God’s Guest List

• Psalm 15 - Read this text online here »
• Matthew 7:24-27 - Read this text online here »

“God, who may be a guest in your house, or who may dwell on your holy mountain?” Or as The Message Bible puts it: “God, who gets invited to dinner at your place? How do we get on your guest list?”

That’s the opening question of Psalm 15 by King David. If we planned to worship at the Temple in David’s time, part of the entrance liturgy into the Temple would include the worshippers asking what qualifications were necessary to enter God’s house for worship. That is the intent behind this opening question. The priest would then give the answer. And we would have to examine ourselves and decide if we had met those conditions. Our worship would not be meaningful to God or to ourselves before we had given worship some serious thought.

What kind of answer might we expect? In David’s time, as would-be worshippers, we might well have expected to hear a list of ritual requirements from the priest such as purifying ourselves by washing both ourselves and our clothes in preparation for worship. But in Psalm 15, there are no particularly religious qualifications – no talk of prayers or offerings or sacrifices or rituals. What we encounter instead are moral and spiritual concerns, not concerns about ritual and ceremony. In this instance, God is concerned with character, conduct and relationships.

In this striking response, God is instructing the worshippers to search their consciences. We saw this last week too in Psalm 24:3-6 when we encountered the questions “Who may ascend the mountain of God? Who may stand in God’s holy place?” In last week’s call to worship, we asked, “Who are we who come to worship?” This is not a question designed to provoke general religious discussion. We certainly have enough of that kind of conversation. Rather, this is a question that calls for a worshipper’s personal self-examination.

King David knew at least one thing about living in God’s presence: if he did not meet these conditions, or sincerely and intentionally make an effort to meet these conditions, he might go to worship but the worship would be of no value to him or to God. He would not leave from worship blessed of God or accepted by God. So in our worship too, self-examination must also include self-awareness. But if we have little insight and awareness of our true selves – of our character traits and our conduct (of our faults and our strengths) – then self-examination will not get us very far.

This Sunday morning then – if not every Sunday morning -- our question for personal examination and awareness is this: “God, what will it take on our part to be on your guest list – that is, to live with your blessing?” We might also say it this way: “What kind of personal conduct, conversations, relationships and values must be part of our character if you, Lord God, are to welcome our worship?”

Psalm 15 answers the question in five ways:

1. We are to be people who do what is right in God’s eyes and who speak truthfully from our hearts.
2.  We are to be people who do not speak with hidden agendas or with malice, who do not wrong our friends behind their backs and who do not spread rumours or gossip against our neighbours.
3. We are to be people who honour those who honour God but we cannot respect those who are hateful people and do despicable things.
4. We are to be people who stand by promises we have made even though it may be to our personal disadvantage.
5. We are to be people who have the right attitude toward money. That is, we will not agree to lie or to give false testimony in order to make some money on the side and we will not charge interest on a loan to someone who is poor.

All of these ways insist on one thing: our worship is ultimately meaningless unless our worship – our being with God – goes hand in hand with an inner moral integrity that expresses itself in right ways of living with others and before God. Can you also see the connection with Jesus and the two great commandments: “Love God” and also “Love your neighbour”? In fact, these two commands are inextricably tied together. Loving God and loving others was also stressed strongly by the Old Testament prophets like Isaiah and Micah [Isaiah 1:12–17, Micah 6:6–8]. Worship of God and compassion for others and justice for all was expected behaviour from God’s people. For instance, the sermon Jeremiah preached [Jeremiah 7:1-15] to people entering the gate of the Temple to worship God contained a searing attack on those who lacked such moral integrity and who played fast and loose with human relationships.

If we want to live with God’s blessing, we are to be people who do what is right in God’s sight and who speak truthfully from our hearts – both inside the church and in our daily lives. Besides being right, this makes good sense. Truth is like glue that holds people together. It is very difficult to live together as a family, as a congregation or as citizens in society if we cannot depend on people being truthful – never trusting one another, always on edge with each other. The late John Wooden, one of the greatest U. S. college basketball coaches said: “Be more concerned with your character than with your reputation, because your character is what you really are, while your reputation is merely what others think you are.” And our character is what God sees even if our reputation fools some of the people some of the time – maybe even fooling ourselves some of the time. I like what the late jazz saxophonist Charlie Parker [1920-1955] once said: “If you don’t live it, it won’t come out of your horn.” Are we living it? We need to examine ourselves.

If we want to live with God’s blessing, we are to be people who do not speak with hidden agendas and malice, who do not wrong our friends behind their backs and who do not spread rumours or gossip about our neighbours. We are also to be people who stand by promises we have given even though it may end up being to our personal disadvantage.

Several years ago, the daughter of a seminary professor of mine wrote a short magazine article about a personal incident in her life. She titled the piece “Loose Lips” [Ramona Cramer Tucker, “Loose Lips,” Christian Reader (March/April 2002), p. 36-37]. Ramona wrote:

It happened over a diet Coke at my friend Ann's house. As we both “tsk-tsked” about the escalating divorce rate, Ann, whose husband had left her four years earlier, commented: “I'm so sorry for the women behind the statistics. I know what it's like to be alone and scared about what's going to happen next.”

Just then, I thought about asking Ann to pray for Maris, a mutual friend who had just told me her marriage was in trouble. I rambled on with details of Maris's marital woes. Ann hadn't a clue our friend's marriage was so deeply troubled. She felt terrible that Maris hadn't told her about it.

After our conversation, I felt sick, but I pushed my feelings aside. However, as the days wore on, I realized painfully that I'd been wrong to share news that hadn't been mine to share. Not only had I broken my struggling friend's confidence, but I also had put Ann in the midst of a distressing situation.

I swallowed my pride and phoned Ann to apologize. Then, taking a deep breath, I phoned Maris and asked if I could come over.

Before we even sat down, I blurted out in misery: “Maris, I blew it. Remember a month ago, when you shared with me how you and Mark were struggling in your marriage? Well, last week when Ann and I were talking, I told her about you and Mark. I had meant to talk in general terms but then, well, your name slipped out.”

Maris's jaw dropped. Her lips quivered. She got teary-eyed.

I plunged ahead. “I don't know what to say. I wish I could take my words back, but I can't. Can you ever forgive me?”

Maris sighed. “I wish you hadn't said anything,” she said slowly. “Having someone else know about it only makes it harder on me and Mark. But you're right. You can't take your words back. I'll phone Ann, so she knows you talked to me and I'll ask her to keep it confidential.”

Ouch. Although Maris and I had been friends for five years, I knew it would take a long time before she would trust me again.

“Maris,” I said, reaching over to hug her, “I'm really sorry. I promise I won't share your confidences or anyone else's in the future.”

“Don't promise what you can't keep,” Maris said softly, looking me straight in the eye. As soon as I got to my car, the tears flowed. I thought of Proverbs 15:2: “The tongue of the wise commends knowledge, but the mouth of the fool gushes folly.” I knew which one I represented.

You may think this illustration is more negative than positive. But I don’t believe it is. It is important to understand that Ramona is a serious believer in Jesus, someone who loves God and who wants to live with God’s blessing. Her story reveals her honest self-examination and her self-awareness of her sin – even if her sin was not malicious. She realized she had been wrong in gossiping and betraying a confidence and she recognized her need for God’s forgiveness as well as hoping for her friend’s forgiveness. I believe God was pleased about Ramona’s personal self-examination and her self-awareness that prompted her to make a major change in her behaviour. That awareness is what can turn a negative situation into a more hopeful one. We need to examine ourselves too.

If we want to live with God’s blessing, we are to be people who do not respect those who are hateful and who do despicable things but instead we honour those who honour God. What may look pharisaical or being judgmental of others at first sight is in fact loyalty to God. It is not that we are comparing ourselves with others; clearly we cannot do this for we are all sinners in one way and another – and another. But since we desire to honour God with our own lives, we will honour those who also honour God. There are those, of course, who by their obviously hateful, even despicable actions and attitudes to others are not welcomed by God – that is, until they repent. And we cannot respect or honour them either despite their status or reputation or wealth. But we need to examine ourselves too.

Finally, if we want to live with God’s blessing, we are to be people who have the right attitude toward money. That is, we will not accept a bribe of any kind to lie or to do anything else that is not truthful or right for our own advantage. And we will not charge interest on a loan to someone who is poor.

I have in my library the Africa Bible Commentary published by African theologians for African pastors, students and lay leaders. It interprets and applies biblical insights related to African realities and culture. Yet at the same time, the insights are readily applicable to us in western society too. Here is what the commentary says for Psalm 15, verse 5:

“The final conditions mentioned relate to money, and specifically concern those who want to get rich by exploiting others. Such people are not welcomed by God. In the psalmist’s day they would lend money to fellow Israelites and then want it back with interest [15:5a]. It was not that Israelites were not to lend money to someone who needed it, but they were to remember that the purpose of the loan was to help that person escape poverty, not to enrich the lender. If interest was required, the loan would not accomplish its purpose. We see the effect of interest payments in the many African countries that are struggling merely to pay the interest on loans from the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund. High interest payments have trapped them. Churches in Africa as well in the West should not accept such exploitation of the poor 

“The other evidence of greed that God condemns is taking bribes to condemn the innocent. Bribery is the quickest way to influence a judge’s verdict or to gain access to a position one is not entitled to. Sadly, it is found even within the church. But God honours those who refuse to accept bribes.”

We must examine ourselves too in the midst of our realities and our culture.

Psalm 15 brings those who come to worship God – that’s us! -- face to face with the day-to-day implications of our commitment to God, a commitment that worship will illuminate. And that must lead to our self-examination and our self-awareness. If worship does not lead us to ask searching questions about ourselves, then worship is little more than a harmless pastime.

Jesus understood this distinction very clearly. Listen to his story about the tax man and the Pharisee in Luke 18:9-14 from The Message Bible:

[Jesus] told [this] story to some who were complacently pleased with themselves over their moral performance and looked down their noses at the common people: “Two men went up to the Temple to pray, one a Pharisee, the other a tax man. The Pharisee posed and prayed like this: ‘Oh, God, I thank you that I am not like other people -- robbers, crooks, adulterers, or, heaven forbid, like this tax man. I fast twice a week and tithe on all my income.’

