Following God's Will

 do not usually give titles to my sermons.  However, my sermon yesterday could be entitled “Following God’s Will (part 2)”.   As we do not have Jesus with us in bodily form to guide us, we cannot know with certainty what God’s will is for us and for the church as the Body of Christ.  That doesn’t mean that we should not do all we can to discern God’s will.  There are many ways which can be helpful in that goal such as reading and studying scripture daily.  This, along with daily prayer is foundational in understanding God’s will for us and for the world.  There is no shortage of other ways such as connecting with God in nature or in non-biblical inspirational writing.  Another foundational way for me is in paying attention to my dreams which I consider to be “God’s Forgotten Language” This is John Sanford’s term and the title of his book on understanding dreams as a way that God communicates with us.  

As we are each unique children of God we will have different ways of connecting and listening to God.  Some people find different forms of prayer such as contemplative prayer or centering prayer to be most meaningful.  While other finds more active forms such as walking the labyrinth to be the way they can best connect with God.  Many people find Spiritual Direction to be very helpful to them in their journey with God.  I have had a Spiritual Director for some years and that person has been very helpful in my journey.  I would invite you to explore different ways of listening to God with or without the help of a Spiritual Director.  I would be very happy to talk with any of you further about exploring how you might do this.  Blessings on your journey.

Sermon January 24, 2016

The Gospel we just heard presents an inspiring picture of Jesus.  He is filled with the power of the Holy Spirit.  He has just returned from his time in the wilderness and his encounter with Satan.  He has been tempted three times by Satan and rejected the three temptations of food for his starving body, power over the kingdoms of the earth, and perhaps the greatest—putting his heavenly Father to the test of his love.  Now he is ready to being his public ministry of proclaiming the Good News of the Kingdom of God. He does this in familiar territory.  He brings the Good News for those closest to him—the people in his home of Galilee.  Everything is set for his triumphant homecoming.

The stage is indeed set for a triumphant return in which he will be recognized for who he is by those who probably mean the most to him.  Well, that is just what happens.  He teaches in the synagogues and he receives praise from all quarters.  He is now ready to truly come home.  He come home to home town of Nazareth where he was raised—the triumphal return of a local boy who has made good.  It is surprizing that they don’t throw a parade for him?  In fact they go one better.  He is invited to read in his home synagogue.  The stage is set.  What could go wrong?

I had an experience that was a bit like that.  My home parish where I became an Anglican and where I worshipped for many years and where I served in many different functions is St. John the Evangelist in London.   When I started on my journey to ordination and was enrolled in the M.Div. Program at Huron, I was invited to preach at the Sunday service.  Well I preached what I thought was a pretty good sermon—pretty good from a first sermon anyway.  I put a lot effort into it and said a lot of things I wanted to say. 

The only problem was that it was far, far too long—for Anglicans in any case—at least twenty minutes in length.  I did not have enough presence to know that despite the brilliance and eloquence of it (just kidding) people started to get restless probably at the fifteen minute mark.  Things can go wrong when you come home in a new role.

Well, that is nothing compared to what happened to Jesus.  If we read on in Luke we find that he begins to give not good news but what the people receive as bad news.  He tells them that those foundational prophets Elijah and Elisha did not bring God’s message and salvation to the people like them; they brought it is widows and foreigners.  Well, if you don’t know, you can probably guess their reaction, “They were filled with rage. 29They got up, drove him out of the town, and led him to the brow of the hill on which their town was built, so that they might hurl him off the cliff. 30But he passed through the midst of them and went on his way”.  In effect, they ran him out of town on a rail. 

As Jesus said, “Truly I tell you, no prophet is accepted in the prophet’s hometown”.  This would not be the last time that Jesus got people—particularly the religious and civil leaders—angry.  He was continually criticizing the religious leaders and doing things like healing people of the Sabbath that they objected to.   In fact, they eventually managed to succeed at what they failed to do this time—they murdered him—or at least they thought they had.

We have a situation in the Anglican Church today that seems to resonate with what happened to Jesus.  The leaders of the World-wide Anglican Church, The Primate have decided to punish the Episcopal Church in the USA for their decision to allow the blessing of Same-sex Relationships.  They have suspended the Episcopal Church from the Anglican Communion for a period of three years. 

