From Memories to Hope - 48th Anniversary Service

Isaiah 43:16-21 see text here », Philippians 1:3-11 see text here »

When you go downstairs after the service for refreshments and conversation, please take time to look at the bulletin board and enjoy a pleasant visual trip down memory lane. You will see pictures of the stages of construction of this building from 48 years ago plus pictures of some of the families who have been part of this church over these almost five decades. Maybe you will recognize yourself and maybe you will recognize some friends. I say “maybe” because we all know the years take their toll -- or maybe I should just speak for myself! We can thank Jean Javanshir, our church administrator, for putting together this fun and informative piece from our congregation’s past.

Every so often I hear someone talking about OYM’s past – remembering people, places and events especially as related to this building and to the people. In part, that’s what this 48th anniversary celebration is all about – a service celebrating and remembering the people and experiences we have had that are associated with Oriole-York Mills United Church.

Last month the UCW (our United Church Women’s group) invited John Parker -- a former congregation member who is a current City of Toronto councillor – to speak about his role in city politics. At the beginning of his talk, John shared some of his memories and experiences of growing up here at OYM. I was particularly impressed with the way he spoke about how various members of our congregation (some who are present here today) were positive mentors and models of faith, love and industry for John and his family. Those are good memories for which we thank God.

On Sunday, May 16, we will conduct a service of Confirmation in this sanctuary. Rev. Val Noakes has been diligently involved with our youth -- helping them to think through and pray about what it means to make a commitment to be a follower of Jesus Christ in our day. She has a team of adult mentors as well coming alongside these young people and sharing their lives with them. So I hope in another 48 years, God willing, there will be more and more people looking back and saying thanks to God for this place and especially for its faithful and godly people who have influenced their lives in connecting to Jesus Christ.

After reminding you of these significant memories, what if I now told you to forget about what has happened here at Oriole over these past 48 years – to stop always going over and over old history? You might think that a strange request. But that is what God said through Isaiah to the people he loved in this morning’s Scripture.

In gripping language, God stimulated moving memories of hope and redemption from Israel’s past. God briefly sketched the story of The Exodus – their dramatic rescue from cruel slavery in Egypt. Particularly that most striking of all Exodus episodes involving the Israelites crossing safely through the Red Sea only to have the waters tumble back down upon the Egyptian army. The Pharaoh went back on his word and pursued the Israelites to take them back to Egypt and to slavery again. Listen to this part of the story in The Message Bible:

“This is what God says, the God who builds a road right through the ocean, who carves a path through pounding waves, the God who summons horses and chariots and armies: they lie down and then can’t get up; they’re snuffed out like so many candles.”

We’ve probably all seen the old movie The Ten Commandments with Charlton Heston as Moses. I wonder what movie director James Cameron of Avatar and Titanic fame would do with this scene with the new technology available if he were ever to take an interest in the biblical story. The Exodus really is the stuff of high drama. It was one of the most significant events in the history of Israel -- a unique demonstration of God’s supernatural power on behalf of the Israelites who, at the time, lived under the harsh conditions of forced labour for the Egyptians. When the people were later oppressed (as they often were throughout the Old Testament), they would always look back to that great historical event and be encouraged to trust God again for their future liberation. God’s brief comments here through Isaiah would have brought the minds and imaginations of the Israelites then exiled in Babylon back to that great Exodus story of salvation.

But what must have seemed strange and even confusing to them was for God then to say: “Forget the past! Don’t dwell on what was.”

I can imagine someone responding to God: “Then why did you start out talking about the past, making us think about it and remember it through your vivid descriptions?”

People respond in odd ways to what has happened in the past. Some only want to hold the memories dear in their minds without allowing the reality of what happened to make a difference in their present or future circumstances. Television and movie actor Alan Alda was one of the actors in the television hit series MASH. Alda wrote a book titled Never Have Your Dog Stuffed. In an interview, he explained the significance of the title:

“I was eight years old. My father was trying to stop me from sobbing because we were burying the dog, so he said, ‘Maybe we should have him stuffed.’ We kept it on the porch, and deliverymen were afraid to make deliveries. [Alda went on to say:] There are a lot of ways we stuff the dog, trying to avoid change, hanging on to a moment that’s passed.”

It wasn’t that God wanted the people to totally forget the past. I believe God did not want his people to hang on to their redemption from slavery in the Exodus as a mere memory from the past without letting its meaning permeate their lives now in Babylon and then for their future after Babylon. So it is as if God said, “Don’t stuff the dog!” Rather, God wanted the people to “watch for the new thing I am going to do. It is happening already -- you can see it now, if you will open your eyes!” Then God went on to tell them what this new thing was all about:

“I will make a road through the wilderness and give you streams of water there. Even the wild animals will honour me; jackals and ostriches will praise me when I make rivers flow in the desert to give water to my chosen people. They are the people I made for myself, and they will sing my praises!”

God’s “new thing” involved at least three things:
(1) God would provide streams of water to flow in the desert of their lives.
(2) God’s plans encompassed everything, including wild animals like jackals and ostriches. God’s plans included all of nature.
(3) God’s people would praise God with joy before the world.

First, God promised to make a way through the wilderness of their exile in Babylon and, along the way, to refresh them with streams of water. But the intriguing thing was that what God did at the Red Sea and in The Exodus from Egypt supplied confidence for the people to believe God could and would do this “new thing.” They would know God’s life-giving presence in their lives in the present in Babylon and in the future when they would go home precisely because of what God had done in the past.