“Meanwhile the tax man, slumped in the shadows, his face in his hands, not daring to look up, said, ‘God, give mercy. Forgive me, a sinner.’”

Jesus commented, “This tax man, not the other, went home made right with God. If you walk around with your nose in the air, you’re going to end up flat on your face.

In Jesus’ story, the Pharisee’s worship was not accepted by God. Even though he was a religious leader, he was not aware of his complacency, his arrogance or his contempt of others – his hypocrisy. Clearly he believed his worship was acceptable to God but, sadly, he was wrong. We too need to examine ourselves and our worship. Poet John Donne wrote: “Sleep with clean hands, either kept clean all day by integrity or washed clean at night by repentance.” Have we examined ourselves and done any repenting lately?

Psalm 15 ends with a hopeful promise, that “those who do these things shall never be moved” or shaken! This does not mean that we are always perfect or that others in the congregation are always perfect. This does not mean life will always be smooth sailing, that we will never experience difficulties or never have to live with agonizing questions. You and I understand that. But Psalm 15 reminds us once again of the unshakable spiritual security available to us who worship God sincerely and with all our hearts, whose privilege it is to be in God’s presence. In that way and in that place, we can experience what is remarkable -- the amazing grace and the trustworthy love of God.

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


Rev. Chris Miller
August 29, 2010

OYM Oriole-York Mills United Church, Toronto

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Encountering God in Worship

• Psalm 24 [read online here »]
• Matthew 5:1-9 [read online here »]

Pastor and theologian N. T. Wright wrote a short book titled For All God's Worth. The subtitle is True Worship and the Calling of the Church [Eerdmans, 1997]. He starts the first chapter by asking:

“What is the most beautiful thing you have experienced this week?

“Maybe something you heard. Maybe some beautiful music -- perhaps in church, or in the cathedral.

“Maybe something in the world of nature: the sun breaking through the mist and making the autumn leaves luminous, the curl of a squirrel's tail as he sat nibbling a nut.

“It might be something you smelt: the scent of a rose perhaps, or the smell of a good meal cooking when you were very hungry.

“It might be something you tasted: an exquisite wine, a special cheese, that same meal well seasoned and well cooked.

“Maybe something you experienced in work: things suddenly coming together, an unexpected new opportunity.

“It might be something you experienced in human relationships: a quiet, gentle glance from someone you love dearly; the soft squeeze of a child's hand. …”

Wright suggests this to us:

“Our ordinary experiences of beauty are given to us to provide a clue, a starting-point, a signpost, from which we move on to recognize, to glimpse, to be overwhelmed by, to adore, and so to worship, not just the majesty, but [also] the beauty of God himself.”

Most of us are here this morning to worship God. “Worship” literally means: “worth-ship – to accord worth, true value, to something, to recognize and respect it for the true worth it has” [Wright, p. 6]. In Psalm 24, the psalmist – King David in this case –recognizes and respects the true worth inherent in God – in God’s character.

In our call to worship this morning we asked and responded to two questions. The first one was “Whom do we worship?” We responded with “We worship God the Creator: the One who made us.” It doesn’t seem that a service of worship goes by without our acknowledging in some way that we are created by God and that we worship God as the One who created this Earth and everything good in it – including human beings! Hear the Good News Bible: “The world and all that is in it belong to the LORD; the earth and all who live on it are [the Lord’s]” [Psalm 24:1].

I do understand the difficulty some people have with the ongoing debate regarding creation and evolution. The impression is, sometimes, that believing in evolution creates a barrier to also believing in God especially as Creator. But in a recent article titled “Creation and Evolution,” author Bill Hall caught my attention by writing that “[the discussion between creation and evolution] does not have to be an either/or argument. In fact, it does not have to be an argument at all” (http://tinyurl.com/2dfqvhu). He wrote further:

“We suggest curiosity mixed with humility. There are strident and often angry voices raised on both sides of this question. They only make the argument increasingly bitter and the divide wider. The fact that many scientists can accept the findings of science that point to evolutionary changes in the forms of life, while remaining committed to their Christian faith, should be encouraging to the rest of us. It does not have to be an either/or argument.

In fact, it does not have to be an argument at all. Realistic scientists know that they might never uncover all the mysteries of creation.

And I would add that generous Christians on both sides of this discussion recognize there are mysteries as to exactly how God created the universe including the Earth but that both honour God as Creator.

Bill Hall then quoted two passages from The Message Bible. The first from Job 36:26:

“Take a long, hard look. See how great [God] is—infinite, greater than anything you could ever imagine or figure out!”

The second from Proverbs 25:2:

“God delights in concealing things; scientists delight in discovering things.” 

“We may never fully resolve these questions in this life, but it is a legitimate and exciting quest, and we are discovering wonderful things along the way.”

Let us not make science into something it is not meant to be. Let us appreciate science as the marvellous gift it is in seeking to understand the intricacies and drama of all God gives us through creation. God is the giver of all good gifts. This Earth and all the good things it contains are God’s spectacular gifts to humankind. So we confess before the world that we believe God is the Creator. We worship the God who has made us. God deserves our worship because we recognize we and everything else belong to God the Creator – in the best and most loving sense of belonging.

The second question we asked in our call to worship this morning was “Who are we who come to worship?” We responded with “We are those who seek to think good thoughts, to act in right ways and who make no false promises before God.” That was my somewhat simple adaptation of Psalm 24:3 and 4. Here is how our responsive reading of Psalm 24 in the hymnbook put it:

“Those who have clean hands & a pure heart,
who have not set their minds on deceit,
nor made false promises....
Such are those who seek God.” 

Who are those who truly come to worship God? The psalmist says they are those who are seekers after God and who want to be with God. That is the meaning behind the phrases in Psalm 24 about who may “ascend the mountain of God” and “stand in God’s holy place.” These are the kind of people -- as observed in this morning’s responsive reading -- who will receive God’s blessing and God’s righteousness from the God who will save them. In fact these sound like the kind of people who reflect in their lives some of what Jesus taught in the Beatitudes. Listen again to what we heard from the Gospel of Matthew, Chapter 5, in the Good News Bible:

“Happy are those who know they are spiritually poor; the Kingdom of heaven belongs to them! Happy are those who are humble; they will receive what God has promised!

Happy are those whose greatest desire is to do what God requires; God will satisfy them fully! Happy are those who are merciful to others; God will be merciful to them!

Happy are the pure in heart; they will see God!

Eugene Peterson, in his book Practice Resurrection [Eerdmans, 2010), pp. 143-144], tells the true story of Judith, an artist who worked in textiles such as raw wool and cotton. He writes:

“Judith had an alcoholic husband and a drug-addicted son. She kept her life and her family together for years by attending twelve-step meetings. One Sunday, when she was about forty years old at the time, she entered the church where I was the pastor. She came at the invitation of some friends she knew from her meetings – ‘You need to come to church. I'll meet you there.’ She had never been to church before. She knew nothing about church …. She was well read in poetry and politics and psychology, and knew a great deal of art and artists. But she had never read the Bible ….

“Something, though, caught her attention when she entered this church, and she continued to come. In a few months she became a Christian and I became her pastor. I loved observing and listening to her. Everything was new: Scriptures, worship, prayer, baptism, Eucharist -- church! … [She was so excited]: ‘Where have I been all my life? These are incredible stories -- why didn't anyone tell me these? How come this has been going on all around me and I never knew it!’

After he moved from that congregation, Peterson kept in touch with Judith through letters. Here is part of one letter:

“Dear Pastor: Among my artist friends I feel so defensive about my life -- I mean about going to church. They have no idea of what I am doing and act bewildered. So I try to be unobtrusive about it. But as my church life takes on more and more importance -- it is essential now to my survival -- it is hard to shield it from my friends. I feel protective of it, not wanting it to be dismissed or minimized or trivialized. It is like I am trying to protect it from profanation or sacrilege. But it is strong. It is increasingly difficult to keep it quiet. It is not as if I am ashamed or embarrassed -- I just don't want it belittled.

“A long-time secular friend, and a superb artist, just the other day was appalled: ‘What is this I hear about you going to church?’ Another found out that I was going on a three-week mission trip to Haiti and was incredulous: ‘You, Judith, you going to Haiti with a church group! What has gotten into you?’ I don't feel strong enough to defend my actions. My friends would accept me far more readily if they found that I was in some bizarre cult involving exotic and strange activities like black magic or experiments with levitation. But going to church branded me with a terrible ordinariness.

“But that is what endears it to me, both the church and the twelve-step programs, this façade of ordinariness. When you pull back the veil of ordinariness, you find the most extraordinary life behind it.”

In my own pastoral journey over the years, I have also become friends with some people like Judith. They are people who sometimes have been previous churchgoers and sometimes not. But when they came to a service of worship, they were paying attention and God caught their attention. Then they became [passionate] seekers in ways they had never dreamed.

• They discovered that their ordinary everyday lives became centered and were supported by a most extraordinary spiritual life with God.
• They discovered the blessing, the righteousness and the salvation of God to be true in their own lives just as Psalm 24 states.
• They discovered, as Jesus said, that in their reverence and humility before God, they received what God has promised.
• They discovered that, in their deep desire to do what God wanted, God truly satisfied their spiritual hunger for God.
• They discovered that, in being just (not deceitful) and in being merciful to others, they understood how “astonishingly merciful” God is.
• They discovered that, in their desire for a pure heart – a heart that wants to do what is the right thing in God’s eyes – they saw God! That is, they sensed and understood and experienced God in real and personal ways.

Did you notice the last statement in our call to worship? “So, let us worship the God who reigns in glory!” That comes from verses 7 through 10 of Psalm 24. Our responsive reading stated:

“Lift up your heads …! Lift yourselves up …
that the One who rules in glory may enter.
Who rules in glory?
It is God, valiant and strong.
God, who is mighty in battle.”

The Good News Bible calls God the “great king” while The New Revised Standard Version calls God “the King of glory.”