In effect, the Episcopal Church has decided that they are called by God to go to a place that is not acceptable to other parts of the Anglican church.  Indeed the Canadian Church may be in a similar position when we vote on changing the marriage canon at General Synod later this year in July.  As we see in the Gospels, religious leaders can be wrong.  Jesus certainly did not hesitate to criticize them when he knew they were wrong.  Unfortunately, we do not have Jesus with us on earth to tell us which position is right.  We cannot know with certainty which position is right and which wrong in the eyes of God.  The position of the primates was and is influenced by the Anglican Churches in the third world, many of whom support laws in their countries which would jail gays and lesbians or even put them to death.  And yet they are not sanctioned for these unchristian attitudes.

To be open about where I stand, I support the position of the Episcopal Church and hope and pray that the Canadian Church will follow their lead and change the marriage canon to embrace same-sex marriage.  I have come to this position after many years of considering the situation and knowing LGBT people as friends and associates.  In some cases the church must lead and take a position which is opposed by other parts of the church as the Canadian Church did with the ordination of women.  We are called to try and discern God’s will and to go where it takes us even if it is not the commonly held understanding of God’s will. 

I will close with and excerpt from the statement by our Primate, Archbishop Fred Hiltz:

Our conversations reflected the truth that, while the Anglican Communion is a family of autonomous Churches in communion with the see of Canterbury, we live by the long-held principle of ‘mutual responsibility and inter dependence in the Body of Christ’. While our relationships are most often characterized by mutual support and encouragement, there are times when we experience stress and strain and we know our need for the grace of God to be patient with each other. Such was the experience of the primates this week. We struggled with the fragility of our relations in response to the actions taken by the General Convention of The Episcopal Church in changing its canon on marriage, making provision for the blessing of same sex marriages. We talked, prayed and wrestled with the consequences considered by the meeting. Some of us wept. For now I ask for your prayers for all of the primates as they make their way home. I know some are returning to very challenging situations beset with extreme poverty, civil war, religiously motivated violence and the devastating effects of climate change.

This week reminded me once again of the servant style of leadership required of the primates of the Churches of The Anglican Communion. As Jean Vanier reminded us in his reflections at our closing Eucharist, we are called to be the face of Jesus in this world. Pray with me that all of us be faithful in this calling.           Amen 

Sermon January 10, 2016 Epiphany & the Baptism of Jesus

It is always a bit of a surprize to me when we celebrate the Baptism of Jesus following so closely on Epiphany—the visit of the Wise Men.  How did Jesus get to be a mature man/God about to begin his public ministry so soon after we celebrate his birth?  Of course we have very little information in scripture about his early life, other than his visit to the Temple in Jerusalem when he was twelve years old.  So perhaps the people that put together the church calendar were on the right track.

The day of the Epiphany was only last Wednesday so we are celebrating both the visit of the Wise Men and Jesus Baptism this morning.  At first glance there doesn’t seem to be much of a connection between the two events other than both being events in Jesus life that are recorded in Holy Scripture.  However, if we explore both events I believe there is a connection between them that should be explored.  Both events deal with Jesus’ identity. 

The Epiphany in which the three wise men or Magi come to pay homage to the infant Jesus reveals to the world who Jesus is.  The Magi are astrologers—the scientists of their day.  They have seen the evidence that a king of the Jews has been born and have come to worship him.  They are Gentiles; representatives from the non-Jewish world who have come to acknowledge him as king.  They bring him gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh. Now these are not the gifts you would usually bring to a child but they know this is not a usual baby.  These gifts are portentous; there reveal the path that Jesus will follow. 

The gift of gold is appropriate for honouring a king. It was valuable in Jesus’ time as it is in our time.  Gold is used in the crown of a king and signifies him as the king of the Jews.  The frankincense or incense was traditionally used in worship dating back to the Tabernacle in the exodus.  It is given by the Wise Men who acknowledge Jesus’ holy/priestly nature.  Finally we have Myrrh.  This is an essential ingredient in Holy anointing oil which is used in the anointing of both kings and priests.  It was also used to anoint and embalm the dead and so it  foretells that he will be a willing sacrifice for us and for the world.  Here we have the Gentile world coming to acknowledge Jesus and proclaim that he is and will be king, prophet, priest and the Pascal Lamb.  The Magi—the representatives of the Gentile world have identified who he is for the world. 

The baptism is another time when there is identification.  In the account of the baptism we hear of the voice from heaven saying, “You are my Son, the beloved; with you I am well pleased.”  Jesus is identified as the Beloved son of God the Father.  Therefore in the baptism and the Epiphany we have Jesus identified by earth and heaven.  He is the Beloved son of the most high God; the king of the Jews and the high priest who will be the willing sacrifice who will redeem the world.   