For those of us who follow Jesus the Messiah (Jesus the Christ), we too must remember the past because the life, death, resurrection and ascension of the Risen Jesus constitute the foundation for who we are as God’s people today. Without the reality of Jesus’ crucifixion, resurrection and ascension, we have no basis upon which to stake our lives as followers of Jesus Christ. But -- God does not want his people to hang on to their baptism, confirmation and acceptance of their salvation in Christ as a mere memory from the past. God wants his people to let his risen life, through the Holy Spirit, to permeate their lives with meaning for their living now and also for their future.

In his book The Jesus Creed, New Testament professor Scot McKnight shares the moving story of Margaret Ault. When Margaret was about to complete her PhD at Duke University in North Carolina, she fell in love. She went on a date with a man named Hyung Goo Kim and the proverbial sparks flew. But almost as quickly as the sparks became a fire, they were doused with water. Hyung Goo informed Margaret that he was HIV-positive. Needless to say, Margaret was devastated. In her own words: “I’d just met someone I liked, and we were definitely not going to live happily ever after. I felt like I had been kicked in the gut by the biggest boot in the world.”

Still, they were married. In his book, McKnight asks the question many of us would ask: “Why would anyone invite into the core of their being so much pain?” He shares the answer from the rest of their story. He writes:

“When Margaret was in graduate school at Duke, she and Hyung Goo loved to walk in the Duke gardens, and so knowledgeable did they become of its plants that they ‘supervised construction’ of a new project. They walked through each part of the garden routinely and [even] had names for some of the ducks. In their last spring together, the garden seemed especially beautiful. Hyung Goo died in the fall [of that year] and Margaret returned to the gardens the next spring where a memorial garden of roses was being constructed in his honour.”

McKnight refers to Margaret’s book Sing Me to Heaven where she reflects on the days she returned to the gardens:

“Where peonies were promised, there were only the dead stumps of last year’s stalks; where day lilies were promised, there were unprepossessing tufts of foliage; where hostas [or lilies] were promised, there was nothing at all. And yet I know what lushness lay below the surface; those beds that were so brown and empty and, to the unknowing eye, so unpromising, would be full to bursting in a matter of months.
“Is the whole world like this? Is this what it might be like to live in expectation, real expectation, of the resurrection?


“Was not Hyung Goo’s and my life together like this? Empty and [parched], and yet a seedbed of fullness and life for both of us. He died, and I was widowed; yet in his dying, we both were made alive.”

After quoting Margaret’s words, McKnight concludes:

“Where does she find strength to grip such faith and such hope? It is found in [her question]: Is the whole world like this?  

“The answer, ‘Yes, the whole world is like this: the whole world offers us tokens of new life beyond death and disasters.’ It offers the promise of new life beyond the grave, a life of renewed love in the presence of God. Why? Because Jesus was raised from the dead.”

God’s second “new thing” spoken of in Isaiah but focusing on Christ Jesus is not merely for an individual person or even for a particular group of people then – when you know the rest of the story. God’s plans include people in all times and of all nations in the world. And God’s “new thing” includes ... well … Did you notice God’s words in verse 20: “Even the wild animals will honour me; jackals and ostriches will praise me”? So God’s “new thing” also encompasses all of nature – including the wild animals. There is nothing that is outside of God’s circle of redemption -- of salvation – for the world. In particular, Isaiah wrote his most lyric visions for what God will accomplish in the future to include trees and fields, mountains and hills, streams and creatures of all kinds.

Listen to Isaiah 41:18: “I will open rivers on the bare heights, and fountains in the midst of the valleys. I will make the wilderness a pool of water, and the dry land springs of water.”

And listen to the vision God gave Isaiah in 11:6-9 for a different time in the future – and that is still in the future: “The wolf shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the young goat, and the calf and the lion and the fattened calf together; and a little child shall lead them. The cow and the bear shall graze; their young shall lie down together; and the lion shall eat straw like the ox. The nursing child shall play over the hole of the cobra, and the weaned child shall put his hand on the adder’s den. They shall not hurt or destroy in all my holy mountain; for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the LORD as the waters cover the sea.”

God’s “new thing” embraces larger purposes than we can ever think of or know.

And, finally, God’s “new thing” will cause God’s people to praise God with joy before the entire world. In one of his many memorable clinical vignettes, neurologist Oliver Sacks tells about Jimmie, a man whose memory somehow became a sieve.

Jimmie remains forever stuck thinking it’s 1945. Harry Truman is always the U. S. president, the war has always just ended, and this ex-sailor believes he has his whole future to look forward to. Sacks reports that Jimmie is a very nice, affable fellow with whom you can have a good conversation about this or that. But if you leave the room after visiting with him for two hours and then return a short while later, he will greet you as if for the first time. Now, of course, that is simply tragic all by itself. But Sacks’s observation as to the overall effect this temporal vacuum has on Jimmie is that he has no joy. Jimmie is joyless in that he is confined to an ever-changing, yet finally meaningless present moment. With nothing to look back on and with nothing new ever to look forward to, joy is simply impossible.

However, there is one time when Jimmie does display something akin to joy. There is one moment when the vacant look on his face is replaced with something the neurologist can describe only as a look of completeness and of hushed calmness. This happens whenever Jimmie takes Holy Communion in the chapel. Sacks had once lamented to one of the Roman Catholic nuns who operate the nursing home that Jimmie had lost his very soul due to the disease in his brain. The nun reacted with outrage! She said that if Sacks would observe Jimmie caught up fully and meaningfully in taking Holy Communion, he would have no doubt that God was somehow managing to minister to Jimmie’s soul. Sacks could not disagree with that assessment, even though there was no good neurological explanation for the change that came over Jimmie at Christ’s table.