I know many people have a difficult time with battle or warrior imagery in the Bible. We somehow have a belief that God is not a warrior God. Or that the God we see in Jesus is gentler, kinder and more into loving than fighting. However, one way to respond to God who rules in glory, who is strong and mighty, is to remember that the “King of glory” is also the King who brings in his kingdom. In Mark 1:15, as Jesus began his public ministry, he proclaimed that “the kingdom of God is at hand.” In Mark 3:23-27, Jesus spoke in a parable about binding or tying up the strong man and plundering his house. We get the sense of battle here against all that is evil, wicked, oppressive, unjust and sinful. And that Jesus is the One who will conquer the strong man (Satan, Jesus called him) in order to restore God’s good creation. Scripture makes it clear Jesus came to make God known to human beings. And here is a picture of Jesus as the Lord of glory triumphing over the powers of evil and glorifying God in the process [John 17:4]. Through his life, death and his resurrection from the dead, Jesus conquered and will conquer the powers of evil. Yes, we call his way love but, Jesus’ way of love – God’s way of love – does involve suffering and pain – and battle -- to defeat the influence of sin and wickedness.

So in our worship we recognize

• God is the One who created the heavens, the Earth and human beings and so we hold God in awe.
• We come to God as seekers for the One who came to forgive our sin and to conquer death on our behalf through his life, his crucifixion and his resurrection and so we respond with amazement.
• We come to God to learn God’s ways and seek to live God’s way of doing what is right, of living with mercy to others and so we come humbly.
• We welcome God, the great Creator, Jesus the King of glory, into our lives so that we too, in all we say and do, may glorify God.

So let us give our worship to the only living God who is truly worth our honour, our respect and our love.

May this be so for you and for me.

Rev. Chris Miller August 22, 2010
OYM Oriole-York Mills United Church, Toronto - website »

Singing a New Song!

• Psalm 96 - Read this text online here »
• Romans 11:33-36 - Read this text online here »

In every generation, the Church tries to understand the purpose for why it exists. We are no different from the generations before us nor the generations that will follow us. It isn’t that the original reasons for God creating humanity and the Earth and the universe -- all creation, actually -- have changed. But we – in our place and in our time -- somehow need to discover for ourselves a fresh appreciation of God the Creator’s holiness and majesty and supremacy and how our human stories connect with God’s overall story of loving redemption. Psalm 96 invites us and everyone else in the world to sing a “new song” of God’s involvement in the stories of our everyday lives.

What does singing a “new song” mean? First, let me suggest what it does not mean. A new song does not mean we as God’s people are more “cool” or “hip” or “relevant” than we were before. A new song does not mean that since we – as a church -- have learned to apply the latest technological gimmicks, we are somehow more relevant to our generation. While technology is important and helpful to the younger generation (as to us older folks too!), these younger people can see through gimmickry used for its own sake. Church historian and culture watcher David Wells, in his book The Courage to Be Protestant, wrote:

“... the ... irony is that the younger generations who are less impressed by whiz-bang technology, who often see through what is slick and glitzy, and who have been on the receiving end of enough marketing to nauseate them, are as likely to walk away from these oh-so-relevant churches as to walk into them.”

Brett McCracken is a 27-year-old Christian who wrote an Internet article titled “The Perils of ‘Wannabe Cool’ Christianity” for the Wall Street Journal last week [August 13, 2010-08-13, (http://tinyurl.com/27e3ner)]. McCracken wrote:

“If ... Christian leadership thinks that ‘cool Christianity’ is a sustainable path forward, they are severely mistaken. As a twentysomething, I can say with confidence that when it comes to church, we don’t want cool as much as we want real. 

[McCracken continues:] “If we are interested in Christianity in any sort of serious way, it is not because it’s easy or trendy or popular. It’s because Jesus himself is appealing, and what he says rings true. [My bold] It’s because the world we inhabit is utterly phony, ephemeral, narcissistic, image-obsessed and sex-drenched -- and we want an alternative. It’s not because we want more of the same.”

In the eyes of the younger generations, a new song does not mean something easy or trendy or popular. Actually, no matter a person’s age, whether men or women, children or youth -- we all want to see and experience what is genuine and real. So singing our new song means singing our fresh expression of how God is real and vibrant in our lives.

Singing a new song might even mean discovering for the first time, what our individual new song with God really is. The church calls that new experience conversion. Singing a new song might also mean intentionally renewing our perspective about God as Creator, as Redeemer and as constant Companion. Singing a new song might also mean intentionally refreshing our personal relationship with God. How is our particular individual story – and our communal church story -- connecting with God’s great story of love and grace and forgiveness for the whole of humanity and even for the Earth? The church calls that ongoing spiritual transformation and renewal.

The “new” in “new song” might mean a fresh experience and expression of the greatness of God for us personally and as a church. When we take the time to give some thought to God the Creator, we will realize that nothing – absolutely nothing in all the universe – compares or even comes close to the one and only living God we are talking about.

The greatness and majesty and total pre-eminence of the one and only living God in the midst of the surrounding ancient nations was clearly an issue in Psalm 96. Here are some verses in Psalm 96 from The Good News Bible:

     The Lord is great and is to be highly praised;
he is to be honoured more than all the gods.
     The gods of all other nations are only idols,
but the Lord created the heavens.
     Glory and majesty surround him;
Praise the Lord, all people on earth;
     praise his glory and might.
Praise the Lord’s glorious name;

I wonder if we as God’s people need to seek a renewed perspective of God in a “serious way,” as McCracken says. Only then can we sing a refreshed song of the greatness and -- here’s that word I often use -- the awesomeness of God. God is awe-some! Here again is that question I have been using during this series in the Psalms: How do we perceive God? Now, here is another question: How do we experience God? Do we experience God as awesome?

In her book Reaching Out Without Dumbing Down, theologian and author Marva Dawn wrote about an animated discussion -- as she called it -- with her Grade 9 English teacher over the word “awful”. [Marva J. Dawn, Reaching Out Without Dumbing Down (William B. Eerdmans, 1995), pp. 98-99.] Those of you who have been teachers or have an interest in language will especially appreciate her story. Marva wrote:

“I insisted on using awe-full to describe something so exalted as to arouse reverence. [My teacher] preferred that I stick with the word’s common spelling [awful] and its usage to designate something dreadful.

“We should have looked in the dictionary. My old Webster’s [dictionary] lists as its first definition ‘inspiring awe; highly impressive.’ Not until its fourth entry does it supply the definition usually assumed in idiomatic English: ‘very bad, ugly, unpleasant.’

“But the teacher had the final word that day in class. Even at age 14 I felt that a vital perception was being lost -- the sense that something, someone, was higher than we. I longed to verbalize awe-full-ness; my teacher made class awful.

[Marva Dawn continues:] “Today teenagers apply the related word awesome to clothes, food, music, and cinematic effects. [Have you seen the humorous television ad by Tim Hortons for one of its summer drinks? The extra ingredient in the drink has made it “awesommer!”] The word [awesome] is so overused that when people sing [about the] ‘Awesome God,’ they seem to trivialize the Awe-full One and put [God] on the same level as toothpaste and [clothing].

“As our culture has worked hard to establish equality among persons, we’ve somehow put God into that parity and gradually reduced our sense that this is a breathtakingly transcendent GOD we’re talking about.”

When I observe God’s creation -- from its vastness to its microscopic detail -- I can’t help but call it “awesome.” Do you too? As Psalm 19:1 says: “How clearly the sky reveals God’s glory!” (Have you seen any of the current comet showers in the heavens? They are truly awesome!) But even in all its beauty, wonder and glory, the creation is a mere reflection of the beauty, wonder and glory of how awesome God the Creator is!

Albert Einstein was a remarkable scientist in the early 20th century, a professor of theoretical physics in Prague, Zurich, Berlin and at Princeton University from 1933 to 1945. Einstein heard the song of the wonder about God in creation. Here is his response when he was questioned whether or not he believed in God:

“I’m not an atheist.... [But] The problem involved is too vast for our limited minds. We are in the position of a little child entering a huge library filled with books in many languages. The child knows someone must have written those books. It does not know how. It does not understand the languages in which they are written. The child dimly suspects a mysterious order in the arrangement of the books, but doesn’t know what it is. That, it seems to me, is the attitude of even the most intelligent human being toward God. We see the universe marvellously arranged and obeying certain laws, but only dimly understand these laws.”

Einstein also composed a credo called “What I Believe.” It concluded with an explanation of what he meant when he called himself “religious”:

“The most beautiful emotion we can experience is the mysterious. It is the fundamental emotion that stands at the cradle of all true art and science. He to whom this emotion is a stranger, who can no longer wonder and stand rapt in awe, is as good as dead, a snuffed-out candle. To sense that behind anything that can be experienced there is something that our minds cannot grasp, whose beauty and sublimity reaches us only indirectly: this is religiousness. In this sense, and in this sense only, I am a devoutly religious man.” [Walter Isaacson, “Einstein and Faith,” TIME (4-5-07).]

I believe Einstein would have said amen to the feelings of wonder and awe in Psalm 96. Listen to these final verses in Psalm 96 from The Message Bible:

“Let’s hear it from Sky,
With Earth joining in,
And a huge round of applause from Sea.
Let Wilderness turn cartwheels,
Animals, come dance,
Put every tree of the forest in the choir --
An extravaganza before GOD as he comes … ”

I too want to say amen and amen and amen to these feelings of wonder and awe – not only about the creation but especially for God the Creator!

But I would humbly suggest that the “something behind all that can experienced” that Einstein referred to – whose beauty and wonder reaches humanity, he believed, only indirectly – has actually reached humanity in a direct and focused expression of that behind-the-scenes mystery and glory. Listen to these statements from John, one of Jesus’ disciples, in Chapter 1 of the Gospel of John from the Good News Translation:

“The Word became a human being and, full of grace and truth, lived among us. We saw his glory, the glory which he received as the Father’s only Son. No one has ever seen God. The only Son, who is the same as God and is at the Father’s side, he has made him known.”

And again as The Message Bible puts it:

“We saw the glory with our own eyes, the one-of-a-kind glory, like Father, like Son ... No one has ever seen God, not so much as a glimpse. [But] this one-of-a-kind God-Expression, [he means Jesus] who exists at the very heart of the Father, has made [God] plain as day.”

