tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-65308564730552561232024-03-13T04:50:20.256-06:00GENEralitiesa clergyman may be apparently as useless as a cat, but he is also as fascinating, for there must be some strange reason for his existence (GK Chesterton): one retired Anglican septuagenarian clergyman's THOUghts, discOverings, readings, scribbLes, wOndeRings and dooDles exploring that strange reasonGene Packwoodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10483295706056528789noreply@blogger.comBlogger1036125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6530856473055256123.post-18273361658394045572023-06-13T09:25:00.001-06:002023-06-13T09:25:12.322-06:00The Venerable (then merely Rev) Noel Wygiera preached this sermon 24 years ago today on the occasion of my being formally induced into St Barnabas Anglican Church, Medicine Hat—thank you, brother Noel🙏‼️<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEixs5E__k_SxEMGXD7VMsFqIs7n6MYNi6BGCczYKwzx__wPzUJzxhpNBppTqx__N1fcqiniwe-LNY5csyrG4t796bwX6ZU_Jrs8Zr9fVFuhI2GAs56TiDL9nnVBAvXxmBtW5PFum_aN3nap48JEWldVUEjttsamL1UqfC-ZZYleTYqBMCcISJi3hDjT/s360/IMG_1014.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="230" data-original-width="360" height="255" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEixs5E__k_SxEMGXD7VMsFqIs7n6MYNi6BGCczYKwzx__wPzUJzxhpNBppTqx__N1fcqiniwe-LNY5csyrG4t796bwX6ZU_Jrs8Zr9fVFuhI2GAs56TiDL9nnVBAvXxmBtW5PFum_aN3nap48JEWldVUEjttsamL1UqfC-ZZYleTYqBMCcISJi3hDjT/w400-h255/IMG_1014.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><p><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>In the officiant's words which open a service of Celebration of a New Ministry, we hear that such an occasion is a new beginning because the new minister brings certain gifts to "our ministry together." This is a very appropriate and important sentiment because it both speaks of gifts brought, and it speaks of ministry which is a shared responsibility. As we look at the first ten verses of Paul's Second Letter to the Corinthians, it becomes clear that we are in good company when we speak of such things and that we can set a context for Gene's ministry in this place by understanding the context of the ministry of Paul in this letter to the Church at Corinth. I want to look first at this idea of what Paul calls "this ministry" and then at the gifts that one might think support it, but really flow from it. And how all of this is related to Gene Packwood's new ministry at St. Barnabas, Medicine Hat.</p><p><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Paul starts this passage by saying, "Therefore, since through God's mercy we have this ministry, we do not loose heart." Paul says, we have "this" ministry and I suppose this is why this is a suggested reading for occasions like these. It refers to ministry. However, if we were to look only at this passage and not locate it in the context of Paul's wider letter, we might be tempted to look at only what this ministry means to us or to someone like Gene who we expect to engage in "this ministry" in this place. In reality, there is something bigger going on here. Paul was making a comparison by using these particular words. He was actually comparing "this ministry" to something which is implied and we might identify as "that ministry." And this comparison is very timely for the Church in the late twentieth century as well.</p><p><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>In this Second Letter to the Corinthians, Paul is having to deal with some real problems that have arisen in the Corinthian Church. We're not talking about finances or fights over hymn books or prayer books—somehow, in light of what he was up against, I think he might have looked forward to those kinds of battles. Rather, he was dealing with something much heavier, and far more destructive. He was having to deal with doctrinal error and with the false teaching that was promoting it. Mixed up with these things was the fact that those who we might identify as the false teachers also put a lot of effort into slandering Paul and they attempted to make him look bad, both in the eyes of the Corinthian Church, and in light of the corrupt gospel that they were proclaiming. With this in mind, we can note that Paul's comparison identifies the teachings of the false teachers with "that" ministry, and that through God's mercy, we have "this" ministry.</p><p><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Without actually discussing what these other missionaries were teaching, and noting that the specific issues are not necessarily the same, let me warn you- the spirit of "that" ministry is alive and well, and is making a real comeback at the close of this millennium. We need to so fully understand "this" ministry that we have been given so that we can tell the difference so as to boldly proclaim the truth that we have received in God's Word. </p><p><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>I heard a great story in Vancouver a couple of weeks ago which I think really draws a line between "that" ministry and "this" ministry. The story was told by Paul Barnett, the Bishop of North Sidney who was co-leading a preaching course that I attended at Regent College. He said that there was an American bishop who felt called to go to Africa to straighten people out on a few matters of Christian belief. As you may well know, the Church in Africa is experiencing enormous and rapid growth at this time. I suppose this bishop was feeling a little frightened by this as the Gospel being proclaimed in Africa is different than the one that his own "enlightened" mind was starting to comprehend. So he thought he needed to do something about it.</p><p><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>In one speech, standing before thousands of new Christian converts, and speaking through an interpreter, the bishop proclaimed to the ignorant masses that they needed to reject what they had been taught; that the Bible needed to be seen as allegory; and that the Resurrection was simply a metaphor for something that happened in the distressed minds or in the collective psyche of the disciples after Jesus died. The bishop paused to allow the interpreter to translate his words into the language of the people. The interpreter, in a tongue that everybody except the bishop could understand, simply said, "So far he hasn't said anything worth repeating!" The interpreter obviously understood the difference between "this" ministry and "that" ministry, and whether he was assigned to do a particular job or not, he was not about to proclaim "that" ministry.</p><p><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>So what is "this" ministry that is ours through God's mercy? What are its distinguishing features? And even more importantly, does Gene Packwood know anything about it? The ministry that these other teachers proclaim, according to Il Cor. 3:7, is a continuation of the ministry of Moses which, although not denying Christ, certainly downplayed salvation through Christ, and therefore according to Paul would lead to condemnation and death.</p><p><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>On the other hand, "this" ministry that we have through God's mercy is a ministry of righteousness. In 3:9, we see that Paul, when he speaks of "this" ministry, links the words "ministry" and "righteousness." Therefore, "this" ministry has something to do with our moral standing in the eyes of God who created us. In "this" ministry, we become new creations; adopted children of God; worthy to stand in his presence, inheritors of his kingdom.</p><p><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>It is also a ministry of reconciliation. In chapter 5, verse 18 Paul says, "All this from God who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation." "This" ministry recognises that there is a gulf separating humanity and God. This gulf is the result of sin, and only Jesus' sacrifice on the cross could close it. It is the work of the cross that reconciled us to God. We then have this ministry of reconciliation where we proclaim Jesus so that others might also be reconciled to God.</p><p><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Chapter 3 verse 8 identifies "this" ministry as a ministry of the Spirit; the Spirit who is the Comforter; the one who empowers us for this ministry. The Spirit makes us bold in "this" ministry. 3:12 says, "Therefore, since we have such a hope, we are very bold!” In 3:17-18, we read that we also have freedom through the Spirit both to turn to the Lord and also to be transformed into his moral and spiritual likeness. All this comes from the Lord who, as Paul says in 3:18, "is the Spirit." Therefore, since this ministry is one of righteousness, reconciliation, and the Spirit, we can conclude that it is a ministry which is concerned with relationship. Specifically, it is concerned with our relationship with God the Father, through the saving work of Jesus Christ, in the power of the Holy Spirit. And since we have this ministry through God's mercy... we do not lose heart, for it is the most precious treasure we could ever possess.</p><p><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>This man named Gene Packwood that you claim as your priest today; your rector or your incumbent, is not here to do this ministry for you. Listen to Paul's words, "since through God's mercy we have this ministry." The letter itself is not addressed to an individual in the congregation, and it is certainly not addressed to the rector or the incumbent. It is addressed to the whole church of God in Corinth and to all the saints throughout that region. And by extension as the Word of God, it is addressed to each and every one of us here. "This ministry" is not the exclusive territory of clergy; it is the responsibility of the whole Church. Gene's role is to be a sign of this ministry in your midst; a visible reminder of what God is calling the people of St. Barnabas to. And he will be this sign in your midst in three ways that are identified in this passage from II Cor. 4.</p><p><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>First of all, through his preaching. Paul says in 4:5, "For we do not preach ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord…” The word that Paul uses for "preach" doesn't refer to standing up on Sunday morning and delivering a sermon, although that can be part of it. It is a word that means to proclaim or to herald. In the context of this ministry, we proclaim Jesus as Lord, not only with our lips but through our actions as well. Gene should therefore be a sign of proclamation in your midst by all that he says and does. I know he will do this because it was during my internship time with him that he taught me that I have to strive to be sinless because the devil looks for whatever cracks he can find so that he can tear us apart when he sees that we have set our hearts on "this" ministry. Walking the walk should proclaim the same message as talking the talk.</p><p><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>The second way that he will be a sign in your midst is that the content of the message that he proclaims should be "Jesus as Lord." This also we see in 4:5. I have great confidence that he is not very likely to deviate from this message. The first time I ever met Gene was in my home congregation of St. Cyprian's, Didsbury. Gene was a guest preacher one Sunday and he was telling us about a document signed a hundred or so years ago that stated five fundamentals of the Christian faith and that people who ascribe to this document are what we call Christian fundamentalists. Just as people were starting to form stereotyped images of such people in their minds, Gene dropped a bomb shell on us. He asked how many of us believed the Creed that we recited each week. When everybody put up their hand, he declared that we were all at least 80% fundamentalist as 4 out of 5 statements on the document are contained in the creeds. I know that Gene Packwood takes his creeds very seriously and therefore is at least 80% fundamentalist himself. As such, I have great confidence that he will always proclaim Jesus as Lord.</p><p><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>The third way that Gene will be a sign of this ministry in your midst will be in the way that he helps you to focus on the glory of God. Throughout chapters 3 and 4, Paul is very concerned with this word "glory;" and in 4:4 he connects the glory of Christ with the image of God, and in 4:6 he connects the glory of God with the face of Christ. I've seen Gene in action. He will try very hard to point you toward the glory of God. You'll hear this when he preaches, you will understand it when he teaches, you will love it when he sings about it, and you will be blessed by it when he prays with you. My favourite memory of Gene pointing to God's glory comes out of the middle of the eucharistic prayer, when in the Sanctus he raises his hands to God as he says "Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord God of Hosts..." I would always get this mental image of Isaiah's vision of seeing the Lord seated on a throne, high and exalted, and the train of his robe filling the temple, and the seraphs calling to each other saying, "Holy, holy, holy is the Lord Almighty; the whole earth is full of his glory."</p><p><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>And so these three ways of being a sign in your midst are connected; the proclamation of Jesus as Lord gives us access to the glory of God. This is what you can expect of Gene. This is how he is called to share in "this" ministry with you.</p><p><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>So what is his credential to do this? What gift is it that he brings that will allow him to be such a sign in your midst? It’s not that he'll be some sort of superman; his strength does not come from his abilities as a hospital visitor, social worker, or Bible teaching, guitar playing, tea drinker extrordinaire. In fact I happen to know he prefers coffee anyhow. His gifts come right out of "this" ministry that I have been talking about. He knows that "this" ministry is the greatest treasure he could ever possess. He also knows that its best expression does not come from his strengths, but through his weakness as a frail and fragile human being because this serves to point out that the power of "this" ministry is from God and not from us. And so Paul refers to this ministry that we express through our frailty in 4:7 as treasure in clay jars "to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us."</p><p><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>You will be able to count on Gene Packwood to be a humble sign of "this" ministry in your midst because I know him to be well aware of his frailty and his dependence on God. Knowing these things, he will be able to encourage you by being a reminder that because we have "this" ministry we do not lose heart; through this ministry we have hope. As Paul says, "We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed." You will hear Gene say and sing things like, "find me in the river, find me there; find me on my knees with my soul laid bare." And when you do find him pouring his heart out through his weakness, don't pity him and don't lose heart. Join him, and thank God for the precious treasure he has given you--the treasure of "this" ministry that is yours through God's mercy.</p><p><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>In the Name of God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Amen.</p><p><br /></p>Gene Packwoodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10483295706056528789noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6530856473055256123.post-34348086239692200122022-08-14T14:02:00.003-06:002022-08-14T14:02:45.296-06:00A Short Funeral Sermon with Reference to 2 Corinthians 5.1-9, John 14.1-6 and Muscular Prayers: for Ken and Victoria Gair on Saturday 13 August 2022 at St Barnabas Anglican Church, Medicine Hat, Alberta<p><span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjnJ2-3D-3wt0FWwgwH7E_OujaQ6OIQgPtpoItsYNO8AxMVoQMFXYknAGnxmx7-SFabQa-FYI27TdVgxDtjj-0mYc6Rr9TvF15g9OixefuGKmk6OTSmRYMGPXBsBrsYs69xt_WUtP26gQZ63YjnQHtjDl9YjWU5_FcnpvgQXVKeUvj6Br3vZH7kkLeb/s2272/223D41C6-751F-44B2-89D2-4CF3C7D59646.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1704" data-original-width="2272" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjnJ2-3D-3wt0FWwgwH7E_OujaQ6OIQgPtpoItsYNO8AxMVoQMFXYknAGnxmx7-SFabQa-FYI27TdVgxDtjj-0mYc6Rr9TvF15g9OixefuGKmk6OTSmRYMGPXBsBrsYs69xt_WUtP26gQZ63YjnQHtjDl9YjWU5_FcnpvgQXVKeUvj6Br3vZH7kkLeb/w400-h300/223D41C6-751F-44B2-89D2-4CF3C7D59646.jpeg" width="400" /></a></div><br />Jesus is The One through whom are all things—all the lives and deaths and loves and relationships that bring us together this afternoon. Jesus is The One, the Bible tells us, through whom we all exist. (1Cor8.6) Jesus. Full of grace and mercy. Exemplar and perfect embodiment of the Father’s love. Jesus. He brought Ken and Victoria together in the first place, made them one flesh, and—just as we heard in the reading from John’s Gospel—went on ahead to prepare a place for them where they will always be with him where he is. With Jesus himself in that “house in heaven…made…by God himself and not by human hands,” (2Cor5.1) we heard about in the first reading from St Paul’s second letter to the Corinthians—“wearing heavenly bodies like new clothing.” In death, “swallowed up by life”! At home with The LORD forever and ever. Amen.<span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px;"> </span><p></p>
<p style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Good to know. Together again. In the presence of God. We don’t have to worry about Victoria and Ken any more. </p>
<p style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Ken once told me that he’d built a house, all with hand tools. I love that idea that he will now, or soon, be living in one he didn’t have to build or buy himself! </p>
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<p style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">But what about us? Still weary, groaning and sighing in these earthly bodies, and living in earthly tents, as St Paul put it in that first reading. How can we have the confidence he describes, “even though we know that as long as we live in these bodies we are not at home with the Lord”? (2Cor5.6) “We live by believing,” writes Paul, “and not by seeing.” Walking by faith, not by sight. </p>
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<p style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Jesus says something similar in the second reading: “Don’t let your hearts be troubled,” at times like this, he said. Just trust because, even though you might not see it right now, especially if you’re grieving and in pain, and somebody you loved very much dies there is a heavenly and spiritual reality that will swallow up these earthly bodies—as fearfully and wonderfully made as we are—with a such a splendour of glory and beauty that our earthly understanding can only barely, scarcely glimpse let alone comprehend. Because, “There is more than enough room in my Father’s home.” More than enough—for Victoria and Ken and you and me. </p>
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<p style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">You know the way, Jesus said. Thomas said, No, we don’t. We don’t know where you’re going so how on earth can we know the way? </p>
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<p style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Believe, wrote Paul. Trust, said Jesus. This is how, wrote Ken in one of his wonderful poems (did you know Ken was no mean poet?) called Ordinary Time (which is the church calendar season we’re in now)—written at a different time of year—one snowy, pre-Lent, February: </p>
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<blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><p style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">This is no festal day; </p><p style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>no saints nor martyrs</p><p style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">of any note have glorified this day </p><p style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">living or dying. </p><p style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">The season plods toward</p><p style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">the long deep valley of Lent.</p><p style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Snow obscures </p><p style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">the end of a late February</p><p style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">afternoon, stopping vision, </p><p style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>wrapping us</p><p style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">in a white robe of anonymity. </p><p style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">- Now may whatever martyrs and saints there be</p><p style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">preserve us; may the God</p><p style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">whom we glimpse only dimly, </p><p style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>now and then,</p><p style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">through the frosted windows, remember our names,</p><p style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">bring us safely to our rest, </p><p style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>and pardon us</p><p style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">if we should celebrate </p><p style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>this day our own </p><p style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">small saints: the woman who with grace endured </p><p style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>martyrdom by cancer; </p><p style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">the man who smiled through a lifetime’s petty chores; </p><p style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">the father who built with quiet hands a workman’s muscular prayers; </p><p style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">the mother who loved us, </p><p style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>against all odds.</p></blockquote>
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<p style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">On days like this, believing and trusting, we, too, can celebrate our own small saints (like Vic and Ken), celebrate the grace to endure suffering and cancer, celebrate those smiles through our lifetime’s petty chores, pray muscular prayers (there are some in this service) and love one another against all odds—like that mother in Ken’s poem and the Father Jesus tells us about, </p>
