Tag Archives: Faith

Sermons and Preaching

The Pants

Read to start Genesis 1:1, 2:7-9, 2:15-17.

Who here is familiar with McDonald’s? You’ve probably heard of it. Aka the Golden Arches, Scrawny Ronny’s, Mickey Ds, there’s probably a few other names there as well. Yes, I’m talking about the clown-themed restaurant that serves good coffee and marginally edible burgers, I’m pretty sure it’s the best known fast food chain on the planet. I’m not looking for a show of hands, I’m going to guess that most people have been there at least once or twice.

If you remember, or if you don’t, take a look next time you go, you will notice on the door a sign indicating some rules and requirements. It’s mostly pictures, and you might have to look closely to interpret it. You are not allowed to bring pets into the restaurant. And likewise, you are required to have a shirt and footwear. If you’re coming back from the beach with your dog and you aren’t wearing shoes, then you’re out of luck if you want a Big Mac, unless you use the drive through.

You see this sort of sign at lots of public places. The most obvious and in-your-face example would be a sign that says No Shirt, No Shoes, No Service. There’s not much way to misunderstand that. In general though, it’s a pretty much understood rule that when you go to a restaurant or a store that you are not going in barefoot or in your swimsuit. That’s part of living in a civilized society, or a society with some health department regulations at least.

One thing that you do not see on these signs, though, is any mention of pants. And when I say pants, I’m meaning that as a blanket category, clothing that covers from your waist and goes in the direction of your ankles. Whether you call them slacks, or jeans, or trousers, and I’m including shorts, and skirts, and dresses, and even leggings. It’s simply far easier to just call them pants.

Now that we have that clear, we don’t need to be told that we have to wear pants to go a restaurant or a store. No one posts a sign that says “You can’t come in here in your swim suit or your tighty whiteys.” No one needs to post a sign that says that, because it’s understood. It’s a basic assumption that people do not visit public places without their pants. You don’t need to announce it. If someone goes out and about with no pants, it better be a toddler, or there’s going to be a call to the authorities.

I mention specifically about toddlers because we are not born intrinsically knowing that we should wear pants. We know how to breathe, how to cry, how to swallow, those things we don’t need to be taught how to do. But pants? Those we all receive instruction on at a very young age. Our parents put pants on us when we were very little, and they told us that we had to wear them, even when we didn’t want to because it was hot or humid or we just didn’t want to wear pants. And so we do. We all know this, we’ve all spent years wearing pants, and so it’s not a surprise to anyone.

There is a principle to take from this, describing something as “the pants” meaning that it is a basic, understood, essential item. For example, we wash when we are dirty. We do not use violence toward others in our words or our actions. These are things that are not negotiable, not open to discussion or reinterpretation.

I’ve used the term with my children enough times that they now will use that as well. The other day I heard one of them describing something as “the pants,” I believe in the context of regular showering or something hygiene related.

These are basic things that we all know, or that we really should know. We assume that other people know them, unless they are babies or mentally incapable. If they don’t, then that is a good indication that something is wrong.

But sometimes what is wrong is what we have assumed. People from other cultures, with different backgrounds and different experiences may have very different understanding of what is normal and acceptable and assumed. They may have completely different pants. 

We are a church, a local group of believers who are part of the church universal. We profess the name of Christ, and we call ourselves His followers. I look at the people here and I feel it is safe to say that this is true of most, if not all of you. We are Christians, and there are certain basic of that which we all should understand. These are core principles that are not up for debate or discussion. At some point we all have been told these, and so we know them. Or at least we should. It’s not always safe to assume.

Sometimes we take for granted that these things are know because we know them, but we did not always know them. Our children may not know them. People we encounter on the street may not know them. In fact, I would suggest that every time you interact with the general public, you are interacting with people who do not know or believe these basic principles.

So what are these basics of the Christian faith? You’re probably wondering when I’m going to tell you what they are. I did some looking up what other people have said and taught about this, and there’s a lot of good stuff out there, but what I’m really concerned with is the low-level essentials. These are four things that don’t demand detailed understanding, complex doctrine, or even adult intelligence in order to be useful. Now, there is certainly a lot of nuance packed into each of these, and frankly, you could preach a separate sermon on any or all of these, I’m fairly certain that I have done so on at least some of them in the past, and you’ve probably heard them all preached about in the past. I’m not going to go into great detail, this would be a much longer sermon and you’d all be pretty upset if I kept you here past 9:00 going over things you already know. Because as I mentioned, this is not new material. This is the raw basic stuff. This is not everything. But this is the pants.

I’ll go through them in order, and each one is directly taken from scripture. First, and the verses I read to start should clue you in on this one, God created the world, all the living and natural things that are in it, and therefore He gets to make the rules.

