Trinity Sunday – June 16, 2019

Scripture readings:

Romans 5:1-5

John 16:12-15

Proverbs 8:1-4, 22-31

In a scientific age it’s not strange to ask what causes people at church to speak about the Spirit of God or the Holy Spirit? Is there really such a thing?

Another question that could be asked, is whether there really is such a thing as the Trinity? Where does this idea come from? Three in one, what’s that?

Today this is what our Sunday is about. Yes, the Holy Spirit is supposed to be the third person in the Holy Trinity, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. This morning my main focus will be on the reading that we heard from the book of Proverbs.

Here in Proverbs 8 we meet Lady Wisdom, being playful by delighting in this created world as well as the human race. Somehow this Lady Wisdom fulfils the role that is interwoven into the role of the Holy Spirit and also of Christ, along with our creator-God. 

We can truly find much comfort in knowing that this is a reality that lives in our midst, mysterious, mystically and never really comprehensible. 

There is another name for Lady Wisdom that has been quite popular among Christians. 

Now, if I were to mention the name “Sophia” to you, what memories would it evoke? Would you think of the 1982 movie called Sophie’s Choice, starring Meryl Streep as the Polish immigrant, Sophie, along with Kevin Kline as Nathan and a young writer, Stingo, played by Peter MacNichol? 1) Or perhaps you just know of someone whose name is Sophia. Maybe even the movie star, Sophia Loren? Some might think of a controversy stirred up several years ago at a women’s conference that was exploring feminine images for God. Some who objected to their ideas accused them of pagan worship when they used Sophia to refer to the feminine side of God.

For Christians, our understanding of the role of Sophia in the faith can be traced back to this morning’s passage from Proverbs 8. Here Sophia, the Greek word for wisdom, is personified as a woman who was with God before creation. It’s sort of a pre-creation story. “The Lord created me,” says Sophia, “at the beginning of his work — before the beginning of the earth.”

This personified wisdom then goes on to describe how she was an intimate part of every aspect of the creation. Some manuscripts describe how she was “beside (God) like a little child — daily (God’s) delight, rejoicing before Him always.”

If you allow your imagination its freedom, you can almost see this little girl, Sophia, skipping around delighting God as God pro­ceeds with creation. For those of you who have little children, you may be able to fill out that image. 2)

Isn’t this image of God very liberating, knowing that while God was creating, there was some joy present, and that God was delighting in all of creation?

Now, compare this liberating and playful picture of God with the notion that some students had to read certain sermons painting God as angry. Alan Brehm, Presbyterian Minister now at Hickman Presbyterian Church in Nebraska reflects on one particular sermon he had to read. “When I was in college, Alan says, one of them was Jonathan Edwards’ sermon, “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God.” Edwards was one of the driving forces in the “First Great Awakening” in the early 1700s with his insistence that we recognize and repent of our sin. Here one finds God described as one that is downright sadistic. The picture painted of God is as someone dangling sinners over the fires of hell like a person might dangle a spider over an open flame. I’m not sure this image would let anyone come closer to God. Maybe it could serve as a good incentive to flee away from God as quickly as possible. 3)

It might even be that your own image of God could have stemmed from the such a depiction. 

How sad and even destructive it was, when, back in the day, fathers understood that “not sparing the rod” lest they “spoil the child” meant ruling over their young children as some form of dictator? Perhaps Hitler might have been less of a Nazi than such fathers. It’s not every year that Trinity Sunday coincides with Father’s Day.

When our ingrained image of who God is gravitates towards an angry and unforgiving Father in heaven, it’s important to take note that God is much larger, much less containable than such limiting experiences.

I don’t know about you, but it sounds to me that in our day and time, the work of “Lady Wisdom” from the Book of Proverbs has been assumed by the Spirit of God. Does the Spirit of God also have the feminine quality of Wisdom? It’s hard to say for sure. But there’s something about the Spirit that seems to fit a feminine image in my mind. For me, the idea of the Spirit as a feminine image enhances the comfort of knowing that we are constantly supported by God’s presence.

