SERMON: Kindness to the Poor

(Isaiah 61:1-4; Psalm 22:12-15; Mark 14:1-11)

Lent 4 ~ 10:30 am, Sun, March 10, 2024 ~  FBCA

On Friday I made my first visit to the Amherst Food Bank, as a volunteer. It was so good – not just to help out – but to see what is there, and how it operates. I found out that people call ahead to place their order in the morning, and are given a time of afternoon to pick up their food. Starting at one, the workers arrive, and start bagging up the items for each order, putting the bags in a shopping cart. Then, the greeter at the door – me – meets each person who knocks, and wheels out their cart for them to take their bags. A few clients brought in some empty bags for the Food Bank to use.

I am so grateful for our local Food Bank: well run, affiliated with Feed Nova Scotia, and well connected to the local congregations, including First Baptist. It is not so with every food bank! It was not so in Digby, nor in Windsor, NS.

“You will always have the poor with you,” Jesus famously says, in today’s Gospel reading. This is the fourth Sunday in Lent, and we have looked at the fourth day of this week in Mark, when Jesus is in the Jerusalem area for Passover. It is Wednesday, He’s at someone’s home in Bethany village, and He gets anointed with extremely costly ointment of nard. ‘Why waste it!’ Someone says. ‘The poor could have been fed!’

‘Yes,’ we might agree. We are told the bottle of perfume costs about a full year of a day labourer’s wages. Yet Jesus receives this gift from an unnamed woman. He praises her. He says she has begun to anoint His body for burial. It is as if she is the first person who truly believed the things Christ had been saying all along – that he would be handed over, suffer and die, and rise up again. It is Wednesday; Jesus will be executed, in two days time.

Jesus counters the criticism of this ‘wastefulness,’ of not helping the poor, by declaring what we all seem to know. Needy people will always be in the human family. Eradicating poverty never quite happens. So there will always be other opportunities to help, to give, to bless someone in the neighbourhood.

“You can show kindness to them whenever you wish; but you will not always have me.” (M 14:7) Look at the whole collection of Jesus stories, as well as the First Testament, the Hebrew Scriptures: remember what’s been called God’s preferential option for the poor. God & Jesus, are on the side of the neediest people. Always have been; always will be.

We are in a moment to consider how we can show kindness to those in need. It is the Church season of Lent. What’s that about? It is forty days to focus upon prayer, and fasting, and almsgiving (to use an old word). Giving alms to the poor – helping those in need.

Perhaps every religious tradition has this, built in. Today is the start of Ramadan for our Islamic sisters and brothers. What is the Muslim month of Ramadan about? It is a special time of prayers, and fasting (from sunrise to sunset every day) and for giving to the needy.

I consider how we, a Christian congregation, train ourselves, and model the ministry of giving, of generosity, of sacrifice, of sharing. Most of you know what preachers have taught from pulpits all our lives: the money we give to our Church is at least a ‘tithe,’ ten percent, our first ten percent that we make. So, above that, the local Church, as a whole, can give away ten percent of our income. Do we? Or do we have a goal?

How does First Baptist give to those in need? Where do we give away some percent of what we have and receive?

We do support our local Food Bank, the Amherst Food Assistance Network. $ 2,500. We also volunteer –wonderful!

Our Benevolent Fund and Benevolent Committee work includes food baskets at Christmas, ‘Christmas Cheer,’ and aid to local people every month, who need help with rent or utilities, travel to medical appointments, and so on. (I did not find the amount this week for 2023.)

We support relief and development work around the world, through CBM, Canadian Baptist Ministries. Long ago this was called The Sharing Way, and though the work continues, that name is long gone. Maybe First Baptist sent about $150 to CBM to help with feeding people and drilling wells and so forth? That’s .05% of First Baptist’s 2023 expenditures.

We support other work that does all manner of things. The Divinity College that trains people for Christian work. Camp Pagweak, our local Baptist camp; most of what happens there is for children and youth. We support Baptist chaplains in our Halifax hospitals, so that when one of you is there, and it is two hours away for me to get there, a Baptist Chaplain can visit you and bless you. We help our prison ministry, just down the road in Springhill. They have chaplains working there, and volunteers. We are part of a Baptist denomination, CBAC, and a special Baptist Association, CABF, that each have their own ways of bringing people together for wonderful work.

So, I’m not sure. Perhaps all these things make up $12,592, about 4.3% of what we spent in 2023.

Then we have our Christie Fund. Surely at least ten percent of that income is given away for good work around us and far from us? Yes, more than $21,300 last year, which was almost 17% of the income. 83% we kept for ourselves.

This is some of our kindness to the poor, and to those helping serve others in the name of Christ Jesus Himself. We are part of a team in our own town. This week, on Thursday at one, the new shelter will have an open house. It is called Prince Arthur House – that’s the street it’s on. Keep in prayer this important and challenging work: helping the unhoused here.

Kindness and generosity can seem more difficult when we are not miracle workers. ‘It was easy for Jesus to hang out with the destitute,’ we might think, ‘those who were sick, those who were shunned by the rest of the town. He worked miracles, after all. He was immune to catching their diseases. He could make five loaves feed five thousand people. We can’t.’

Maybe... or maybe not. Together, and together with Christ, we are able. Able to make a difference in people’s lives. Able to give. Jesus did not resolve every need and heal every illness. As He says here, we will always have the needy; we will be able to show kindness again and again, every year, forever. There will always we someone who needs something.

And so, there will always be people who can give something. We get to be part of that team. That Holy Team. We spend some of ourselves to enjoy God and praise Jesus, and we spend some of ourselves to make a difference in the world. This troubled, messed-up, anxious, angry, hurting world. We call for help; we pray for help. We are part of the help. ‘Love God and love others.’

Spiritual author and speaker, Jan Phillips, has told the story often of a terrible accident she suffered years ago. Traveling in a desert in the southwest USA, she had pulled her car off the road and was out, with binoculars, watching some beautiful birds soaring. A speeding car came along the highway, and a confused driver drove off the road, and right into Jan’s car, which hit her – and both went flying. Her car land on top of Jan!

Not that long after, another car came along and stopped. Jan called out to the two fellows who got out and were looking around. ‘Help! I’m under the car!’ Jan cried. She was in pain. The muffler of her car was burning her.

‘We’ll go get some help!’ the fellows said.

“No!,’ Jan exclaimed. ‘You can help me. You are the help.”

And they were. They were able to lift up her car just enough to get her out, and take her to a hospital.

We are the help. We are filled with acts of kindness, when someone is in need. We must prepare ourselves to be the help.

The prophetic words of Isaiah come to life again in us. Good news to the oppressed, binding up the brokenhearted, giving freedom to captives, declaring the end of evil actions, promising God’s favour, comforting the mourners.

This is the work of Jesus in us, today; the Jesus whom we worship, even as He becomes utterly poor, and suffers, and dies.

SERMON: Reap What You Sow

(Is 42:1-4; Mk 12:1-12; Ps 22:16-19)

Lent 3 ~ 10:30 am, Sun, March 3, 2024 ~  FBCA

In our Vestry, out there, we have a large piece of hooked rug artwork by Deanne Fitzpatrick, The Grape Pickers. Look closely in that vineyard, and you can see the men and women who work those fields. It can be a lovely scene to ponder. Perhaps you will think of vines and grapes and a winepress when we come to the Table, later. 

Jesus’ parable of the Vineyard, or parable of the Wicked Tenants - whatever we call it - is a far cry from peaceful. It is a scene of greed and violence, injustice and even murder. 

I paired this Bible story with a song of a servant, in Isaiah 42, where God’s great servant is so gentle and quiet and determined, peacefully working for the good of the people. Mark tells this story, from Jesus, pointed against some of the religious officials. It is about the horrible workers in a good vineyard. Without difficulty, we see here an allegory about Jesus Himself, who is soon to be killed, like the son of the vineyard owner in the story. God’s great Servant who suffers for the sake of all the suffering people of the world.

We who are long in the pews have been trained to see Jesus’ death and its meaning to be all about sin and forgiveness. It is, but much more than this. It is for all the harms and hurts and limits we have in our lives, and that we see in the world. 

Christianity does open our eyes to face our failures. There is such power and blessing in having these ways we seek and celebrate forgiveness. Our moments of confession and forgiveness are often very brief, on a Sunday morning, sometimes little more than the words in the Lord’s Prayer, which today were, forgive us our sins and impositions on you as we are forgiving all who in any way offend us. (D. Willard) 

Along with our own failures and harm we’ve done, are all the hurts we have suffered from others, and simply from what we could call circumstances. Plus all the evil, big and small, we see around us.

The meaning of all this suffering is what Jesus reaches, and He does it like the son in the vineyard story, who actually gets killed. That is what is about to happen to Christ, just a few days after he told this story in the courtyard of the Jerusalem Temple. He enters pain.

There is so much that is meaningful in pain, problems, trouble, injustice. A lot of it, we can’t make sense of, yet there are plenty of times that our souls and bodies learn from the school of hard knocks, from our greatest errors and the simple limitations we have that we are not even responsible for. 

About fifteen years ago a woman moved to Windsor, and into the Church where Sharon and I were. I’ll call her ‘Rose.’ I had gone all through school with Rose - Melvern Square Consolidated and then Middleton Regional High. She lived in my village. Rose is a special needs person, I don’t know why. She was one of those the rest of us kids treated as ‘different’ and did not associate with much. Once in Jr. High she was in ‘special ed’ as it was called then. 

Fifteen years ago, she was about thirty, and her foster mother died. Rose had to move out on her own, for the first time. She got placed in Windsor. She came to our Church because she was a Baptist Christian. In her little village Church she had been faithful, and a hard worker in the kitchen with their events. Rose came to us and hoped to fit in. She did not socialize quite like ‘normal people.’ She was not a person who would ever have a car. No one thought of her as smart in any way. But she was kind, and loving, and fun.

Of course, Rose transferred her membership to the Windsor Baptist Church, and when she joined us, she was willing to speak and say something to the congregation about herself. I don’t remember the details of what she said, that Sunday, just some things about her life and her faith in Christ. This had a real impact upon people, it was very honest and people were deeply moved. Some of the other younger people - thirty years old - spoke about her and were quite touched and impressed by her that day. Rose came to us with heart, with faith, with trust, and with the deep need to belong & find home.