This is the most simple and plain thing that there could possibly be, but so many people have so much trouble with it. People do not want to accept that God made the world, and so they come up with every contrived and convoluted fable they possibly can to avoid this. Every time you hear a news story about some new discovery about the origin of the universe, every time you see a headline about fossils that are hundreds of millions of years old, every time that every time you hear that right is wrong and wrong is right, that’s coming from someone who is denying that God made the world and that He gets to make the rules.

I’m not here to convince you of this truth. There is plenty of evidence, the obvious design we see in the life, the universe, everything, in how it all functions and continues and does not immediately fall into disorder. It requires far more faith to believe that everything came from nothing, that life came from non-life by random chance, contrary to everything we know about biology, chemistry, and thermodynamics.

It’s up to you whether you want to believe the truth or reject it in favour of something else. But if you call yourself a Christian, if you want to be a follower of Christ, genuine follower, in both word and deed, then you have no choice but to believe what He said and what He taught. It is clear that Christ had no questions about the creation of world and how it took place, and that He accepted His Father’s authority fully and completely. That is what is required of a believer.

If you believe that God made the world and that He makes the rules, then that requires you to ask yourself three questions. What are these rules, have I kept them, and what’s the consequence if I do not?

In the passage I read to start from Genesis 2, we see one rule that God had given to the man He had created, and we see the penalty – death. That may seem like a harsh penalty for what sounds to us like a relatively minor infraction, but again, God made the world and so He can set the rules. We don’t have to like the rules, that’s not part of the deal. We just have to obey them.

I’m not going to try and give you a complete list of all the rules that God has given us in His word. You probably know a bunch of them already. To see if you measure up, two rules should be sufficient, it’s the two that Christ gave when asked what was the greatest commandment, you can read the account in three of the four gospels, but I’ll read the verse from Luke chapter 10, at verse (27) And he answering said, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind; and thy neighbour as thyself.

Love the Lord your God entirely, and love your neighbour much as you love yourself. Not complicated. But also not easy. And if we are being honest, it’s something that we know we have not done, or not done well enough. We have not reached God’s standard. We have fallen short.

This brings us to the second principle, and I’ll read a few verses from Romans chapter 3 to illustrate the point. Romans 3:19-23 (19) Now we know that what things soever the law saith, it saith to them who are under the law: that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God. (20)  Therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight: for by the law is the knowledge of sin. (21)  But now the righteousness of God without the law is manifested, being witnessed by the law and the prophets; (22)  Even the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe: for there is no difference: (23)  For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God;

The second basic principle is that that we cannot meet God’s standard, and therefore we are all guilty sinners, deserving of punishment, and unable to save ourselves. This is what we find when we look at the law, the rules that God has given. Sure, we can pick and choose and find a few rules that we can keep, but there’s a lot more that we can’t, or that we haven’t. I have never murdered anyone, and I don’t imagine that anyone else here has either. Good for us. Society and the world at large would approve. But that’s our standard, and it’s a fair bit lower than God’s standard. If you asked if I had ever selfishly wanted what someone else has, or ask if I have always honoured my parents, well, that’s going to be a miss. If you ask me if I’ve ever been unreasonably angry, or have I hurt others with my words, or have I been lazy or lustful or lackadaisical, then I definitely don’t measure up.

And you know what, I recognize that I should not do those things, and even the least moral person I know would likely agree with me. My standard is a far step below God’s standard, and still I miss it. If I can’t even be good enough in my own sight, how far short have I come from what my creator requires?

That is what the law reveals to us, that we are insufficient, we are sinful, we are guilty. Once again, people want to pretend that the law is not there, that it does not apply. Truth, morality, right and wrong, those are all subjective and situational, or so the world will tell you. But that is simply not true. The reason that we even have the concept of right and wrong is because a higher power has ordained this to be so. Ignoring the rules does not make them go away, any more than ignoring gravity makes you able to fly. It certainly does nothing about the consequences.

So to summarize what we’ve covered thus far, God has made the world and made the rules. We have all gone afoul of the rules, we are all guilty of death, and we can’t fix ourselves. This is not a happy situation, this is bad news. But now for the good news. Keep your finger in Romans 3, but for now, flip over to John chapter 3.

(14) And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up: (15) That whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life. (16)  For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. (17)  For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved. (18)  He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. (19)  And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. (20)  For every one that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved. (21)  But he that doeth truth cometh to the light, that his deeds may be made manifest, that they are wrought in God.