God can do a “new thing” in each of us and a “new thing” in our congregation. And God wants us to watch, too, for the “new thing” he has for us as individuals and as a congregation when we let God minister to our souls.

Someone has said that only the past is inevitable. Maybe not! Because of the life, death, resurrection and ascension of Jesus Christ, there is a kind of holy inevitability as to what can happen right now in the present as well! And that same past – but not merely the nostalgic memory of Jesus’ life, death, resurrection and ascension -- will inevitably fill our present and even our future with hope, with joy and with praise. That is God’s promise for a “new thing” in us! Are we watching as he said to do?

May this be so for you and for me. Amen.

Rev. Chris Miller Easter
OYM Oriole-York Mills United Church, Toronto website »
4 April 25, 2010

New Marching Orders

John 21:1-19 [see Bible passage here »], Psalm 30 (VU, 837) [see Bible passage here »]

Some teachers were waiting in a room to play the students in a basketball game. One teacher remarked to his principal: “You know what I have discovered about teaching? Fifty per cent of teaching is repeating directions.”

The principal shot right back, “What did you say?”

I said, “Fifty per cent of teaching is repeating directions.” All the teachers laughed at the joke.

Anyone working or living with children and youth knows that messages and directions and instructions, in fact almost everything, has to be repeated multiple times before anything seems to register. Who takes out the garbage after being asked only once? How many young people clean their rooms after only one request?

But instructions aren’t the only things we need to hear more than once in order to take them to heart. In order to thrive, we all need to hear someone say to us, “I love you.” Whether that someone is a spouse, parent, son or daughter, grandchild, niece or nephew, a friend – whoever. And we need to hear this more than once a year. For some of us who have weathered the hurts of various broken relationships, saying “I love you” for the first time again can be one of the most frightening things we do.

I suspect Peter felt a similar fear when Jesus took him for an early morning walk on the beach.

It was late in the afternoon the day before when Simon Peter decided to go fishing. In the area of Lake Tiberias (or Galilee, as we more commonly know it), night was usually the best time to fish. Six of Jesus’ other disciples said they would go with him. They fished all through the night until the sun began to rise -- but they caught nothing. At daybreak, Jesus was standing on the shore watching them but they didn’t recognize him at first. He called out to them: “Good morning! Did you catch anything for breakfast?”

“Nothing! Not even a minnow.”

Then Jesus told them: “Throw the net off the right side of the boat and see what happens.” I don’t know if they thought he was some local fisherman who knew the lake better than they did after three years away from the fishing business but they did what he said. All of a sudden there were so many fish even these strong men weren’t able to handle the net.

It was only then that John recognized Jesus and said to Peter, “It’s the Lord!”

Eventually the disciples were able to get their large haul of fish to shore where Jesus was waiting. The Apostle John, who wrote this Gospel, said they didn’t dare ask who he was because they knew it was Jesus serving them breakfast! This wasn’t the first time they had been with Jesus since he was raised from the dead. But it took some time and more than one encounter with the Risen Jesus before the reality of his presence began to sink in – that he was not dead but alive! I think we can understand that. Besides Jesus wasn’t around all the time, day and night, as he had been before.

After breakfast, Jesus said to Peter, “Let’s go for a walk – just you and me.” I wonder what Peter was thinking and feeling. I can imagine a mixture of emotions – a mixture of joy and fear. Joy because Jesus had died but now he was alive! And here they were, walking again side by side! Yet fear because Peter could never forget how badly he had failed Jesus. Jesus, Peter thought, must feel so hurt that he had denied him. What did Jesus think of him now? What would Jesus say to him? Would Jesus reprimand or lecture him for denying that he knew him – not once, not twice but three times? Would Jesus tell him he was no longer welcome to be with him? Would Jesus tell Peter he couldn’t be a witness for him any longer after being such a dismal failure?

But even in the darkness of his failure and denial, Peter really loved Jesus. And I believe that, when Jesus died, Peter grieved especially severely of all the disciples because he loved him and yet had denied even knowing Jesus. Can you imagine the guilt he must have felt? I believe Peter also grieved deeply at what he thought was the death of the greatest hope and destiny the world would ever know. And now, joy beyond joy, Jesus was alive! But Peter had yet to grasp the significance of what Jesus being alive – his resurrection – really meant for his own life let alone for the world.

Jesus understood Peter more than Peter knew. Jesus knew Peter loved him. Jesus knew Peter was apprehensive about how he felt about him since the denial. Jesus knew Peter had a lot more to learn about loving his Lord. And Jesus knew it was time that Peter realized he was forgiven. So he had a personal conversation with Peter.

“Peter, do you love me?” Not once, not twice, but three times Jesus asked: “Peter, do you love me?”

Can’t you almost hear Peter saying to himself: “I knew it, I knew it! He is angry at me. But can I blame him after what I did? But I’ve already told him I love him. Can’t he believe me?” And after the third time Jesus asked him, Peter was really upset. “Lord,” he answered, “you know everything. You know I love you.” Ironic, isn’t it, that Peter felt hurt when it was Jesus who should have felt upset and not Peter!

Peter is probably the best known to us of all the disciples and was one of three disciples in Jesus’ inner circle. He was often front and centre -- having something to say or impulsively doing something. He was strong, courageous and willing to go to great lengths for Jesus. He took up the challenge to follow Jesus when he left his work as a fisherman to obey Jesus’ call. He was willing to leave his home and travel up and down the countryside with Jesus – for how long he didn’t know. He often asserted his loyalty to Jesus. And he seemed to possess an acute perception of the absolute uniqueness of Jesus. It was Peter who made the Great Confession [Matthew 16:6]: “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.”