In our day, not many people have much use for the idea of God as Trinity. It seems an abstract and far-fetched concept for theologians to debate. But I think nothing could be further from the truth. The point of our belief in the Trinity is that God is a God of love—not just love that cherishes from afar, but love that acts for us and among us. Love that reaches out to us and seeks a relationship with us. “One God who is the Creator and Sustainer, the Saviour and Lord, the Giver of life within, among, and beyond us.” This is an image of God who takes great delight in the beauty of the natural world, and takes great delight in the human family. That’s right—all this means we are all a part of God’s delight! 4)

Listen to how the Revised English Bible puts a selection of verses in Proverbs 8:

Then I was at his side each day,

his darling and delight,

playing in his presence continually,

playing over his whole world,

while my delight was in (hu)mankind. 5)

There seems to be a distinctly playful side to God. May God’s Spirit continue to remind us of this. 

1. Sophie’s Choice (1982) the movie (https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0084707/?ref_=nv_sr_1?ref_=nv_sr_1)
2. Stephen P. McCutchan in a sermon with the title “God’s playful wisdom” found on sermons.com (paid subscription required)
3. A blog entry by the Rev. Dr. Alan Brehm by the title “God’s delight” (http://thewakingdreamer.blogspot.com/2013/05/gods-delight.html)
4. Towards the end of the same blog entry at 3)
5. The New English Bible can be found online at http://www.katapi.org.uk/katapiNSBunix/master.html?http://www.katapi.org.uk/katapiNSBunix/Psgs/versionsPsgsByB.php?B=20&version=NEB 

Copyright 2019 – Heinrich Grosskopf, Minister of Dayspring Presbyterian Church

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Pentecost Sunday – June 9, 2019

Scriptures:

Romans 8:14-17

Acts 2:1-21

Ephesians 4:11-16

What an amazing and marvelous time of the year this is! It is Pentecost. Pentecost is about in, up and out. This is what Dayspring has always been about; for 50 years already. Dayspring continues to be about these three short words: In, up and out.

The Spirit draws us IN to each other, and equips us for our purpose as God’s local church on earth.  

I read a story that during Vacation Bible School one year, a minister’s wife had an experience with her elementary school kids that can teach us all a great lesson. About an hour before dismissal one day, a new student was brought into the room. The little boy had one arm missing, and since the class was almost over, the teacher had no opportunity to learn the details of his situation, but she was nervous that one of the other children would say something insensitive to him, so she proceeded cautiously with the lesson.

As the class time came to a close, she asked the children to join her in their usual closing ceremony. “Let’s make our churches,” she said, putting her hands together to form the “church.”

“Here’s the church and here’s the steeple, open the doors and…” Suddenly the awful truth struck her. The very thing she had feared that the children would do, she had done.

As she stood there speechless, the little girl sitting next to the boy reached over with her left hand and placed it up to his right hand and said, “Josh, let’s make the church together.”

Josh needed someone to help him do what he could not do for himself. And it is just so in every church. Jesus gives spiritual gifts to every believer that must be used so that Jesus can grow his church.

We as a congregation — as God’s church is meant to be — are fortunate to be able to fit together as different parts of a whole body, because God makes the whole body fit together perfectly. God’s Spirit equips us to be servants of the Servant, disciples of the Servant King. Those that do a certain part of building up the church are called to fulfil that part which only they can do uniquely to the very best of their specific ability. 

The Spirit of God turns our eyes UP to God, towards God to be in communion with our creator, and to worship God in meaningful ways. The real sign of the Spirit of God growing us up towards God is found in the way the whole body is healthy and growing and full of love. God’s Spirit living in us shapes us for a life of sincere worship. This gives meaning to our whole being. 

The Spirit also sends us to go OUT to others and pass on what we have freely received. Think of a ship, and bear in mind that Dayspring owes its name, among other images, to the Dayspring ship, which was launched in 1863 for the Presbyterian Church of the Maritime Provinces. This sailing ship went out to support Dr. Geddie who was the first foreign missionary appointed by the colonial church in the British Empire. He was stationed in the New Hebrides, which are some south islands in the Pacific Ocean. She sailed out from Pictou, Nova Scotia to support Dr. Geddie’s mission over there. 

Remember, a ship never gets kept in a harbour. It might look pretty for you and me. But that certainly isn’t what ships are made for. Again and again, we are called to get the sails ready, to pull up the anchor and sail out. We are made to go out, to spread the love of God to the wider world. 