Singing a new song for us as Christians must include the person of Jesus. There must be in our lives a fresh expression because of a fresh experience of the “realness” of Jesus. I hope that, at some point in Einstein’s life journey, he caught a glimpse of the beauty and awe and glory of God in Jesus. I say that humbly because Jesus Christ is the mysterious source Einstein described as coming to humanity indirectly. However, when Jesus moved into our humanity, the mystery of God was exposed in a clear way in the humanness of Jesus. That is why we often say: if you want to know what God is like, look at Jesus. Whatever is included in our new song, there must be a fresh appreciation of Jesus and how our individual stories – our lives – connect with his story and thus with God’s story of redemption and love. Recall part of what Brett McCracken, the 27-year-old Christian, wrote in the Wall Street Journal:

“If we [twentysomethings] are interested in Christianity in any sort of serious way, it is not because it’s easy or trendy or popular. It’s because Jesus himself is appealing, and what he says rings true. [My bold] It’s because the world we inhabit is utterly phony, ephemeral, narcissistic, image-obsessed and sex-drenched -- and we want an alternative. It’s not because we want more of the same.”

Jesus has amazing appeal to people in our world. And he is the reason for the freshness we can experience in our new songs about our new experiences with God.

I am constantly surprised at how many sports figures are vocal followers of Jesus. As the psalm says, they also “tell the glad news of salvation from day to day” to all who will listen. Albert Pujols, the first baseman for the St. Louis Cardinals, is a World Series champion, an eight-time All Star, the recipient of three National League Most Valuable Player awards and, according to a 2008 poll of 30 baseball managers, the most feared hitter in the sport. But even more impressive is his life off the field. He founded the Pujols Family Foundation that offers support and care to people with Down’s syndrome and their families and also helps those in poverty in the Dominican Republic. He and his wife provide a loving household for four little children. But most importantly for Pujols, he is a passionate disciple of Jesus. Pujols once told an audience of men and young boys:

“As a Christian, I am called to live a holy life. My standard for living is set by God, not by the world. I am responsible for growing and sharing the gospel.... One way for me to stay satisfied in Jesus is for me to stay humble. Humility is getting on your knees and staying in God’s will -- what he wants for me, not what the world wants. It would be easy to go out and do whatever I want, but those things only satisfy the flesh for a moment. Jesus satisfies my soul forever.” [Tim Ellsworth, “Holy Hitter,” World magazine (2-27-10).]

Listen to some of what the Bible says about Jesus Christ as The Message Bible puts it. From the Letter to the Colossians Chapter 1, verses 15-20:

“We look at this Son and see the God who cannot be seen. We look at this Son and see God’s original purpose in everything created. For everything, absolutely everything, above and below, visible and invisible, rank after rank after rank of angels -- everything got started in him and finds its purpose in him. He was there before any of it came into existence and holds it all together right up to this moment. And when it comes to the church, he organizes and holds it together, like a head does a body. [The Son] was supreme in the beginning and … he is supreme in the end. From beginning to end he’s there, towering far above everything, everyone…. and all the broken and dislocated pieces of the universe -- people and things, animals and atoms -- get properly fixed and fit together in vibrant harmonies, all because of his death, his blood that poured down from the cross.”

And from the Letter to the Hebrews, Chapter 1, verses 1-3a:

“Going through a long line of prophets, God has been addressing our ancestors in different ways for centuries. Recently he spoke to us directly through his Son. By his Son, God created the world in the beginning, and it will all belong to the Son at the end. This Son perfectly mirrors God, and is stamped with God’s nature. He holds everything together by what he says -- powerful words!”

So, my friends, let’s sing to GOD a brand-new song! Earth and everyone in it, join us in worship! Let’s sing together the good news of God and God’s wonders for one and all to hear!

May this be so for you and for me.

Rev. Chris Miller
August 15, 2010

OYM Oriole-York Mills United Church, Toronto

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We Thank God

• Psalm 9 (New Century Version)
• Acts 17:29-31 (Good News version)

The longer I live, the more I believe that being thankful is basic to being a follower of God. Thanksgiving is not an add-on to our faith. One reason I believe this is that people who say thanks to God are people who see themselves as dependent upon God for what is good in their lives. Let me illustrate it this way. For instance, when I say thanks to other human beings, I am indicating they have done something to help me and that I am grateful to them for what they have done. So today, for instance, I say thank you to all from Cedarhurst who have assisted us with this morning’s service. We are dependent upon your help – your goodwill and care – to make this worship service the best it can be to honour God and for us and for the residents you serve in this facility. And I also thank those from OYM who have made and are making the service this morning a time of richness, joy and praise to God. We need each other, don’t we?

Let me also say it another way. People who do not give thanks to God are likely to think they are entirely “self-made” individuals. What they have, they have earned themselves or with a little help from their human friends. People who do not give thanks to God are unable to see the ways of God in the good that has come their way.

Long ago, a Jewish poet wrote in Psalm 92, “It is good to give thanks to the LORD.” And throughout the Bible, one writer after another reminded the Jewish people of all God had done for them. Had it not been for the mighty acts of God, the Jewish people would still have been slaves in Egypt. Had it not been for the saving hand of God, they would have starved in the wilderness before they reached the Promised Land. Had it not been for the powerful hand of God, they would have been overcome by their enemies. And so the long story of God’s involvement with the people traced its way through biblical history. Because God had done so much for them, the reasonable response of the Jewish people was thanksgiving.

Being thankful and being dependent upon God are tied together at the hip. When our sense of dependence upon God becomes shaky, so does our thankfulness. Was there ever a time when we expressed our belief publicly and clearly that our own bounty – having enough food to eat and a place to live – and our growth and prosperity as a country were because of God’s goodness? Do we still? Was there ever a time when we daily thanked God for His presence with us? Do we still?

By any standard Canada is a remarkably blessed country. By any standard, all of us here this morning would no doubt say that we too have been blessed with good things -- even if we are in the midst of difficult circumstances now. But do we consider ourselves blessed because we are clever and industrious? Or are we blessed because God is the One who has been there and is here for us always with His good gifts? King David, who wrote Psalm 9, reinforces what people who trust people have known all along: God is in all the good that comes our way in one way or another. And our response to such goodness ought to be thanksgiving. As King David said in verse 1: “I will praise [or give thanks to] the LORD with my whole heart; I will recount all of your wonderful deeds.”

Psalm 9 gives at least three reasons for us to give thanks to God.

One reason to give thanks is that a good and just God will judge the world (Verses 5–8, 15–16).

The psalmist knew God – not as tiny, tribal God in his small corner of the world – but as the Creator God of all the peoples throughout the entire world. God is the One who sees all that is done in this world and God is the One who will judge the world in fairness. God will decide what is fair (vs. 8). Here is a vision of a just and good God presiding over a world He created. This world was meant for justice and goodness because the God who made it is just and good. And be assured, God sees what is not just and not good. God sees the injustice and evil that concerns us as well. Notice the phrases about God sprinkled throughout this psalm:

God will judge the world in fairness, God defends those who suffer, God will not leave those who come to him, God remembers who the murderers are, God will not forget the cries of those who suffer, God is known by his fair decisions, those who have troubles will not be forgotten by God, the hopes of the poor in God will never die.

And notice the phrases about those who are not just and who do evil: they will fall into the pit they dug, their feet will be caught in the nets they dug. Finally the psalm says, “Wicked people will go to the grave and so will all those who forget God” (9:17).

I know many people do not like the idea of God judging people. They believe -- and rightly so -- that God’s character is loving and compassionate. Just like them, they hope. Except, have you ever noticed that we who feel we are loving and compassionate are also people who judge others we know all too quickly and easily and sometimes even harshly and often, probably, unfairly. So we make judgement calls on other people ourselves.

But there is a judgement that is just and right. And with that judgement comes certain consequences. We call that justice. For instance, the wicked and evil behaviour of Robert Pickton has been judged, and rightly so, by his peers. He was thus convicted of criminal, immoral and murderous harm against others. And he has been dealt with justly by being put in jail without parole for a minimum of twenty-five years – and probably (we hope) for the rest of his life.

Now let’s connect God’s judgment with God’s justice. Think about what God’s judgment will mean for those who have cheated and stolen from others, for those who have hurt the innocent and for those who have taken advantage of people who are poor and naïve, for those who have been willfully destructive of what is good in many ways, for those who have persecuted and tortured people and maimed and murdered them and believe they have gotten away with it. If not in this life, then in the end, God will judge them – and he will judge them -- fairly and justly. They will find themselves dealt the appropriate consequences. God’s judgment will connect with His justice.

Please understand that judgment is not a time for God to act vindictively or maliciously. Rather, judgment is the time when all of life will finally make sense. Good will be noticed for what it is and appropriately rewarded. Bad will be remembered for what it is and justly dealt with. For instance, people who have been unfairly and wrongly hurt, maligned, damaged with no seeming way out of their circumstance will ultimately receive the justice they deserve. This is because a loving and just God can ultimately be trusted to do what is right and good and loving and just for people. And God will make up for what other people and life itself took away from them because God is that loving and that powerful. God sees what is happening in this world. And in the meantime, as King David said it in verse 10: “Those who know the Lord trust him, because he will not leave those who come to him.”

So we trust God and we give thanks to God -- that God is good and just and will, in His time and in His way, connect judgment with fairness and justice.

Another reason to give thanks is that a compassionate God cares for and saves those who are helpless (Verses 9–12, 17–18).

Throughout the psalm, there is a repetitive theme. The English Standard Version puts it this way:

“The LORD is a stronghold for the oppressed, a stronghold in time of trouble” (9:9). “The Lord does not forget the cry of the afflicted” (9:12b). “For the needy shall not … be forgotten, nor [will] the hope of the poor perish forever” (9:18).

Well-known author Philip Yancey, in an article titled "Where Is God When It Hurts?" [Christianity Today (June 2007), p. 56] wrote:

I once was part of a small group with a Christian leader … who went through a hard time as his adult children got into trouble, bringing him sleepless nights and expensive attorney fees.

