Wednesday, November 7
Today was a long day of driving and sight seeing fro Petra to Amman in Jordan. After leaving Petra the itinerary said we were supposed to go to Kerak to a crusader castle there. Our guide took us, instead, to another crusader castle called Shobak, or Shawback. He said Kerak would be overrun with tourists, plus it’s situated in the middle of a town, whereas Shobak is perched atop a hill called Montréal (yes that’s right) sort of in the middle of nowhere. Much of this castle is in ruin but is being restored by archaeologists. A good bit was still standing. These castles were a line of castles built by the crusaders in the 1100s to guard the road from Egypt to Damascus. There are Arabic inscriptions on some of the stones dating to the 14th century restoration by the Mamelukes but when the Turks rebuilt it later they got the stones rearranged in the wrong order so it doesn’t really say anything now. It was quite impressive and the view all around was incredible.
From there we headed north to Madaba. On the way we had to cross Wadi al-Mujib which was called Arnon in the Old Testament. It is a huge and deep valley where we had to drive back and forth on switch back, hairpin turns down and back up the other side. At the bottom is a dam creating a lake for irrigation and for water supply to Amman.
At Madaba there are the remains of a huge mosaic map on the floor of a church depicting the Holy Land from Lebanon to Egypt dating back to the reign of Emperor Justinian (527-565 AD).
From there we went to Mount Nebo where Moses is said to have looked over the promised land but could not enter it. The view wasn’t too good because it was very cloudy and misty. You could see the Dead Sea 1,000m below. There’s a church up there with some ruins, a monument erected for a visit by Pope John Paul II.
On the way back from Mount Nebo as we headed to Amman we stopped at a studio and store where handicapped/disabled/differently-abled people make mosaics. They are really beautiful and I would have loved to buy one but they were too expensive for me.
We got to Amman just around dusk. It’s a city of 2 million. Our hotel is, again, gorgeous, maybe the fanciest we’ve been in. As in Aqaba we had to have our carrying luggage x-rayed and as at every hotel we had to walk through a metal detector. I don’t know what it is about me but I’m the only one who had to open my backpack at the Israeli border on Sunday and the only one they had to check with a wand after walking through the metal detector even though everyone made it beep. Maybe it’s my beard.
Tomorrow Israel.
Thursday, November 8
This morning we drove from Amman to Bethany-beyond-the-Jordan where tradition says John the Baptist baptized and where Jesus was baptized. It was neat to be there. It’s not a huge river, more like a large creek. We got to put our hands in the water and we had a Re-Affirmation of Baptism service. While we were walking down and putting our hands in the river a soldier with a rifle over his shoulder was keeping an eye on us.
While we were having our service just up the bank from the river, a mother and her daughter went down to the (muddy) water to be baptized by their pastor. Later when we were driving in Israel where the Jordan River comes out of the Sea of Galilee we saw hundreds of people lined up going down to the river, all dressed in white robes, to be baptized. (Later we saw that Benny Hinn Ministries had a huge tour in the Holy Land with lots of buses and after I came home I was flipping channels and saw Benny and a crowd of people at the Jordan River so we just might have seen him baptizing all those people).
On our way from Amman down to the Jordan I realized I had left the tube with the papyrus I bought back at our hotel. I went and told Mohammed, our guide, and he called the hotel and arranged for someone to drive it down to us so when we left the river and headed north to the border crossing we picked it up along the way.
When we came through Israeli customs I was the only one in the group to have my bags x-rayed and opened and searched. The rest of our tour were waiting for me and laughing at me. When one of the inspectors saw my Keffiyeh in my suitcase he asked where I got it, why, for who, and how much I paid. When I told him at Petra, as a souvenir, for myself, and $20 he nearly laughed. The people from our tour who heard started to laugh and he said "they should laugh."
Finally we were on our way. We’re on a smaller bus. It doesn’t have as many empty seats for us to spread out in back. We drove to Bet-Shean, one of the cities of the Decapolis at the time of Jesus. It also figures in the story of King Saul and Jonathan and their deaths in battle.
We were a little early actually so we got something in that was scheduled for another day. We went to the Mount of Beatitudes where Jesus may have given the Sermon on the Mount. There is a pretty nice church up there financed by Mussolini. There are windows, stained glass windows, with each of the Beatitudes written in Latin around the top of the church just below the dome. You can look down on the Sea of Galilee from there as well.
We came to our hotel which is quite a step down from the places we’ve been staying so far. Supper was disappointing. I did a bit of laundry again sine we’re here two nights. Our guide is a Palestinian Christian and gives us mini-sermons wherever we stop. It could get tiresome if he’s too over-the-top for our entire tour of Israel. We were spoiled by our first guide in Egypt, Reham, who was great. In Jordan, Mohammed really knew his stuff and was a good guy but didn’t have the personality of Reham. Time will tell how I like Samir for our tour of Israel.
Thursday, November 29, 2007
Wednesday, November 28, 2007
Days 7 and 8
Monday, November 5
We had a relaxing morning and left Aqaba after 11 a.m. We drove about an hour to Wadi Rum. T.E. Lawrence and his Arab allies had their home base there. It seems a harsh place. We arrived at a camp from where we loaded into Land Cruiser trucks. Most sat on benches on the backs of the pick-ups. The one I rode in had a back seat so I rode inside. We drove through the desert. It was a breathtaking landscape with flat stretches of where sometimes we were driving on soft sand and other times on hard rock-like surface. And then here and there, all over the place, sheer rocky mountains would rise from the desert floor.
From there we drove about 2 hours to Petra. Not the ancient city of Petra but to a hotel in the newer town of Petra. Along the way we periodically saw Bedouin tents. It’s almost hard to believe that people are still living in tents, still living a nomadic lifestyle. I don’t know why but I automatically assumed that people in the modern world would be settled down somewhere in a permanent home.
We’re spending two nights at this hotel so it gave me a chance to do some hand-washing and let it hang to be dry before we move on. The pool at this hotel isn’t heated so I didn’t go swimming today.
Tuesday, November 6
Today we went to Petra. That’s an incredible place. It’s hidden in a canyon and valley. It was the capital of the Nabbatean people who were there from the 3rd century BC to 106 AD when the Romans took over. To get there you have to walk down through a deep canyon called a "Siq" which opens at the end to a building carved into the rock called the "Treasury." This is the place you see in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade where he goes inside to get the Holy Grail ("This is the cup of a carpenter"). It’s called the Treasury but it was really a temple and tomb. The whole canyon as you continue past the treasury has numerous tombs carved into the rock walls. There’s also a huge Roman theatre carved into the canyon wall. It’s really beautiful. It’s mostly reddish-pinkish coloured sandstone. There is so much to see there and too much to describe and the pictures I took don’t do it justice.
Apparently Bedouins used to live in the caves and former tombs of Petra until 1980 when the government forcibly removed them to a modern village just outside the valley. They still come every day to set up their stalls and coffee shops and sell all kinds of things. They also lead people in and out of the canyon on horses, donkeys, camels, and horse drawn buggies.
It was quite hot (30 or 31 deg. C) today but I used sunscreen and wore my hat, but we had to do a lot of walking and the heat, which isn’t a humid heat, still really tires you out. Coming out of the "Siq" you can take a horse for the last 900m to the bus parking area. I rode the horse because it was all uphill and I was beat.
Back at the hotel some of us met on the terrace to watch the sunset behind the mountains. It was very nice but once the sun was gone it became quite cool. After sitting outside in shorts and a t-shirt and freezing I put on jeans and a sweatshirt before going down for supper.
Doug led evening prayer in the hotel theatre for us after which they were showing the Indiana Jones movie. Something I forgot to mention, on a nearby mountaintop that we passed on the way down to Petra there is a shrine commemorating where Aaron, the brother of Moses, is said to have been buried. Our guide Mohammed said it’s called Mount Hor but my guide book says Jabel Haroun.
We had a relaxing morning and left Aqaba after 11 a.m. We drove about an hour to Wadi Rum. T.E. Lawrence and his Arab allies had their home base there. It seems a harsh place. We arrived at a camp from where we loaded into Land Cruiser trucks. Most sat on benches on the backs of the pick-ups. The one I rode in had a back seat so I rode inside. We drove through the desert. It was a breathtaking landscape with flat stretches of where sometimes we were driving on soft sand and other times on hard rock-like surface. And then here and there, all over the place, sheer rocky mountains would rise from the desert floor.
From there we drove about 2 hours to Petra. Not the ancient city of Petra but to a hotel in the newer town of Petra. Along the way we periodically saw Bedouin tents. It’s almost hard to believe that people are still living in tents, still living a nomadic lifestyle. I don’t know why but I automatically assumed that people in the modern world would be settled down somewhere in a permanent home.
We’re spending two nights at this hotel so it gave me a chance to do some hand-washing and let it hang to be dry before we move on. The pool at this hotel isn’t heated so I didn’t go swimming today.
Tuesday, November 6
Today we went to Petra. That’s an incredible place. It’s hidden in a canyon and valley. It was the capital of the Nabbatean people who were there from the 3rd century BC to 106 AD when the Romans took over. To get there you have to walk down through a deep canyon called a "Siq" which opens at the end to a building carved into the rock called the "Treasury." This is the place you see in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade where he goes inside to get the Holy Grail ("This is the cup of a carpenter"). It’s called the Treasury but it was really a temple and tomb. The whole canyon as you continue past the treasury has numerous tombs carved into the rock walls. There’s also a huge Roman theatre carved into the canyon wall. It’s really beautiful. It’s mostly reddish-pinkish coloured sandstone. There is so much to see there and too much to describe and the pictures I took don’t do it justice.
Apparently Bedouins used to live in the caves and former tombs of Petra until 1980 when the government forcibly removed them to a modern village just outside the valley. They still come every day to set up their stalls and coffee shops and sell all kinds of things. They also lead people in and out of the canyon on horses, donkeys, camels, and horse drawn buggies.
It was quite hot (30 or 31 deg. C) today but I used sunscreen and wore my hat, but we had to do a lot of walking and the heat, which isn’t a humid heat, still really tires you out. Coming out of the "Siq" you can take a horse for the last 900m to the bus parking area. I rode the horse because it was all uphill and I was beat.
Back at the hotel some of us met on the terrace to watch the sunset behind the mountains. It was very nice but once the sun was gone it became quite cool. After sitting outside in shorts and a t-shirt and freezing I put on jeans and a sweatshirt before going down for supper.
Doug led evening prayer in the hotel theatre for us after which they were showing the Indiana Jones movie. Something I forgot to mention, on a nearby mountaintop that we passed on the way down to Petra there is a shrine commemorating where Aaron, the brother of Moses, is said to have been buried. Our guide Mohammed said it’s called Mount Hor but my guide book says Jabel Haroun.
Tuesday, November 27, 2007
Who'd have thunk?
I'm a proud Canadian but I don't hide my German roots. I'm not much of a drinker either. These quizzes are crap sometimes. I do like to watch Ballykissangel though.
| Your Inner European is Irish! |
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Days 5 and 6
Saturday, November 3
Talk about a looooonnnng day. Last night we turned the lights out at 9:45 and someone was coming to wake me at midnight to start climbing Mount Sinai. Well I couldn’t sleep. Partly because of excitement about what we were about to do, partly from cats fighting outside our room, and a whole lot because of all the mosquitoes. I think I might have slept from 10:45 to 11:15. After the knock on the door at 12:00 I brushed my teeth and got dressed. I dressed as warmly as I could: jeans, t-shirt, sweat-shirt, golf jacket. But I had my doubts about how cold it would be. We met in the courtyard of the monastery guest house and it wasn’t really that cold.
Around 12:30 we started walking. Just a little ways outside the monastery the Bedouins were waiting with their camels. 10 from our group were going up on camels and 3 of us, the three youngest, were walking all the way. I figured "Moses did it, so will I." If I ever get there again I’m taking a camel.
We had a Bedouin guide lead us. I could never remember his name and had to keep asking what it was. He and Ahmed, one of our tour guides, said we should just call him Suleiman (Arabic for Solomon). He led us up the mountain. It took us about 2 hours to walk up to the base of the 750 rugged stone steps. The ones on camels did it in about 1½ hours. My thighs were already sore from climbing inside the great pyramid two days earlier. They were burning and aching by the time we reached the rest of the group. Along the way up the mountain path you periodically come across some crude shacks built of stone where Bedouins sell coffee, tea, pop, water, chocolate bars, flash lights etc. There was also a Bedouin following us for a long while with his camel trying to get one of us to ride up. All along the way, up and down the mountain, there were Bedouins with their camels offering rides. "Camel? Camel? Camel good!"
It was a long hard climb. It wasn’t as steep as it could be. It zigged and zagged with lots of switch backs. It was totally dark. When we started out the moon hadn’t risen yet and there were a zillion stars out. Then we saw the moon. It was neat because, where at home a crescent moon is like a C or a backward C, here near the equator it was like a U. I also realized that when we see mosques at home the crescent moon on top of the minaret is like a C but in Egypt they all had the crescent lying down like a U.
Anyway, we climbed in the dark by the light of our flashlights. At one of the tea huts I had a Snickers bar and a Coke. We made lots of rest stops and finally joined the rest of the group. It was still pretty early so we rested at the tea hut at the base of the stairs. Then we set out to climb the 750 steps to the top of the mountain. Those are really rough steps and hard to climb. One couple who rode the camels didn’t even attempt climbing the stairs. A short while later an older fellow from our tour (68 years old) was really struggling and panting as we climbed the steps. I said, "You’re making me a little nervous and soon I’ll be a lot nervous. Are you sure you should be climbing these steps?" He decided he better go back down so Suleiman took him back to the tea hut with the others who stayed behind. Later I found out that this guy has had bypass surgery and has a heart murmur. I don’t know why he tried the climb in the first place. Soon after that another couple was having trouble and Ahmed had to take them back. We waited for him and then continued up the steps taking numerous rests (every 50 steps or so). We reached the summit at 4:30 or so while it was still very dark.
I read Exodus 19 and 20 to our group, and whoever else up there was listening in. I said a few words about the grace of God in the delivering of the slaves and choosing to be their God, and choosing them to be his people, then I read some prayers. Before I finished praying a Muslim on the mountain with us started chanting the call to prayers. There is a Greek Orthodox chapel and a Muslim Mosque at the summit of the mountain.
I said I was skeptical about the cold. It was freezing! We had sweated from our climb so we were chilled even more. There were Bedouins walking around up there renting out blankets for $2 or $4 depending on the size. Some of the women in our group got some. One of our guys did too and after a while he saw me shivering and gave his blanket to me.
We waited for the sunrise, and waited, and waited. The sky was getting brighter and you could start to see the mountains all around us. It was absolutely, stunningly, beautiful. My pictures won’t do the views justice. God was saying good morning in the eastern sky. There was some cloud and/or haze in that direction but finally the sun broke through.
Then it was time to go back down. By the way, there were hundreds of people up there and after the sunrise we all started back down. Down certainly wasn’t as tiring as up but it still hurt, and it seemed to take a really long time. On the way down we could see the mountains that were all around us but that we couldn’t see on our way up.
We eventually got back to St. Catherine, I had a shower, packed up, and went for breakfast. Then we had a short tour inside the monastery where apparently Jethro’s well where Moses met his wife, and the burning bush, a tree from a stalk of the original bush, are. Oh yeah. Then we left St. Catherine, continued east through the Sinai desert to the east coast and the up to Taba. I fell asleep on the drive.
We stayed at a gorgeous, posh resort on the Gulf of Aqaba, the Intercontinental Taba Resort. I swam in the Gulf (an arm of the Red Sea), and in the two swimming pools. We all had dinner together and had to say goodbye to Reham. She was a fabulous guide. She was intelligent, informative, had a good sense of humour, and was pretty easy on the eyes. She says she’s a descendant of the ancient Egyptians. It’s a shame we couldn’t have her for the entire trip but her expertise is Egyptology. She has a passion and love for her country and its history and culture and she was a big part of what made our trip, our tour of Egypt, so awesome.
I phoned home from Taba. It was good to hear my wife’s voice. I wish that she (they, the kids would like this too) could be here to experience all this with me.
Sunday, November 4
So, today was a day of border crossings. We left the beautiful resort in Taba, our last stop in Egypt. Ahmed took us as far as he could go. We were taken to the border by Ibrahim, our bus driver for our whole time in Egypt. We left that bus that we had been traveling in for 6 days and had to drag all our belongings through Egyptian customs and security, then about 200m down the road was Israeli customs and security. I was coming up the rear and when my backpack went through the x-ray machine they looked and looked, finally they put it through and asked me to open it. They took everything out and put it all back in again. I don’t know what in it looked suspicious.
When we were finally in Israel our bus wasn’t there to meet us. Apparently we were early. So we waited. One man in our group sat on a bench and wrote in his journal. A soldier saw him and came over and wanted to see what he was writing. I guess journaling at the Israeli border crossing is a no-no.
