We seem to be made to suffer. It's our lot in life.

Yes, there will be trouble.  There will be persecution of Christians.  But the thing about Christians, especially North American Christians, is our claims of persecution seem to be a little disingenuous.  For a start, the Christian church is by far the dominant faith, and informs a great deal of the culture of the nation.  It's difficult to claim too terribly much discrimination when the faith that you hold ends up being on the money, in the anthem, in the courts, in the houses of parliament, and all that tut.

North American Christians have basically rolled the double sixes, the boxcars, when it comes to discrimination, and we aren't likely to face any large scale massed discrimination for the faith that we profess, no matter how bleak things seem to be.

But here's the thing, Christians are almost always looking for persecution.  We have a nasty habit of looking wherever we can for whatever persecution we may encounter.  It can be under whatever rock we choose to lift up, it can be in anyone's refusal to toe our particular line, and it can be as simple as the government not actively supporting us enough for what we want it to do.

But the Christian faith has suffering built into it.  It is made of suffering.  As a Christian, I can promise you without even checking your current status, that you ought to be suffering more than you would as a non-Christian.  Wait a minute, ought to be suffering?  That's strange, isn't it?  Shouldn't this Christian life be easier and nicer?

Well, not really.  This is the thing that happens when you bow to and raise an altar to an unknown god.  This was what Paul was running up against in the Aeropagus, the idea that you could worship in freedom and truth a god that you know very little about.  And this is not an alien concept in the
Christian church either, as most Christians essentially worship an unknown god.  Not that God can't be known, but that they don't know him.  The entire ministries of people like Peter Popoff are based on the idea that people like God, but don't know anything really about him, so they have to have someone else tell them about him.

And the various hucksters and shysters peddle the word of God for profit, and make sure to tell you that if you pray hard and send them money, that all your troubles will be over, because they'll sell you miracle spring water.  Which will be great.  Because the miracle spring water totally works, and it totally makes you wealthy..... as long as you're the one selling it.

You and I have a responsibility, as Christians, to get over the whole notion of treating Jesus like an unknown god, of treating him like a far away god of whom we can never know anything.  Most North American Christians treat God like this, as an unknown in their lives, they have an idea that he's there, but they have no idea what he's all about.

And yet, the God of the Bible is near, not far off. Near in three ways:  First of all, through Jesus Christ, who took on flesh and dwelt among us.  Secondly, in the Holy Spirit, who is the part of God who lives in us, and makes us holy.  That was what Jesus promised to us when he gave us his word that he would not leave us as orphans, but would take care of us.  The third thing is through his holy word, the Bible.  And the Bible will tell you stuff about what it means to suffer as a Christian.

For there are two ways to suffer as a Christians.  One is to suffer for saying you're a Christian, and the other is to suffer by being a Christian.  I'll explain.  In North America, it's quite unlikely that someone will execute you for saying you're a Christian.  Yes, it can potentially happen, but it is remarkably rare.  Far more likely is you taking on board the words of Jesus, living them out, and suffering for it.  When you read through what Jesus says, saying it directly to you, then you will be mashed flat under an avalanche of incredibly difficult moral teachings.  He has some things that he wants you to do, and if you were to look at them, you would likely conclude that you don't want to do them.  Because they're hard, and because you would be essentially better off if you didn't start trying.

But that's not just the teachings of Jesus.  It's not as though the New Testament and the Old Testament tell different stories, because they don't.  They tell the same story.  And something you need to know, that you absolutely need to know, is that a call to holiness, to being set apart by God, is not a call to timidity or to weakness, to idleness or to passivity, but a call to holiness, uprightness, righteousness and strength.  And if you read through the Old Testament, you'll find that those called to God's path are
those called to a much harder experience.  That trip that the Israelites made through the wilderness, when they left Egypt, things got much harder rather than much easier.  Things were all of a sudden far more complicated, things were way more difficult, especially compared to the surrounding nations.  Think about the Persians, the Babylonians, the Hittites, all those nations surrounding Israel, and about how they actually got less interference from God.  He was less harsh to them, less present as a consuming fire to them.  But Israel, he was very interested in what they were doing.

Ultimately, we who are Christians, the more we know about God, the more we will know about his will for us.  Reading through his word, we will uncover so much about what he has in mind for humanity, how we are to behave, how we are to interact, how we are to relate to each other, and that will be far more restrictive than otherwise.  And if you treat Jesus not as an unknown God, but as a known one, then you will find that he has some incredibly difficult things for you to do and to observe.

