Salvogesis

  (Redacted)   The passage that we are looking at in Mark today asks, ‘How can Satan cast out Satan’ (Mark 3:23)? The Greek word for ’satan’, ‘satanas’ literally means ‘accuser’. [i]  The question being asked directly here is how can accuser cast out accuser? It reminds me of Jesus addressing Peter when he says, Get thee behind me accuser! (Matthew 16:23)   It also reminds me of Job where, ‘satan’ (literally ‘opponent’, ‘adversary’; pronounced: saw-tawn) the Hebrew equivalent of ‘satanas’ is used. In the case of Job, God baits the accuser. He tells the accuser how good Job is, knowing full well that he would accuse him of only being good because God does so many good things for him. The whole story of great suffering, perseverance, and more unfolds from there.   The main name we think of when we think of ‘the devil’ is Satan (satan, satanas), accuser. This is important. I suggest that it is because his main attribute, almost his defining characteristic, is that ...

The 2008 tie has a picture drawn by one or both of my daughters: it has a picture of Mary and Baby Jesus in a manger as well as the Star. It says “I love you” reminding us of the Christmas story and how Jesus was lain in a manger because their way no room for him in the inn – it recalls the Father’s great love for us as recorded in John 3:16 and 17: “For God so love the world that He sent His Only Begotten Son that whosoever believes in Him shall not perish but have everlasting life for God did not send His Son to condemn the world but that the world through Him might be saved.” The 2009 tie from Rebecca and Sarah-Grace has the creativity of my young children on full display with Mary and Joseph and the baby Jesus under the Christmas star and a Christmas tree. This reminds us, as well as everything else, of the faithfulness of Joseph as told in the Gospel of Luke, how he loved Jesus as his own and served God with all his heart. Matthew 1:18-25: 18 This is how the birth of Jesus the Mes...

Paris is built on and around the Seine so there is so much to be seen. One of the many beautiful things we saw was the Seine at sunset. We were blessed to be able to have a short cruise on the river – and us much by accident on our part, but Divine Design in reality, we caught the city illuminated by the light of the sunset before the night falls. As the sunset shone it showed amazing outlines of things we may not have noticed or at least not noticed in the same way: the Cathedral Notre Dame, the river facing face of which was seemingly free of scaffolding; many historic and official building and bridges; the Louvre (itself a work of art before an orange sky). As the sunset lights up the silhouettes of the city and illuminates the beauty of Paris, so does Jesus in our world and our life. Whatever is happening all around us, as we look to the heavens at sunset, we can look to Heaven anytime and notice the Glory and the Love of God shining in our lives; compelling and propelling us throu...

One of the many amazing things we saw in Paris was the Seine River. The Seine is the river that the Lord used to bring Paris to life. It is the river the Lord used to bring France to life. Their culture, identity and history is birthed from the banks of the great river. As people who love and follow Christ, our culture and life, and even eternal life, has been birthed and are sustained on the banks of the River of Life and as we share the joy and strength and power of Salvation with others, the heavenly city -like the analogous city of Paris - can grow in their hearts and their lives and rivers of living water will flow from them and from us.   John 7:37-38: On the last and greatest day of the festival, Jesus stood and said in a loud voice, “Let anyone who is thirsty come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as Scripture has said, rivers of living water will flow from within them.”  

John 7:37-38: On the last and greatest day of the festival, Jesus stood and said in a loud voice, “Let anyone who is thirsty come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as Scripture has said, rivers of living water will flow from within them.” We went to  Sanctuaire de Notre-Dame de Lourdes . They have healing water in a spring there under the church that you can walk right up to. The story of the healing spring and the cathedral goes a little like this: Bernadette Soubirous, a 14-year-old peasant girl, on 11 February 1858 saw a vision of Mary, the mother of Jesus and was told to go and drink water from a spring which was to appear inside the grotto and wash herself with it. She did and she kept going there and by mid-July had seen Mary 18 times. She was also told to tell the priests to build a chapel at the grotto site. They did. The Cathedral was built over the spring and people – like us - still visit today.  God is a God of miracles even today. There is a whole community...

The children went to and from camp this week. In the end I think we had 22 or 23, 7- to 12-year-old campers accompanied for their journey anyway by a number of chaperones. It was interesting. There were the usual challenges, of course, of some people not being able to make it at the last minute and people’s phones no longer being in service – but this time there was more, much more.   First, the bus caught fire. Truly. It was a real blessing that none of the kids were on it yet. We had to scramble to find enough cars and drivers to get the children to the ferry and we even had to press Remi (our Food Bank driver) into action, driving the cube van with everyone’s luggage in it. And remember that the camp is in Gibson’s so the children have to catch 2 ferries to get there; so we are under a bit of a time crunch. We race to Nanaimo (as fest as the speed limits will permit, of course). Almost everyone had made it to the ferry but one car was just not coming. We were waiting. We were wo...

