God’s work continues…
I miss blogging. I miss reading. I miss feeling relaxed.
I haven’t been posting much on this site over the last few months. The reason is simple. Time and energy.
I don’t think I’ve ever been so close to burnout in my life. The past few months was nothing more than a staggering amount of meetings, demands on my time and travel. Exhaustion has been my life.
I’m also involved with a “learning circle.” It’s a group of people who gather to discuss a topic online/conference call once a month. After our last meeting in mid-November I had two emails come in. One from a friend and one I don’t know at all. Both expressing concern for me just by the sound of my voice.
A couple weeks later I received a phone call.
The stranger took her concern to her knitting/prayer group at her church. She simply stated that she was concerned for our young clergy and what they are being burdened with in the church, indicating this came from a talking to one recently.
They talked and decided they wanted to do something, so one of them went back to the minister and said they wanted to send something to this “one” wherever he is.
Two days ago I got another call from my new friend. A “box of hugs” would be on the bus tomorrow (yesterday).
I picked up a package this morning. It’s far larger than I expected!
So I opened it.
Immediately I recognize a prayer shawl with a note attached to it.
There was a letter wrapped in the fold of the shawl. It read:
Dear Rev. Nick,
Rev. Sally recently requested during a knitting group (we knit and crochet prayer shawls for this who are in need of a “hug”) that we say a small prayer for you and your daunting tasks in Cape Breton.
Two of our ladies groups soon decided that you really could do with a “hug”.
We are sending you a box full of “hugs” and also a great big “thank-you” for doing God’s work.
Wishing you and those you love a very merry Christmas.
The ladies from the Fellowship Group and
The Knitting and Crocheting Group,
Forest Hills United Church, Dartmouth
And opening the shawl more I see this!
These wonderful, caring ladies sent all sorts of comfort, hugs, to someone they have never met. Among the hugs are jams and jellies, candies, gloves and mittens, all sorts of “hugs!”
The Sunday School even got involved.
The other part of the story I haven’t told yet, is that this is a church that has been struggling in recent years. There has been some conflict, there have been people leaving. They have struggled for decades to find their “outreach” to the community. In fact, the minister tells me they’ve never had much to do with outreach ever. This is their first.
God is at work in the world my friends. My tired voice on a conference call last month moved some women to reach out to me, someone they have never met.
So I ask you to pray for Forest Hills United Church in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia. They clearly have wonderful hearts and God is using them to touch souls. Including mine.
Thank you to my new friends at Forest Hills. May God bless you abundantly as you continue to seek where he is calling you to serve. I hope someday I can thank you for your generous gift in person. I accept this gift with a heart full of thanks, and do so on behalf of all young clergy who are struggling to find a way to balance our busy lives, especially this time of year.
May the peace of Christ be with all you this season.
Christmas Characters: Elizabeth and Zechariah
“Christmas Characters: Elizabeth and Zechariah”
Luke 1:39-45, 57-64
Last week we looked at angels. And while we were looking at angels we heard how the angel Gabriel came to Zechariah.
Zechariah is an old man. He’s a priest in the temple, one who was in charge of taking care of the place and the people who came to visit it. He was married to a woman by the name of Elizabeth. They both were descendants of Aaron, a long line of priestly heritage existed in this family. But they were unable to have children.
Zechariah was chosen to enter into the temple and burn the incense while people prayed outside. (Only priests were allowed in the temple) While he was in the temple this particular day, the angel Gabriel came to him and told him that he and his wife will have a child. Zechariah is told that this son will be grow to be a great man, a man who will proclaim the coming of the Lord, the Messiah, the expected Saviour of the world.
In a moment of doubt, or maybe reality, Zechariah questions Gabriel about how this could even be possible. To make a point, and to show there is much more than just man at work here, the angel tells Zechariah he will not be able to speak until the child is born.
Zechariah makes his way home, and sure enough his wife Elizabeth becomes pregnant. The shame she once carried as a woman unable to bear a child is gone, and she is delighted in the gift God has blessed them with.
When it came time and Elizabeth gave birth, since Zechariah was still unable to speak, when they took the child to be circumcised on his eighth day the priests wanted to call him Zechariah, after his father, as was tradition, even despite Elizabeth’s protests.