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<p style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">These are all wise ways to live the way, the truth and the life Jesus provides. Look him up if you haven’t already. Believe and trust in him. Be confident in his promises—good ways to honour Vic and Ken, too. Then these dying bodies of ours will be swallowed up by the abundant and eternal life that can only come through Jesus. </p>Gene Packwoodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10483295706056528789noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6530856473055256123.post-41141538263041739362022-04-15T08:18:00.002-06:002022-04-15T08:18:22.832-06:00Look and See (Lam 1.12)<p><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj2J6NB5tFI35ORpk9CUKiCjqyW6QGy-FR6avx9vYcTI7r1FQIfi3lHjXRh54zD9civBWhv5a9a16YlETiOGUzP-UqWRJZaa2gLx6dOdxs96gYYb0xgqhnMT1YAblbeOkEQYCSz8VbCn8qeBFyjYb0EaVvE5BNM-mOnhwcCXTpC3Yh9EWz6rb4pFVAO/s2031/6E350E22-470B-49DE-BB4C-0932A3C98C64.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1628" data-original-width="2031" height="321" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj2J6NB5tFI35ORpk9CUKiCjqyW6QGy-FR6avx9vYcTI7r1FQIfi3lHjXRh54zD9civBWhv5a9a16YlETiOGUzP-UqWRJZaa2gLx6dOdxs96gYYb0xgqhnMT1YAblbeOkEQYCSz8VbCn8qeBFyjYb0EaVvE5BNM-mOnhwcCXTpC3Yh9EWz6rb4pFVAO/w400-h321/6E350E22-470B-49DE-BB4C-0932A3C98C64.jpeg" width="400" /></a></p><p><br /></p><p>A few meditations on the cross over the years to look at before another Good Friday passes by: </p><p><a href="http://kiwirev.blogspot.com/2016/03/leaning-into-lent-day-39majestic.html" target="_blank">here</a>, </p><p><a href="http://kiwirev.blogspot.com/2012/04/good-friday-meditation-with-reference.html" target="_blank">here</a>, </p><p><a href=" http://kiwirev.blogspot.com/2012/04/unity-at-cross-sermon-for-medicine-hat.html" target="_blank">here</a>, </p><p><a href="http://kiwirev.blogspot.com/2011/04/good-friday-women-of-jerusalem-and.html" target="_blank">here</a> </p><p>and <a href="http://kiwirev.blogspot.com/2006/04/good-friday-pointed-bits.html" target="_blank">here</a>. </p><p>Love in Jesus, </p><p>Gene</p><p><br /></p><br /><p></p>Gene Packwoodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10483295706056528789noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6530856473055256123.post-9819127176905219962022-04-10T06:57:00.001-06:002022-04-10T06:57:57.390-06:00Palm Sunday<p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh6ztZfezGtXaBjOi7WDZUWYdeQO5o8u4AVPofdhlEazmlLgzp2E5LW5Gj0raIfM8x_c5Z_aLOps-ErnxF1pbvt1A6pBY9j_15Bil1hbFxA25UCqrX42B9VkWUPyR0j9rELoP1L23QWtIm7o5b-LotAFDPqdXFn5T5LmYrCgVQWWDW_6wA2r7cvfTr4/s2048/E3360BD5-5AE4-4B45-861F-E18D027414B7.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1536" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh6ztZfezGtXaBjOi7WDZUWYdeQO5o8u4AVPofdhlEazmlLgzp2E5LW5Gj0raIfM8x_c5Z_aLOps-ErnxF1pbvt1A6pBY9j_15Bil1hbFxA25UCqrX42B9VkWUPyR0j9rELoP1L23QWtIm7o5b-LotAFDPqdXFn5T5LmYrCgVQWWDW_6wA2r7cvfTr4/w300-h400/E3360BD5-5AE4-4B45-861F-E18D027414B7.jpeg" width="300" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Lo, your king comes to you…(Zec9.9)</td></tr></tbody></table><br /> </p>Gene Packwoodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10483295706056528789noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6530856473055256123.post-36608494569719646682022-04-04T10:43:00.003-06:002022-04-10T13:29:35.779-06:00On One Thing after Another<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiB0Z-oKzb1UjKY0N_1QYmhyaZdCh5yn-eR_IfwFdD9loB1Fn6Z0v8fZ8Hpzf9YziKG2tqY7HjtZDXzn8la8Qi8O8sRljBZfjGr2a7r34_AAdFiTVeM67OKfRpFR9xrVADwnw9bs4RAvnBZGJUiGdcIDD_18oqI3q5WpyLXv1pA9Gcalhy3upHVBR8z/s4032/C7F77B59-AB12-4EE0-B0CD-A5BB8F27FF4C.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4032" data-original-width="3024" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiB0Z-oKzb1UjKY0N_1QYmhyaZdCh5yn-eR_IfwFdD9loB1Fn6Z0v8fZ8Hpzf9YziKG2tqY7HjtZDXzn8la8Qi8O8sRljBZfjGr2a7r34_AAdFiTVeM67OKfRpFR9xrVADwnw9bs4RAvnBZGJUiGdcIDD_18oqI3q5WpyLXv1pA9Gcalhy3upHVBR8z/w300-h400/C7F77B59-AB12-4EE0-B0CD-A5BB8F27FF4C.jpeg" width="300" /></a></div></div><p style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><br /></p><p style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Something to gnaw on as we put some effort into the Passiontide upward call of God in Christ Jesus. The bones of a Passion Sunday sermon with reference to Php 3.13-14 and the Lenten spiritual disciplines: self-examination, repentance, prayer, fasting, alms-giving and reading and meditating on these few verses of God’s holy Word in particular: </p><p style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 19.3px; text-align: center;"><span face="CourierNewPS-BoldMT" style="font-weight: bold;"></span><br /></p><p style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;"><span face="CourierNewPS-BoldMT" style="font-weight: bold;">But </span></p><p style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 49px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 4px; text-align: center;"><span face="CourierNewPS-BoldMT" style="font-weight: bold;">one thing </span></p><p style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;"><span face="CourierNewPS-BoldMT" style="font-weight: bold;">I do:</span></p><p style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;"><span face="CourierNewPS-BoldMT" style="font-weight: bold;">forgetting what lies behind</span></p><p style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;"><span face="CourierNewPS-BoldMT" style="font-weight: bold;">and straining forward to what lies ahead,</span></p><p style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;"><span face="CourierNewPS-BoldMT" style="font-weight: bold;">I press on toward the goal</span></p><p style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;"><span face="CourierNewPS-BoldMT" style="font-weight: bold;">for the prize of the upward call of God</span></p><p style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;"><span face="CourierNewPS-BoldMT" style="font-weight: bold;">in Christ Jesus. </span></p><p style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;"><span face="CourierNewPS-BoldMT" style="font-weight: bold;">(Php3.13-14)</span></p><p style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 19.3px; text-align: center;"><span face="CourierNewPS-BoldMT" style="font-weight: bold;"></span><br /></p><p style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 19.3px; text-align: center;"><span face="CourierNewPS-BoldMT" style="font-weight: bold;"></span><br /></p><p style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 19.3px; text-align: center;"><span face="CourierNewPS-BoldMT" style="font-weight: bold;"></span><br /></p><p style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span face="CourierNewPS-BoldMT" style="font-weight: bold;">SELF EXAMINATION</span></p><p style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 19.3px; text-align: center;"><span face="CourierNewPS-BoldMT" style="font-weight: bold;"></span><br /></p><p style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;"><span face="CourierNewPS-BoldMT" style="font-weight: bold;">But the Lord answered her,</span></p><p style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;"><span face="CourierNewPS-BoldMT" style="font-weight: bold;">“Martha, Martha,</span></p><p style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;"><span face="CourierNewPS-BoldMT" style="font-weight: bold;">you are anxious and troubled about many things, but </span></p><p style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 45px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 4px; text-align: center;"><span face="CourierNewPS-BoldMT" style="font-weight: bold;">one thing </span></p><p style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;"><span face="CourierNewPS-BoldMT" style="font-weight: bold;">is necessary.</span></p><p style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;"><span face="CourierNewPS-BoldMT" style="font-weight: bold;">Mary has chosen the good portion,</span></p><p style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;"><span face="CourierNewPS-BoldMT" style="font-weight: bold;">which will not be taken away from her. </span></p><p style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;"><span face="CourierNewPS-BoldMT" style="font-weight: bold;">(Luke 10:41–42)</span></p><p style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 19.3px; text-align: center;"><span face="CourierNewPS-BoldMT" style="font-weight: bold;"></span><br /></p><p style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 19.3px; text-align: center;"><span face="CourierNewPS-BoldMT" style="font-weight: bold;"></span><br /></p><p style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span face="CourierNewPS-BoldMT" style="font-weight: bold;">REPENTANCE</span></p><p style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 19.3px; text-align: center;"><span face="CourierNewPS-BoldMT" style="font-weight: bold;"></span><br /></p><p style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;"><span face="CourierNewPS-BoldMT" style="font-weight: bold;">Whether he is a sinner I do not know. </span></p><p style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 43px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 4px; text-align: center;"><span face="CourierNewPS-BoldMT" style="font-weight: bold;">One thing </span></p><p style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;"><span face="CourierNewPS-BoldMT" style="font-weight: bold;">I do know,</span></p><p style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;"><span face="CourierNewPS-BoldMT" style="font-weight: bold;">that though I was blind,</span></p><p style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;"><span face="CourierNewPS-BoldMT" style="font-weight: bold;">now I see.</span></p><p style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;"><span face="CourierNewPS-BoldMT" style="font-weight: bold;">(John 9:25)</span></p><p style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 19.3px; text-align: center;"><span face="CourierNewPS-BoldMT" style="font-weight: bold;"></span><br /></p><p style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 19.3px; text-align: center;"><span face="CourierNewPS-BoldMT" style="font-weight: bold;"></span><br /></p><p style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span face="CourierNewPS-BoldMT" style="font-weight: bold;">PRAYER</span></p><p style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 47px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 4px; text-align: center;"><span face="CourierNewPS-BoldMT" style="font-weight: bold;">One thing </span></p><p style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;"><span face="CourierNewPS-BoldMT" style="font-weight: bold;">have I asked of the Lord, </span></p><p style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;"><span face="CourierNewPS-BoldMT" style="font-weight: bold;">that will I seek after: </span></p><p style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;"><span face="CourierNewPS-BoldMT" style="font-weight: bold;"> that I may dwell in the house of the Lord </span></p><p style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;"><span face="CourierNewPS-BoldMT" style="font-weight: bold;">all the days of my life, </span></p><p style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;"><span face="CourierNewPS-BoldMT" style="font-weight: bold;"> to gaze upon the beauty of the Lord</span></p><p style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;"><span face="CourierNewPS-BoldMT" style="font-weight: bold;">and to inquire in his temple. </span></p><p style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;"><span face="CourierNewPS-BoldMT" style="font-weight: bold;">(Psalm 27:4)</span></p><p style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 19.3px; text-align: center;"><br /><span face="CourierNewPS-BoldMT" style="font-weight: bold;"></span></p><p style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 19.3px; text-align: center;"><span face="CourierNewPS-BoldMT" style="font-weight: bold;"></span></p><p style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span face="CourierNewPS-BoldMT" style="font-weight: bold;">FASTING</span></p><p style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 19.3px; text-align: center;"><span face="CourierNewPS-BoldMT" style="font-weight: bold;"></span><br /></p><p style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;"><span face="CourierNewPS-BoldMT" style="font-weight: bold;">A person cannot receive even </span></p><p style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 44px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 4px; text-align: center;"><span face="CourierNewPS-BoldMT" style="font-weight: bold;">one thing</span><span face="CourierNewPS-BoldMT" style="font-size: 22px; font-weight: bold;"> </span></p><p style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;"><span face="CourierNewPS-BoldMT" style="font-weight: bold;">unless it is given him from heaven.</span></p><p style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;"><span face="CourierNewPS-BoldMT" style="font-weight: bold;">(John 3:27)</span></p><p style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 19.3px; text-align: right;"><span face="CourierNewPS-BoldMT" style="font-weight: bold;"></span><br /></p><p style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 19.3px; text-align: center;"><span face="CourierNewPS-BoldMT" style="font-weight: bold;"></span><br /></p><p style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span face="CourierNewPS-BoldMT" style="font-weight: bold;">ALMSGIVING</span></p><p style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 19.3px; text-align: center;"><span face="CourierNewPS-BoldMT" style="font-weight: bold;"></span><br /></p><p style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;"><span face="CourierNewPS-BoldMT" style="font-weight: bold;">When Jesus heard this, he said to him, </span></p><p style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 39px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 4px; text-align: center;"><span face="CourierNewPS-BoldMT" style="font-size: 22px; font-weight: bold;">“</span><span face="CourierNewPS-BoldMT" style="font-weight: bold;">One thing</span><span face="CourierNewPS-BoldMT" style="font-size: 22px; font-weight: bold;"> </span></p><p style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;"><span face="CourierNewPS-BoldMT" style="font-weight: bold;">you still lack. Sell all that you have and distribute to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me.” (Luke 18:22)</span></p><p style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;"><span face="CourierNewPS-BoldMT" style="font-weight: bold;"><br /></span></p><p style="font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b>The full sermon can be found at 0:59:15 <a href="https://youtu.be/tKnnTCQFt6I" target="_blank">here</a>. </b></span></p><p style="font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b><br /></b></span></p><p style="font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b><br /></b></span></p><p style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><br /><span face="CourierNewPS-BoldMT" style="font-weight: bold;"><br /></span><p></p><p style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;"><span face="CourierNewPS-BoldMT" style="font-weight: bold;"><br /></span></p><p style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;"><span face="CourierNewPS-BoldMT" style="font-weight: bold;"><br /></span></p><p style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 19.3px; text-align: center;"><span face="CourierNewPS-BoldMT" style="font-weight: bold;"></span><br /></p>Gene Packwoodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10483295706056528789noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6530856473055256123.post-12793328127790898212022-02-13T12:50:00.000-07:002022-02-13T12:50:17.221-07:00Here and NOW: a Short Funeral Homily with reference to 1 Corinthians 15:20-58—for Kathleen Carlyle<p><span style="font-family: inherit;"> <span style="font-size: 20px;">“NOW is Christ risen from the dead” wrote St Paul in that passage Gillian just read. NOW. It’s built right in to the Order for the Burial of the Dead. Page 595 in the Prayer Book. </span><span style="font-size: 20px;"> </span></span></p>
<p style="font-size: 20px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">NOW. It was NOW when Paul wrote it. It is still NOW. <span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>“Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.” (Hebrews 13:8) and he is risen from the dead. NOW. </span></p>
<p style="font-size: 20px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 20px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-size: 20px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">And by the power of that resurrection, Kathleen, even though she has died, has been made to live on in Jesus. NOW. So although we miss her, we don’t have to worry about her. She, along with her sisters, Marjorie and Dorothy—the Three Graces, as they were called, (and Bill, Kathleen’s beloved husband)—are those “that are Christ’s” as St Paul put it. They belong to Jesus. How do I know this?</span></p><p style="font-size: 20px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></p>
<blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0 0 0 40px; padding: 0px;"><p style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-size: 20px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Marjorie and Dorothy told me that they gave their lives to Jesus while listening to the Sunrise Gospel Hour—now the Oldest Gospel Radio Broadcast still produced in Alberta, seventy-seven years straight, by the way—they were too far out in the country for regular Sunday Church going. Kathleen told me, their mother would regularly call the three girls in from whatever they were doing in the yard to listen to hymn sings on the radio. Kathleen also told me she didn't start going to church until she was twenty. And yet the seeds had been well sown, and with the help of their parents, roots were solidly established in Jesus. And those beginnings led to them, all three, becoming followers of our Risen Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ and stalwart members of St Barnabas.</span></p></blockquote><p style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-size: 20px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-size: 20px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">So. NOW, I think it’s safe to say, in the words of one of the hymns Dorothy chose for her funeral, these three faithful women are Safe in the Arms of Jesus. </span></p>
<p style="font-size: 20px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 20px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-size: 20px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">But we—are all left behind in this here and NOW. Not that I’m complaining. But what do we do NOW? What do we do when a dear friend, aunt, cousin, sister, saint, like Kathleen has died? And what do we do NOW with something else St Paul wrote in that same passage: <span style="font-weight: bold;">that in Christ Jesus all shall be made to live? </span></span></p>
<p style="font-size: 20px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 20px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-size: 20px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">What do we do NOW if we want to get safely from the corruption, dishonour, weakness, earthiness, sin, mortality and death in the here and NOW of this life as listed in 1 Corinthians 15—to the life we’re REALLY <span style="font-weight: bold;">made to live</span> in INcorruption, glory, power, with spiritual bodies, heavenliness, inheritors of the kingdom of God and enjoying victory through our Lord Jesus Christ? </span></p>
<p style="font-size: 20px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 20px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-size: 20px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">St Paul tells us how. Be steadfast, unmoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord. </span></p>
<p style="font-size: 20px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 20px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-size: 20px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">What is the work of the LORD? The disciples asked Jesus the same question in John chapter 6. “What must we do, to be doing the works of God? (v28). Jesus answered, “This is the work of God, that you <span style="font-weight: bold;">believe</span> in him whom he has sent.” (v29). </span></p>
<p style="font-size: 20px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 20px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-size: 20px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">So believe. God loves you Be steadfast, unmoveable, always abounding in belief that Jesus is your Lord and Saviour. We’ll all get an opportunity to confess that belief out loud in the Apostle’s Creed in a few moments. If it’s your first time or if there’s been some slippage or drift in your life, find someone to help you begin the journey or get back on track. Reverend Oz would be happy to help. </span></p>
<p style="font-size: 20px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 20px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-size: 20px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The important thing is to do it NOW because just as St Paul wrote, such labour is not in vain in the Lord. And tomorrow might be too late. We don’t want this holy NOW provided by Kathleen who is NOW in Christ, to become <span style="font-weight: bold;">never</span>. <br />
</span></p><p style="font-size: 20px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-size: 20px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">So my sisters and brothers, look at the last sentence in our reading from 1 Corinthians, “be stedfast, unmoveable, always—not just NOW and then—but <span style="font-weight: bold;">always</span>! abounding in the work of the Lord.”</span></p>
<p style="font-size: 20px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 20px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-size: 20px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Here are two good reason why it’s worth the effort: </span></p>
<p style="font-size: 20px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 20px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></p>
<ul>
<li style="font-size: 20px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: 10px;"></span>Such work of the Lord will affirm and show respect for what was important to Kathleen and will honour her memory. </span></li>
</ul>
<p style="font-size: 20px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 20px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-size: 20px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">And</span></p>
<p style="font-size: 20px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 20px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></p>
<ul>