In, up and out! In a nutshell that sums up what Pentecost is all about. Our calling as Christians continues to be in, up and out. In to each other, up to God and out to others. Christ makes the whole body fit together perfectly. As each part does its own special work, it helps the other parts grow, so that the whole body is healthy and growing and full of love. Let’s allow Christ to continue this work in us, into the next decade and who knows, into many more decades. Christ does it by his Spirit, helping us not only to focus in and up, but also to especially focus out. We keep praying for God to have mercy on us as we pass on what we have freely received. 

Copyright 2019 – Heinrich Grosskopf, Minister of Dayspring Presbyterian Church

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Ascension Sunday – June 2, 2019

Scriptures:

John 17:20-26

Psalm 97

Acts 16:16-34

On a February day in 1925, Floyd Collins climbed into Sand Cave in search of fortune. Suddenly, his lantern failed. Crawling through the darkness, Collin’s foot hit a seven-ton boulder. It fell on his leg, trapping him in the coffin-like narrowness of a dark, subterranean straitjacket. For days Collins was trapped 125 feet below ground in an ice-cold space 8 inches high and 12 feet long. In the meantime, his plight became a national sensation. As the rescue attempt wore on, some 50,000 tourists bought hot dogs, balloons, and soft drinks from vendors at the cave in Kentucky. But in the end, Floyd Collins died alone in the icy darkness, crying out deliriously, “Get me out. Why don’t you take me out? Kiss me goodbye, I’m going.” 1.)

One of the worst places to be in life — is to feel trapped — a place that sucks all energy from you, a place where you feel captive. You cannot get out. Do you feel you’re held captive? People can be trapped in a whole variety of ways. It can be through addictions, a relationship that they want to get out of, but simply can’t, or behavioural patterns such as bullying, or a relationship of dependency. We can end up in “mental prisons” or “emotional jails” that can lead us to believe there is no escape and that we just have to accept our situation, or that nothing we do will ever improve it. I wonder whether we can even become trapped in our routines?

The slave-girl in our story according to Acts 16 was trapped by a spirit of divination.  She didn’t even know it. Her owners were stuck in a pattern too, hence their anger and reacting with so much vengeance. They did not want her to come out of her art of divination, literally her “spirit of Python.” Once she was freed of that, they couldn’t make money off of her fortunetelling. It was only the divine nature of God in Paul that drove away the divination in the slave-girl. 

Paul and Silas were caught and put in a prison cell afterwards. In this state, were they really trapped? I wonder whether they weren’t actually singing songs in their shackles due to their sense of freedom despite being tied down. 

These songs brought forth joy in the middle of the night. The resulting earthquake set them completely free. Perhaps it was ultimately the faith God instilled in them that enabled them to have a larger perspective. 

There are also times when a dependency puts you in a trapped position, but you are in denial. Perhaps you are in that spot and unsure whether you can or even want to break free or not. 

In this story that we heard from Acts 16, the overriding theme is one of bondage or a freedom from bondage. The “main actor” in the story is God. God’s presence or God not being allowed into the circumstances, is portrayed throughout the narrative. First there is the slave-girl under the power of a spirit of telling fortunes. She knew full well what made the big difference in Paul and his friends’ lives. God was working through them.

How often are we able to make the difference because of the God who works through us, very naturally and without any force? It’s simply God who guides our actions. 

Everything in the narrative comes to a head when the owners of the slave-girl see the difference that Paul and friends made. The end-result after all the flogging and beating? Paul and Silas end up imprisoned. They were a nuisance. More than a nuisance, they brought upheaval and it was uncomfortable to the local people and their authorities. Are we willing to let God work through us in bringing about change, even if it’s uncomfortable for the people around us?

Just a side remark: It does strike me that we as the Presbyterian Church in Canada are once again at a crossroads when our meeting on a national level takes place this upcoming week. Our General Assembly will gently and carefully be voting on important matters. One matter is that we have become stuck with regards to sexuality. Let’s pray to God, the Son Jesus Christ through the Holy Spirit for the freedom to discern which way to go towards becoming un-stuck. 

Where are there places in your life where you are stuck, fastened to a predetermined view? God’s love needs to flow. There are many ways in which Jesus the Christ wants us to express our love and to be freed from our fetters. 

