“Jonah and Us”
Jonah 1:1-17

First of all, I want to thank you for inviting me here to speak at your anniversary service. It’s quite an honour to be asked to speak at other churches. (well, it’s either that or your scraping the bottom of the barrel, no matter, it’s still nice to be here).

It’s even nicer this morning because you’ve asked me to come and speak from my heart about a matter that I am very passionate about, the future of the church. In fact, I have to admit, it’s a challenge to make sure I get everything I’d like to say done in 45 minutes or so.

I’m probably going to say things you already know. I hope I’m going to say things that will challenge you, and challenge you deeply as we all move forward as members of the United Church of Canada in this time and place in our history.

If I’m not able to challenge you to think about what it is we do as churches in our communities as representatives and carriers of the love of God shown through Jesus Christ, I might as well just stand up here and tell jokes.

“Knock knock…”
(Who’s there)
“Jesus”
(Jesus who?)
Are you kidding me? I see that maybe I might need to back up a little bit and start from the beginning! I mean, what has your preacher been preaching about? This isn’t a good start people.

Let’s try a different approach…
“Knock knock”
(Who’s there?)
“Jonah”
(Jonah who?)
“Sigh… My apologies to your minister, clearly you folks haven’t been listening. Jonah… remember? The guy we just read about in the Bible?

Ok well… where to begin then?

This morning we read from the first chapter of the book of Jonah where we learn that God has instructed Jonah to go to Nineveh and preach about the evil acts that are rampant in the city. It was a nasty town with all kinds of bad stuff happening in the streets.

Sounds like a lovely job God gave him, no?

“Go into the city and tell them they are evil and that God is coming to wipe them out.” How fun!

Jonah felt the same way. He wasn’t keen on going into a hostile environment and hopped on the first boat out of town heading in the opposite direction. And we found out what happened once they hit the open sea. A huge storm came up, threatening the lives of everyone on board, that is until Jonah fessed up and was thrown over the side and the sea became calm.

But that’s not all, we learn Jonah was then swallowed by a great fish, and he was in there for 3 days. While he was in there, he dedicated himself to prayer, because really, what else is there to do in the dark belly of a giant fish! He just pours his heart out.

After the third day, the fish vomits Jonah up on the land, and God once again instructs him to go to Nineveh.

Jonah goes and spends the 3 days crossing the city of Nineveh telling them of the evils they are doing, and that God is coming to wipe them out. As he’s doing this, people are scared. They are believing in God and fasting and wearing sackcloth, which is a sign of humility before God. Even the King himself joins in and instructs all people and animals are to fast and wear sackcloth. Now that must have been quite the sight putting sackcloth in sheep and cows and whatever.

And God relents. He lets them live.

What does Jonah do? Does he celebrate that he was part of this great revival in Nineveh? No… he gets mad, and he goes and sits up on a hill overlooking the city waiting, just waiting for God to destroy it. Which of course, He doesn’t.

Jonah realizes, in his anger, that he knew God wouldn’t do it. That God is a god of abundant love and mercy which He pours out freely on those who call on Him.

Jonah made two mistakes that we make today in our churches.

The first mistake is that he just doesn’t listen to God. God has a plan for Jonah. Well, actually, God has a plan for Nineveh that Jonah is a part of. God’s plan, which Jonah doesn’t realize, is to bring back the people to Him. God is seeking to reestablish a relationship with the people of Nineveh. Jonah is to be the one who delivers this message, calling them to repent from their sinful ways.

Yet Jonah doesn’t get. Jonah can’t see the wholeness of God’s plan, he only sees his part. His part being he’s going to a dangerous city. A place he doesn’t want to go to because he’s afraid of the people there. Afraid of what they might do; how they might react to the strong words God has given to Jonah.

I have a simple question for you this morning. Where are you in God’s plan to help bring people back to knowing the love and mercy of God that Jonah realized?

Is this church in the streets of Nineveh, or is it on the ocean heading far from here?

I’m going to argue that this church, and most of the churches in North America are on the sea, running away, hiding from God.

This is a problem.

The world is acting more and more like Nineveh every day. Just look at the news. Greed is rampant. Businesses and business leaders are making money hand over fist, at what cost? The cost of people who struggle each and every day to put food on the table, to heat their homes, to provide for their children.

The church is the prophetic voice in this mess. The church is the place for people to learn about God’s mercy, love and grace. Yet, what do we do with it?

We sit on it.

We go to church on Sunday, we listen to the Word of God proclaimed in songs, in prayers, in reading the Bible, in preaching, and then we go home and wait to do it all over again next Sunday.

For the last few weeks at my church, we’ve been looking at the first Apostles and other leaders of the church after Jesus ascended to be with God the Father. We looked at Peter, the first to walk out of the house on the day of Pentecost and birth the church by preaching about Jesus Christ in the streets. Not unlike what Jonah finally did when he entered the city of Nineveh. And like the people of Nineveh, people responded by the thousands to what Peter was saying just that first day.