I find it quite profound that the spiritual teacher, Richard Rohr, speaks of how one great thing we can do with God, for the sake of our relationship with God, is actually to sin, or to be hurt, or be weak. To give our sins, take our problems, to the forgiving, healing Master. Rohr even has a book, titled, Falling Upward. We make the greatest progress in our personal lives when we fall, fail, are weak, go astray, have to be guided, or rescued, or healed inside. 

I bought a book this week; and when it arrived in the mail this was the first quotation my eyes landed upon:

The church’s primary social and psychological task is to help people manage their experienced dependency upon God in such a way that they are better able to care effectively for the world. These two dimensions of dependency and caring define the needed human rhythm of life. The church is the only large-scale institution in society that is accountable for and capable of fostering such an authentic rhythm. (Tilden Edwards, in Embracing Rhythms of Work and Rest, Ruth Haley Barton, 2022, p. 117)

Dependency, and caring. We are dependent, needy, hurting, asking for mercy. We are caring, talented, loving, and capable of blessing others. 

Under the grace of Jesus, in the economy of God, blessed by the Spirit, we end up reaping good things from everything that we sow. As we prayed earlier, when we rejoice today, we can stay humble and be true to God. When we fail, even if we are nasty, the amazing grace of God will flow. We learn much from our mistakes; we fall upward. And we get to be wonderful and beautiful, as we are created to be.

SERMON: A House of Prayer for All

Lent 2 ~ 10:30 am, Sun, Feb 25, 2024 ~  FBCA

Welcome. Welcome again, I say, to this house of prayer. For all. Not today, but many Sundays we start by singing: All are welcome in this place. Are they? I mean, does it seem like it to them? To all? Can they tell they are welcome? Is this a house of prayer for all peoples?

Often, it can be so helpful to us who are regular pew people (or pulpit people, or choir people) to visit another house of prayer. Go to Church where you can’t sit in your usual pew, or sing with the choir, or preach and pray up front. See what it feels like to be new, be out of place, not know where everything is, or who everyone is. God uses that to help us see better, when we get back here, to our usual place. 

On this second Sunday in Lent we look at the second day of the week when Jesus was crucified, Monday in Mark’s Gospel. After entering the city of Jerusalem on Sunday, and taking a look around the Temple before he went back out to spend the night in Bethany, on Monday he comes back to town and heads into the Jewish Temple on a mission. ‘The cleansing of the Temple’ it gets called in our English Bibles. All sorts of merchants, and their customers, get kicked out of the Temple area, and kept out by Jesus! What’s going on here? Well, the Temple was a place of prayers and of animal sacrifices. The buying and selling of sheep and goats and pigeons and all went on in the big courtyard of the Temple, as well as people trading their Roman coins for Jewish money, the only proper money to spend on your sacrificial animals. Jesus shut down this whole marketplace - so He shut down the worship sacrifices and work of the priests. 

‘Jesus Christ Superstar’ has Jesus singing the words as He trashes the Temple marketplace:

My temple should be a house of prayer,

But you have made it a den of thieves!

The ways we merchandize things, and market our religion, sell our stuff and try to attract people goes on differently now, but it can still be a threat. A threat to real connection with God (prayer?). A threat to good fellowship among the people of Jesus. More than ever, our religion, as well as all the others, can be freely critiqued and rejected. We don’t always keep the main thing the main thing.

I’ve got the image of a fig branch on our bulletin cover, drawing attention to that strange event of Jesus cursing a tree, on his way to the Temple that day. If we read on, we see the next morning that tree had died and dried up - a real symbol of Jesus’ people, whose Temple activities had gone astray. What good fruit were being produced?

That’s what Jesus asked His siblings in Faith, long ago. And asks of us again, as we review these stories. 

In his commentary on the book of Mark, Lamar Williamson, Jr. says: It is not hard to see how denominational headquarters, middle-level leaders, and local church staffs resemble the chief priests and scribes of Jesus’ day; nor is it hard to see how our busy, prosperous churches are like leafy, fruitless fig trees. It may be more difficult to acknowledge that some flourishing programs stand condemned and therefore doomed by the word of Jesus Christ.

Yet, Williamson reminds us that The power of God that withered a fig tree and moves mountains can also bring new life to a church and its leaders, though they be dry from their roots up.

These days of our lives, we need our Churches to be houses of prayer for all people. I keep going back to the writings of Eugene Peterson - who wrote a lot, including a new translation of the whole Bible he called The Message. He was also a professor, in Canada. Before that, but after more than 25 years as pastor of a Presbyterian congregation, he wrote: my primary educational task as a pastor was to teach people to pray. Peterson found that his people were coming, not to get facts on the Philistines and Pharisees but to pray. (The Contemplative Pastor, Word Publishing, 1989, p. 96) I heard one of my own professors of Christian Education say the same thing to us, in class at Acadia, years ago. 

A House of Prayer… for all people. The ‘all people’ bit seems to me the challenging theme the Hebrew Prophets and then the Messiah fought to bring to light. Break down the barriers, the tribalism, the ‘us vs. them’ mentality. We are in, they are out - we keep falling back to this. And we are getting it wrong. Did you hear those ancient words of Isaiah today? It was “too light a thing” for God’s servant to work a miracle for Israel. “I will give you as a light to the nations,” God says, “that my salvation may reach to the end of the earth.” This is exactly what God’s great Servant, Jesus, is doing. 

Let me tell you a Brad Jersak story. Jersak is a Canadian preacher, professor and author. A bunch of years ago he told this experience in a sermon he was preaching in Missouri. (Word of Life Church, YouTube, July 3, 2018)

I got on a Southwest Airlines flight where they give you a number and you can pick your own seat, and so I head down the aisle and get a really good aisle seat, so that my right arm could be in the aisle and I could write things. And then I thought: well wait a minute, I want space in the seat between me and the window. So I started manspreading so I’d look really inhospitable. I think, ‘God, please let me be left alone.’ I really hate airplanes and I really hate evangelists with airplane stories. 

But I see this man coming down the aisle, and he catches my eye and I’m like, ‘Oh no.’ This is a big guy. I have wide shoulders, and he has wide shoulders, and I think, ‘look bigger, inhale.’ But no, he locked eyes with me; he comes and he sits down. And I notice he is wearing clerical robes. I say, ‘Oh I see you’re religious.’ And he says, ‘Yeah, I am.’ 

And he begins to tell me interesting spiritual journey experience stuff, beginning with this: ‘I believe God speaks today, do you?’ ‘I do.’ And he says, ‘I believe that God gives us direction and guidance and counsel, so as I was coming down the aisle I was asking God who do you want me to sit with and He directed me to you.’ 

Missionaries! But we get into a beautiful conversation about our conceptions of God. and I realise this man is devout, he reveres God and he loves God and in fact he listens to God and when he prays God hears him and responds. And the things that God has shown him are primarily this. This is his image of God. We talked about healthy images of God and toxic images of God, and he says, ‘My image of God is that God is merciful, that God is all merciful, that God is especially merciful.’ 

Did I mention that he’s an Imam from Seattle? And we end up having a five hour flight, talking about our conceptions of God as pure mercy, about the responsibility of preachers to inspire people and lift them up, about our rejection of all violence in the name of God, and the call to be peacemakers one with another. I mean we were so on the same page. But of course the voice in my ear says, ‘yeah, but he’s one of them.’

Jersak decides that he and the Imam are, perhaps, like two toddlers with crayons drawing our picture of God for one another, squiggling outside the lines. And I draw my picture of God and it’s really good, I think I’ve nailed it, actually. And I bring this picture of God to the Father and I say, ‘God, I have this picture of You; would You take it?” And He smiles and hugs me and says it is fantastic, and puts it on His fridge. 

But wait, my Imam friend is drawing a picture of God too… some of it looks like my picture, but some doesn’t. He offers his picture to Allah, and wait a minute, it’s the same God? 

He smiles, and embraces him. And puts it on His fridge!

How big and grand is this ‘house of prayer?’ Bigger than First Baptist? Bigger than the Baptist Churches in general? Bigger than Christianity? To have fellowship with God is what God wants for everyone, for every  human  being. 

 When we come in from the world, from our lives, into a temple like this… watch closely for Jesus’ actions. Let us obey when He shuts things down, and opens up others. When we are fruitful, we will not be cursed and dry up, as we join the movement to bless the world, the whole world of people and creatures and things.

SERMON: Great Expectations

Lent 1, 10:30 am, Sun, Feb 18, 2024 ~  FBCA

(Isaiah 62:1-4, 10-12; Ps 22:27-31; Mark 11:1-11) J G White

 I attended a wake yesterday. You know what a wake is? An old term for a reception, a gathering before the funeral of a loved one. This was a wake not for a person, but for a business. A store that went belly-up. My brother, and his brother-in-law, had good plans and probably some great expectations, when they planned this small business, four years ago. A game store, where you could not only buy Risk, Axis & Allies, Dungeons & Dragons, Warhammer, or Wingspan, but you could also gather there for hours and play the games. 

As I say, they had a wake for their store, yesterday. After three years and a bit, they could not sustain it, could not inject any more money into it to make a go of it. Goodbye, Carl G Wargaming store!

Many of us have great expectations, at moments in life. Some of those hopes and plans get dashed. What happens is rather different. Sometimes bad, sometimes OK, sometimes better than what we’d expected. 

I see some great expectations in our Bible readings today. I chose the scriptures for this Church season we call Lent, from Mark, Isaiah, a Psalm. Bible words, yes, but do they sound unrealistic?

Isaiah 62 speaks to Israelites of long before Jesus, telling them their holy city shall be vindicated, and her salvation be like a burning torch. I love the bits about them getting new names. They shall be called, “the Holy People, The Redeemed of the Lord… Sought Out, A City Not Forsaken.” Not-Forsaken-Town: sounds like a nice name. But was it unrealistic? Three thousand years later, Jerusalem is troubled again. 

With a modern wording we read from Psalm 22, the end of it. From the four corners of the earth people are coming to their senses, are running back to God. Are they? Some. Sometimes. Lots of people? - no.