Many things happened in our Resurrection Day text. Here we have the first preacher of the Gospel, the Good News that Jesus rose from the grave. This woman, Mary Magdalen is the first Christian teacher / preacher / proclaimer of the resurrection. She doesn’t quite get it yet. But she proclaims what she sees to Peter and another person, presumably John. Next in our Resurrection Day text, after they hear the Good News John and Peter run to the tomb as fast as they can, I assume, to see for themselves! John gets there first and stops at the door, examining the scene and taking the whole thing in. Peter – like a child or younger sibling – comes running up behind him, roars past John, who is stopped at the tomb then seems to call out: “I win! I was here first. I won!” They take it all in. They see Jesus’ burial clothes lying there – but Jesus is gone. It says John saw all of this and believed but he did not understand. Then the disciples just went home. I can only imagine. What else could th...

  Image 4 of 5: Palm branches: John tells us also that the people lining the streets aren’t just yelling, ‘save us king’. This is important.  They are waving palm branches. Today is Palm Sunday. Can anyone tell me the significance of palm leaves at this time and place? The palm branches are important.  What do the Palm branches represent? They didn’t just pick up palm branches because palm branches happen to be near-by; they pick up the palm branches because palm branches are a nationalistic symbol (cf. 1 Maccabees 13:51, 2 Macabbees 10:7; cf. also Leviticus 23:40, Psalm 92:12, Matthew 21:8; Mark 11:8). Recently in Canada our National Flag was lowered for months and it looked like it may never rise again. Later it was used in a massive protest on Parliament Hill. These are significant. The use of the palm branches in our text is even more significant. It would be like if Canada was going to seek independence from the US or someone else and we were waving maple leaves or f...

Our third image to consider today is that of the crowds shouting. Verse 13, John records, ‘They took palm branches and went out to meet him, shouting, “Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the Name of the Lord! Blessed is the King of Israel!” This is significant stuff. We sing ‘Hosanna’ in a lot of songs. We always mention ‘Hosanna’ at Palm Sunday. ‘Hosanna’ is what they are shouting as Jesus is riding into the capital of occupied Judea right under the noses of the Romans even as their collaborators, the Jewish religious leaders, have already put a plan into motion to kill Jesus. Do we know what Hosanna means (Verse 13; cf. Psalm 118:25-26)? Hosanna means ‘O Save!’, ‘Salvation!’, ‘Save us!’  Jesus is triumphantly entering the historic capital of Judah – which is occupied by the Romans and people are saying, ‘Jesus! You are our king! You –like all kings are supposed to – you come here in the Name of the Lord! Jesus, you – not Caesar, not the Romans, not the chief priests, not the ric...

The second of our five images for of Palm Sunday: What city is Jesus riding into? Jesus is entering Jerusalem. What is the significance of Jerusalem? Jerusalem is the historic capital of Judah and Israel? Susan the kids and I went to Ottawa for Canada's 150th anniversary. One would expect a lot of patriotism in any capital city on a day of national celebration. Now Jerusalem, in our text today, is part of the occupied territories. The Romans, the Superpower of the time, have troops in the city and they control the government. To some extent they even appoint the religious leaders in Jerusalem (cf. John 18). And like all superpowers they don’t tend to like rebellion and they know that if there is to be a rebellion by the Jewish people it would probably happen here in Jerusalem – their ancient capital city – and it would probably happen now during Passover, when the population of Jerusalem overflows with so many people descending upon the city. Jerusalem is the ancient capital city o...

Palm Sunday is a significant day in the Christian Church. Any of us who have grown up in the church or who have been going to church for a few years have inevitably been to a few Palm Sunday services. Do we know what the big deal is about Palm Sunday? John in his gospel does a great job of telling us the meaning of Palm Sunday in his record of the triumphal entry. He uses a lot of symbolism – not unlike Shakespeare in ‘Julius Caesar’. This week we are going to pull out five pieces of that imagery and then put it back together for a full picture of what Palm Sunday looks like in our life today. In this entry we are going to look at Triumphal Entry and Jerusalem. First, let’s re-read John 12:12-19: The next day the great crowd that had come for the festival heard that Jesus was on his way to Jerusalem. They took palm branches and went out to meet him, shouting, “Hosanna!” “Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!” “Blessed is the king of Israel!” Jesus found a young donkey and sa...

Matthew 26:11 (Mark 14:7, John 12:8) Jesus quotes Deuteronomy 15:11 in saying, “the poor will always be with you”   As this is the case, Ignacio Ellacuria says, in essence, the great salvific task is to evangelize the poor so that out of their poverty they may attain the spirit necessary first to escape their indulgence and oppression, second to put an end to oppressive structures, and third to be used to inaugurate a new heaven and a new earth, where sharing trumps accumulating and where there is time to hear and enjoy God’s voice in the heart of the material world and in the heart of human history. [3]   I think that is very important. We need to evangelize the poor. We know what the word evangelize means, right? It comes from the Greek word ‘euangelion’, which means ‘good message’ or ‘good news’. [4]  We need to share the good news with the poor. Jesus, as recorded in Luke 4:18, in his very early sermon in the synagogue in his very own hometown quoted the prophet Isaia...