The third principle is that there is deliverance to be had, there is salvation available through, and only through, the Lord Jesus Christ. Despite the fact that we have completely missed His standard, rather, because we have missed the standard, God the Father sent the Son to be the saviour of the world. So while all have sinned and come short of God’s glory, so all may be saved. Whosoever believes in Him will not perish, that is what we read in John 3:15, as well as in verse 16, which is easily the best known verse in all of scripture. We can’t save ourselves, we can’t pay the price, but God can, and He has. But wait, there’s more. I hope you kept your finger in Romans chapter 3, because I’m going to hop back there and continue from verse 24.

 (24)  Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus: (25) Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God; (26)  To declare, I say, at this time his righteousness: that he might be just, and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus.(27)  Where is boasting then? It is excluded. By what law? of works? Nay: but by the law of faith. (28)  Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law.

We have salvation in Christ Jesus, salvation that we don’t have to earn or pay for, it is freely given. We call it a gift because like any true gift, it costs the recipient nothing. But it cost the giver, it definitely cost Him. He shed His blood to pay the price for our sins, He died so that we might not. That is the price that has been paid, the price that we don’t have to pay. This is the essence of the third principle, the free gift of eternal life through the cross.

As mentioned, there are four basic essentials that I want to talk about today, four items that make up the pants of the Christian faith. I’ll read another familiar passage to set the tone for this fourth one, from James chapter 2.

(14)  What doth it profit, my brethren, though a man say he hath faith, and have not works? can faith save him? (15)  If a brother or sister be naked, and destitute of daily food, (16) And one of you say unto them, Depart in peace, be ye warmed and filled; notwithstanding ye give them not those things which are needful to the body; what doth it profit? (17)  Even so faith, if it hath not works, is dead, being alone. (18)  Yea, a man may say, Thou hast faith, and I have works: shew me thy faith without thy works, and I will shew thee my faith by my works. (19)  Thou believest that there is one God; thou doest well: the devils also believe, and tremble. (20)  But wilt thou know, O vain man, that faith without works is dead?

This fourth principle is most plainly stated as follows: Faith must have evidence. It’s easy to say that you have faith, that you believe in Christ, or that you believe this or that, but it’s easy to say a lot of things. The old saying goes that talk is cheap, because it is.

The verses from James explain this quite clearly. If someone lacks necessary things, if they have inadequate food and clothing, and you wish them well, you have done nothing to help them. You are not acting as Christ acted, He cared for the people around Him, He felt their pain and relieved their suffering. No, we are not given the power to go about healing lepers and restoring sight to the blind, but we do have the ability to help others on some level, however small it might be. Can we fix all the problems we see around us? No, obviously not. But if we don’t do anything to help anyone, then how exactly are we followers of Christ?

We often see this expressed as “thoughts and prayers” sentiments. Something bad happens, or someone is in crisis, and people say “our thoughts and prayers are with you.” Don’t get me wrong, thoughts are fine, and prayers are always advisable, and if it’s a disaster halfway around the world then maybe there’s not a lot else that we can offer. But if this is closer to home, if there is something more we can do, then we should do it, or offer help, or something. We should pray, absolutely we should pray, but if we have an opportunity where we can be an answer to someone else’s prayer, or even a small part of an answer, then we should do that. God often gives us opportunities to serve that we don’t even see coming.

A year or two ago, a teenage boy who one of our children knows happened to be in a situation where he had nowhere to go. I don’t recall all the particulars, but his living arrangements were, shall we say, not ideal. He really didn’t want to impose, but he slept on our couch that night, because he needed somewhere safe and warm, and we could provide that. Was it awkward and uncomfortable and kinda weird? Yes. But it was the right thing to do, and I’m glad that we were able to do it.

I’m not telling this story to boast in any way, but to illustrate that sometimes help can be as simple as a couch to crash on, a warm meal for someone who is going through a difficult time, or offering a couple hours of childcare to someone who really needs a break.

Faith needing evidence can also be expressed as branches should bear fruit. Christ talked about this in a cautionary sense in Matthew 7. In that passage we are told how good trees bring forth good fruit, but you don’t get grapes from a thorn bush. This is the same passage where He warned of false prophets, who at a glance appear to be legitimate. He described them as appearing to look like sheep, but really they are vicious wolves, which is where we get the term wolf in sheep’s clothing.

There’s always evidence of something. Faith will have evidence, and lack of faith also displays evidence. It may not be immediate, obvious evidence, but the evidence is there. No matter what we are on the inside, it will show through eventually. This raises the question, then: If someone does not show any signs of actually behaving as Christ did, then are they actually His follower?

We’ve talked this evening about the pants of the Christian faith, four basic concepts that are absolutely required if someone is going to genuinely follow Christ. I’ll restate them now to be sure this is all completely clear.

