Vancouver Courier Article and Response

Here is a recent article published in the Vancouver Courier concerning the work and person of Jesus Christ


//www.vancourier.com/life/Defenders+cultural+Christmas+dilution/3980707/story.html


Here is a response


http://www.vancourier.com/life/Christmas+column+misrepresents+Christ+mission/4023735/story.html

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Sermon: Advent 4

      Advent 4: Matthew 1:18-25

Joseph was an honest hard working man. He was like a lot of people, a lot of people who just want to be happy and don’t want to step on the toes of others who are also seeking happiness. It must have indeed all been very clear for Joseph in those days. He was engaged in a good stable profession, and engaged to beautiful young women. Joseph would have known that together they would never have been rich, but they would have a stable, secure future. But then, something happened to Joseph. His world got rocked and turned upside down when he found out that his young fiancé was pregnant, and he knew that he wasn’t the father. This would have been a most significant blow to Joseph’s sense of honour. His fiancé was pregnant, and something had to be done. What evidently could not be done, was to proceed with the marriage. This, in his mind, would have been a disgraceful option. Things with Mary had to end. But despite the blow to his honour, Joseph was a compassionate man. Another man under these circumstances would have acted differently, would have had no problem exposing young Mary to public disgrace. But Joseph was a righteous compassionate man who knew what the consequences could mean for Mary—it could have meant a death sentence,. At the very least it could have meant the permanent exclusion by family, friends, and members of the community. Joseph opted for another course of action—a quiet dismissal. This would be the easiest, and in his mind, the most compassionate solution. This was the humane reaction, but it was also the very human reaction.

            Joseph’s human reaction was to take control of the situation so that his reputation would not be tarnished and Mary would be secretly but compassionately excused.

But  Joseph decided on a course of action without knowing the full implications of what was happening. Joseph made his decision without knowing what God’s greater plan was. Within Mary’s womb lived the Saviour of humanity, the fullfilment of Abramaic covenant, the fulfillment of messianic prophecy. God had taken on human flesh within Mary’s womb. God was coming into the world through Mary to give the world the gift of eternal life. The implications of Joseph’s decision was enormous. But he had resolved—rsolved to have Mary quietly dismissed.

            It would take an act of divine intervention for Joseph the humble worker to change his mind, and that moment came in a dream. In a dream Joseph was let in on the secret. In a dream the truth was revealed to Joseph. And once he knew the truth he could let go, he could forget about controlling the situation, and let God be in charge. More than that he was no free to cherish the gift which God was giving the world.  And instead of sending his fiancé away, young Jospeh would do everything in his power to protect her. Once God spoke to Joseph in a dream, through the words of an Angel, he knew that he had been gifted with the most precious gift possible, and that God had a specific mission for Him. Joseph’s world was never the same again.

            This is the last Sunday of Advent. We have lit the final purple candle. The next one to be lit is the white one, which commemorates the nativity of our Lord, celebrates God with us and God for us. Christmas is the day when we celebrate that extraordinary, miraculous moment when God took on flesh and came into the world. Even people who don’t go to church, don’t identify themselves as Christians, will stop and think about,  and contemplate that moment.

            But how many will truly grasp the significance of that moment? How many will grasp the truth that the God of the universe and all that has been is and will be came into the world as an infant?

            Or how many good, honest, hard working people, will proceed  through Christmas and the rest of the year with  a “business as usual” approach? How many people will not see this extraordinary event in history for what it was? How many people will carry on trying to control their own destinies and  trying  to engineer their own road to salvation.

            To put it in bold terms, if Jesus Christ was and is God, our world can never be the same. Once this truth has transformed our hearts, we cannot go back to business as usual.  Either Jesus was  and is who scripture claims him to be, or he was and is not. Either you believe it or you don’t. And if you do believe it. How can you possibly go back to business as usual? Joseph sure couldn’t.

            Yet, the fact of the matter is that people who confess Christ, who believe in Jesus as Lord, still go back to doing business as usual. And the reason for that is that the spirit of rebellion and self-determination continues to operate in the human heart. The true significance of the incarnation of God in Jesus Christ can be lost on us, and it becomes ever so tempting to follow the ways of the world, and prioritize so many other things above devotion to Jesus. And that spirit of rebellion and self determination is a very powerful one, and it is seducing people, and has seduced people into walking along the pathway of disobedience.

            We all face that temptation. In fact every time we sin we have given into it. Every time we sin we decide that we are the gods who write the rules and are in charge of our own destinies.