When our bus finally came we were driven through Eilat, Israel’s only Red Sea port and resort town. It only took about 15 minutes to get to the Jordanian border. There we got off the Israeli bus and again dragged our belongings through customs and then a much longer walk to Jordan’s customs and security. There Doug had a bit of trouble because they wanted to know the name of our tour company in Jordan. We only had the name of a company in Jerusalem that was arranging the Jordanian and Israeli parts of our tour. They finally called the company in Jerusalem who put him in touch with the guy whose name we have, who was with another tour group up in Amman. Just about then our guide, Mohammed, showed up and cleared things up.
We were brought to the Moevenpick hotel in Aqaba and most of us got 2 bedroom apartments to stay in. I didn’t go into the sea to swim today, just the pool and hot tub. We had a lovely supper under the stars on a warm but comfortable (not humid) night. During supper a man from our group became quite unwell, was taken back to his room in a wheelchair, and a doctor came to see him. We don’t know exactly what’s wrong with him but have a few suspicions. We’re hoping he can continue on the tour.
After supper 7 of us walked through downtown Aqaba. It’s neat to see a city with such a different culture from what we’re used to in Canada. When we got back Doug and I went to one of the hotel’s cafes on the rooftop in the open air and had Moevenpick ice cream sundaes overlooking the city lights on a beautiful warm night. Doug’s a great guy and a good friend but it would have been way better with my wife there.
I forgot to say that before we left Taba we gathered together in an empty section of the hotel bar and had a Sunday worship service using the Morning Prayer service and singing a couple of hymns. It was lovely and a lot of people really appreciated it. I led the liturgy and Doug read the story of Hagar and Ishmael being sent away by Abraham and Sarah and talked about the roots of the Jewish and Arab people and how God has cared for all of them.
While we were swimming in Aqaba we heard the call to prayer coming from the numerous mosques around the city. I though we could learn something about devotion and prayer from them. Even Christians in a Muslim land could use those 5 daily reminders to pray themselves.
Talk about a looooonnnng day. Last night we turned the lights out at 9:45 and someone was coming to wake me at midnight to start climbing Mount Sinai. Well I couldn’t sleep. Partly because of excitement about what we were about to do, partly from cats fighting outside our room, and a whole lot because of all the mosquitoes. I think I might have slept from 10:45 to 11:15. After the knock on the door at 12:00 I brushed my teeth and got dressed. I dressed as warmly as I could: jeans, t-shirt, sweat-shirt, golf jacket. But I had my doubts about how cold it would be. We met in the courtyard of the monastery guest house and it wasn’t really that cold.
Around 12:30 we started walking. Just a little ways outside the monastery the Bedouins were waiting with their camels. 10 from our group were going up on camels and 3 of us, the three youngest, were walking all the way. I figured "Moses did it, so will I." If I ever get there again I’m taking a camel.
We had a Bedouin guide lead us. I could never remember his name and had to keep asking what it was. He and Ahmed, one of our tour guides, said we should just call him Suleiman (Arabic for Solomon). He led us up the mountain. It took us about 2 hours to walk up to the base of the 750 rugged stone steps. The ones on camels did it in about 1½ hours. My thighs were already sore from climbing inside the great pyramid two days earlier. They were burning and aching by the time we reached the rest of the group. Along the way up the mountain path you periodically come across some crude shacks built of stone where Bedouins sell coffee, tea, pop, water, chocolate bars, flash lights etc. There was also a Bedouin following us for a long while with his camel trying to get one of us to ride up. All along the way, up and down the mountain, there were Bedouins with their camels offering rides. "Camel? Camel? Camel good!"
It was a long hard climb. It wasn’t as steep as it could be. It zigged and zagged with lots of switch backs. It was totally dark. When we started out the moon hadn’t risen yet and there were a zillion stars out. Then we saw the moon. It was neat because, where at home a crescent moon is like a C or a backward C, here near the equator it was like a U. I also realized that when we see mosques at home the crescent moon on top of the minaret is like a C but in Egypt they all had the crescent lying down like a U.
Anyway, we climbed in the dark by the light of our flashlights. At one of the tea huts I had a Snickers bar and a Coke. We made lots of rest stops and finally joined the rest of the group. It was still pretty early so we rested at the tea hut at the base of the stairs. Then we set out to climb the 750 steps to the top of the mountain. Those are really rough steps and hard to climb. One couple who rode the camels didn’t even attempt climbing the stairs. A short while later an older fellow from our tour (68 years old) was really struggling and panting as we climbed the steps. I said, "You’re making me a little nervous and soon I’ll be a lot nervous. Are you sure you should be climbing these steps?" He decided he better go back down so Suleiman took him back to the tea hut with the others who stayed behind. Later I found out that this guy has had bypass surgery and has a heart murmur. I don’t know why he tried the climb in the first place. Soon after that another couple was having trouble and Ahmed had to take them back. We waited for him and then continued up the steps taking numerous rests (every 50 steps or so). We reached the summit at 4:30 or so while it was still very dark.
I read Exodus 19 and 20 to our group, and whoever else up there was listening in. I said a few words about the grace of God in the delivering of the slaves and choosing to be their God, and choosing them to be his people, then I read some prayers. Before I finished praying a Muslim on the mountain with us started chanting the call to prayers. There is a Greek Orthodox chapel and a Muslim Mosque at the summit of the mountain.
I said I was skeptical about the cold. It was freezing! We had sweated from our climb so we were chilled even more. There were Bedouins walking around up there renting out blankets for $2 or $4 depending on the size. Some of the women in our group got some. One of our guys did too and after a while he saw me shivering and gave his blanket to me.
We waited for the sunrise, and waited, and waited. The sky was getting brighter and you could start to see the mountains all around us. It was absolutely, stunningly, beautiful. My pictures won’t do the views justice. God was saying good morning in the eastern sky. There was some cloud and/or haze in that direction but finally the sun broke through.
Then it was time to go back down. By the way, there were hundreds of people up there and after the sunrise we all started back down. Down certainly wasn’t as tiring as up but it still hurt, and it seemed to take a really long time. On the way down we could see the mountains that were all around us but that we couldn’t see on our way up.
We eventually got back to St. Catherine, I had a shower, packed up, and went for breakfast. Then we had a short tour inside the monastery where apparently Jethro’s well where Moses met his wife, and the burning bush, a tree from a stalk of the original bush, are. Oh yeah. Then we left St. Catherine, continued east through the Sinai desert to the east coast and the up to Taba. I fell asleep on the drive.
We stayed at a gorgeous, posh resort on the Gulf of Aqaba, the Intercontinental Taba Resort. I swam in the Gulf (an arm of the Red Sea), and in the two swimming pools. We all had dinner together and had to say goodbye to Reham. She was a fabulous guide. She was intelligent, informative, had a good sense of humour, and was pretty easy on the eyes. She says she’s a descendant of the ancient Egyptians. It’s a shame we couldn’t have her for the entire trip but her expertise is Egyptology. She has a passion and love for her country and its history and culture and she was a big part of what made our trip, our tour of Egypt, so awesome.
I phoned home from Taba. It was good to hear my wife’s voice. I wish that she (they, the kids would like this too) could be here to experience all this with me.
Sunday, November 4
So, today was a day of border crossings. We left the beautiful resort in Taba, our last stop in Egypt. Ahmed took us as far as he could go. We were taken to the border by Ibrahim, our bus driver for our whole time in Egypt. We left that bus that we had been traveling in for 6 days and had to drag all our belongings through Egyptian customs and security, then about 200m down the road was Israeli customs and security. I was coming up the rear and when my backpack went through the x-ray machine they looked and looked, finally they put it through and asked me to open it. They took everything out and put it all back in again. I don’t know what in it looked suspicious.
When we were finally in Israel our bus wasn’t there to meet us. Apparently we were early. So we waited. One man in our group sat on a bench and wrote in his journal. A soldier saw him and came over and wanted to see what he was writing. I guess journaling at the Israeli border crossing is a no-no.
When our bus finally came we were driven through Eilat, Israel’s only Red Sea port and resort town. It only took about 15 minutes to get to the Jordanian border. There we got off the Israeli bus and again dragged our belongings through customs and then a much longer walk to Jordan’s customs and security. There Doug had a bit of trouble because they wanted to know the name of our tour company in Jordan. We only had the name of a company in Jerusalem that was arranging the Jordanian and Israeli parts of our tour. They finally called the company in Jerusalem who put him in touch with the guy whose name we have, who was with another tour group up in Amman. Just about then our guide, Mohammed, showed up and cleared things up.
We were brought to the Moevenpick hotel in Aqaba and most of us got 2 bedroom apartments to stay in. I didn’t go into the sea to swim today, just the pool and hot tub. We had a lovely supper under the stars on a warm but comfortable (not humid) night. During supper a man from our group became quite unwell, was taken back to his room in a wheelchair, and a doctor came to see him. We don’t know exactly what’s wrong with him but have a few suspicions. We’re hoping he can continue on the tour.
After supper 7 of us walked through downtown Aqaba. It’s neat to see a city with such a different culture from what we’re used to in Canada. When we got back Doug and I went to one of the hotel’s cafes on the rooftop in the open air and had Moevenpick ice cream sundaes overlooking the city lights on a beautiful warm night. Doug’s a great guy and a good friend but it would have been way better with my wife there.
I forgot to say that before we left Taba we gathered together in an empty section of the hotel bar and had a Sunday worship service using the Morning Prayer service and singing a couple of hymns. It was lovely and a lot of people really appreciated it. I led the liturgy and Doug read the story of Hagar and Ishmael being sent away by Abraham and Sarah and talked about the roots of the Jewish and Arab people and how God has cared for all of them.
While we were swimming in Aqaba we heard the call to prayer coming from the numerous mosques around the city. I though we could learn something about devotion and prayer from them. Even Christians in a Muslim land could use those 5 daily reminders to pray themselves.
Monday, November 26, 2007
Days 3 and 4
Thursday, November 1
What a cool day! Not the temperature, the stuff we did. First thing was the pyramids. These enormous things that you learn about in Social Studies in grade school? We were there! I climbed inside the great pyramid, on of the 7 Wonders of the Ancient World. It’s not for the claustrophobic or if you have a bad back. Part of the way up you have to walk bent over and you come down the same way. It’s very narrow in parts as well and there’s only one way in and one way out so people are passing each other bent over. It was really hot and stuffy inside there too.
Four of us took a camel ride as well. Joanne rode on "Charlie," Anne Marie was on "Moses," Clarence rode "Mickey," and I was on "Columbus." I had to do both of those things just for the experience. Now I can say "I was at the Pyramids, I climbed up to Cheops’ burial chamber, and I rode in the desert on a camel.
After that we drove down to the Sphinx to take some pictures. Then we went back to the fast food place where we were yesterday for lunch. I didn’t have any this time. It didn’t make me sick yesterday (although one or two of our people weren’t well after eating there yesterday) but I didn’t enjoy it enough to want another one. From there our guide took us to a store that sells cotton and linen products (it’s called Funky Bros.) and from there we headed to Sakkara.
At Sakkara there is the very first pyramid tomb known as the "step pyramid." Rather than the conventional rectangular shaped tomb, the Pharaoh Djoser decided his tomb would have them stacked up on top of each other. His actual burial chamber was dug into the bedrock underneath the pyramid. We also went into the Mastaba, the rectangular tomb, of Mereruka who was Djoser’s Minister of Finance and his son-in-law. I was amazed that we could actually walk into that tomb and touch, actually see and feel, the carvings on the wall that still have some paint on them after over 4000 years.
After returning to Giza we stopped at a place called "Relax Perfume Center" where they manufacture and sell "Essential Oils," the oils they extract from various flowers. This is done a lot in Egypt and much is exported for making perfumes but the oils are more concentrated then perfumes and colognes. We got back to the hotel in mid afternoon and were able to relax a bit before supper.
This touring can get tiring and I’m only 41. I can’t imagine how some of the septuagenarian are handling it.
Friday, November 2
We left Cairo today, had our last view of the pyramids as we drove away, crossed the Nile for the last time, and went downtown to the citadel. It was built by crusaders and captured by Saladin. Within the citadel is the Mosque of Mohammed Ali (not the boxer). Ali was an Albanian who became the first king of Egypt after claiming independence from Ottoman rule.
After that we headed east out of Cairo toward Sinai. You don’t have to go far from the Nile until you’re in total desert. There is some development in desert areas, probably confined to areas near the highways. We came to the Suez Canal and passed under a tunnel at the south end of the canal. Once on the other side of the canal we were in Sinai.
Shortly after turning south along the Gulf of Suez we stopped at Ain Musa, the Spring of Moses. I’ve heard conflicting reports about what this is supposed to be. What I read, and what would make the most sense to me according to its location, is that this was Marra where the Hebrews found bitter water. God told Moses to throw a branch from a certain tree into the water and it would become sweet. We saw a dirty well with some garbage in it. And, as everywhere we’be been, people tried to sell us cheap trinkets and junk. And little kids were all around us begging. They were really adorable but you’d go broke helping all the poor and adorable people here. They have no social assistance here so people do what they can. All around the pyramids, the Citadel/Mosque, any tourist area, they’re trying to sell you postcards, pens, cheap necklaces, fake papyrus pictures, bookmarks, books. It’s the same stuff everywhere. Some are very persistent, more often with women and older people. I just say "no, no" and they usually leave me alone. Maybe I’m big and scary.
After Ain Musa we traveled a little further south and came to Banana Beach, a restor that seems, for the most part, to be abandoned. It seems very broken down. You can tell that it was, and could be, gorgeous but maybe they overestimated how many people might come there and then went bust. The tour guide claims that most are condos owned by people from Cairo who really only come in summer. I don’t know about that. It looked pretty rundown to think anyone used it and there were more resorts like it up and down the shore. The one thing that was open and looked pretty good was the restaurant where we had lunch. Not terrible.
From there we headed the rest of the way to St. Catherine, the town and monastery at the foot of Mount Sinai. We arrived in the dark, had supper, and I wrote this in my journal just before going to bed at 9:37 p.m. They’ll be getting those of us who are climbing the mountain up at midnight so I won’t sleep much. Maybe not at all since we have a few mosquitoes in the room.
What a cool day! Not the temperature, the stuff we did. First thing was the pyramids. These enormous things that you learn about in Social Studies in grade school? We were there! I climbed inside the great pyramid, on of the 7 Wonders of the Ancient World. It’s not for the claustrophobic or if you have a bad back. Part of the way up you have to walk bent over and you come down the same way. It’s very narrow in parts as well and there’s only one way in and one way out so people are passing each other bent over. It was really hot and stuffy inside there too.
Four of us took a camel ride as well. Joanne rode on "Charlie," Anne Marie was on "Moses," Clarence rode "Mickey," and I was on "Columbus." I had to do both of those things just for the experience. Now I can say "I was at the Pyramids, I climbed up to Cheops’ burial chamber, and I rode in the desert on a camel.
After that we drove down to the Sphinx to take some pictures. Then we went back to the fast food place where we were yesterday for lunch. I didn’t have any this time. It didn’t make me sick yesterday (although one or two of our people weren’t well after eating there yesterday) but I didn’t enjoy it enough to want another one. From there our guide took us to a store that sells cotton and linen products (it’s called Funky Bros.) and from there we headed to Sakkara.
At Sakkara there is the very first pyramid tomb known as the "step pyramid." Rather than the conventional rectangular shaped tomb, the Pharaoh Djoser decided his tomb would have them stacked up on top of each other. His actual burial chamber was dug into the bedrock underneath the pyramid. We also went into the Mastaba, the rectangular tomb, of Mereruka who was Djoser’s Minister of Finance and his son-in-law. I was amazed that we could actually walk into that tomb and touch, actually see and feel, the carvings on the wall that still have some paint on them after over 4000 years.
After returning to Giza we stopped at a place called "Relax Perfume Center" where they manufacture and sell "Essential Oils," the oils they extract from various flowers. This is done a lot in Egypt and much is exported for making perfumes but the oils are more concentrated then perfumes and colognes. We got back to the hotel in mid afternoon and were able to relax a bit before supper.
This touring can get tiring and I’m only 41. I can’t imagine how some of the septuagenarian are handling it.
Friday, November 2
We left Cairo today, had our last view of the pyramids as we drove away, crossed the Nile for the last time, and went downtown to the citadel. It was built by crusaders and captured by Saladin. Within the citadel is the Mosque of Mohammed Ali (not the boxer). Ali was an Albanian who became the first king of Egypt after claiming independence from Ottoman rule.
After that we headed east out of Cairo toward Sinai. You don’t have to go far from the Nile until you’re in total desert. There is some development in desert areas, probably confined to areas near the highways. We came to the Suez Canal and passed under a tunnel at the south end of the canal. Once on the other side of the canal we were in Sinai.
Shortly after turning south along the Gulf of Suez we stopped at Ain Musa, the Spring of Moses. I’ve heard conflicting reports about what this is supposed to be. What I read, and what would make the most sense to me according to its location, is that this was Marra where the Hebrews found bitter water. God told Moses to throw a branch from a certain tree into the water and it would become sweet. We saw a dirty well with some garbage in it. And, as everywhere we’be been, people tried to sell us cheap trinkets and junk. And little kids were all around us begging. They were really adorable but you’d go broke helping all the poor and adorable people here. They have no social assistance here so people do what they can. All around the pyramids, the Citadel/Mosque, any tourist area, they’re trying to sell you postcards, pens, cheap necklaces, fake papyrus pictures, bookmarks, books. It’s the same stuff everywhere. Some are very persistent, more often with women and older people. I just say "no, no" and they usually leave me alone. Maybe I’m big and scary.