God made the world, and therefore He makes the rules and sets the standard. We have fallen far short of His standard, and we can’t possibly get there on our own merit, therefore we are guilty, and the penalty is death. There is salvation, however, paid in full by God’s only begotten Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, and this salvation is freely available to any and all who will put their trust in Him. And if we follow Him, put our faith and trust in Him and His finished work on the cross, then there should be evidence of that. This is the Christian faith summed up in one hundred words.

Now, I was curious so I went and counted, and I have 22 pairs of pants in my closet at home. Well, 21 pairs, I’m wearing a pair right now. It’s a very good thing to have pants. But they are only useful for me if I wear them.

These same four principles, it’s good and fine and frankly, needful to know them. But if you do not apply them, if they do not change your behaviour and your mindset, if they do not have any effect on your life, then they are like pants you leave in the closet and never wear. In James chapter 2, verse 19 that I read a few minutes ago, I’ll read that verse again. (19)  Thou believest that there is one God; thou doest well: the devils also believe, and tremble. Knowing the truth is important, but doing something with it is more important. God has called us to know Him, to follow Him, to be more like His Son, but making the assumption that because we have heard the truth then it must be in our hearts is a dangerous thing to assume. Having knowledge of God up here in your head is well and good. If that does not change you, then it does not save you from your sins.

Sermons and Preaching

Trust but Verify

Read Luke 1:1-4 and 1 Corinthians 15:1-11 to start.

Back before Christmas, when I was preparing for the Christmas Eve service and deciding on readings, I looked up several familiar passages, in particular from Isaiah, and Micah, and of course the second chapters of Matthew and Luke. At the time, I also took a look at the context for the various passages. Some of this context is quite well known, such as the genealogy from Matthew chapter 1. Luke chapter 1 is also well known, it talks about the parentage and birth of John the Baptist and Mary’s angelic visitor. It’s a big chapter, there’s a lot that takes place in it, there’s 80 verses, making it the longest chapter in the New Testament by verse count. I’ve heard multiple different sermons that address various sections of the chapter. But not all of it. The very first part of the chapter, is one that I don’t think I’ve ever heard referenced in a sermon, or devotional, or a Sunday school lesson.

Continue reading Trust but Verify →
Uncategorized

God of the Many / God of the Few

Read Luke 15:1-10 to start.

I’m going to let you all in on the worst kept secret – I like Star Trek. Have liked it since I was a kid watching the repeats of the original series on CBC on Saturday afternoon. I remember it was on right after lunch time. No one else in the house was much into it, but I enjoyed it, cheesy as it was. I liked the movies as well, well, not the first one, it was long and boring, but the later movies were great. There’s a line that comes up a couple of times in the second movie, “The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few. Or the one.” In the context of the movie the line fits with Spock putting himself in danger to save the ship and ultimately dying from radiation poisoning.

In the context of everyday life, this is a reasonable and practical approach to many things. We see this principle play out all the time. Main roads with lots of traffic see the snow plow first. When there is a power outage, the crews will generally try to get the largest groups of people back on first, and then deal with the smaller individual outages. If you are ordering pizza for a group of people, you order what most people like. The guy who wants nothing but pineapple, olives, and anchovies, he’s probably out of luck, because the larger group, the many, they don’t want that, and it’s more reasonable to meet their needs than the needs of someone who has terrible taste in pizza.

Questions of pizza, plows, and power outages might all seem urgent at the time, but when you look at the big picture, none of those is especially important, none are likely to have any lasting significance. Are we ourselves more concerned with the views and opinions of the many, or of the few? Are we concerned with the well-being of the few? Or are we more worried about the approval of the many?

It was very tempting for me to take this sermon in a different direction than I had planned, and to talk about the importance of taking care of the small, the weak, the marginalized, unpopular, the few, even at the expense of incurring the ire of the many. I do think that is a valid topic for another day, because all too often is this world quick to dismiss and discard those who do not fit a preferred mould. For that matter, all too often in the church we are also ready to distance ourselves from those who don’t conform to our views or whose Christian walk might be stumbling and halting at times, or might not measure up. It is something that we all need to watch out for in our own behaviour, our own thoughts and deeds, because we enjoy having the approval of the majority, and at times that may divert us from doing what is right. The parables we read were delivered to a group of people that included the Pharisees who did not approve of how Christ associated with publicans and sinners. Clearly He did not care about the approval of the many.

But this morning, I want to ask a different question. Is God more concerned with the many or the few? Is He the God of the many, or the God of the few? Is He both? Or is He neither? That is what I would like to consider this morning.