Jesus thought so highly of Peter that he changed his original name of Simon to Peter, which meant “rock” in Greek. Do you know what Simon means in Greek? It means snub-nosed! What a change that must have meant for Peter!

Peter was fearless at times. He was brave enough to attack the servant of the high priest with a sword in the Garden of Gethsemane when the crowd came to arrest Jesus. Peter even followed Jesus into the high priest’s courtyard. Alone with Jesus and the other disciples, Peter had boasted he was ready to die with Jesus so he failed to heed Jesus’ warnings that he would deny him [John 13:38]. Peter was a complex individual who always responded enthusiastically to Jesus -- and yet he also failed miserably.

Peter and the other disciples were still in Jerusalem when they received the news of the empty tomb from Mary Magdalene [John 20:1-10]. Then he and John ran to the tomb and impulsive Peter ran right inside while John merely stood outside and looked into the tomb at first. Peter had to know for himself.

Now back to the beach where not once, not twice but three times Peter told Jesus that he did love him. And not once, not twice but three times Jesus responded to him with grace and forgiveness. Three times is significant for Peter, isn’t it? Three times he denied Jesus -- three times he said, “I don’t know the man.” He even swore an oath that he didn’t know Jesus. Because he was so afraid. And yet ... and yet … Jesus forgave Peter. Jesus also entrusted him (and the other disciples) with the responsibility to carry on his teaching and to tell the good news of his resurrection to the world. Jesus, in his love, matched Peter’s threefold denial with a threefold restoration of confidence and hope in him.

How did Peter experience the gracious forgiveness of his Lord? Scott Hoezee of Calvin Seminary described it as Jesus putting “Peter back in charge of the family business and Peter did not fail to miss the significance of it.”

Let me put it another way. You are the employee who forgets one evening to lock the back door of the store. That particular night, the store is robbed when a thief happens to find the open door. The owner of the store finds out you left the door unlocked. But a week or so later, the owner tosses you the keys and says, “OK, you’re in charge of closing the store tonight.” Wouldn’t you be encouraged that the owner’s trust in you remained despite your costly mistake?

It became clear to Peter – and to everyone, including us! -- what the grace and forgiveness of the Risen Jesus meant for him. In the first 15 chapters of the Book of Acts, God used Peter prominently in the day-to-day life of the Early Church to preach the good news of Jesus’ resurrection as well as to perform miracles as signs of the truth he preached. Peter was put in prison but miraculously released. And at the first Church Council in Jerusalem, Peter stood up for the equality of the Gentiles, the non-Jewish converts. Peter clearly lived out his faith in Jesus Christ boldly before everyone he met. He was no longer afraid. And when he faced his own death under Nero in Rome, he died unafraid.

So what does Jesus’ exchange with Peter mean for us? At least two things I think. First, our sometimes lack of faith and trust in God does not disqualify us from God’s grace and forgiveness. Interestingly enough, a recent story in Time magazine tells us why.

In Time magazine’s regular column called “10 Questions” [“10 Questions,” Time magazine (3-22-10), p. 4], readers are given the opportunity to interview celebrities and world leaders through questions submitted via email. In the March 22, 2010, issue, South African Archbishop Desmond Tutu, author of Made for Goodness [HarperOne, 2010], was featured. Here are two of the questions readers submitted, each followed by Tutu’s answer:

“After all you’ve seen and endured, are you really as optimistic as your book Made for Goodness says you are?” [Zelalem Dawit, Addis Ababa]

Tutu: “I’m not optimistic, no. I’m quite different. I’m hopeful. I am a prisoner of hope. In the world, you have very bad people -- Hitler, Idi Amin -- and they look like they are going to win. All of them -- all of them -- have bitten the dust.”

“What is your favourite Bible verse and why?” [Satu Rahikainen]

Tutu: “Romans 5:8. ‘[While] we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.’ It sums up the Gospel wonderfully. We think we have to impress God so that God could love us. But [God] says, ‘No, you are loved already, even at your worst.’”

The second thing Jesus’ exchange with Peter means for us is that, if we really love Jesus as Peter and the other disciples did along with the women who followed him too, we also have our work to do for God in 2010. If we intentionally seek to follow Jesus, we will discover our particular assignment along the way. A story about Rodger & Hammerstein’s South Pacific tells us the broad strokes of our work.

One night in New York City, on Broadway, singing star Mary Martin was preparing to go on stage as she had a thousand times before in Rodger & Hammerstein’s South Pacific. Just before she took the stage, a note was handed her. The letter was signed by Oscar Hammerstein himself who was that evening on his deathbed. The note was short. It simply said: “Dear Mary, A bell’s not a bell until you ring it. A song’s not a song until you sing it. Love in your heart is not put there to stay. Love isn’t love till you give it away.”

When the play was over, the cast rushed her backstage and asked: “What happened? We’ve never seen you perform that way before?”

Mary read Hammerstein’s note to them and said, “Tonight, I gave my love away.”

I can hear Jesus’ words to Peter in that! “Peter, do you love me? Feed my sheep. Take care of my people.” Jesus was saying in other words: “Peter you know the song. Sing it! Peter you’ve got the bell. Ring it! Peter, your love for me isn’t love till you give it away.”

May this be so for you and for me.