As the communicated with the father, he grabbed a tablet and wrote, “His name shall be John.”
He did just as the angel had instructed him, and his voice returned and immediately Zechariah praised God over and over.
We know that this child grew to be a prophet, baptizing people as a way of preparing their hearts to be ready when the promised Messiah would arrive. Preaching for people to repent of their sins because he was coming soon.
This man began as a promise of God, called to be the Elijah of his generation, calling people to be faithful and to listen to God because the time was coming soon, when God would do a great and wonderful thing in the world.
Throughout the Bible God has done great and wonderful things with unexpected people. Ordinary people. Plain people. People who would be seen as quite unlikely to bring about the great changes God desires.
Elizabeth and Zechariah are another example of some of these people. An old priest working in the temple, putting in his days of work, late in life, knowing death was probably not far off. Elizabeth, an older woman herself, carrying the shame of a lifetime in which she has been unable to have a child of her own. Looked on as a disappointment because of this, as though she has been cursed to never produce life.
Yet God has seen inside their hearts. God has chosen them to be parents to a special child themselves. A child who would proclaim that the Messiah is coming. A wild child who lived off the land, yet still ministered to many, many people. A man many would think hardly worthy of mention, yet there he is. His birth recorded in the Gospel of Luke, his life marked forever in the pages of scripture.
The same with Elizabeth and Zechariah. Two hardly worth mentioning people, even in their own time, chosen by God to such an important part of the work of God, and even in the life of Jesus Christ, yet they may have never met him.
There was no question from Elizabeth or Zechariah as to whether this was a special child or not. Zechariah, in his praise, said:
“Praise be to the Lord, the God of Israel,
because he has come to his people and redeemed them.
He has raised up a horn of salvation for us
in the house of his servant David
(as he said through his holy prophets of long ago),
salvation from our enemies
and from the hand of all who hate us—
to show mercy to our ancestors
and to remember his holy covenant,
the oath he swore to our father Abraham:
to rescue us from the hand of our enemies,
and to enable us to serve him without fear
in holiness and righteousness before him all our days.
And you, my child, will be called a prophet of the Most High;
for you will go on before the Lord to prepare the way for him,
to give his people the knowledge of salvation
through the forgiveness of their sins,
because of the tender mercy of our God,
by which the rising sun will come to us from heaven
to shine on those living in darkness
and in the shadow of death,
to guide our feet into the path of peace.”
The prophesying comes early. Zechariah is praising God for what is to come. He recognizes that the world is living in darkness and there is a light coming to shine in the world. A light that will chase away the darkness and bring peace to the earth.
The light has come my friends. The light shines brightly through Jesus Christ who has come to bring peace, to teach us to love, to show us mercy and how to show mercy.
We now carry this light within us. There is still a great darkness in the world, not because God allows it, but because we allow it. God has come in Jesus Christ to remove the darkness from the world, to disable the evil one and to bring love to all people.
We are the ones who are agents of the light. We are the ones who can bring peace to the world. Even if it’s one person at a time.
We might be tempted to say, I’m just Nick, how can I do something so great as that?
Elizabeth was just an old woman carrying a great amount of shame. Zechariah was an old priest just working away in the temple. John was a baby born to unlikely parents and grew up on his own in the wilderness.
Every one of us has a story. An ordinary, plain old life story. Just like Elizabeth and Zechariah. Yet they were open to God’s calling in their lives. They were faithful people, they relied on God in their daily lives, and they became part of something far greater than they could have ever imagined.
Over and over again in the Bible God shows us there’s no such thing as “too old” or “too poor” or “too ordinary” because God’s power and love is beyond anything we can imagine.
So in this Advent season, as we seek to find silence and inspiration in this time of busyness and chaos, let us remember we are chosen by God to be His messengers, His agents, His lights in the dark world.
No matter who we are or where we are in our lives. God is with us.
Jesus has come to the earth, and through him we are one with God.
We are just like Elizabeth and Zechariah, ordinary people, living our ordinary lives, yet still capable to do great and wonderful things in the name of God, through following His Son, Jesus Christ, the Promised One who came to bring peace to the world.