Baptism can be understood as that entrance into the body of Christ.  It identifies us as Christians, members of the body of Christ when we are baptised in the name of the Triune God—Father, Son and Holy Spirit.  That identifies us as people who are in relationship with other members of Christ’s Church.  But is also identifies us as people who are in relationship with God.  

David J. Lose, the president of Lutheran Theological Seminary in Philadelphia addresses the idea of baptism as identification for each of us:

Baptism teaches us who we are – God’s beloved children – and confers upon us the promise of God’s unconditional regard. In an era when so many of the traditional elements of identity-construction have been diminished – we change jobs and careers with frequency, most of us have multiple residences rather than grown up and live in a single community, fewer families remain intact – there is a craving to figure out just who we are. In response to this craving and need, baptism reminds us that we discover who we are in relation to whose we are, God’s beloved children. We belong to God’s family, and baptism is a tangible sign of that.

Baptism, then, is wholly God’s work that we may have confidence that no matter how often we fall short or fail, nothing that we do, or fail to do, can remove the identity that God conveys as a gift. Our relationship with God, that is, is the one relationship in life we can’t screw up precisely because we did not establish it. We can neglect this relationship, we can deny it, run away from it, ignore it, but we cannot destroy it, for God loves us too deeply and completely to ever let us go. Again, in an age when so many relationships are fragile or tattered, it may come as good news that this primary relationship remains solid and intact no matter what. In fact, trusting that this relationship is in God’s hands, we are freed to give ourselves wholly and completely to the other important relationships in our lives.

All that is reassuring as well as challenging.  It is reassuring because we know that God is always there for us whether we realize or acknowledge it.  It is challenging because of the responsibility that each of us has to respond to God and maintain our part of that relationship with God just as it is a responsibility to maintain any relationship we have.  We have to hold up our part of the relationship and not neglect it.  We do that by doing just what you are doing today; gathering as the body of Christ in Christ’s name to worship God.   But that alone is not enough.  We need to do our part daily to strengthen and deepen that relationship through prayer and reading of scripture.  We also are called to be the people God and the body of Christ in the world—to let them know that we are Christians by our love.  To give back to God a part of what is God’s in our care for all of God’s creation.  We are called to love the world; to love our neighbours as God has loved us and continues to love us.  Amen 

Sermon December 27, 2015

Other than the stories of the nativity, the bible contains the only one account of Jesus’ life as a child.  This is the account we have just heard of the events when he visits the temple in Jerusalem when he is twelve years old. 

The typical way of looking at this episode in the life of the young Jesus is to regard it with wonder and amazement.  Here is a boy—in many ways he is still a child—and yet it is a glimpse of the potential he will show when he begins his ministry among the people of Galilee at thirty years of age.  Isn’t it wonderful how he has a realization that he is more than just a typical teenager?  He declares he must be about his Father’s business.  Of course we realize he is referring to his heavenly Father.  We know that he will later show us that his life will indeed be about his Father’s business. 

However, there is another way of looking at this.  In some ways this is the account of a typical teenager.  He doesn’t give a second thought to how his actions will affect others — particularly his parents—his earthly parents.  He is unmindful of how his parents would react to his absence.  Of course they will be worried.  They will be inconvenienced and have to make the journey back to the temple to search for him.  As with many teenagers, he is rather disdainful of their natural concern for his well being and dismissive of their authority. 

It is unfortunate that there are no other accounts in the bible of what Jesus was like as a child and as a teenager.  We might let our imagination fill in the blanks and think about what a challenge it might have been for his parents.  He was most likely a very precocious child who showed at times other glimpses of his divine nature.  There are accounts in the apocryphal, non-canonical sources which gives us a glimpse of what it might have been like.  There is one account of Jesus as a child making twelve sparrows out of clay and miraculously turning them into real live birds; a rather sweet, harmless act.  However, it was on the Sabbath and is perhaps a precursor to times when he is criticized by the Pharisees for doing miracles on the Sabbath.

 However, there is another in which the child Jesus is not so playful.   He is carelessly knocked down by a playmate and is aroused to anger and kills him with a curse.  The parents of the dead child naturally see the danger in such unbridled power and want him expelled from the town.  The account goes on, “Joseph arose and took hold upon his ear and wrung it sore”.  Jesus warns Joseph that to act that way is unwise and to “vex him not”. 