<li style="font-size: 20px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: 10px;"></span>you can be absolutely confident that your labour will not be in vain because it is in the Lord here and NOW, and in the NOW and forever to come in Jesus! </span></li></ul><div><span style="font-size: 20px;"><i>Here are links to the funeral sermons for Kathleen’s sisters:</i></span></div><div><span style="font-size: 20px;"><i><a href="http://kiwirev.blogspot.com/2013/06/jesus-scotch-tape-and-78-cents-hour.html" target="_blank">Dorothy</a>,</i></span></div><div><span style="font-size: 20px;"><a href="http://kiwirev.blogspot.com/2016/12/being-ready-now-funeral-homily-with.html" target="_blank"><i>Marjorie</i></a></span></div><div><i style="font-size: 20px;">and her husband, <a href="http://kiwirev.blogspot.com/2010/12/funeral-sermon-with-reference-to-1-cor.html" target="_blank">Bill</a>.</i></div><div><i style="font-size: 20px;"><br /></i></div>Gene Packwoodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10483295706056528789noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6530856473055256123.post-63243703683062587242021-12-26T12:30:00.000-07:002021-12-26T12:30:48.667-07:00The Last Time Boxing Day Was Also the First Sunday After Christmas—a Short Sermon with reference to Real Life, Is 63:7-9; Heb 2:10-18 and Mt 2:13-23<p><i> </i></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjb0vOY1U6yuOvaC0IX7blayzzEHlXrjPREaLy0m5kMrt-Jf8iiF70mdwmptmvRHAxGqAxdO9s5C8hboaPYHZ7rBRPTpDW34qyFWnbhc5PgKdSgVInwtNh8144eF4w7-S3_yJudaHRp_dwa6kf6wN8i8iXXCcPHvj9lJZ1-Q_nBQazmO-nUMedOJmVg=s1124" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="626" data-original-width="1124" height="223" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjb0vOY1U6yuOvaC0IX7blayzzEHlXrjPREaLy0m5kMrt-Jf8iiF70mdwmptmvRHAxGqAxdO9s5C8hboaPYHZ7rBRPTpDW34qyFWnbhc5PgKdSgVInwtNh8144eF4w7-S3_yJudaHRp_dwa6kf6wN8i8iXXCcPHvj9lJZ1-Q_nBQazmO-nUMedOJmVg=w400-h223" width="400" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><p></p><p><i><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 18.9px;">The last time the First Sunday after Christmas happened on Boxing Day was 2010. Possibly the lowest of all low Sundays. As I listened to this morning’s sermon, I wondered what I’d said on that day eleven years ago. So I looked it up and here it is:</span></i></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 18.9px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 18.9px;">After the midnight service and all, I got to bed around 130 Christmas morning. At 330am the dog we are dogsitting decided she wanted to go out and bark at passing reindeer or anything else she imagined was there. I lay awake trying to think warm thoughts and was just about ready to go back to sleep when at 430am granddaughter Samantha woke, calling her sister Emily. I got in there as quickly as I could to try and head off the house being awakened that early. Samantha told me she had arranged to wake Emily if she woke up first. I told her it was still the middle of night.</span></p><h2 style="text-align: center;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 18.9px;">I lied to my granddaughter on Christmas morning!</span></h2><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 18.9px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 18.9px;">She seemed happy with that and seemed to settle down again. I got back to sleep for another couple of ours. We had a lovely day of gifts, lazing about, good food, family (including Skyping Okotoks and NZ) and naps. And shot through it all was aching fatigue (strenuously denied, of course, by the children) and the emotional hyper-rawness that comes with it plus some grief and anxiety over some family health issues. I’m sure all of you have experienced the same kind of thing. </span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 18.9px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 24.5px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 18.9px;"></span><br /></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 18.9px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 18.9px;">This is the context in which the first Christmas happened only, judging from this morning’s readings, more so. Listen to some of the words and things we heard about in the readings: affliction, suffering, death, the devil, flee, destroy, a furious king, dead babies, weeping, loud lamentation and fear. On top of that there was God’s wrath. </span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 18.9px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 18.9px;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 18.9px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">From our Hebrews reading:</span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 18.9px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 18.9px;"><br /></span></p><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0 0 0 40px; padding: 0px;"><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 18.9px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 24.5px; text-align: left;"><span class="s2" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleEmphasizedBody; font-size: 18.9px; font-weight: bold;">Therefore he had to be made like his brothers in every respect, so that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in the service of God, </span><span class="s3" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleEmphasizedBody; font-size: 18.9px; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: underline;">to make propitiation for the sins of the people</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleEmphasizedBody; font-size: 18.9px; font-weight: bold;">. (</span><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 18.9px;">Heb 2.17)</span></p></blockquote><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 18.9px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 24.5px;"><br /><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 18.9px;"></span></p><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0 0 0 40px; padding: 0px;"><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 18.9px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 18.9px;">…“to propitiate,” relates to putting away the divine wrath. When people sin, they arouse the wrath of God (Rom 1:18); they become enemies of God (Rom 5:10). One aspect of salvation deals with this wrath, and it is to this the author is directing attention at this point. Christ saves us in a way that takes account of the divine wrath against every evil thing. (</span><span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px;"> </span><span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px;">Gaebelein, F. E., Morris, L., Burdick, D. W., Blum, E. A., Barker, G. W., & Johnson, A. F. (1981). </span><span style="font-family: Helvetica-Oblique; font-size: 12px; font-style: italic;">The Expositor's Bible Commentary, Volume 12: Hebrews Through Revelation</span><span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px;"> (30). Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House.)</span></p></blockquote><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 18.9px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 24.5px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 18.9px;"></span><br /></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 18.9px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 18.9px;">All this is the context in which every celebration of Christmas has happened since, including yesterday. And, try as we might, we can’t make it otherwise. There’s not enough tinsel or Christmas lights or candle-light services in the whole world to do it. We simply cannot manage life well enough. We need help. Which is the point of Christmas. In Jesus, God the Father, comes to his troubled people, hopelessly tangled in their own sin, so vulnerable to effects of the sins of others, to suffering and death. And he did it supernaturally. </span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 18.9px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 24.5px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 18.9px;"></span><br /></p><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 18.9px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s2" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleEmphasizedBody; font-size: 18.9px; font-weight: bold;">The angel of his presence saved them</span><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 18.9px;">; </span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 18.9px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 18.9px;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>in his love and in his pity </span><span class="s2" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleEmphasizedBody; font-size: 18.9px; font-weight: bold;">he redeemed them</span><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 18.9px;">; </span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 18.9px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s2" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleEmphasizedBody; font-size: 18.9px; font-weight: bold;">he lifted them up and carried them all the days of old.</span><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 18.9px;"> (Isa 63.9)</span></p></blockquote><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 18.9px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 24.5px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 18.9px;"></span><br /></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 18.9px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 18.9px;">The only way to get out this life alive is accept the redemption the Father offered supernaturally in Jesus. </span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 18.9px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 24.5px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 18.9px;"></span><br /></p><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0 0 0 40px; padding: 0px;"><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 18.9px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 18.9px;">For it was fitting that he, </span><span class="s2" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleEmphasizedBody; font-size: 18.9px; font-weight: bold;">for whom and by whom all things exist</span><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 18.9px;">. (Heb 2.10)</span></p></blockquote><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 18.9px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 24.5px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 18.9px;"></span><br /></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 18.9px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 18.9px;">The only way to get out this life alive is to acknowledge with faith who made us and for whom we therefore exist. </span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 18.9px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 24.5px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 18.9px;"></span><br /></p><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0 0 0 40px; padding: 0px;"><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 18.9px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 18.9px;">Since therefore the children share in flesh and blood, he himself likewise partook of the same things, that </span><span class="s2" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleEmphasizedBody; font-size: 18.9px; font-weight: bold;">through death he might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil, and deliver all those who through fear of death were subject to lifelong slavery. (</span><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 18.9px;">Heb 2.14-15)</span></p></blockquote><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 18.9px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 24.5px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 18.9px;"></span><br /></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 18.9px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 18.9px;">The only way to be set free from that lifelong slavery get out this life alive is to ask for and receive that deliverance. </span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 18.9px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 24.5px;"><span class="s2" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleEmphasizedBody; font-size: 18.9px; font-weight: bold;"></span><br /></p><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0 0 0 40px; padding: 0px;"><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 18.9px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 18.9px;">But when Herod died, behold, </span><span class="s2" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleEmphasizedBody; font-size: 18.9px; font-weight: bold;">an angel of the Lord appeared in a dream to Joseph</span><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 18.9px;"> in Egypt, saying, “Rise, take the child and his mother and go to the land of Israel, for those who sought the child’s life are dead.” (Mt 2.19-20)</span></p></blockquote><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 18.9px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 24.5px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 18.9px;"></span><br /></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 18.9px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 18.9px;">It might not be the only way to get out this life alive, but it helps to believe in an enchanted creation filled with wonders like dreams sent by God, angels, a virgin birth and resurrection from the dead. </span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 18.9px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 24.5px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 18.9px;"></span><br /></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 18.9px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 18.9px;">I wish you all a Merry, Bright and enchanted Christmastide. </span></p>Gene Packwoodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10483295706056528789noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6530856473055256123.post-28336870275342073342021-12-10T16:45:00.003-07:002021-12-10T16:46:43.737-07:00Advent, the Holy Spirit, and Fire—for The Saskatchewan Anglican<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEh-MMg65dxLlsJe91VEzbQzCKQ2jekddpF9kD3NWokRpmahLVsTBtkwUmrIE3WZQcJup1ikbIWWmXz4YGTYUsgMAD9I-a1bDqHuh8Gg8Em63aruAEmATWbjLYpJpNS7bI0cRLkdXjF_PtJn65gkyL9VxkudMV-VR9eAo3Hs_Mq0MMXgFNhVydyJVSBj=s1668" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1349" data-original-width="1668" height="518" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEh-MMg65dxLlsJe91VEzbQzCKQ2jekddpF9kD3NWokRpmahLVsTBtkwUmrIE3WZQcJup1ikbIWWmXz4YGTYUsgMAD9I-a1bDqHuh8Gg8Em63aruAEmATWbjLYpJpNS7bI0cRLkdXjF_PtJn65gkyL9VxkudMV-VR9eAo3Hs_Mq0MMXgFNhVydyJVSBj=w640-h518" width="640" /></a></div><br /><p></p>Gene Packwoodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10483295706056528789noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6530856473055256123.post-78547473093558580982021-11-29T10:12:00.001-07:002021-11-29T10:12:38.386-07:00Advent Anticipation—Still Waiting<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-waG1Z4PyC7U/XePTmEtR9oI/AAAAAAABBlA/Gzu-il9vHu8_GU7QWFzPTknt22paY5MzACPcBGAYYCw/s1536/IMG_1472.PNG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="870" data-original-width="1536" height="226" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-waG1Z4PyC7U/XePTmEtR9oI/AAAAAAABBlA/Gzu-il9vHu8_GU7QWFzPTknt22paY5MzACPcBGAYYCw/w400-h226/IMG_1472.PNG" width="400" /></a></div><p></p><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0 0 0 40px; padding: 0px;"><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(102, 102, 102); color: #666666; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 15px;">It’s Advent again. The waiting season. I’m reminded of the old TV ad about the ketchup which is so rich and thick that it takes a very long time for it to come out of the bottle. The song featured in the ad was Carly Simon’s </span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><br /><a href="https://youtu.be/iLJo5Pc7mhg" target="_blank">Anticipation</a> which includes this line: <p></p></blockquote><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0 0 0 40px; padding: 0px;"><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0 0 0 40px; padding: 0px;"><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0 0 0 40px; padding: 0px;"><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; caret-color: rgb(102, 102, 102); color: #666666; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 15px;">We can never know about the days to come</span> </p></blockquote></blockquote></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0 0 0 40px; padding: 0px;"><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0 0 0 40px; padding: 0px;"><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0 0 0 40px; padding: 0px;"><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; caret-color: rgb(102, 102, 102); color: #666666; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 15px;">But we think about them anyway. </span></p></blockquote></blockquote></blockquote></blockquote><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(102, 102, 102); color: #666666; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 15px;">Her words seem sad and not very hopeful. Unlike Carly Simon, in our Advent anticipation we Christians do know something about those days to come. The Bible is very rich and thick with hope for our future. Jesus is coming back. In the meantime, as we think about those days to come, we live in the waiting here and now when the sauce hasn’t yet come out of the bottle.</span><br style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; caret-color: rgb(102, 102, 102); color: #666666; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 15px;" /><br style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; caret-color: rgb(102, 102, 102); color: #666666; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 15px;" /><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(102, 102, 102); color: #666666; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 15px;">The children wait impatiently at this time of year, avidly counting sleeps until the big day. We “grown ups” wait, too; for gift buying inspiration, the last minute, a call from a loved one, for it to be over, that special piece of Christmas mail, the results of medical tests, for a separated spouse or a wandering child to come home. Real life with all its joys, awkward inconveniences, hopes and fears, continues. It all seems especially emotional and poignant in Advent.</span><br style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; caret-color: rgb(102, 102, 102); color: #666666; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 15px;" /><br style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; caret-color: rgb(102, 102, 102); color: #666666; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 15px;" /><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(102, 102, 102); color: #666666; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 15px;">Carly Simon again:</span><br style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; caret-color: rgb(102, 102, 102); color: #666666; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 15px;" /><blockquote class="tr_bq" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; caret-color: rgb(102, 102, 102); color: #666666; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 15px;">And I wonder if I'm really with you now<br />Or just chasin' after some finer day </blockquote><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(102, 102, 102); color: #666666; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 15px;">The temptation is to chase. The lights and glitter, carols and good cheer make us want to fast-forward to the bright sugar plum Christmas “finer day” right now. But then we miss the deeper, more restful "with you now" Advent rhythms of anticipation and appreciation of God’s rich, thick goodness which can seem so slow in coming.</span><br style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; caret-color: rgb(102, 102, 102); color: #666666; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 15px;" /><br style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; caret-color: rgb(102, 102, 102); color: #666666; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 15px;" /><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(102, 102, 102); color: #666666; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 15px;">There are many things that can help us enjoy the anticipation. Advent Calendar devotionals, for example, especially with children. Spending less, worshipping more and giving Presence (Jesus in you and me, Immanuel); the gift of time spent with the people in our lives. From Advent Sunday until Christmas Eve I enjoy lighting up only the blue lights in my decorations. I like the sense of anticipation that is generated as I look forward to seeing the full, multicoloured display fired up on the night we celebrate Jesus’ birth. </span><br style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; caret-color: rgb(102, 102, 102); color: #666666; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 15px;" /><br style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; caret-color: rgb(102, 102, 102); color: #666666; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 15px;" /><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(102, 102, 102); color: #666666; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 15px;">In the midst of the "with you now" realities of your life may you have a slow, rich Advent full of delightful anticipation and, when the time finally comes, a lovely Christmas, thick with joy, wonder and all the goodness of Jesus Himself. Some things are very much worth the waiting.</span>Gene Packwoodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10483295706056528789noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6530856473055256123.post-1262978698457420552021-10-27T16:32:00.000-06:002021-10-27T16:32:04.111-06:00 Come, Holy Spirit, come<p><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans"; font-size: 12px;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-zw5Zuf9vHzY/YXnSFe_UGCI/AAAAAAABQVY/8f4J81EwBIgeola6HVCgLbZqnrsy2nvgQCLcBGAsYHQ/s1556/612D6699-983F-4D8A-BF96-52B54C35FB85.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1120" data-original-width="1556" height="230" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-zw5Zuf9vHzY/YXnSFe_UGCI/AAAAAAABQVY/8f4J81EwBIgeola6HVCgLbZqnrsy2nvgQCLcBGAsYHQ/s320/612D6699-983F-4D8A-BF96-52B54C35FB85.jpeg" width="320" /></a></div><br />Did you know that there is a whole litany dedicated to invoking the presence of the Holy Spirit in <span style="font-family: "Gill Sans"; font-size: 12px; font-style: italic;">The Book of Alternative Services</span><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans"; font-size: 12px;">?</span><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans"; font-size: 12px;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans"; font-size: 12px;">It’s on page 123.</span><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans"; font-size: 12px;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans"; font-size: 12px;">As I look at it again, I wonder why, if I take being charismatic seriously, I wouldn’t be praying this daily — perhaps even hourly!</span><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans"; font-size: 12px;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans"; font-size: 12px;">It would be as easy as 1-2-3, wouldn’t it?</span><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans"; font-size: 12px;"> </span><p></p>
<p style="font-family: "Gill Sans"; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">“Come, Holy Spirit,” it says. Repeatedly. Ten times! Amen to that. </p>
<p style="font-family: "Gill Sans"; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 13.8px;"><br /></p>