You want to know how to be a church? Look at the Book of Acts. See how the new leaders in the church acted. Look at how Peter preached.

Look at how Stephen stood up before the the leaders of the temple and told them how they were missing the point. It cost him his life. He was stoned to death for what he said.

Read the story of Philip and how he spread the Good News to a foreigner from a strange land. Establishing the church in Ethiopia.

Read about Saul a hunter and killer of the first Christians, who became Paul, the one who transformed cities across the middle east through his travels, his preaching, his leadership and his letters. The man who wrote a good chunk of our New Testament.

These are our examples. These are the men and women who stood in the streets of cities, proclaiming Jesus Christ alive and risen, the Son of God, who lives and reigns forevermore.

In times of great hostility, of great danger for their lives, they spoke the word of God publicly, and served fairly everyone who came to them. People sold all they had to join the church, and everything was divided up among them so no one would go without.

How well do we as churches today, share the Good News of Jesus Christ in our streets? How good are we at standing up and proclaiming Jesus Christ and his commandments to love the Lord our God with all our hearts, souls, minds, and strength, and to love our neighbours as ourselves? How are we doing?

As churches, we need to begin living out these things in our daily walks, not just for an hour on Sunday mornings. Each and every one of us here make up the church, which is not a building but a community of individuals united in love for God, the Father, through our relationship with Jesus Christ, the Son.

It begins with me, with you, with our families, our children. It begins when we begin to move in our hearts and respond to what God is asking us to do here. Today. Now.

There are times when maybe we think we’re doing what God has asked us to do, and maybe something very different came from the results. And maybe we’ll get a little upset or mad. Or maybe we’ll resent the church down the road because they had a great idea that’s helping people instead of us.

This leads to Jonah’s second mistake. He didn’t see what was really happening. He resented that God didn’t do what he promised, completely missing the joy of the moment. People found God. They found love and hope.

We do this too. We get upset because maybe someone else has great ideas, or they look like they’ve got more blessings than we do.

What we don’t see is that it doesn’t matter. It doesn’t make a difference in the being part of God’s plan who has the most blessings or gifts because we all have them. We’re all part of what God is doing in our communities.

Jonah was good at creating messes. Messes like on the ocean when he disobeyed God and nearly caused innocent men to die at sea. And there was also the personal mess he became when he realized God didn’t do what Jonah said He was going to do, namely destroy Nineveh. God does what God wants. Not what we want.

So maybe we need to step it up a little bit. Maybe we need to start getting back to our roots. We need to get back to not just knowing Jesus Christ in our heads, but knowing him in our hearts.

This is what being the church is about. It’s about helping people discover the Jesus Christ in their hearts. But it needs to start with us first.

The first leaders of the church, they had Christ in their hearts and the love of God burned within them, and they couldn’t help but share it with others. And boy did the people respond.

You want to know what’s missing from church today? Do you really want to know? I’m going to tell you.

It’s not children. It’s not families. It’s not people in the pews. It’s not money, or leaders, or treasurers, or preachers.

What’s missing from the church today, and listen carefully, because it’s really, really important…

It’s the love of God.

It’s not that God doesn’t love the church anymore. That’s not it at all. It’s that we’ve stopped responding to God’s love.

All through the Bible, when people encounter the true love of God, they respond. The people of Nineveh. The people in the book of Acts. Everyone Jesus met on the roads he traveled. Over and over again, the pouring out of the love of God shown by people who had the love of God in them, it brought people joy. It brought people hope. It brought them a love they had never seen before.

This is the call to the church today.

What is the greatest commandment according to Jesus Christ? “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, all your mind and all your strength, and love your neighbour as yourself.”

When Jesus sat on the beach eating fish with the disciples in the days after the resurrection, what did he tell Peter to do? “If you love me, feed my sheep.”

What did Jesus tell the disciples in his final instructions as recorded in what we call the great commission?

“Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

These are the instructions Jesus gave to those he was teaching, those he was training to be leaders of the new church.

The same church we are today. Reading, learning, called to follow these same instructions.

How are we doing?

Do this… follow the commands Jesus has given us. See what happens when the love of God flows through you when you know Jesus Christ in your hearts.

The churches that are growing, they do this. It’s not the type of music. It’s not the type of building. It’s not how many staff. It’s all the love of God living in and through these communities of faith.

They are traditional, they are contemporary, they are rural, urban, old, new…

They are all churches committed to living out the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, Son of the Almighty God.

This is who we are called to be. This is who we are. Each one of us, a child of God, who is able to live out this love here, out there, anywhere.

Let’s let God live in us. Let’s let God use us. Let’s not run away any more. Let’s follow what Jesus Christ has shown us. Let’s start now. It’s not too late. People are wanting, they are craving a spiritual connection to something much greater than the are. Something we know about. Something we can share.

Let’s not be afraid. God is with us. We are not alone.

Thanks be to God.