But there is more than that.  Even those who treat Jesus as a barely known quantity will know that he has some restrictions for you.  Anyone who is anyone knows that Jesus is interested in how you live your life, in what you do, in being moral.  But the big secret, the one that requires you to listen to Jesus incredibly closely, is the one where he tells you that it's not all dependent on what you do.  It's dependent on what he does.  This is part of the change between Jesus as the unknown god, to him as the known God, is knowing what he's all about.  And you only do that by knowing him, by knowing what he says, and who he is, and what he has done.  If you stop having the altars to him as altars to unknown gods, and instead having his altar as the altar to a known god, then you will find something.  You will find that this is not an altar where God demands more and more and more sacrifices, but this is an altar where God himself provides the sacrifice.  It's just like it was waaaaaay back when in the book of Genesis, in which Abraham was told by God to sacrifice his son, and promised to his son 'God himself will provide the sacrifice.'  After God provided the sacrifice, then the name of that place was changed to 'the Lord provides.'

You see, a cursory look at the Bible, a cursory look at God, will tell you that he demands sacrifice.  But knowing God, knowing Jesus, will tell you that he provides the sacrifice that is demanded.  If you stop treating God like an unknown god, then you will know something remarkably important about him - that he asks you to take his burden upon yourself, and learn from him.  For his yoke is easy, and his burden is light.  You won't know this unless you know Jesus in the way he is known, through his word, through what he has left for us to read mark learn and inwardly digest.  And that's the curious thing about the God of the Bible.  If you move him from being unknown to known, you will discover both how much more you have to do, and how much more he does for you, culminating with the all availing sacrifice of his body and his blood on the cross, that because he lives, you will live also.

PJ.

The Feast of Stephen

This was the Sunday where we commemorate the martyrdom of St. Stephen.  And St. Stephen was the first Christian martyr, the one who went to his death for his faith.  Before the rest of the disciples, before the rest of the apostles, before the noble army of martyrs, there was St. Stephen.  And Stephen went to his death by speaking out to the synagogue, and he knew what the results would be.

Now, you may have heard by now of the execution of Clayton Lockett.  Mr. Lockett, after being tried and sentenced for this crimes, underwent what is being referred to as a 'botched execution.'  This was a major issue, because most everyone is searching for a painless, humane way to execute criminals, that causes no suffering and no pain.  And ostensibly, Mr. Lockett's execution was nothing like that.

There has been an effort in place to find a much more humane way to execute criminals, more humane than hanging, firing squad, and gas chamber.  There have been enough stories about executions that have gone less than perfectly, that have caused pain, that have caused agony, that have caused decapitations, and all that, to try and find a much more humane method of execution.  There have been some who have determined that hypoxia is the most humane way to execute criminals, determining that it causes no pain, and in fact, causes slight euphoria.  As has been said in the documentary above, it's 'a hell of a way to go.'  Painless, and lethal 100% of the time.

Now, the good people of Stephen's time weren't too concerned about that.  Capital punishment back then was astonishingly unpleasant, and was designed to be.  You wanted those whom you were killing to suffer, for it to be an agonizing death.  Take crucifixion, for example.  You didn't want to be crucified.  In fact, crucifixion is, by nature, excruciating, with the word meaning 'from the cross.'  If you were executed by the Roman government, being nailed to a cross was a bad way to go.  You were lifted up in front of the crowds in order that everyone might know that the Roman government was not to be trifled with.

Stoning, not really much different.  Of all its merits of not being able to ascribe the killing blow to any one person, it is essentially death by torture.  It's painful, drawn out, and remarkably unpleasant.  And lest you think that this method of execution is not only barbaric but outdated, I would like to remind you that Brunei popped stoning back into their law books in 2013, and in Indonesia in 2009.  This is still happening in the world, and remains as unpleasant as it ever was.

And this is what Stephen voluntarily walked into.  He knew what was going to happen, that he was going to be brought up on blasphemy charges, and the synagogue were going to assemble, and pick up rocks.  And, as I said on Sunday, when the entire congregation gets together and gathers rocks, it's not because they're going to do some zeroscaping.  And Stephen approaches this with a lack of fear that you or I would expect.  We would expect him to do what Peter did, which was to lie and flee to save himself.