<p style="font-family: "Gill Sans"; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">In each petition, it describes one of the Holy Spirit’s activities or properties: creator (Gen 1:2), counsellor or helper (John 14:16, 26, 15:26, 16:7), power from on high (Luke 1:35, 24:49, Acts 1:8), breath of God (Job 33:4, John 20:22), wisdom and truth (Eph 1:17, John 14:17, 26, 15:26, 16:7, 13). Come, Holy Spirit, with all those attributes, indeed!</p>
<p style="font-family: "Gill Sans"; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 13.8px;"><br /></p>
<p style="font-family: "Gill Sans"; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Here are the five petitions associated with these:</p>
<ol>
<li style="font-family: "Gill Sans"; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Renew the face of the earth</li>
</ol>
<p style="font-family: "Gill Sans"; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">When I pray this, I think of revival and all the great awakenings the Lord has wrought through the ages — of hearts strangely warmed, repentance, lives lived in Scriptural holiness, justice in the marketplace and full churches. Thoroughly prayer-worthy. </p>
<ol start="2">
<li style="font-family: "Gill Sans"; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Touch our lips that we may proclaim your word</li>
</ol>
<p style="font-family: "Gill Sans"; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Most of us Anglicans need to be a little touched in this way — considerably more than we are, actually. I know, I know; St. Francis said share the gospel always and in every way and, if necessary, use words. Words, I suspect, are necessary more often than we would like (Rom 10:14). Try this prayer and, as the Holy Spirit touches your lips, write down and memorize a simple statement of why Jesus and your church are important to you. It doesn’t have to be theological or literary. Just something honest and in your own words, using the word “Jesus” at least once, describing how you have been blessed and the hope you enjoy because of his presence in your life. Then pray and watch for opportunities to share it (1Pet 3:15) with the people in your life who have not yet tasted and seen how good the Lord is. </p>
<ol start="3">
<li style="font-family: "Gill Sans"; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Make us agents of peace and ministers of wholeness</li>
</ol>
<p style="font-family: "Gill Sans"; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Being Spirit-filled certainly helps with this (Gal 5:22-23). Agents of peace and ministers of wholeness are agents of reconciliation (2Cor 5:18-20). By the way they behave, they encourage and help people to be reconciled with God and with one another.</p>
<ol start="4">
<li style="font-family: "Gill Sans"; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Give life to the dry bones of this exiled age, and make us a living people, holy and free</li>
</ol>
<p style="font-family: "Gill Sans"; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">The truth is, “this fragile earth, our island home” (Eucharistic Prayer 4, <span style="font-style: italic;">BAS, </span>p201) is a temporary one. We are away from the Lord (2Cor 5:6-10), exiled for now and so our bones dry out and we die. But resurrection is coming — a home-coming (John 14:1-6, Heb 11:14-16) and a new city (Heb 11:10). There is Holy “sauce” for these dry bones of ours that enlivens us, sanctifies us and sets us free from sin and death. Only Jesus has the recipe. </p>
<ol start="5">
<li style="font-family: "Gill Sans"; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Strengthen us in the risk of faith</li>
</ol>
<p style="font-family: "Gill Sans"; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">John Wimber, founder of the Vineyard movement, said faith is spelled R-I-S-K. To R-I-S-K is the only way to experience any assurance of things hoped for and to be convinced of things I haven’t yet seen with my own eyes. Goethe, the 18th century German writer, once wrote: “The dangers of life are many and safety is one of them.” This prayer will help us to avoid playing it safe. Aslan, wrote CS Lewis, is good, but he is not safe. Neither should we be. Ours is to step out in faith and let the Holy Spirited winds of God blow through our hair.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Gill Sans"; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 13.8px;"><br /></p>
<p style="background-color: #fefffe; font-family: "Gill Sans"; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">In his book, <span style="font-style: italic;">Seeking Spirituality: Guidelines for Christian Spirituality for the Twenty-First Century (</span>Hodder & Stoughton: 1998<span style="font-style: italic;">), </span>Fr Ronald Rolheiser wrote about how Paul, after he had been knocked over and heard the voice of Jesus on the road to Damascus, “got up off the ground and walked into his ecclesial future ‘with his eyes open, seeing nothing’ (Acts 9:8) — which is a marvelous description of all of us on the day when we made our commitments in marriage, parenthood, priesthood, religious life, or any other deep vocation; we stared ahead into the future with our eyes wide open, seeing nothing, and walked, probably with some enthusiasm, into that future.” (pp118-119) May the Lord so strengthen me and you, that we may forgo mere safety and set out on the R-I-S-K-y road with our eyes front, wide open and looking for adventure!</p>
<p style="background-color: #fefffe; font-family: "Gill Sans"; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 13.8px;"><br /></p>
<p style="background-color: #fefffe; font-family: "Gill Sans"; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Oh, and one more thing. I’d add the following petition: Come, Holy Spirit, gift giver, may we earnestly desire the manifestation of your Spirit in all your spiritual gifts, especially that we may prophesy. <span style="font-weight: bold;">Come, Holy Spirit, come. </span></p>
<p style="background-color: #fefffe; font-family: "Gill Sans"; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 13.9px;"><span style="font-weight: bold;"></span><br /></p>
<p style="background-color: #fefffe; font-family: "Gill Sans"; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">R-I-S-K. Easy as 1-2-3. Amen and amen!</p>
<p style="background-color: #fefffe; font-family: "Gill Sans"; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 13.8px;"><br /></p>
<p style="font-family: "Gill Sans"; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 18px;"><span style="background-color: #fefffe;">Gene+</span></p><p style="font-family: "Gill Sans"; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 18px;"><span style="background-color: #fefffe;"><i>This was published in </i>Taste and See…, <i>Anglican Renewal Ministries (ARM) Canada’s quarterly magazine three years ago. Visit </i></span><a href="https://www.armcanada.org/">https://www.armcanada.org/</a> <i>to subscribe and for more info. </i></p><div><span style="background-color: #fefffe;"><br /></span></div>Gene Packwoodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10483295706056528789noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6530856473055256123.post-4908856073450365512021-07-18T17:34:00.000-06:002021-07-18T17:34:02.094-06:00All Buttoned Up—a Short Sermon in Memory of Myrna Jean Tubman<p><span style="font-family: inherit;"> <span style="font-size: 12px;">Jesus is The One in whose Name we lay Myrna to rest and worship the God and Father who created he——after all, not only was he Myrna’s hope, Lord and Saviour——Jesus is also The One who, as we heard in the passage from John’s gospel Pastor John read to us, rose from the dead and went on ahead to prepare a place for Myrna in his Father’s house—and to prepare places for you and me, too, if we want one.</span><span style="font-size: 12px;"> </span></span></p>
<p style="font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Jesus is also the one——predicted and foreshadowed in Carol’s reading from Prophet Isaiah——upon whom rested, perfectly and in full power, the Spirit of the Lord God——by which he was anointed to preach good tidings, to bind up the brokenhearted, proclaim liberty to the captives. That Jesus. </span></p>
<p style="font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 12px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">And The One, as we prayed together in Psalm 121, from where our help comes, who watches over us, preserves us from evil and keeps a watchful eye on our going out and coming in from this time forth for evermore. </span></p>
<p style="font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 12px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">We can all use some of that Jesus, I think you will agree, at times like this. </span></p>
<p style="font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 12px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">And because of that Jesus, even as we grieve Myrna’s death, we need not sorrow as others which have no hope. For if we believe as Myrna did and as Douglas read in 1 Thessalonians chapter 4, that Jesus died and rose again——then, when the Lord himself descends from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God——those who believe will be “caught up together with them (and Myrna!) in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air and so shall we ever be with the Lord” (1Thes4.17) living large in one of those mansions in the Father’s house that Jesus promised. And won’t that be a day!!! Woo-Hoo! Heaven on a Saturday night!! <span style="font-style: italic;">(from Jim Tubman’s tribute). </span></span></p>
<p style="font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 12px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">But what do we do in the meantime? While we’re waiting? When our hearts are troubled. When we have to deal with people we love dying and leaving us behind? </span></p>
<p style="font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 12px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">First, as Jesus said in the gospel, we must believe. Believe in God and believe in me, he said. Okay. I can do that. Jesus, I believe you lived and died on the cross and rose again. Like Thomas in the gospel I have some questions about details and there are some things I’d like to be different and some of the people you’ve put in my life can get up my nose from time to time, but, Yes. I believe. Please prepare and reserve one of those mansions in your Father’s house for me, too. </span></p>
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<p style="font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-style: italic;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">(We took a moment to say Yes——to confirm your reservation.) </span></span></p>
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<p style="font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Strictly speaking, that’s all there is. But the thing is to <span style="font-style: italic;">really</span> believe is to put that belief in action while we’re waiting. How might we do that? Perhaps there’s something we can learn from Myrna. </span></p>
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<p style="font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The impression I got from Myrna and from Slater and their family is that Myrna lived her life and loved God and her family to the full. A BIG life Jim, her son, said in his tribute. To me, her button art is a sign of that. </span></p><p style="font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></p><p style="font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-iz9Ptll_e60/YPS5N-xpenI/AAAAAAABQIQ/-rq_tCNSUOU6NRCIUIzzkPP5oepvGg4OACLcBGAsYHQ/s604/5E9E152B-D035-433D-AAD6-F1E15F68FE81.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="453" data-original-width="604" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-iz9Ptll_e60/YPS5N-xpenI/AAAAAAABQIQ/-rq_tCNSUOU6NRCIUIzzkPP5oepvGg4OACLcBGAsYHQ/s320/5E9E152B-D035-433D-AAD6-F1E15F68FE81.jpeg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-JDeWCg5nBbk/YPS5OjxdTOI/AAAAAAABQIY/FdUX_myzsDM4rjBCybAikjyj-NtvKONnACLcBGAsYHQ/s2048/70F336FB-138B-458D-A6EC-ABD859F69BE1.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1638" data-original-width="2048" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-JDeWCg5nBbk/YPS5OjxdTOI/AAAAAAABQIY/FdUX_myzsDM4rjBCybAikjyj-NtvKONnACLcBGAsYHQ/s320/70F336FB-138B-458D-A6EC-ABD859F69BE1.jpeg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-CSsoU1P3guI/YPS5OHkMVRI/AAAAAAABQIU/t1PYwSBgaaEE4Ans82rzwisXzf73uF2fQCLcBGAsYHQ/s2048/182F97F2-F56F-41AD-97F2-87F80023E32F.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1741" data-original-width="2048" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-CSsoU1P3guI/YPS5OHkMVRI/AAAAAAABQIU/t1PYwSBgaaEE4Ans82rzwisXzf73uF2fQCLcBGAsYHQ/s320/182F97F2-F56F-41AD-97F2-87F80023E32F.jpeg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-XGrW8jOnP9o/YPS5NgtkWwI/AAAAAAABQIM/jkSewu8BIYU0aC7H9RjmMhBfSkrtW1QPQCLcBGAsYHQ/s640/388A459F-68CF-483A-BB1F-D20E9F963DB6.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="480" data-original-width="640" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-XGrW8jOnP9o/YPS5NgtkWwI/AAAAAAABQIM/jkSewu8BIYU0aC7H9RjmMhBfSkrtW1QPQCLcBGAsYHQ/s320/388A459F-68CF-483A-BB1F-D20E9F963DB6.jpeg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-8NQ0xDayyig/YPS5OjfFpgI/AAAAAAABQIc/NntuHoNfx4UFTQNHnVcS2_wEIDvvNSMZACLcBGAsYHQ/s607/E3E77FB5-0D30-47F5-AC7C-7DAB9A1636F6.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="396" data-original-width="607" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-8NQ0xDayyig/YPS5OjfFpgI/AAAAAAABQIc/NntuHoNfx4UFTQNHnVcS2_wEIDvvNSMZACLcBGAsYHQ/s320/E3E77FB5-0D30-47F5-AC7C-7DAB9A1636F6.jpeg" width="320" /></a></div><p></p><p style="font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></p><p style="font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">They’re made with ordinary down-to-earth buttons just like the ones on our pants and tops and coats yet they’re beautiful and whimsical and fun and, I believe, an outward and visible sign of a rich inner life blessed by the presence and love of Jesus. I wonder what would happen if the way we live our lives and relationships were more like Myrna’s button art——winsome and gentle and brightly coloured and down-to-earth and a little quirky——and I wonder if then perhaps the Spirit of the LORD would be upon us ordinary, down-to-earthy folk more often, too——bringing good tidings, binding up the brokenhearted, proclaiming liberty to the captives, freedom to them that are bound, and we’d be ready, buttons all done up, for the Lord’s descent from heaven and to be caught up into the clouds to meet him in the air and to take up residence in one of those Mansions Jesus promised. </span></p>
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<p style="font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">And what a great way it would be to honour and remember our dear sister, Myrna Jean Tubman, and The One who loves and redeemed her so well. Jesus.</span></p><p style="font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></p><div><br /></div>Gene Packwoodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10483295706056528789noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6530856473055256123.post-64044536873205223392021-04-30T13:56:00.020-06:002022-04-13T14:58:31.156-06:00Wind and Fire: Encounters With The Holy Spirit<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-0xJKnr19cnY/YJvv-TA410I/AAAAAAABP_g/4vqGsEYX-Aku6hvOhNbJbiWNZc7kBcWKwCLcBGAsYHQ/s1666/E37110F6-9D44-4194-9037-E9FF6F051B21.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1022" data-original-width="1666" height="245" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-0xJKnr19cnY/YJvv-TA410I/AAAAAAABP_g/4vqGsEYX-Aku6hvOhNbJbiWNZc7kBcWKwCLcBGAsYHQ/w400-h245/E37110F6-9D44-4194-9037-E9FF6F051B21.jpeg" width="400" /></a></div><p>Jesus breathed on his disciples saying receive the Holy Spirit (John20.22)—Wind—and is the one, Matthew tells us, who baptizes with the Holy Spirit and with Fire (Mt3.11). To each is given the manifestation of the Holy Spirit for the common good (1Cor12.7), The Father empowering and apportioning as he wills (1Cor12.110—sometimes gently, almost imperceptibly—sometimes dramatically. At Anglican Renewal Ministries (ARM) Canada, as Eastertide flows on to Pentecost, we thought it would be helpful to collect share some Baptism in The Holy Spirit stories as an encouragement and show the range of the Holy Spirit’s workings. </p><p>The series so far—latest at the top: </p><h3>Pastor Kevin Johnson</h3><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/YrHIEQs6mso" width="320" youtube-src-id="YrHIEQs6mso"></iframe></div><br /><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/ZH-VguAgvbk" width="320" youtube-src-id="ZH-VguAgvbk"></iframe></div><h3><br /></h3><h3>Rodrick Gilbert</h3><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/77Y9tFJ8oOg" width="320" youtube-src-id="77Y9tFJ8oOg"></iframe></div><h3><br /></h3><h3>The Rev Mike Flynn</h3><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/ssWYA3oWOww" width="320" youtube-src-id="ssWYA3oWOww"></iframe></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/keFu4ULehSU" width="320" youtube-src-id="keFu4ULehSU"></iframe></div><h3><br /></h3><h3>Janice Renee Ng</h3><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/u622rn1MF6w" width="320" youtube-src-id="u622rn1MF6w"></iframe></div><br /><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/RhzhzHM9vNQ" width="320" youtube-src-id="RhzhzHM9vNQ"></iframe></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><h3>Archbishop Greg Kerr-Wilson</h3><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/VKUYOJwBW-A" width="320" youtube-src-id="VKUYOJwBW-A"></iframe></div><h3>Janice Renee Ng</h3><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/TyTQTqyeyi0" width="320" youtube-src-id="TyTQTqyeyi0"></iframe></div><div><br /></div><h3>John Roddam</h3><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/uewQ3_WLs0A" width="320" youtube-src-id="uewQ3_WLs0A"></iframe></div><br /><div><br /></div><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17.4px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-size: 17.41px;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span class="s1" style="font-size: 17.41px;"><a href="https://youtu.be/AcmwBlKBRkI"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/AcmwBlKBRkI" width="320" youtube-src-id="AcmwBlKBRkI"></iframe></a></span></div><p></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17.4px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><br /></p><h3 style="text-align: left;">Holly Roddam</h3><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/f6K5yI9oD5o" width="320" youtube-src-id="f6K5yI9oD5o"></iframe></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><h3 style="text-align: left;">Daniel Joseph—Part 3</h3><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/fvMWYP-y5wo" width="320" youtube-src-id="fvMWYP-y5wo"></iframe></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><h3>Daniel Joseph—Part 2</h3></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/0tpmwqdkB_A" width="320" youtube-src-id="0tpmwqdkB_A"></iframe></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><h3>Daniel Joseph—Part 1</h3></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/eV-sDhlgq3A" width="320" youtube-src-id="eV-sDhlgq3A"></iframe></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><h3>Alison Stortz</h3></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Y1radolRVPg" width="320" youtube-src-id="Y1radolRVPg"></iframe></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><h3>The Rev Geoffrey Dixon</h3></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/dy9898quqaQ" width="320" youtube-src-id="dy9898quqaQ"></iframe></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><h3>Dianne Trinder</h3></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/PsWvHm99D3A" width="320" youtube-src-id="PsWvHm99D3A"></iframe></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><h3>Series Introduction—The Rev Gene Packwood—Chairman, ARM Canada</h3></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/rWe7GD1f1ZE" width="320" youtube-src-id="rWe7GD1f1ZE"></iframe></div><br />Gene Packwoodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10483295706056528789noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6530856473055256123.post-76361470068299892052021-04-11T13:22:00.001-06:002021-04-11T13:22:17.537-06:00Jesus Has Changed Everything—a Sermon Preached by Judy Packwood on the Sunday After Easter 2019 in St James Anglican Cathedral, Peace River, Alberta<p><span style="font-family: inherit;"><i></i></span></p><blockquote><span style="font-family: inherit;"><i><span class="s1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;">When it was evening on that day, the first day of the week, and the doors of the house where the disciples had met were locked for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you.” After he said this, he showed them his hands and his side. Then the disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord. Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you.” When he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.”</span></i></span></blockquote><blockquote><span style="font-family: inherit;"><i><span class="s1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;">But Thomas (who was called the Twin), one of the twelve, was not with them when Jesus came. So the other disciples told him, </span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><i><span class="s2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-weight: bold;">“We have seen the Lord.”</span><span class="s1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"> But he said to them, “</span><span class="s2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-weight: bold;">Unless I see the mark of the nails in his hands, and put my finger in the mark of the nails and my hand in his side, I will not believe</span><span class="s1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;">.”</span></i></span><span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span></i></span></blockquote><blockquote><span style="font-family: inherit;"><i><span style="font-family: inherit;"><i><span class="s1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;">A week later his disciples were again in the house, and Thomas was with them. Although the doors were shut, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you.” Then he said to Thomas, </span><span class="s2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-weight: bold;">“Put your finger here and see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it in my side. Do not doubt but believe.”</span><span class="s1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;">Thomas answered him, </span><span class="s2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-weight: bold;">“My Lord and my God!”</span><span class="s1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"> Jesus said to him, “Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe.”