It’s easy to find scripture to support either side of this. In the Old Testament we see repeated references to the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. We also see many examples of how God interacted directly with individuals. Some of the most well known Bible characters are people who had a close personal relationship with God, and with whom we see Him communicating. Think of men like Noah, Moses, and Samuel, they walked with God, talked with God, and very specifically did His work. Each of them was called out by the Lord for a particular task, and we even have some specific details of their conversations with Him.

It’s not just prophets and patriarchs that God dealt with personally. In Genesis chapter 16, we read of Hagar, at the time pregnant with the baby who would be Ishmael, how she fled into the wilderness when things went badly for her. We see how God sent an angel to speak with her, instruct her, acknowledge her affliction, as well as give a promise to her about her unborn baby. This is as plain an example of God dealing with someone personally as we will find in scripture, and most notably, someone that we do not have any indication that they knew God at all prior to this event. She even refers to the Lord as “Thou God seeth me” which is an acknowledgement of how God has taken notice of her directly and in a personal and specific way.

God clearly deals with people on an individual basis, and deals with them where they are.

But we can also see God dealing with larger groups of people, often much larger groups, such as individual tribes, or specific family lines, or with entire nations. Israel is the most obvious one, there are myriad promises to the Israelites, some of which are contingent upon their obedience, and some of which are not. Likewise, there are warnings for Israel as a nation, that should they refuse to follow God’s laws, there would be consequences. We can see that unfortunately, that is what happened, Israel fell far short of a passing grade when it came to serving God. They did not keep the Sabbath as they should have, they did not keep the Passover as they should have. They did not follow the seven-year-cycle of harvest and letting the land rest as they should have. Most notably, they did not refrain from worshipping idols, they continually fell into that and became virtually indistinguishable from the surrounding nations, including the very groups that God had told them to remove from the land. As a result, they went into exile as a nation, and never experienced the level of freedom that they had before until 1948.

It’s not only Israel that God deals with as a group. Often there are select groups mentioned in scripture, such as on the day of Pentecost when a vast crowd heard Peter’s sermon, and three thousand believed and were added to the church on that one day. Many of the epistles in the New Testament are directed to entire local churches, with however many people they might consist of.

In the Old Testament, we see prophecies directed to various nations, such as Moab, Ammon, Edom, Assyria, and Egypt. We also see other, more general examples. Psalm 33 has an interesting one, which is both for Israel, but not limited to that nation. Reading at verse (12) Blessed is the nation whose God is the LORD; and the people whom he hath chosen for his own inheritance. (13)  The LORD looketh from heaven; he beholdeth all the sons of men. (14)  From the place of his habitation he looketh upon all the inhabitants of the earth. (15)  He fashioneth their hearts alike; he considereth all their works.

Yes, that does refer to Israel, if not by name, but it also includes the entire world. All the inhabitants of the earth, that phrase is ever so inclusive. That includes me, it includes you, it leaves no one out. Not only does God see us, He has formed us, and He notices our works and deeds, and He considers them. He weighs and evaluates and knows us, we do not get to fly under the radar.

God is the God of the Many, and He is the God of the few.

We see this well illustrated in the passage that we looked at to start this morning. We read a parable from Luke’s gospel, or rather two closely related parables, the parable of the Lost Sheep, and of the Lost Coin. In both cases, someone has a large number of something, whether it be sheep, or coins, depending on the parable, and in both cases, a small percentage of both goes missing. The owner of that which is lost, instead of quickly giving up and abandoning it, instead makes a diligent search. The lost sheep and the lost coin are both recovered, and there is cause for rejoicing in both cases. We see exactly this in both parables, one is almost an echo of the other.

These are well known parables, although perhaps not quite as well known as the one that immediately follows, which is the parable of the Prodigal Son. I didn’t read that one, because it’s long, and it is one of the best known of all the parables. It is of course deserving of an entire sermon. One day I expect to preach that sermon, we’ll see how things unfold and how my perspective develops over the next couple of years.

But for the here and now, these three parables have an interesting progression with numbers and percentages. First we have 100 sheep, and one is lost, which is only one percent. Then we have ten coins, one lost, which is ten percent. Finally we have two sons, one of which for a time became lost. That is of course fifty percent. The relative value of what is lost compared to what is not lost changes dramatically. But in all cases, that which was lost is eventually found.

Is a son more valuable than a coin, or a coin more precious than a sheep? You might think that the answer to the first one is obvious, of course your child is worth far more than some money or an animal. Sadly, there are some parents who do not act as if that is the case, but that is another topic for another day. The point is not who or what is worth more, the point is that there is perceived value, great value, in all of the lost things. It’s not about the monetary value or the cost of replacement, it’s about how precious the lost ones are to those who own them, those who value them.

