Salvogesis

In this letter, in our verse for today, 2 Corinthians 5:17, Paul writes, “Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!” “Therefore if anyone is in Christ…”: This phrase refers to anyone who is a Christian or as the New Testament more commonly refers to us, saints. We know what a saint is, right? The Greek word ‘saint’ in our Bibles is derived from the same word as ‘holiness’. In the New Testament ‘saint’, simply put, just means ‘Christian’. A Christian saint is contrasted with a ‘sinner’. So in the apostolic letters in the New Testament there really are just two choices in this regard. You can be either a Christian saint or you can be a sinner. As Paul’s letter reads ‘if anyone is in Christ’ it is saying that for all of us saints, for all of us Christians, we are a new creation – the old is gone, the new has come for all of us! This is exciting. When we hand our lives over to the Lord, it is like a changing of the guard; a new, fresh ...

Never Give up: Father Brebeuf, with Fathers Daniel and Davost, in 1634, "took up again the challenge of the Cross and re-established the Huron mission near the shores of the  Georgian Bay." The salvation of Souls, and the Great commission was the motivating factor for the noted perseverance of this Jesuit Priest: "Don't paddle unless you intend to always paddle" was his motto. There were people out there who did not know Jesus and he would sacrifice everything to win the continent for Christ starting with Heronia! By 1648, eleven mission posts had been set up among the Heron AND their neighbours! No less than 18 priests and four lay ministers were involved in this  ministry. Then the Iroquois attacked: "When the assault began, the two Jesuits raced among the men, shouting encouragement, urging them to pray, tending the wounded, baptizing the dying. The Iroquois prevailed. Brebeuf, Lalemant and sixty Huron warriors were captured, beaten and herded to St...

James V, the King of Scotland used to go around the country disguised as a common person. That is because he wanted to meet the everyday people of the country not just the rich and powerful. He wanted to see how the normal people lived. One day he was dressed in very old clothes and was going by a place known as Cramond Brig, when he is attacked by robbers who don’t know who he is. There is a fierce struggle and he is nearly overcome when, at just the right moment, a poor farm worker - Jock Howieson - hears the commotion comes to the disguised king’s aid. Now Jock, the poor labourer, who works on this portion of the King’s land, Cramond Brig, unawares takes the undercover king home and gives him a dinner of broth and Jock - as the king is recouping – naturally asks the man who he is. The King responds ‘I’m a good man of Edinburgh.’ ‘And where do you live in that city and where do you work?’ ‘Well,’ says James, ‘I live at the palace and I work there too.’ ‘The palace, is it?...

My daughter received a book by Immaculee Ilibagiza for Christmas. Immaculee Ilibagiza says, “Forgiveness is possible in every situation”; she says, “God is always right; whatever our Lord tells us to do is right. And God tells us to forgive.” Immaculee is a Rwandan and she is a Tutsi. Remember the Rwandan genocide? The Hutus slaughtered about 1 million Tutsi’s in 90 days – mostly by machete.             Immaculee remembers her family was able to hide her in a home of a Hutu pastor. No one else in the family could hide. They were murdered. One day a death squad came to search the house where see was hiding. A chain of people surrounded the house so that if there were any Tutsi in the house they couldn't escape. Then then searchers came in the house. They searched even suitcases in case someone might be trying to hide a small child there. They were looking for Tutsis and if they found one, even a child, they would kill her. ...

“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair”: this is the famous opening line of A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens; it is about Paris and it is about London. Today’s story from Scripture is a real life tale of two kings by Luke the physician; it is about Augustus Caesar and it is about Jesus Christ and in Luke’s Gospel, like in Dickens’ story, it is the best of times and it is the worst of times.[1] The second chapter of Luke’s Gospel opens with, “And it came to pass in those days, that there went out a decree from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be taxed.” Caesar Augustus is the first king of our two kings, chronologically speaking, that we will address today.[2] What do we know of this king and of this world that he has ordered...

History tells us about Herod. Herod is a regional king. He works for the Romans and he is known as ‘Herod the Great’. Herod is a great political leader and as such is involved in all the political intrigue of his era in all the ways that political intrigue is carried out in his time (cf. Josephus, Bellum ii.10–13; cf. also Josephus, Antiquities xvii. 224, 229, 250, 304, 307, 340). He is a king but his job is no more secure than that of a contemporary politician and Herod defends his title and his job no less vigorously: in order to secure his position, Herod needs to back the right horse and defeat all his rivals (cf. Josephus, Antiquities i.358). He – like many contemporary politicians – switches his allegiances more than once as to whom he backs for Emperor – first he backs Mark Anthony’s coalition government and later crosses the floor to support Caesar Augustus. Herod is a king who leaves behind a good legacy of building and growth but he is an adept politician, cruel and insecure...