And the common misconception, which characterizes sin simply as acts of wrongdoing, only feeds this deluded thinking. Sin is much deeper and more serious than that. To sin is to follow the path of self-determination. It is to ultimately invest in ourselves rather than God. But we are not God. We do not control our own destinies. Yes we do have the power of decision. But we kid ourselves into thinking this power greater than it is—that it is in fact divine power.. But God will not be mocked. God will turn the world’s expectations on its head.  God did that two thousand years ago. Right under the nose of a brutal, arrogant, king who revealed in his own glory, God came into the world in a manger in the poorest part of the kingdom. He defied expectation; he incurred the wrath of the authorities, and would be crucified. But he was resurrected, resurrected so that we, too, might be given eternal life and salvation.

            This too, defies, human expectation. Nothing could have prepared Joseph for his confrontation with the Living Word of God. Like Joseph, over two thousand years ago, we are also confronted by the Living Word, Jesus Christ.  We are confronted and fed by that Life giving Word. —The word that changes our world, the word which does something to us, just as it did something to Joseph. We can never tire of hearing this Word, of reading this word, of being immersed in this Word, because the temptation to business as usual is ever present in this world. But remember this: the world cannot give you what Jesus gives you. You cannot be the source of your own salvation. There was a bumper sticker I saw a few years ago which summarizes this truth. It said: “If God is your co-pilot you are in the wrong seat.”

            In today’s Old Testament lesson, we read about King Ahaz. He thought himself a wise king who would solve Israel’s external problems through diplomacy—through a treaty with the Assyrians. He refuses the help of God and invests solely in his own answer. But this is the wrong answer, a false answer. Isaiah boldly proclaims to Ahaz that the true answer is coming into the world as an infant, and his name shall be Immanuel, which means “God With us”. The kings of which Ahaz fears will be gone, but the Word of God will be present and active.

            This isn’t an easy time in the Christian Church in this part of the world, and specifically in this city. Numbers are down, churches are closing. Worry can easily overtake us. “How do we survive?” can become the dominant question on our minds. But the further we move down the path of worry, the further we move away from the truth which has been given us—the truth of salvation in Jesus Christ. We must always remember that this is not our church. It is the church of Jesus Christ. And the mission of the church is not to grow in the interest of self-preservation. “How do we grow our church?” is the wrong question. Obsession with church growth is the wrong path. Rather the question must be, “ How do we proclaim the Living truth of Immanuel, of God with us as effectively as we possibly can? How do we do that as individuals and as a community?” You see, we have been given all we need, we have been given Immanuel. God has given us his solution to the problem and pains of our world and of our individual lives. It is in Him who were called to trust and not in ourselves. We, as Christians, are called to be His disciples. And to be a disciple of Christ means giving up our self-defines agendas, either individual or corporate, because business as usual cannot be the answer. The Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada is facing great changes, dealing with questions of structure and renewal.

Within the ELCIC there needs to be a renewed emphasis on discipleship and bold proclamation.  And this must happen at the congregational level. But it boils down to an individual commitment—the commitment to follow, as Joseph did, the narrow path. It boils down to following Jesus in every aspect of our lives. It boils down to boldly proclaiming Him. It boils down to cherishing this most precious gift, just as Joseph did, over two thousand years ago. Now, may the peace which surpasses all understanding guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.Amen.

Peter Hitchens Author Interview--The Rage Against God

O Come O Come Emmanuel

Advent 3: Matthew 11:2-11

John the Baptist was a courageous man, undoubtedly one of the most courageous figures in the biblical narrative. John was the voice in the wilderness who proclaimed the coming of the messiah. John was the voice in the wilderness who denounced sin and corruption. John was the voice in the wilderness who called all to repentance—back to truth faith, back to true obedience to the God of  Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. As you might imagine, John’s bold proclamation and uncompromising denunciation got him into some trouble. A target of his campaign was one of the biggest targets you could think of—King Herod himself, a man whom John charged with the sin of sexual immorality. John was imprisoned as a consequence, locked up, and shut away. Now John was  brave, he was courageous, but he wasn’t superman, much less was he divine. He was a prophet, but he was a man, a man with a heart for God, but still a man. And as a man he would have been afraid, alone, and doubtful. As he sat in prison John had evidently heard that Jesus was active, active and drawing attention. John had proclaimed the Messiah’s coming. Now he questioned, “ was this really the Messiah?” “ Was Jesus the anointed one?” The promised one who would save Israel and all of humanity?” Was Jesus really the one or was there a other on its way.  Historians tell us that there were around this time  many men who claimed to be the Messiah. There were many who came, and many who dissapiinted.  John wondered if Jesus was yet another one of these. He undoubtedly stood by his proclamation that the Messiah was coming, but was it jesus? Or was the true Messiah still to come? Was Jesus the real deal or a pretender? Was Jesus the prophesized one, or a well meaning, but deluded, impersonator? Was Jesus Christ truly Immanuel “ God With us”, or a hopeful projection of the imaginations of those around him?