If I’m driving out in the country, a random sheep lost on the side of the road is not particularly worrisome for me, and it’s probably not for you either. I’ve not seen stray sheep out and about, but I have seen stray cows on more than one occasion, and I haven’t exactly gotten worked up about it. Presumably sheep get out of their pastures and get lost from time to time as well. For most of us, that’s not the end of the world. But I don’t own that lost sheep, or for that matter, any sheep. To whoever owns that sheep, though, a lost sheep is a big deal, a very big deal. That animal is precious to them, and they would very much like to find it, to recover it.

It’s also not about how many there are, how many are lost compared to how many are not. When you have 99 sheep remaining, one missing animal may seem insignificant, not worth the effort to find it. But it’s worth the effort when you care about that sheep, when you care about each of your sheep. You make that effort when you value something, or someone.

You know who else appreciates that effort? The lonely lost sheep.

As mentioned, I don’t own sheep, or any livestock for that matter. And while I don’t ever expect to own sheep, I do own a cat. Well, technically, there’s a cat that lives in our house and we supply it with food and treats, and we clean up its poop. So far as the cat is concerned, we don’t own him, we’re more like his cooks, janitor, and butler. Our cat is an indoor cat, because he does not need to be outside murdering birds, avoiding cars, and making friends with skunks and raccoons. However, he has on far too many occasions made excursions to the great outdoors, usually because someone didn’t notice him slip out when they were coming in the door. When he gets outside, sometimes he gets scared and comes back in a few minutes, but there then are other times when he does not. When that happens, we go and find him, we chase him down, we lure him in with treats, we wait for him to come out from under the deck or down from one of the maple trees –– it’s always a maple, he must be a patriotic cat – because it’s not safe for him to be on his own outside. I don’t even like the cat all that much, but the rest of the family does, and therefore he’s precious enough to us to go and rescue him when he gets himself into trouble.

If my cat is precious to me, how precious must we be to our Creator? Like my cat, and like the sheep in the parable, we are entirely too dumb and frequently we make ill-advised choices and get into trouble. We get ourselves away from God, away from safety. Maybe we realize quickly that we have lost our way and are far from home, and maybe we don’t, but God is there for us once we are ready to turn to Him for help.

God sent His only begotten Son to pay the price for our sins in order that we might have the salvation we need. If we were not precious to Him, He would not have done that. We have the Lord’s Supper every Sunday morning to commemorate this, to recognize that Christ suffered and died for us, because we were lost and needed to be found. Yes, He asked His followers to remember Him in this way, and so we do, but we also do so because of how significant His sacrifice was, how greatly He suffered, and how complete is the salvation that we have gained from His work. If we trust in Christ to save us, then the benefit we enjoy is beyond measure, and that benefit only exists because we are precious to Him.

We are not precious to Him because we are good, or we are righteous, or well behaved, or skilled, or particularly brilliant and wonderful. We are precious to Him because He made us, we are His creation, and He values us more than we can ever truly comprehend. And because of this, He made a way that we could be with Him, a way to resolve the divide that is caused by sin.

Christ said that He came to seek and to save the lost, we can read that if we flip over a few pages to Luke chapter 19. And who are the lost? While He came first to Israel, to His chosen people, this invitation is extended to one and all. All have sinned and come short of the glory of God. All we are have gone astray. We are all lost sheep. God is the God of any who will accept Him.

The shepherd in the first parable, is he the shepherd of that one lost sheep, or of all the sheep? The immediate answer is to say both. The parable pays the most attention to the lost sheep, but no doubt when that shepherd was not out recovering the missing animal, he was caring for the other 99. Or more accurately, most of the time he was caring for all 100.

And likewise the woman with her coins, all ten of them were precious to her. The one that was lost had her attention at the moment, because it was not with the others, and its fate was uncertain, but it was not more or less important than the others. She owned all ten of them. She valued them all.

Both people in those parables, they went out and looked for the lost. They went to find what was missing, and in the case of the shepherd, went quite a distance out in the wilderness, and carried it back.

God does that with us as well, He meets us where we are. This can be out in the wilderness, hopeless and alone, or it can be right where we have been all along, not even seeing that we need Him. But alone or in a crowd, God sees us and knows us and cares for us.

I’ll ask you to turn to Acts chapter 8 to see how God meets people where they are, no matter how large or small a group they might be in. This takes place in the early days of the church, shortly after persecution has started at Jerusalem, and believers have started dispersing out to the surrounding areas. Reading at verse (5) Then Philip went down to the city of Samaria, and preached Christ unto them. (6)  And the people with one accord gave heed unto those things which Philip spake, hearing and seeing the miracles which he did. (7)  For unclean spirits, crying with loud voice, came out of many that were possessed with them: and many taken with palsies, and that were lame, were healed. (8)  And there was great joy in that city.