For the next few weeks we’re going to spend some time looking at the first followers of the Way. That is, the people who started the church by living out the commands of Jesus Christ shortly after the Holy Spirit was unleashed upon the apostles.

Last week we looked at someone we know fairly well, Peter; the first disciple; the first to speak when the apostles emerged from their home to share the Good News on the streets. We listened to his passion as he spoke over and over again about Jesus Christ and the work God was doing through him, even in the face of great danger.

Today we look at a lesser known hero. A man who only shows up in the Bible in Acts 6 and 7, and is buried in chapter 8 and is considered the first Christian martyr.

We know very little about this man. What we know of his history, where he came from, it’s all in what we read from Acts 6 this morning.

The 12 Apostles were busy men. They spent their time spreading news of Jesus Christ to the people in the various communities they found their way into. As they brought more people in, the church grew, and grew, and grew. We learned in Acts 2 we learned people were selling everything they had to join the church. All that was brought in was shared among the people, so no one would ever be in need.

It seems as though there was a point where the distribution became uneven. It was brought to the attention of the Apostles that there were women, widows in particular, were being neglected in the distribution of food, and they were expected to do something about it.

The 12 talked and decided the work they were doing was too important to spend time handing out food, so they appointed the first deacons of the church. The chose seven men to lead the fair distribution of goods to all the people.

Stephen was one of these men and we’re told he was a man full of faith and the Holy Spirit. And again, the church continued to grow.

Stephen, as part of his work with the poor, continued to do great wonders and signs among the people. He was seen as a man of great faith, which was a problem for leaders of the old church, the men of the synagogue.

So they had Stephen arrested and used false accusations to rile up the temple leadership. They made him out to be some great threat against the temple, as if he was raising up people to take it over. When asked if the accusations were true, Stephen speaks.

Stephen speaks boldly, it’s all recorded in Acts 7. He tells of the history of the Jewish people. He tells of the great heroes of the faith, Abraham, Joseph, Moses, David and Solomon. Stephen is telling the temple leaders their own story. The stories of the men they claim to honour, and the mistakes they have made along the way. He tells of when they turned their backs on the leaders, and God.

Then he pulls out the scriptures these men do not want to hear. He tells them that God does not reside in the temple, God is in heaven, a place for all people.

Then he drives it home. Stephen says to the faces of his accusers,

“You stiff-necked people, uncircumcised in heart and ears, you always resist the Holy Spirit. As your fathers did, so do you. Which of the prophets did your fathers not persecute? And they killed those who announced beforehand the coming of the Righteous One, whom you have now betrayed and murdered, you who received the law as delivered by angels and did not keep it.” (Acts 7:51-53)

Ouch! Uncircumcised of heart and ears? Those are strong words to people who see themselves as the chosen men of God. Accusations of prosecution and murder? Maybe not the smartest thing he’s said all day. But the last straw… not keeping the Law? Saying these things to the people who are the keepers of the Law?

I think you can see where this is heading next. As Stephen finishes his speech, he is overcome with the Holy Spirit and sees Jesus in the heavens, at the right hand of God. They have heard enough. They drag Stephen out of the city and they stone him to death.

In two chapters, Stephen goes from a man recognized as strong and wise in faith, an example to the other followers of the Way, to dragged out of the city and beaten to death by people throwing stones.

In his final words, as his life bleeds from his body, he cries out loud, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit… Lord, do not hold this sin against them.” And he dies.

There was a young witness to this event. A young, zealous man named Saul, who approved of this killing. Saul was well known and even worshipped by some for his ravaging of the Christians who tried to tell others of Jesus Christ. Saul was there. Saul heard Stephen’s cries. He saw his death. This same Saul who would become the great evangelist and leader, Paul. But we’ll hear more about him in the coming weeks.

But what we do need to know this week is that this is Saul’s entry into the story. His presence at the death of Stephen leads to the church being scattered and hidden because of his threat to its existence. Stephen’s death marks a change in the way the church functions, it’s forced to become more secretive in its activities, less visible to the public eye.

The death of Stephen is a sharp change in the church. It’s forced to rethink it’s approach to spreading the news of Jesus Christ to the world.

Stephen is an example, and a fine one. Elected by the leaders he was given a task to server the poor. He had gifts in this area, and he was more than generous in sharing his faith with those he served. He himself, through his service, was bringing people into the church, introducing them to Jesus Christ as their Lord and Saviour.

When he was called before the authorities, he didn’t back down. He took the opportunity to stand up for what he believed, not afraid of the consequences. He saw the flaws in the system, and he poured light upon them in front of those who perpetuated the darkness, the system. Those who used the system to protect their positions of power. He was not going down quietly.

He faced his accusers with their own history, the same history they claimed to uphold and dedicate their lives to. He told the stories of the men they use as prime examples for faithful living, the fathers of the faith. But then he told them how they fell short.