Then Mark’s Gospel. We will take six weeks to look at six days in a row, what gets called ‘Holy Week.’ Today it is Sunday, the day after Jewish Sabbath; Jesus and his disciples enter Jerusalem for the Passover, to great applause - or, branch waving and rejoicing.

We see this exciting moment of great expectations about Jesus. The followers of this Man obviously have some hope that good things will happen now - maybe even the real attack on the powers that be: the Roman Empire who is ruling the region, and perhaps too the strict religious & powerful Jews.

But most of us know the rest of the story. We know that so many who rejoice when their Leader rides into town on a donkey will reject Jesus, by the end of the week, and join in calling for His execution, while His closest followers simply flee and hide.

Writer, Virginia Stem Owens, says it well: I have always felt pretty ambivalent about Palm Sunday… It’s hard to put your whole heart into the triumphal entry of Jesus into Jerusalem when you’re dreading the ignominious part you’re to play next. 

But she writes: At its best, the rest of our earthly life is going to be one long Palm Sunday, a procession of praise and great expectations in the face of certain failure–or it’s going to be nothing… Our excitement is always going to be slightly out of focus, through a glass darkly.

Nevertheless, despite this, maybe even because of this, we must take our place in the parade… Aware of our own wavering natures, we must declare this is it! Heaven is passing by at this moment!  (Eugene Peterson, ed., Stories for the Christian Year, Collier, 1992, pp. 105, 108)

For the promised Kingdom of God is not arriving like all the other empires of history. Not like the ones those people hoped for again, who shouted ‘hosanna.’ What did an old hymn we recently sang say? But not with swords loud-clashing,

nor roll of stirring drums,

but deeds of love and mercy,

the heavenly kingdom comes.      (Ernest W Shurtleff)

Still today, our expectations of God, and of our lives, can be a bit off. They will be. We will be off-kilter. We learn; we have much to learn.

Nova Scotian spiritual writer, Sara Jewell, has said The kingdom of God is not a physical place. It’s neither heaven nor the church. It’s Jesus, and it’s us. It’s among us and within us. 

It looks like people taking care of each other.

It looks like people linking arms with each other.

It looks like people treating neighbours as extended family.

It looks like a close-knit, functioning body where each member is affected by what happens to the other members. 

(Alphabet of Faith, 2021, Wood Lake, p. 117)

Beautifully written. Yet even this can seem like too-great expectations. Idealistic. But it is the core, the basis of what’s real. There is a place for big hopes and great expectations. We must then be ready for our expectations to be tweaked or maybe changed in big ways. In our life paths. In our faith, our discipleship to Jesus. 

Life happens, and our plans got fouled up. How will Christ use us to encourage one another? When a business plan fails. When disease strikes hard. When a relationship breaks. When the world goes to pot around us.

I still trust God and Christ to be about what’s good and right in people’s lives, amid the terrible things of the world. I have not suffered greatly in any way, personally, in half a century, but I can see in the lives of many who have suffered, how faith and confidence in our good God lives in them. They have strong, new expectations.

And I see this so clearly in the Saviour, who entered the Holy City to the shouts of hosanna and waving of branches, who headed straight to His rejection, betrayal, injustice, torture, and execution. 

So, on these Sundays before Easter, let us walk through the days of that holy week, long ago. (Next Sunday we will look at Monday, when Jesus enters the Temple, and clears it out the merchants.) 

As an old hymn puts it, we shall

Learn of Jesus Christ to pray.  (James Montgomery, 1771-1854)

Learn of Him to bear the cross.

Learn of Jesus Christ to die.

Saviour, teach us so to rise. 

SERMON: Transfiguration

10:30 am, Sun, Feb 11, 2024 ~  FBCA

(2 Kings 2:5-12; 2 Cor 4:5-6; Mark 9:2-10) J G White

 Today is the end of the Church season of Epiphany! Have you had an epiphany? Any amazing, bright idea given to you? Today is Transfiguration Sunday. Jesus shines brightly on a mountaintop, with James, John and Peter watching. Have you seen any transformations before your eyes?

Today we ask about the Transfiguration of Jesus: what does this mean?  That’s just what Peter and James and John wondered. They were quite alarmed by their friend and leader, as He glowed brightly, and with Moses and Elijah meeting with Him. So, frightened, Peter nervously speaks up with an idea, not knowing what on earth to do. As soon as it happened, it’s over, and the four men headed back down the mountain. 

Christ is a bright Light in our world. So we proclaim in our Faith, so we believe and trust, in our better moments. We have our own experiences of seeing the light of Christ. Most are not what we call ‘mountaintop experiences.’ Many moments are private, subtle, yet moving and transformative for us. Recently, a person mentioned how she can’t say she had some dramatic conversion moment on a certain day in her early life, but she has experienced many miracles thru life. Those touches of grace that helped just when things were not good - they shine with the light of God.

I wonder how we talk to one another about our experiences. When we are together here, for instance, could our scripture readers be given the opportunity to speak of the impact of the Word they read? Tell your own mini sermon, about the light that shone for you? Let’s celebrate the life of God among us.

I suppose we celebrate this event of Jesus glowing on a hilltop because it is about people seeing more of Jesus, who He truly is. And still, as with those disciples, there is much beyond our understanding. Did you notice what Peter, James and John end up talking about on the way down the mountainside? They don’t chat about Jesus glowing. They don’t ask about what Moses said, or Elijah. The divine Voice they seemed to hear from the cloud, they don’t speak of it. They talk of something Christ mentioned, once the moment was over. What this resurrection from the dead could mean? 

Life and death moments are transformative. They are where God often meets us. When someone dies, or when their dreams die, or when the world becomes a death-dealing place, people run into the arms of God, or slam the door completely on God. 

Jesus enters into suffering and death, completely. We see the glory of God in Jesus in beautiful moments that are pure gift… and in harsh moments of pain and death. It goes without saying, the pinnacle of the Jesus story is death and resurrection. 

I glimpsed a bright moment, a moment of connection, when Tracy Chapman sang her 1988 song at the Grammy Awards last Monday. Suddenly, new generations of people grasped this song of hope in the midst of going nowhere. The beauty of a song that resonates with millions. The words still seem poignant for 2024.  You got a fast car

We go cruising to entertain ourselves

You still ain't got a job

And I work in a market as a checkout girl

I know things will get better

You'll find work and I'll get promoted

We'll move out of the shelter

Buy a bigger house and live in the suburbs

A dream, a hope, a vision, living in a song. Is this not the hope of resurrection? And the hope of personal transfiguration: that someone will see your inner beauty for what it is, who U R.

Also this week I saw the brightness of hope in one of our dear saints who lives down in Windsor, NS, now. I think it was more than a year ago, Nova T. moved down to a nursing home in Halifax. Her health seemed to be so poor, her mobility and her eyesight were almost gone. I think it has been a hard year. 

Lately, she moved to a new place, Dykeland Lodge, in Windsor. She was looking so bright and so much better when I saw her there on Friday! I think she said she was ‘shocked’ when she arrived there, ‘in a good way.’ She knew it was home. They gave her such a warm welcome. They have activities all day, every day. She is out, rolling around in her wheelchair, taking it all in, so much happier, looking so much better. I took cards from some of you to her; others that are coming in, we will mail. Nova sends her loving greetings to you all!

So good to see a little moment of resurrection in the life of someone who has been following Jesus for 80 years.

The vision of Jesus we hear about in Mark 9 is a preview of the risen Christ. It will be an executed Man who rises from death. And brings this life to us. 

I just heard a podcast of a talk by Bible Scholar John Dominic Crossan. He spoke of times travelling in Turkey and seeing the Byzantine Church artwork, images of the resurrection. And what do you see in these thousand-year-old pictures? Jesus coming out of the tomb, bringing two people with Him. It’s Adam and Eve! Jesus coming to life after death, bringing humanity with Him. As it says in 1 Corinthians 15, Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who have died. Jesus first, the rest of us follow.

If we say heaven and hell are experienced here, in this life (and many of us do say this), then we are in awe, and rejoicing, that resurrection happens for us now, in these days, thanks to Jesus, who leads us out of the tomb of death.

My upcoming journey with you in the Sundays of Lent will follow the story of Holy Week in Mark’s Gospel, beginning next Sunday with Jesus’ entering Jerusalem, with palm branches waving. Each Sunday will be a day of that week, Monday, Tuesday, to Good Friday and beyond. May we see Him more for who He is. May Christ shed some light upon our lives: upon all our misplaced hopes, our wonky religion, our world of violence, the betrayals we face, our intense need for prayer, and even death itself. 

Christ has died; Christ is risen; Christ will come again.

SERMON: Forgotten By God?

10:30 am, Sun, Feb 4, 2024 ~  FBCA

(Isaiah 40:21-31; 1 Cor 9:16-23; Mark 1:35-38) J G White

‘Do you ever feel like a mere grasshopper?’ Like a mere bug in the face of Godand the world? As it says here, It is he who sits above the circle of the earth, and its inhabitants are like grasshoppers…  

Perhaps you are not likely to think about grasshoppers in midwinter. But, once upon a time, I had grasshoppers in February. I had brought a big plant pot in the house for the winter, with a tender little shrub in it. One winter day I noticed in the windows of that room where the pot was sitting, several tiny, tiny grasshoppers. What on earth were they doing there? Well, of course, their eggs must have been planted in the earth of the plant pot, in late summer, by mother grasshopper, while the pot was outside on the deck. Then, being indoors, in a ‘warmer climate,’ the eggs hatched early - way too early - and the little bugs had no food in our house. The little things were doomed.

I know that is how some people feel: like a mere grasshopper, and a doomed one at that, in the face of whatever God is up and out there. Maybe even forgotten by God. Know anyone like this?

The page of Isaiah the prophet that we call chapter forty has some beautiful, ancient poetry in it. It starts off saying ‘Comfort, comfort my people, says your God.’ It ends with the weak and weary waiting for God and rising up as if on the wings of an eagle. In the middle here, the grasshoppers appear - us humans. It is a chapter of hope, hope for a people in trouble, wondering if their disaster would ever end. ‘My way is hidden from the LORD,’ the people said. ‘What’s right for us has been ignored by God.’ 

Was there hope? Yes, yes there was. God would not forget them forever. The worn down and worn out people would renew their strength - by awaiting God - and rise up with wings like eagles. 