Rev. Chris Miller
April 18, 2010

Doubters Anonymous

John 20:19-31 [read text here »]  Psalm 118 (VU 837) [read text here »]

Hi! My name is Chris. I am a doubter.

And if this were an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting, everyone here would have answered back with “Hi Chris!”

In the AA Preamble, you can read this statement.

“Alcoholics Anonymous is a fellowship of men and women who share their experience, strength and hope with each other that they may solve their common problem and help others to recover from alcoholism. The only requirement for membership is a desire to stop drinking.” [http://www.aacanada.com/index.html]

I am forming a new group today called Doubters Anonymous -- or DA for short. We too are a fellowship of men and women and children and youth who share our experience, strength and hope with each other. We even have a patron saint. Can you guess who? That’s right! Our patron saint is Thomas --Doubting Thomas.

·      The only requirement for membership in Doubters Anonymous is a desire to find answers for our doubts and to use our doubts to grow in faith and understanding. This is significant because we are not talking about always being cynical or skeptical about God. And we are not talking about being people who have deliberately decided not to believe in God.

·      There are 4 steps in DA (Doubters Anonymous) instead of the 12 in AA.

(1)  The first step is that we will admit we have doubts about God and about Jesus Christ and about the Bible. In the Gospel of Mark 9:24, an unnamed man uttered these memorable words to Jesus: “I believe! Help my unbelief!” Maybe that could be our motto!

(2)  The second step is that we want to know the truth about Jesus Christ for our daily living. In John 8:31-32, Jesus said to those who believed in him: “If you obey my teaching, you are really my disciples; you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”

(3)  Step 3 is we will use our doubts to seek the truth about God, about Jesus Christ, about the Holy Spirit, about the Bible. In Matthew 7:7, Jesus told his hearers: “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you.”

(4)  And Step 4 is that, in working through our doubts, we will welcome an opening to embrace personally the truth we learn about Jesus Christ as he meets us in our lives. In John’s Gospel 20:27-28, Jesus told Thomas: “Stop your doubting, and believe!” And Thomas, his questions and doubts answered, responded with faith to Jesus: “My Lord and my God!” 

There is good news and bad news about doubt. Here is what I believe is the bad news that makes a Doubters Anonymous group necessary. Doubting is bad news when it leads to cynicism that cripples us spiritually. And cynicism is a kind of intellectual skepticism that numbs us spiritually. Scott Sernau, in his book Please Don't Squeeze the Christian [InterVarsity Press, 1987, p. 109], made this insightful observation:

“We find ourselves leaving the triumphant lyrics of the old hymns on the church doorstep because they appear hopelessly out of step with the world waiting outside. Our problem is not that we've been taught to question our faith, but rather that we've been taught to reject any answers. Doubt can be a state of mind -- or it can be a way [to] life.” (Bold and italics are mine.)

One of our congregation’s stated values is “freedom to question.” That’s a significant value for any Christian community to possess. Throughout the Gospels, those who followed Jesus were always asking questions about life, about God, about who Jesus was and about what he taught. But the primary issue is not our asking questions but whether we are open to receiving any answers. Or are we more interested in being being skeptics, which is fashionable today? Being skeptical, according to Alister McGrath at Oxford University, is “the decision to doubt everything deliberately, as a matter of principle” [Alister McGrath, Doubting: Growing Through the Uncertainties of Faith, IVP Books, 2006]. Are we really interested in finding answers or are we merely interested in philosophical discussions? Are we really interested in finding answers or are we more interested in “mental acrobatics and the stimulus of a mental hike,” as biblical commentator William Barclay puts it? Are we related somehow to pessimists, whom one person defined as those “who can look at the land of milk and honey and see only calories and cholesterol.”

Doubting is also bad news when doubts are not dealt with. Such doubting always leads to unbelief. This unbelief is the deliberate decision not to bother to seek God because to have faith in God does not matter to us.

Molecular biologist, British theologian and author Alister McGrath, in his insightful book Doubting: Growing Through the Uncertainties of Faith, notes:

“Unbelief is an act of the will, rather than a difficulty in understanding.... [But] doubt often means asking questions or voicing uncertainties from the standpoint of faith. You believe – but you have difficulties with that faith, or are worried about it in some way. Faith and doubt aren’t mutually exclusive – but faith and unbelief are [mutually exclusive].” [p. 14]

Unbelief or doubt?

Parenting Beyond Belief is a recent book written for parents who don’t believe in God. One reviewer explains that the book “aims to help folks who are raising their kids without religion deal with the sticky questions that come up about Santa Claus and heaven,” as well as dealing with other concerns mothers and fathers who are atheists have living “in a culture saturated with talk about God.” [Lisa Miller, “BeliefWatch How To,” Newsweek (7-16-07), p. 10]

One chapter explains how to talk to children about death when there is no belief in life after death. The author recommends telling children: “No, honey, Grandpa won't come home for Christmas. He died and is dead for always.” Then the family performs rituals for remembering Grandpa. This is neither doubt nor faith but clearly unbelief that is an act of the will -- the opposite of faith.

But if we consider doubt within the circle of faith, we soon discover there is also good news to being someone who doubts. Doubting is good news because this indicates we are struggling with our doubts in our desire to grow in our faith and relationship with God. I think those who attend the Wednesday morning Bible study struggle at times with doubt in this way. And that’s a good way!