After Ain Musa we traveled a little further south and came to Banana Beach, a restor that seems, for the most part, to be abandoned. It seems very broken down. You can tell that it was, and could be, gorgeous but maybe they overestimated how many people might come there and then went bust. The tour guide claims that most are condos owned by people from Cairo who really only come in summer. I don’t know about that. It looked pretty rundown to think anyone used it and there were more resorts like it up and down the shore. The one thing that was open and looked pretty good was the restaurant where we had lunch. Not terrible.
From there we headed the rest of the way to St. Catherine, the town and monastery at the foot of Mount Sinai. We arrived in the dark, had supper, and I wrote this in my journal just before going to bed at 9:37 p.m. They’ll be getting those of us who are climbing the mountain up at midnight so I won’t sleep much. Maybe not at all since we have a few mosquitoes in the room.
Thursday, November 22, 2007
Days 1 and 2
Tuesday, October 30, 2007
Arrived in Milan at 6:45 a.m. after flying 6617 km from Toronto. I don't fly much so being on a plane is always an exciting adventure. They showed 2 movies on the way over, "The Waitress" and "Shrek the 3rd." I slept through the Shrek movie. We got supper and breakfast on the plane. It was not great. Not even very good. It didn't seem like they cleaned the plane when it was turned around in Toronto. The washroom was dirty and there was garbage in the pocket in front of the seat. After a stopover in Milan we're flying on to Cairo.
It's so awesome to be in Egypt. Our guide tells us the population of the country is 70 million. The population of Cairo is 18 million, swelling to 20 million each day with commuters coming into the city to work. Almost everything is brown. I've never been to a desert before. Cairo is huge and boy is it different. Traffic is crazy and you have to drive with one hand on the horn. People totally ignore lane markers. There was a pick-up truck driving with 15 to 20 guys STANDING in the back. Another truck was piled high with bags of I-don't-know-what, as high as the bus, and two guys were lying on top of the bags. There were flocks of sheep in the middle of the city, a few goats on someone's roof, and a LOT of really poor housing. One place called the "City of the Dead" is blocks and blocks of cemeteries in and around buildings and the poor have made their homes among them, some with satellite dishes.
Then through the fog (or smog) you see the outline, the forms, of the pyramids. It's just amazing. Awesome!
We're in a pretty nice hotel (with a metal detector on the way in). Our guide suggested a change to our itinerary. We were going to see the pyramids on Wednesday and the Egyptian Museum on Thursday but she thinks that seeing the museum first will give us a better grounding about what we'll see at the pyramids. It's been a long couple of days of travel, leaving Toronto on Monday evening and ending up in Cairo on Tuesday afternoon/evening. After supper we gathered with our guide who gave us a run-down of our next few days and then we headed to our rooms at about 9 p.m. and I thought, "the kids won't even be out of school for another half hour, and I'm so beat. I slept on both flights so I'm not as tired as I could be.
Wednesday, October 31, 2007
Our tour guide, Reham, is an Egyptologist with a Master's degree, working on her PhD so we're getting a lot of good information as she guides us through Cairo. We cross the Nile as we drive into and out of downtown. This river is the only source of water for this country and the only source of irrigation so every possible bit of land is farmed.
Our first stop on this day is the Egyptian Museum. That was wicked! We saw the treasures of King Tut, the mask, the coffins, many of the artifacts that were found in his tomb. It's the stuff you always see in books and magazines but we got to see it up close and in person. We saw lots of mummies, even Ramses II who tradition says may have been the pharaoh at the time of Moses. Reham is an excellent guide who really knows her stuff. Someone who had been to the museum before said she's way better than her previous guide.
Next we headed to Old Cairo. We saw what they call the "hanging church" because it's suspended over some old Roman towers from an old Roman fortress. We also saw the Church of Saints Sergius and Bacchus built over a cave where tradition says the Holy Family lived while in exile in Egypt.
For lunch we stopped at a typical Egyptian fast food place where they served felafels and shawermas. For the shawermas you had the choice of chicken of "meat." I'm guessing the "meat" was lamb or goat but they didn't say. I had a "meat" shawerma and a Coke.
Next we went to a Papyrus institute and gift shop. I saw a number of these places around. The salesmen are good talkers. I wanted to buy a certain papyrus with a picture on it from the back of one of King Tut's thrones. I had the one I wanted picked out (although the salesman was trying to talk me into 3) and then he took me over to see the same one only in a bigger size. I ended up buying it for my wife.
It's just so freaky driving around this part of the city and seeing these huge pyramids looming above everything. We had a short (1 ½ hour) break at the hotel and then went to the Sound & Light show at the pyramids. They tell some of the story of Egypt's history and of the pharaoh's who built the pyramids along with music and lights and lasers. On the way in there was a group of musicians dressed as pharaoh's playing drums and, of all things, bagpipes. On the way out they were playing again and actually played "Amazing Grace." We got back to our hotel, had supper, and went to our rooms and to bed since we were to have an early start the next morning.
Arrived in Milan at 6:45 a.m. after flying 6617 km from Toronto. I don't fly much so being on a plane is always an exciting adventure. They showed 2 movies on the way over, "The Waitress" and "Shrek the 3rd." I slept through the Shrek movie. We got supper and breakfast on the plane. It was not great. Not even very good. It didn't seem like they cleaned the plane when it was turned around in Toronto. The washroom was dirty and there was garbage in the pocket in front of the seat. After a stopover in Milan we're flying on to Cairo.
It's so awesome to be in Egypt. Our guide tells us the population of the country is 70 million. The population of Cairo is 18 million, swelling to 20 million each day with commuters coming into the city to work. Almost everything is brown. I've never been to a desert before. Cairo is huge and boy is it different. Traffic is crazy and you have to drive with one hand on the horn. People totally ignore lane markers. There was a pick-up truck driving with 15 to 20 guys STANDING in the back. Another truck was piled high with bags of I-don't-know-what, as high as the bus, and two guys were lying on top of the bags. There were flocks of sheep in the middle of the city, a few goats on someone's roof, and a LOT of really poor housing. One place called the "City of the Dead" is blocks and blocks of cemeteries in and around buildings and the poor have made their homes among them, some with satellite dishes.
Then through the fog (or smog) you see the outline, the forms, of the pyramids. It's just amazing. Awesome!
We're in a pretty nice hotel (with a metal detector on the way in). Our guide suggested a change to our itinerary. We were going to see the pyramids on Wednesday and the Egyptian Museum on Thursday but she thinks that seeing the museum first will give us a better grounding about what we'll see at the pyramids. It's been a long couple of days of travel, leaving Toronto on Monday evening and ending up in Cairo on Tuesday afternoon/evening. After supper we gathered with our guide who gave us a run-down of our next few days and then we headed to our rooms at about 9 p.m. and I thought, "the kids won't even be out of school for another half hour, and I'm so beat. I slept on both flights so I'm not as tired as I could be.
Wednesday, October 31, 2007
Our tour guide, Reham, is an Egyptologist with a Master's degree, working on her PhD so we're getting a lot of good information as she guides us through Cairo. We cross the Nile as we drive into and out of downtown. This river is the only source of water for this country and the only source of irrigation so every possible bit of land is farmed.
Our first stop on this day is the Egyptian Museum. That was wicked! We saw the treasures of King Tut, the mask, the coffins, many of the artifacts that were found in his tomb. It's the stuff you always see in books and magazines but we got to see it up close and in person. We saw lots of mummies, even Ramses II who tradition says may have been the pharaoh at the time of Moses. Reham is an excellent guide who really knows her stuff. Someone who had been to the museum before said she's way better than her previous guide.
Next we headed to Old Cairo. We saw what they call the "hanging church" because it's suspended over some old Roman towers from an old Roman fortress. We also saw the Church of Saints Sergius and Bacchus built over a cave where tradition says the Holy Family lived while in exile in Egypt.
For lunch we stopped at a typical Egyptian fast food place where they served felafels and shawermas. For the shawermas you had the choice of chicken of "meat." I'm guessing the "meat" was lamb or goat but they didn't say. I had a "meat" shawerma and a Coke.
Next we went to a Papyrus institute and gift shop. I saw a number of these places around. The salesmen are good talkers. I wanted to buy a certain papyrus with a picture on it from the back of one of King Tut's thrones. I had the one I wanted picked out (although the salesman was trying to talk me into 3) and then he took me over to see the same one only in a bigger size. I ended up buying it for my wife.
It's just so freaky driving around this part of the city and seeing these huge pyramids looming above everything. We had a short (1 ½ hour) break at the hotel and then went to the Sound & Light show at the pyramids. They tell some of the story of Egypt's history and of the pharaoh's who built the pyramids along with music and lights and lasers. On the way in there was a group of musicians dressed as pharaoh's playing drums and, of all things, bagpipes. On the way out they were playing again and actually played "Amazing Grace." We got back to our hotel, had supper, and went to our rooms and to bed since we were to have an early start the next morning.
Wednesday, November 21, 2007
Holy Communion
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Eucharistic theology created with QuizFarm.com | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| You scored as Luther You are Martin Luther. You'll stick with the words of Scripture, and defend this with earthy expressions. You believe this is a necessary consequence of an orthodox Christology. You believe that the bread and wine are the Body and Blood of Christ, but aren't too sure about where he goes after the meal, and so you don't accept reservation of the Blessed Sacrament or Eucharistic devotions.
|
... about family
I realized I didn't share the last column I wrote for the paper. It appeared a couple of weeks after our Canadian Thanksgiving. I guess it's still timely since tomorrow is Thanksgiving for any American readers. Here it is.
A couple of weeks ago was Thanksgiving. It's not uncommon at Thanksgiving dinner to go around the table and have each person tell about something they're thankful for.
We did something like that in church on the day before Thanksgiving. We set up a thanksgiving tree. It was a cross made of a couple of rough two-by-fours set into a Christmas tree stand with some dry, bare branches tied to it. We distributed coloured paper leaves with a string attached to every person in church that day and they were asked to write something they were thankful for on the leaf.
When the people came forward for Holy Communion, our church family meal, they were asked to hang their thanksgiving leaf on the tree and by the end of the worship service we had a colourful thanksgiving tree decorated with the things we're thankful for.
It was interesting to read, after worship, what some of the people had written on their leaves. Along with things like "turkey" and "cheese" (there were a few kids in church that day) there were leaves that gave thanks for health, friends, a happy marriage, God's abundant love and gifts, and a whole lot of people gave thanks for family.
I know just what they're talking about. I'm a happily married father of four children, two daughters aged 14 and 12, and two sons aged 9 and 5. I am so thankful for my family. They are a gift from God, a great blessing. The wisdom of the Hebrew scriptures mentions the blessing of the family. "Grandchildren are the crown of the aged, and the glory of children is their parents" (Proverbs 17:6).
Giving thanks for my family makes me think of all the other unnecessary concerns I have in my life. Of course we all want to be able to provide for our families so we might sometimes be worried about the security of our jobs or how much we earn. That's an important part of any life.
But there are so many other things that occupy our thoughts, like what kind of house you live in, what kind of car you drive or how old it is, how big and new your TV is. I read a statistic that said the average cost of a luxury kitchen remodel costs $10,000 more than it costs to build a typical Habitat for Humanity home. Since 1950 the average new house has increased by 1,247 square feet while the size of the average family has shrunk by one person.
Unfortunately many of our concerns and worries are caused by greed. But when it comes right down to it, the things we're most thankful for can't be bought with any amount of money. "Take care! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; for one's life does not consist in the abundance of possessions" (Luke 12:15).
Think about what you're most thankful for. Is it a car, a TV, a big expensive house? Or are you thankful for your health, a sufficient roof over your head, and the blessing of a happy marriage and family? Thanksgiving is over but giving thanks for all the good things God has given to us doesn't have to be confined to the second Monday of October. "O give thanks to the LORD, for he is good; for his steadfast love endures forever" (Psalm 106:1).
A couple of weeks ago was Thanksgiving. It's not uncommon at Thanksgiving dinner to go around the table and have each person tell about something they're thankful for.
We did something like that in church on the day before Thanksgiving. We set up a thanksgiving tree. It was a cross made of a couple of rough two-by-fours set into a Christmas tree stand with some dry, bare branches tied to it. We distributed coloured paper leaves with a string attached to every person in church that day and they were asked to write something they were thankful for on the leaf.
When the people came forward for Holy Communion, our church family meal, they were asked to hang their thanksgiving leaf on the tree and by the end of the worship service we had a colourful thanksgiving tree decorated with the things we're thankful for.
It was interesting to read, after worship, what some of the people had written on their leaves. Along with things like "turkey" and "cheese" (there were a few kids in church that day) there were leaves that gave thanks for health, friends, a happy marriage, God's abundant love and gifts, and a whole lot of people gave thanks for family.
I know just what they're talking about. I'm a happily married father of four children, two daughters aged 14 and 12, and two sons aged 9 and 5. I am so thankful for my family. They are a gift from God, a great blessing. The wisdom of the Hebrew scriptures mentions the blessing of the family. "Grandchildren are the crown of the aged, and the glory of children is their parents" (Proverbs 17:6).
Giving thanks for my family makes me think of all the other unnecessary concerns I have in my life. Of course we all want to be able to provide for our families so we might sometimes be worried about the security of our jobs or how much we earn. That's an important part of any life.
But there are so many other things that occupy our thoughts, like what kind of house you live in, what kind of car you drive or how old it is, how big and new your TV is. I read a statistic that said the average cost of a luxury kitchen remodel costs $10,000 more than it costs to build a typical Habitat for Humanity home. Since 1950 the average new house has increased by 1,247 square feet while the size of the average family has shrunk by one person.
Unfortunately many of our concerns and worries are caused by greed. But when it comes right down to it, the things we're most thankful for can't be bought with any amount of money. "Take care! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; for one's life does not consist in the abundance of possessions" (Luke 12:15).
Think about what you're most thankful for. Is it a car, a TV, a big expensive house? Or are you thankful for your health, a sufficient roof over your head, and the blessing of a happy marriage and family? Thanksgiving is over but giving thanks for all the good things God has given to us doesn't have to be confined to the second Monday of October. "O give thanks to the LORD, for he is good; for his steadfast love endures forever" (Psalm 106:1).
I'm Back
Hello readers.
Wow, it's been a long time since I've blogged. I was away for a while on a tour of Egypt, Jordan, and Israel from October 29 to November 15. In the coming days or weeks I'll transcribe some of the notes I took and journaling I did while on the tour. It was an amazing experience, one I'll never forget. There were some eye opening things I saw and did while there.
It's good to be back home though. I missed my family. 18 days away was the longest I've been away from them ever. By the end of the tour I was missing them terribly plus I was getting really tired of living out of a suitcase, eating nothing but hotel food, riding on a bus day after day, and I'd had enough of ruins and churches. The itinerary was really full so there wasn't much down time.
We had a good group for the tour though, no real trouble makers, nobody I couldn't get along with. I was the youngest in the group. The average age of the people on the tour was 64, ranging from me at 41 to a lady who was 79. I'm not in the greatest shape but I was pretty beat by the end of things. I don't know how those folks, an average of 23 years older than me, could do it all.
Anyway, I hope you look forward to reading about my trip. If you don't then I guess you'll just have to ignore my blog. It's easy to do since I so rarely blog anyway.
Shalom
Wow, it's been a long time since I've blogged. I was away for a while on a tour of Egypt, Jordan, and Israel from October 29 to November 15. In the coming days or weeks I'll transcribe some of the notes I took and journaling I did while on the tour. It was an amazing experience, one I'll never forget. There were some eye opening things I saw and did while there.
It's good to be back home though. I missed my family. 18 days away was the longest I've been away from them ever. By the end of the tour I was missing them terribly plus I was getting really tired of living out of a suitcase, eating nothing but hotel food, riding on a bus day after day, and I'd had enough of ruins and churches. The itinerary was really full so there wasn't much down time.
We had a good group for the tour though, no real trouble makers, nobody I couldn't get along with. I was the youngest in the group. The average age of the people on the tour was 64, ranging from me at 41 to a lady who was 79. I'm not in the greatest shape but I was pretty beat by the end of things. I don't know how those folks, an average of 23 years older than me, could do it all.
Anyway, I hope you look forward to reading about my trip. If you don't then I guess you'll just have to ignore my blog. It's easy to do since I so rarely blog anyway.
Shalom
Monday, September 24, 2007
Danket dem Herrn!
There’s a German song that my family would sometimes sing as a table grace when I was growing up.
We are coming again to Thanksgiving Day. Various days of thanksgiving have been observed in Canada since the explorer Martin Frobisher and his party held a ceremony to give thanks for surviving a long journey of exploration in 1578. Over time different days of thanksgiving were observed at different times. Starting in 1879 Thanksgiving Day was observed every year but the date or time of year could change from year to year. Finally in 1957 the Canadian Parliament proclaimed: "A Day of General Thanksgiving to Almighty God for the bountiful harvest with which Canada has been blessed ... to be observed on the 2nd Monday in October."