We are coming to the end of Advent. Advent is all about waiting: remembering the wait for Jesus birth and waiting even now for his return. 1 Samuel 13:7-14a is also about waiting. In times past, just like now, when faced with a crisis the most important thing to do is to seek the Lord's council, leading, favour, and blessing. King Saul of Israel was faced with an apparently critical situation. He was at the head of his army. The enemy was assembled. His soldiers were afraid - it says they were quaking with fear. They had started to sneak away. It says his men began to scatter. Samuel, the previous leader of Israel who was still hanging around, and still served in a leadership capacity himself, had told Saul to wait until he arrived before anyone sought the Lord's favour through a ceremony of burnt and fellowship offerings. Samuel said he would be there in seven days. If Saul had a watch, I imagine he'd have been looking at it every two minutes or so. Samuel was late or ne...

This week was the Winter Solstice. Solstice is when we have equal daylight and darkness in our physical realm. Darkness in the spiritual realm is the work of the Enemy. Light is the life of Christ. After the winter solstice, more and more light comes into our world. Likewise, as we refuse to take part in bad behaviours, the darkness and troubles around us will really turn into light and life. Leo Tolstoy, a couple of hundred years before 'pay it forward' wrote a book entitled The Forged Coupon . This book starts with one person giving into a little temptation and then it spirals way out of control with more and more people over time creating more serious problems -even death - for others. But then at a mid-way point of the book, the story reverses. One lady refuses to partake in selfishness and her act of goodness reverses the trend and is the first in a series of blessed events that sees all the characters, instead of spreading darkness, shining the light of Christ into the ...

In our text today, Matthew 1:18-25, we have Joseph:  Joseph is a carpenter/stone mason. He is from the Roman occupied territory of Judea and Joseph is righteous. Matthew tells us also that Joseph is pledged to be married to a girl named Mary. Now, betrothal in the first century is not like it is today. When you are engaged then you are already united. But even so, before Mary and Joseph ever ‘know each other’ in the Biblical sense, before they ever come together in that way, Mary becomes pregnant. Imagine this scenario with me, if you will – men in particular: you are engaged, you have not had relations with your fiancée and all of a sudden you find out that she is pregnant. What would you do? What would you say? What would you feel? What would you think? What would you think and what would you do if your girlfriend to whom you are engaged becomes pregnant – and not by you? Would you still get married? Joseph, when he finds out that Mary is pregnant, is planning to call of...

Jethro Tull won the 1988 Grammy Award for Best Hard Rock/Metal Performance Vocal or Instrumental, beating the favourite Metallica. The award was controversial because most people rightfully do not consider Jethro Tull hard rock, much less heavy metal. On the advice of their manager, who told them they had no chance of winning, no one from the band even attended the award ceremony. Their front man pays the flute and their band’s logo is a silhouette of Ian Anderson playing the flute. When asked about the controversy Ian Anderson quipped, "Well, we do sometimes play our mandolins very loudly." And their label, Chrysalis, responsed to the criticism by taking out an advertisement in a British music periodical with a picture of a flute lying in a pile of iron re-bar and the line, "the flute is a heavy metal instrument." In 1992, when Metallica finally won the Grammy in the category, Metallica drummer Lars Ulrich joked, "First thing we're going to do is ...

I don’t know if you have ever seen those motivational speakers on TV or in person. They usually have – in the old days, flip charts – these days PPT or DVDs, props and some way that they want you to remember what it is they are trying to motivate you to do. One thing that people often is acronyms – you spell out a word and every letter stands for something else. Here I’ll give you some famous acronyms and you tell me if you know what they mean: 1)      ASAP     2) NATO   3) NHL    4) MYOB    5) TSA[1] Sometimes they just have an alliterative list with each item in the cue staring with the same letter or the same sound, like Reduce, Reuse, Recycle, or here’s another little quiz for you can you tell me: 1)      In Four H, what are the 4 H’s?[2] 2)      What are the 3 R’s from school? a.      How many of these words actually start with R? b.      Who can tell m...

Our Isaiah reading today is one very familiar to us all: Isaiah 61:1-4 and 8-11    61:1 The spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me, because the LORD has anointed me; he has sent me to bring good news to the oppressed, to bind up the broken-hearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and release to the prisoners;    As Christians who are waiting to celebrate Christ’s arrival as a baby in a manger 2000+ years ago and as people waiting to experience Jesus’ return any day now; he has called each of us, as God anointed Isaiah, to share the Gospel of Salvation with the oppressed. Do you know what this means? This means that to any of us who are having difficult times we are to share the Good News that when Jesus comes back, any day now, all the bad stuff will end, everything will be okay AND this means that since he came in a manger 2000+ years ago we can help each other through the difficult times because Jesus is with us to do just that. We can comfort on...

Today we hear the classic words of God through Isaiah and Jesus that are quoted of John the Baptist. Last week we had the Santa Shuffle. Heather participated and got a great metal. Since my 30s, I have off-again and on-again done quite a bit of running. When I lived in Vancouver I faithfully ran every second day. I lived about 5km from my office – I used to run there and back. In  Winnipeg  I lived almost 10km from the College, and a colleague and I did that run more than once. Running can be fun – but when you get out of the habit, and have to start again or when you start for the very first time it can be a chore. And sometimes those hills in your first few runs can feel like mountains and those valleys, ravines.  I can remember when I was first learning to run out west – where there are real mountains - being near the end of my run and my energy... rounding an almost last corner and seeing... a mountain to try to run up for my last 1/2k or so... Isaiah 40:3b-5:  ...