</span></i></span><span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span></i></span></blockquote><blockquote><span style="font-family: inherit;"><i><span style="font-family: inherit;"><i><span class="s1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;">Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not written in this book. But these are written so that you may come to believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that through believing you may have life in his name. (</span></i></span><i style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: inherit;">JOHN 20:19-31)</i></i></span></blockquote><p></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Through the written word, and the spoken word,</span></span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit;">may we know your Living Word Jesus Christ our Savour. Amen</span></span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 20.8px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span class="s1"></span><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s2" style="font-weight: bold;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Jesus has changed everything. </span></span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Jesus changes everything. Jesus will change everything. The events of two thousand years ago have changed everything, including you and me. <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>Maybe God loves us?</span></span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 20.8px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span class="s1"></span><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span class="s1">Christians everywhere, followers of this Jesus who has changed everything, have spent weeks, or was it years? It seems like was a very long time - <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>plodding through Lent, daily being reminded of how sinful we are, how we make rotten choices and how easily we are diverted to thoughts, words and deeds that grieve our heavenly Father. After the necessary <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>and helpful somber pilgrimage through Lent, we arrived at Good Friday, where it all got worse, The unthinkable, in human terms, happened.</span><span class="s2" style="font-weight: bold;"> </span><span class="s1">Jesus,</span><span class="s2" style="font-weight: bold;"> </span><span class="s1">the Son of God, the Christ, was crucified, killed. <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span><span class="s2" style="font-weight: bold;">Good </span><span class="s1">Friday? How can that be? And yet - it is. <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>Because Jesus died. Because he was killed. </span></span><span style="font-family: inherit;">And in his dying, changed everything.</span><span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span><span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 20.8px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span class="s1"></span><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Three days later, on Easter Day, all that misery was replaced with the <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>celebration of the awesome power of our loving God. Jesus is no longer dead, he is risen, he is alive, God lifted him from death to life. He is no longer in the tomb, without breath, without light, without life. Death, the enemy, the devil, Satan, has been defeated, Is defeated. <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>And things changed for him too. <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>The only power he has now is the power we give him when we succumb to his charms, his deceits, his temptations. </span></span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 20.8px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span class="s1"></span><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Jesus changed everything for the disciples. </span></span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Isn’t <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>this a wonderful story in today’s Gospel reading! <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>Thomas is the one disciple I would really like to meet. He was missing when Jesus first appeared to the other disciples, and so had to hear about the miracle from his companions. </span></span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit;">I wonder what the other disciples said to Thomas beyond the words recorded in this chapter of John. <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>Did they make themselves out to be super special because they had seen the Lord and Thomas hadn't? I like to think they commiserated with Thomas because he wasn’t there to see Jesus with them. </span></span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 20.8px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span class="s2" style="font-weight: bold;"></span><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span class="s1">They told him </span><span class="s2" style="font-weight: bold;">we have seen the Lord</span><span class="s1">. </span></span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit;">What? Really? I don’t believe it. I need proof. I need to see the holes made by the nails, and not just see them, but put my fingers in the holes, touch them. I will not believe unless that happens.</span></span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span class="s1">What would be </span><span class="s2" style="font-weight: bold;">our </span><span class="s1">reaction if someone came into this place and said “I have seen the Lord’? <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>Would we think him, or her, to be crazy, an attention-seeking delusionist? An interrupter of all that is Anglican, all that is decent and in order? Or would we praise our God for his kindness and goodness and for the great gift he has given the person who says he has seen the Lord. What an amazing thing to experience. Would we be jealous? Would we believe?</span></span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 20.8px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span class="s1"></span><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span class="s1">Thomas was not there with his fellow disciples when Jesus <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>came into that room. Jesus knew he wouldn’t be, and still chose that time to appear to the disciples. And when he comes to them again, a week later, when Thomas </span><span class="s2" style="font-weight: bold;">is</span><span class="s1">present, Jesus does not give Thomas a hard time for not believing that the other disciples had seen the resurrected Jesus. He does not put Thomas down for his doubts. He meets Thomas right where he is and builds on that. Can we do any less for the people, especially the unbelievers that the Lord puts in our lives? </span></span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 20.8px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span class="s1"></span><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit;">And it seems to me that it is natural to have doubts sometimes. I do - there are seasons in my life when I question just about everything. The key to this, for me, is not to live in those doubts. <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>I know I can share my questions, my doubts, with the Lord, in prayer, and trust that He will help me deal with them, however that looks and in his time. Our God, who changed everything by allowing his Son to die so that we can be saved from sin and death, can probably manage to help me with my doubts. </span></span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 20.8px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span class="s2" style="font-weight: bold;"></span><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s3" style="font-style: italic;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Julian of Norwich</span></span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit;">And so our good Lord answered to all the questions and doubts which I could raise, saying most comfortingly; I may make all things well, and I can make all things well, and I shall make all things well, and I will make all things well; and you will see yourself that every kind of thing will be well . . <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>And in these words God wishes us to be enclosed in rest and peace.</span></span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 20.8px;"><span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span></span></span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Why didn’t Jesus wait until all the disciples were there before showing himself to them? Perhaps it was because Jesus knew that 2000 years later, each one of us would need to hear this story - the doubt, the need for proof, Thomas’s declaration “My Lord and my God,” and Jesus’ words to Thomas. “ Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe.” </span></span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit;">We have not had the privilege of seeing, in person, the resurrected Jesus. <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>We are still a blessed people if we believe. Jesus says so. </span></span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 20.8px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span class="s2" style="font-weight: bold;"></span><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s2" style="font-weight: bold;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Jesus also changes things in our ordinary everyday lives. </span></span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 20.8px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span class="s1"></span><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s3" style="font-style: italic;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">James Ryle said</span></span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Healthy things grow</span></span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Growing things change</span></span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Change challenges us</span></span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Challenge forces us to trust God</span></span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Trust leads to obedience</span></span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Obedience makes us healthy</span></span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Healthy things grow . . .<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span></span></span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 20.8px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span class="s1"></span><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Gene and I do our best, mostly, to follow Jesus. Or rather, to let him lead. <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>That is harder for me than following. And because of this following thing, we also do our best to listen to God in the power of his Holy Spirit. We have recently experienced a change, a somewhat cataclysmic change — story of move to Regina. <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>Word came to us as we drove home in June. Good things - house sold in a very down market, free storage space, found a great cottage in Regina. Not so good things - Dealing, through the grace of God, with less than helpful remarks such as ‘gee, I wouldn’t live in Regina if it were the last place on earth’. Just smile and wave, boys! <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>Anyway, lots and lots of God-given change which has challenged us and delighted us and sometimes has caused us to grieve. And because Jesus is involved, our lives have changed, we continue to be challenged. And we also continue to work on trusting and obeying, mostly, <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>and our spiritual health improves. </span></span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Jesus changes us - if we will only let him.</span></span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 20.8px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span class="s3" style="font-style: italic;"></span><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Today, as on every Sunday when God’s people gather to worship him and celebrate the Eucharist, we have the opportunity to acknowledge the magnificent event of Easter, the Resurrection of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. </span></span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 20.8px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span class="s1"></span><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit;">And as always when we encounter our Lord Jesus with open hearts and minds and hands, we will be changed. As we remember what God in his love and mercy has done for us and as we come to the altar this morning to receive Jesus Christ’s body and blood, to be changed, we, with Thomas, can proclaim “My Lord and my God”.</span></span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Amen. Alleluia</span></span></p>Gene Packwoodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10483295706056528789noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6530856473055256123.post-23812262056465521092021-01-20T11:40:00.001-07:002021-01-20T11:45:13.020-07:00Of Preaching at A Score of Weddings and Three Score and Ten Funerals <p><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans"; font-size: 24px;">Recently this blog turned fifteen. It has been far from viral but I’ve enjoyed writing it and it has been interesting to watch and wonder at the number of visits over the years. Sometimes they are thinly and evenly spread from around the world as things putter along. And then there has been the occasional burst of interest from Russia, of all places, to the tune of hundreds of views for a few days. Perhaps our brief (and most enjoyable) visit to St Petersburg in 2015 excited the fevered imagination of some algorithm or other, or one of their hack-factories is assessing my Anglican scribblings as a potential vehicle for cyber mischief. But I digress.</span><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans"; font-size: 24px;"> </span></p><p></p>
<p style="font-family: "Gill Sans"; font-size: 24px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 27.6px;"><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-HynwD6gLc4Y/YAhrAUw1eCI/AAAAAAABO30/Wz8wrUH_uQ87CNtCjnoEOlxFZwLcYDjngCLcBGAsYHQ/s2048/C42A203E-4E42-4580-A70D-EAF661F4D936.jpeg" style="font-family: -webkit-standard; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1328" data-original-width="2048" height="260" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-HynwD6gLc4Y/YAhrAUw1eCI/AAAAAAABO30/Wz8wrUH_uQ87CNtCjnoEOlxFZwLcYDjngCLcBGAsYHQ/w400-h260/C42A203E-4E42-4580-A70D-EAF661F4D936.jpeg" width="400" /></a></div><p style="font-family: "Gill Sans"; font-size: 24px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 27.6px;"></p><p style="font-family: "Gill Sans"; font-size: 24px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 27.6px;"><br /></p>
<p style="font-family: "Gill Sans"; font-size: 24px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">The most traffic has been not so much to do with the potential for espionage as it has been funeral and wedding sermons related—of which there are around 70 and 20 or so posted on <i>GENEralities</i> respectively. I don’t know whether anyone has gleaned any useful ideas from them or found them helpful, but they get the most clicks. The two most visited are a funeral sermon delivered on Holy Saturday in 2012—22, 600 visits—and a sermon for a wedding in July of the same year—21, 100 visits. You can read them <a href="https://kiwirev.blogspot.com/2012/04/short-funeral-sermonwith-reference-to.html" target="_blank">here</a> and <a href="http://kiwirev.blogspot.com/2012/07/short-wedding-sermon-on-love-and.html" target="_blank">here</a>. </p><p style="font-family: "Gill Sans"; font-size: 24px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><br /></p><p style="font-family: "Gill Sans"; font-size: 24px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Why these two in particular? I have no idea. </p>
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<p style="font-family: "Gill Sans"; font-size: 24px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">To let you in on a little secret, the thing about my funeral and wedding sermons, especially the funeral ones, is that they’re pretty much all the same. Perhaps people have noticed and are too polite to say anything. If ever I was asked to suggest readings for a funeral, as happened frequently, I always suggested Ecclesiastes 3 (There’s a Time for Everything) and John 14 (In My Father’s House Are Many Rooms). Then I would try to weave the story of the person who had died and the people who were remembering him or her into the Biblical story and draw their attention to Jesus and what he can do for them. So my funeral sermons were variations on that same theme. Over and over again. </p>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-hR7UJf9eqlI/YAhuEzLCj7I/AAAAAAABO4A/X30MCDNjOnYqNNIO-gKLpURJb6ZyILy5QCLcBGAsYHQ/s2048/898CB85C-C0CE-4E69-BB33-9B18A724C63E.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1536" data-original-width="2048" height="300" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-hR7UJf9eqlI/YAhuEzLCj7I/AAAAAAABO4A/X30MCDNjOnYqNNIO-gKLpURJb6ZyILy5QCLcBGAsYHQ/w400-h300/898CB85C-C0CE-4E69-BB33-9B18A724C63E.png" width="400" /></a></div><br /><p style="font-family: "Gill Sans"; font-size: 24px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 27.6px;"><br /></p>
<p style="font-family: "Gill Sans"; font-size: 24px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Weddings tended be variations on the 1 Corinthians 13—The Love Chapter—theme. Which is not about weddings as much as it is about how to do the charismatic gifts and church. But it can be spun into loving one another and a discussion about the difference between the love the couple have <span style="font-style: italic;">fallen</span> into and the <span style="font-style: italic;">agapé-</span>1-Corinthians-13-Jesus-kind-of-love they will have to <span style="font-style: italic;">rise</span> into if their marriage is to grow and last. </p>
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<p style="font-family: "Gill Sans"; font-size: 24px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">The truth is that most of the people who are there are not really thinking about Jesus or the things of God. They’re grieving and thinking about the loved one or friend who has died or they’re wishing the nuptial couple well and looking forward to the fun of the reception party to follow. But still, such occasions are good opportunities to address real life and death—from “until death do us part” to when it has. </p>
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<p style="font-family: "Gill Sans"; font-size: 24px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">And the most important, the best, the abundant life giving thing that everyone needs to hear and be reminded of is that a marriage, even a really good one, without Jesus will end eventually. So will a life without him. Lives and marriages <span style="font-style: italic;">with</span> Jesus as an active participant, on the other hand, never end. They just go from glory to glory for ever and ever. </p><p style="font-family: "Gill Sans"; font-size: 24px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><br /></p><p style="font-family: "Gill Sans"; font-size: 24px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Amen. Alleluia!</p><p style="font-family: "Gill Sans"; font-size: 24px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><br /></p>Gene Packwoodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10483295706056528789noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6530856473055256123.post-79415092399748156712020-09-01T15:53:00.005-06:002020-09-01T15:58:15.204-06:00YOU ARE WHO YOU ARE—The LORD‼️ Not Really An Homily for the Twelfth/Thirteenth Sunday after Trinity/Pentecost—with reference to Ex 3:1-15; Ps 105:1-6, 23-26, 45c; Rom 12:9-21; Mt 16:21-28<p style="font-style: italic;"> </p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="font-style: italic; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-U5mfSbkHHEE/X06__N72l5I/AAAAAAABN7I/6jlg2it3SLQaW08bigGJfWNV4QkdYFlcgCLcBGAsYHQ/s1093/4A0EB972-9D3C-4263-B225-3BF951830275.jpeg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="768" data-original-width="1093" height="360" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-U5mfSbkHHEE/X06__N72l5I/AAAAAAABN7I/6jlg2it3SLQaW08bigGJfWNV4QkdYFlcgCLcBGAsYHQ/w512-h360/4A0EB972-9D3C-4263-B225-3BF951830275.jpeg" width="512" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /></td></tr></tbody></table><p style="font-style: italic;"></p><p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Which, when all is said and done, is all that needs to be said. Forever and ever. Amen. This is the God whose face cannot be seen and whose real name cannot even be spoken IS WHO HE IS and who does what he does, with absolute, unimaginable authority whether it made sense to Moses, or Peter, or makes sense to you or me, whether we agree or approve or think it’s fair, or not. </span></p><p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></p><p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">I thrashed around a bit but this is what I think it all boils down to. Just as well I didn’t have to preach. </span></p><p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></p><p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Here’s a good one that did get preached! The Mad Padre strikes again—<a href="http://madpadre.blogspot.com/2020/08/from-rock-to-block-sermon-for-30-august.html" target="_blank">Rock to Block</a>!</span></p><p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></p><p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Love in Jesus,</span></p><p style="font-stretch: normal; font-style: italic; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">gene+</p><p style="font-stretch: normal; font-style: italic; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><br /></p><div style="font-style: italic;"><br /></div>Gene Packwoodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10483295706056528789noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6530856473055256123.post-29980015464251412262020-08-23T17:38:00.000-06:002020-08-23T17:38:02.639-06:00Thirteen Principles of Living Stonemasonry— What Could Be the Beginnings of An Homily for the Eleventh/Twelvth Sunday after Trinity/Pentecost—if I had to deliver one—with reference to Is 51:1-6; Ps 138; Rom 12:1-8; Mt 16:13-20<p></p>
<p style="font-family: "gill sans"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-SL7wCZFWDxs/X0L9xmw34rI/AAAAAAABN08/-I2QKtF6SwscUctYW_DPQPq1Z2hTTT2_ACLcBGAsYHQ/s1280/4053DD67-F3A2-487F-845C-548AC94D4FA3.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1280" data-original-width="960" height="640" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-SL7wCZFWDxs/X0L9xmw34rI/AAAAAAABN08/-I2QKtF6SwscUctYW_DPQPq1Z2hTTT2_ACLcBGAsYHQ/s640/4053DD67-F3A2-487F-845C-548AC94D4FA3.jpeg" /></a></div><span style="font-size: xx-large;"><br /></span><p></p><p style="font-family: "gill sans"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: xx-large;">Jesus, </span></p><p style="font-family: "gill sans"; font-size: 21px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">you are the Christ, the Son of the Living God, just as Peter says. We believe it and declare it in The Name of The Father and The Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen. </p><p style="font-family: "gill sans"; font-size: 21px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><br /></p><p style="font-family: "gill sans"; font-size: 21px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Jesus said Peter was the rock upon which he would build his church (Mt16.18). When I read that Peter’s Living Stones came to mind—not a reading for today, but pertinent because as we come to Jesus, </p><blockquote><p style="font-family: "gill sans"; font-size: 21px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">you yourselves like living stones are being built up as a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ (1Pet2.5)</p></blockquote>