But giving thanks is not confined to one day nor is it a recent phenomenon. The table grace above is a few thousand years old and appears in a number of places in the Bible. The Jews observed, and many still observe, the Festival of Succoth which is a seven day harvest festival that falls roughly during our month of October.
Beyond specific festivals of thanksgiving we can give thanks to God every day of our lives. The berakah is the simplest and among the oldest of prayers: "Blessed are you, O Lord our God, maker of all things, for you..." It is essentially a single sentence of praise and thanks to God, and adult Jews are enjoined to pray a prescribed number of berakoth every day. An ancient berakah is the model for Jesus’ prayer at the Last Supper, and indeed the model of our Great Prayer of Thanksgiving over bread and cup. In the berakah, prayer simultaneously becomes proclamation, since God’s mercies are recounted while others listen in. And that is the pattern as well for our discipleship, is it not? Christians live their lives in the hope and expectation that others are listening in!
As we live our lives with an attitude of thanksgiving for all that God has done for us and given to us others listen in. They hear our thankful words or notice our thankful attitude and they might recognize our faith in God. O give thanks to the LORD. Our prayers, which are often filled with asking for things from God, out to be filled with at least as much, if not more, thanksgiving. What exactly are we thankful for? Well, each of us can only speak for ourselves, but we can thank God for forgiving the sins that we confess. Some people actually list things for which they are thankful and use that list in prayer. Mark Allan Powell writes: "You might list big-ticket items that we tend to take for granted (that I am alive, that I am healthy, that I live in a country where I am allowed to be free, that I have a job, that I have a house to live in, that I have a bed to sleep in at night), or smaller matters that we simply tend to overlook (that song on the radio, the taste of red wine, the feeling of my toes digging in wet sand, the sound of my cat’s purr, the pleasure of a good night’s sleep, the smell of burning wood)."
Danket dem Herrn!
Wir danken dem Herrn,
denn er ist freundlich
und seine Güte währet ewiglich.
I know that doesn’t mean much to many of you readers. It comes from a number of places in the Old Testament. You can find it at Psalm 106:1; 107:1; 118:1, 29; 136:1; 1 Chronicles 16:34; 2 Chronicles 5:13; 7:3; 20:21; Ezra 3:11; Jeremiah 33:11. What it says is:Wir danken dem Herrn,
denn er ist freundlich
und seine Güte währet ewiglich.
O give thanks to the LORD,
for he is good;
for his steadfast love endures forever.
for he is good;
for his steadfast love endures forever.
We are coming again to Thanksgiving Day. Various days of thanksgiving have been observed in Canada since the explorer Martin Frobisher and his party held a ceremony to give thanks for surviving a long journey of exploration in 1578. Over time different days of thanksgiving were observed at different times. Starting in 1879 Thanksgiving Day was observed every year but the date or time of year could change from year to year. Finally in 1957 the Canadian Parliament proclaimed: "A Day of General Thanksgiving to Almighty God for the bountiful harvest with which Canada has been blessed ... to be observed on the 2nd Monday in October."
But giving thanks is not confined to one day nor is it a recent phenomenon. The table grace above is a few thousand years old and appears in a number of places in the Bible. The Jews observed, and many still observe, the Festival of Succoth which is a seven day harvest festival that falls roughly during our month of October.
Beyond specific festivals of thanksgiving we can give thanks to God every day of our lives. The berakah is the simplest and among the oldest of prayers: "Blessed are you, O Lord our God, maker of all things, for you..." It is essentially a single sentence of praise and thanks to God, and adult Jews are enjoined to pray a prescribed number of berakoth every day. An ancient berakah is the model for Jesus’ prayer at the Last Supper, and indeed the model of our Great Prayer of Thanksgiving over bread and cup. In the berakah, prayer simultaneously becomes proclamation, since God’s mercies are recounted while others listen in. And that is the pattern as well for our discipleship, is it not? Christians live their lives in the hope and expectation that others are listening in!
As we live our lives with an attitude of thanksgiving for all that God has done for us and given to us others listen in. They hear our thankful words or notice our thankful attitude and they might recognize our faith in God. O give thanks to the LORD. Our prayers, which are often filled with asking for things from God, out to be filled with at least as much, if not more, thanksgiving. What exactly are we thankful for? Well, each of us can only speak for ourselves, but we can thank God for forgiving the sins that we confess. Some people actually list things for which they are thankful and use that list in prayer. Mark Allan Powell writes: "You might list big-ticket items that we tend to take for granted (that I am alive, that I am healthy, that I live in a country where I am allowed to be free, that I have a job, that I have a house to live in, that I have a bed to sleep in at night), or smaller matters that we simply tend to overlook (that song on the radio, the taste of red wine, the feeling of my toes digging in wet sand, the sound of my cat’s purr, the pleasure of a good night’s sleep, the smell of burning wood)."
All good gifts around us are sent from heav’n above.
We thank you, Lord, we thank you, Lord, for all your love.
We thank you, Lord, we thank you, Lord, for all your love.
Monday, September 10, 2007
Pentecost 15
Okay, I don’t think I’ve ever had the kind of response to a sermon that I had yesterday. I got some ideas from a sermon by Samuel Zumwalt, some from Sundays & Seasons, some from Kelly Fryer, and some might have come from other sources. Here’s the sermon.
Welcome home. For the second year in a row
we’re calling this Sunday after Labour Day, Homecoming Sunday.
Our intention is to welcome people home.
Sunday School has been on a break since the end of May
and now the kids are back.
Some people have been on summer vacations and holidays
and now they’re back.
The calendars on our walls say that the new year starts on January 1.
The church marks time a little differently,
saying a new year begins on the First Sunday of Advent.
But for a whole lot of us we make a fresh start, we start a new year,
in September when all the kids and the teachers go back to school.
It’s a lot like that in church too.
The choir started practicing again this week after the summer off.
Church council met again this week
after not meeting in July or August.
We get back to some kind of routine.
We come back home.
Our hope for Homecoming Sunday is also
that some people who were away from the church
for a short while or a long while for any number of reasons,
might find their way back home again.
Our hope is also that people who don’t have a church home
might possibly find a home here with us.
So, with those intentions about Homecoming Sunday,
when I came around to reading the gospel lesson for today
I thought, “Oh swell!”
“You can’t be my disciple
unless you love me more than you love your family
or even your own life.
You can’t be my disciple
unless you give away everything you own.”
Not exactly the best way to market the church, is it?
There was a church in Welland a couple of years ago
that gave away Blue Jays baseball tickets
to the first hundred people through the door
on a certain Sunday.
Come to church and get free baseball tickets
or come to church and hear Jesus tell you
to give away everything you own.
Swell.
The thing is, here in this church
we’re not about marketing strategies and giveaways
to convince, entice or bribe people
to come through those doors and maybe even stay.
Here in this church we’re about worshiping, following, changing.
We’re here to worship God
because we believe in a God who deserves to be worshiped.
And we’re here to support and encourage one another,
to hear God’s word, to learn how to follow Jesus.
And we’re here to be changed.
Yes, believe it or not, we’re here to be changed.
It’s not about hearing “I’m okay. You’re okay.”
I’m not. Neither are you.
God wants more from me and God wants more from you.
We want to see more people in church.
We want to be spreading the good news
about God’s love for the world
and what he has done for us through Jesus Christ.
That’s what Jesus calls us to do in the great commission.
“Go to the people of all nations and make them my disciples.
Baptize them in the name of the Father, the Son,
and the Holy Spirit, and teach them
to do everything I have told you.”
We have a message of love to share
and it’s a message that changes people.
When you’ve heard and experienced the love of God
you won’t be the same.
When the Holy Spirit touches you and works within you
things are going to change.
Some churches go about this in a different way,
and I think it’s a wrong headed way.
Jack Handey wrote a comedy book of Deep Thoughts
that included this:
“If a kid asks where rain comes from,
I think a cute thing to tell him is ‘God is crying.’
And if he asks why God is crying,
another cute thing to tell him is
‘Probably because of something you did.’”
A gigantic billboard had a picture of flames shooting up from the bottom
and a message that simply said NO GOD = NO FUTURE.
Both of those examples take the approach that you change people
by just scaring the heck out of them.
I think they mean well but they don’t get the point
that it’s God’s love that makes a difference for people.
It’s God’s love that changes people.
We Lutherans like to think we’ve got it all figure out right.
Who knows, maybe we do,
but we don’t do a very good job of showing it and telling it.
We talk about grace, the free gift of grace.
Pastor Samuel Zumwalt says
we can quote Martin Luther’s Small Catechism
saying that the Holy Spirit does what we cannot naturally do.
Working in the church we say the Holy Spirit creates faith in us
through the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
We say the Holy Spirit teaches us through the Gospel
to trust that we are made right with God
through no effort or merit of our own.
We say that as God baptizes us
into the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ,
we are claimed by grace
as God’s beloved daughters and sons.
We say that we are reborn again and again
as we return to our baptism, confess our brokenness,
and approach God’s throne of grace with empty hands.
We say that we are responding to God’s goodness and mercy
by offering up our lives as a sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving.
Pressed for an answer many Lutheran Christians
can give a fairly simple answer to the question,
“What is the Good News of Jesus Christ?”
“Why grace is a free gift!”
We can say what the good news is
but we don’t seem to know about what the Gospel does.
We don’t get that Jesus is trying to do something with us
here and now.
In today’s gospel reading Jesus is telling us that following him,
being his disciple,
is going to change us.
It’s going to cost us something.
The German pastor and martyr Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote a book
that attacked a lazy Christian attitude.
Writing in his book The Cost of Discipleship
he took aim at Lutheran Christians
who lived a caricature of the Christian life.
He was attacking a crossless Christianity.
He was attacking us for singing “Take My Life and Let Me Be.”
He was attacking the old sinner in each of us
that wants to stay old—
that old unredeemed part of each of us
that wants to stay unredeemed, unclaimed, and unwashed.
Bonhoeffer was sending us back to Jesus,
to what he says in the gospels.
Jesus makes clear that God’s love changes us.
The old sinner in us cannot remain.
I can’t be God’s dear possession
when most of me is still hanging on to my possessions for dear life.
I can’t love the Lord with all my heart
if most of my heart is engaged
in making my child a better soccer player.
I can’t love the Lord with all my heart
if most of my heart is occupied
with how to make somebody love me like I want to be loved.
I can’t love the Lord with all my heart
if most of my heart and most of my wallet is tied up
with whatever it is in this world that delights me.
I can’t love the Lord with my all if most of my heart, soul, and mind
is consumed by ambition or control or the arts
or fundraising or church-building or politics
or whatever it is to which my heart is clinging.
Preachers listen to Jesus selectively.
We read or hear a gospel lesson and think
“that’s a good text for a stewardship sermon
or an evangelism sermon.
That’s a good text to grow the church.”
Too many of us preachers fail to see or believe
that the Gospel actually transforms lives.
But lay people listen to Jesus selectively too.
Maybe you read or hear today’s gospel lesson and think
“Jesus doesn’t want me to hate my family.
He just wants me to put God first.
He just wants me to be a little nicer
and a little more forgiving
and a little more active in my congregation
and a little more generous.”
None or us, preachers or lay people,
want to admit that following Jesus means changing our lives.
I came across this joke.
How many Lutherans does it take to change a lightbulb?
Twelve. One to change it, and the other eleven
to say how much they liked the old lightbulb better.
But that’s assuming you find one who is willing
to climb the ladder and change the bulb.
I’ve heard the joke told a little differently.
How many Lutherans does it take to change a lightbulb?
Change?!?
We can laugh at ourselves.
We can laugh about change.
But will we actually change?
Jesus tells us, in today’s gospel reading, to carry a cross.
“You cannot be my disciple
unless you carry your own cross and come with me.”
That’s serious stuff.
A convicted criminal sentenced to crucifixion
was required to carry the crossbar of his cross
to the place of execution.
When Jesus tells us to carry a cross he’s asking us to die.
That’s the gospel to which we say “Praise to you, O Christ.”
But wait a minute.
Are we ready to die?
Are we willing to set aside what we want
and do what God wants?
God’s Son Jesus had to die for us,
because we didn’t want to die to ourselves.
And we still don’t want to die to ourselves.
It cost God everything to save us from ourselves.
It cost God everything to free us
from the power of sin, death, and evil.
God so loved us that he did for us what we can’t do for ourselves.
It’s not that God somehow changed his mind about sin.
Rather God didn’t give us what we deserve.
In Jesus Christ, God gave us what we didn’t deserve.
Mercy. Forgiveness. Love. Himself.
There’s a story about a mother who once approached Napoleon
seeking a pardon for her son.
The emperor replied that the young man
had committed a certain offense twice
and justice demanded death.
“But I don’t ask for justice,” the mother explained.
“I plead for mercy.”
“But your son does not deserve mercy,” Napoleon replied.
“Sir,” the woman cried,
“it would not be mercy if he deserved it,
and mercy is all I ask for.”
“Well, then,” the emperor said,
“I will have mercy.”
And he spared the woman’s son.
That’s what God did for us when we deserved punishment for our sin.
God showed us mercy.
God gave us what we didn’t deserve.
That giving, that mercy, that forgiveness starts at our baptism
when we die to our old sinful self
and rise again to Jesus’ righteousness.
It’s the beginning of a pattern that isn’t complete
until our body finally dies
and we live with God forever.
Until then, in the meantime,
in the time between our first washing
and the day we breathe our last,
we die and rise.
Die and rise. Die and rise. Die and rise. Die and rise.
Disciples of Jesus do die and rise.
We follow the Master, at times as well as we can,
at other times not well at all.
But as we follow we die and rise, we change.
“You cannot be my disciple unless you love me
more than you love your father and mother,
your wife and children, and your brothers and sisters.
You cannot come with me unless you love me
more than you love your own life.
You cannot be my disciple
unless you carry your own cross and come with me.
You cannot be my disciple
unless you give away everything you own.”
Jesus is talking about not being satisfied
with our brokenness and sinfulness.
He’s talking about loving God and following Jesus
with all that we are.
He’s talking about putting the old sinner to death,
letting go of our possessions,
setting our hearts and wallets free
from any other delight, ambition, or control.
We can’t do it alone.
We come here for the support of a community of others
who are also being changed.
We can’t do it alone.
The Holy Spirit molds us to be what God wants
rather than what we might intend.
We can’t do it alone.
We do it with Jesus by our side
as we die to ourselves
and rise to become more of what God intends for us.
The Christian life is not just talking and singing about Jesus.
It’s not dabbling in God while we cling to the things of this world.
The cost of discipleship is the death of Jesus.
Those of us who follow him will die too.
And when we die in Christ God gives us new life,
life as we could never imagine it.
Amen
15th Sunday after Pentecost
September 9, 2007
Luke 14.25-33
Thomas Arth
September 9, 2007
Luke 14.25-33
Thomas Arth
Welcome home. For the second year in a row
we’re calling this Sunday after Labour Day, Homecoming Sunday.
Our intention is to welcome people home.
Sunday School has been on a break since the end of May
and now the kids are back.
Some people have been on summer vacations and holidays
and now they’re back.
The calendars on our walls say that the new year starts on January 1.
The church marks time a little differently,
saying a new year begins on the First Sunday of Advent.
But for a whole lot of us we make a fresh start, we start a new year,
in September when all the kids and the teachers go back to school.
It’s a lot like that in church too.
The choir started practicing again this week after the summer off.
Church council met again this week
after not meeting in July or August.
We get back to some kind of routine.
We come back home.
Our hope for Homecoming Sunday is also
that some people who were away from the church
for a short while or a long while for any number of reasons,
might find their way back home again.
Our hope is also that people who don’t have a church home
might possibly find a home here with us.
So, with those intentions about Homecoming Sunday,
when I came around to reading the gospel lesson for today
I thought, “Oh swell!”
“You can’t be my disciple
unless you love me more than you love your family
or even your own life.
You can’t be my disciple
unless you give away everything you own.”
Not exactly the best way to market the church, is it?
There was a church in Welland a couple of years ago
that gave away Blue Jays baseball tickets
to the first hundred people through the door
on a certain Sunday.
Come to church and get free baseball tickets
or come to church and hear Jesus tell you
to give away everything you own.
Swell.
The thing is, here in this church
we’re not about marketing strategies and giveaways
to convince, entice or bribe people
to come through those doors and maybe even stay.
Here in this church we’re about worshiping, following, changing.
We’re here to worship God
because we believe in a God who deserves to be worshiped.
And we’re here to support and encourage one another,
to hear God’s word, to learn how to follow Jesus.
And we’re here to be changed.
Yes, believe it or not, we’re here to be changed.
It’s not about hearing “I’m okay. You’re okay.”
I’m not. Neither are you.
God wants more from me and God wants more from you.
We want to see more people in church.
We want to be spreading the good news
about God’s love for the world
and what he has done for us through Jesus Christ.
That’s what Jesus calls us to do in the great commission.
“Go to the people of all nations and make them my disciples.