In dealing with our doubts, part of the issue is who do we trust? We are people who often tend to mistrust God rather than to trust God and, so, doubt often follows. But faith reminds us that trust is fundamental to our relationship with God. Faith is also the channel through which God’s grace and love flow to us. But doubt is something that blocks the channel and the flow of God’s Spirit from giving us the life and blessings God has for us. But knowing this about doubt can be good news! For if we then struggle to resist our inner tendency to mistrust God by pursuing our desire to trust God, we are actually saying we want God in our lives. We want to experience God’s love and grace. We want God’s life-giving Holy Spirit to flow within us.

Our doubting is an indication of our human condition. We are human and not divine. We are created beings. And God is the Creator. And quite simply, we are not God. We are creatures who are severely limited in what we can grasp about the vastness and awesomeness of this amazing universe let alone about God. That’s why revelation is so significant. If we were left to find out about God using our own limited resources, we would not get very far. So God makes himself known to us. God takes the initiative to reveal his love, grace, forgiveness, compassion and justice to all humanity through nature, in Scripture and supremely in Jesus of Nazareth. So we should not beat ourselves up about doubting. Doubting comes with being human. But though we may be Doubters Anonymous, we do not need to remain Doubters Forever!

Remember Doubting Thomas? He is actually a good news person! He is good news for us because his doubt about the message of the risen Jesus spurred him on to want to know the truth about Jesus and to see the evidence for himself. The other disciples -- his friends -- told him they had seen Jesus. Jesus was no longer dead and buried in the tomb, they said. He was alive, they said. He appeared to them, they said. But Thomas was the kind of person who wanted his own encounter – his own experience – with Jesus. I like Thomas. Other than in the lists of the disciples, Thomas is mentioned on only two other occasions in the Scripture. When Jesus heard of his friend Lazarus's serious illness in Bethany, he told the disciples they were going back there. Some of them protested: People want to kill you there, Jesus. But courageous Thomas spoke up: “Let us also go that we may die with him” (John 11:8, 16). Then, in John 14, it was an inquisitive Thomas who asked Jesus where he was going to prepare a place for them. Thomas had his moment of doubt to be sure but he was not a chronic doubter or a cynic or a skeptic or an unbeliever. His identity, despite our perception and description of him, was not rooted only in that moment of doubt after Jesus’ resurrection.

Doubting Thomas is also a good news person because his doubt was the opening for him to embrace personally the truth about Jesus when Jesus did meet him a week later. Thomas did not remain fixed in his doubt. Recall Step 4 of our Doubters Anonymous fellowship: that we will see our doubts as an opening in order to embrace personally the truth about Jesus Christ for ourselves as he meets us in our lives. When Thomas did see Jesus, he responded: “My Lord and my God!” That is awesome statement of faith and love from the one we call Doubting Thomas! Is our response to Jesus Christ anything like Thomas’s?

Presbyterian minister and writer Frederick Buechner wrote a remarkable sermon about Thomas called “The Seeing Heart” [Secrets in the Dark: A Life in Sermons] in which he focused on seeing the truth of Jesus with our hearts. The name Thomas means “twin” in Aramaic. So Buechner sets us up with this thought: “If you want to know who the other twin is, I can tell you. I am the other twin, and unless I miss my guess, so are you.” In referring to his own doubt at times, Buechner is not off the mark. I also recognize myself in Thomas at times. I think a lot of us are related to Thomas!

Often our eyes see facts while our hearts see truth. Buechner said it this way:

“Our eyes tell us that the small country church down the road needs a new coat of paint and that the stout lady who plays the organ looks a little like W.C. Fields and that the pews are rarely more than a quarter filled on any given Sunday. [However, the truth is that] the shabby little church is ... for reasons known only to God ... full of holiness."

Thomas did see some facts about Jesus. He saw the scars of the nails in Jesus’ hands and feet. He saw where the sword had entered Jesus’ side. Can’t you see Jesus taking Thomas’s hand and pressing Thomas’s fingers into his hands and side? But I believe Buechner was right when he suggested that, for Thomas, it was, perhaps, the first time he saw not only “the fact of Jesus” but also “the truth of Jesus and the truth of who Jesus was for him.”

I often pray that you and I may have a similar experience of “seeing the truth of Jesus Christ.” There are some facts about Jesus – an empty tomb, nail-scarred hands and feet, appearances to the disciples, even eating with them. (That’s part of next week’s message, by the way: beside a fire on a beach, broiling some fish for breakfast, where Jesus gave Peter his new marching orders.) I appreciate Buechner’s words about Jesus:

“To see him with the heart is to know that in the long run his kind of life is the only life worth living. To see him with the heart is not only to believe in him but little by little to become bearers to each other of his healing life until we become finally healed and whole and alive within ourselves. To see him with the heart is to take heart, to grow true hearts, brave hearts, at last.”

Jesus left Thomas with a beatitude. But, actually, the beatitude is meant for us! For everyone who has lived after Thomas. In The Message Bible, Jesus says: “So, [Thomas] you believe because you’ve seen with your own eyes. Even better blessings are in store for those who believe without seeing.” Even better blessings!

My friends, may this be so for you and for me. Amen.

Rev. Chris Miller

Easter 2

April 11, 2010

The Resurrection of Jesus: The Great Renewal

Luke 24:1-12 - see scripture text here »,

 Acts 10:34-43: see scripture text here »

In 1993, a group of FBI agents investigated a psychiatric hospital in San Diego, California, for medical insurance fraud. While working there, they called a nearby pizza delivery place to order a quick dinner for the group. The conversation was recorded and here is how it went:

Agent: “Hello. I would like to order 19 large pizzas and 67 cans of soda.”

Pizza Place: “And where would you like them delivered?”