<p style="font-family: "gill sans"; font-size: 21px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 14px;">…which also resonates with St Paul’s appeal in the first verse of today’s Romans 12 reading: </p><blockquote><p style="font-family: "gill sans"; font-size: 21px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 14px;">I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. (v2)</p></blockquote>
<p style="font-family: "gill sans"; font-size: 21px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 14px;">So we must also have supporting roles and parts to play along with Peter in Jesus’ great Church building project as we like living stones are being built into that spiritual house (1Peter2:5). But in order to be such living stones, just as Isaiah wrote in today’s reading, we need to be continually looking to The Rock from which we were hewn (Is15.1)—our Spiritual Rock which is Jesus (1Cor10.4). Which means being very clear about who Jesus is and why he is so important in the scheme of things. It’s what Jesus was getting at with his question to the disciples in our gospel. “Who do you say that I am?” (Mt16.15) Here are thirteen principles of Living Stonemasonry:</p>
<ol>
<li style="font-family: "gill sans"; font-size: 21px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 14px;">Living stones being built into a spiritual house must go beyond mere flesh and blood to learn The Truth of what The Father in heaven has revealed about exactly who Jesus is so we can worship him well and share that Truth with others. </li>
<li style="font-family: "gill sans"; font-size: 21px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 14px;">Living stones being built into a spiritual house say in word and deed, Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the Living God. We say it and show it in how we treat one another and especially how we treat people with whom we disagree and people we believe are wrong. </li>
<li style="font-family: "gill sans"; font-size: 21px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 14px;">Living stones being built into a spiritual house present our bodies as living sacrifices, wrote Paul in our Romans reading, holy and acceptable to God which is our spiritual worship (Ro12.1). The trouble with living sacrifices, of course, said Dwight Moody, is that they keep trying to crawl off the altar. Living Stones <span style="font-style: italic;">stay </span>on the altar! How? By not allowing ourselves to be conformed to this world with all its skewed and Godless values.</li>
<li style="font-family: "gill sans"; font-size: 21px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 14px;">Living Stones are built into a spiritual house through the transformation that comes when our minds are renewed (Ro12.2) by The Holy Spirit through regular and frequent reading and meditating on Scripture, praying and worshipping. </li>
<li style="font-family: "gill sans"; font-size: 21px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 14px;">Living Stones are built into a spiritual house through consistent and attentive testing and discerning what is the will of God and what is good and acceptable and perfect (Ro12.2). </li>
<li style="font-family: "gill sans"; font-size: 21px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 14px;">Living Stones being built into a spiritual house do not think more highly of themselves than we ought, but with the sober judgement that comes according to the measure of faith God has assigned us (Ro12.3). </li>
<li style="font-family: "gill sans"; font-size: 21px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 14px;">Just as one body has many members (Ro12.4), spiritual houses are made out of many stones so Living Stones being built into such houses have to live and grow with, support and be supported by other Living Stones—lots of them. Spiritual houses are built by communities. </li>
<li style="font-family: "gill sans"; font-size: 21px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 14px;">Living Stones are built into a spiritual house by discerning our many different functions and giftings in the One Body (Ro12.4-6) which is the Church. </li>
<li style="font-family: "gill sans"; font-size: 21px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 14px;">Living Stones are built into a spiritual house as we identify and exercise the God-given Gifts of the Spirit St Paul lists in Romans 12: </li>
<ol>
<li style="font-family: "gill sans"; font-size: 21px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 14px;">prophecy, </li>
<li style="font-family: "gill sans"; font-size: 21px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 14px;">service or ministry, </li>
<li style="font-family: "gill sans"; font-size: 21px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 14px;">teaching, </li>
<li style="font-family: "gill sans"; font-size: 21px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 14px;">exhortation or encouragement, </li>
<li style="font-family: "gill sans"; font-size: 21px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 14px;">giving, </li>
<li style="font-family: "gill sans"; font-size: 21px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 14px;">leadership</li>
<li style="font-family: "gill sans"; font-size: 21px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 14px;">Compassion, showing mercy or kindness </li>
</ol>
</ol>
<blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0 0 0 40px; padding: 0px;"><p style="font-family: "gill sans"; font-size: 21px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 14px; text-align: left;">We either know our gift or gifts, or we are actively discerning to what God is calling us. </p></blockquote>
<ol start="10">
<li style="font-family: "gill sans"; font-size: 21px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 14px;">Living Stones are built into a spiritual house as we do all these things in proportion to our faith, serving one another generously, with enthusiasm and cheerfulness (Ro12.6-8). </li>
<li style="font-family: "gill sans"; font-size: 21px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 14px;">Living Stones are built into a spiritual house as The LORD increases our strength of soul and fulfills his purpose for them (Ps138.3&8). </li>
<li style="font-family: "gill sans"; font-size: 21px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 14px;">Living Stones are built into a spiritual house as Jesus continues to build The Church he started with Peter—<span style="font-style: italic;">The </span>Spiritual House.</li>
<li style="font-family: "gill sans"; font-size: 21px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 14px;">Living Stones are built into a spiritual house as they become the promised holy priesthood, offering spiritual and living sacrifices acceptable to God through our Lord and Saviour, (1Pet2.5)</li>
</ol>
<p style="font-family: "gill sans"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: xx-large;">Jesus</span><span style="font-size: 21px;">. </span></p><p style="font-family: "gill sans"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: 21px;"><br /></span></p>Gene Packwoodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10483295706056528789noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6530856473055256123.post-14269161601220074022020-08-16T13:03:00.001-06:002020-08-16T19:26:04.431-06:00Second Best—Lord, help me! What Could Be the Beginnings of An Homily for the Tenth/Eleventh Sunday after Trinity/Pentecost—if I had to deliver one—with reference to Genesis 45.1-15, Romans 15.1-2a, 29-32 and Matthew 15.21-28<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-pGzPF_vQpmk/XzncoiwzvMI/AAAAAAABNv8/hsRVBB6v6XQoHFgsrxbR2ng7KdLQiHV1wCLcBGAsYHQ/s1365/FDFEE5FE-97DB-4BAB-AF24-A549C0D63E1C.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="721" data-original-width="1365" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-pGzPF_vQpmk/XzncoiwzvMI/AAAAAAABNv8/hsRVBB6v6XQoHFgsrxbR2ng7KdLQiHV1wCLcBGAsYHQ/s640/FDFEE5FE-97DB-4BAB-AF24-A549C0D63E1C.jpeg" width="640" /></a></div><p></p><p></p><p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: xx-large;">Jesus, </span></p><p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">help us. Show us how you are offering to help us through your living Word today…in The Name of The Father and The Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen. </span></p><p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 13.8px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></p><p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 14px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">A Canaanite woman, a non-Jewish woman who had no business even approaching any Jewish man let alone Jesus—the disciples even tried to get him to send her away—came and knelt before Jesus, saying, “Lord,help me” (Mt15.25). </span></p><p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 14px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The Second Best Prayer in all the gospels <a href="http://madpadre.blogspot.com/2020/08/daily-devotional-for-wednesday-12-august.html" target="_blank">says my friend the Mad Padre</a> (alias The Rev Dr Michael Peterson—hirsute, bow-tie wearing, model airplane making, war-gaming, erstwhile Padre in Her Majesty’s Royal Canadian Armed Forces)—actually he was talking about the version of that prayer in Matthew 8.5 when the disciples had to wake Jesus to calm a storm through which he had been sleeping. “Save us, Lord,” they said which, after all, is all that we ever really need whatever else we might be asking for. Her wording was a little different but her meaning and her need was the same—demons had stirred up such a storm in her daughter’s head so that she was in real danger of being swamped and sinking into deep demonic oppression. Maybe she’d heard Jesus was good with storms. “Lord, help me,” she prayed. </span></p><p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 14px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The Best Prayer, of course, says the Mad Padre, is The Lord’s Prayer—the one Jesus gave us when the disciples asked him how to pray—but that’s for another Sunday. It’s also a bit long for when things are urgent and the demons are in your face. The Canaanite woman was afraid that the storm in her daughter’s soul was going to destroy her so she expressed herself accordingly with just three words. Lord, help me! </span></p><p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 14px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">So, today let’s see what today’s readings can teach us about how to most effectively wield the <span style="font-style: italic;">second</span> best one!</span></p><p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 14px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">I wonder how often Joseph prayed something like it in the long years of separation from his family and until he realized, as we just heard, that God, in his wisdom and mercy, had sent him on before his brothers through all his trials and adventures to preserve life and be a blessing (Gen45.7)? And Paul must have prayed it frequently not only because his anxiety over his Jewish sisters and brothers in today’s Romans reading but also through all the imprisonments, beatings, lashings, stonings, shipwrecks, danger, sleeplessness, hunger, thirst and pressure (2Cor11.23-28) he had to endure. </span></p><p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 14px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">When the Canaanite woman and the disciples in the boat prayed the Second Best Prayer they received help and were delivered immediately. Joseph and Paul must have been helped in their moments of storm, too, but there was a lot they still had to go through. I’m reminded of that verse about Jesus praying for help in Hebrews:</span></p><p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 14px;"></p><blockquote><span style="font-family: inherit;">In the days of his flesh, Jesus offered up prayers and supplications, with loud cries and tears, to him who was able to save him from death, and he was heard because of his reverence. 8 Although he was a son, he learned obedience through what he suffered. (Hebrews 5:7–8 (ESV)</span></blockquote><p></p><p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 14px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">…loud cries and tears, but Jesus didn’t get what he wanted. Yet it says he was heard. </span></p><p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 14px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">If that can happen to Jesus and Paul when they prayed The Second Best Prayer—where they weren’t helped in the way they wanted—what can we ordinary folk do when we pray The Second Best Prayer and nothing seems to happen. </span></p><p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 14px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">That must be when faith in The Best Prayer—The Lord’s Prayer—has to kick in with how it expresses all the wisdom and purposes of God the Father. </span></p><p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 14px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">But in the meantime it can’t hurt to be like the Canaanite woman who wouldn’t give up—to kneel before Jesus in submission and in our need, just as she did, and to use her words—over and over again if necessary—Lord, help me!</span></p><p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 14px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Help me to trust in your steadfast love, goodness and mercy even when you are silent, it feels like you’ve been sent to someone else and there are not even any crumbs that I can see under your table (Mt15.23-27). </span></p><p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 14px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Lord help US! Help us to follow the faith-filled example of that determined Canaanite woman who knew that the help she needed could only be found in our Lord and Saviour, </span></p><p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: xx-large;">Jesus. </span></p>Gene Packwoodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10483295706056528789noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6530856473055256123.post-89554228503178251392020-08-09T13:52:00.005-06:002020-08-09T14:04:00.989-06:00What Are You Doing Here?—a short Homily for the Ninth/Tenth Sunday after Trinity/Pentecost with reference to 1Kings19, Romans10 and Matthew14<p style="font-family: "gill sans"; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 2px;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="http://madpadre.blogspot.com/2020/08/god-dreamers-sermon-for-tenth-sunday.html" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0px;" target="_blank"><img border="0" data-original-height="1967" data-original-width="1599" height="640" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-RFfPdx6GY_o/XzBR5gLuaoI/AAAAAAABNto/6nsFXzIjBMYLd4AH4v1GJtX5kOmzagOSwCLcBGAsYHQ/w520-h640/30F6A0AA-D078-4CA4-9DB7-B56554EBB397.jpeg" width="520" /></a></div><p></p><p style="font-family: "gill sans"; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 2px;"><span style="font-size: 36px;">Jesus,</span></p><p style="font-family: "gill sans"; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 14px;">it’s good to be able to meet with you here in your Father’s house again. Thank you. And thank you for coming to meet with us so faithfully wherever we were over these last few months. Now please open the Scriptures you’ve set for us today to show us where we are, where you’d like us to be and what you’d like us to do when we get there…in The Name of The Father and The Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen. </p><p style="font-family: "gill sans"; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 14px;">“What are you doing here?” says the Lord to Elijah in the 1 Kings passage. Twice! (1Kg19.9, 13) And twice Elijah responds. </p><p style="font-family: "gill sans"; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 14px;">I have been very zealous for the Lord, the God of hosts; for the Israelites have forsaken your covenant, thrown down your altars, and killed your prophets with the sword. I alone am left, and they are seeking my life, to take it away. (1Kg19.10, 14)</p><p style="font-family: "gill sans"; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 14px;">Elijah was on the run—a frightened man. </p><p style="font-family: "gill sans"; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 14px;">There are frightened men in this morning’s gospel, too—in a boat. The boat Jesus MADE the disciples get into, it says, to go where Jesus wanted them to go (Mt14.22), whereupon they got to spend a whole night being battered by the waves, far from land with the wind against them (Mt14.24). After such a night it’s no wonder they freaked out when, early in the morning, Jesus came walking toward them on the water—like a ghost (Mt14.25-26). </p><p style="font-family: "gill sans"; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 14px;">Then Jesus said those wonderful memorable, calming, reassuring words:</p><blockquote><p style="font-family: "gill sans"; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 14px;">Take heart, it is I; do not be afraid. (Mt14.27)</p></blockquote><p style="font-family: "gill sans"; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 14px;">Words worth taking to heart still. Feeling battered? Jesus says, Take heart!” Too far from shore? Jesus says, “I am here.” Wind against you? Jesus says, “Do not be afraid.”</p><p style="font-family: "gill sans"; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 14px;">Peter immediately takes his words to heart—impetuous, leading-with-his-chin, Peter—despite the weather, the waves, the fear and not being entirely sure it was Jesus—goes for it. “Lord, <span style="font-style: italic;">if it is you, </span>command me to come to you on the water” (Mt14.28). Jesus said, “Come!” And he did (Mt14.29). But when he noticed the strong wind, Peter had second thoughts, became a frightened man and began to sink (Mt14.30). </p><p style="font-family: "gill sans"; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 14px;">So we have two frightened men singled out for our edification this morning—both fearing for their lives. Both having recently witnessed or performed mind boggling miracles. And I wonder, if those two Bible giants could be so badly frightened, how can ordinary people like you and me expect to follow Jesus and do what he calls us to do without trembling in our boots from time to time? And if we’re never fearful or at least a little bit nervous about doing what we think Jesus is calling us to do, is it really him we’re following? </p><p style="font-family: "gill sans"; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 14px;">It will be helpful to have a look at how the Lord helps them overcome their fear. Peter yells, “Lord, save me!” and <span style="font-style: italic;">immediately </span>Jesus reached out his hand and caught him (Mt14.30-31). I wonder how far Peter got to walk with Jesus across the water before they got into the boat and the wind ceased. What a walk that must have been!</p><p style="font-family: "gill sans"; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 14px;">For Elijah, the Lord stages a great mountain splitting, rock breaking wind, earthquake and fire that was instructively devoid of his presence before making his actual presence known in the sound of sheer, serene, peace-bestowing silence which made Jezebel’s threats and Elijah’s fears fade away into nothing. And, like Peter, Elijah “got back into the boat” with The LORD and they got on with things. The Lord had some people for Elijah to anoint and had chosen a successor for him, and Jesus had a church to build on the rock Peter was to become. </p><p style="font-family: "gill sans"; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 14px;">Which brings me back to that original question—what are you doing here, Elijah? Only what if the Lord is asking me! What are <span style="font-style: italic;">you</span> doing here, Gene? What can I say? What would you say if he asked you? What <span style="font-style: italic;">are</span> we doing here? Elijah said he had been zealous for The LORD. </p><p style="font-family: "gill sans"; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 14px;">Zealous—I looked it up—it means <span style="font-size: 17.14px;">fervent</span><span style="font-size: 15.42px;">, </span>passionate, devout, devoted; <span style="font-size: 17.14px;">committed</span><span style="font-size: 15.42px;">, </span>dedicated, enthusiastic, eager, keen, sincere, wholehearted, hearty, earnest, vigorous, energetic, single-minded. What would that look like in Anglicans like us? </p><p style="font-family: "gill sans"; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 14px;">Here are some ideas from this morning’s readings: </p><p style="font-family: "gill sans"; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 14px;">From St Paul: we could determine to confess with our lips that Jesus is Lord fervently and wholeheartedly. And we could decide to believe in our hearts passionately and devoutly that God raised him from the dead (Ro10.9).</p><p style="font-family: "gill sans"; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 14px;">From the gospel: keeping our eyes firmly fixed on Jesus, we could commit to stepping out of our boats like Peter did (Mt14.29) and start walking to where Jesus is calling us. We could vigorously resist the fear that might sink us because Jesus said don’t be afraid (Mt14.27) and because it’s not always, or even mostly, going to be stormy or dramatic when we go where he calls us. Remember The LORD wasn’t in any of the drama in today’s Elijah story. He was in the sound of sheer silence. Just so, most often for people like you and me The LORD is in the quiet, ordinary things. How beautiful will the quiet, obedient tread of ordinary feet like ours be when they bring the good news (Ro10.15) of The One who is truly the Son of God (Mt14.33), our Lord and Saviour, </p><p style="font-family: "gill sans"; font-size: 36px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Jesus. </p><p><i>Listen <a href="https://www.stmarysregina.ca/2020/08/08/what-are-you-doing-here/" target="_blank">here</a>.</i></p><p><i>And there’s another boffo offering from </i><a href="http://madpadre.blogspot.com/2020/08/god-dreamers-sermon-for-tenth-sunday.html" target="_blank">The Mad Padre</a> <i>using the other Old Testament reading for today </i></p><p><i><br /></i></p>Gene Packwoodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10483295706056528789noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6530856473055256123.post-81703520754361799522020-08-02T14:00:00.001-06:002020-08-09T13:55:46.021-06:00Loaves and Fish for Desolate Places—Some Things The LORD Might Be Saying To Us in Gen 32:22-31; Ps 17:1-7, 16; Rom 9:1-5 and Mt 14:13-21 Today<br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-ESpBerwYMnk/XycZuxGtr7I/AAAAAAABNnw/Wg_6wJVoDwwHRXWD660alLb7mkhmTjx6wCLcBGAsYHQ/s1280/5597EF65-8FBB-46FE-8D95-CA08059969A4.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1044" data-original-width="1280" height="418" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-ESpBerwYMnk/XycZuxGtr7I/AAAAAAABNnw/Wg_6wJVoDwwHRXWD660alLb7mkhmTjx6wCLcBGAsYHQ/w512-h418/5597EF65-8FBB-46FE-8D95-CA08059969A4.jpeg" width="512" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><p style="font-family: "gill sans"; font-size: 36px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Jesus,</p>