But in his developing wisdom he does not retaliate against his earthly father.  These accounts are apocryphal and should not be taken a literally true. They didn’t make it into the canon of scripture.  However, they give us some interesting possibilities of the challenges of raising such a son. 

These accounts and our Gospel reading do show us promise of the greatness which is ahead.  At this precocious age he shows great wisdom to the elders at the temple.  We are told that this at the temple outburst, “Why were you searching for me? Did you not know that I must be in my Father’s house?” – is the exception to his behaviour.  We are told that from this point on in his childhood, he is obedient to them.  This reflects what is proclaimed in the Gospel Luke after he is presented as an infant in the Temple, “And Jesus increased in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and man.” 

The account of Jesus’ visit to the Temple at age twelve is, I believe, important for us.  It gives us a glimpse of someone who is not only divine but is also fully human.  It shows something of Jesus’ human nature.  It shows us what it means for us to be human.  It shows us what it means for us as fallible, human beings who are children of God to follow Jesus.  We know from this experience of Jesus that he did increase in wisdom and stature and in favor with God and man.  This gives us the hope and promise of what is possible for us.  We also can increase in wisdom and stature.  We also have the possibility of become more fully the people that God intends us to be

—that God intended us to be when he created each of us.  We have that possibility to grow and develop and mature as Christians and as people.  This will not happen automatically.  God gives us that potential and possibility.  However, we are called to do our parts as children of God and as Christians.  We are called to follow the commandments that Jesus has given us.  We are to love God with all our hearts and minds and souls with all our strength and we are to love our neighbours as ourselves. 

This is a challenge but it is one that Jesus knows as he experienced it and knows the challenges that we have in following them.  He also knows that we will not always succeed just as he did not consider his earthly parents at the Temple.  We do know that he is with us in the times we do not succeed as well as the times that we do.  Thanks be to God.  

Sermon Christmas Eve 2015

In my imagination the distance from Bethlehem to Jerusalem is a long, long journey.   The Gospels are the account of the journey which Jesus makes from Bethlehem to Jerusalem.  Tonight Jesus is born is a lowly stable in Bethlehem—the city of David.  He will make that journey to Jerusalem which will culminate on Palm Sunday and ultimately with the empty tomb on Easter Sunday. 

 For Jesus and for us it is a long, journey; such a long journey which will take a lifetime.  In reality the distance between that tiny insignificant village and that magic city Jerusalem is a very short one.  I discovered that some years ago when I went, with my fellow clergy in Huron to the Holy Land.  It was a wonderful, amazing, surprizing experience or I should say experiences.  One of the surprizing things was the trip by tour bus from Jerusalem to Bethlehem.  It took only about five minutes.  Now I wanted to be sure my memory wasn’t playing tricks on me and I check and the distance is only 8 km.  However, it is a long journey in other ways.  Bethlehem is in the Palestinian territory and to get there we had to cross through the infamous security fence— a wall really—that Israel has erected to keep out terrorists or in Palestinian terms freedom fighters. 

There are many surprizes in our journey to the church of the Nativity in Bethlehem—the place they have officially marked as the birthplace of Jesus.   Bethlehem is no longer a small, insignificant village of Jesus’ birth.  It has a population of about 30,000.  There is the church above the site.  It is shared by three Christian groups, Armenian Orthodox, Greek Orthodox and Roman Catholic—each with a separate part of the church. 

They have very different ideas of what church is and the contrast is dramatic for the visitor.  To reach the actual place, which has been designated as the site of the stable, you have to go down into a lower level—a cave really— which contains the Grotto of the Nativity. 

The Grotto is another great surprize.  It is not that wonderful nativity scene we have in our minds—a stable with cattle lowing and the star of Bethlehem shining down like a spotlight on the star of the production; the baby Jesus with lovely young mother Mary and his dotting step father Joseph standing in the background.  There are no odious smells of a stable in the winter or noises of animals wanting to be fed or dirty, smelly shepherds with their bleating, noisy lambs with a baby lying on not very comfortable straw.   The Grotto of the Nativity has also been idealized.  It is clean and warm in a setting that is appropriate for the birth of the prince of Peace. 

 The reality of that journey to Bethlehem and of the stable was very different from our idealized vision of how it was.  The great poet T. S. Eliot caught the essence of it is his poem The Journey of the Magi which has these opening lines. 