Baptize them in the name of the Father, the Son,
and the Holy Spirit, and teach them
to do everything I have told you.”
We have a message of love to share
and it’s a message that changes people.
When you’ve heard and experienced the love of God
you won’t be the same.
When the Holy Spirit touches you and works within you
things are going to change.
Some churches go about this in a different way,
and I think it’s a wrong headed way.
Jack Handey wrote a comedy book of Deep Thoughts
that included this:
“If a kid asks where rain comes from,
I think a cute thing to tell him is ‘God is crying.’
And if he asks why God is crying,
another cute thing to tell him is
‘Probably because of something you did.’”
A gigantic billboard had a picture of flames shooting up from the bottom
and a message that simply said NO GOD = NO FUTURE.
Both of those examples take the approach that you change people
by just scaring the heck out of them.
I think they mean well but they don’t get the point
that it’s God’s love that makes a difference for people.
It’s God’s love that changes people.
We Lutherans like to think we’ve got it all figure out right.
Who knows, maybe we do,
but we don’t do a very good job of showing it and telling it.
We talk about grace, the free gift of grace.
Pastor Samuel Zumwalt says
we can quote Martin Luther’s Small Catechism
saying that the Holy Spirit does what we cannot naturally do.
Working in the church we say the Holy Spirit creates faith in us
through the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
We say the Holy Spirit teaches us through the Gospel
to trust that we are made right with God
through no effort or merit of our own.
We say that as God baptizes us
into the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ,
we are claimed by grace
as God’s beloved daughters and sons.
We say that we are reborn again and again
as we return to our baptism, confess our brokenness,
and approach God’s throne of grace with empty hands.
We say that we are responding to God’s goodness and mercy
by offering up our lives as a sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving.
Pressed for an answer many Lutheran Christians
can give a fairly simple answer to the question,
“What is the Good News of Jesus Christ?”
“Why grace is a free gift!”
We can say what the good news is
but we don’t seem to know about what the Gospel does.
We don’t get that Jesus is trying to do something with us
here and now.
In today’s gospel reading Jesus is telling us that following him,
being his disciple,
is going to change us.
It’s going to cost us something.
The German pastor and martyr Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote a book
that attacked a lazy Christian attitude.
Writing in his book The Cost of Discipleship
he took aim at Lutheran Christians
who lived a caricature of the Christian life.
He was attacking a crossless Christianity.
He was attacking us for singing “Take My Life and Let Me Be.”
He was attacking the old sinner in each of us
that wants to stay old—
that old unredeemed part of each of us
that wants to stay unredeemed, unclaimed, and unwashed.
Bonhoeffer was sending us back to Jesus,
to what he says in the gospels.
Jesus makes clear that God’s love changes us.
The old sinner in us cannot remain.
I can’t be God’s dear possession
when most of me is still hanging on to my possessions for dear life.
I can’t love the Lord with all my heart
if most of my heart is engaged
in making my child a better soccer player.
I can’t love the Lord with all my heart
if most of my heart is occupied
with how to make somebody love me like I want to be loved.
I can’t love the Lord with all my heart
if most of my heart and most of my wallet is tied up
with whatever it is in this world that delights me.
I can’t love the Lord with my all if most of my heart, soul, and mind
is consumed by ambition or control or the arts
or fundraising or church-building or politics
or whatever it is to which my heart is clinging.
Preachers listen to Jesus selectively.
We read or hear a gospel lesson and think
“that’s a good text for a stewardship sermon
or an evangelism sermon.
That’s a good text to grow the church.”
Too many of us preachers fail to see or believe
that the Gospel actually transforms lives.
But lay people listen to Jesus selectively too.
Maybe you read or hear today’s gospel lesson and think
“Jesus doesn’t want me to hate my family.
He just wants me to put God first.
He just wants me to be a little nicer
and a little more forgiving
and a little more active in my congregation
and a little more generous.”
None or us, preachers or lay people,
want to admit that following Jesus means changing our lives.
I came across this joke.
How many Lutherans does it take to change a lightbulb?
Twelve. One to change it, and the other eleven
to say how much they liked the old lightbulb better.
But that’s assuming you find one who is willing
to climb the ladder and change the bulb.
I’ve heard the joke told a little differently.
How many Lutherans does it take to change a lightbulb?
Change?!?
We can laugh at ourselves.
We can laugh about change.
But will we actually change?
Jesus tells us, in today’s gospel reading, to carry a cross.
“You cannot be my disciple
unless you carry your own cross and come with me.”
That’s serious stuff.
A convicted criminal sentenced to crucifixion
was required to carry the crossbar of his cross
to the place of execution.
When Jesus tells us to carry a cross he’s asking us to die.
That’s the gospel to which we say “Praise to you, O Christ.”
But wait a minute.
Are we ready to die?
Are we willing to set aside what we want
and do what God wants?
God’s Son Jesus had to die for us,
because we didn’t want to die to ourselves.
And we still don’t want to die to ourselves.
It cost God everything to save us from ourselves.
It cost God everything to free us
from the power of sin, death, and evil.
God so loved us that he did for us what we can’t do for ourselves.
It’s not that God somehow changed his mind about sin.
Rather God didn’t give us what we deserve.
In Jesus Christ, God gave us what we didn’t deserve.
Mercy. Forgiveness. Love. Himself.
There’s a story about a mother who once approached Napoleon
seeking a pardon for her son.
The emperor replied that the young man
had committed a certain offense twice
and justice demanded death.
“But I don’t ask for justice,” the mother explained.
“I plead for mercy.”
“But your son does not deserve mercy,” Napoleon replied.
“Sir,” the woman cried,
“it would not be mercy if he deserved it,
and mercy is all I ask for.”
“Well, then,” the emperor said,
“I will have mercy.”
And he spared the woman’s son.
That’s what God did for us when we deserved punishment for our sin.
God showed us mercy.
God gave us what we didn’t deserve.
That giving, that mercy, that forgiveness starts at our baptism
when we die to our old sinful self
and rise again to Jesus’ righteousness.
It’s the beginning of a pattern that isn’t complete
until our body finally dies
and we live with God forever.
Until then, in the meantime,
in the time between our first washing
and the day we breathe our last,
we die and rise.
Die and rise. Die and rise. Die and rise. Die and rise.
Disciples of Jesus do die and rise.
We follow the Master, at times as well as we can,
at other times not well at all.
But as we follow we die and rise, we change.
“You cannot be my disciple unless you love me
more than you love your father and mother,
your wife and children, and your brothers and sisters.
You cannot come with me unless you love me
more than you love your own life.
You cannot be my disciple
unless you carry your own cross and come with me.
You cannot be my disciple
unless you give away everything you own.”
Jesus is talking about not being satisfied
with our brokenness and sinfulness.
He’s talking about loving God and following Jesus
with all that we are.
He’s talking about putting the old sinner to death,
letting go of our possessions,
setting our hearts and wallets free
from any other delight, ambition, or control.
We can’t do it alone.
We come here for the support of a community of others
who are also being changed.
We can’t do it alone.
The Holy Spirit molds us to be what God wants
rather than what we might intend.
We can’t do it alone.
We do it with Jesus by our side
as we die to ourselves
and rise to become more of what God intends for us.
The Christian life is not just talking and singing about Jesus.
It’s not dabbling in God while we cling to the things of this world.
The cost of discipleship is the death of Jesus.
Those of us who follow him will die too.
And when we die in Christ God gives us new life,
life as we could never imagine it.
Amen
Wednesday, August 22, 2007
Tourists and Pilgrims
I haven't seen the paper yet today but if they weren't pressed for space this should be in it.
I took my family back to our favourite campground in the Finger Lakes Region of New York. This was our fifth summer in a row visiting there. We love it, the kids love it, we make day trips to various locations in the area, and we're always kind of sad to come home. As nice as a vacation is, it's not real life. It's an escape from real life. When we're on vacation we're only tourists.
Trips, journeys, vacations, they're wonderful things. Once the anticipation and excitement of Christmas is over my family starts looking forward to our summer camping trip to the Finger Lakes. But that vacation lasts a week or two. It's an escape, a change of scenery, a break from the everyday. We have a different experience there from the locals who are there year-round.
A book that I read while we were on vacation talked about tourists and pilgrims. It mentioned Trinity Church in New York City, one of the oldest churches in the United States, that sits near the edge of the World Trade Center site. Since September 2001, more than two million visitors a year have passed through its historic doors. Most of these people are spiritual tourists, nomads trying to make sense of the violence, suffering, and war that have engulfed us. Rev. Dr. Jim Cooper, the senior clergyperson at Trinity Church says, "They come. They come in droves. But I don't want them to leave as tourists. I want them to become pilgrims. I want them to connect, to know that there is something more."
We're all on some kind of spiritual journey. One researcher did a search of numerous articles about spirituality to come up with a definition and concluded that spirituality, in whatever form, is about making meaning. We're all on a spiritual journey of self-discovery and meaning but simply being on the journey doesn't mean that people will find meaning. When we "connect," when we discover that journeys can become pilgrimages, then we change from being tourists to being pilgrims.
As pilgrims we're not on a vacation to escape life, instead our journey embraces life more deeply. We find meaning in the destination of our pilgrimage and in the community of fellow pilgrims. Like the year- round residents of a vacation community, the locals, becoming a pilgrim is about being a year-round member of the community. It's about walking together through all the seasons, celebrating in the festivals, living through ordinary times, suffering at dark moments.
In the church we are on this pilgrimage together. We journey together, we change and grow and find meaning for our lives. And it's not just a journey of self-discovery and personal meaning. As pilgrims we find that God is transforming us as a community and together we work to transform the world through God's love and peace.
After our vacation we came home, and it's good to be home. For a while we were tourists but now we're back to being pilgrims, traveling life's journey connected to our community of faith, connected to God.
Tourists and Pilgrims
I took my family back to our favourite campground in the Finger Lakes Region of New York. This was our fifth summer in a row visiting there. We love it, the kids love it, we make day trips to various locations in the area, and we're always kind of sad to come home. As nice as a vacation is, it's not real life. It's an escape from real life. When we're on vacation we're only tourists.
Trips, journeys, vacations, they're wonderful things. Once the anticipation and excitement of Christmas is over my family starts looking forward to our summer camping trip to the Finger Lakes. But that vacation lasts a week or two. It's an escape, a change of scenery, a break from the everyday. We have a different experience there from the locals who are there year-round.
A book that I read while we were on vacation talked about tourists and pilgrims. It mentioned Trinity Church in New York City, one of the oldest churches in the United States, that sits near the edge of the World Trade Center site. Since September 2001, more than two million visitors a year have passed through its historic doors. Most of these people are spiritual tourists, nomads trying to make sense of the violence, suffering, and war that have engulfed us. Rev. Dr. Jim Cooper, the senior clergyperson at Trinity Church says, "They come. They come in droves. But I don't want them to leave as tourists. I want them to become pilgrims. I want them to connect, to know that there is something more."
We're all on some kind of spiritual journey. One researcher did a search of numerous articles about spirituality to come up with a definition and concluded that spirituality, in whatever form, is about making meaning. We're all on a spiritual journey of self-discovery and meaning but simply being on the journey doesn't mean that people will find meaning. When we "connect," when we discover that journeys can become pilgrimages, then we change from being tourists to being pilgrims.
As pilgrims we're not on a vacation to escape life, instead our journey embraces life more deeply. We find meaning in the destination of our pilgrimage and in the community of fellow pilgrims. Like the year- round residents of a vacation community, the locals, becoming a pilgrim is about being a year-round member of the community. It's about walking together through all the seasons, celebrating in the festivals, living through ordinary times, suffering at dark moments.
In the church we are on this pilgrimage together. We journey together, we change and grow and find meaning for our lives. And it's not just a journey of self-discovery and personal meaning. As pilgrims we find that God is transforming us as a community and together we work to transform the world through God's love and peace.
After our vacation we came home, and it's good to be home. For a while we were tourists but now we're back to being pilgrims, traveling life's journey connected to our community of faith, connected to God.
Wednesday, August 15, 2007
Family Camping
We're back. We went on our 5th annual summer vacation to Hickory Hill Family Camping Resort in Bath, NY. We had a wonderful two weeks. We didn't do all of the things we normally do, well some of us didn't. For some people it's enough to just hang around the campground, by our trailer of by the pool, and a lot of the time that's what we did. But we always make some day trips. We might just take a drive through the beautiful countryside around the Finger Lakes and the hills of the Alleghany Plateau but we also make some trips to various destinations.
We ended up at the Arnot Mall one day. We thought about seeing a movie there but we couldn't agree on which one to see so we skipped it and just wandered around the mall and did a bit of shopping.
Some of us went to the Windmill Farm and Craft Market.
We went to Watkins Glen State Park as we do every year and this year we made it all the way up the gorge and back.
We went, for the first time, to the Glenn H. Curtiss Museum in Hammondsport. I never realized what a huge part of aviation history this guy and this village are.
Some of the kids went with the in-laws to the Corning Museum of Glass. We've done it a couple of times over the years but skipped it this year.
We always go on a wine tour and tasting and this year we went to the Widmer Winery. They are, for some years now, owners of the Manischewitz brand and produce all of that brand of Kosher wine. We saw the facility and met one of the rabbis who oversees that production.
At the campground the kids usually went to the craft time each morning. They do themes each week and our first week there was "Death by Chocolate" week. The second week was racing week since NASCAR was coming to nearby Watkins Glenn.
During the Chocolate week nearly all of the crafts were edible. On one day they had a chocolate slip- and-slide where they laid a tarp down on the grass, sprayed some water on it, then dumped a bunch of chocolate pudding on it. Two of my kids braved the mess as did my sister-in-law. They had a candy bar bingo night where the price of a card was one candy bar and all of the prizes were candy bars. One of my daughters won twice, totaling 8 candy bars.
As we were leaving we booked our two weeks on the same site for next year. Yesterday after my wife finished cleaning the trailer so that I could close it up she said she could easily camp out in there longer. We have such a great time. The kids love it. We love it. Our 9-year-old boy says he likes sleeping in the trailer because we're all so close together. That's sweet. It's a shame we don't use it more but it's hard to take the time off. We've considered going somewhere close to town for a weekend, close enough that I could be in church on Sunday morning for worship and then head back again afterward but we never get that together. But even if the trailer only gets used for 2 weeks out of the year I think it's worth it. I'm looking forward to next year already.
We ended up at the Arnot Mall one day. We thought about seeing a movie there but we couldn't agree on which one to see so we skipped it and just wandered around the mall and did a bit of shopping.
Some of us went to the Windmill Farm and Craft Market.
We went to Watkins Glen State Park as we do every year and this year we made it all the way up the gorge and back.
We went, for the first time, to the Glenn H. Curtiss Museum in Hammondsport. I never realized what a huge part of aviation history this guy and this village are.
Some of the kids went with the in-laws to the Corning Museum of Glass. We've done it a couple of times over the years but skipped it this year.
We always go on a wine tour and tasting and this year we went to the Widmer Winery. They are, for some years now, owners of the Manischewitz brand and produce all of that brand of Kosher wine. We saw the facility and met one of the rabbis who oversees that production.
At the campground the kids usually went to the craft time each morning. They do themes each week and our first week there was "Death by Chocolate" week. The second week was racing week since NASCAR was coming to nearby Watkins Glenn.
During the Chocolate week nearly all of the crafts were edible. On one day they had a chocolate slip- and-slide where they laid a tarp down on the grass, sprayed some water on it, then dumped a bunch of chocolate pudding on it. Two of my kids braved the mess as did my sister-in-law. They had a candy bar bingo night where the price of a card was one candy bar and all of the prizes were candy bars. One of my daughters won twice, totaling 8 candy bars.
As we were leaving we booked our two weeks on the same site for next year. Yesterday after my wife finished cleaning the trailer so that I could close it up she said she could easily camp out in there longer. We have such a great time. The kids love it. We love it. Our 9-year-old boy says he likes sleeping in the trailer because we're all so close together. That's sweet. It's a shame we don't use it more but it's hard to take the time off. We've considered going somewhere close to town for a weekend, close enough that I could be in church on Sunday morning for worship and then head back again afterward but we never get that together. But even if the trailer only gets used for 2 weeks out of the year I think it's worth it. I'm looking forward to next year already.
Thursday, June 28, 2007
Summer Newsletter
This is what I wrote for our summer newsletter.
I remember bits and pieces of a song that I learned in music class when I was still in public school. It was a piece from the opera Porgy and Bess, "Summertime" by George Gershwin and DuBose Heyward.
You may have read the column I wrote for the InPort News a couple of weeks ago talking about what I like and don’t like about summer. I hope I didn’t give too much weight to the dislikes in that column. There’s a whole lot I like about summer and I can put up with most of the dislikes.
One of the big things I like about summer is mentioned in the first part of that song. Summertime, And the livin’ is easy.... I think that’s so true. Because almost everyone takes some time off during the summer for a vacation, things just seem to slow down a bit. The livin’ is easy. The hustle and bustle of daily life seem to calm down. Maybe because the running and chasing we seem to do so much of would make us too hot in the summer.
It’s good to slow down, even if it’s only once in a while. It’s good to take time to recharge you batteries and it’s probably best you do that before they run completely empty.