Should I tell you the Hebrew bird word here probably is not an eagle, but a vulture? ‘Fraid so. Nesher, in ancient Hebrew, can mean a vulture, whatever kinds of vultures they have in the Middle East. 

And He will raise you up on vulture’s wings… Vultures also soar. And they are quite important in the clean-up department on earth. In some places they are vital to taking care of dead animal remains. Author Debbie Blue calls them Death Eaters. Our now-established species in NS, the turkey vulture, is Cathartes aura in Latin, meaning ‘golden purifier.’ A good poetic image for God’s work in our lives. Taking rubbish and death and cleaning it up, making things pure again. Not to mention being able to fly and soar, sometimes without even flapping a wing. 

This is all good biblical poetry for those who have felt forgotten by God. And for those whom we, God’s people, forget. Even in an established congregation, so many people disappear and drift into the woodwork. We sometimes don’t quite know how to include them, keep them in fellowship, remember them. ‘Encourage one another,’ the Spirit tells us, using scripture. Indeed. Some of us need to learn new ways to be encouragers of others, of those we choose to forget. We are called upon to be partners in the gospel, as Paul put it.

That piece of 1 Corinthians we read today comes after some details in the letter about how those believers could get along as a mix of people and opinions and different ethical practices. And the Apostle’s work, travelling and training people in the Way of Jesus, was a free mission. Don’t you love that phrase ‘I… make the gospel free of charge’? 

The Apostle Paul then gets into his ‘being all things to all people’ bit, another beautiful phrase. He had a definite sense of identity; his work was to connect with people of all sorts, Jews and non Jews, weak and strong, all kinds of folk. He did not want to forget or leave out any particular kind of person, no matter their religious background. 

This can look like a greater challenge for us today. But very few of us are called to be a new Apostle Paul. Most of us are called upon to be part of a team that does not leave people out. So we pause and pay attention to who, out there, we might forget. How to remember them now, and be a sign of hope and help to them, is important. 

We get to be part of the remembering of God. We do not forget the many people in need in the community. It is great we have a little team of Baptists who help at the Amherst Food Bank. Do not forget that this is part of First Baptist’s ministry - whether we officially report on it at our annual meeting, or have a committee, or not. 

Along the way, we are inspired by those who are real shining lights of generous help to all manner of people. I think of John. Let me tell you about him today. 

I knew of John for many years; I’d meet him at meetings of the CABF. He retired to Nova Scotia, to the old family homestead of his wife’s parents. I really got to know him when I moved to Digby and became his Pastor. John was a Baptist Minister in various places in Canada. He is an intelligent man. He played chess with some local intellectual folks. John is astute; he and his wife became activists and fought off the development of a huge rock quarry on Digby Neck. He reads deep books. He used to recommend to me that I read up on process theology, which I have yet to understand. Once, he gave me his book of the parables of Soren Keirkegaard; rather deep, philosophical stuff: hard to put into a sermon! I’m sure John’s own sermons were very intelligent. 

And yet, John is so personable. He connects with people so naturally, with everyone. One of the dear old men in the Digby Church, a very down-to-earth, retired businessman, was a big fan of John’s sermons. Another ordinary guy, whose career had been as a janitor of various buildings, was a friend of John. He would always have us over around Christmas time for tea and cookies. 

In my eyes, Rev. John is a person who became all things to all people, that he might by all means save some. He has shown me how to remember people others would forget or ignore. 

I think so many people feel forgotten by God. Like Israel of old, they’d say, ‘My way is hidden from God.’ We know better, thanks to Christ. And we claim this ministry for ourselves, blessing people with the reality that God gives power to the faint and strengthens the powerless. They shall mount up with wings like vultures; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint.

PRAYER Today’s praying has a repeated response.

Wait for the LORD and renew strength: rise up with wings like eagles.

Let us    pray.  

Creator God of ice and snow, wind and cold; after Groundhog Day we know we are past the dead centre of winter. We look for mercy in the lives of all who find winter hard, travel troubling, darkness discouraging. 

Wait for the LORD and renew strength: rise up with wings like eagles.

Jesus the Healer, Jesus the pray-er in quiet places: in the storms of life called sickness we pray for Your touch, Your rest, Your mercy. Especially we keep praying for Molly, for Reuben, for Ruth, for…

Wait for the LORD and renew strength: rise up with wings like eagles.

Spirit of Truth and Love, who is more than what we can explain: as our Christian Education here is almost at zero, inspire us with vision and opportunities to share the Way of Jesus. Bless anew our search for our Minister of Families and Outreach. 

Wait for the LORD and renew strength: rise up with wings like eagles.

Lord God of all the nations, peoples and cultures, our prayers for peace and justice continue: for our brothers and sisters of Ukraine, Myanmar, Sudan, Israel, Palestine, and all over. 

Wait for the LORD and renew strength: rise up with wings like eagles.

Triune God, Ground and Source of all relationships in creation: help us know Your calling to be a green Church, a Jesus Fellowship that strives to be good citizens of the earth and learners of a more humble way. 

Wait for the LORD and renew strength: rise up with wings like eagles.

Let our praises to You keep rising up, as we are lifted by all the blessings of life and salvation, and as we remember all those You never forget or neglect; in the name of Jesus. Amen.

SERMON: Give Thanks With Everything You've Got

10:30 am, Sun, Jan 28, 2024 ~  FBCA

(Deut 18:15-20; Psalm 111; Mark 1:21-28) J G White

 Today’s Psalm starts out - in whatever English translation you read or sing - blazing with the community at worship. Praise the LORD. I will give thanks to the LORD with my whole heart, in the company of the upright, in the congregation. (NRSV) We read Eugene Peterson’s translation, which is thought-for-thought, not word-for-word, and it strikes me funny, now. When it says: Wherever good people gather, and in the congregation. I like to think that we, a gathered congregation, are also good people. 

Give thanks to God with everything you’ve got. Believe it or not, I think this is what our work is all about, at 10:30 on Sundays. Worship together is at the heart of things for us. It is my job, along with a few others here, to make this hour work for all who gather: help everyone bring everything you’ve got, give thanks with your whole heart.

I’ve been right into this for years; at least, fascinated by church services. Even as a young teenager I started saving every Sunday bulletin. (None were ever this big!) After about twenty years, I finally took my collection to the Baptist Archives at Acadia. 

Hallelujah! I will give thanks to YHWH with my whole heart. As the first verse of Psalm 111 got my attention this past week, the CABF Bulletin came to us in the mail. This edition is all about Christian worship. The first little article I read credited the old Christian philosopher, Soren Kierkegaard with the teaching that our worship is for an Audience of One. For God. Apparently,  Kierkegaard was alarmed at how services in 19th century Copenhagen had become productions of excellent music and fine speeches. Instead of a spiritual performance for the people in the pews, the whole congregation was to be the performers, guided by ministers and musicians, to offer the service, their service, to God, the Audience of One. 

Allan Effa, who wrote this article, wisely acknowledges that we of the pew and pulpit are also the audience. Worship is a dialogue between us and our God. 

‘Amen,’ I say. No wonder I am happy with services that have congregational singing, and unison reading together. Even standing or sitting together, and our monthly eating and drinking - all are ways to get everyone involved. In theory. Worship service is no spectator sport.

But we do allow for spectators. We should. At times, it may seem what we are trying to do is a rather extroverted thing. Get people involved, have you respond, speak loud and clear in unison, sing with enthusiasm, pray with intense silence, answer my questions in Children’s Time. I wonder what other ways to get you involved; what activities in worship would work?

But not everyone is keen to do all such things. Not everyone is a singer, for example, or would even dare attempt to open your mouth during a song. I know, I can see you - and not hear you. ;) Or read out loud. Or even pray the Lord’s Prayer aloud with any volume at all. 

It is important to remember that to give thanks to God with everything you’ve got happens in many ways. Not everyone is brave and loud and demonstrative. Many people are quiet or cautious, uncertain or introverted. I have quite an introverted side to myself.

So I turned this week to a book on my shelf called Introverts in the Church: Finding Our Place in an Extroverted Culture. There’s a lot of wisdom here. It is a good reminder that Jesus has called into fellowship people who are not going to stand out in the crowd, and who will not be energized by being with fifty others on a Sunday morning, and who have great wisdom that arises when they take time to ponder it all. 

Was Jesus an extrovert? Could He have been an introvert, in His time upon earth? We watch Him perform an exorcism after He gives a teaching session at Synagogue in a town He visited. He was quickly becoming famous for His actions and teachings: He must have had a big personality! People were impressed.

Yet, as we will read next week, in Mark 1, after being flooded with very sick people who seek healing, Jesus takes off to a deserted place where even His disciples can’t find Him. Jesus goes away to pray, Mark tells us. We see Him do this, over and over. 

Whatever we think Jesus’ personality type was then, or is now in Spirit, He includes fully people who are the quieter, behind the scenes folk, as well as the take-the-microphone and take-charge type of people. Remember, there is nothing wrong with not wanting to be on a committee, or not wanting to do some public speaking, or not ever singing, or needing to stay away from noisy crowds. 

So I want our Sunday mornings to be an inspiring and safe place for all sorts of folks. And our fellowship meals, & our game playing mornings, & our study groups. Etc.

And we should celebrate and be proud to have leaders among us who are the ‘strong, silent types.’ We hear in Deuteronomy the promise, from Moses before he died, that there would be a new prophet like him to take his place. What was Moses like? He definitely had to get over his weaknesses when it came to public speaking. He also spent many intense moments alone in prayerful conversation with YHWH. This is what the stories tell us about him. 

How our leaders and our followers give their hallelujahs to God are in so many ways and styles and flavours. I know you; I think you already know how to respect those around you, in their own expressions of faith in Christ. And you have known believers who inspired you and helped you, who were quite different from you. Yet they and you all have been beautiful servants of God.

Among the many people I have known in my life who are now dead, there are a few about whom I felt very disappointed that they departed. It was like this: I wanted them around longer, wanted to get to know them better, felt I missed out on some of their knowledge and wisdom and joy. 

