Things to come...

Here it is Monday morning... a busy Sunday of a morning service for Mothering Sunday, had a really great evening with Michael Harcus. If you missed the concert you missed a blessing. It was pretty casual and informal, but it gave a chance for just wonderful reflection and as pastor I don’t often get that ‘sitting in the pew’ experience very often. Also I love Michael’s music anyway so to hear some of the background stories of some of the songs he and his fellow musicians have written was really fun and helped to add understanding to them as I listen in the future. Even had a good laugh at a cell phone incident... worth the price of admission just for that... But if you missed the concert you can still at least get some of the music as I have a few of the CD’s available. The new one is worth it for, well actually, all twelve songs on the album... The one ‘Unchanging God’ is special and one that speaks much deeper than my first listening led me to understand is ‘Your Word, Love and Grace.’

But I was in bed early for me and then woke up at 3:30 AM and just couldn’t get back to sleep... so got up and spent some quiet time... I don’t always do well with the quiet times in that too often after a day like yesterday the thoughts roll and God talks in the still small voice. Problem is I don’t always like what he has to say. It too often points out the things I need to change in my life. My message for yesterday was an eclectic mix of three stories of sons and a nation. It was the contrast of Isaac and Ishmael. One son of a wife and one of a slave. One of promise and one of the flesh as Galatians points out. Then there was the bit on Hannah and Samuel... Hannah’s co-wife was blessed and Hannah felt rejected but in the end God granted her a son that she then surrendered to God for life. Then in contrast there is the story in Numbers about the serpent being lifted up in the wilderness... The thing that draws these stories together is the whole picture of grace... Sarah didn’t ‘deserve’ the promise of Isaac, Hannah didn’t have a right to Samuel, the nation of Israel didn’t earn the salvation from the serpents but grace prevailed and gave a way to have promise fulfilled. So I ended in Galatians 5:1 with standing in the liberty that God gives us.

So though the message may not have gotten across as well as I wanted in the end it started working in my heart, then the music and testimony of Michael pushed me to the next level as I woke hearing one of the songs ringing in my mind, dwelling on the coming of Christ... and asking myself; what am I doing to live my best before God and the society in which I live. What makes me be church not just go to church.
Which finally leads up to some upcoming things; So we have a few weeks leading up to Easter, and I really want to focus on Jesus and what Easter means. This coming few weeks I anticipate staying with the Lectionary Scriptures as a starting point through Easter. After Easter I intend to do a series based on the work we did with the whole idea of ‘What is and what isn’t Church’ and then unpack several items with the whole ‘Ideal Church’ thoughts we had. This will lead inevitably to many thoughts and blogs so watch this space.

Jon

The passing of a friend

It is a hard thing to hear of a friend passing away. This past two weeks I have had two pass away and despite my knowing the truth of the gospel message it still is a hurt that goes very deep. This morning I received word that my friend Pastor Boersma passed away. (click here for a link to the Blog notice) I am saddened by this news, yet know that my friend is in the presence of our best friend--Jesus. So sorrow with me a wee while and then rejoice that his pain is over and his soul is in the presence of our Saviour.

Michael Harcus

Link (click on title) to the dude whose coming to perform this Sunday (22nd) at 6:30 (pm in case you were wondering).

Saint Patrick - from Resurgence blog

“I am a servant of Christ to a foreign nation for the unspeakable glory of life everlasting which is in Jesus Christ our Lord.” – Patrick

My family name was originally O’Driscoll until it was changed a few generations ago by relatives hoping to more fully assimilate into American culture after immigrating from Ireland. Though I was raised Irish Catholic, I knew virtually nothing about Saint Patrick other than the green beer, parades, shamrocks, leprechauns, and drunken Red Sox fans that celebrated in his honor every March 17th.

Technically, Saint Patrick is not even a saint, as he was never canonized by the Roman Catholic Church. Additionally, Patrick was not even Irish. Rather, he was an Englishman who was a Roman citizen that spoke Latin and a bit of Welsh.

Patrick was born around 390 A.D. When he was roughly 16 years of age he was captured by pirates and taken to Ireland on a ship where he was sold into slavery. He spent the next six years alone in the wilderness as a shepherd for his masters’ cattle and sheep.

Isolation

Patrick was a rebellious non-Christian teenager who had come from a Christian family. His grandfather was a pastor, and his father was a deacon. However, during his extended periods of isolation without any human contact, Patrick began praying and was eventually born again into a vibrant relationship with Jesus Christ. Patrick endured the years of isolation in rain and snow by praying up to 100 prayers each day and another 100 each night.

In his early twenties God spoke to Patrick in a dream, telling him to flee from his master for a ship that was waiting for him. Amazingly, Patrick made the 200-mile walk without being caught or harmed to find a ship setting sail for his home, just as God had promised. The sailors were out of food for the journey, and after Patrick prayed a herd of pigs miraculously ran toward the ship, providing a bountiful feast for the long voyage home.

God Speaks to Patrick

Upon returning home, Patrick enrolled in seminary and was eventually commissioned as a pastor. Some years later God spoke to Patrick in a dream, commanding him to return to Ireland to preach the gospel and plant churches for the pagans who lived there.