He told them that instead of living like Moses, they lived like the people who craved an idol to worship in the golden calf. He told them how they built a temple for God, but God would never live in such a place. Stephen stood up to what was wrong with the old way of doing things, and how they were ignorant to not see the Messiah they themselves had put to death.

On Saturday mornings the kids usually eat their breakfast and watch a movie of some sort while I finish off my sermon. Well, this week they decided to watch Toy Story 3, which meant my sermon had to be put on hold.

If you haven’t seen it, it’s a great movie. It’s a growing up story. It’s a story about the changes that come in life, and how we can sometimes resist these changes. As a parent, I can guarantee you’ll tear up when you put it in the context of your own family.

But it’s also a story of finding new life in the changes. New hope. New connections. New friendships. Change is not always a bad thing.

On Thursday night at the board meeting, we discussed a motion that was made at the last presbytery meeting. The motion proposes that Sydney Presbytery be reduced from 20 pastoral charges to 5, and that the churches be organized by geographical area. So for us, we were grouped with St. Matthew-Wesley, Wilson, Boularderie and St. Ann’s. All one pastoral charge. If this motion passes next month, it’s up to all of us to work with presbytery to figure out how it all fits together. How many churches? Where? How many staff? What sort of governance? All these things we’ll need to figure out.

It’s time for a change. The church after Stephen’s death went into hiding after being very public about what it was doing. It’s time for us to do the opposite. It’s time for the church to stop hiding behind closed doors and get back into the streets. The church of Stephen’s day survived going into hiding because people were searching for it. They wanted to know about Jesus Christ. Those first few months of preaching in the streets created such a buzz that as word spread people would come from all over to hear the good news. So even when they went into hiding, people still found them and came to them to hear the stories of Jesus.

That’s not how the world works today. People don’t know about Jesus, they don’t know of God’s great love shown to us through the Son. Because we’re in hiding.

As a result, we’ve got far too many churches that are struggling just to get by. Did you know, that today at Carman, we don’t have enough money in the bank to pay our bills for April? At the end of March we were almost $2500 overdrawn in our bank account. Our monthly costs are roughly $6000 this time of year. On Thursday, we had about $1500 in the bank.

And we’re not alone in this place. Churches are struggling all over North America to stay open, to keep a full-time minister, to do repairs.

It’s because we’re hiding. People don’t know we’re here. People don’t know what we do, often because we don’t do much outside of Sunday mornings.

The time for change is upon us. If we want to survive, we need to find the courage to stand up and speak about what is wrong. We need to be willing to risk some harsh words and angry stares along the way. We need to be willing to find good in the changes required to move forward as a church.

We need to find Jesus Christ. All of these leaders we will be talking about over the next few weeks, they are passionate followers of Jesus Christ, and nothing, not even death, keeps them from proclaiming their faith in Jesus Christ.

This is our story. This is the birth of the church. These are the fathers of the Christian faith, men who step out and speak of the great love of God shown to us in Jesus Christ. Showing us how to preach and live with respect to each other and the world. Just as Jesus had taught them.

We look around and we see death. We see bills, we see too few people, we see the writing on the wall.

But is it really?

Is it really the end of the church? Or just the church as we know it?

It is not the end. Jesus Christ is alive. He’s alive in me. He’s alive in you. He’s alive in Carman. He’s alive in Sydney Mines. He’s alive in CBRM. Jesus Christ is alive. He is risen! He lives! Our Saviour is alive!

Let’s embrace the God all time. The one who made promises to be with His people for all time. Who promises to bless those who follow is laws. Who sent us Jesus Christ to show us those laws in action.

Let us be like those first followers of the Way, of Jesus Christ, and let us be fired up to show his great love to the world. Starting with one step at a time. Starting with praising the one gives life by the giving of his own life for us.

Praise be to Lord Jesus Christ, Saviour of the world. Saviour for you and me.

This morning we’re continuing the story of Easter by looking at what the first leaders of “the Way” were up to. These will be the names of those who are working at spreading the message of Jesus Christ, alive and risen to the world following shortly after Pentecost, that is when the Spirit of God came upon the disciples and making them apostles. Turning them from students into leaders.

The first apostle we’ll look at is Peter. We’ve known Peter for a while. He was of the first called to be a disciple, leaving behind his life as a fisherman he answered Jesus’ call to follow. He was the most vocal of Jesus’ disciples, the one who was routinely by his side, even invited into special events with Jesus himself, like the transfiguration when Jesus met with Moses and Elijah on the mountaintop while his clothes turned a dazzling white. Peter also walked on water with Jesus, showing great faith in who he believed Jesus to be.

Peter saw and learned much while walking in the footsteps of Jesus, this was clear when Jesus turned to him not long before his death, and said, “I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.” (Matthew 16:18-19)

Peter was definitely a faithful follower of Jesus, but even when it seemed Jesus needed his friends most, even Peter denied knowing him as Jesus predicted he would. Peter denied knowing Jesus three times before the rooster crowed on the morning of the day we know as Good Friday.