Peter's performance when it came to representing Christ was hardly stellar.  The spirit was willing, but the flesh was weak.  He said to Jesus that even if they had to kill him as well, that he would never desert his Lord.  And that ended up being not true. Peter was quick to abandon Jesus out of fear of execution.  And so were the other disciples, quick to flee their Lord on account of the possibility of death and punishment.  They fled, they took their balls and went home, and they got out of dodge.  And they all went and fled and then went back to their lives, assuming that nobody would figure out that they were involved.  They stayed where they were , doors locked, for fear of those who would kill the body.

It's important to know that the disciples were cowardly.  They were cowardly like we are cowardly.  They had a faith in Jesus that had been tested, and they were found wanting.  When Jesus was led away, they fled.  They weren't towering figures of faith and majesty in the way we've constructed them since.  They were largely spineless, being paper tigers, talking a good game, seeming to be threatening, but ultimately folding as soon as they were opposed.  This is an issue that actually does us good, because the disciples are human beings like we are.  They get scared, and when they get scared, they run.  Their faith is something that they can hide and put away, in order that nobody would find out something that may lead to their deaths.

But wait.  In the book of Acts, those craven cowards become incredibly brave, even and especially when staring down certain death.  All of a sudden, the paper tigers become real tigers, unafraid by all the various tools and tricks that the Romans, and even the Sanhedrin, might offer.  You can often tell the sculpture of the various Saints by way of what they're holding

This is Saint Peter.  He is holding an upside down cross, which is what he is said to have been martyred on.



















Here's Matthias, holding an axe.  Why is he holding an axe?  Was he a woodsman?  Or was he, perhaps, stoned, and then beheaded, in Jerusalem?

This is St. John, holding a cup in his hands that has a serpent coming out of it, because, even though it didn't kill him, he was poisoned.  You can also tell it's John because of the Eagle sitting by his side.  St. John almost always has an eagle with him.










I hope you're beginning to get my point, which is that while Jesus was being slain, the disciples were terrified.  After his resurrection, they believed in a more powerful, tangiable way, in their Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. They believe in the words that Jesus had spoken to them, that they ought not be afraid of those who can kill the body.

After the resurrection, they proclaimed their faith boldly and proudly, with little fear and trepidation, and all the tricks of the Roman government began to work against them. After all, what possible punishment can you level against someone who is not afraid to die?  The answer:  Nothing

Without the resurrection, there would be no chance for Peter, James, John, Matthais, Stephen, any of them, to boldly cling to their position even in the face of death and loudly proclaim the messiah.  And they proved it before his death, they were weak, they were afraid.  They definitely were in fear of those who could kill the body.  After his resurrection, though, something changed in them.  They were no longer afraid of death, and it showed.  That's our legacy now.

Do we live up to it?  Not usually, because we're cowards, just like they were.  We claim to represent Jesus faithfully up to and including the point of death, but we flake, we do.  But there is something else behind all that, which says that is is that kind of sin that Jesus died for.  He didn't just die for the other sins, like adultery, murder and slander.  He died for our cowardice, too.  As he did for Peter, who had denied him three times, and yet was reinstated, Jesus tacitly tells him that it was for this that he died. Because we are weak, not because we are strong.

The resurrection remains a big deal because if we die with him in a death like his, we will surely be reunited with him in a resurrection like his.  The disciples saw this, and were gladdened and motivated, and sincerely believed that death itself was no longer a barrier to them.  And they faced their deaths with gladness, unafraid, because of the truth of the resurrection of Christ.

PJ.

Happy mothers' day, from me to ewe.

This last Sunday, it was Good Shepherd Sunday, as well as being mother's day. And mother's day is a thorny one, isn't it?

On the surface, it doesn't seem like it should be complicated, does it?  Just render thanks unto all the mothers, and tell them how great of a job they're doing.  But the thing about mothers is that, well, it ends up being a little bit exclusive.  You see, this was the first year that I was made aware of the policy
of having mothers stand up to be recognized.  And on the surface, again, this sounds like a great idea, to recognize and laud and honor mothers, as we ought to do.

But it runs into a snag.  And that snag is something that I hadn't considered, but I need to.  Thanks be to our DPS Amanda Knodel for pointing this out.  Her most excellent of all children's messages was one about knowing the voice of the shepherd, and likening that to knowing the voice of our mothers who call us home for dinner and out of trouble, and so on.