Samaria is a bit of a distance from Jerusalem, about 70 kilometres or so. It’s a fair hike when you are on foot, which Philip almost certainly was. But instead of running and hiding and staying quiet to avoid potential persecution following him to Samaria, Philip instead shared the good news of salvation to the Samaritans, who he probably didn’t particularly like, as there was a long standing animosity between the Jews and the Samaritans, which we won’t get into at this time. God used Philip to reach this group of people, probably a fairly large group, because they clearly needed to be reached. They had illnesses, they had injuries, they had demonic oppression, and they did not have the gospel. God sent Philip to be His minister to the Samaritans, and it says that they listened. It says they were healed, and that there was great joy. We don’t have specific numbers of how many believed, but it was certainly in the hundreds at minimum, and probably in the thousands. What a blessing to those people who had been on the outside looking in when it came to being part of God’s people prior to this point!

We saw how God was the God of the many, how the city of Samaria was reached and was blessed, and how many were added to the church. We see a different example if we look further down the chapter, to verse (26)  And the angel of the Lord spake unto Philip, saying, Arise, and go toward the south unto the way that goeth down from Jerusalem unto Gaza, which is desert. (27)  And he arose and went: and, behold, a man of Ethiopia, an eunuch of great authority under Candace queen of the Ethiopians, who had the charge of all her treasure, and had come to Jerusalem for to worship, (28)  Was returning, and sitting in his chariot read Esaias the prophet. (29)  Then the Spirit said unto Philip, Go near, and join thyself to this chariot. (30)  And Philip ran thither to him, and heard him read the prophet Esaias, and said, Understandest thou what thou readest? (31)  And he said, How can I, except some man should guide me? And he desired Philip that he would come up and sit with him.

I could read the rest of the passage, but it is familiar to most, and I’ll simply sum it up instead. The Ethiopian heard the gospel from Philip, who explained how the Old Testament prophecies applied to Christ, and how this was relevant and important, and the Ethiopian believed and was baptised almost immediately. This man, this one man, was added to the church universal on that day, out in the wilderness, in isolation from other believers, from anyone else apart from maybe his chariot driver. No large group, no others, just him. God found him where he was, when he needed help, when he needed answers. God saw him, and saved him, because God pays attention to those who seek Him, those who need Him.

At times we might feel that we are part of a larger group, and that we relate to God as part of that group. We worship as a group, we pray as a group, we sing as a group. This morning, right now, I’m speaking to you all as a group, not sitting down with you one by one to share with you directly, as Philip did with that Ethiopian in the wilderness.

If we have believed and trusted in Him, then we have been added to the church so that we will be part of a group, part of His building, so that we will be better equipped to serve Him, and better supported in this life, so that we will be part of something much larger than ourselves. He is the God of the many, and we are part of the many.

But at times we may not feel that we are really a proper part of the many. We may feel that we do not fit in, that we are not seen, that we are all on our own. I won’t have you turn there, but we could see many examples in the Psalms of how David found himself all alone, or at least feeling that he was alone, and that there was none to help. We also could look at Elijah, who fled into the wilderness and cried out to the Lord that he was the only one left who actually followed, who actually believed.

For both of them, God met them where they were, and reassured them that He had not forgotten them, not left them, and that they were not alone. They needed to be reminded of God’s goodness, His grace, and His presence, both in their lives and in the grand scheme of things. Sometimes, quite often I think, we need that reminder as well. We need that attention.

In the parable of the Prodigal Son, the father loved both of his sons, he valued both of them. The one who went off, who went astray, he gets the lion’s share of attention in the parable, because he got into trouble, trouble of his own making, mind you. He needed help. He required attention.

Sometimes we need a lot of attention, and sometimes we do not. Some people need more attention and more help, and some do not. That is how this life goes. That has nothing to do with how much God loves us. His love and His grace are sufficient for us, in whatever measure we may need, and when we need it.

God is the God of the many, it is true. We are part of the many, whether we feel it or not, and whether we like it or not. But God is also the God of the few, and the God of the one. He meets us where we are, He deals with us where we are, because He values us every bit as much as that shepherd in the parable valued the lone lost sheep. He seeks us as the woman looks for her lost coin. He loves us as much as the father loved his runaway son.

Sermons and Preaching

Work in Progress

Read 1 Corinthians 3:1-10 to start.