Agent: “We're over at the psychiatric hospital.”

Pizza Place: “The psychiatric hospital?”

Agent: “That's right. I'm an FBI agent.”

Pizza Place: “You're an FBI agent?”

Agent: “That's correct. Just about everybody here is.”

Pizza Place: “And you're at the psychiatric hospital?”

Agent: “That's correct. And make sure you don't go through the front doors. We have them locked. You will have to go around to the back to the service entrance to deliver the pizzas.”

Pizza Place: “And you say you're all FBI agents?”

Agent: “That's right. How soon can you have them here?”

Pizza Place: “And everyone at the psychiatric hospital is an FBI agent?”

Agent: “That's right. We've been here all day and we're starving.”

Pizza Place: “How are you going to pay for all of this?”

Agent: “I have my cheque book right here.”

Pizza Place: “And you're all FBI agents?”

Agent: “That's right. Everyone here is an FBI agent. Can you remember to bring the pizzas and sodas to the service entrance in the rear? We have the front doors locked.”

Pizza Place: “I don't think so.” (Click)

This is one of those seemingly far-fetched stories you want to check to determine if it is true -- or not. You want to be sure it is not merely a fabricated urban legend. When I read a story like this, I look it up on an Internet site called snopes.com. This is a website dedicated to finding if such stories are true or false. According to snopes.com, this telephone conversation between an FBI agent investigating a psychiatric hospital and a Pizza parlour actually took place!

Remember the Scripture from Luke’s Gospel this morning. Here is a possible conversation that could have taken place in that story:

Mary Magdalene: “Peter! John! The tomb is empty! Jesus’ body isn’t in the tomb!”

Peter: “What did you say?”

Joanna: “It’s true! It’s true! The tomb is empty! The stone was rolled away! Jesus is no longer in the tomb!”

James: “Look, I’m not up to your far-fetched story. That’s too unbelievable. We know Jesus died and he was buried.”

Mary the mother of James: “James, don’t you believe me? I’m your mother! We just told you that we found the tomb empty!”

All the women together: “Please believe us! We wouldn’t lie to you. It is true! We didn’t know what to make of it either until . . . .”

Andrew: “Until what?”

Mary Magdalene: “Until, out of nowhere, two men – in shining clothes – said to us: ‘Why are you looking for the Living One in a cemetery? He is not here! He is alive! Remember how he told us he had to be handed over to sinners, be killed on a cross, and in three days rise up?’ Peter, John, James, Andrew – all of you – don’t you remember Jesus telling us that in Galilee?”

The Apostles: “Nonsense. What kind of an idle tale are you trying to spin? Unbelievable.”

The website snopes.com exists, it says, “to remind us that no matter how bizarre, far-fetched or incredible a story may seem at first glance, it should never be entirely discounted without at least some effort being made to verify it” (www.snopes.com). Let me suggest that snopes.com has it right. Such a “preposterous” event as the physical resurrection of Jesus requires some personal effort at verifying the possibility of it being true. And I think Jesus’ resurrection is worth thinking about seriously rather than being quick to write it off as many do in this skeptical age. In Luke’s version of events, Peter at least made the effort to run to the tomb to see for himself if it was empty. And he came away from the empty tomb perplexed, as the women had been, but also amazed – and wondering and open to learning more. And there was more to discover as we will see.

Our story in Luke 24 begins with the obvious: Jesus was dead. And it is significant that his followers assumed he was dead and would stay dead (24:1-3). The women knew they had come to the right tomb because the final verses in Luke 23 (55-56) tell us they were watching when Jesus’ body was placed inside the tomb after his crucifixion. So early Sunday morning, they went to that tomb with the necessary spices to anoint the body of Jesus – an action that showed proper respect for the dead. You might think the empty tomb would be an exhilarating experience for the women. Jesus was not in the grave! Therefore, he was alive! Hallelujah! But the meaning of the empty tomb was not at all clear to them. It was confusing and mystifying. Dead bodies were supposed to remain dead.

I don’t think we are much different today. We, too, assume that death is death. A dead body stays dead. William Shakespeare is dead. Michelangelo is dead. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart is dead. All the great artists and writers of great literature from the past are dead. We still read their writings. We still listen to their music. We still look at their magnificent works of art. We are still inspired by them but they are still dead.

And Jesus died too. Only he never drew a picture, composed a piece of music or wrote anything that was left for posterity -- as far as we know. But most historians and theologians agree we do have a reasonably reliable historical record (at the very least!) of some of Jesus’ teachings and actions. And they still do inspire many of us who hear or read them to follow his teachings. But as one commentator noted, we tend “to enshrine the dead Jesus in the tomb of memory.” And we do that quite well today. We recall that Jesus was an insightful teacher. He was a fiery preacher at times. He was a compassionate healer. But he died. So we hallow his memory and revere some of his teachings – much as the women wanted to honour Jesus’ dead body with spices and ointments. One might think that this would be all that is necessary.

But then the women heard a message that ran counter to what they knew to be true. They knew Jesus had died and was buried in a tomb blocked by a large heavy rock. But then they saw the rock had been rolled to one side and the tomb was empty. Then they heard the message: “Why do you look for the living among the dead? He is not here! He has risen!” (24:5). What strikes me the most here is that the women encountered the resurrection through a message. They were told that Jesus had risen but they did not see the risen Jesus himself -- at least, not at this point. What they had was a message – reminding them of what Jesus had taught them in Galilee about his death and resurrection.