The Journey Of The Magi

'A cold coming we had of it,
Just the worst time of the year
For a journey, and such a long journey:
The ways deep and the weather sharp,
The very dead of winter.'
And the camels galled, sorefooted, refractory,
Lying down in the melting snow.
There were times we regretted
The summer palaces on slopes, the terraces,
And the silken girls bringing sherbet.
Then the camel men cursing and grumbling
and running away, and wanting their liquor and women,
And the night-fires going out, and the lack of shelters,
And the cities hostile and the towns unfriendly
And the villages dirty and charging high prices:
A hard time we had of it.
At the end we preferred to travel all night,
Sleeping in snatches,
With the voices singing in our ears, saying
That this was all folly.

How often does the image in our imagination not match the reality?  We celebrate the birth of the Prince of Peace.  And yet two thousand years later there is no peace that we can see. There seem to be conflict and war all around us.  There seems to be no possibility of peace, of real peace braking out in the world.  So was all this that we are celebrating just a fantasy, a false hope? 

I assure you it is not.  We know that with the birth of that small helpless baby in that small insignificant collection of huts in that ridiculous place meant for animals there was the truth of peace and salvation for the world.  In our darker times we can convince ourselves that there is no peace on earth and never will be.  The unbelievers can say it is only a fantasy. 

Jesus was not born in Bethlehem and if he was it was not on December the 25^th.  It is all a lie and an illusion.  And yet we know in our hearts that what we celebrate tonight is true.  The details may not have happened the way they are often depicted.  We can’t know if there was an angel who brought good news to the shepherds.  We don’t know that there was a star which lit the way for the magi on their long journey.  

And yet we know where it matters—we know in our heart of hearts that the prince of peace was born that day.  The only son of God the Father came to be with us and to bring salvation to the world.  We know that the message of the angle to the shepherds was and is true—fear not I bring you tiding of great joy which will be to all people.  Peace, hope, joy and love were born in that stable in Bethlehem.

We know that peace is possible for each of us.  Our difference can be reconciled.  We have the hope of everlasting salvation which was brought to all people with the birth of that small helpless baby.  It is a long journey for us from Bethlehem to Jerusalem.  And yet we have the assurance that Jesus with us each step of that journey.  We know that Jesus Christ is born to each of us and love is born in our hearts    Hallelujah.  

Sermon Christmas Day 2015

Our Gospel reading this morning is the wonderful account in the Gospel of Luke of the nativity of our Lord.  It is good to note that it is only one part of the story.   Did you notice what was missing?  It tells us of the visit by the shepherds.  But  we have to turn to the Gospel of Matthew to another part of the story—the part which includes the wise men or Magi coming from the East.  We have turned them into kings in our retelling of the story.  The Gospel of Mark, the earliest account of Jesus’ life doesn’t even have tell us of the events of the birth.  The Gospel of John takes a completely different approach.  It gives us an account which is a retelling of the creation story.  John tells us that Jesus—the Word was with God in the beginning:

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. ²He was in the beginning with God. ³All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being. What has come into being ⁴in him was life, and the life was the light of all people. ⁵The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it.

In essence, John gives us the big picture—the cosmology of the creation.  I like that because I am the type of person who likes the big picture.  I don’t do that well with details as Lorna will tell you.  John does sum up for us that is important fact that with the incarnation the Light came into the world and the darkness did not overcome it; Jesus is the Light of the World.

Whenever I hear that passage—that truth, I am reminded of the hymn that was one of my favourites when I was growing up—Jesus Bid Us Shine:

Jesus bids us shine with a clear, pure light

Like a little candle burning in the night;

In this world of darkness, we must shine,

You in your small corner, and I in mine.

That hymn resonated with me when I was young.  It resonated with me because it affirmed my desire to be in my small safe corner.  I was and am a strong introvert.  I found the world to be in many ways a big, mysterious place that I had trouble figuring out how to be in.  It was much better for me to be in my own small corner where I didn’t have to try to figure out what my role was in the world.  In my small corner I could let my light shine.  However, As I grew older I discovered that in my small corner my light didn’t shine that brightly and I realized I had to come out of my small corner and be in the world. 

Out of my small corner, I discovered that the light of my candle could join with other lights and become a much bigger light that will enlighten the world.  There is a movie made a long time ago—in 1940—that I saw on TV when I was young that illustrates.  