There were three or four from Windsor Baptist. One of them was Marj, my Church Clerk. She was more than that, of course, she served in lots of ways at the Church, and simply was always there. She was a formidable, funny, knowledgeable, friendly, unmarried woman, and rather quiet and unassuming in some ways. She was well versed in Canadian Baptist life, and was a keeper of the living history of the Windsor Baptist Church. It was just before she got cancer, in her seventies, and then had the audacity to die on me, that I felt I was truly getting to know her. 

She was a person who often, in her pew on a Sunday morning, would get this look of rapt attention upon her face, with eyes closed, during a choir anthem, or the reading of scripture. She apologized and explained to me once that she was simply concentrating and taking it all in. “I’m not falling asleep,” Marj said. She wasn’t. She was a person who could be talkative, yet, you always wanted to hear what she had to say. I remember one time I happened to drive her home from some Church meeting or other, and as we chatted about the human sexuality issues that were a hot topic, she said, “I don’t think the same way about that as other people do.” I dropped her off, and wanted to talk more about that - and many other things - but she up and died on me first. I was not expecting that. 

I inherited some books and things from her that told something about Marj. A framed group photo of the Baptist Federation of Canada meeting in Vancouver in 1953. Some scholarly books: A literary Guide to the Bible, The Book of J, The Lost Gospel Q. 

I miss her. Marj, so definitely, gave thanks with everything she had, without being a show off, a loud talker, or the centre of attention. So it can be for so many of us.

Still waters run deep. Thanks be to God! hallelujah.

SERMON: Alarming News!

10:30 am, Sun, Jan 21, 2024 ~  FBCA

(Jonah 3:1-5, 10; 1 Cor 7:29-31; Mark 1:14-20) J G White

“Read the Bible - all our hope is there.” Yes, but you might get into alarming news, as in today’s readings. Jonah. You know Jonah, Jonah and the whale? Remember the whole story? Read it all lately? It is only about three pages long. Today John read for us some of the little saga - part two of the three acts, I could say. Jonah, who refused to go to the great enemy city and preach its destruction, has been swallowed by a great fish, and vomited back onto dry land. Now, for the second time, he gets his message to travel to that capital of a very nasty, cruel empire, and tell them off. I mean, tell them they are doomed. ‘Forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown!’ Very alarming news to be commissioned to share, wouldn’t you say? I mean, it is a dangerous mission. 

Last Sunday Sharon and I wondered how dangerous it would be for us to wear our Halifax Mooseheads apparel when we entered the Avenir Centre for a hockey game with the Moncton Wildcats. But we did not suffer a scratch. Even when the Mooseheads won, in overtime! But how different it feels to be rooting for your team in enemy territory. They have the crowd on their side, their mascots parading around, snarling, their incredibly loud noise and music to celebrate every one of their goals. 

What would Jonah the Jewish prophet’s experience be, entering ancient Nineveh, and telling them, simply, the Jewish Deity is gonna get them?! 

We see that he survived. In fact, what happens in the city of Nineveh is incredible. They believe the cruel though reluctant preacher, Jonah. They were not even told they might escape destruction, but they repent and bow and mourn and pray. From the common people, up to the King himself, and down to the domestic animals, they all seek mercy. 

And they get it. They get mercy. They do not get destroyed. That is the real news. God is merciful and relents. God repents. God reinvents - and changes God’s mind! That may be the simplest way for our human minds to explain it. Mainline Christianity is not used to seeing God this way, a God who changes, who alters the almighty plan. But when we read the scriptures closely, we find this on many occasions. 

This is mercy. This is grace. Amazing grace. It is not karma; it is the opposite of karma. People do not always get what they deserve. This is people getting better than they deserve, more than they deserve, something bigger than they can provide for themselves. 

I still remember so well a friend I had years ago. One of her coworkers got some good news – I forget what it was, but she ended up with some kind of great opportunity. But my friend scowled and spoke of this coworker and her gift, saying, “She doesn’t deserve that!” Ugh. That seems like such an ugly thing to say, to me. What did her getting a gift have to do being deserving? But my friend just could not be happy for her.

Maybe this is one of the most alarming kinds of news. And we have our moments like this, like Jonah did, in chapter four. He is furious, and depressed, because his most evil enemies are blessed instead of cursed and destroyed. Your own mission, as a disciple of Jesus, as a bearer of Good News, will sometimes be to warn people, but then to rejoice when someone is blessed, or heeds the warning, or simply lives well. As the great love chapter, 1 Corinthians 13 (6), says, love does not rejoice in wrongdoing but rejoices in the truth.

Here is another bit of Alarming News, in the early days of Christianity, glimpsed in 1 Corinthians chapter 7. The End is near, stop living! I don’t mean Paul said that Jesus was about to return, you will die; no. Paul seemed to understand that Jesus was about to return, so don’t be distracted by your relationships - as a slave of your master, or a lover of your spouse, as a mourner who lost a loved one, as a single person courting someone, or as prosperous person investing and shopping. ‘The present form of this world is passing away,’ wrote the apostle Paul. I thought today, I would not give this short reading to anyone else, but read it aloud myself, simply because it may sound so strange to our hearts. We have the challenge and privilege of reading the scriptures, and working out the power and influence of each chapter. In this case, when we pause and look around, it is clear the early Church in those days certainly was in a crisis time, and they felt ready for the return of Jesus at any moment. No wonder Paul told them they had to stay focussed on other things, not their very personal issues.

So we wonder what’s real in Paul’s proclamation, ‘For the present form of this world is passing away’? What was dying in their world back then, almost 2000 years ago? More important to us: what might be dying in our world today? I want to believe this is true: that evil and greed and nastiness are things that are always passing away, dying. But goodness and generosity (read grace) and kind actions are always growing.

I think that the great anxieties of our time and place are, partly, good signs. Our friends and neighbours around the world are fearful and stressed because we all see how terrible so many things are in this world. We are not immune to the cruelty and greed, we are not turning a blind eye. We see it everywhere, and feel surrounded by danger. At least we know there is danger!

The real news here? In 1 Cornithians 7? This kind of world is passing away. Not that evil and wrong things are less and less in the world, but they are always dying. My mind turns right away to what I call the theme verse of the book Revelation. 11:15. “The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ, and he will reign forever and ever.” This verse is famously put into music, right at the heart of The Hallelujah Chorus, from Handel’s Messiah. No wonder. This world is passing away.

The reading from a Gospel today may seem the least alarming of our three Bible texts. What is the Alarming News? The time is now: God is taking charge here: come on in! But we Church people are used to this talk. Many of us have been hearing it all our lives; a few of us even giving speeches about it (sermons!). Jesus is King! Repent, and believe the Gospel.

What could be more alarming is how this can seem like old news. Somehow it can seem stale, not working anymore. As I prepare my annual report of 2023, I remember having the privilege of baptizing one person, last January. But now, this reminds me of the long jokes and short jokes about baptizing. (I know today is Squirrel Appreciation Day, but,) There was a church that had an infestation of bats in the belfry. Even the exterminator could not get rid of them. So the minister baptized the bats, the deacons brought them into the membership of the church - and pretty soon the bats were never seen again around that building!

What is the real news? Making a turnaround is truly possible!  Despite what seem like failures in our midst. Despite how we ourselves falter. We must notice that making a turnaround (that is, repenting) usually takes time. Even trial and error. It certainly needs support. Making a person into a disciple of Jesus is a long-term process. Jesus spent what often seems to be three years with his core team of twelve men, not to mention all the other women and men who followed. 

And that was back when Jesus was available in the flesh, and on foot. God in sandals, as public theologian Tripp Fuller always says. You could catch up with Christ, and physically follow along. In our lives, He is more available - here for any and all of us - but much more invisible and hidden. And we have so much religious stuff that has built up and piled up around Jesus and the Kindom of God. 

Even so… I am still a believer. Still striving to be a disciple of the Master. I’ll walk with God from this day on. I see this as a real path: the path. The alarming, amazing news is that making a turnaround is still possible today - for me - for you - for others. I had a man come to me a week and a half ago to renew his journey with Christ. 

The time to follow is now. This is also the mercy of God upon us. This is also the good news that wrong and evil are ending while grace and love are living on forever. 

We believe in eternity, and that means we believe that goodness is eternal. So our short lives, at death, are worth celebrating. Long ago, abolitionist and women's rights activist, Sojourner Truth declared, “I’m not going to die, I’m going home like a shooting star.” The world of problems is passing away, as always. The life of grace and love lives on and on and on and on.

SERMON: Jesus Calling

10:30 am, Sun, Jan 14, 2024 ~  FBCA (1 Sam 3:1-10; John 1:43-51) J G White

Dallas Willard:

Sunday dinner was finished, but we lingered around the table, savouring the good food and reflecting on the morning's service at church. The congregation–where I then served as a very young (and very green) assistant pastor–was excited about its plans for a new sanctuary to replace its old building, which was much loved but long overused and outgrown. 

The morning message had focused on the plans for the new building. Our pastor spoke of his vision for the church’s increased ministry. He indicated how strongly he felt God’s guidance in the way the congregation was going, and he testified that God had spoken to him about things that should be done.

My wife’s grandmother, Mrs. Lucy Latimer (“Mema” to us all), seemed deep in thought as we continued to chatter along. Finally, she said quietly, “I wonder why God never speaks to me like that.” 

This simple comment, which came like a bolt out of the blue from the heart of this woman of unshakable faith and complete devotion, forever changed my attitude toward glib talk about God’s speaking to us or about divine guidance. (Dallas Willard, Hearing God, 1984, pp. 17-18)

Mema, in fact, had a richly interactive life with God, as we all knew. But for whatever reasons, she had not be able to relate her experience of God’s presence in her life–of which she was completely certain–to the idea of God’s speaking with her.

To hear from God is a key teaching in Christianity, and yet it remains a mystery for so many. Or, at least, it remains a quiet, private secret. I think now about the occasional time someone asks me about how I prepare a sermon, how long it takes, where I get ideas. They almost always ask quietly, in hushed tones; and don’t ask too many more questions. Perhaps they do feel they are asking about a secret, about the hidden magic of an expert ‘Hearing From God.’

I have a few ‘special stories’ of things that have happened in my life; but probably not many more than any of you. I don’t have a miracle story for every week, for every sermon, for every bright idea I share. I’m not hearing voices.