            These would have been the questions which filled John’s heart. So he sent his disciples to conduct an investigation to see if Jesus was truly the Messiah.

            While we are separated by John’s experience by more than two thousand years, that question still remains. Was Jesus the Messiah? Some even ask if Jesus really existed? Did Jesus do what the scriptures record him having done? Was Jesus truly resurrected? Or is this the product of human imagination? Is Jesus truly present in the world and in my life, or is this all a made-up story? Is Jesus really coming again, or should we be investing our hope, and our faith in something else something different, some new idea.

            Many people in this part of the world have chosen that path. Having been raised in the church, having professed faith in Jesus they have turned to other sources, have followed other paths. Secular humanism has emerged as the growing and dominant religion in North America.  Gathering to hear the words of Judeo-Christian scripture is for many people these days a strange, and archaic practice, best suited to an earlier, less enlightened age.

            Christian apologetics offers a compelling case for the fulfillment of Messianic prophecy in Jesus. External historical sources like Josephus, the Jewish historian, validate that there was in fact a man named Jesus who had a substantial following. I would encourage you to read Lee Strobel’s work, A Case for Christ. Strobel was an agnostict who set out to disprove the claims of scripture, and like CS Lewis, so many years before, ended up converted to Christianity. Strobel, a man of logic, concluded, that the probability that Jesus was any one other than the Messiah foretold by Old Testament prophecy was infinitesimally low.  In other words, Jesus fulfilled so many Old Testament prophecy that any reasonable, logical, person could not conclude that he was any one other than who scripture proclaims him to be.  Strobel found the answer to his most scientific question.

            John the Baptist, sitting in that dark prison cell, asked the same question, but it wasn’t a scientific one. It was a direct question, a question posed to the man himself, to Jesus himself: “ Are you the one who is to come, or are we to await for another?”

            This wasn’t an academic question. John was in prison. He had invested his whole being in the proclamation of the coming messiah. And now he needed to know, hungered to know right down to the very depth of his soul “ Was this the one?”

            Jesus, knew the hearts of men, knew what they hungered for in the bellies of their souls. He knew what John needed to know. John needed to know that the prophecy had been fulfilled. This knowledge would not be given to him in the form of a thick binder, an extensive report, detailing the many and various ways which Jesus had fulfilled the requirements of Messiaship. Jesus passed along one sentence: “ Go and tell John what you hear and see: the blind receive their sight, the lame walk, the leapers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the poor have good news brought to them.”  Jesus referred the disciples of John back to their own witness. This begs the question: “Couldn’t they have told John themselves? Did Jesus really have to tell them?”

            The answer to this question is “yes”. Jesus was a healer. This was something John’s disciples would have seen for themselves. But what they may not have seen, realized, and appreciated was what this healing meant. It meant the fulfillment of Isaiah’s prophecy which we have heard today. God’s kingdom was going to be established. The Messiah had arrived to bring in God’s kingdom of love, compassion, and healing. John, upon hearing the words of Jesus, would no longer have had any doubts. He would have known that Jesus was the real deal, that the Glory of the Lord had taken on flesh.

            But many still ask and question: Is Jesus really the one? And as was the case with John the Baptist, this isn’t a scientific question—it’s a question which burns deep within the human heart. Deep within the human heart there is a hunger for that place of peace, that place of healing, that place where death and suffering is no longer a reality. How do we know that this comes through Jesus?