The movie, Young Tom Edison starring Mickey Rooney.  It is, as the title suggests, the story of the life of the young Thomas Edison the inventor.  In one scene Tom’s mother is very ill and needs an operation to save her.  The old country doctor says he can’t operate because there is not enough light in the home (there were no hospitals in the area and the only source of light in the home was oil lamps.  Tom, being the inventive young man he was, realizes he can solve the problem.  He breaks into the general store and steals a full length mirror.  He sets it up in the dining room and places all the oil lamps in front of it.  The mirror focuses the disparate light from all the lamps and reflects one brilliant light onto the table where the doctor is able to operate on his mother.  Of course she is saved and little Mickey—sorry Tom— is the hero. 

I don’t know if this story is a true event in the life of Thomas Edison but it contains the capital t Truth just as the nativity stories of Matthew and Luke and John contain the Truth of Jesus Christ.  Jesus Christ is the light of the world.  We each can light our little candles in our small corners.  However, if we come together as the Church, the body of Christ our lights will join together and be reflected through the mirror of Jesus Christ.  That light will be the light of Christ and will enlighten the world. 

As it says in the Gospel of Matthew, “You are the light of the world. A city built on a hill cannot be hid”.  Let us be the light of the world and let our lights so shine that the world knows that Jesus Christ, the Light of the World is born today.  Hallelujah.  

Sermon December 13, 2015 Advent 3

Today we light the Advent candle for Joy.  To me, Joy is a bit of an enigma.  When I think about it I am not sure what it actually is.  It is different from happiness but how is it different?  I did what I often do now when I have a question about meaning—I turned to that source of all knowledge—Google.  I found a website with a great number of images of joy. 

There were many different images—many different ideas and depictions of joy.  There were people jumping—this would be jumping for joy as the saying goes.  There were others who were in nature smelling the flowers; embracing nature and sunshine; there were a number of people with big smiles on their faces including one of a little baby (I especially like that one), the iconic one of Charlie Brown and Snoopy dancing their dance of joy; there were also phases such as choose joy, find joy on your journey, joy is the best makeup, awakening joy, there were even a couple of religious ones such as ‘joy comes from trusting God’, and ‘joy to the world the Lord is come’.  There were also a few surprizing ones such as one with a young woman pointing a very big gun (It’s not clear what she was aiming at) and a couple with very scantily clothed buxom young women. 

One particularly interesting one pictured a man jumping up exuberantly with the question “happiness or joy?”  What can we make of all this joy or at least these depictions of joy?  There seems to be a common thread running through many of the images.  Many were smiling with great big smiles; many more were jumping with outstretch arms; many were embracing nature exuberantly.  I’m not sure about the young scantily clothed women—perhaps they were all named Joy.  However, I think the common thread running through many, if not most, of the images was a sense of losing oneself, of reacting without constrain, of embracing life to the fullest.  There was also an underlying theme in a few of them that joy was a choice i.e. chose joy. 

It is perhaps not surprizing in today’s culture that there were so few that had a religious connecting or implication.  Here we are celebrating the anticipation of joy that was and will be born again on Christmas morning:

Joy to the World , the Lord is come!
Let earth receive her King;
Let every heart prepare Him room,
And Heaven and nature sing,

This is the wonderful news that is proclaimed by the angels to the shepherds.  Why then is there so little association of Christianity with joy?  Shouldn’t Christians be living out the joy that was experienced with the sight of that small beautiful baby in the stable in Bethlehem?  Shouldn’t we be embracing the knowledge that Jesus Christ the only begotten son of God was born to us and walked among us and brought us salvation and embracing life to the fullest, joyfully? Unfortunately many Christians don’t seem to have gotten that message and the implications of that message.  Many Christians act as if there was no good news.  I guess they don’t understand what “Gospel” means.  Gospel is the Good News of Jesus Christ among us and with us.  As that one image said, “joy comes from trusting God.”   During the rest of Advent I invite you to embrace life as fully as possible.  I invite you to reflect on the joy of Jesus Christ in your life and respond in some small or some big ways.  Perhaps it is helping out the refugees we are sponsoring.  Perhaps it is serving at a community dinner at St. Paul’s.  Perhaps it is even wishing people a Merry Christmas and smiling at stranger.  Or perhaps if Christmas is not a joyful time for you because of its association with sad events and memories or loss, I invite you to participate with the Blue Christmas service at the U. C. in Grand Bend on next Sunday at 4:00 and know the comfort that Jesus can bring to people.  That too is an aspect of joy—the knowledge that Jesus Christ is with us in our sorrow as well as our joy.  We have tidings of comfort and joy.  That too is a part of the wonders of his love. 

Joy to the World, the Lord is come!
Let earth receive her King;
Let every heart prepare Him room,
And Heaven and nature sing,

Amen