Worse, my friend was diagnosed with a rare form of cancer. Nothing in his life seemed to work out.

"I have no problem believing in a good God," he said to us one night. "My question is, 'What is God good for?'"

We listened to his complaints and tried various responses, but he batted them all away. A few weeks later, I came across [this statement] …: "For those who love God, [there is] nothing [that] can happen to you [that cannot be redeemed]."

I went back to my friend. "What about that?" I asked. "Is God good for that promise?"

I don’t know how Yancey’s friend responded but clearly, the psalmist -- King David -- believed a compassionate, caring God was good for that promise.

The entire Bible tells about a God who is always caring – passionately caring -- for those who are poor. From earliest times in Hebrew life, the Jewish people were told to make provision for people who were poor. In Matthew 25, Jesus said that one of the ways he will measure us is in the way we have cared for others who are hurting and helpless. I am grateful we worship a God who cares for such people. But I have discovered I’m not all that different from those who are materially poor as I might like to believe. They are needy. But before God, I am needy too. They are obviously in need of special help. But before God, I need special help too. They need forgiveness. And before God, I need forgiveness too. They have great difficulty taking care of themselves. In the sight of God, I’m sure God sees me as a child he loves who often has difficulty taking care of myself too. In God’s sight, all of us, no matter our particular circumstances, look pretty much the same. So we give thanks to a compassionate God who cares for all of us and can save all of us.

One more reason to give thanks is that a personal God is the One who saves us personally (Verses 3–4, 13–14).

There is not only praise and thanksgiving in Psalm 9 but also a profound cry for mercy and help to God who is deeply personal to the psalmist. In verse 13 we hear that cry: “Lord, have mercy on me. See how my enemies hurt me. Do not let me go through the gates of death.” And in verse 14 he says: “I will praise you; I will rejoice because you saved me.” These verses are characteristic of lament in the psalms. To lament means to express grief for something, perhaps even to weep because of something. Psalm 9 has elements of lament – of crying for help.The psalmist is expressing his personal lament to God. He cries out in pain. But then in the next breath, he says that one day, he will praise God! He doesn’t know when that day might come, but he trusts it will come.

Last week I asked the question: How do we perceive God? How do you see God? The psalmist is reaching out to a personal God – that is one way he sees God. He may sometimes feel God is “at a distance” as the song goes, but King David wants God to span that gap because he knows God is personal. Jesus reminds us that God is so personal “even the hairs of your head are all counted. So do not be afraid; you are of more value than many sparrows” (Matthew 10:30–31). Jesus even invited us to pray to God by God’s most personal name Abba – Father -- “Our Father in heaven” (Matthew 6:9a). We can take great comfort that a very personal God cares for us and hears our laments – God is touched by our grief and our cries for help from our enemies.

Some of us may experience other people as our enemies. There are people who have spiteful intentions toward us or treat us unjustly and we cry for help. Some of us experience physical afflictions that are enemies to us because we lose our health and our ability to live the productive lives we want to live.

On June 22, 2007, a hit-and-run incident left Daniel McConchie paralysed from the waist down. About a year after that traumatic day, Daniel wrote: "God has not healed my affliction, but he has taught me the power of lamenting to him about it."

Daniel made further comments about his lament:

To our detriment, one of the most overlooked portions of Scripture [today] … are the psalms of lament. However, David repeatedly demonstrated that laments make obvious our intense faith in God that he can and will intervene in our time of need. They demonstrate just how deep our relationship with [God] the Father really is. After all, we don't communicate our grief and mourning to strangers. We save that for those we truly know and love.

We do save our deepest grief for those we truly know and love – for those whom we believe truly know us, love us and understand us. We express our most intimate selves with those who are most closest and most personal to us. My friends, both the psalmist and Jesus our Lord remind us that God wants to be most personal with His people – with those whom He loves so personally. With you.

Being thankful to God is basic to our being believers in God and followers of Jesus Christ. Thankfulness expresses our dependence upon God and trust in God in a world that is often unjust and not safe. I’ll conclude with this simple illustration of trust. It comes from theologian Dale Bruner. [Dale Bruner, "Is Jesus Inclusive or Exclusive?" Theology, News, and Notes [of Fuller Seminary] (October 1999), p.3] Bruner writes:

The best parable of trust we have in our home is our cat, Clement of Alexandria. (We had a companion cat, Archbishop Thomas Cranmer, but a local coyote ate the archbishop recently.) When our cat goes outside, he lives in terror. He looks around as though it's a jungle, and he is terrified. But when he comes in the house, he lies on the floor right between the kitchen and the dining room -- where we walk most frequently -- and falls asleep in total trust. [My wife] Kathy or I could squash Clement's head, but he trusts us.

Our cat lives in complete, total confidence in his human companions. (In this connection, I think the best animal synonym for faith is purring.) Every time I see Clement just lying there, I say to myself: That's what Jesus wants me to do—to trust him. The kind of trust the cat shows in us is the kind of trust the Lord Jesus Christ invites from us.

When we choose to have that kind of trust in God, without hesitation or reservation, we will find ourselves giving thanks to God, like the psalmist, with all our heart.

May this be so for you and for me.

Rev. Chris Miller
August 8, 2010
OYM Oriole-York Mills United Church, Toronto

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We Bless God

Psalm 103 - Read the psalm text online here »

St. Athanasius was one of the most influential of the theologians in the Early Church. Athanasius observed the following about the Psalms:

“In the Psalter you learn about yourself. You find depicted in it all the movements of your soul, all its changes, its ups and downs, its failures and [its] recoveries.”

This morning we are beginning a summer mini-series in the Psalms. Over the next five weeks, we will look at five psalms. They are listed in the bulletin for you to read and ponder ahead of time. I hope we will learn something about ourselves and something about God as we look at these psalms. I hope we will see how the movements of our souls connect with the movement of God’s “soul” – God’s character. And I pray that each of us will be strengthened in our faith as we listen to the heartbeat of the psalmists for God.

Psalm 103 is a psalm written by King David hundreds of years before Jesus was born. Yet it still conveys for us in the 21st century – some 3,000 thousand years after it was written! – that timeless connection between a human being and God. It is a connection that is intensely personal but not private. It is personal and at the same time relational because the psalmist is in a “soul” relationship with God. He is obviously open to God: he welcomes God to touch his entire life – his mind, his body and his soul. And the psalmist responds to God.

The psalmist begins – intriguingly – talking to himself and telling himself “Bless God.” He begins with himself. He tells his soul why he should bless God. He tells his soul not to forget a single one of God’s blessings. But he also can’t remain quiet about who else should bless God. The blessing of God cannot linger solely in his soul. So he concludes his hymn by calling upon God’s entire creation, including all the angels, to bless God too!

“Bless God, O my soul.” What does it mean to bless someone? It means to express appreciation, gratitude, respect, relationship and goodwill for the one being blessed. I often express blessings to people and I hope people on the receiving end sense one or two of those meanings. When we bless God, we are expressing similar meanings. When we bless God, we can never go wrong in saying simply “Praise to you, O God.” Indeed, some translations of verse 1 say, “Praise the Lord, my soul.”

When the psalmist blesses or praises God, he models for us his relationship with God. The Good News Bible says: “Bless God, my soul, and all my being, bless God’s holy name.” The Message Bible expresses it this way: “O my soul, bless God. From head to toe, I’ll bless his holy name!” In other words, soul, bless God with everything you’ve got and with everything you are – with your entire being! That is the psalmist’s wholehearted way of blessing or praising God.

When we bless God, the psalmist also hopes that we too will never forget a single one of the ways God blesses us. The psalmist reminded himself not to forget that

• God forgives
• God heals
• God redeems his life from the pit (or the grave)
• God crowns him with love and mercy
• God surrounds him with goodness and renewal. (David would even say this in his familiar 23rd Psalm in the midst of weariness, dark valleys and enemies.)

The psalmist knew himself well enough to feel he might forget God’s great kindnesses to him. That is easier to do than we might think, especially during busy times or difficult times or even times of leisure when we might say this is my time to think about myself and enjoy myself. So we begin to leave God out of our lives at some point. I must confess that this kind of forgetfulness concerns me. Could I forget the significant ways God has blessed me and continues to bless me? Do you ever feel you might forget how good God has been and still is to you? Could I -- or could you -- even virtually forget God himself? A remarkable observation from the late English writer G. K. Chesterton helped me with this notion of forgetting and remembering. Chesterton wrote: “The way to love anything is to realize that it might be lost.”

If I feel that something significant from God whom I love might be lost to my memory, then I want to love (in this case) God with every fibre of my being. Is it possible to lose sight of God’s love? I wonder if one reason for church – for the need to be together regularly -- is to remind ourselves to love God and to love our neighbour. So we get together and we pray, we praise, we worship, we sing, we listen, we talk together, we ponder what we hear, we question and we give ourselves to God who is rich in mercy and grace and love to us.

Now remember, in this psalm the psalmist is talking to his soul. If I were to paraphrase what he is saying and what he wants me to hear, it might sound something like this:

Soul, when I praise God, don’t forget God is the author and giver of all that is good. When I am blessing God, I am praising the character of God. So I will love and praise God with all my heart, with all my mind, with all my soul and with all my strength. Soul, remember God’s nature and character at all times. The God I am praising is full of mercy, grace, love and compassion -- to all those who honour God. God doesn’t treat me as my sins deserve. So, soul, keep on honouring God! God knows I am fragile like a wildflower that springs up and blossoms for only a little while. I will remember too that, one day, my life will be snuffed out just as quickly. But, soul, don’t forget this: God has planned a way to redeem me from the grave -- from death! God’s love is strong enough to hold onto me forever! So I will keep on honouring God my whole life through. One other thing: I must love my neighbour too because God is on the side of all those who are treated unjustly and who have no one to help them. So, soul, I need to be on their side too and love them too. There will come a day when God will make everything right for them. So I want to be on God’s side in all my living.

For all kinds of reasons, there are many in our society who are not part of any church or community of faith. I hunch, though, there are more than a few who talk to their soul something like the psalmist did. I can imagine they have a personal conversation with themselves and remind themselves that, even in the midst of their troubles, God is on their side. Here is the story of one such individual.