Jesus took time off too. In the Gospel according to Matthew, after Jesus spent a day in the midst of a great crowd curing their sick, and then feeding them all, more than 5,000 of them, he sent the disciples across the lake in their boat while he sent the people away to their homes. "And after he had dismissed the crowds, he went up the mountain by himself to pray" (Mt 14:23). God even took some time off after creating the universe. "And on the seventh day God finished the work that he had done, and he rested on the seventh day from all the work that he had done" (Gen 2:2). Some get the mistaken impression that Jesus did away with Sabbath observance. He didn’t abolish it, he just wouldn’t abide by the nit-picking ways it was being observed that forbade even acts of mercy.
This summer, when "the livin’ is easy," let us all take some time to rest, to recharge our batteries, prevent rather than recover from burnout. And let prayer be a part of the nourishment and refreshment that we receive as we step back from the daily routine. After a long hard day Jesus took some alone time, some down time, and he prayed. And let us remember the sabbath day, and keep it holy. Who remembers Martin Luther’s explanation to this commandment from the Small Catechism? "We are to fear and love God, so that we do not despise God’s Word or preaching, but instead keep that Word holy and gladly hear and learn it."
May our summertime refreshment, in whatever form that may take, restore us in body, mind, soul, and spirit. And please don’t be a stranger from church.
I remember bits and pieces of a song that I learned in music class when I was still in public school. It was a piece from the opera Porgy and Bess, "Summertime" by George Gershwin and DuBose Heyward.
Summertime,
And the livin’ is easy
Fish are jumpin’
And the cotton is high
Your daddy’s rich
And your mamma’s good lookin’
So hush little baby
Don’t you cry.
And the livin’ is easy
Fish are jumpin’
And the cotton is high
Your daddy’s rich
And your mamma’s good lookin’
So hush little baby
Don’t you cry.
You may have read the column I wrote for the InPort News a couple of weeks ago talking about what I like and don’t like about summer. I hope I didn’t give too much weight to the dislikes in that column. There’s a whole lot I like about summer and I can put up with most of the dislikes.
One of the big things I like about summer is mentioned in the first part of that song. Summertime, And the livin’ is easy.... I think that’s so true. Because almost everyone takes some time off during the summer for a vacation, things just seem to slow down a bit. The livin’ is easy. The hustle and bustle of daily life seem to calm down. Maybe because the running and chasing we seem to do so much of would make us too hot in the summer.
It’s good to slow down, even if it’s only once in a while. It’s good to take time to recharge you batteries and it’s probably best you do that before they run completely empty.
Jesus took time off too. In the Gospel according to Matthew, after Jesus spent a day in the midst of a great crowd curing their sick, and then feeding them all, more than 5,000 of them, he sent the disciples across the lake in their boat while he sent the people away to their homes. "And after he had dismissed the crowds, he went up the mountain by himself to pray" (Mt 14:23). God even took some time off after creating the universe. "And on the seventh day God finished the work that he had done, and he rested on the seventh day from all the work that he had done" (Gen 2:2). Some get the mistaken impression that Jesus did away with Sabbath observance. He didn’t abolish it, he just wouldn’t abide by the nit-picking ways it was being observed that forbade even acts of mercy.
This summer, when "the livin’ is easy," let us all take some time to rest, to recharge our batteries, prevent rather than recover from burnout. And let prayer be a part of the nourishment and refreshment that we receive as we step back from the daily routine. After a long hard day Jesus took some alone time, some down time, and he prayed. And let us remember the sabbath day, and keep it holy. Who remembers Martin Luther’s explanation to this commandment from the Small Catechism? "We are to fear and love God, so that we do not despise God’s Word or preaching, but instead keep that Word holy and gladly hear and learn it."
May our summertime refreshment, in whatever form that may take, restore us in body, mind, soul, and spirit. And please don’t be a stranger from church.
Wednesday, June 27, 2007
Post-Convention Thoughts
Well, I'm back from the 11th Biennial Convention of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada. It was good to see old friends and to make new friends. I spent a lot of time with a seminary classmate, a bit of time with a friend from my teenage years, and got to know some new people from across Canada.
Part of our first full day at the convention was spent worshiping and celebrating with delegates to the General Synod of the Anglican Church of Canada. It was a neat day. We heard Dr. Sallie McFague speak about Global Warming and how it's an issue of faith and the gospel. She was good! We sat at tables with lay and clergy from both the ELCIC and ACC getting to know each other. We shared Holy Communion. We saw the reaffirmation of A New Covenant: Towards the Constitutional Recognition and Protection of Aboriginal Self-Government in Canada, A Pastoral Statement by the Leaders of the Christian Churches on Aboriginal Rights and the Canadian Constitution. It was reaffirmed by representatives of The Anglican Church of Canada, the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops, Christian Reformed Church in North America, Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada, Religious Society of Friends (Quakers), The Presbyterian Church in Canada, Mennonite Central Committee Canada, and The United Church of Canada.
We elected a new National Bishop. She is Susan Johnson, currently Assistant to the Bishop of the Eastern Synod, ELCIC. I've known Susan for years and I think she will make a good bishop for our church. She will be ordained bishop in September.
We passed the Stewardship of Creation Initiative, what many were referring to as a "Greening the Church" motion. The goals for this initiative are:
All of these things were very good but received very little attention compared to The Issue. On Saturday we looked at the motion on mission to homosexuals and same-sex couples. There was a whole lot of debate, many people lining up at the microphones, equal time given to speakers on both sides of The Issue, and then the vote was taken. It was done by secret ballot, which I think was a good thing so that nobody was intimidated or pressured to vote a certain way. The result was 181 votes (48%) for the motion and 200 votes (52%) against the motion. The motion failed.
I was neither disappointed nor relieved at the outcome. As Gamaliel said: "If what they are planning is something of their own doing, it will fail. But if God is behind it, you cannot stop it anyway, unless you want to fight against God" (Acts 5.38-39). People on both sides of The Issue believe in what they are supporting and believe they have it on good scriptural authority that their opinion is the right one. I don't think The Issue is going to go away. We'll see what the future holds. In either case I don't believe that support or opposition of The Issue will put our salvation in jeopardy. I think the main thing it will influence at this time is how our church is perceived by our gay and lesbian brothers and sisters in faith.
On Saturday evening we celebrated the ministry of our retiring National Bishop and outgoing National Church Council members, followed by a nice party/reception with a cash bar and a pretty good jazz band. Sunday morning's closing worship was beautiful. Mark Sedio (you'll find his name under a few pieces in Evangelical Lutheran Worship) was a great musician throughout the convention.
Now. It's good to be home.
Part of our first full day at the convention was spent worshiping and celebrating with delegates to the General Synod of the Anglican Church of Canada. It was a neat day. We heard Dr. Sallie McFague speak about Global Warming and how it's an issue of faith and the gospel. She was good! We sat at tables with lay and clergy from both the ELCIC and ACC getting to know each other. We shared Holy Communion. We saw the reaffirmation of A New Covenant: Towards the Constitutional Recognition and Protection of Aboriginal Self-Government in Canada, A Pastoral Statement by the Leaders of the Christian Churches on Aboriginal Rights and the Canadian Constitution. It was reaffirmed by representatives of The Anglican Church of Canada, the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops, Christian Reformed Church in North America, Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada, Religious Society of Friends (Quakers), The Presbyterian Church in Canada, Mennonite Central Committee Canada, and The United Church of Canada.
We elected a new National Bishop. She is Susan Johnson, currently Assistant to the Bishop of the Eastern Synod, ELCIC. I've known Susan for years and I think she will make a good bishop for our church. She will be ordained bishop in September.
We passed the Stewardship of Creation Initiative, what many were referring to as a "Greening the Church" motion. The goals for this initiative are:
- To reduce the negative impact the ELCIC, at all levels, has on the environment.
- To increase the ELCIC's commitment to and understanding of environmental stewardship.
- To involve youth in this initiative and create opportunities for leadership development.
All of these things were very good but received very little attention compared to The Issue. On Saturday we looked at the motion on mission to homosexuals and same-sex couples. There was a whole lot of debate, many people lining up at the microphones, equal time given to speakers on both sides of The Issue, and then the vote was taken. It was done by secret ballot, which I think was a good thing so that nobody was intimidated or pressured to vote a certain way. The result was 181 votes (48%) for the motion and 200 votes (52%) against the motion. The motion failed.
I was neither disappointed nor relieved at the outcome. As Gamaliel said: "If what they are planning is something of their own doing, it will fail. But if God is behind it, you cannot stop it anyway, unless you want to fight against God" (Acts 5.38-39). People on both sides of The Issue believe in what they are supporting and believe they have it on good scriptural authority that their opinion is the right one. I don't think The Issue is going to go away. We'll see what the future holds. In either case I don't believe that support or opposition of The Issue will put our salvation in jeopardy. I think the main thing it will influence at this time is how our church is perceived by our gay and lesbian brothers and sisters in faith.
On Saturday evening we celebrated the ministry of our retiring National Bishop and outgoing National Church Council members, followed by a nice party/reception with a cash bar and a pretty good jazz band. Sunday morning's closing worship was beautiful. Mark Sedio (you'll find his name under a few pieces in Evangelical Lutheran Worship) was a great musician throughout the convention.
Now. It's good to be home.
Tuesday, June 19, 2007
Convention Time
So, tomorrow I fly to Winnipeg to attend the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada's Eleventh Biennial Convention In Mission for Others: A People Called. I am and I am not looking forward to this. I attended the last convention in 2005 and it was a drag. There was so much tension hanging over the entire event so that it wasn't at all enjoyable.
I'm looking forward to seeing some old friends, maybe making some new ones, looking forward to the worship opportunities, I'll even welcome some of the things happening in the business sessions. But the big thing hanging over this convention, yet again, is same-sex blessings.
I'm not opposed to allowing pastors and churches to provide for the blessing of committed relationships between same-sex couples. I've voted in favour of it twice now (at the 2005 National Convention and the 2006 Eastern Synod Convention) and will again. It's just that this issue overshadows everything the church does when it meets in convention. Overshadows and distracts. It distracts and prevents us from getting to many other issues in the church.
The population of our country is growing yet we see membership and attendance in our churches dwindling to the point that congregations all over the place are looking at merging and closing. Shouldn't we be focusing on evangelism to fill our churches and plant new ones? Instead, that doesn't even seem to be on the radar because all we do is talk about sex whenever we meet.
As I see it, there are four major items on the agenda for the convention.
I'm looking forward to seeing some old friends, maybe making some new ones, looking forward to the worship opportunities, I'll even welcome some of the things happening in the business sessions. But the big thing hanging over this convention, yet again, is same-sex blessings.
I'm not opposed to allowing pastors and churches to provide for the blessing of committed relationships between same-sex couples. I've voted in favour of it twice now (at the 2005 National Convention and the 2006 Eastern Synod Convention) and will again. It's just that this issue overshadows everything the church does when it meets in convention. Overshadows and distracts. It distracts and prevents us from getting to many other issues in the church.
The population of our country is growing yet we see membership and attendance in our churches dwindling to the point that congregations all over the place are looking at merging and closing. Shouldn't we be focusing on evangelism to fill our churches and plant new ones? Instead, that doesn't even seem to be on the radar because all we do is talk about sex whenever we meet.
As I see it, there are four major items on the agenda for the convention.
- We will spend most of Thurdsay together with the delegates of the Anglican Church of Canada's General Synod which is taking place in Winnipeg at the same time as our convention. We have been in full communion with the Anglican Church for 6 years now and this will be a day of celebration.
- When we get back to the University of Manitoba campus on Thursday evening we will begin the process of electing a new National Bishop for the ELCIC (called a Presiding Bishop in some denominations). Bishop Raymond Schultz has announced that he will retire so we'll be electing a new bishop. Here again, I fear (and I'm pretty certain) that the issue of same-sex blessings will overshadow the election process. It will come down to politics between those for and those against and who each side perceives as "their" candidate. I fear that this won't be a Spirit-led ecclesiastical ballot to elect the chief pastor of our church but an issue-driven one.
- Then there is "the" motion regarding blessing same-sex unions. Two years ago a motion to allow a local option for the blessing of same-sex unions was defeated. Last year at our Eastern Synod Assembly virtually the same motion was passed but the National Church Council ruled that we didn't have the authority to do so as a synod and asked us to refrain from acting on our motion. Now they've proposed this motion.
That this convention affirms that the diversity within Canada's culture requires responses to a variety of persons in order for this church to be In Mission for Others. We also affirm that the synods have the mandate to devise mission strategies appropriate to their regional settings.
Accordingly, we encourage synods to develop ways to best minister to people who live in committed same-sex relationships, including the possibility of blessing such unions.
- Finally there will be a Stewardship of Creation Initiative on the agenda that might just be overlooked. The initiative says:
We commit ourselves as church to answer the call to respect the integrity of God's creation through an environmental stewardship initiative engaging our national, synodical, congregational and individual member expressions.
There is then an Implementation Strategy that will go along with that.
Tuesday, June 12, 2007
Summertime
This should appear in the local paper tomorrow.
As I write this the summer solstice is 2½ weeks away. The hot days of summer haven't really arrived but we've had a few days of summer-like heat already. I have a love-hate relationship with summer.
I love the way some things slow down over summer. The kids won't have homework to do in the evenings. In my job I have the luxury of a fairly flexible schedule so in the summer I don't always have to wake up to an alarm clock when I don't have to help get the kids ready for school. In our church most of the regular programming and meetings take a break over the summer. I've written in this column before about how my family enjoys our summer camping trip. We've been looking forward to that for months and we still have a number of weeks of anticipation before we reach that point. I like not needing a coat or jacket when I go out. I like the long hours of daylight. There's a lot I like about summer.
But there are some things I don't like about summer and some of that is an intense dislike. I'm not too good with heat, especially the sweltering, sticky, humid heat we get here. My perfect temperature is warm enough for shorts and sandals but not so hot that the perspiration gets squeezed out of my without doing any kind of physical activity. Air conditioning is nice but there are others in my household who can't stand it, plus it adds to our hydro consumption when we're trying to conserve. I'm not such a big fan of bugs either. Mosquito bites are never fun but now we have to worry about West Nile as well. And I love to sit outside for a barbeque or picnic but later in the summer you have to worry about the yellow-jackets that won't stay away from your food.
It seems that for summer, like so many things in life, we need two "words" to speak the full truth of the season. If you're marketing the season you play up the time to take vacation, play outdoors, wear light clothing, enjoy concerts under the stars, explore the wonders of nature. But that's only the partial truth about the season. Summer also brings the stifling heat, forest fires, hurricane season, water shortages, and increased smog. The poor often can't afford air conditioning or vacations.
Many situations require two "words." We live our lives with a combination of grace and hardships. There is much that calls out for thanksgiving. We give thanks for the greening of nature, the growth in farmers fields and orchards and in our gardens. Often we don't recognize the grace, the gifts of God that are right there in front of us, though we've done nothing to deserve them or earn them. But there are also many things in our lives and in our world that have us pleading for mercy or offering mercy to others who struggle.
In the church we ought to be speaking these two "words." We're realistic about the world we're living in. We're realistic about the struggles in life. We don't ignore them, papering over them to hide them. Nor do we look through rose-coloured glasses, making hardship seem like it's not really there or it's not all that bad. That's the one "word."
But the church has another word. We give it different names like Gospel, Good News, and Grace. God, too, is realistic about the hardship and suffering, in fact God experienced those things in Jesus Christ. But when we live in faith with God then we live with the promise that hardship and struggle are not the end. God's will is for good. Jesus began his ministry by quoting the ancient words of the prophet Isaiah: "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free" (Luke 4:18).
May we live with those two "words" this summer. We can plead for mercy and offer mercy where it is needed. We can also give thanks for the gifts we receive daily from our Lord.
As I write this the summer solstice is 2½ weeks away. The hot days of summer haven't really arrived but we've had a few days of summer-like heat already. I have a love-hate relationship with summer.
I love the way some things slow down over summer. The kids won't have homework to do in the evenings. In my job I have the luxury of a fairly flexible schedule so in the summer I don't always have to wake up to an alarm clock when I don't have to help get the kids ready for school. In our church most of the regular programming and meetings take a break over the summer. I've written in this column before about how my family enjoys our summer camping trip. We've been looking forward to that for months and we still have a number of weeks of anticipation before we reach that point. I like not needing a coat or jacket when I go out. I like the long hours of daylight. There's a lot I like about summer.
But there are some things I don't like about summer and some of that is an intense dislike. I'm not too good with heat, especially the sweltering, sticky, humid heat we get here. My perfect temperature is warm enough for shorts and sandals but not so hot that the perspiration gets squeezed out of my without doing any kind of physical activity. Air conditioning is nice but there are others in my household who can't stand it, plus it adds to our hydro consumption when we're trying to conserve. I'm not such a big fan of bugs either. Mosquito bites are never fun but now we have to worry about West Nile as well. And I love to sit outside for a barbeque or picnic but later in the summer you have to worry about the yellow-jackets that won't stay away from your food.