Amen

1.) Today in the Word, Sept 20, 1990. Source: www.sermonillustrations.com under the keyword “Trapped”

Copyright 2019 – Heinrich Grosskopf, Minister of Dayspring Presbyterian Church

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Sixth Sunday of Easter – May 26, 2019

Scriptures:

John 14:23–29

Psalm 67

Acts 16:9–15

The well-known American preacher and professor of preaching, Fred Craddock told a story about a time when he was a young preacher fresh out of seminary, he pastored a small church in Oak Ridge, Tennessee. At that time, Oak Ridge was growing fast. Many of the newcomers lived in a mobile home park located near the church. The trailer park was packed with newcomers, including a large number of children. Fred saw all those new people and thought his church ought to reach out to them and extend hopsitality to them. So at the next Board meeting Fred recommended a plan to reach out to the newcomers. “Oh, I don’t know” said the chairman of the board. “They might not fit in here very well.” Fred said, “But they live right next to our church. I think we should invite them to worship with us.” But Fred got resistance to the idea. They finally decided to table the discussion and deal with it at their next business meeting.

At that meeting a member said, “I move that in order to be a member of this church you have to own property in the county.” “I’ll second that motion,” said another man. Fred was shocked and spoke against it. But in the end, the motion passed. As a result, no effort was made to reach out to the newcomers. Soon thereafter Fred left that church. 

Twenty years later, Fred and his wife were driving past Oak Ridge on a trip through Tennessee. Since he was single when he served that church, his wife had never seen it. So Fred decided to show it to her. As they drove to the church, Fred told his wife that painful story about the church refusing to reach out to newcomers. It took a while to find the church. Lots of new roads and homes had been built in the area. But they finally found the spot. The beautiful white frame church was sitting there as always, but something was different. There was a big parking lot out front full of cars, trucks, motor homes and including motorcycles. 

As they pulled into the lot they saw a big sign in front of the church. It said, “BBQ: All You Can Eat.” It was a restaurant! Fred and his wife went inside and the place was packed with all kinds of people—white and black and Hispanic. Rich and poor. Southerners and northerners. Fred said to his wife, “It’s a good thing this isn’t a church anymore. If it were, these people would not be allowed in.” 1.)

This story is a speaking example of how not to practice hospitality. It also shows the consequences of not welcoming the stranger. 

In Biblical times there was a very high regard for hospitality. The original biblical word for hospitality found in Romans 12:13 can literally be translated as “love of strangers.” 

When you are new to a neighbourhood, to a school, or alone at a party, it can be quite challenging.

Paul and his friends also felt like strangers  on their first outreach to Europe. 

In the city of Philippi (in northern Greece) Lydia, a trader in expensive purple woolen cloth became the first convert of Europe. After her conversion, she immediately showed hospitality towards Paul and his friends by begging them to stay over at her house. 

It’s not only for churches, even businesses understand the importance of hospitality. 

Danny Meyer, one of the most famous restaurateurs in New York City attributes his success not just to the quality of food, but to the attention he places on hospitality, the love of strangers. The title of his book speaks for itself. It is “Setting the table: the transforming power of hospitality in business.” 2.)

Danny says everyone wants great service. However, there is a difference between service—someone doing what they’re supposed to do—versus hospitality. According to Danny service doesn’t say anything about how someone made you feel. Hospitality does. 

Maya Angelou said “I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.” 3.)

Hospitality as presented to us in Scriptures is not merely a practice. To the contrary, it is a way of life. 

Paul is not the one who opened Lydia’s heart—it’s God who did that. Paul spoke the words but it was God who opened her heart to Jesus.

Through God’s Spirit, God was already at work in Lydia’s life. The attraction she felt to the Jewish faith was God speaking into her life, telling her there was something more for her. 

Her association with the Jewish women of the town was God’s way to bring her closer to God. Finally, when she heard Paul speak words of love and peace and hope, and how she could find those things in Jesus, she understood.

She understood God had been reaching out to her, offering grace, love, acceptance. God opened Lydia’s heart.

And in return, Lydia opened her house to Paul and his friends. She had herself and her whole household baptized. And she insisted that Paul and his companions come and stay with her. Lydia opened her home because she understood Paul’s message about God: We were once alienated from God, strangers, others. We built up walls between us and God. But Jesus tore down the wall that divides us from God. We were strangers once. But now we are welcomed as friends, family even.

Because God welcomed us into the family of God, we need to welcome strangers, aliens, others. People who aren’t like us. We welcome them because Christ welcomes us into the family of faith.

