Thirsty
“You never know how thirsty you are until you come to the well.”
These words came to me as we prayed during one of our times of worship last week at the Cruxifusion conference.
There were many moments where it felt the Holy Spirit was completely enveloping the conference. God was definitely among us.
As clergy, our work is wide and varied. There’s preparing for Sunday worship. There’s visiting people in their homes or other places. There’s way to much administrative work. There’s funerals, weddings, baptisms. There’s meetings, meetings and more meetings. I can’t speak for others, but there are times when I might even forget just how present the Spirit of God can be.
“You never know how thirsty you are until you come to the well”
Well, at times I felt like I was drinking from a firehose.
Worship was passionate and powerful.
Our guest speakers challenged us, told us wonderful stories, inspired us, and made us think.
The fellowship with other Christ loving ministers was life-giving.
The food gave us food poisoning… oh wait… that’s a bad thing… but not even that could slow us down! (for long)
There are a number of things I am bringing home with me:
- Hope – Hope in the church because there are many people who love Jesus Christ and are willing to work hard to bring our congregations back to Him as our focus, despite any other theological or ecclesial differences we may have.
- Self-reflection – How am I maintaining my relationship with Jesus Christ in the in-between time until the next conference? How am I feeding my soul? And how is it reflecting the ministry I am involved with here in Sydney Mines and the surrounding area?
- Friendship – I made a number of new friends over the week, and reconnected and deepened friendships with those I already knew. Friends from coast to coast in this country. Literally from Newfoundland to Victoria Island. Good friends. Friends I will pray for, and friends who will pray for me. Valuable friends. Trusted friends.
All of these are important as we move forward as a church in the world today. We need to know we are not alone. We need to know there are churches out there who struggle like we do, who seek the Living Christ among them like we do, and pray for direction by the Holy Spirit so they can reach the community around them like we do.
If you are in a church seeking these things; if you are a church struggling with what it means to be solely focused on Jesus Christ as our Risen Lord, then get to know the people of Cruxifusion. We want to lift Jesus high within the United Church of Canada.
We aren’t political. We aren’t wanting to see the church reorganized or changed, we just want to focus on Jesus.
As we found out at the conference, we are not a renewal movement, we are a confessing movement.
We confess Jesus Christ as Lord of His church, and we seek to follow Him.
Church: The Next Generation
Over the last few weeks… months… years… (decades?)… there have been people writing articles saying that the church is dead or dying. Nothing new here. We’ve heard it before, we’ll keep hearing it over and over again.
But here’s my question. If we know this, then WHY are we still doing the same thing? Why do we keep repeating the exact same patterns and expect a different result? Didn’t Einstein call this the definition of insanity?
Yet here we are insanely propping up structures that are falling down all around us. We need to face the facts. The church of today, built by our parents and grandparents means nothing to young adults today (as a generalization). If this weren’t true, then our churches would still be flourishing, full of young families. I don’t know about your church, but my church doesn’t have more than 3 young families on any given Sunday.
Don’t get me wrong. I love the traditional church. I think it still has an important role to play. But… things have to change. We need to get out of our doom and gloom attitudes and look forward. We need to live in hope that God is not done with us yet.
And we need to take risks.
How many young people have you talked to about their spiritual needs in the last week? How about month? Year?
Unless we start to engage with these young people, and start to work along side them in their spiritual journeys, then nothing will change.
I can speak from personal experience that these young adults want to engage in the Big Questions of life, but the church is unable to welcome or communicate with them.
This has to change.
The way we think of church has to change.
We need new ministries. New ideas. New structures.
Or when our traditional churches finally close, there will be nothing left.
We’ve just celebrated Easter, let the resurrection work within each and every one of us!
Be Strong – An Easter Sermon
“Be Strong”
2 Thessalonians 2:13-17
Oh I love Easter. Hallelujah! Praise God!
This is what it’s all about. This is the day. This is when the real celebration happens. This day is greater than birthdays; greater than Valentine’s Day, Halloween, and yes even better than Christmas.
Why?
Jesus rose from the dead!
Mary went to the tomb this morning and found the stone was rolled away. There was no body in the tomb… just folded linens. Jesus was gone.
But then quickly Jesus revealed himself to her. Then to a few others. Then the disciples. Then the world.
Jesus. Is. Alive!
Hallelujah give thanks! He lives!
On Friday he took all the sins of the world upon himself and died a horrible death. But today…
Today he lives!!
And what better place to celebrate such wonderful news, such a wonderful gift, than right here in this church? No where, right!? read more…
Bow
You must have the same attitude that Christ Jesus had. Though he was God, he did not think of equality with God as something to cling to. Instead, he gave up his divine privileges; he took the humble position of a slave and was born as a human being. When he appeared in human form, he humbled himself in obedience to God and died a criminal’s death on a cross. Therefore, God elevated him to the place of highest honor and gave him the name above all other names, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. (Philippians 2:5-11 NLT)
God came to earth as Jesus Christ. Fully human. Fully divine.
He walked among the people he came to reach. He healed. He taught. He loved.
And so it is recorded forevermore, Jesus Christ came for you and me so all will know the love of God personally.
In his death, Jesus showed how deep that love is.
And now we all can know and bow before our King.
On this Good Friday, may we deeply know this love. May we fully understand this sacrifice. May we experience the grace and joy of knowing our Father in heaven, shown to us through the Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.
Examine
For I pass on to you what I received from the Lord himself. On the night when he was betrayed, the Lord Jesus took some bread and gave thanks to God for it. Then he broke it in pieces and said, “This is my body, which is given for you. Do this to remember me.” In the same way, he took the cup of wine after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant between God and his people—an agreement confirmed with my blood. Do this to remember me as often as you drink it.” For every time you eat this bread and drink this cup, you are announcing the Lord’s death until he comes again. So anyone who eats this bread or drinks this cup of the Lord unworthily is guilty of sinning against the body and blood of the Lord. That is why you should examine yourself before eating the bread and drinking the cup. For if you eat the bread or drink the cup without honoring the body of Christ, you are eating and drinking God’s judgment upon yourself. But if we would examine ourselves, we would not be judged by God in this way. Yet when we are judged by the Lord, we are being disciplined so that we will not be condemned along with the world. (1 Corinthians 11:23-29, 31, 32 NLT)
Paul writes to the Corinthians to wait for one another and eat the holy meal together. It seems they were rushing through it and not everyone got to eat. It wasn’t a very Christian thing to do.
Jesus reminds us that he is present in something so basic as food and drink. He is with us in all we do and say. So then we need to keep these things in mind at all times.
There is a certain amount of worthiness, but there’s a whole lot of grace. Grace from God in that if we believe in Him and what he has done for us through the death and resurrection of His Son, Jesus Christ, we are forgiven. We are made whole. We are His, welcome to enjoy His glorious kingdom.
Are you worthy? No one is.
Are we welcome?
YES!
Because we are children of God, welcomed by grace. Grace extended to us through Jesus Christ, our Lord, our Saviour, our King!