It's no coincidence that the voice of the conscience in my head is my mother's voice, though with an Irish accent, and when I think on moral issues, I do so with her voice in my head.  And on mother's day, I recognize my mother for all the hard work that she did in raising me, and in making me into the person that I am today.  For she is my shepherd, and I know her voice out of all the others, and I follow where she leads.  And here's the rub, and one that ends up being incredibly important.  As Amanda Knodel told us, the significance of our mothers on mothers' day, is that it's our mother.  Not someone else's mother, not another mother in a crowd out there, but rather a specific mother in a specific place and time, and one who should be acknowledged and thanked for the work that she has done by the people who have benefited from it.

Because the thing about being a mother is that it doesn't exist in a vacuum.  You can't be the concept of a mother, you can't just claim motherhood, there has to be a child, whether that child is still with us or not.  And the work that you do is on behalf of that child whom you are called to serve as part of your vocation.  That work you do is for that child, and the rest of the world will never quite know or appreciate the work that you did on behalf of that child or children.

This is part of what we get into with the notion of the great shepherd of the sheep.  We get into Jesus as the Good Shepherd, who calls his sheep who know his voice, and will not follow another.  And this is why Biblical literacy, prayer, conversation with God and with each other, ends up being so important, because everything revolves not just around how great God is, which he is, but about how great he is for you.

This 'for you' statement ends up being significant in the Lutheran faith, coming from the small catechism of Martin Luther which ends up being etched on our hearts.   If you didn't feel like reading it, allow me to sum it up for you -

How can bodily eating and drinking do such great things?

It is not the eating and drinking, indeed, that does them, but the words which stand here, namely 'given
and shed for you, for the remission of sins.' Which words are, beside the bodily eating and drinking, as the chief thing in the sacrament, and he that believes these words has what they say and express, namely the forgiveness of sins.



This whole thing is for you.  And this is why the discussion of Jesus as the Good Shepherd is such a big deal, because he's not just a good shepherd, he's your Good Shepherd.  He's not just God, he's your God.  His body and blood weren't just broken and shed, they were broken and shed for you.  It's not just that in his father's house there are many rooms, but that he goes to prepare a place for you.

Your mother is a big deal because she's your mother.  Nobody else will get that about her.  Nobody else was there when she chased monsters away or bandaged you up, or taught you how to cook or hit a ball or ride a bike or how to do math, or anything like that.  And your children are your own.  Nobody else will get or understand what it was like to hold them, to raise them, to hear them speak, or coo, or yawn, to watch them sleep, and know that you helped to make that life and to help it to grow.  You took that lump of flesh and formed it into a person, like God did with Adam, telling him and his wife to be fruitful and multiply.  

So what's important here?  That the mothers in the congregation stand up and be recognized by me?  Nah.  Unless it's my mother.  The important thing is that we celebrate that very special relationship between our mothers and ourselves, or our children and ourselves, even, and this is especially important in a church, if that union has been broken by death.  Because it's a church, and we know that the work that Jesus did for us is so that these incredibly powerful relationships will not be forever broken.  He came, says the reading for Sunday, that we may have life, and have it abundantly.  We rejoice that this work was done for us, letting us know that neither life nor death nor things past nor things to come can separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus.

Happy mother's day, everyone.  Give your mummies a hug if you can, call them if you can't, and if
they have left this world, then give thanks to God for the time you had with them, and look forward earnestly for that time when you will see them again.

PJ.

May the Fourth be with you

Every once in a while, the stars all line up, and the infamous Star Wars day falls on a Sunday.  And I get to talk about it.  Yes, it was Star Wars day yesterday, May the Fourth (as in May the Fourth be with you), and it gave me a nice, convenient jumping off point to talk about Mark Hammill, Carrie Fischer, Harrison Ford, and age in the cage.

A good time to make sequels would have been when George Lucas was planning on making prequels.  Getting the original cast together again is fun, but it has been almost my entire lifetime since they were

together onscreen in their original roles.  31 years.  And 31 years is a long time, especially for someone like Mark Hammill, who I last saw in Wing Commander. And that was a long time ago too.  Sure, he's had voice acting in the meantime, but we haven't seen him onscreen really.  Oh, and in the remake of Village of the Damned, but now I'm dating myself.

Point being, he was a young man in Return of the Jedi.  They were all young 31 years ago. And these days, that original cast will look significantly older (except Billy Dee Williams, who still looks amazing).  And this the best image that we have right now of all flesh being grass.  The march of time has a way of working on us, and when we see someone after a 31 year absence, they certainly look much much different.  This is a pretty rare case, too, because it's not that often, outside of an entertainment expo, that we see someone after a long, 20-30 year absence, and see how much they've changed in the meantime.