Christmas Characters: The Angels
“Christmas Characters: The Angels”
Luke 1:5-20, 26-38
And so we begin a new season in the church this morning. It’s the time of year when we sing about presents and snow and a big guy in a red suit, and bells and babies and also Christmas Angels.
So I thought I would take the time this year and look at some of these characters a little bit closer and see how they fit into the story at this time of year, and how they have been chosen to proclaim and welcome the Saviour of the world.
Angels are part of God’s heavenly plan and kingdom. They have roles to fill and are found many times in the Bible.
The three most prominent Angels that are named are Michael, Gabriel and Lucifer.
The one we hear of most this time of year is Gabriel. He is the angel who came to spread the news that Jesus Christ is coming.
But first we might wonder what angels look like. Are they the beautiful, effeminate beings with soft skin and fluffy wings we so often see in popular art?
“we have no young people”
What a popular refrain I hear from our churches. There is nothing I hear more than “We have no young people!” It’s true, you don’t. Or if you do, not as many as you would like to see.
Sunday school attendances are very low, many churches I know have single room Sunday School classes. Certainly not the hundreds of kids people like to talk about in the “good ol’ days!”
So where are our young people if they have no interest in church. I guess people like to think they have no interest in religion because they obviously aren’t in church!
Watch this video…
Last month I took part in the Cape Breton Prayer of Hope service where we prayed for all corners of Cape Breton with participation from churches all across the island representing many different denominations at the same time. It was a beautiful evening of coming together in the name of Jesus Christ to pray with and for one another.
During the service we showed the above video. I should also note that the average age of those in attendance for this service was MUCH younger than we are used to seeing in mainline denominations.
So what’s up?
I believe that young people have a deep longing for spiritual growth and understanding of the “big questions” in life. It is proven in the above video, where young adults cram into a house once a week. So many they are practically sitting on top of each other (as you can see in the video)!
I had a wonderful conversation with a couple of boomers later that same week. In our conversation they shared this piece of wisdom, “We just accepted the church our parent’s gave to us, our children aren’t willing to do that.”
Truth.
The church of our parents, grandparents, the churches we sit in today are not what we young adults are looking for. They definitely serve a purpose, but they aren’t speaking to younger generations in the same way any longer. We have a deep longing to know Jesus, and to learn about him, but we also need to experience him in a community of peers who are willing to engage in conversation. Our traditions don’t function that way, and so many of our young people are left feeling outside of the conversation they deeply want to be part of.
So how do we change?
I don’t think we can. I think our young people need to be given the ability, the resources and the blessing to build a church of their own.
How do we start? Where do we start?
Those are the questions we need to be asking and finding answers to. We need to support new expressions of church and develop the faith of our young people in a way that is meaningful to them. Musically, conversationally, spiritually.
I believe they will respond. The “church” that meets in the video above shows it can happen.
Pray about this. Ask about this. Find a way in which we can encourage and support our young adults in their faith development.
They really want to know more and grow more in their spiritual journey.
7 Truths: The Good in Suffering
“7 Truths: The Good in Suffering”
Isaiah 14:12-20; Revelation 21:1-7
And so we have it, we’ve come to the final sermon based on the book 7 Truths That Changed The World by Kenneth Richard Samples. We looked at many different topics over the last couple of months. We looked at how not all men stay dead, which is to say Jesus Christ defied our common logic by living again after spending three days in the tomb.
We looked at how God himself came to earth and walked among us as Jesus the Christ. Living and teaching among his creation and his people.
We looked at the creation of the universe and we also looked at how this creation points back to its creator.
We looked at how we are saved not by our own acts, but we are saved by the grace of God. And lastly we looked at how our actions reflect how we are created in God’s image.
And now we are on our final truth. We look at God’s goodness in pain and suffering.
To be honest, this is one I’ve probably looked least forward to because it’s a topic that has touched each and every one of us at some point in our lives. It’s a difficult topic to approach because I know some of you are in mourning, some of you have experienced, or are experiencing pain and suffering in your life today, or someone close to you may be.
How many times have we asked the question, “Why does God allow this to happen?” read more…