The Roman Catholic Church had given up on converting such “barbarians” deemed beyond hope. The Celtic peoples, of which the Irish were part, were an illiterate bunch of drunken, fighting, perverted pagans who basically had sex with anyone and worshipped anything. They were such a violent and lawless people, numbering anywhere from 200,000 to 500,000, that they had no city centers or national government and were spread out among some 150 warring clans. Their enemies were terrified of them because they were known to show up for battles and partake in wild orgies before running into battle naked and drunk while screaming as if they were demon-possessed. One clan was so debased that it was customary for each of their new kings to copulate with a white mare as part of his inauguration.

Unique Missionary Strategy

In faith, the forty-something year-old Patrick sold all of his possessions, including the land he had inherited from his father, to fund his missionary journey to Ireland. He worked as an itinerant preacher and paid large sums of money to various tribal chiefs to ensure he could travel safely through their lands and preach the gospel. His strategy was completely unique, and he functioned like a missionary trying to relate to the Irish people and communicate the gospel in their culture by using such things as three-leaf clovers to explain the gospel. Upon entering a pagan clan, Patrick would seek to first convert the tribal leaders and other people of influence. He would then pray for the sick, cast demons out of the possessed, preach the Bible, and use both musical and visual arts to compel people to put their faith in Jesus. If enough converts were present he would build a simple church that did not resemble ornate Roman architecture, baptize the converts, and hand over the church to a convert he had trained to be the pastor so that he could move on to repeat the process with another clan.

Patrick gave his life to the people who had enslaved him until he died at 77 years of age. He had seen untold thousands of people convert as between 30-40 of the 150 tribes had become substantially Christian. He had trained 1000 pastors, planted 700 churches, and was the first noted person in history to take a strong public stand against slavery.

Roman Opposition

Curiously, Patrick’s unorthodox ministry methods, which had brought so much fruit among the Irish, also brought much opposition from the Roman Catholic Church. Because Patrick was so far removed from Roman civilization and church polity he was seen by some as an instigator of unwelcome changes. This lead to great conflicts between the Roman and Celtic Christians. The Celtic Christians had their own calendar and celebrated Easter a week earlier than their Roman counterparts. Additionally, the Roman monks shaved only the hair on the top of their head, whereas the Celtic monks shaved all of their hair except their long locks which began around the bottom of their head as a funky monk mullet. The Romans considered these and other variations by the Celtic Christian leaders to be acts of insubordination.

In the end, the Roman Church should have learned from Patrick, who is one of the greatest missionaries who has ever lived. Though Patrick’s pastors and churches looked different in method, they were very orthodox in their theology and radically committed to such things as Scripture and the Trinity. Additionally, they were some of the most gifted Christian artists the world has ever known, and their prayers and songs endure to this day around the world, including at Mars Hill where we occasionally sing the “Prayer of Saint Patrick” and the Celtic hymn “Be Thou My Vision.”

Mark Driscoll

For Further Study:

• At www.ccel.org there is a free copy available of Patrick’s book Confessions.
• Steve Rabey’s book In the House of Memory is a good introduction to Patrick and Celtic Christianity.
• Thomas Cahill’s book How the Irish Saved Civilization is a fascinating historical look at Patrick and the implications of Celtic Christianity on western history.
• www.ChristianityToday.com/history is the site for Christian History and Biography magazine, which is a wonderful resource that includes an entire issue on Patrick and Celtic Christianity.

Random Thoughts About Dentopedology

Random thoughts is one of my favourite ways to think... well actually it is not so much a favourite as it is one of those things that just happens a lot. Here I am working through a bunch of papers on my desk and came across a Courier from September that I pored over to figure why I had saved it. Suddenly off the page jumped a reminder of why I had saved this particular editorial section. There is this random thing I do way too often and joke about it by saying that "I open mouth and insert foot." Well this particular copy from September 10, 2008 had the scientific definition of that syndrome; "Dentopedology is the science of opening your mouth and putting your foot in it. I've been practising it for years."--The Duke of Edinburgh.

So not sure what kind of company that puts me in, I guess it depends on one's point of view on the Duke of Edinburgh. I wish I could also put in the cartoon that is next to it as a construction worker type says; "we need another @#!#*#@# swear box--this one's @#!#*#@# full!!"

But thinking of this reminds me of James as he points out the challenge we have as we face our day to day lives and deal with the whole thought process and the words we use and he makes the case so well that if we can control our tongues we can control the other areas of our lives as well. Our words can be a blessing or a curse. A salve or burning fire. Small compared to our body our tongue is compared to a rudder that steers a ship and so it is with our words as we say things we sometimes have to live up to the words we speak and sometimes if our words are not right they steer us a wrong direction. But if our words are right and true then they can steer us in a good way as well.

There are days that it is a real challenge to bite my tongue both in a negative way but also in a positive way. There are times my human nature gets in the flesh and I want to say something that is not of value and would in the end come out as course and vulgar... the times I don't give in to this are victories in life. But there are other victories that are the times I want so desperately to meddle in the lives of people around me, to say things that while good for them and could possibly make their lives better that I say nothing as I realize that they are not in a place in their lives to appreciate the comment and the intent behind it.

The challenge as well is to know when to actually speak up and help someone's life be better. It is finding that balance between saying the right thing for the right reason at the right time to make a difference and being a busybody...

May God grant the grace to pick which is right at the right time.

Here is to us speaking Godly,

Rev. Jon