Theologian Leonard Sweet, in his book A Cup of Coffee at the Soul Café [Broadman & Holman Publishers, 1998, pp. 161-163.], tells of two filmmakers making a film about street people in London, England, in 1971. The film captured the daily rituals of people who were homeless -- their trials and joys. Some were drunk. Others mentally disturbed. Some were articulate and others unintelligible. One of England’s leading composers, Gavin Bryars, agreed to help with the audio in the film. During his work, he became aware of a constant undercurrent of sound that appeared whenever one certain homeless man was filmed. At first, the sound seemed like muttered gibberish. But after removing the background noise, Bryars discovered the old man was singing.
Bryars learned that this man did not drink or socialize with others. The old man was alone, filthy and homeless but he also had a sunny demeanour. What distinguished him from the others was his quiet singing. He would sing the same simple phrases over and over – for hours. The man’s weak voice was untrained but it never wavered from pitch.

One day Bryars was working in his office, looping together the first 13 bars of the homeless man’s song and preparing to add orchestration to the piece. He left the loop running while he went downstairs for a cup of coffee. When he returned, he found his fellow workers listening in subdued silence. A few were even weeping. They could hear the old man’s quiet, trembling voice from the recording room and it transformed the atmosphere of the office. Here is what he sang:

Jesus’ blood never failed me yet,
Never failed me yet.
Jesus’ blood never failed me yet.
There’s one thing I know
For he loves me so.

Although Bryars was not a Christian, he produced a musical accompaniment to this homeless man’s song of trust in Jesus. (You can Google search Jesus' Blood Never Failed Me Yet and listen on YouTube.) Unfortunately, the homeless man died before he heard it.

Even in the midst of his life on the street – in the midst of his loneliness and the dirt – this homeless man could say: “There’s one thing I know for Jesus loves me so.” If you are like me, it is not easy to comprehend his devotion and heart. Frankly, if I were in his circumstances, I don’t know how I would respond. But there are times in my life when I do sit quietly, overwhelmed by God’s love, and praise God for God’s amazing goodness, grace, mercy and forgiveness to me.

I often praise God for the good gifts in my life. I am not homeless. I live quite comfortably. I could have been born in some other place under very different circumstances.

And I often praise God for his forgiveness. Someone has said that guilt is the hangover from our sins. Too many people go through life with a chronic hangover of guilt. But God has planned a way to make his forgiveness possible. And the good news of God’s forgiveness should be built into our worship as a reminder. Forever feeling shame and guilt and not knowing forgiveness impacts the way we may see others and even how we may see God.

In an article for the Internet version of the magazine Christianity Today entitled “Our Divine Distortion,” Christian songwriter Carolyn Arends shared a personal story about shame and guilt and forgiveness. Her story could belong to any of us. She wrote:

When I found a brand new lap-top for half price on eBay, I told my friend and musical colleague Spencer about my bargain of a find. He was worried: “Usually when something’s too good to be true … ”

“I know,” I replied impatiently, “but the seller has a 100 per cent approval rating.”

“Be careful,” warned Spencer.

“Of course,” I assured him, annoyed. I wasn’t born yesterday.

I sent the seller $1,300 and discovered in very short, sickening order that I had fallen prey to a classic scam. A fraudster had hacked someone’s eBay identity in order to relieve easy marks like me of our money.

I felt [like a] fool -- and didn’t want to tell Spencer. The next time I saw his number on my caller ID, I didn’t answer. I could just imagine his “I told you so.”

Soon I was avoiding Spencer completely. And I started to resent him. Why did he have to be so judgmental? Why couldn’t he be on my side? Why was I ever friends with that jerk?

Eventually, we had to fly together to perform at a concert. “Whatever happened with that computer thing?” he asked an hour into the flight. Cornered, I finally confessed my foolishness, dreading the inevitable response. But as soon as I told Spencer about my mistake, a strange thing happened. The enemy I had turned him into evaporated. Spencer turned into Spencer again -- my teasing but deeply empathetic buddy.

As embarrassed as I was by my eBay error, I felt even dumber about the way I had allowed my shame to distort my perception of a best friend. If my hand had not been forced, I would have remained estranged from him indefinitely.

[Carolyn wrote further:] I’ve always considered myself perceptive but, the longer I live, the more I discover my susceptibility to misinterpretation. This is true of the way I view my friends, truer of the way I see my enemies and, perhaps, truest of the way I perceive God.

How do we perceive God? The psalmist perceived and experienced God as rich in mercy, rich in grace, rich in forgiveness, rich in compassion, rich in goodness and rich of justice. But how do we perceive God?

In Psalm 103 and throughout the Bible, there is a constant theme: God cares about the oppressed. Near the beginning of his ministry, Jesus returned to his hometown of Nazareth. He came home as an honored rabbi, so the leaders of the synagogue asked Jesus to read the Scripture and make a comment. Jesus read from Isaiah where it is written:

“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, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favour.” [Luke 4:18–19 NRSV]

Jesus then made his comment: “This passage of scripture has come true today, as you heard it being read” [GNT].

The psalmist would most certainly have connected Jesus and his care for those who are treated unjustly with the character of God whom he praises. It is as if the psalmist anticipates Jesus when he says in verse 6: “The LORD judges in favour of the oppressed and gives them their rights” [GNT]. Or “The LORD works vindication and justice for all who are oppressed” [NRSV]. We ought to bless God because God’s nature – God’s character-- is to care about and work justice for those who are oppressed, who are treated unjustly and who have no one to defend them. God cares for them; therefore, we ought to care as well.

“O my soul, bless God, and all that is within me, bless God’s holy name.” “O my soul, bless God and don’t forget a single one of God’s blessings.” But as I mentioned in the beginning, the psalmist’s personal response to bless God cannot remain private as if that were enough. Blessing God has to go public. So the psalmist concludes his hymn of praise exhorting God’s angels and God’s entire creation to bless God! Listen to The Message Bible’s rendering of the concluding verses of Psalm 103:

GOD has set his throne in heaven;
God rules over us all. God is the King!
So bless GOD, you angels,
ready and able to fly at God’s bidding,
quick to hear and do what God says.
Bless GOD, all you armies of angels,
alert to respond to whatever God wills.
Bless GOD, all creatures, wherever you are --
everything and everyone made by GOD.
And you, O my soul, bless GOD!

May this be so for you and for me.


Rev. Chris Miller
August 1, 2010
OYM United Church, Toronto - website »

Living in the Circle of Blessing!

Psalm 34:1-3 (4-11) - read this passage
here »

Visualize this with me this morning. We are not sitting in pews but gathered in a circle. If we look to our left and right, we see everyone who is here. All of us together are participants in this circle worshipping God.

Also visualize that our little human circle today is encompassed by a larger circle. We can’t physically see this circle surrounding us but, by faith, we sense we are enclosed within the grace and love and the justice and compassion of God’s presence. And no matter how large or how small our circle is – even if there are only two or three, Jesus said -- our human circle worshipping God in Jesus’ name is always encompassed within the presence of God.

Then visualize someone in the circle stepping into the middle because she or he has something to say. Our companion worshipper has a witness to share with the rest of us. We hear something similar to what the psalmist wrote in Psalm 34:

I will bless the Lord at all times; Praise to the Lord shall continually be on my lips. My soul shall glory in the Lord; the humble or those who know they are helpless shall hear what I am saying and be glad. O magnify the Lord with me, and let us highly honour the Lord’s name together.

The church today lives within God’s circle of blessing when its members – that includes you and me – respond to the invitation to “bless the Lord God” – not only within these walls of OYM on Sundays but, as the psalmist says when we bless God at every opportunity.

The psalmist in Psalm 34 invites us to bless the Lord God with our words. “I will bless the Lord at all times; Praise to the Lord shall continually be in my mouth.” What does it mean for us to bless the Lord God? The Hebrew verb for “bless” here means to express appreciation and gratitude. To bless promotes respect for the one being blessed. To bless God is to praise, to thank (Ps. 35:18), to give glory (Ps. 22:23) and to magnify God or to express God’s greatness (Ps. 69:30). The psalmist invites us to fill our lungs – to feel them expand with praise (as The Message Bible vividly describes) and then exhale with praise to God. It is hard to exhale without some sound, especially if we open our mouths!

A Christian band called Sixpence None the Richer performed on David Letterman’s late night show in early 2001. Leigh Nash, the lead singer of the group, was given the rare opportunity for a music performer to be interviewed by Letterman.

Letterman's first question was why they chose Sixpence None the Richer as the band's name. Nash said the name came from a story by the English writer C. S. Lewis in which a father gave his son a sixpence to buy him – the father -- a present. Nash said:

"When the father received the present, he was none the richer because he originally gave the sixpence to his son. The analogy is to God who gives gifts for us to glorify him. [God] is not richer because of our presentation since [God] originally gave [us] the gift."

Letterman responded:

"That's a beautiful story. If people could stop being so stupid and actually hear that, and live by that sort of thing, then our world would be a better place. God bless you, thank you for playing, and thank you for being here." ["The Industry of Christian Music," Trinity Magazine (Summer 2001)]

I believe Leigh Nash “blessed” God or praised God in telling this story because Nash was keenly aware that he and the band received their gift of music from God and their motivation was to use their gifts to praise God in return.

The psalmist in Psalm 34 also invites us to bless the Lord with our words publicly. And when we do, the psalmist says, those who are really listening and who really hear what we are saying will be those who know they are poor in spirit, who feel weighed down in some way, who are troubled, who feel helpless about their lives and are humbled. And the command to such people is to hear what we are saying about God and be glad or be happy.

I have always had difficulty with singer Bobby Ferrin’s 1988 hit song “Don’t Worry, Be Happy.” I suppose because it’s hard for me to respond on command to be happy. But that’s what we hear from the psalmist -- a command. Then I read what the translation experts wrote for this Psalm in the United Bible Societies Translator’s Handbook:

In some languages it is not possible to command someone to experience an emotional state such as be glad. Therefore it is often necessary to express this type of indirect command as a wish or request; for example, “I want them to listen and to be glad” or “I ask that the oppressed listen and have cool hearts.” [Bratcher, R. G., & Reyburn, W. D. (1991). A translator's handbook on the book of Psalms. Helps for translators (320). New York: United Bible Societies.]