Yet Peter was the one on which Jesus built his church. He is the one who seemed to gain the keys to heaven. As the disciples hid in the room on the day of Pentecost, the day they were suddenly filled with the Holy Spirit, Peter was the first to emerge from the house and preach in the street. You can read his sermon in Acts 2 and see how three thousand people responded and the church was born.

Being a Christian in those first days were anything but easy. There was still a lot of hostility around the name of Jesus, especially by the religious establishment of the day. On the way into the temple for prayer, they met a man who was lame. His legs were weak and he could not walk. Peter told the man to rise and walk in the name of Jesus Christ, and he did. Which brings us to what we read this morning from Acts 4.

Peter was continuing to preach, and we heard that another five thousand people believed because of what he was saying. The priests and Sadducees were not impressed by this and had Peter and John arrested.

The next day they stood before the council and continued to stand their ground. Their passion for Jesus Christ was very evident and it worried the council. So they threatened the two apostles to never speak about him again under threat of severe punishment and let them go.

Peter, of course, continued to preach the gospel message as he left. He was thrown in prison. He was threatened. Nothing would stop him. Once while in prison, King Herod was sure to kill him because he had just killed the apostle James and saw how it pleased the Jewish leaders. If they were happy James was dead, surely they would be ecstatic if Peter was gone as well. You can read this story in Acts 12, but it goes like this.

While in prison Peter was sleeping, chained between two Roman soldiers when an angel came to him and the chains fell off, and the angel led him out of the prison. For their punishment, the two soldiers were put to death for allowing Peter to escape under their watch. Peter would live to preach some more.

Eventually Peter would be spend the final portion of his life in Rome, leading the church. Later he would die at the hand of emperor Nero. It is said he too was crucified, but with one modification. It is said he was crucified upside down, as per his request, because he did not see himself worthy of dying as his Saviour had died.

Imagine you were Peter. Imagine you have this great passion for Jesus Christ. You have seen so many miracles. You’ve walked on water! And now God has gifted you with the Holy Spirit and you speak with joy in the streets. You are able to heal people and proclaim Jesus Christ as risen from the grave. All under the constant threat of punishment and death.

What is the worst thing that could happen to someone like Peter today, at least in the western world? The worst thing that could happen if you acted like Peter is that someone would say something mean to you. Others would ignore you.

For Peter, nothing on this planet was more important than proclaiming Jesus Christ as risen to be the Saviour of the word. Nothing.

Peter would preach in the face of his accusers, his captors, the ones who dole out brutal punishment. It would not, it could not, stop him.

There are people in this world today who live like Peter. Men and women who live with the constant threat on their lives. Every once in a while we hear of a story on the news where a Christian leader is facing the death penalty because they speak of Jesus Christ. There was an example in the news just last week.

We have it pretty safe over here in North America. Speaking the name of Jesus Christ in public is not a crime here. We won’t face death. We won’t go to prison. It’s easy.

Yet how many of us are filled with the same passion as Peter to share the news of Jesus Christ?

On Friday morning I was at the Nova Scotia Leadership Prayer Breakfast in Membertou. The speakers were Cindy and Lisa Klassen. If you watch the winter olympics at all, you know who Cindy Klassen is. She is the most decorated Canadian Olympian ever, winning a total of 6 medals, including 5 at the 2006 games, all in discipline of speed skating.

You don’t know her sister. Her sister is a pilot and instructor in Manitoba. In 2008, Lisa has a serious car accident that nearly took her life. Together they told of how crucial their faith in Jesus Christ is in helping them through the tough times in their lives. Most notably in the time after the accident, but also in the struggles of Lisa’s long recovery and through the life of being an elite athlete.

For Cindy, speaking out about her faith is a risk. She travels the world to compete in competitions, but she also needs to be able to afford to live. Speaking publicly about Jesus Christ could very well cost her sponsorship deals and public appearances.

Yet she cannot hold back the message of hope and strength offered through a life lived for Jesus Christ, especially when she has seen how it has impacted her family’s life over the last 4 years.

God laid a message on the hearts of these two young women, and they speak about their faith in churches, schools and anywhere they will be heard.

There has no doubt been a windfall of Christian leadership in the public eye of late, especially in the world of professional and elite sports. In football there was the story of Tim Tebow. In basketball there was the sudden emergence from no where of a new potential star in Jeremy Lin. The latest to hit the news is a golfer by the name of Bubba Watson who emerged to win one of golf’s greatest tournaments, The Masters.

These people are speaking out about their faith in Jesus Christ, and people are loving it. They are making the news all over the place and people are being drawn to them as they speak from their hearts about what God is doing in their lives.

It’s really that easy today. These people are not going to face capital punishment. They are not going to be thrown in jail. They are being invited into our homes through interviews and public appearances. And people are hearing the message.

The Holy Spirit laid a message upon the hearts of the first followers of The Way, what they called the early church before the name “Christians” was tagged to them.