            The answer we are given is the same one that John’s disciple was given: ”Tell what you have seen and hear”. The healing work of Jesus was not hidden from those disciples of John then, and the healing work of Jesus is not hidden now, if only we see it through the eyes of faith. Yes. There is much pain and difficulty in the world. But there is also much healing, healing which stands as a testimony to God’s work in the world. And when we experience or see a healing—and I speak here not necessarily even what we might consider a miraculous healing—we can  draw one of two conclusions. We can conclude that it was the result of natural processes, and the skill and ability of a medical practitioner. Or we can say that there was an intention behind it, something, beyond scientific understanding. That intention is the intention of the ultimate being. It is a sign of God for us. It is testimony of Christ’s work in the world. But there is a deeper level of healing  even than the physical—a kind of healing which escapes scientific explanation and dismissal. This is spiritual healing—spiritual healing effected  by the forgiveness of sin, and the bestowal of eternal life, and ultimate hope. This kind of spiritual healing is witnessed to, attested to, by many, many people—even by people who are not physically healed, even by people whose lives are drawing to a close. I have witnessed this many times in the course of ministry—that inexplicable peace which comes at what the world says is the darkest moment. This is the light which shines in the darkness and cannot be extinguished. Jesus Christ is God for us—the God who gives, sustains, and restores life, so that life may be had in abundance. This is God’s will for all people, and not just those who come to church on Sunday. Wherever there is healing and love, there is Christ—there is evidence of the presence of God, evidence of God’s loving will for the world. God has done something for all people, and he has done it through Jesus Christ.  This is the good news of the gospel. This is what we celebrate today.

            God has promised a new reality, the highway which leads to it is the Holy Way. It may not come tomorrow or the day after, or even in the next few years. But it is coming. When John the Baptist knew that Jesus was the Messiah, imagine what he had felt, imagine the comfort he would have received—even as he sat within a prison cell. He could not change the physical reality, but the spiritual reality was quite a different matter, because John could rest in the assurance that what he said meant something. His proclamation meant something. Our proclamation means something, even at times when we doubt that it is being heard—heard by a world which is so preoccupied.  The Apostle James offers counsel to first century Christians who were probably assailed with many doubts, and who were anxious to say that great promised day arrive. Patience, he tells them. The day is coming, the kingdom will arrive in its fullness. But be patient, just as the prophets were patient. Just as John was patient. John could be patient because he heard the good news. You have heard the good news. We as a community can celebrate the good news, and  are called to share it with the whole world. Now may the peace which surpasses all understanding guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.

Historical Resurrection of Christ? NT Wright responds (HD)

Sermon: Advent 2

Matthew 3:1-12

Over the course of  the last couple of weeks, the eyes of the world have been fixed on  the two Koreas. Fifty years ago, the people, divided by ideology, and supported by opposing super-powers went to war. That war saw no decisive victor, but saw a people divided. South Korea  moved along a path of industrial development and capitalism. North Korea has remained sternly, and uncompromisingly communist. North Korea is supported by China, but is very much isolated from the rest of the world. Two weeks ago, North Korea’s threatening potential manifested as hostile action—action which is doubly ominous when talk about nuclear potential abounds. When we hear this, we know that the threat which hung over the world for more than forty years, and defined the Cold War, has not disappeared. In some ways, the fear is greater, because there has been a lot of talk about terrorist organizations and rogue states like North Korea and Iran harnessing nuclear potential.  The threat of war remains.

            But then again, the threat of war has always been around. Peace between people has been transient.  And this fact has led at least one philosopher to comment that war is humanity’s normal state of being, and that peace is the exception.

            Peace has been a rare, exceptional commodity for the world. But the world is not at peace. Human hearts are not at peace. Somewhere there is war. Somewhere there is violence. Somewhere a threat looms over the innocent.

            Where is lasting peace to be found? It is to be found in one place—in the promise  which God has made to humanity.

            The story told by the Bible, the biblical narrative, is a story of God’s promise to humanity. God’s promise is not some vague word of hope—some fanciful idea. God’s promise is a concrete Word, which has played out through history, which is rooted in the unfolding of time.  It involves God making unlikely and unexpected choices.

The story began in a land we now call the near east, or middle east, in a country we now call Iraq, many many generations ago, there lived a desert nomad.  His name was Abraham.  There was nothing exceptional or heroic about Abraham.   But Abraham would be a very special person because God made him a promise, an everlasting covenant. God made a promise that He would be Abraham’s God, and the God of Abraham’s descendents, and that all the nations of the earth would be blessed through his descendents. What does that mean?  What does it mean for nations to live in a state of blessedness? Well, it means exactly what you think it would mean.It means the end of  warfare; it means the end of sin; it means the end of death; it means the end of separation between God and humanity. 