Now that’s cool! So if we listen to God being praised, being thanked, being honoured, being blessed and in this way, learn what God is like, we are in turn encouraged, strengthened and become more hopeful and even emotionally glad in the process. It’s sort of “catching”! Because we learn how good and giving and kind and compassionate and patient and understanding and just God us.

I don’t know if any of the protestors for the G8/G20 Summits in Huntsville and Toronto are singing hymns while they protest but, on the islands of Fiji, singing hymns can get people in trouble. Every summer between 20,000 and 50,000 of the one million United Methodist Christians who live in that South Pacific island country gather for a conference. And about 10,000 of them participate in a massive choral contest. All they sing are hymns. But in July last year (2009), the government said: "No choral contest this year.” There was a lot of turmoil in Fiji. The government feared the big crowd might get out of hand. According to news reports, "Church officials said the government fears the conference and singing contest will lead to further political instability." [Kim Cain, "Fiji Bans Massive Methodist Hymn-Sing," Religion News Service (7-31-09)] As someone said, “Nothing like singing Methodists to make a government nervous!”

The intrigue is that Christians worshipping the Lord can be dangerous but not because they are physically violent. Worshipping God in Christ upsets world systems and is regarded as revolutionary and subversive because worshipping God – blessing and praising God -- brings another kingdom into view – God’s Kingdom. Even a Kingdom of peace and justice and compassion and love can be seen as dangerous by repressive and oppressive regimes. Our worship and praise of God calls for our involvement in social justice activities, for instance, because we know God has a special place in His heart for those who are poor and oppressed and homeless and helpless. Our United Church concern for social justice is a theme, I believe, that pleases God, especially when it is grounded in the justice and love of God in Jesus Christ.

The Psalmist in Psalm 34 also invites us to bless the Lord with our words publicly because of God’s blessing in our lives -- our personal broken lives. If we read a little further in Psalm 34, verses 4 to 11, we hear these words in The Message Bible:

4. GOD met me more than halfway,
   he freed me from my anxious fears.
5. Look at him; give him your warmest smile.
   Never hide your feelings from him.
6. When I was desperate, I called out,
   and GOD got me out of a tight spot.
7. GOD’s angel sets up a circle
   of protection around us while we pray.
8. Open your mouth and taste, open your eyes and see—
   how good GOD is.
Blessed are you who run to him.
9. Worship GOD if you want the best;
   worship opens doors to all his goodness.
10. Young lions on the prowl get hungry,
    but GOD-seekers are full of God.
11. Come, children, listen closely;
    I’ll give you a lesson in GOD worship.

Do we understand what the psalmist is saying? If we do not acknowledge before God first and then before others that the truth is we do not have it all together, that more often than not we live under the illusion of being self-sufficient and that there are indeed broken areas in our lives needing healing, then we will neither understand what the psalmist is saying nor will we understand how to bless and praise and thank God wholeheartedly in our worship.

In an interview about his book The Folly of Prayer (IVP, 2009), author and pastor Matt Woodley shared a story about his friend Theresa. Theresa was experiencing what St. John of the Cross called “a dark night of the soul” -- a period of great spiritual loneliness and despair. Listen to how Woodley discovered that where he felt the most helpless in his ministry was actually the most helpful for Theresa:

After marrying the man of her dreams, [Theresa] dropped into the abyss of a deep depression. Everything went dark in her mind and body. She even started writing her obituary. Three years ago I would have had plenty of answers and solutions for her. I would have been so clever and powerful. But now I could only sit with her in her pain. We prayed. I didn't know what to do, didn't have any answers, so I said, "Theresa, I have no idea what to say, so could we just read the Psalms?" Then I read Psalm 77, an agonizing psalm of lament, and I went home. I left feeling utterly powerless, and I sure didn't think that I made her feel better.

The next week another leader of our church visited Theresa. She was still suffering intensely, but when the leader asked if he could pray for her, Theresa said: "Yes, but before you pray, please read Psalm 77. I've been clinging to it all week. It is my lifeline to God." Apparently when we read Psalm 77 in utter powerlessness [together], God showed up in her life with power.

The author then said what I have also discovered is true for me when I am honest about my brokenness before God:

"At times the best, most powerful and most useful way to love someone is to get to the end of myself. I admit that I can't fix or change you. My words and my advice won't heal your brokenness. But I can be with you, and we can go together to God."

[IVP Books, "Are You There, God? An Interview with The Folly of Prayer Author Matt Woodley"]

I am reminded of the Scripture in the Gospel of Luke 4:18 and 19 where Jesus was attending the local synagogue and was invited to read the Scripture of the day from Isaiah 61:1, 2:

The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,
because he has anointed me
to proclaim good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives
and recovery of sight to the blind,
to set at liberty those who are oppressed,
to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”

Jesus came – and still comes -- to heal those who know they are broken.

One more thought about living in the circle of blessing. When we bless one another, we are intentionally bestowing favour and good on each other. But it is one thing to bless someone you like; it is quite another to bestow your blessing on your enemy. When we do as Jesus said and pray for our enemies and bless and not curse our enemies, I believe we are also blessing God. The following prayer was written by Serbian bishop Nikolai Velimirovic, who spoke out against Nazism in the early 1940s. Because of his protests, he was arrested and taken to the Dachau concentration camp. And there in the camp, he prayed this:

Bless my enemies, O Lord. Even I bless them and do not curse them. Enemies have driven me into your embrace more than friends have. Friends have bound me to Earth; enemies have loosed me from Earth and have demolished all my aspirations in the world.

Just as a hunted animal finds safer shelter than an unhunted animal does, so have I, persecuted by enemies, found the safest sanctuary, having ensconced myself beneath your tabernacle, where neither friends nor enemies can slay my soul.

Bless my enemies, O Lord. Even I bless and do not curse them.

This past week I posted on my Facebook page a blessing written by a Franciscan from the order of St. Francis of Assisi. This blessing is my prayer for the world leaders from the G20 Summit who are leaving Toronto today to return to their own countries. Each of these world leaders possesses the potential to bless every person -- every child, every woman, every man, every family -- within his or her circle of influence with all that is good rather than all that is self-serving and corrupt. And actually, each of us has the same potential. So I pray:

May God bless us with discomfort at easy answers,
half-truths and superficial relationships,
so that we will live deeply in our hearts.

May God bless us with anger at injustice, oppression
and exploitation of people and the earth,
so that we will work for justice, equity and peace.

May God bless us with tears to shed for those who suffer, so that we will reach out our hands
to comfort them and change their pain to joy.

And may God bless us with the foolishness to think that
we can make a difference in our world,
so that we will do the things that others say cannot be done.

Let us, today – and at all times really – tell of the greatness and goodness of God. “Together let’s get the word out!”

May this be so for you and for me.

Rev. Chris Miller
June 27, 2010
OYM United Church, Toronto - website »

No More Divisions: The Possibility of Unity and Equality

World Refugee Sunday - 20 June 2010
Galatians 3:23-29 (The Message Bible)
Read this text online here »

When human beings are babies and young children, few of us would question their need for both protection and guidance. Parents want their children to be safe when they sleep so they provide cribs with high sides and protective barriers. They do not want their kids to fall out and hurt themselves. If the children’s rooms are on an upper floor in the house, they will put a gate at the top of the stairs so their child will not tumble down. Young babies sit in highchairs to eat their meals until they are old enough to sit on an ordinary chair without falling off. As they grow and enjoy running around and playing in the backyard, it will usually be fenced in. When they go to the local park, their parents will always be there watching out for their safety. And as they continue to grow up but are not yet old enough to be left alone, their parents may hire a sitter to look after them when they go out. If the children like the sitter, they will probably behave; if they don’t, they may well make his or her time with them a challenging experience.

As children become youth and develop more independence, parents still set guidelines – or rules when necessary! – to protect teens from the dangers they do not yet perceive. But, hopefully, there will come a time when youth develop into mature young women and men; then, of course, a sitter is no longer necessary. When that happens, their relationship with their parents will be different -- a direct relationship with them, even as with peers.

One of the reasons the Apostle Paul wrote to the church in Galatia was to help both the new Gentile (or non-Jewish) believers and the new Jewish believers understand the relationship of spiritual life before Christ to their new spiritual life after the death and resurrection of Jesus. For the Jewish believers, the Law -- with all of its commands and teachings -- governed their life in the past. But in the present, they had come to faith and trust in Jesus Christ. There was now something fundamentally different about their life with God. It was a mature faith -- a faith that loves and trusts God. It was not a relationship dependent upon commands and protection as from a baby sitter but a relationship that stemmed from a direct loving relationship with God – through faith in Christ.

In their former spiritual life, the Jewish believers had been like young children who needed a sitter or a nanny. In Paul’s world, this person was a slave whose role was to look after the children day by day -- taking them to school, making sure they were safe and keeping them out of trouble. Many cultures have such people. In our York Mills neighbourhood, I often see women (usually) pushing baby carriages and strollers as they walk together. In western culture, we call such people nannies or au pairs.

In their former spiritual life, the Jewish believers – in fact, all of Israel – lived by the Law. We know this Law as the teachings and commands given by God through Moses especially. Paul said that Law was for their protection and guidance – like a babysitter because they were spiritual children and needed looking after until they reached spiritual maturity. So the Law, with all its significant moral and ethical commands and teachings, was fundamentally meant to keep Israel in check -- doing the right thing for the good of each person, the community and the nation. It was also meant to show the Jewish people something else more significant – that God had standards of what is right and just and compassionate and that they were out of a right relationship with God. All too often, in their attitudes and actions, they did not live God’s way. So it was futile to think they could have any real spiritual life with God by obeying the Law. It just wasn’t going to happen because, primarily, they went in their own direction too often instead of God’s and fell short and missed God’s mark of what is good and right and just and holy. That’s part of the intent of what Paul was saying in Galatians 3 as a whole. The Good News Bible makes it clear in verses 21 and 22:

“For if human beings had received a law that could bring life, then everyone could be put right with God by obeying it. But the scripture says that the whole world is under the power of sin; and so the gift which is promised on the basis of faith in Jesus Christ is given to those who believe.”