The Way is an appropriate name for it. Coming from Jesus’ words, “I am the way, the truth, and the life”. “Christian” is a title. But “the Way” indicates a lifestyle, a way of being in the world.

We too are followers of the Way. A new way of life. A new way of seeing the world by the direction of the Holy Spirit. A Way in which the knowledge of our head connects with the stirrings of our hearts and brings us into a new relationship with the Father in heaven through Jesus Christ the Son.

The Son we continue to celebrate this morning, some 2000 years after his life on earth. A life that not only inspired, but drastically changed the lives of people not just of his time, but for all time since, and continues to change today.

I’m not asking you to face the world like Peter, because we don’t have to. We are safe here. We can run out into the streets after the service here this morning and give praise to the God who gives us life and face no penalties, no fines, no punishment. We are free to do as we please.

So what holds us back? Why are we so afraid to share the love of God with our neighbours? Is it because we wonder what people will think of us? It can’t be as bad as what the religious leaders thought of Jesus, or of those who followed him.

We have a gift from God. It’s eternal life through Jesus Christ the Son when we follow the Way he lays out for us.

The Way he lays on our hearts. It’s more than just knowing God, it’s about loving God and knowing His love for us.

When we know this love, when we feel this overwhelming love, we can’t help but be followers of the Way because of what Jesus Christ has done for us.

He died. He was buried. And he rose on the third day.

For Peter. For the rest of the apostles.

And for us. For me and for you.

This is the depth of God’s love.

This is the understanding which makes us followers of the Way. Just like Peter.

This is the day… do you feel it?

What are you thinking this morning? What emotions are you experiencing? How does your body feel? Any different at all?

Have you ever won a big game, a contest, or some prize? There are many emotions running through you all the time. There’s elation and joy, maybe some relief that it’s finally over. There’s a burst of energy as adrenaline runs through you. You smile, you laugh, you cry. There may even be some awe as you realize just what has happened.

Today, my friends… today is the celebration of the greatest victory ever known.

God… won!

God went to battle with the greatest enemy, the greatest villain ever known… and he won!

And what a victory it is! Talk about your comebacks! Jesus beaten, battered, KILLED! Buried and sealed in a tomb… and he came back! When we thought it was all over… he came back.

We don’t like Good Friday. It’s too sad. It’s too painful to hear over and over again what happened to Jesus in his final hours. It breaks our hearts to think of this happening.

But it must.

If there’s no Good Friday, there’s no resurrection. If there’s no Good Friday, there’s no victory. If there’s no Good Friday, there’s no understanding of the depth of God’s love. If there’s no Good Friday, then what happens next is just called running away.

Without Good Friday, there’s nothing to celebrate. There’s no victory, no life everlasting, no visible sign of the extent of God’s love for us. All there is is a good teacher, a nice man.

But he’s much more. Jesus was a good man, yes, but he did much, much more than just teach us a few things. He did amazing things. He did things no ordinary man could ever do. He healed people. He brought people back to life! Miracles!

When the women went to the tomb after the Sabbath, the heavy stone was moved away from the opening. The body was removed. The women were sad, the disciples… perplexed.

But then Jesus revealed himself. He showed that the story is not over. He is risen! He is alive! He is done just as he said he would.

This is no magic trick. This is no movie special effects. This is God’s Son winning the battle.

“Where, O death, is now thy sting?”

The risen Jesus Christ shows us God is still alive and active in the world. All his promises made are true. Everything is real and nothing, not even death, can separate us from the love of God.

How does this make you feel?

Today is the celebration of the greatest moment in the history of the world. This is the day we celebrate God’s ultimate victory over sin and death. This day we are shown we are worth it. We are worth God’s love. We are part of God’s family.

Jesus did all of this for us. Jesus did all of this for you.

When we give our lives to our risen Christ, we too have victory over the grave. We can realize just how great this love is, love like we have never experienced before. Our lives change, our hearts are healed, our sins are forgiven, we live in for the glory of God, and we can’t help but want to share it with everyone we meet.

How important is this to you?

Penn Jillette is part of the duo Penn & Teller. They are a comedic magic act known around the world. Teller is the smaller, silent guy who never says a word and is often the victim in the jokes. Penn is a larger than life character who readily speaks his mind. He is also an atheist who is not afraid to speak about it.

One night after a show, he recorded a video for his website where he recounted how a man gave him a small Gideons Bible, and he shared how he felt.

“I’ve always said that I don’t respect people who don’t proselytize. I don’t respect that at all. If you believe that there’s a heaven and a hell, and people could be going to hell or not getting eternal life, and you think that it’s not really worth telling them this because it would make it socially awkward… how much do you have to hate somebody to not proselytize? How much do you have to hate somebody to believe everlasting life is possible and not tell them that? I mean, if I believed, beyond the shadow of a doubt, that a truck was coming at you, and you didn’t believe that truck was bearing down on you, there is a certain point where I tackle you. And this is more important than that.”