This universal promise would play out in the particular. Abraham’s wife, Sarah, gave birth to a son named Isaac, Isaac’s wife, Rebekah, gave birth to Jacob and Essau, and through Leah and Racheal, Jacob would father twelve sons.  Ten of Jacob’s sons,  and two of his grandsons, would be the patriarchs of  twelve  tribes.  Collectively, these tribes would be known as Israel. Israel were the people who were called to carry out God’s promise to the world. Israel was held in captivity, in bondage, in Egypt, but would be delivered by God who appointed Moses to liberate God’s chosen people. They would be delivered, and would settle in the land of Canaan. And it would not be long before they settled in the people began to cry out for a king. And they were given a king.  Saul was the first King of Israel, and not a very good one. But it would not be from his line that the true King of Israel would emerge. The true King didn’t come from a royal line, but from a humble ordinary man, named Jesse. The King’s name was David.  David was a great King, but there was much trouble in his house brought on by his own sinfulness.  God’s great promise to humanity  made through Abraham would not be fulfilled by David—nor by his successor, Solomon. Solomon was great king, constructed a great temple, but his was also a flawed kingship. Idolatry reared its ugly head, and peace would not be realized. Soon the kingdom of Israel was divided. Ten tribes would constitute the northern kingdom, and two tribes, Judah, and Benjamin, the southern kingdom. In 700 B.C, the  Assyrians attacked and conquered the Northern Kingdom, and the ten tribes would never be heard from again.

            Within a few generations the southern kingdom would also be attacked by the Babylonians, and its people brought into captivity.

            It was in this time that the great prophet Isaiah, spoke. He spoke to a people, a people in captivity, whose hearts ached and questioned: Where is the promise? Where will God be present for us? Where is peace to be found? For it would not have seemed to any of them living in exile that God’s promise had or ever would be fulfilled. And so it is to many people today. Looking out across the landscape, it doesn’t seem likely that there will ever be lasting peace, that violence and inequality will always be a part of our reality.

 But in those difficult and dark days when the Jewish people sat in captivity, Isaiah spoke. He spoke God’s word of promise. From the dead stump of Jesse, David’s Royal line, the deliverer would come. This would be the Messiah who would make all things new. Through the Messiah a New Age would dawn in which even the violence and death which defines the natural order will be  transformed into the peaceable kingdom. All nations will be blessed in a new order of things in which suffering and oppression will be things of the past. Through this king, God’s promise to Abraham would be fulfilled and all the nations of the earth would be blessed.

            This was the Messianic promise, and in the years to come the Jewish people would hold this promise tight in their hearts. The Babylonian captivity ended and they returned to their homeland. But a few hundred years later they would be occupied by another imperial force—the Romans. The Romans held the Jewish people captivity and imposed upon them a king of Rome’s choosing—Herod. Many Jews hungered and longed for the Messiah to arrive.

            In today’s Gospel lesson we read of a man who not only anticipated the arrival of the Messiah, but boldly declared that his arrival was immanent.  John the Baptist was the voice crying out of the wilderness: “ Prepare the Way of the Lord”. The Messiah was coming and it was time to be ready.  This was a sudden, startling, assertion. The Jewish people had for a long time gone without hearing the voice of a prophet. Now the voice of the prophet  split the air, and shattered the complacency which had settled in to Jewish life and culture. But like the voice of the prophets which had come before him, John’s message was not a sugar-coated cliché that made heats feel warm and fuzzy. John denounced evil wherever it set in, and he did so without hesitation. No one or any institution was immune form his bold denunciation—not the everyday person, not the king, not the religious elite. John proclaimed a coming wrath that would be like a purifying fire which would sweep across the desert landscape. And the creatures who heard this word were sent scurrying for the shelter of Baptismal water. This included members of the religious elite—the Pharisees and Sadducces—who had arrogantly assumed that because Abraham was their ancestor, they would be spared the wrath to come. The Lord was coming, and things were going to change. The Lord was coming to rescue the poor and crush the oppressor. The Lord was coming to create reality anew. John was a true prophet because his prophecy was fulfilled. Jesus Christ came into the world, and he has established his kingdom—a kingdom which, by faith, you are made a part. The peaceable kingdom of Christ stands in the world today as testimony of God’s promise, God’s promise made to Abraham and fulfilled in Jesus. But we await the final act. It is easy to look upon the events of the world through the eyes of despair. But Christ will come again, will come again to rule for eternity. Let us be ready for that. Let us not be complacent, but ready. Let us be ready for that great day when God’s kingdom in all its fullness will be established on earth, and God’s promise, the promise he had first made to Abraham, that humble desert nomad, will be fulfilled. Now, may the peace which surpasses all understanding guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.

Christ Be Our Light