I named this sermon ‘Jesus Calling,’ after one of the many popular books I have never read. Twenty years ago, a daily devotional book was published, called Jesus Calling: Enjoying Peace in His Presence. It, and some follow-up books by Sara Young, have now sold 30 million copies. The author just died last year. 

We read, today, a Bible story of Jesus calling, in person, to gather some disciples. In John 1 we saw Him meeting some fellows and inviting them to be apprenticed to Him. Philip and Nathaniel are both impressed by this new, travelling preacher, and they follow. 

For us, 2000 years later, it is not as simple as getting to hear direct out loud voices from a human standing in front of us. We may think our experience is more like that of a young jewish boy named Samuel, 3000 years ago. What a spell-binding story, if I dare use that turn of phrase. And maybe we are again at such a moment, even in our religious faith: The word of the LORD was rare in those days; visions were not widespread. It took a few tries for young Samuel and old priest Eli to recognize that almighty God was calling to the boy that night. And he should answer!

Such a Bible story can inspire us, bring us hope. We will sing it in our final hymn today. But still, we do not expect a voice in a dream to direct our movements and our speaking, every week of life.

So what are the usual, day-to-day methods of the Holy Spirit to speak to you and to me? Because, as comedian Lily Tomlin asked, decades ago, “Why is it that when we speak to God we are said to be praying but when God speaks to us we are said to be schizophrenic?” Not a very polite joke now, we realize, since suffering from a serious mental illness is a real hardship. But it made the point that, well, having a conversation with Jesus today is not often easy. If prayer is not to be one sided, how do we hear Jesus calling nowadays?

I appreciate so much of how the late scholar Dallas Willard explained things. Like this. He taught that we mostly hear from God in our own thoughts and impressions. There is so much to be said about this. At the least, we ask, which ideas that come are inspired? What senses we have of an answer, or what to do next, are really from Christ, or the Holy Spirit? We learn through experience, yes, but what can we say, in general, about recognizing God’s voice?

Willard suggested a few things, and I think he was right. There are some factors in the voice of God that help us know it. One: an idea or thought we have that is at the same time God’s voice, has a certain quality about it: a quality of authority. Willard calls this the weight of authority. The thoughts or perceptions that enter our mind, from God, have a “certain steady and calm force… Our innermost being seems to say Yes, this is true and right.” (Willard, Hearing God, 1984, p. 228) Our own subconscious, on the other hand, is not always so sure. E. Stanley Jones suggested, 

The voice of the subconscious argues with you, tries to convince you; but the inner voice of God does not argue, does not try to convince you. It just speaks, and it is self-authenticating. It has the feel of the voice of God within it. (Jones, in Willard, p. 229) Look at Jesus speaking to His disciple candidates… with calm authority.

There is also the spirit of God’s voice in any message within our own thoughts. Willard says, It is a spirit of exalted peacefulness and confidence, of joy, of sweet reasonableness and of goodwill. His voice is not the voice of a bully. (Willard, p. 230) 

And there is, of course the content, what the message actually is for us. If the information fits with what we know of Jesus, and God’s ways of doing things, and all that we learn of that in the Bible. 

Years ago, down south, a young man named Evan Roberts was in college, studying to be a Christian minister. At one point, he was deeply moved by the sermons of a guest preacher.

Roberts could not concentrate on his studies after that and went to the principal of his college, and said, “I hear a voice that tells me I must go home and speak to the young people of my home church. Mr. Phillips, is that the voice of the devil or the voice of the Spirit?” 

Principal Phillips answered, “The devil never gives orders like that. You can have a week off.” (in Willard, p. 232)

Whether or not you are a believer who deals with evil as a being called the Devil or not, you can see the point. What we believe we are being told to do by God matters. An American Baptist minister told of a church person who believed that a Bible verse was telling him to put cream cheese in his wife’s hair. Um… the Pastor did not think that was an actual word from the Lord!

Even when we keep growing to recognize the authority and the spirit and the content of Christ’s personal messages to us, we can go astray. As I mentioned in passing, our mental or emotional well-being can skew what we sense to be God’s voice, or silence. It takes a village to raise a child - and it takes a fellowship to recognize the will of God for you and me. We must help and hear together. Notice how Samuel and Eil worked together; or Philip and Nathaniel. 

I find there is so much I want to say here; I could have planned a sermon series. Maybe later. And the choir wanted to sing all of hymn # 458, so the sermon had to be a few sentences shorter, of course! ;) 

We, like Nathaniel, may have profound moments that make us feel sure of Jesus and ready to take on the world. But once again, we may have only just begun. And there are many days, and weeks, and months, that are quite ordinary. we may feel at times unguided, not hearing the call of Jesus to anything. We learn the quietness of the Voice, and we know many times when we don’t need more guidance: God knows we know enough to choose good paths for ourselves. 

Let me end by saying I want to do some communication with God things among us here. A weekly prayer gathering during the week. Some prayer training events, from time to time. One of them I will call ‘Build a Prayer.’ Another could be ‘Speed Praying.’ Perhaps a study devoted to how we hear from God; I have a curriculum for that we could use. A spiritual day retreat could be a great thing.

Aside from these ways to get together and know Jesus calling, are the week-by-week personal development and devotions we each have to interact with the Greater Power. I’m always so curious about this personal and private side of prayer and connection with Christ. 

I hope you also will remain curious. 

‘Speak Lord, for Your servants are listening.’

SERMON: Overwhelmed With Joy, or: Once Upon an Epiphany

10:30 am, Sunday, Jan 7, 2024 ~  FBCA (Is 60:1-6; Ps 72; Mtt 2:1-12) J G White

Youtube: Choir and Sermon Jan 7

 Once upon an Epiphany, three college students dressed up as three kings, and went to a party. It was, approximately, thirty years ago yesterday, in Wolfville. A mature student and his wife threw an Epiphany party at the house they were renting. They invited the other ‘Chapel nerds,’ us kids who went to chapel on campus all the time. And, three of us dressed up as three wise kings. I wish there were photos. I guess we wore robes and crowns or turbans. 

Epiphany is the Christian celebration of the Messiah being revealed to the whole world! Starting with those wise visitors from the East, the Magi. I think, in the early centuries of Church history, the first three special festivals that arose celebrated the Epiphany, the Resurrection - what we call Easter - and Pentecost: the dramatic arrival of the Holy Spirit in some special ways. Christmas - the celebration of the Nativity of Jesus, His Birth, did not arise until later in Christian history. 

What does one do to celebrate the Epiphany? Why be joyful? Well, notice that the visitors to the Holy Family were ‘overwhelmed with joy’ when they finally found them - found little Christ. The revealing of Jesus to others is cause for amazing joy. It’s time to connect with our own searching and finding what gives us overwhelming joy. Have you ever been to an Epiphany party? Maybe we should plan on one for next year. We can certainly dress up as ‘We Three Kings.’ 

But, why are they kings? Matthew is the one Gospel writer who tells us the story of these visitors, who came along about the time Jesus was a toddler of two years old. Matthew calls them magi; they are wise folk from somewhere east of Palestine. I think followers of Jesus took Matthew 2 and connected it with older texts and poetry in the Bible. Such as Psalm 72, which we read some of here. That vision has kings of other nations coming to honour the King of the Jews. 

At Epiphany, we could consider what have been our greatest quests in life. What goals brought us the greatest joy - whether we think we attained them or not? What journeys have we taken that got us to the most important things?

Once upon an Epiphany, a Minister, a Lawyer, and a Journalist walked fifty kilometres, in a blizzard.  I know, it sounds a bit like I am starting a joke, but it was no joke. Three of us walked one January 6th from East Ferry to Downtown Digby, just about 50 kms. And, even though it was a snowy blizzard, -15 degrees (-23 windchill), the wind was at our back, we had excellent stops planned for warm food and drink, and our all day companionship was serene. We walked from about 5:30 am to 5:00 pm, that Saturday, Epiphany. 

Were we wise men? Some called us that. Some called us crazy! It was actually training for a 50 mile walk later in the year: that's 80 kilometres. What possible joy could we find in such a journey? 

There can be great joy, satisfaction, learning, and improvement, when we reach out to the limits of what we can do. What we can physically do; what we can mentally do; what we can do spiritually. Test yourself. Train yourself. Push yourself. And do it with others. Perhaps the Maji of old can be our model for these things. 

I have certainly never been an athletic person, but that is improving with each decade. So well I remember being in Newfoundland for the first time in 2007. I went to Gros Morne and hiked the trail up to the top of the mountain. I got to part that is uphill rocks, like a rough, wild staircase that never seems to end. I felt powerless. Physically powerless, for maybe the first time in my life! I could take a few steps, climbing the rock, and then had to pause before the next. Bit by bit, I got to the top of Gros Morne. 

But it is wonderful to discover what one can do. Like learning I can walk 50 kms in one day, or even 80, if I train and prepare and learn how to do it. Little would I have imagined my body could do such a thing. Of course, you know this is also true of the human mind, and the spirit, and of groups of us in relationship. Our greatest training to reach our full potential comes in teams, helping one another. Jesus gets manifested to us in others who help us. With Christ we discover there is more possible in our lives than we first thought.

I included in today’s bulletin photos from the social media postings of The Wandering Wisemen. From the start of Advent to the Day of Epiphany, yesterday, some wise woman posted a picture a day of these little toy kings and their camel, making a journey to Jesus. Many of the Wandering Wisemen scenes have them helping one another along, and learning from their successes and their missteps. So it is, always.  

Once upon an Epiphany, four wise amateurs hiked to some old growth forest to seek rare lichens growing on the bark of giant trees. This was yesterday, in Annapolis County, south of Goldsmith Lake. Good name for a wilderness area to visit on Epiphany, eh? Goldsmith. 

And yesterday was worth its weight in gold, as I spent it with two old friends and one new one, each of them quite wise in knowing trees and plants, fungi and lichens - even in January with the snow on and the leaves off. Aside from a reunion of friends in the beautiful outdoors, what joy can there possibly be in looking for stubble lichens? Getting up close and personal with the dead wood of big tree trunks, squinting at the surface to search for the tiniest, mushroom-like pinheads of rare stuff that looks like stubble?