What’s more important?

Penn was given one of these. A New Testament and Psalms, just a little pocket sized Bible. He’ll likely never read it, but you could see he was touched by the gesture. This man thought enough of Penn that he felt he needed to warn him of what is to come if he doesn’t embrace God. He was also a brave man because of how vocal Penn can be about what he believes and how he rejects religion.

Penn Jillette has wise words for us to think about. If we believe Jesus Christ died and rose again so we could know the depth of the love of God; if we believe he did this so we could escape the terror of hell; and if we believe those who do not believe these things will never see the light of heaven… then why aren’t we tackling people in the streets to save their lives?

What is more important: a slightly awkward encounter where we ask someone, “Do you know Jesus?” or the eternal soul of the people we love?

In the letter to the Hebrews, the author writes in chapter 12:

“Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider him who endured from sinners such hostility against himself, so that you may not grow weary or fainthearted. In your struggle against sin you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood.”

This was so important to the apostles, the first followers of Jesus Christ, the first leaders of the church; it was so important to them they put their lives on the line. They spilled their blood. They were imprisoned. They were stoned to death. The message of Jesus Christ and his salvation was so important they gave their lives to the cause of sharing it with everyone they met.

It’s a little different today isn’t it? Today such passion is hard to find in the church. I confess that I do not live my life in such a way on a regular basis. I have not been willing to risk an awkward moment, or to step into a potentially dangerous place in order to introduce someone to Jesus Christ. And believe me, I’ve had my chances.

Like many, I prefer to keep things safe. What would people think of me if I actually did what I feel in my heart? What would people think if I began to actually show people the abundant love of God I have received? It’s hard to imagine, that in the world today people would push me away, pushing away hope… love… in a world like this.

Everyone of us knows someone in need of hope and love. We all know someone who’s life is broken: a friend, a neighbour, a family member, our children.

All of this brings me to a question.

Who are we?

The simple answer is, “We are Carman United Church!”

But what does that mean? When you talk to someone in the community, what do the words “Carman United Church” communicate with people?

About a month ago I was skating with the kids’ school, helping chaperone, tying skates, picking kids up off the ice, smiling and having fun. I was waved aside by another parent, so I stopped.

She said, “I hear you are the minister of Carman United.” I informed her I was.

“You’re still open?” she asked.

There are people in this community who don’t even know we still exist!

Who are we?

The Gideons invited me and a bunch of other ministers from around Cape Breton to join them for breakfast last week. The speaker was a man my age who recently began to work with the Gideons in just the last year. He shared with us some of the life lessons he’s picked up in nearly 20 years of ministry, mostly working in youth ministry.

He talked about recruitment. He talked about communicating a vision. He talked about some other things. All the while, I was picking up on his good points, and wondering how they might be applied in local churches, not just here at Carman.

To be honest, I couldn’t see how.

Then he shared his final point.

“Healthy things grow”

Then it all made sense. In nature, the healthiest plants grow the fastest and biggest. If the plants are withered or stunted, then I know I’ve got a problem. If my children stop gaining weight and outgrowing clothes, then I know I’ve got a health issue I need to look into as soon as possible!

Healthy things grow…

It’s not about finances. It’s not about what programs we offer. It’s not about how many sit in our pews on a Sunday morning.

It’s about our spiritual health. It’s about who we are as Christians. It’s not about how religious we are. It’s about knowing Jesus Christ and the powerful sacrifice he made for us so we would know this love.

It’s about Jesus Christ living the example of God and sharing it with the world. It’s about how we reflect this relationship with the Father in Heaven through the gift of His Son.

It’s about feeling the passion. It’s about feeling God’s love.

That’s what it’s about.

All of this was shown to us this weekend, in the pain and suffering of Good Friday, and how God’s love burst forth from the grave on the first Easter morning.

This is life. This is love.

This is Jesus Christ, alive and well in us all.

Do you feel it?

“Feel The Passion”
Mark 11:11,12,15-19

Yesterday Rev. Peter invited us into the story of ancient Jerusalem, to walk alongside Jesus as he entered the city; to see the crowd; to engage our senses as we enter into this Holy Week.

Our themes in past years for this week have been the places Jesus gone and the people who were part of the week. This year we look at the various emotions as the week progresses.

In many of our churches, Sunday was a day of joy as we celebrated with palm branches the entry of Jesus to the city of Jerusalem, the time when everyone was cheering him on as he was expected to come and make things new. To take his place as King of the Jews, removing the Roman occupiers and reestablishing the church.

But how quickly things change. Today we read from Mark 11, just shortly after he enters the city.