But that cast has changed. And like it or not, so have we.  In that 31 years, there's a good chance that a bunch of you weren't born.  I was three when Jedi came out, and I'm 33 years old now.  It's been basically my whole lifetime, and I've changed a lot since Jedi came out. So have we all.

Because all flesh is grass.  We're all getting older, though we don't like to admit it. And because it takes place so gradually, we don't really notice it.  But when we see it all at once, like with the cast of Star Wars, we realize that there's no picture of Dorian Grey.  There's no fountain of youth (sorry Ponce de Leon).  All flesh is grass, which, according to St. Peter, grows up one day, and then is gone the next.

So, that's unpleasant.  We don't like to think about it too often, but it's true.  And the other sad thing is that it's not just us, either.  I picked up a small book in Montreal called 'the skeptical approach to religion' that had a really interesting opening chapter, which talked essentially about the eventual heat death of the universe.  It talked about the fact that it's not just you and your family that are aging out of existence, but also the sun in the centre of our solar system, and all other suns, too.  You may have a rich and lasting legacy, but on a long enough timeline, everyone's life expectancy drops to zero.  And knowing that ought to give us pause for thought, given that on a long enough timeline, the life expectancy of the sun in our solar system drops to zero as well.  Everyone we have ever known and loved, everyone we have ever held dear, all the things we have done, are worth nothing on a long enough timeline.

So what does that tell us? Well, we have a seed of eternity planted in our hearts that seems to want to lead us towards things that last forever.  We have an idea that we, and all people, ought to last for all time.  We have an idea that the stuff we do matters, that our lives have import and worth and meaning, which they don't if we're just on a dying planet in a dying solar system.

But this conception of eternity is actually phenomenally important to us as Christians.  It's important because of who Jesus is and what he does.  1 Peter tells us that all flesh is like grass, and its glory like the flower of grass that grows up one day and is gone the next.  But the word of the Lord is forever.  And this is important for us as Christians. It is important because it tells us where our help comes from, and what our hope is in.

When Jesus met up with his disciples on the road to Emmaus, he told them everything about himself that was in the scriptures, beginning with Moses and the prophets.  And that's something we forget,
because after all, if we were to start telling the story of Jesus, we'd start with the story of a stable in Judea.  But Jesus doesn't.  He starts with Moses and the prophets, going all the way back to essentially the beginning of time.  And that is where the story of Jesus starts.

In the beginning.  In the beginning, John tells us, was the Word.  And the Word was with God, and the Word was God.  It was with God from the beginning, and through Him everything that has been made has been made.  This is important.  It's poetic, it's nice, it sounds beautiful and all that, but it is incredibly important for us to know.

We need to know this because we live in a fallen creation, and we're part of that fallen creation.  We have decay, entropy, and collapse built into us and wired into us. As consequence of sin, all creation fell, and it became susceptible to entropy, and to collapse.  All things became like grass, not just all flesh.  Heaven and earth were set to pass away, and all creation was set to melt away like wax.  And both faith and science will tell us the same thing.  That all creation is winding down and wearing out.  They'll give you different reasons, but will lead you to the same conclusion, that our sun is burning out and going away.

And this is why Jesus as the word of God is so important.  This is why his presence as the eternal word of God is so vital, because of course God spoke creation into existence.  God spoke, and it happened.  God spoke the sun, the moon, the stars, the animals, all that into creation.  His word was around before everything, and it will continue to be around long long after it all goes away.  Heaven and earth will pass away, says Jesus, but my word will never pass away.  He predates creation, and will postdate it too.

And this is what we as Christians cling to, not just to his goodness and rightousness, which we do, but also to his eternity.  We cling to the fact that he is the only thing in all of creation that is not part of this decay.  He doesn't wear out, he doesn't break down, he doesn't fall apart.  Heaven and Earth will pass away, but his words will never pass away.  And through his work on the cross, we are yoked to him.  We take his burden upon us, and he takes ours upon him.  And all that decay, all that rot, he takes it with him to the cross, leaving us with his eternity.

That's how big forgivness of sins is, it's not just a matter of saying 'oh, well, never mind' about the things we do that we ought not do, it's a matter of reaching into creation, plucking us out, and giving us eternity.  Making us last forever.

All flesh is grass, but the word of the Lord remains forever.  Which is the source of all our hope.  On May the 4th, and always.

PJ.