It seems that for summer, like so many things in life, we need two "words" to speak the full truth of the season. If you're marketing the season you play up the time to take vacation, play outdoors, wear light clothing, enjoy concerts under the stars, explore the wonders of nature. But that's only the partial truth about the season. Summer also brings the stifling heat, forest fires, hurricane season, water shortages, and increased smog. The poor often can't afford air conditioning or vacations.
Many situations require two "words." We live our lives with a combination of grace and hardships. There is much that calls out for thanksgiving. We give thanks for the greening of nature, the growth in farmers fields and orchards and in our gardens. Often we don't recognize the grace, the gifts of God that are right there in front of us, though we've done nothing to deserve them or earn them. But there are also many things in our lives and in our world that have us pleading for mercy or offering mercy to others who struggle.
In the church we ought to be speaking these two "words." We're realistic about the world we're living in. We're realistic about the struggles in life. We don't ignore them, papering over them to hide them. Nor do we look through rose-coloured glasses, making hardship seem like it's not really there or it's not all that bad. That's the one "word."
But the church has another word. We give it different names like Gospel, Good News, and Grace. God, too, is realistic about the hardship and suffering, in fact God experienced those things in Jesus Christ. But when we live in faith with God then we live with the promise that hardship and struggle are not the end. God's will is for good. Jesus began his ministry by quoting the ancient words of the prophet Isaiah: "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free" (Luke 4:18).
May we live with those two "words" this summer. We can plead for mercy and offer mercy where it is needed. We can also give thanks for the gifts we receive daily from our Lord.
Thursday, May 24, 2007
He's Gone
Well, he died on Monday morning at around 12:20 a.m. at the age of 54. This funeral has really got me down. When I became a pastor I was terrified of doing funerals. I didn't know if I'd be up to doing this, didn't know if I could hold it together when so many around me are falling apart. Over the last few years I've gotten almost mechanical about it which isn't good but I've had so many funerals (average 9 a year) that I've gotten used to doing them. They don't frighten me any more. I don't know why this one is different. It's not like I knew him really well. Maybe it's because he's so young. He's only 14 years older than me. His funeral is in an hour. Here's the sermon I'll be preaching.
E died on Monday.
On the one hand you can almost say it was about time
since he had to endure so much suffering
during the last part of his life.
But really, he was too young to die.
He didn't get to be an old man
because cancer showed its ugly head
and cut his life short.
It wasn't easy to watch what he had to go through,
especially these last few days.
The man who lay there helpless,
really just waiting for the end,
was not the man you all had come to know during his life.
For E, his death is a release from a time of declining health,
a release from his suffering.
For you, his family and friends,
his death is a loss of someone you loved,
someone who was important to you,
someone who will be missed.
Early last week when I visited E in the hospital
he wanted to talk about the funeral service.
All he said was "nothing fancy."
I said that the funeral services I lead are fairly simple:
some prayers, some scripture readings, a short sermon.
I asked if there were any readings or hymns
that he'd like us to use.
A asked "Amazing Grace?"
He shook his head.
"Old Rugged Cross?"
He didn't reply.
"Metallica?"
I think he smiled.
I asked, "Enter Sandman?"
Now I'll be honest,
that's the only Metallica song I actually know the title of.
And I had to think that a visit from the sandman
to bring E a peaceful rest
was what he really needed.
But later I got to thinking about some of the words in that song.
A kind of chorus in that song says
"Exit light. Enter night."
That's what we think of when we imagine a quiet and restful sleep.
But that's not what we think of, as Christians,
when we describe death.
A couple of Sundays ago in church we heard a reading from Revelation
that talked about the New Jerusalem,
an image of what it means to live with God.
It said, "the city has no need of sun or moon to shine on it,
for the glory of God is its light,
and its lamp is the Lamb...
there will be no more night;
they need no light of lamp or sun,
for the Lord God will be their light,
and they will reign forever and ever."
You see, death is not an "off to nevernever land"
it's a forever and ever land with God.
The way it all works out is a mystery to us
but we trust in the promises of God
made to us in baptism
that God is always with us.
We can, and should, be thankful for the life that E lived,
for the time we did have with him,
but that won't make his death easy
for those who will now miss him.
You will have memories of E that you will cherish.
Over the days, weeks, months, and years to come
you will remember what you had with Evan.
Some of that remembering will make you sad.
That's normal.
That's right.
We mourn those we lose.
But we can also celebrate
the rest and peace that he now has in the Lord.
You might not feel like celebrating for a while.
Various emotions might be racing through you.
Along with sadness, there might be anger.
It's hard to understand
why you had to watch E suffer the way he did,
why he had to die at a relatively young age.
This is a time of darkness.
Even in the bright sunshine
it can feel like darkness and night in our hearts.
That's what the darkest valley,
the valley of the shadow of death,
a ravine as dark as death is about in Psalm 23.
Those kinds of times are part of every life in one way or another,
at one time or another.
This is a time like that.
It may not look like it now but there is hope.
The Psalm says "I shall fear no evil,
for you are with me;
your rod and your staff they comfort me."
We're not alone.
In the times of darkness God is with us.
God accompanies us through the long night of grief
and, eventually, into the sunshine of a brighter day.
God was with E step by step
through the dark night of his suffering
and is with him now in the light of eternal life.
E's life here on earth is over
but he knows that death is not the end.
Comfort in our dark valley times comes from our faith in Christ.
It's going to be hard for some time.
E's suffering is over.
He is in God's hands.
Like you said in your tribute to E and his cars,
"God's got a great mechanic and body man."
E is in God's hands and so are all of us.
When we remember E's life
it will bring both joy and pain.
But we can live in hope in Jesus Christ,
that we who die in a death like his
will also live in a resurrection like his.
We anticipate that great and holy day
in the sure trust and hope that we have in God.
Amen
Funeral for EG
May 24, 2007
Psalm 23
Thomas Arth
May 24, 2007
Psalm 23
Thomas Arth
E died on Monday.
On the one hand you can almost say it was about time
since he had to endure so much suffering
during the last part of his life.
But really, he was too young to die.
He didn't get to be an old man
because cancer showed its ugly head
and cut his life short.
It wasn't easy to watch what he had to go through,
especially these last few days.
The man who lay there helpless,
really just waiting for the end,
was not the man you all had come to know during his life.
For E, his death is a release from a time of declining health,
a release from his suffering.
For you, his family and friends,
his death is a loss of someone you loved,
someone who was important to you,
someone who will be missed.
Early last week when I visited E in the hospital
he wanted to talk about the funeral service.
All he said was "nothing fancy."
I said that the funeral services I lead are fairly simple:
some prayers, some scripture readings, a short sermon.
I asked if there were any readings or hymns
that he'd like us to use.
A asked "Amazing Grace?"
He shook his head.
"Old Rugged Cross?"
He didn't reply.
"Metallica?"
I think he smiled.
I asked, "Enter Sandman?"
Now I'll be honest,
that's the only Metallica song I actually know the title of.
And I had to think that a visit from the sandman
to bring E a peaceful rest
was what he really needed.
But later I got to thinking about some of the words in that song.
A kind of chorus in that song says
"Exit light. Enter night."
That's what we think of when we imagine a quiet and restful sleep.
But that's not what we think of, as Christians,
when we describe death.
A couple of Sundays ago in church we heard a reading from Revelation
that talked about the New Jerusalem,
an image of what it means to live with God.
It said, "the city has no need of sun or moon to shine on it,
for the glory of God is its light,
and its lamp is the Lamb...
there will be no more night;
they need no light of lamp or sun,
for the Lord God will be their light,
and they will reign forever and ever."
You see, death is not an "off to nevernever land"
it's a forever and ever land with God.
The way it all works out is a mystery to us
but we trust in the promises of God
made to us in baptism
that God is always with us.
We can, and should, be thankful for the life that E lived,
for the time we did have with him,
but that won't make his death easy
for those who will now miss him.
You will have memories of E that you will cherish.
Over the days, weeks, months, and years to come
you will remember what you had with Evan.
Some of that remembering will make you sad.
That's normal.
That's right.
We mourn those we lose.
But we can also celebrate
the rest and peace that he now has in the Lord.
You might not feel like celebrating for a while.
Various emotions might be racing through you.
Along with sadness, there might be anger.
It's hard to understand
why you had to watch E suffer the way he did,
why he had to die at a relatively young age.
This is a time of darkness.
Even in the bright sunshine
it can feel like darkness and night in our hearts.
That's what the darkest valley,
the valley of the shadow of death,
a ravine as dark as death is about in Psalm 23.
Those kinds of times are part of every life in one way or another,
at one time or another.
This is a time like that.
It may not look like it now but there is hope.
The Psalm says "I shall fear no evil,
for you are with me;
your rod and your staff they comfort me."
We're not alone.
In the times of darkness God is with us.
God accompanies us through the long night of grief
and, eventually, into the sunshine of a brighter day.
God was with E step by step
through the dark night of his suffering
and is with him now in the light of eternal life.
E's life here on earth is over
but he knows that death is not the end.
Comfort in our dark valley times comes from our faith in Christ.
It's going to be hard for some time.
E's suffering is over.
He is in God's hands.
Like you said in your tribute to E and his cars,
"God's got a great mechanic and body man."
E is in God's hands and so are all of us.
When we remember E's life
it will bring both joy and pain.
But we can live in hope in Jesus Christ,
that we who die in a death like his
will also live in a resurrection like his.
We anticipate that great and holy day
in the sure trust and hope that we have in God.
Amen
Wednesday, May 16, 2007
Enter Sandman
A parishioner lies dying in the hospital.
I visited with him and his family this morning.
He might die today or tomorrow.
I read Psalm 23, prayed Romans 8.38-39, prayed the Commendation of the Dying.
He said he needed to talk about his funeral service.
I asked what he wanted.
He said "nothing fancy."
I said I don't usually do anything fancy.
I asked if there were any scripture readings or hymns he might want included in the service.
He didn't answer.
His wife asked, "Amazing Grace?"
He shook his head.
"Old Rugged Cross?"
No reply.
"Metallica?"
We all chuckled.
Lord Jesus Christ, deliver your servant from all evil and set him free from every bond, that he may join all your saints in the eternal courts of heaven, where with the Father and the Holy Spirit you live and reign, one God, now and forever. Amen
Enter Sandman.
I visited with him and his family this morning.
He might die today or tomorrow.
I read Psalm 23, prayed Romans 8.38-39, prayed the Commendation of the Dying.
He said he needed to talk about his funeral service.
I asked what he wanted.
He said "nothing fancy."
I said I don't usually do anything fancy.
I asked if there were any scripture readings or hymns he might want included in the service.
He didn't answer.
His wife asked, "Amazing Grace?"
He shook his head.
"Old Rugged Cross?"
No reply.
"Metallica?"
We all chuckled.
Lord Jesus Christ, deliver your servant from all evil and set him free from every bond, that he may join all your saints in the eternal courts of heaven, where with the Father and the Holy Spirit you live and reign, one God, now and forever. Amen
Enter Sandman.
Monday, May 14, 2007
What a Couple of Weeks!
You know, I serve a pretty small church. I'm not usually run off my feet. But last week I had a worship committee meeting on Tuesday night. I had a few people in hospital to visit. One couple from our church was in a car accident that wrecked their car. Thankfully they're not seriously hurt but they're bruised and sore. I had a graveside funeral service on Thursday. A wedding rehearsal on Friday (normally my day off) and the wedding on Saturday (also normally my day off).
This week has a local ministerial meeting on Wednesday (I don't always go to those if I'm too squeezed for time). Thursday is Ascension Day and we'll have a pot luck supper at 5:30 and worship with Holy Communion at 7:00. Saturday is Kids' Club with another pot-luck supper. Then Sunday we'll have Confirmation for 3 of our teenagers, one of them being my oldest daughter.
I didn't go visit my mother yesterday, just gave her a phone call. She was here last Sunday for my oldest son's birthday and she'll be here next Sunday for the confirmation.
So this week I have to write 2 sermons plus make sure all of the extra little things get done for confirmation. Go ahead, cry me a river.
This week has a local ministerial meeting on Wednesday (I don't always go to those if I'm too squeezed for time). Thursday is Ascension Day and we'll have a pot luck supper at 5:30 and worship with Holy Communion at 7:00. Saturday is Kids' Club with another pot-luck supper. Then Sunday we'll have Confirmation for 3 of our teenagers, one of them being my oldest daughter.
I didn't go visit my mother yesterday, just gave her a phone call. She was here last Sunday for my oldest son's birthday and she'll be here next Sunday for the confirmation.
So this week I have to write 2 sermons plus make sure all of the extra little things get done for confirmation. Go ahead, cry me a river.
Monday, May 07, 2007
What To Post
It's been a long time since I've posted anything. Nearly 2 months. I check a few blogs a few times a week and when I don't see them posting anything I quit looking. But I'm more guilty than those people. I don't know what to post sometimes. I don't post all of my sermons because I'm not always very happy with them. And I'm a busy guy and blogging takes a lot of my time. I get the weekly reports of activity on my blog and it's been declining steadily.
Stay tuned. I'm not promising a lot of posts. I'm not promising very good posts. But I'll try to put a little more up here.
Shalom
Stay tuned. I'm not promising a lot of posts. I'm not promising very good posts. But I'll try to put a little more up here.
Shalom
Yesterday's Sermon
Here's what I preached yesterday with help from Timothy Hoyer at Crossings and from the here we stand confirmation curriculum.
A man lies in a hospital bed.
His life slowly but surely ebbs away.
He has suffered a mild heart attack.
He has just learned that he has a rare,
incurable blood disease.
He knows he is dying.
What thoughts occupy a mind at the end of a life?
The man in the hospital bed begins to evaluate the life he has lived.
That often happens.
But it doesn't have to be on a death bed
that those kinds of thoughts come to mind.
There are many times when we look back and take stock.
We make judgements about how we've lived our lives,
about what we've done.
Then statements pop into our heads that begin with
"If only I had..."
"If only I hadn't..."
"What if..."
"I wish..."
During our lives we come upon many forks in the road,
we come to places of decision,
choices are made, opportunities for second guessing.
"What if I'd stayed in school."
"If only I had taken them up on that job offer."
"I wish I'd told my kids how proud I was of them."
"If only I hadn't wasted that time and that money."
And then we also compare
ourselves, our lives, our situations,
with others.
We so often measure our worth according to what we see in others.
I earn more or less that one person.
I drive a nicer car than this one but not as nice as that one.
We're cramped in our home
but they have so much room in theirs.
Why do we feel our lives must be judged?
Why do we make those comparisons?
To judge our life is to measure its worth.
To judge our life is to measure its meaning
according to what we have done
and how much we have done.
This week I came across a story on the internet that said,
"Vacation homes and a third car may hold you hostage
and deprive you of real wealth."
Some people judge their lives by what they've accumulated
and spend so much effort and energy
trying to accumulate all they can
that they don't really live.
All of that judging is living by the law.
The law leads us to feel that we must judge our lives.
We hear "Thou shalt" and "Thou shalt not"
and it's automatic that we start to ask ourselves
"Did I?" or "Have I?"
The law leads us to judge ourselves,
but the one sitting on a great white throne judges the world.
In the verses just before today's reading from Revelation we read,
"Then I saw a great white throne and the one who sat on it."
Earth and heaven fled from his presence.
They passed away.
They fled because they were afraid of being judged.
It's one thing to judge ourselves
according to whatever standard we choose.
But it's entirely another thing to be judged by our God.
The fear of that kind of judgement sends us running.
If you watch enough cop shows on TV,
or if you just know something about human nature,
flight is a sure sign of guilt.
If we're honest with ourselves we're guilty of many things.
We're guilty of death, mourning, crying, and pain.
That seems like a strange thing to say.
How can we be guilty of those things?
Perhaps down at the root of it all,
those things are the result of our sinfulness.
And the reading tells us that these things will pass away.
They're against the will of the one seated on the great white throne.
How do we know that?
Because he gets rid of them.
Death will be no more;
mourning and crying and pain will be no more.
They're signs that things aren't the way God intended them to be.
They're signs that the creation is not being preserved
according to God's will.
Sometimes when I hear well-meaning but misguided people
talking about it being God's will for a child to die
or a parent being cut down in their prime
I want to scream.
As I say, they might mean well but they're wrong. It's not God's will for them to die.
It's not God's will for their family and friends to mourn.
It's not God's will for the crying and the pain
that come with that loss.
As the preacher said after his son died in a car crash.
His consolation is that God's heart was the first to break
when his son died.
"‘Death will be no more;
mourning and crying and pain will be no more,
for the first things have passed away.'
And the one who was seated on the throne said,
‘See, I am making all things new.'"
The man in the hospital bed who judges his life
according to what he had done
has a lot in common
with the passing-away earth and heaven:
neither trust in God as the giver of worth.
The man looks to himself.
He looks at his own life and what he has done,
what he has accomplished,
perhaps what he has accumulated and will leave behind.
And ultimately he's left wanting because it's not enough.
Along with his accomplishments he sees his failures,
he sees what he has missed,
he sees how he doesn't measure up,
neither to his own standards
nor to the standard of the Joneses
with whom he could never keep up.