You know. The tiniest living things have beauty and can be quite amazing. I also think of how they were there all along, in the woods, for the past fifty years, and I did not see them until now. Wow! And some of these lichens - which are a combo of fungi and algae and/or bacteria - are rare. They are indicators of old forests, and thus give hints that other special and rare things may live in the same woods. Also, some of these lichens are protected by legislation: on crown land, at least, they are to have a buffer zone of 50 for 100 m. 

So it is protective work for volunteers to survey the woodlands and find wonderful things, and report them. It was joyful, environmental work. In this, I find Christ made manifest - in all creation. The living God can be present in any creature, anywhere. The joy in the beauty of the world is shared by God and with God.

At Goldsmith Lake, the Cosmic Christ shines through. And at Cape d’Or. And Shepody Mountain: Chapeau Dieu. And your own backyard. In these scenes, the Spirit illuminates the value of each living thing, a part of the whole web of life. So graciously we have found ourselves to be part of this life. So we rejoice. Sometimes we have overwhelming joy because of what we found: some things we sought for, some we were not even looking for. 

Wise Men still seek Him, it is said, all wise people. We seek the living Christ in all places and experiences of life. We learn our personal limits, be they physical, moral, spiritual, social, or whatever. We also discover that much mere is possible when we push our limits, as Jesus promised. And we live in creation finding great joy out there. Thanks be to God for the journey - the long one - that leads to overwhelming joy!

Let us observe a moment of SILENT Meditation.

PRAYERS of the People        Like a star that inspires, there is a light from this table that shines, Light of hope amid all that is evil or deadly. We rejoice that a victory has been won by Jesus!

When God is a Child there’s joy in our song, and hope in our prayers. With healing touch and comfort of spirit, bless many people, we pray, including Molly, Reuben and Bob – dealing with cancer and all that goes with it. With riches and generosity bless those of our communities who are needy, and who will find this cold season very hard. With hope and resilience may those who mourn be blessed, including all who knew and loved a local teacher, Marie.

We call upon the Prince of Peace today, as every day, for the sake of the people of Ukraine, of Palestine and Israel, and other war-torn lands. We seek to know the grace of the Spirit for places where disasters have hit, and people’s lives are destroyed. As we leave this safe gathering now, take us into the world as messengers of good news and activists for grace. A.

SERMONS: Lo How a Rose; Heaven & Nature Sing; The Babe; Two Turtledoves

Lo, How a Rose E’er Blooming (Isaiah 61:10 - 62:3) J G White

This little piece of the big text we call Isaiah is filled with images of hope for the people. We have ‘the garments of salvation’ and a groom and bride all dressed up. (I will see this very thing today, when I conduct a wedding here.) We have ‘a garden’ causing shoots to grow up. We have a bright, ‘burning torch.’ And we have the renaming of the people as a sign of new life and hope. 

In the first part, some prophet is rejoicing in God. In the second, God’s voice is heard, giving various promises. There is so much happening here: a preacher’s head spins! For this reflective moment, let's just look at the earth bringing up shoots and a garden growing. 

Regularly in the pages of Isaiah we come across such images - speaking of a new era for the people and the planet. With the birth of the Messiah, a few centuries later, the promises seem sure. 

An Advent carol we sing starts off, Lo, how a rose e’er blooming from tender stem hath sprung, of Jesse’s lineage coming, as those of old have sung.  Jesus as a rose, blooming in a cold world. He is a descendant of Jesse and his son, King David. So beautiful and filled with life is Jesus Messiah. 

Around the front of our sandstone building, I planted a few bulbs, back in the fall, in a few select places. Won’t it be a fun surprise, in the spring, to see things peeking out, and later discover what grows and what colours bloom? As I get to the end of one year, and the start of the new, I wonder what new things might happen. What things we have been planning will come to fruition. What new steps we wondered about will be taken. Where will the Spirit lead?

Well, that’s our first of four Bible texts, and the first mini- sermon. A few more to come. 

Heaven and Nature Sing (Psalm 148) J G White

The sun and the moon have been lovely over Christmastime. The moon grew full, and many sunsets on cloudy evenings were vibrant pink and orange. I tried a bit more birding yesterday, and saw beautiful winged creatures such as more white-winged crossbills, and otters playing in a slushy Lake. I saw more landscapes than birds - the flats and rolling hills of West Brook, the gurgling of Halfway River, the snow-sparkling red spruce and yellow birch trees.

Every Sunday of each year has a Psalm to recite or sing - or sometimes other Bible poetry. When we turn to Psalm 148, we are getting to the finale of the whole collection, and they are all about praising God. The English words ‘Praise the Lord!’ can also be translated, simply, as ‘Hallelujah!’ 

Like Psalm 98, which inspired the carol ‘Joy to the World,’ Psalm 148 lists many critters and claims they are praising God. After the angels, the sun and moon and stars, and clouds. Sea creatures and waters, and all the dramatic weather above the sea. Mountains and all the timber upon them, and the animals therein, domestic and otherwise. (Even the turtles?) And humans, of every rank and status, age and experience. 

There are many Christmas legends about animals and plants that suddenly flourish when Jesus arrives. I have heard tales and songs about the first poinsettia, the first nightingale song, and the first Christmas tree, of course. You may know the story of the animals in barns, every Chrismtas Eve, bowing down, because of the Christ child. We love these legends. They continue the human experience of not being alone in knowing the Creator, and bowing, and rejoicing!

All this opens our eyes to wonder at our place in the world, a world that also enjoys God. Perhaps you have your own, personal legend about some creature or special place that seems to be sacred and holy, that seems to shout, ‘Hallelujah!’ That cabin in the woods, that waterfall along the stream, that northern cardinal that flies in. Join them in giving thanks for all God’s blessings. 

The Babe, the Son of Mary (Galatians 4:4-7) J G White

OK, my first two homilies were a bit too long. Next, from this small bit of a New Testament letter, some short comments.

‘The babe, the son of Mary’ is celebrated again. He is just like us, and yet not the same at all. Jesus is both. The tradition of two candles on an ‘altar’ can represent these two natures of Christ: human and divine. 

These three little sentences from Galatians 4 say a lot about children and parents. Like many of our relationships, that of Jesus to Mary and Joseph is not simple or normal. But He still belongs. He is still loved. He is still one of them, and one of us. 

All the Bible writers keep getting at this one fact: the arrival of Jesus Messiah changes things in our lives. The author here claims that other people get to be counted as children of Creator, and heirs of all the blessings that we’d expect the Son of God to get. We have millions of people to share an inheritance with!

I wonder now, after all the Christmas gifts I got - chocolates, sweets and cookies, a Bible, two party games, twelve days of cheese, a windshield wiper - what do I inherit with Jesus my brother? What do I value most?

Two Turtledoves (Luke 2:22-40) J G White

I get a kick out of singing ‘The Twelve Days of Christmas,’ and I love the twelve posters an artist friend prepared for me, years ago. I think it is mere coincidence that day two has two turtle doves, which was the simple offering those new parents brought to the Jerusalem Temple a couple thousand years ago. Apparently they couldn’t afford the usual lamb, as a worship gift in honour of their first-born son. 

Our Bible stories are filled with some ordinary, down to earth people. Nothing super special about Joseph, about Mary, or about these old folks at the Temple they met, that day. Old Simeon and Old Anna were very devout Jews, but it seems they too lived very simple lives. 

The stories of infant Jesus end soon, with Matthew’s tales of Magi visiting the toddler, and then of the holy family fleeing danger and becoming refugees in Egypt. This ‘new born King’ takes a very humble approach, from the very beginning. All these centuries later, we are still learning our lessons from this.

Second Day of Christmas Devotional

Tuesday, December 26, Isaiah 9:6  For a child has been born for us, a son given to us;
authority rests upon his shoulders, and he is named Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.

What’s today? The second day of Christmas. (Ten more to go!) The feast day of St. Stephen. (Good King Wenceslas looked out on the feast of Stephen…) My cousin’s birthday. Boxing Day. 

For many, it is a quieter day than the previous few. I like so much to celebrate twelve days of Christmas. I remember a wise and unusual friend, who lived alone, and would spread out the opening of his gifts over a week or two. He might not even get around to opening one on December 25th! I don’t do this, but I do like to stay in the joys and wonder of the Jesus birth stories. I like to keep the decorations up until January 6th. I like the freedom from all that advertizing and shopping that happened in the six weeks before. Now, I can spend quality time with beloved people, and with puzzles and crosswords and board games. 

So, try it out. Spend twelve days with some time to ponder the Wonderful Counsellor, the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace. He’s a newborn. He’s two thousand twenty-eight years old. He’s more ancient than the known universe.

PRAYER: Abba God, Your Child is one of us. Thanks be! Praise be! And in His fragile weakness is a great strength, a beautiful healing, a welcoming kingdom. Now, as years end and begin, may there be some serenity for us all. Amen.

      - Jeff G. White

Christmas Day Devotional

Luke 2:16-18  So they went with haste and found Mary and Joseph and the child lying in the manger. 17 When they saw this, they made known what had been told them about this child, 18 and all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds told them,

By now most of us have shared in the excitement of Christmas day.  The opening of gifts, the festive dinner, visits with friends and family have been parts of the traditions that make up our celebrations.  As we pause to reflect upon Christmas 2023, let us take a few moments to think of those in our church family, community and the world of which we are a part of.  We pray that the message of peace on earth and goodwill to all has some place in this topsy-turvy time in which we live.

The shepherds of old went home to their families and communities to share what they had experienced - the  announcement that God’s child had arrived to give hope to the world.  They didn’t know how it would manifest itself in their lives but they believed in the message of the angels.  May we feel that same presence and excitement in our lives and in our world as we reflect on this another Christmas day.

Prayer: Loving God, may the peace of Christ be in our hearts and actions throughout the year and like the shepherds of old may we share the good news of your love.  Amen.