In 1885, Sarah Winchester moved to San Francisco, California. She had been widowed a few years previous, and her husband had left her a considerable fortune, including a number of shares in his company, the Winchester Repeating Arms Company, best known for making Winchester rifles. This allowed her to buy a nice piece of property, a 45 acre ranch, in nearby San Jose. The ranch had an eight-room, two story farmhouse. Having plenty of budget and an interest in architecture, she decided to renovate. And renovate she did. But her plans kept changing. She hired architects and fired them, she took advice from various carpenters, and eventually took over the project lead herself. The house existed for years in a state of flux, constantly under construction. It grew and grew, and alternated between different styles of architecture, from Victorian to Gothic and Romanesque. After the 1906 earthquake a considerable part of the house was destroyed, including a 7 story tall tower. Some of it was rebuilt, some was not, and construction continued until her death in 1922.

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Sermons and Preaching

Five Questions

Read Matthew 2: 1-15 to start

Let’s talk for a minute about the news. And I’m talking about real news, not the fake news which has become so often discussed in recent years, and ranges from satire, to intentional slander, to any news that someone in authority doesn’t like, regardless of how real it might be. In the reporting of actual news, a journalist will almost always attempt to answer five basic questions. You’ve no doubt heard these before, they all happen to start with the letter W – Who, What, When, Where, and Why, and generally in that order.

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Sermons and Preaching

But If Not…

Read Daniel 3:12-18 to start.

I imagine the account of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego is a familiar one for most of us. King Nebuchadnezzar commissioned a great golden image and had all his officials bow down and worship it in a show of obedience and loyalty. The three aforementioned Hebrews, unwilling to bow down to an idol in direct defiance of God’s laws, declined to do so, and there were repercussions. They were hauled in front of the king and asked to explain themselves, and were given a second chance to comply. They still declined.

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Sermons and Preaching

Know Where Your Wheels Are

Read Mark 7:1-9 to start.

There’s a TV show I watch sometimes called Canada’s Worst Driver. If you are not familiar with it, the premise is that a small group of really terrible motorists are nominated for the ignominious title of Canada’s Worst Driver, and they are put through a series of challenges to see which of them really is the worst. There is a strong education aspect to the show where the bad motorists are taught how to be better drivers, how to be safer on the roads, and most of them learn a lot and they leave in much better shape then when they arrived. There are two phrases that are used again and again on this show. One of these I actually referenced in a sermon back in 2016, and that is look where you want to go. Those six words are an excellent description of how you should live the Christian life, because if we wish to follow Christ, to be like Him, then we’d best to looking at Him, and the example that He gave, or we’re going to fall far short of the mark. If we are not looking to the author and finisher of our faith then we are going to have a hard time emulating Him.

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Sermons and Preaching

Back to the Garden

Read portions of Genesis 2:7-3:24 to start.

In 1969, there was a large music festival held near the town of Bethel, New York. This was of course the Woodstock festival, which was the biggest music festival that had ever happened up to that point, and remains easily the most famous gathering of that type in history. Dozens of musicians and hundreds of thousands of people attended, and it is considered a watershed moment of an entire generation.

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Sermons and Preaching

Blinded by Science

Read John 3 11-12 to start. 11 Verily, verily, I say unto thee, We speak that we do know, and testify that we have seen; and ye receive not our witness.12 If I have told you earthly things, and ye believe not, how shall ye believe, if I tell you of heavenly things? Then open in prayer.

There is an idea today that faith and science are incompatible, that if you would follow Christ, then you cannot study science, not with any serious effort, at least. And likewise, if you are well educated and scientifically minded, then you cannot possibly believe in something so unscientific as Christianity. This is a commonly held idea today, and frequently one that is supported by those on either side of the science/faith divide. They look at us as being ignorant and backward, and say that if you have science, you don’t need faith. We look at them as cold and deluded, and say that if you have faith, then science doesn’t matter.

On which side of this divide do you fall? Faith or science, which will it be? Have you picked a side? If you have indeed chosen a side, I have bad news for you. You’re wrong. The side you have chosen is wrong.

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Sermons and Preaching

Expectation and Disruption

When I drive to work in the morning, I almost always take a travel mug of cold water with me. Not that I necessarily get so thirsty on the drive that a drink is going to be required, but it’s good to stay hydrated. Depending on how thirsty I am, maybe I don’t even take a sip on the way to work, or maybe the mug is half done by the time I get there.

Because I’m generally in a bit of a hurry to get out the door, most mornings my lovely wife fills the cup with cold water and puts in a couple of ice cubes to keep it cold. She’s been doing this for me for years, from when we lived in town but I drove out to Panmure Island every day, that’s a longer commute and I would often get thirsty. I appreciate her efforts, and because she has done this for me, I’m used having that cup of cold water on the drive in. I expect to have it.

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