And he entered Jerusalem and went into the temple. And when he had looked around at everything, as it was already late, he went out to Bethany with the twelve. On the following day… they came to Jerusalem. And he entered the temple and began to drive out those who sold and those who bought in the temple, and he overturned the tables of the money-changers and the seats of those who sold pigeons. And he would not allow anyone to carry anything through the temple. And he was teaching them and saying to them, “Is it not written, ‘My house shall be called a house of prayer for all the nations’? But you have made it a den of robbers.” And the chief priests and the scribes heard it and were seeking a way to destroy him, for they feared him, because all the crowd was astonished at his teaching. And when evening came they went out of the city.

Have you ever been to a theme park or an exhibition where if you want to get on the rides you need to buy tickets? Tickets are the currency of theme parks. You arrive at the gate and fork over a bunch of cash for tickets which you can then use inside the park. If you run out of tickets, then you’ve got to go back and fork over a bunch more cash if you want to ride more, or you just go home if you’re cheap like me. And don’t get me started over the price of the tickets! Talk about bleeding a guy dry of his hard earned money!

This model of commerce is nothing new. It’s been going on for a very long time. When Jesus went into the temple that evening he saw something very similar. He saw people coming into the temple during the very busy lead up to Passover, traveling from all over the region, near and far.

Once they arrived, at some point they would be expected to come to the temple and make a sacrifice. Since it would not be practical to travel with your livestock for many of the travellers, they had the option to buy their own animal for their sacrifice to God. You could buy goats, doves, pigeons, whatever you required.

But you couldn’t just walk up and buy a goat. It wasn’t that simple. First you had to go and buy the “tickets.” You had to take your money and convert it into the temple currency. Once you bought the temple currency, then you could go and buy the animal for the sacrifice.

The problem was, the conversion rate to the temple currency was outrageous. The money changers were making a very healthy profit.

When Jesus walked into the temple the next morning, he headed right to the money changer’s table. Jesus was not impressed at how these faithful people were being taken advantage of, and he was going to do something about it.

So he flipped the table.

When I was in high school playing basketball, we were having a particularly bad game. We stunk. At half-time, we were in a classroom waiting for coach to come in. It was pretty quiet in there, we knew we were not playing like we should. When coach came, the look on his face told us what we expected. He headed straight for a school desk and he gave it an uppercut and it flipped right over. He was a passionate man, but that is the maddest I had ever seen him, before or after. He let us have it. I honestly don’t remember how the game finished, but I’ll never forget that desk flipping over.

Jesus was that angry. He flipped over the tables of the money changers and the people selling the animals. He refused to let anyone carry anything into the temple.

He stood in the middle of the courtyard and began to teach them. “Is it not written, ‘My house shall be called a house of prayer for all the nations’? But you have made it a den of robbers.”

The Son of God, stood his ground. The temple is not a place where people are to be taken advantage of, the house of God is to be a place for the people of God. Notice Jesus said it’s to be a “house of prayer for all the nations.”

The temple is for everyone. The church is to be a place where people can gather to learn about God and to turn their lives around. It’s not a place of profiteering. It’s not a place to take advantage of other people, some of which have traveled a very long way to be part of the festival.

The anger is real. The anger Jesus speaks comes through his deep love for those who come to the temple, those who come seeking God’s forgiveness in their lives, those who come to thank God for what he has done for them. And these people, they want to make money off of this? Grrrr…

Jesus has come to stand against the establishment, so in many ways he has done what people expected him to do when they cheered him on as he entered the city. They expected him to stir things up, to chase out the troublemakers.

But it doesn’t continue as they expect. When Jesus stands in the temple, there are others who are angry as well. The chief priests see what he is doing, they hear what he is teaching, and they don’t like it at all. They too are getting angry. “This. Has. To. Stop!” they are thinking. They begin to really step up their plans for destroying him before he destroys them in the eyes of the people.

So while Jesus is winning the hearts of the people, he has made some very powerful people very, very angry.

Later this week we will see the results of their anger. We will see their wrath come down on him as they call for his death, as they stir up a different crowd into a frenzy which shouts “Crucify him!” Even when he has done nothing wrong but share God’s passionate love for the world.

Anger. It’s an ugly emotion. It causes us to do things we wouldn’t normally do. It causes us to act out in ways we usually later regret.

I have no doubt that when Jesus first walked into the temple, he was seething by what he saw. But he retreated with his disciples for the night. He prayed about what he saw, and he came back and did what he had to do. He knew what was going to happen. He knew what he would do in the temple would push the chief priests over the edge. Yet he did it anyway, because he couldn’t stand to see God’s people taken advantage of any longer. He had to say something. He had to stand up for what is right, even when it would cost him his life.

He would have it no other way.

Let us pray:
Lord God, in the anger of the moment, we hear your passion for your people. We hear your desire to reach those who are on the outside looking in. We hear your love being poured out for those in need. Lord God, stir in us a desire for your people, that as we travel with Jesus Christ on this Holy Week, let us be drawn to you. Let us see the love being poured out on us in what is to happen on Good Friday in his death, but also in the life that comes on Easter morning. Let us feel the emotions of this week, and let us know that in it all, Jesus Christ is doing these things for us. Amen.