Earth and heaven had their own deeds to look to:
mourning and crying and pain.
"I saw the great white throne and the one who sat on it;
the earth and the heaven fled from his presence,
and no place was found for them."
Without faith in God, heaven and earth fled,
Adam and Eve fled,
and we flee because without faith
there is no remaining in the presence of God.
There is no place for those who do not fear God.
But suddenly, a new heaven and a new earth appear.
"Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth;
for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away."
It's somewhat reminiscent of St. Paul,
writing to the Corinthians,
"everything old has passed away;
see, everything has become new!"
The one who is the Alpha, the Beginning,
who makes everything new,
first put an Omega, an End, to the old
by the death of Jesus.
In this reading from Revelation he says "It is done!"
It wasn't so long ago,
just over 4 weeks ago on Good Friday,
that we heard Jesus say from the cross
"It is finished!"
Revelation talks about the one who sits on the throne,
and we often talk of the cross being Jesus' throne,
so from the cross and the throne in heaven we hear
"It is done!" "It is finished!"
And then "See, I am making all things new."
The first to be made new is Jesus,
whom God raised from the dead.
Death has no more dominion over him.
In him, death will be no more.
Which means that we will no longer have a separate home from God.
The law is no longer our God,
he is our God.
We will be his people
and no longer be stuck in the old way.
The man in the hospital bed, like most other patients, gets thirsty.
A nurse brings a large cup of ice water with a straw
from which he drinks to great satisfaction.
We thirst for worth, for life, for life that lasts.
"To the thirsty I will give water
as a gift from the spring of the water of life.
Those who conquer will inherit these things,"
says the one who sits on the throne.
We are given Jesus,
the Lamb who was slain,
as the water of life.
Remember when Jesus met the Samaritan woman at the well?
"If you knew the gift of God,
and who it is that is saying to you, ‘Give me a drink,'
you would have asked him,
and he would have given you living water."
And she replied,
"Sir, give me this water,
so that I may never be thirsty."
In him we do not fear,
for he has overcome,
conquered the world, conquered the law.
And this is something worth sitting up to drink in.
It is finished.
It is done.
Everything is new.
The judging is over.
The striving is over.
The comparing
and the keeping up with the Joneses is over.
"I am making everything new.
Write down what I have said.
My words are true and can be trusted.
Everything is finished!
I am Alpha and Omega,
the beginning and the end.
I will freely give water from the life-giving fountain
to everyone who is thirsty."
We have real life in the Lord.
We have true worth in the Lord.
We no longer have to judge our lives by the law,
by what we've done or failed to do.
The Alpha and the Omega,
the beginning and the end,
has said "It is done!"
Not by us, because we'd never be able to do enough
or do it well enough
or do it completely.
But the one who gave himself for us,
who stretched out his arms on the cross,
he has done all that needs to be done.
I used these signs a while back in a sermon.
DO? (a sign says DO with a red circle around it and a line through it)
No!
There's nothing we can do or need to do.
DONE? (a sign says DONE with a green circle around it)
Yes!
Everything has been done by Jesus.
God's grace, forgiveness, and salvation
are not based on anything that we can do,
but is totally based on what Christ has done for us.
The man in the hospital bed lightly chuckles with an inner delight
that he is ready for the Lord to take him.
It is not death that will take him,
though it may look that way at first.
But the old is passing away
and God is making all things new.
The man in the hospital bed will be made new,
new because he will dwell with God in the new Jerusalem.
There life is not measured,
for there will be no night,
just the light of the glory of God the Almighty
and the Lamb.
Our worth is given to us free; it's a gift.
The man in the hospital bed ends up not only judging his life,
but he is rejoicing in all the good that he has been given.
We will still have tears and pain,
though not like those who have no place.
The glory of God and the Lamb shine on us now
through the proclaiming of the Promise.
And in that glory we are free
from the old way of judging our life for worth,
and free to use the worth of Christ
to serve those who need comforting.
Let us live in that new life,
because God has made his home with his people.
And let us drink in from the life-giving fountain
so that we need never thirst. Amen
5th Sunday of Easter
May 6, 2007
Revelation 21:1-6
Thomas Arth
May 6, 2007
Revelation 21:1-6
Thomas Arth
A man lies in a hospital bed.
His life slowly but surely ebbs away.
He has suffered a mild heart attack.
He has just learned that he has a rare,
incurable blood disease.
He knows he is dying.
What thoughts occupy a mind at the end of a life?
The man in the hospital bed begins to evaluate the life he has lived.
That often happens.
But it doesn't have to be on a death bed
that those kinds of thoughts come to mind.
There are many times when we look back and take stock.
We make judgements about how we've lived our lives,
about what we've done.
Then statements pop into our heads that begin with
"If only I had..."
"If only I hadn't..."
"What if..."
"I wish..."
During our lives we come upon many forks in the road,
we come to places of decision,
choices are made, opportunities for second guessing.
"What if I'd stayed in school."
"If only I had taken them up on that job offer."
"I wish I'd told my kids how proud I was of them."
"If only I hadn't wasted that time and that money."
And then we also compare
ourselves, our lives, our situations,
with others.
We so often measure our worth according to what we see in others.
I earn more or less that one person.
I drive a nicer car than this one but not as nice as that one.
We're cramped in our home
but they have so much room in theirs.
Why do we feel our lives must be judged?
Why do we make those comparisons?
To judge our life is to measure its worth.
To judge our life is to measure its meaning
according to what we have done
and how much we have done.
This week I came across a story on the internet that said,
"Vacation homes and a third car may hold you hostage
and deprive you of real wealth."
Some people judge their lives by what they've accumulated
and spend so much effort and energy
trying to accumulate all they can
that they don't really live.
All of that judging is living by the law.
The law leads us to feel that we must judge our lives.
We hear "Thou shalt" and "Thou shalt not"
and it's automatic that we start to ask ourselves
"Did I?" or "Have I?"
The law leads us to judge ourselves,
but the one sitting on a great white throne judges the world.
In the verses just before today's reading from Revelation we read,
"Then I saw a great white throne and the one who sat on it."
Earth and heaven fled from his presence.
They passed away.
They fled because they were afraid of being judged.
It's one thing to judge ourselves
according to whatever standard we choose.
But it's entirely another thing to be judged by our God.
The fear of that kind of judgement sends us running.
If you watch enough cop shows on TV,
or if you just know something about human nature,
flight is a sure sign of guilt.
If we're honest with ourselves we're guilty of many things.
We're guilty of death, mourning, crying, and pain.
That seems like a strange thing to say.
How can we be guilty of those things?
Perhaps down at the root of it all,
those things are the result of our sinfulness.
And the reading tells us that these things will pass away.
They're against the will of the one seated on the great white throne.
How do we know that?
Because he gets rid of them.
Death will be no more;
mourning and crying and pain will be no more.
They're signs that things aren't the way God intended them to be.
They're signs that the creation is not being preserved
according to God's will.
Sometimes when I hear well-meaning but misguided people
talking about it being God's will for a child to die
or a parent being cut down in their prime
I want to scream.
As I say, they might mean well but they're wrong. It's not God's will for them to die.
It's not God's will for their family and friends to mourn.
It's not God's will for the crying and the pain
that come with that loss.
As the preacher said after his son died in a car crash.
His consolation is that God's heart was the first to break
when his son died.
"‘Death will be no more;
mourning and crying and pain will be no more,
for the first things have passed away.'
And the one who was seated on the throne said,
‘See, I am making all things new.'"
The man in the hospital bed who judges his life
according to what he had done
has a lot in common
with the passing-away earth and heaven:
neither trust in God as the giver of worth.
The man looks to himself.
He looks at his own life and what he has done,
what he has accomplished,
perhaps what he has accumulated and will leave behind.
And ultimately he's left wanting because it's not enough.
Along with his accomplishments he sees his failures,
he sees what he has missed,
he sees how he doesn't measure up,
neither to his own standards
nor to the standard of the Joneses
with whom he could never keep up.
Earth and heaven had their own deeds to look to:
mourning and crying and pain.
"I saw the great white throne and the one who sat on it;
the earth and the heaven fled from his presence,
and no place was found for them."
Without faith in God, heaven and earth fled,
Adam and Eve fled,
and we flee because without faith
there is no remaining in the presence of God.
There is no place for those who do not fear God.
But suddenly, a new heaven and a new earth appear.
"Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth;
for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away."
It's somewhat reminiscent of St. Paul,
writing to the Corinthians,
"everything old has passed away;
see, everything has become new!"
The one who is the Alpha, the Beginning,
who makes everything new,
first put an Omega, an End, to the old
by the death of Jesus.
In this reading from Revelation he says "It is done!"
It wasn't so long ago,
just over 4 weeks ago on Good Friday,
that we heard Jesus say from the cross
"It is finished!"
Revelation talks about the one who sits on the throne,
and we often talk of the cross being Jesus' throne,
so from the cross and the throne in heaven we hear
"It is done!" "It is finished!"
And then "See, I am making all things new."
The first to be made new is Jesus,
whom God raised from the dead.
Death has no more dominion over him.
In him, death will be no more.
Which means that we will no longer have a separate home from God.
The law is no longer our God,
he is our God.
We will be his people
and no longer be stuck in the old way.
The man in the hospital bed, like most other patients, gets thirsty.
A nurse brings a large cup of ice water with a straw
from which he drinks to great satisfaction.
We thirst for worth, for life, for life that lasts.
"To the thirsty I will give water
as a gift from the spring of the water of life.
Those who conquer will inherit these things,"
says the one who sits on the throne.
We are given Jesus,
the Lamb who was slain,
as the water of life.
Remember when Jesus met the Samaritan woman at the well?
"If you knew the gift of God,
and who it is that is saying to you, ‘Give me a drink,'
you would have asked him,
and he would have given you living water."
And she replied,
"Sir, give me this water,
so that I may never be thirsty."
In him we do not fear,
for he has overcome,
conquered the world, conquered the law.
And this is something worth sitting up to drink in.
It is finished.
It is done.
Everything is new.
The judging is over.
The striving is over.
The comparing
and the keeping up with the Joneses is over.
"I am making everything new.
Write down what I have said.
My words are true and can be trusted.
Everything is finished!
I am Alpha and Omega,
the beginning and the end.
I will freely give water from the life-giving fountain
to everyone who is thirsty."
We have real life in the Lord.
We have true worth in the Lord.
We no longer have to judge our lives by the law,
by what we've done or failed to do.
The Alpha and the Omega,
the beginning and the end,
has said "It is done!"
Not by us, because we'd never be able to do enough
or do it well enough
or do it completely.
But the one who gave himself for us,
who stretched out his arms on the cross,
he has done all that needs to be done.
I used these signs a while back in a sermon.
DO? (a sign says DO with a red circle around it and a line through it)
No!
There's nothing we can do or need to do.
DONE? (a sign says DONE with a green circle around it)
Yes!
Everything has been done by Jesus.
God's grace, forgiveness, and salvation
are not based on anything that we can do,
but is totally based on what Christ has done for us.
The man in the hospital bed lightly chuckles with an inner delight
that he is ready for the Lord to take him.
It is not death that will take him,
though it may look that way at first.
But the old is passing away
and God is making all things new.
The man in the hospital bed will be made new,
new because he will dwell with God in the new Jerusalem.
There life is not measured,
for there will be no night,
just the light of the glory of God the Almighty
and the Lamb.
Our worth is given to us free; it's a gift.
The man in the hospital bed ends up not only judging his life,
but he is rejoicing in all the good that he has been given.
We will still have tears and pain,
though not like those who have no place.
The glory of God and the Lamb shine on us now
through the proclaiming of the Promise.
And in that glory we are free
from the old way of judging our life for worth,
and free to use the worth of Christ
to serve those who need comforting.
Let us live in that new life,
because God has made his home with his people.
And let us drink in from the life-giving fountain
so that we need never thirst. Amen
Holy Week
I wrote this for our local paper and it ran on the Wednesday in Holy Week. I know it's kind of late but if anyone cares this is what I wrote:
Why don't you visit a church this weekend. I don't know if you go to church much, or ever, but this is my invitation to visit one of the churches in town. I'm not telling you to go to any specific church. You might have some connection to one church or another. Then go there. If you don't have some sort of connection to a church try one that a friend or neighbour or co-worker attends. Or pick one close to where you live or one you've always driven past and were curious about.
This week, especially Easter Sunday and the days leading up to it, are the anchor of the Christian year. Different churches celebrate some or all of the great Three Days of this Holy Week, spanning from Maundy Thursday sundown through Easter Sunday sundown.
Maundy Thursday gets its name from the Latin mandatum, from which we also get the word "mandate." At this service we remember the last evening Jesus spent with his disciples before his death. On that night Jesus demonstrated love in service as he, their Lord and Master, performed the duty of a servant by washing the disciples' feet. He shared a last meal with them, on which we base our practice of Holy Communion, and he gave them a "new" commandment (mandatum). "I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another" (John 13:34).
Good Friday is the day when we remember the death of Jesus. The religious and political authorities of the day considered him a threat to their order so the Roman occupation force put him to death by nailing him to a cross. On this day we focus not only upon the agony of the cross but especially upon God's victory through the crucified. The cross has been transformed for us from a method of execution to a sign of God's triumph over sin, death, and evil.
On Easter "Eve" some churches celebrate the Vigil of Easter. It is an ancient and powerful celebration of the new creation that springs from Jesus' open and empty tomb. The scripture readings on that night relate the history of God saving God's people. A prayer written for the Vigil of Easter says, in part: "Eternal giver of life and light, this holy night shines with the radiance of the risen Christ." This is the beginning of the celebration of the new life we have in our risen Lord.
Finally comes the celebration of the Resurrection of Our Lord, Easter Day. We greet one another with the ancient words of the church: "Alleluia! Christ is risen." "Christ is risen indeed. Alleluia!" God gave his only Son to suffer death on the cross for our redemption, and by his glorious resurrection delivered us from the power of death. That first Easter morning had people running in fear. The Lord they loved and followed was not in the tomb where they laid him less than two days before. But out of that fear and confusion, hope emerged. We gather to worship, to hear the good news of God's love for us, and the proclamation that Christ lives.
So check the listing of Holy Week services that was printed in the paper. Or call up the church you'd like to visit and ask them the times of their services. If you haven't been to church in a while, maybe even a long while, don't let that keep you from worshiping this Easter season. If you only worship once in a while don't let that keep you away. Make this Easter one of those occasions. No one ought to scold another person because they haven't been to church in a while. This is a time to celebrate everyone's presence. A gracious welcome is the order of the day. After all, that's what God has already done for us!
Why don't you visit a church this weekend. I don't know if you go to church much, or ever, but this is my invitation to visit one of the churches in town. I'm not telling you to go to any specific church. You might have some connection to one church or another. Then go there. If you don't have some sort of connection to a church try one that a friend or neighbour or co-worker attends. Or pick one close to where you live or one you've always driven past and were curious about.
This week, especially Easter Sunday and the days leading up to it, are the anchor of the Christian year. Different churches celebrate some or all of the great Three Days of this Holy Week, spanning from Maundy Thursday sundown through Easter Sunday sundown.
Maundy Thursday gets its name from the Latin mandatum, from which we also get the word "mandate." At this service we remember the last evening Jesus spent with his disciples before his death. On that night Jesus demonstrated love in service as he, their Lord and Master, performed the duty of a servant by washing the disciples' feet. He shared a last meal with them, on which we base our practice of Holy Communion, and he gave them a "new" commandment (mandatum). "I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another" (John 13:34).
Good Friday is the day when we remember the death of Jesus. The religious and political authorities of the day considered him a threat to their order so the Roman occupation force put him to death by nailing him to a cross. On this day we focus not only upon the agony of the cross but especially upon God's victory through the crucified. The cross has been transformed for us from a method of execution to a sign of God's triumph over sin, death, and evil.
On Easter "Eve" some churches celebrate the Vigil of Easter. It is an ancient and powerful celebration of the new creation that springs from Jesus' open and empty tomb. The scripture readings on that night relate the history of God saving God's people. A prayer written for the Vigil of Easter says, in part: "Eternal giver of life and light, this holy night shines with the radiance of the risen Christ." This is the beginning of the celebration of the new life we have in our risen Lord.
Finally comes the celebration of the Resurrection of Our Lord, Easter Day. We greet one another with the ancient words of the church: "Alleluia! Christ is risen." "Christ is risen indeed. Alleluia!" God gave his only Son to suffer death on the cross for our redemption, and by his glorious resurrection delivered us from the power of death. That first Easter morning had people running in fear. The Lord they loved and followed was not in the tomb where they laid him less than two days before. But out of that fear and confusion, hope emerged. We gather to worship, to hear the good news of God's love for us, and the proclamation that Christ lives.
So check the listing of Holy Week services that was printed in the paper. Or call up the church you'd like to visit and ask them the times of their services. If you haven't been to church in a while, maybe even a long while, don't let that keep you from worshiping this Easter season. If you only worship once in a while don't let that keep you away. Make this Easter one of those occasions. No one ought to scold another person because they haven't been to church in a while. This is a time to celebrate everyone's presence. A gracious welcome is the order of the day. After all, that's what God has already done for us!
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