   -The Rev. Byron Corkum

SERMON: Magnificent Magnification

10:30 am, 4th Sunday of Advent, Dec 24, 2023 ~  FBCA

(Romans 16:25-27; Luke 1:26-38, 46-55) J G White

 We are on the very edge of Christmas now, and we spend the morning with Mary. First, when she is told about her pregnancy by the angel Gabriel. Second, when she rejoices some weeks later, while visiting her relative, Elizabeth. What Mary said got recorded by Luke as a poem, like the lyrics of a song. It has been put to music ever since. Our old-fashioned English versions have Mary sing: “My soul doth magnify the Lord, and my spirit hath rejoiced in God my Saviour.” Here, we read an English translation from the 1960s. Tell out, my soul, the greatness of the Lord. Rejoice, rejoice, my spirit, in God my saviour… 

From the old Latin title, Mary’s song gets called the Magnificat. What on earth could it possibly mean to ‘magnify God?’ As we read other translations, we get the feel: tell out my soul, enlarge, glorify, declare, or, as Peterson put it, I’m bursting with good news! 

Mary - thanks to Luke writing it down - gives a magnificent magnification of God, as she starts her visit with elderly, and also pregnant, Elizabeth. My soul magnifies the Lord. What can this mean for us?

I brought a little tool with me today: a Magnifying Glass. I don’t actually use it much, at all, but we know what it is for. Getting a better look at things - usually words - by making them appear larger. ‘Magnifying’ them: that is the literal meaning of magnificat. 

Our retelling of the Jesus story, with the beginnings, at this time of year, helps us ‘magnify’ Christ in our own lives. Some believers, somewhere back in history, picked this time of year to celebrate the birth of the Messiah, and we rehearse the stories and their meaning every single year. 

This is like what Mary did, that day, early in her pregnancy. She declared what this God is like who had promised an Anointed King, who had promised to save the people. You notice she talks about herself and what’s going to happen not much at all. She gets all historic - or maybe its personal. She sings about all the kinds of things God has always been doing. Helping poor people and honouring them. Tearing down the empires of the prosperous and powerful folk. Her magnificent poem looks closely at the character of God, as she and her people understood the Lord. Her words magnify; so can ours. We communicate the details of faith, our faith. It’s quite personal. 

Another tool I could have brought in today is a Telescope. In my case, I got rid of my childhood telescope years ago; now, I have Binoculars. I use these quite regularly. (Oh look! I can actually see who is here.) Six days ago I joined a few people for a couple hours of bird watching around Amherst, for the annual Christmas Bird Count. I was so happy to see seventeen white-winged crossbills up near Blair Lake. 

We might think that binoculars are quite different - maybe opposite? - from a magnifying glass. But they both make things bigger, larger, magnified, in our eyes. Bins, or a scope, help things far away appear nearer. 

Why was Mary so spiritually glad about her pregnancy? Well, at long last, the main human helper of the people would come from God to them. I think that’s what those ancient Jews were hoping. She almost said more than she knew and realized: their God was going to be seen a lot closer, closer than ever before. God as a person, a human, a creature within creation. The fancy Church word is incarnation. It means in the flesh, in a body. God gets physical. Not that this had never happened before. But the point was being made in a bigger way. Look. See! God is nearer than we realized. God with us: Emmanuel. Just like Isaiah of old had said. Imagine that!

So you and I magnify God when we do our part to connect with Jesus. I hope your Christmastime does that in you.

(Three point sermon.) A third magnifier I brought is a Loupe. Often used by jewellers, but also by scientists: out in the field, looking closely at the tiny details of plants and fungi and insects and rocks. It is a small little hand lens, and yes, I do use it mostly on lichens that grow on trees and rocks, and on the details of plants. 

Getting into the real details of where meaning in life comes from, and where goodness in life arises, these are important. Again, this is what Mary sings in her poem, the Magnificat. God is like this. God is connecting with me in these ways. God did this, and that, and something else in the past - so we are really expecting this and better again! Things are all going where they are destined to go. Praise God!

I use a tiny magnifier in my hand to get at the wee details my eye cannot see, but I know they are there. We use the tiny details of our lives, and of the scripture story, to rejoice in the abundant life Jesus brings us. Then, with a broader vision, even seeing things far away and on the giant scale, we know the big picture. This thing that happened to us - we see it is part of a huge story that is bigger than us. That huge mess we hear of elsewhere in the world - with the eyes of Faith we discover that history and God’s purposes are even bigger than the terror and trouble at one place and time. 

When the story of God is magnified, the whole picture, and the tiniest personal events, start to fit together. At the centre, connected to it all, is the Christ, this one about to be born again in a little ancient village in the hills somewhere. 

Has it started to fit together? For you? 

Mary had her song of praise, magnifying God. What are some of the lines of the poem your soul sings? 

Keep singing it: this Christmas, and all year long. The world needs your magnificent song. 

Christmas Eve Devotional

Isaiah 9:2  The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; those who lived in a land of deep darkness— on them light has shined.

         According to my optometrist I have been walking in darkness, getting deeper and deeper as I age. Although I know that Isaiah was not writing about cataracts when he wrote these powerful lines, but they jumped out at me in this season of light.

As I sat in a hospital waiting area after my first surgery, I shut first the original, then the improved eye. To my amazement, the lights on the ceiling turned from white to yellow before my very eye. So the doctors were right when they said I needed the surgery.  Susan was right when she told me that my Sunday shirt really was white - not yellow. I was wrong in my perceptions of reality.  I think I have been taught a couple of lessons – gratitude towards medical competence and that I don’t see nearly as well as I believe I do.

A couple of prayerful verses from the old Clara Scott hymn won’t leave my head:

Open my eyes that I may see / glimpses of truth Thou hast for me. / Place in my hands the wonderful key t? hat shall unclasp and set me free.

Open my mind that I may read / more of Thy love in word and deed.  / What shall I fear while yet Thou dost lead?  / Only for light from Thee I plead.

Silently now I wait for Thee, / ready my God thy will to see. Open my eyes, illumine me, / Spirit divine!

     -Ed Colquhoun

Sat, Dec 23 Devotional

John 1:14  The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.

As we all know, a newborn baby can certainly dominate a group of people. It may be asleep in its mother’s arms, but the minute it enters a room full of adults, suddenly it is the focus of conversation. People use baby talk and make strange faces at the baby and speculate as to which parent it looks most like. In effect, the baby is like a magnet, drawing all attention to itself.

This being the case with babies in general, how much more was it true of the Baby born so long ago in Bethlehem. The angels took special interest in His coming; the shepherds searched for His manger; Mary and Joseph rejoiced in the birth of the promised Son; and God Himself looked on with approval. Mary’s newborn Son was very much a dominating presence.

And we, two thousand or so years later, continue to stand by the manger in awe of what God has brought about through the Babe of Bethlehem.

Prayer: Our God, help us to keep Jesus at the centre of our attention each and every day of our lives. We are forever grateful for Your amazing gift to us. In His name we pray. Amen.

- Greg Wilson

Fri, Dec 22 Devotional

1 Thessalonians 5:16-18  Rejoice always, 17 pray without ceasing, 18 give thanks in all circumstances, for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.

      In this world of war, hate, violence, poverty and unrest, we need to show kindness, love, and respect for everyone.  Pray and be thankful for all the blessings God has sent our way.  Especially at Christmas time.  Be thankful for the birth of our Saviour Jesus Christ.

 A poem by Helen Steiner Rice

Thank you God for little things

that often come our way.

The things we take for granted

but don't’ mention when we pray.

The unexpected courtesy,

the thoughtful kindly deed.

A hand reached out to help us

in a time of sudden need.

O make us more aware, dear God,

of little daily graces

that come to us with “sweet surprise”

from never dreamed of places. 

    -Pauline Lusby

Thrs, Dec 21, Devotional

Luke 1:46-48  And Mary said, “My soul magnifies the Lord, 47 and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior, 48 for he has looked with favor on the lowly state of his servant.  Surely from now on all generations will call me blessed

         I will be honest, I couldn’t come up with a thought on the scripture given to me.  What came to my mind is how the churches have changed, more acceptance and not so rigid. 

My first experience to the Roman Catholic Church (which had some different rules than the Baptist Church on the “hill”) you couldn’t enter the church without something on your head.  So, my best friend gave me a hanky and all I worried about was, was it used?  Also the service was in Latin, I barely knew English, and sore knees up and down so much.

My other experience with the Catholic Church was my strong Baptist Aunt and Uncle, who lived on the “Hill”.  They had a younger son who was going to marry a Catholic girl, not from the “Hill”.  She was a lovely girl!  But her parents were every bit staunch Catholic as my relatives were Baptist.  On we go to the Highland Baptist Church on the “Hill” but her parents wouldn’t attend the ceremony in the Sanctuary.  They did come for lunch and pictures.  I was quite baffled about this (how things have changed). 

The “Hill” was nicknamed “Sand Hill” and yes, Rev. Jeff, you live smack-dab in the middle!

  -Liz Hickey

Wed, Dec 20 Devotional

Psalm 126 :5-6        

I always love to learn a new lesson.  This is what I learned from Psalm 126 :5-6

 5 May those who sow in tears reap with shouts of joy. 6 Those who go out weeping, bearing the seed for sowing, shall come home with shouts of joy, carrying their sheaves.

Sometimes it seems we have more than our fair share of problems.  We feel so submerged in them it is hard to get out.  We can get out however by believing in the unseen.  We learn to use the leverage of Gods help.  When we use this help, we can see beyond what seems to be. Start with some tasks to unlock your mind from confusion.

What ever happens today we can see it as a challenge that we are able to meet.  If it is good, it can be a gift.  If it is difficult, this too shall pass.  Do not let good make you complacent and not good drown you in despair.  We need to let our life be guided by God’s will.  In quietness and trust shall be our strength.

Prayer:  I pray that I may welcome difficulties.  I pray that I never question God’s plans, but accept them gladly.  Amen.

    -Verna VC

Tues, Dec 19 Devotional

Psalm 126:2 Then our mouth was filled with laughter
    and our tongue with shouts of joy;
then it was said among the nations,
    “The Lord has done great things for them.”

         This verse is often interrupted as a reflection on the joy and gratitude that come with experiencing God’s blessings and deliverance.

When considering this verse in the context of Christmas, it can be connected to the joyous occasion of Christ’s birth. Christmas is a time when many people reflect on the idea of God’s great gift to humanity in the form of Jesus. The birth of Jesus is seen as a moment of great significance, bringing hope, joy, and salvation to the world.

Throughout this Advent season, may God fill our hearts and homes with joy and laughter. And may we be ever mindful of His blessings and the great things He has done.

   -Bev Curry