The Message Bible challenges us to think about it this way: “If any kind of rule-keeping had power to create life in us, we would certainly have gotten it by this time.”

That’s the point of it all actually. When Paul became a believer in Jesus, he began to think differently about what life with God meant. Before, Paul only thought about keeping the rules – and he often broke both the rules and the spirit of the rules. Now, as Paul listened to the Holy Spirit, he understood that his present life was meant to be centred on faith in Jesus Christ. In fact, faith in God had always been the real issue. It was Abraham’s faith and love -- not his keeping the Law -- that God wanted and delighted in. And it was Abraham’s faith and blessing that was intended from the very beginning in Genesis not only for the Jewish people but also for non-Jewish people – the Gentiles – in every tribe and nation.

Paul came to understand that everyone in the entire world, whether Jew or non-Jew, could find their maturity of faith in Jesus the Messiah – the Christ. The Message Bible helps us understand this meaning in verses 25 through 27:

“But now you have arrived at your destination: By faith in Christ you are in direct relationship with God. Your baptism in Christ was not just washing you up for a fresh start. It also involved dressing you in an adult faith wardrobe -- Christ’s life, the fulfillment of God’s original promise.”

The problem was that the Gentile Galatians were being told by the new Jewish believers in their midst that faith in God through Jesus was not quite enough. There were some specific and important commands they should also keep. And Paul said no – nothing more was needed. Only faith in Jesus Christ. The sign that the babysitter – the Law -- was no longer needed was the coming of Jesus the Messiah to die on the cross for the sin of all humanity. He is the One who was supremely faithful and trustworthy. Jesus the Christ was the fulfilment of God’s original promise to Israel and for the entire world.

Most, if not all of us here this morning, are not Jewish believers in Jesus Christ. We are Gentiles – non-Jewish peoples – from various backgrounds and cultures. I think Paul wanted the Gentile and Jewish believers to understand clearly the implications of what their faith in Jesus and their baptism really meant – and what being clothed in a new life with Christ really meant. So Paul stated the implications this way:

“In Christ’s family there can be no division into Jew and non-Jew, slave and free, male and female. Among us you are all equal. That is, we are all in a common relationship with Jesus Christ.”

My friends, here is what maturity of faith in Jesus Christ looks like. There might be more but there is certainly nothing less than this: those who are “in Christ’s family” are those who believe in him. And those who believe in him come from all walks of life, from every nation, both men and women.

Some Jewish men in Paul’s day would pray: “Blessed be God that he did not make me a Gentile; blessed be God that he did not make me ignorant [or a slave]; blessed be God that he did not make me a woman” [Tosefta Berakoth 7:18]. But Jesus would never have prayed that – we can tell by the way he treated women, outcasts and people of other cultures. And Paul would not accept such a demeaning classification of human beings.

Those who were in Christ’s family then and people who are in Christ’s family today – who believe in Jesus -- come from every culture, every nation and every walk of life. Cultural divisions are to have no part in the church of Jesus Christ. All human beings must be treated in the light of God’s love in Christ for all peoples, not in the light of their cultural past. The early Christians had difficulty with this understanding. That is why Paul had to write this letter to the church in Galatia. It would take them time to come to grips with this cultural mandate.

Do we have trouble today with cultural distinctions? Sometimes, but the barriers are still being broken down!

Every three years, InterVarsity Christian Fellowship – part of a worldwide student movement -- sponsors the Urbana Conference, a gathering that challenges university students to become involved in world evangelization. Both Marg and I have attended conferences in the past. About 16,000 students from around the world attended the 2009 conference. After the main session each evening, students would meet in smaller groups for prayer and reflection. In one of the banquet halls, there was one small group of Chinese students, another group of Taiwanese students and still another group of students from Hong Kong. Large dividers stood between the three. Because, historically, these three peoples have “harboured bitterness and animosity toward one another,” they felt it best to pray and worship each with their own people.

But as the Chinese students were praying one night, they told their leader they wanted to invite the other countries to join them. When the Taiwanese students received the invitation, they prayed and sang a little while and then opened up the wall divider. It wasn't much longer before the students from Hong Kong pulled back their divider too -- and some 80 students mingled together.

“In Christ, we are all one family,” said one leader. “And [Christ] breaks down political boundaries. In Christ, we have the desire to make the first steps to connect.”

The Taiwanese students asked the students from China and Hong Kong to lead them in worship. The next night, they invited the Korean and Japanese groups to join them too -- nations that had also experienced fierce animosity. The leader told them: “We are living out what we have learned this week in John’s [Gospel] -- this is ‘God with us.’” A woman from China said: “It was a really moving time. This kind of thing would not happen in another situation.” [Corrie McKee, “Asian Students Tear Down Walls,” Urbana Today (12-31-09), p. 6]

For those who are in Christ’s family, social status is also irrelevant. There are clear social distinctions in society even today – we know that. There are company CEOs and there are company janitors. There are those who are well-educated and there are those who are illiterate. In Paul’s time, there were those who were free and those who were slaves. And Paul said that, in Christ’s family, there was to be no such distinction in our attitudes and actions to one another.

Slavery was widespread in the ancient world among both Gentiles and Jews – as much as 33 per cent of the population in some places. And most slaves were not treated fairly or kindly. Many might wish that Paul was clearer about the abolition of slavery as an institution. But I think Paul helped create an atmosphere and an attitude that would eventually lead to the abolition of slavery throughout the world. While progress was slow, much slower than it should have been in the Church, slavery was eventually officially abolished in 1807 through the efforts of William Wilberforce, a member of Christ’s family, and others. We can only pray for courage like theirs in our day to live our lives in a way that is consistent with the equality and protection of all people in Christ. Sadly there are still slaves and cruel taskmasters, as we know, in the trafficking of children, youth and women around the world today – even in Canada. So social classes of whatever description ought to have no bearing on the Church’s work – except to galvanize us into action on behalf of those who remain excluded or as outcasts or even as slaves today.

Let me put this social distinction in another way: a person’s social status is irrelevant for acceptance by God and for life in the church. There is a little book in the New Testament titled Philemon. Philemon was a prominent believer in the church at Colossae. He was the owner of a slave named Onesimus who ran away from him and happened to meet Paul, probably in prison. Onesimus then became a Christian. Paul knew Philemon and wrote him a letter. Paul asked him to accept Onesimus back -- and as a brother in Christ. “In Christ,” Paul said, the slave becomes our “brother” (Philemon 16). Both those who are free and those who are slaves have the Holy Spirit and are members in the Body of Christ (1 Corinthians 7:21–24). Think about this: it is indeed likely that, in the Early Church, slaves were leaders and their owners submitted to them in the life of the church! In Christ’s family, social class must be irrelevant.

Those who are in Christ’s family ought to observe no division between male and female. In Paul’s time, there was a widespread conviction that women were inferior to men. And so girls were not educated formally as boys were. The Jewish historian Josephus wrote, for example: “The woman, says the law, is in all things inferior to the man” (Against Apion, 2.201). However, in Christ’s family, no one is inferior to another, especially female to male. And when we read the Gospels, we can certainly notice this in Jesus’ attitude and response to women. In the same way that there were to be no cultural or racial distinctions and no social status prejudices, there was to be no gender prejudice. For those who are in Christ’s family, all antagonisms, abuse, criticisms, snide remarks, restrictions, overt prejudices and power trips based on gender must end for, in Jesus Christ, male and female are one. But as is the case with slavery, so with women, though Paul helped to create an atmosphere and an attitude that would raise the status of women, it would take years – even centuries -- for the Church and society to implement equality of men and women honorably before God – and more progress is still needed today.

There is one more thing about those who are in Christ’s family. All are in a common relationship with Jesus Christ. All are equal in Jesus Christ.

It has been a while since I watched the film My Big Fat Greek Wedding. It is a romantic comedy about culture, family and acceptance. Toula Portokalos is the awkward middle child of a proud Greek family. Her father, Gus, often embarrasses her because he always lectures people on Greek history. “Give me a word,” he says, “any word, and I'll show you how the root of that word is Greek.” Toula has ambitions to go to college and find a good job. Her father just wants her to marry a nice Greek boy and give him Greek grandchildren.

When Toula meets Ian Miller, a long-haired English teacher who comes from a reserved and proper-mannered family, they fall in love and begin a complicated and secret courtship. Her family eventually finds out, and her father is unhappy she is dating a non-Greek man. When the couple decides to marry, the two families must come together, making for a number of misunderstandings and uncomfortable moments.

Toula’s father is devastated that she's marrying outside of her heritage. He is against the wedding from the beginning. He simply does not understand the Millers’ way of life. Eventually, however, he begins to realize how important Ian is to his daughter and how in love they are. Seeking a way to reconcile their differences, he turns to the Greek language. At the wedding reception, he gives the following speech in broken English:

“Welcome to the Portokalos family, and welcome to the Miller family. I was thinking last night, the night before my daughter is going to marry Ian Miller, that—you know—the root of the word Miller is a Greek word. Miller comes from the Greek word milo, which means ‘apple.’ So there you go. As many of you know, our name, Portokalos, comes from the Greek word portokali, which mean ‘orange.’ So, here tonight, we have apples and oranges. We are all different. But, in the end, we are all fruit.”

In Christ’s family – the Church – we are all different. Today, there are members from every culture and nation in the world. There are members from every possible class distinction. There are obviously members of both sexes. But, in the end, there are no divisions. In Christ’s family, we are all connected because we are in a common relationship with Jesus Christ. Someone has truly said, the ground is even at the foot of the cross of Christ.

May each of us find ourselves there at the foot of the Cross -- loved by the One who gave his life that each of us would learn to know and trust the God who is utterly trustworthy and faithful.

May this be so for you and for me.

Rev. Chris Miller
June 20, 2010
OYM Oriole-York Mills United Church, Toronto - website »