<p style="font-family: "gill sans"; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">having heard of John the Baptist’s unjust execution, and saddened, no doubt, withdrew to “a desolate place by himself” (Mt14.13). Even Jesus needed to do that every now and then. So when we find ourselves in one, whether voluntarily or involuntarily, it is not foreign territory for him. He knows what desolate places are like and why we might be in them. </p>
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<p style="font-family: "gill sans"; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Jacob experienced some lonely desolation of another kind in our Genesis reading—having to wrestle all night (Gen32.24), resulting in a hip knocked or twisted out of joint (v25), striving with God (v28) and ending up with a limp for the rest of his life (v31). The Psalmist continues on the desolate theme—heart tried, visited by night and tested (Ps17.3). And St Paul speaks truth in Christ and in desolation when he says “I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart” (Ro9.1-2) over his kin who had not yet realized who Jesus was. </p>
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<p style="font-family: "gill sans"; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Desolate places all. </p>
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<p style="font-family: "gill sans"; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Is there any help to be found for those in such desolate places in today’s readings? I appreciate the reminder that our God, according to the Psalmist, is the “Saviour of those who seek refuge” (Ps17.7) for a start. I am also encouraged by St Paul’s ringing declaration that Jesus is “God over all” (Ro9.5) and by Jesus’ compassion, his healing the sick and feeding the hungry in miraculous and wonderful ways in the Gospel (Mt14.14, 20-21). Such statements remind me of who Jesus is and what he can do and I am helped. </p>
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<p style="font-family: "gill sans"; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Desolate places are not always solitary places. They can also be crowded. Too crowded. The disciples wanted Jesus to send the crowds away in today’s Gospel. I wonder if part of the reason for that was that they we reluctant to take responsibility for feeding them. Jesus was no help. “No need,” he said. “You give them something to eat” (Mt14.16). I am uncomfortably aware that Jesus may well be saying something like that to me, too. I’m surrounded by people who are also in desolate places— living prosperous, comfortable lives yet having no hope and living without God in the world (Eph2.12). </p>
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<p style="font-family: "gill sans"; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Like the disciples, I have to confess that I am also tempted to ask Jesus to send them away so I don’t have to be bothered with them, but what if he’s saying to you and me, too, “You give them something to eat.” Gulp. Sigh. What <span style="font-style: italic;">are</span> the loaves and fish I have to offer? What can I give to Jesus for him to look up to heaven and say a blessing over so that I can give them to the hungry folk in this comfortable, prosperous but desolate place where people don’t even know they are hungry?</p>
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<p style="font-family: "gill sans"; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">What ever it is, it has to come from and lead to</p>
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<p style="font-family: "gill sans"; font-size: 36px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Jesus. </p></div>Gene Packwoodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10483295706056528789noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6530856473055256123.post-44059043071108628952020-07-26T12:59:00.000-06:002020-07-26T12:59:06.911-06:00What tKoHiL!—Not Really an Homily for the Seventh/Eighth Sunday after Trinity/Pentecost—with reference to Genesis 29.15-28, Psalm 105.1-5, Romans 8.26-39 and Matthew 13.31-33, 44-52<br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-QxT1iBdCezI/Xx3NW-IIP9I/AAAAAAABNmA/xUMiZfjJNLUVt3KHlj5LQjaGns3eacangCLcBGAsYHQ/s1305/177D8C46-0C73-42F4-852E-903FF012A64D.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="717" data-original-width="1305" height="220" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-QxT1iBdCezI/Xx3NW-IIP9I/AAAAAAABNmA/xUMiZfjJNLUVt3KHlj5LQjaGns3eacangCLcBGAsYHQ/w400-h220/177D8C46-0C73-42F4-852E-903FF012A64D.png" width="400" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><p style="font-family: "Gill Sans"; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Here’s what Jesus said the kingdom of heaven is like (tKoHiL) </p>
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<li style="font-family: "Gill Sans"; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">tKoHiL a grain of mustard seed that a man took and sowed in his field (Mt13.31). </li></ol>
<p style="font-family: "Gill Sans"; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">In other words, it is something that seems small and inconsequential at first but which can grow into something huge which provides a place to roost and shelter to many. </p>
<ol start="2">
<li style="font-family: "Gill Sans"; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">tKoHiL leaven that a woman took and hid in three measures of flour, till it was all leavened (Mt13.33). </li></ol>
<p style="font-family: "Gill Sans"; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">In other words, tKoH has hidden power to energize and make life full and tasty. </p>
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<li style="font-family: "Gill Sans"; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">tKoHiL treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and covered up. Then in his joy he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field (Mt13.44). </li></ol>
<p style="font-family: "Gill Sans"; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">And…</p>
<ol start="4">
<li style="font-family: "Gill Sans"; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">tKoHiL a merchant in search of fine pearls, who, on finding one pearl of great value, went and sold all that he had and bought it (Mt13.45-46). </li></ol>
<p style="font-family: "Gill Sans"; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">In other words, tKoH is joy and something precious which once you have found, you don’t want to lose because it is worth more than all you have. </p>
<ol start="5">
<li style="font-family: "Gill Sans"; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">tKoHiL a net that was thrown into the sea and gathered fish of every kind. When it was full, men drew it ashore and sat down and sorted the good into containers but threw away the bad. So it will be at the end of the age. The angels will come out and separate the evil from the righteous and throw them into the fiery furnace. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth (Mt13.47-50). </li></ol>
<p style="font-family: "Gill Sans"; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">In other words, after the first four rather wholesome and encouraging sounding metaphors, things get more disturbing as Jesus tells us that while tKoH is like a big net that has gathered people of every kind, not everybody is bound for glory. One day there will be a reckoning and a sorting and a fiery furnace for the evil and the bad and it will be very unpleasant. So in other other words, tKoH is not just a big leafy, comfortable, commodious tree smelling of fresh baked bread and festooned with treasure and pearls of great price. Some people get to enter tKoH and some people won’t. tKoH is for keeps—a matter of life or death. </p>
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<p style="font-family: "Gill Sans"; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">It gets worse. Jesus also says </p>
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<p style="font-family: "Gill Sans"; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. (Mt7.21)</p>
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<p style="font-family: "Gill Sans"; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Tax collectors and prostitutes can get in before us (Mt21.31). It is particularly difficult—easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle—than for those who have wealth to get in (Mk10.23), difficult for everybody actually (Mk10.24). </p>
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<p style="font-family: "Gill Sans"; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">So how DO we do the will of the Father in heaven and Is there anything in the other readings about tKoH and how to enter it?</p>
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<p style="font-family: "Gill Sans"; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Anything in the Genesis 29 Laban, Jacob, Leah and Rachel imbroglio that show us what tKoHiL and how to do the will of the Father? Not that I can see. None of the characters show up very well. It’s more about what tKoH is <i>not</i> like and how God gets things done in spite of us. </p>
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<p style="font-family: "Gill Sans"; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Psalm 105 is better. Especially the first five verses. TKoHiL giving thanks to the Lord; calling upon his name; making known his deeds among the peoples! Singing to him, singing praises to him; telling of all his wondrous works! And Glorying in his holy name. That would be doing The Father’s will very well. </p>
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<p style="font-family: "Gill Sans"; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">With regards to our Romans passage, tKoHiL having a helper to help us in our weakness. The Holy Spirit who intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words, who searches our hearts and does it all according to God’s perfect will. And tKoH is also like all things working together for good for those who called according to God’s purpose. And also like God being for us and Jesus, himself interceding for us and like being inseparable from the love of Jesus and being tribulation proof, distress proof, persecution, famine, nakedness, danger and sword proof. St Paul was convinced that tKoHiL </p>
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<p style="font-family: "Gill Sans"; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, …<span style="font-style: italic;">is</span> able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Ro8.38-39)</p>
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<p style="font-family: "Gill Sans"; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">…which pretty much covers all the bases. </p>
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<p style="font-family: "Gill Sans"; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">But most of all, tKoH is just like </p>
<p style="font-family: "Gill Sans"; font-size: 36px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Jesus. </p><p style="font-family: "Gill Sans"; font-size: 36px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><i style="font-size: 18px;"><br /></i></p><p style="font-family: "Gill Sans"; font-size: 36px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><i style="font-size: 18px;">There are also a couple of real sermons worth a look for today <a href="http://madpadre.blogspot.com/2020/07/who-redeems-hebrew-scriptures-sermon.html" target="_blank">here</a> and <a href="https://www.stmarysregina.ca/2020/07/25/sermon-for-trinity-7-july-26-2020/" target="_blank">here</a>. </i></p><p style="font-family: "Gill Sans"; font-size: 36px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><br /></p></div>Gene Packwoodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10483295706056528789noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6530856473055256123.post-40812273234114896202020-07-23T14:20:00.001-06:002020-07-23T14:20:47.976-06:00On the Importance of The Name of Jesus<br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-vQ_-ID_B5sk/Xxnlpsm5PiI/AAAAAAABNls/PbGhP1L2tu8hJfjpsEd-i0ZoTNwa_LrKgCLcBGAsYHQ/s1536/E7B1A7AC-99E5-4080-BA36-1EA38250781E.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1338" data-original-width="1536" height="545" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-vQ_-ID_B5sk/Xxnlpsm5PiI/AAAAAAABNls/PbGhP1L2tu8hJfjpsEd-i0ZoTNwa_LrKgCLcBGAsYHQ/w625-h545/E7B1A7AC-99E5-4080-BA36-1EA38250781E.jpeg" width="625" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">This is my new template for homily/sermon manuscripts. We used to call this sort of thing a do-nut in my CKY-TV Winnipeg commercial production days. A commercial or “spot” would have a pre-produced brand standard beginning and end and we would fill the middle with whatever was the message and the deals of the day. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">An homily should do the same. Declare the brand, tell them what’s good and new, and remind them of the brand. Our brand is…</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">JESUS</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0 0 0 40px; padding: 0px;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">…what he did and taught, his example, how he opens the Scriptures and how they point to and bear witness about him (Lk24.27, John5.39). What the truth in Jesus (John14.17, Eph4.21) is for us this day and thus and so until we end, as we began, with…</div></blockquote><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">JESUS. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Too simple? Will anybody notice? Maybe not. Too careless of the Holy Trinity? Perhaps. Yet I feel that we Anglicans don’t use Jesus’ Name enough in our church and mission speak. Glory to God—Father, Son and Holy Spirit—by all means yet say all we say and do all we do in the Name of Jesus and for his sake. There is power in that Name. This is my way of keeping myself and my writing and speaking on track so I may more clearly, nearly and dearly love, worship, enjoy, follow and obey</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">JESUS. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div>Gene Packwoodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10483295706056528789noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6530856473055256123.post-62709907732677301962020-07-19T13:56:00.002-06:002020-07-19T13:56:52.826-06:00Good Seed, Weediness and Weedy Deeds: Not Really an Homily for the Sixth/Seventh Sunday after Trinity/Pentecost—with reference to Romans 8.12-25 and Matthew 13.24-30, 36-43<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-OQI0f1SI8sg/XxSjpgk2aAI/AAAAAAABNkU/FTS6TkaNe0IFDKgFHYkAT6IsfjK8TRWHgCLcBGAsYHQ/s2048/4DB81EDD-076D-49FF-9EE8-D3132A6686B0.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1536" data-original-width="2048" height="300" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-OQI0f1SI8sg/XxSjpgk2aAI/AAAAAAABNkU/FTS6TkaNe0IFDKgFHYkAT6IsfjK8TRWHgCLcBGAsYHQ/w400-h300/4DB81EDD-076D-49FF-9EE8-D3132A6686B0.jpeg" width="400" /></a></div><p style="font-family: "Gill Sans"; font-size: 36px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><br /></p><p style="font-family: "Gill Sans"; font-size: 36px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Jesus,</p>
<p style="font-family: "Gill Sans"; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">crucified, risen from the dead and present with us by his Spirit is The One I must remember to remember (1Cor2.2, 2Tim2.8) whenever I look for what God might be saying you us through the Bible readings of the day. </p>
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<p style="font-family: "Gill Sans"; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">I’ll begin with some blunt things Jesus says in the Parable of the Wheat and Tares in today’s gospel on the dangers we face and must resist in the world: there are weeds—sons (and, I presume, daughters) of the evil one—along with the devil and other enemies. One day there will also be a burning fire and a fiery furnace to dispose of those weeds with weeping and gnashing of teeth. Sobering words. On the other hand, on a happier note, there is good seed in this world, too—the sons (and, daughters) of the kingdom—and Jesus, the Son of Man, sows it (Mt13.38-42).</p>
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<p style="font-family: "Gill Sans"; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">St Paul gives us some ways to be good daughters and sons of the kingdom by resisting the weeds around us and our own weediness within in his letter to the Romans—chapter 8:</p>
<blockquote><p style="font-family: "Gill Sans"; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. 14 For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. (vv13-14)</p></blockquote>
<p style="font-family: "Gill Sans"; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 20.7px;">If the sinful deeds of the weedy body are ever to be put to death, it must be by the Holy Spirit. That is the only way in which they can be killed off. And killed off they must be just as Jesus says in Matthew 13, </p>
<blockquote><p style="font-family: "Gill Sans"; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">The Son of Man will send his angels, and they will gather out of his kingdom all causes of sin and all law-breakers, and throw them into the fiery furnace. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. (vv41-42)</p></blockquote>
<p style="font-family: "Gill Sans"; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Neither a cause of sin or a law-breaker be says Jesus. Avoid weediness and weedy deeds. In order to put causes of sin and law-breaking in our lives to death, we must continuously ask the Holy Spirit to point them out to us, so we can confess, repent and be forgiven. Inviting and following the Spirit’s leading in this regard will secure our status as divinely adopted daughters and sons of God (Ro8.15) with all the privileges pertaining to that blessing. And, as Paul, assures us, “The Spirit himself” will then bear witness with our spirits, that we are children of God (v16)—in other words, we will know it in our knowers supernaturally as the Spirit leads us (v14). At the same time, the Holy Spirit “helps us in our weakness” and “intercedes for us with groaning too deep for words” (v26) so that as “good seed” that Jesus himself has sown, we can properly germinate, take root and bear much fruit. </p>
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<p style="font-family: "Gill Sans"; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Being such good seed, free of weediness and weedy deeds, will cause us to shine like the sun in the kingdom of our Father for the sake of </p>
<p style="font-family: "Gill Sans"; font-size: 36px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Jesus. </p><p style="font-family: "Gill Sans"; font-size: 36px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><br /></p>Gene Packwoodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10483295706056528789noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6530856473055256123.post-28514002016586516652020-07-12T12:49:00.001-06:002020-07-12T12:49:24.307-06:00Snatch-proof, Wilt-proof and Choke-hazard Free in Jesus—Thoughts on Some Readings for Today<br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-8uYeeFHnPtw/XwtaUveNTSI/AAAAAAABNf8/8GyGyXgaKVMNjGR_hS1QmbV1syR5obNfQCLcBGAsYHQ/s2048/C51FFA0D-DF9B-46B0-909C-D5B1A2A138B2.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1536" height="320" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-8uYeeFHnPtw/XwtaUveNTSI/AAAAAAABNf8/8GyGyXgaKVMNjGR_hS1QmbV1syR5obNfQCLcBGAsYHQ/s320/C51FFA0D-DF9B-46B0-909C-D5B1A2A138B2.jpeg" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><p style="font-family: "Gill Sans"; font-size: 36px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Jesus</p>
<p style="font-family: "Gill Sans"; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">uses the parable of the sower to warn us of three classic reasons why the “seed” God has sown into our hearts does not flourish and bear fruit:</p>
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<li style="font-family: "Gill Sans"; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">It is snatched away by the evil one for lack of understanding </li>
<li style="font-family: "Gill Sans"; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">It withers away for lack of roots</li>
<li style="font-family: "Gill Sans"; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">It is choked out of us for love of the world</li>
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<p style="font-family: "Gill Sans"; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">How can we prevent that from happening to what God has sown in our hearts? </p>
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<p style="font-family: "Gill Sans"; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">First, from Jesus himself: if we want the seed sown in us to be snatch-proof we must learn to hear and understand God’s Word properly (Mt13.23). We must read it, pay close attention to it, learn from it, inwardly digest it, just as that lovely Anglican Collect says (<span style="font-style: italic;">BCP</span> 97, <span style="font-style: italic;">BAS</span> 391). Set and build all your understanding on it because God’s Word is truth (John17.17), truth is in Jesus (Eph4.21) and there is no condemnation in Him (Ro8.1). Which is all contrary to what the evil one would have us believe in his attempts to snatch the good seed of abundant, fruitful life in Jesus out of our hearts. He will try and get us to question and misunderstand God’s Word just as he did in the Garden of Eden—“Did God <span style="font-style: italic;">actually</span> say” (Gen3.1) thus and so? We must “Resist the devil,” as St James wrote, “and he will flee from you.” Instead, “Draw near to God and he will draw near to you” (James4.7-8). The best way to do that is to grow and strengthen your understanding of God and His Kingdom. </p>
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<p style="font-family: "Gill Sans"; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">As your understanding grows and you make yourself available for what God wants to do in you through his Word which, as He says in Isaiah 55</p>
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<p style="font-family: "Gill Sans"; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it. (V11)</p>
