darkness, but in the middle of the night, something wakes you up, it wasn't the noise,
It was the silence.
The silence of snow falling.
You look out your window, and the sodden gray yard… all that is gone.
Everything is covered in white. And even the night sky is no longer dark… it's a bright lavender… bright enough to read by.
The prophet Isaiah said, the people
[b] 2 The people walking in darkness
have seen a great light;
on those living in the land of deep darkness
a light has dawned.
Jesus said,
"I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life…."
If you receive Christ, you can have the light of life within that can never be extinguished…