Actually, that is precisely what we have today -- the message of Jesus’ resurrection. We too are told: “He is not here! He has risen!” We have heard that message for years. We have heard it again this morning in so many ways. Sometimes I wish God had done things differently. Wouldn’t it have been so much easier back then to have the women and all the Apostles and maybe even his enemies come to the tomb and see Jesus walk out into the light of a new day? And wouldn’t it be much easier for us now to believe if Jesus were simply to appear in dazzling glory before us as we gather on an Easter morning generations after that first Easter morning? But our situation is like that of the women on the first Easter: we are all given a message of resurrection that flies in the face of what we know to be true – that dead is dead!

What is the only logical response to such a message of an empty tomb and of Jesus’ physical resurrection? Isn’t it unbelief? Experience teaches us that death wins. But the Easter message says Jesus is no longer dead but alive! When such contradictory claims collide, maybe it does seem to make sense to continue affirming what we already know – that dead means dead.

It was the women who brought the message to the others -- including those who were closest to Jesus. Not only a message about the empty tomb but also the message of the resurrection – that Jesus lives, that he is not in the tomb because he has risen! And the Apostles responded as people regularly respond even today: they thought the message was “an idle tale [or ‘nonsense’] and they did not believe the women” (24:11).

Someone has noted that unbelief does not mean people believe nothing. Rather, unbelief means they believe something else. People say “I don't believe it” because there is something else they believe more strongly. Yet the resurrection challenges our certainties. Can we be so sure? Experience teaches us that death wins every time and that even the strongest succumb to it. But then we hear that Jesus Christ is no longer dead. That he is alive. “Really?” -- we may find ourselves thinking. What do we make of all this? The Easter message of Jesus’ resurrection tells us at least this: That while death is real, it is not final. Death is real but it is not final. The Easter message tells us that, in Jesus Christ, life gets the last word!

The Easter message calls us from our old belief in death to a new belief in life. The claim that the tomb could not hold Jesus, the idea that the one who died by crucifixion rose from the dead, is so outrageous it might make us wonder whether it might -- just might -- be true! The Apostles initially thought the message was nonsense (24:11). Yet the message was so shocking Peter had to go and take a look for himself (24:12). And he had to wonder, “What if it is true?”

My friends, we too have heard the rumour that Jesus is alive. And we have come to hear it again this morning: "What if Jesus’ resurrection from the dead is true? What if death is real (and we know it is) but not final? What if Jesus is not merely in the past but in the present too? What if Jesus were to meet us here and now in some way? And what if Jesus will meet us after we die and we are raised to new life in his presence as we see taught in the Scripture? What if that human hope of life after death is actually real?

I’ll finish with a story about the brilliant British philosopher A. N. Wilson who was born in 1950. Early in his career, many had hoped he would become the next C. S. Lewis. But as a young man, Wilson began to wonder how much of the Easter story he accepted. By his 30s, he had lost all religious belief and publicly repudiated his Christian faith and became an atheist. He soon embraced the role of a harsh, cynical critic of Christianity and of any faith in God at all. In 1992 he wrote a book called Jesus: A Life claiming Jesus was merely a failed messianic prophet. But on the Saturday before Easter in 2009, he wrote an astonishing article for London's prestigious newspaper, the Daily Mail, in which he shared his experience of participating in a Palm Sunday service. He wrote:

“When I took part in the procession last Sunday and heard the Gospel being chanted, I assented to it with complete simplicity. My own return to faith has surprised no one more than myself. Why did I return to it? Partially, perhaps it is no more than the confidence I have gained with age. Rather than being cowed by all the liberal clever-clogs on the block, I relish the notion that, by asserting a belief in the risen Christ, I am defying them.…

“But there is more to it than that. My belief has come about in large measure because of the lives and examples of people I have known -- not the famous, not saints, but friends and relations who have lived, and faced death, in the light of the Resurrection story [and] in the quiet acceptance that they have a future after they die.…

“Sadly, [the atheists and secularists] have all but accepted that only stupid people actually believe in Christianity, and that the few intelligent people left in the churches are there only for the music or believe it all in some symbolic or contorted way which, when examined, turns out not to be belief after all. As a matter of fact, I am sure the opposite is the case and that materialist atheism is not merely an arid creed, but totally irrational.

“Materialist atheism says we are just a collection of chemicals. It has no answer whatsoever to the question of how we should be capable of love or heroism or poetry if we are simply animated pieces of meat. Resurrection, which proclaims that matter and spirit are mysteriously conjoined, is the ultimate key to who we are. It confronts us with an extraordinarily haunting story. J. S. Bach believed the story, and set it to music. Most of the greatest writers and thinkers of the past 1,500 years have believed it. But an even stronger argument is the way that Christian faith transforms individual lives [people we all know].”

[A. N. Wilson, "Religion of Hatred: Why We Should No Longer Be Cowed

 by the Chattering Classes Ruling Britain Who Sneer at Christianity," U.N. Daily Mail (4-11-09)]

The reading in Luke’s Gospel this morning stops with Peter’s amazement at the empty tomb. But we know that is not the end of the story. The four Gospel records tell us more. As Peter said in Acts 10, he was an eyewitness along with others who followed Jesus from Galilee – they saw Jesus and they ate and drank with him after his resurrection.   

He is risen, my friends! Death does not get the final word!

And God asks each of us as the women were asked at the empty tomb: “Why do you seek the living among the dead?”

Through the living resurrected Jesus, God gives us the gift of life.

May this be so for you and for me.

Rev. Chris Miller

OYM - Oriole-York Mills United Church,Toronto [website »]

Easter Sunday April 4, 2010