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<p style="font-family: "Gill Sans"; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">God’s purposes and success will be accomplished in you and me and we will bear fruit. Guaranteed!</p>
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<p style="font-family: "Gill Sans"; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Second, how to wilt-proof yourself. First, see above. Then there are more strategies in today’s readings. For example, start walking—in the Spirit, that is—not in the flesh, mind. No. Living according to the flesh—in other words, living primarily for and through our bodily appetites— leads to wilting and withering bodies, minds and spirits, death, hostility to God, inability to submit to God’s law or to please God (Ro8.6-7). Setting our minds on the things of the Spirit, on the other hand, leads to freedom from sin and death (v2), and life and peace (v6). </p>
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<p style="font-family: "Gill Sans"; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">How does one walk in the Spirit? </p>
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<li style="font-family: "Gill Sans"; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Consult Him regarding all life’s decisions. He will always point you to and lead you to Jesus. He will never contradict Scripture. </li>
<li style="font-family: "Gill Sans"; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Pray for more Gifts of the Spirit to be activated in you (see 1Cor12-14, Ro12.6-8 and Eph4.11-13). </li>
<li style="font-family: "Gill Sans"; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Do some self examination every now and then to see that the Fruit of the Spirit is active in your life (Gal5.22-23)</li>
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<p style="font-family: "Gill Sans"; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Finally, dealing with choking hazards of “the cares of the world and the deceitfulness of riches” (Mt13.22): I believe the fundamental and foundational first step to free ourselves from these threats to our spiritual growth is to be obedient with our tithe (Mal3.8-10)—not a watered down so-called “Anglican tithe” of 5% mind you (which is a contradiction in terms)—but the full 10%—off the top—of gross income—to our local church (offerings for charitable causes and other extras come after that tithe). Faithful, accurate tithing opens the windows of heaven, causes blessing to pour down and is a key spiritual discipline which is a practical demonstration of where we’ve set our minds, in whose hands we’ve placed our worldly cares and that we’ve determined to resist the deceitfulness of riches by acknowledging The One from whom all riches come. </p>
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<p style="font-family: "Gill Sans"; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Practice these three steps and, with the Holy Spirit’s help, what God has sown in our hearts will remain snatch-proof, wilt-proof and choke-free in</p>
<p style="font-family: "Gill Sans"; font-size: 36px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Jesus. </p></div>Gene Packwoodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10483295706056528789noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6530856473055256123.post-4157260410304955072020-07-05T15:59:00.001-06:002020-07-05T15:59:52.243-06:00Thanks Be to God: a Bit of an Hybrid Response to the Readings of the Day, Homily (had I been requireD to preach one) and Litany for the Fourth/Fifth Sunday after Trinity/Pentecost—with reference to Zech9.9-12, Ps145.8-15, Ro7.15-25 and Mt11.16-19, 25-30<p style="font-family: "Gill Sans"; font-size: 23px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-5UltlEUoGw4/XwJLj9hx7jI/AAAAAAABNeA/jAnKpYEQXRA6bq_v-_dnQemCC9iXye1OgCK4BGAsYHg/s4042/5C158510-7B89-49A5-8DD2-8D1D7CB4C030.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4042" data-original-width="3916" height="500" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-5UltlEUoGw4/XwJLj9hx7jI/AAAAAAABNeA/jAnKpYEQXRA6bq_v-_dnQemCC9iXye1OgCK4BGAsYHg/w485-h500/5C158510-7B89-49A5-8DD2-8D1D7CB4C030.jpeg" width="485" /></a></div><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-weight: bold;"><br /></span><p></p><p style="font-family: "Gill Sans"; font-size: 23px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-weight: bold;">Jesus Christ </span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Gill Sans"; font-size: 24px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;">our Lord is The One through whom you and I have been created to give thanks to God—to know, worship and obey Him in the power of the Holy Spirit. </span></p>
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<p style="font-family: "Gill Sans"; font-size: 24px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;">Give thanks for what apart from that? The things to which Jesus referred in today’s Gospel, for example—the things hidden from worldly wisdom and understanding—things which transcend that kind of wisdom and understanding—things which will make perfect sense to little children who are still open to heavenly enchantment (Mt11.25). Things like a Virgin giving birth to a baby in a barn. Like gallons and gallons of the really good wine made from water in an instant so people could have a good time at a wedding. Like storms stopped in their tracks and thousands sitting on the grass fed from not enough food. Like a dead man, Risen! The list goes on. </span></p>
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<p style="font-family: "Gill Sans"; font-size: 24px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;">How does he do all that in a world so full of conflict, abuse, addictions, broken relationships and twisted appetite with a pandemic on the side? Well, I don’t know, except that somehow Jesus holds it all together (Col 1.17). Heavens! I’m like Paul. I can’t even understand and control my own actions (Ro7.15), let alone critique God’s! Neither can I consistently do the thing I know is right (v18). </span></p>
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<p style="font-family: "Gill Sans"; font-size: 24px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;">Yet, thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord (v25) for what The LORD has for us in the reading from Zechariah today—that Jesus, our king, having salvation, is coming again. Rejoice greatly, shout aloud! That He will speak peace to the nations and shall rule from sea to sea and to the ends of the earth. He will restore double whatever we have lost (Zech9.9-12).</span></p>
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<p style="font-family: "Gill Sans"; font-size: 24px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;">Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! for what The LORD is saying to us in today’s Psalm. No accident. It is the one The Father, in His perfect wisdom, wants you and me to hear and take to heart on this particular day—that:</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Gill Sans"; font-size: 24px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 27.6px;"><br /></p><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><p style="font-family: "Gill Sans"; font-size: 24px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 27.6px;">The Lord is gracious and merciful, </p><p style="font-family: "Gill Sans"; font-size: 24px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;">slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love. </span></p><p style="font-family: "Gill Sans"; font-size: 24px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;"> 9 The Lord is good to all, </span></p><p style="font-family: "Gill Sans"; font-size: 24px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;">and his mercy is over all that he has made. And that The Lord is faithful in all his words </span></p><p style="font-family: "Gill Sans"; font-size: 24px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;">and kind in all his works.</span></p><p style="font-family: "Gill Sans"; font-size: 24px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;"> 14 The Lord upholds all who are falling </span></p><p style="font-family: "Gill Sans"; font-size: 24px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;">and raises up all who are bowed down, </span><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-style: italic;">and will give us our</span><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;"> food in due season. (Ps145)</span></p></blockquote><p style="font-family: "Gill Sans"; font-size: 24px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 27.6px;"><br /><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;"></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Gill Sans"; font-size: 24px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;">Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! that, even though we don’t understand our own actions, Jesus will deliver you and me from these wretched, death-bearing, sinful bodies. </span></p>
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<p style="font-family: "Gill Sans"; font-size: 24px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;">Thank you God for your gracious will (Mt11.26) and for all that has been revealed to us in Jesus even in our lack of wisdom and understanding. Thank you that not only have all things have been handed over to Jesus as we read today (Mt11.27), but He is also before all things and it is in Him they all hold together (Col 1.17). Thank you that Jesus has chosen to reveal you to us. Thank you for the rest only Jesus can provide. Thanks for His gentleness and lowliness of heart, for his easy yoke and light burden, all of which abound with your steadfast love (vv27-30). </span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Gill Sans"; font-size: 24px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 27.6px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p>
<p style="font-family: "Gill Sans"; font-size: 24px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;">For these and all our many blessings, </span></p><p style="font-family: "Gill Sans"; font-size: 24px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;">thanks be to God </span></p><p style="font-family: "Gill Sans"; font-size: 24px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;">through our Lord</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Gill Sans"; font-size: 23px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-weight: bold;">Jesus</span></p><p style="font-family: "Gill Sans"; font-size: 23px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-weight: bold;"><br /></span></p><p style="font-family: "Gill Sans"; font-size: 23px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-weight: bold;"><br /></span></p>Gene Packwoodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10483295706056528789noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6530856473055256123.post-65918571776397771912020-06-28T10:21:00.001-06:002020-06-28T10:21:29.065-06:00Jesus: a Scandalously Particular Welcome: a Short Homily for the Third Sunday after Trinity—with reference to Romans 6.12-23 and Matthew 10.40-42 NRSV<p style="font-family: "gill sans"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 18px;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-4RD9t7ifb1s/XvjCY2Cr-kI/AAAAAAABNYw/Nrigpxx8CWEVtFbc6PXaZIkUgSCaJUXuwCK4BGAsYHg/s1535/FE04AA4A-91F8-4BA1-ADDD-AD1E6F5924C1.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1102" data-original-width="1535" height="288" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-4RD9t7ifb1s/XvjCY2Cr-kI/AAAAAAABNYw/Nrigpxx8CWEVtFbc6PXaZIkUgSCaJUXuwCK4BGAsYHg/w400-h288/FE04AA4A-91F8-4BA1-ADDD-AD1E6F5924C1.jpeg" width="400" /></a></div><i><br /></i><p></p><p style="font-family: "gill sans"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 18px;"><i>This, sans the skippable optional insert, was today’s homily for Morning Prayer at St Mary the Virgin Anglican Church, Regina, Saskatchewan…</i></p>
<p style="font-family: "gill sans"; font-size: 23px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-weight: bold;">Jesus </span></p>
<p style="font-family: "gill sans"; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;">is the first of two words I have for you today—as in Jesus Christ our Lord—The One in whom God’s free gift of eternal life comes to us according to St Paul in today’s reading from Romans (Ro6.23). The </span><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-style: italic;">only one</span><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;"> through whom that gift comes, as it happens. St Peter makes it clear in Acts chapter 4—not one of our readings for today, but to the point—when he wrote</span></p>
<blockquote><p style="font-family: "gill sans"; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 13.8px;">there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men and women by which we must be saved. (Acts4.12)</p></blockquote>
<p style="font-family: "gill sans"; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;">No other name. No one else, but Jesus only. </span></p>
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<p style="font-family: "gill sans"; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;">Well that’s not very open and inclusive someone might say—and people do. So, George Carey, three Archbishops of Canterbury ago, once wrote that</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "gill sans"; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"></p><blockquote><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;">This is the scandal of particularity with which we must live. Christians cannot yield this un-negotiable element in their faith. We believe that the God of the universe longs to reveal Himself and He does in many different ways and forms, through religion, through reason, art, and human intelligence, but each and every one of these ways is limited. Only in a personal relationship with Jesus Christ can God be fully known, worshipped, and obeyed. (The Most Reverend George Carey, Archbishop of Canterbury, “Archbishop’s Voice,”</span><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-style: italic;">The Anglican Digest</span><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;">, Pentecost 1992, p63)</span></blockquote><p></p>
<p style="font-family: "gill sans"; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;">Jesus only.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "gill sans"; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 13.8px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p>
<p style="font-family: "gill sans"; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;">So—more from Archbishop Carey: </span></p>
<p style="font-family: "gill sans"; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"></p><blockquote><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;">Let’s not have any truck with bland theology, that Jesus is just one option among many. Dialogue with other faiths is very important, but I can respect another faith and a believer of that faith by saying I believe that Jesus Christ is the only way of salvation. Do with that truth what you may, but my job is to say that to you. </span></blockquote><p></p>
<p style="font-family: "gill sans"; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;">It’s our job, too, and just as the Archbishop wrote, Jesus, however scandalously particular, must always be the first, the most important, the defining Word on our lips and in the things we do and the places we go. Which leads me to the second word for today.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "gill sans"; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-family: GillSans-BoldItalic; font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;"></span></p><blockquote><p style="font-family: "gill sans"; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-family: GillSans-BoldItalic; font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">Optional bit if one wished to make this homily a little longer…</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "gill sans"; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 13.7px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-style: italic;"></span><br /></p>
<p style="font-family: "gill sans"; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-style: italic;">Being too scandalously particular or theologically bland aren’t the only things that can get in the way of us doing our jobs keeping Jesus front and centre. There’s another which thoroughly distorts any believing in, knowing, worshipping, obeying and saying Jesus is the only way of salvation—Sin. Do not let it “exercise dominion” (Ro6.12) over you, writes St Paul in Romans 6, because if you do, your wages will be death (v23)—that’s a pretty scandalously particular statement, too. Instead, “present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from the death to life” (v13) in Jesus. Death or Jesus. Gulp. But it’s the truth. The choices are: </span></p>
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<p style="font-family: "gill sans"; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-style: italic;">Jesus: The Way, The Truth and The Life (John14.6)</span></p>
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<p style="font-family: "gill sans"; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-style: italic;">Or</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "gill sans"; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 13.7px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-style: italic;"></span><br /></p>
<p style="font-family: "gill sans"; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-style: italic;">Not: where, instead of the utterly trustworthy, eternal life-bound Way, Truth and LIfe that Jesus brings; there are the dead-ends, lies and death that come from allowing sin’s mortal passions (v12), wickedness (v13), impurity, iniquity (v19) and shame (v21) to have their fatal dominion over us. It really is a matter of life and death. Everyone must choose. It really is as scandalously and particularly simple as that. </span></p>
<p style="font-family: "gill sans"; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 13.7px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-style: italic;"></span><br /></p>
<p style="font-family: "gill sans"; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-style: italic;">So, choose life (Dt30.19-20) and find out how to share the life Jesus brings to the people around you so they can choose it, too. </span></p>
<p style="font-family: "gill sans"; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 13.7px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-style: italic;"></span><br /></p>
<p style="font-family: "gill sans"; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-style: italic;">I remember Kate Berringer, our daughter, telling Emily and Samantha, her daughters, to “Use your words!” when things were tense. Things have been rather tense for us, too, for these last few months what with covid-19, losses and forced isolation. Sin’s dominion makes it worse, so use your words, too. Here’s a good one that goes along with Jesus, the first one. )</span></p></blockquote>
<p style="font-family: "gill sans"; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;">The word appears six times in our Gospel reading. It’s closely associated with Jesus. The word is </span><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-style: italic;">WELCOME </span><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;">(Mt10.40-41, NRSV)</span><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-style: italic;">. </span><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;">Jesus is God’s Word of </span><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-style: italic;">welcome </span><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;">into the eternal life we read about in Romans this morning. Just as Archbishop Carey wrote, our job as Anglican Christians is to say, in all our words and deeds, in our relationships and consumption, in the way we live, as winsomely as we can, that we believe Jesus is the only way of salvation— </span><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-style: italic;">welcome!</span><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;"> Come on in. Come with us. Taste and see how good He is (Ps34.8). </span><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-style: italic;">Welcome</span><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;"> to the freedom and relief of a forgiven life—in Jesus (Lk1.77). </span><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-style: italic;">Welcome</span><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;"> to the richest, most satisfying, most challenging, fullest abundant life there is—in Jesus (John10.10). </span></p>
<p style="font-family: "gill sans"; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 13.8px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p>
<p style="font-family: "gill sans"; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;">As you live your </span><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-style: italic;">welcoming</span><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;"> life—</span><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-style: italic;">welcoming</span><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;"> Jesus into your own life and </span><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-style: italic;">welcoming</span><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;"> others into His—do it with absolute confidence that the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ </span></p>
<p style="font-family: "gill sans"; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"></p><blockquote><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;">always leads us in triumphal procession, and through us spreads the fragrance of the knowledge of him everywhere (2Cor2.14). </span></blockquote><p></p>
<p style="font-family: "gill sans"; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;">Always. Sweet smelling. </span><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-style: italic;">Welcoming</span><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;">. Even across the social distances visited upon us these days—perhaps </span><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-style: italic;">especially </span><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;">across those “distances”—spreading the heady, heart-warming, heavenly fragrance of the knowledge of our unique and scandalously particular Lord and Saviour.</span></p>
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<p style="font-family: "gill sans"; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;">Two words which go together for today. </span><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-style: italic;">Welcome</span><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;">, and</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "gill sans"; font-size: 23px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-weight: bold;">Jesus. </span></p>Gene Packwoodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10483295706056528789noreply@blogger.com0