– Real hospitality is uncomfortable.

– Real hospitality is risky.

– Real hospitality costs something.

Lydia took a big risk by inviting Paul and his friends to stay at her home. They were outsiders, foreigners with strange ideas.

As their story goes on, Paul and friends were arrested for disturbing the peace, sent to jail, and finally released.

As their host, Lydia ran the risk of being associated with Paul and his strange ideas. The crowds of people could have turned on her. But she was a believer now. She practiced hospitality, despite the risks.    

I still find myself erring on the side of safety, it worth asking ourself the honest question about how we do with regard to being hospitable?   

1.) Six Disciples: Lydia, The Virtue of Hospitality” Acts 16:11-15, 40

A Sermon by Pastor Bob Kells (https://pastorwellerumc.files.wordpress.com/2013/09/150906_six-disciples_sermon_lydia_virtue-of-hospitality_acts-16.pdf)

2.) Meyer, Danny (2006) Setting the table: the transforming power of hospitality in business; Harper, NY

3.) Genis, Kobus (2015) @GodsTweet #Follow God, p. 142

Copyright 2019 – Heinrich Grosskopf, Minister of Dayspring Presbyterian Church

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Fifth Sunday of Easter – May 19, 2019

Scriptures:

Revelation 21:1–6 (CEV)

Psalm 148 (MSG)

John 13:31–35 (MSG)

Acts 11:1–18 (CEV)

What a wild dream Peter had! A huge sheet was coming down on him while he was in a deep sleep. How many of you have had wild dreams? Peter’s bizarre dream involved some instruction from God. Isn’t it wonderful to receive some brand-new insights in a dream? New vistas get opened up before us. Perhaps we as church in the 21st century are in desperate need of wild dreams.

God’s instruction came through the dream that Peter had. It was a dream that involved some tremendous consequences of love. While there are thousands of things that the church can be focussing on, a ministry of love seems to stand out above them all. When we listen to what the Gospel according to John, as well as the other gospels say, there’s one thing that stands out. Perhaps one of the main ones, you might agree, is that we are meant to be people that love one another. Just now we heard the reading from John, where Jesus says “Love one another as Jesus has loved you.” Throughout the Scriptures it’s clear that we are to love one another. However, here’s a vital difference. It’s not just about loving one another as the Old Testament has said it over and over, it’s about loving as Jesus has loved us. This gives it a radical difference. The difference has become “as Jesus has loved you.” How did Jesus love us? Jesus did not show any favouritism at all. Jesus loved the entire human race, regardless of all our distinctions.

Talk is cheap, and it’s easy for us to say with words that we love others. The real test is personal, and the extent to which we live out the love of Jesus can only be seen in our actions.

Looking at the story we heard from Acts 11 about Peter’s pivotal dream, there might be something we can learn from the story. It actually seems to exemplify what mission in the church could look like. It appears that Peter had been praying, and then the Holy Spirit spoke to Peter. Peter had strong biases before he had this vision. Here is what was going on. 1.) Up until this point all of the Christians were Jews. That is, all the men among them were circumcised, the Christians were attending their local synagogues, adhering to Jewish food laws, and strictly keeping the Sabbath.

Then when Peter goes up to Jerusalem, the headquarters for those who have become believers in Jesus, he has some explaining to do. We heard it in verses 2 and 3: “So when Peter came to Jerusalem, some of the Jewish followers started arguing with him. They wanted Gentile followers to be circumcised, and they said, ‘You stayed in the homes of Gentiles, and you even ate with them!’”

We see how Peter is greeted by the establishment with skepticism. “How does Peter get the idea that it’s just fine to disregard two thousand years of tradition of not eating in a Gentile home?” Peter defies the norms that were set for Jewish-born Christians. What gives Peter the right to think he can singlehandedly change the direction of this newly-formed Christian movement among the Jews?

In Peter’s prayer to God there was something that stood out quite clearly. This is the Holy Spirit of God who is active in Peter’s discernment. Peter does not act as singlehandedly as it seems. My question this morning is whether the Holy Spirit still gets a chance to speak to us as we pray with God.

Peter is being nudged and actually driven by God’s Spirit as he ventures in a new direction.

Our problem today as Christians is often that we have become used to the idea that the Spirit only operates among the Pentecostals. Isn’t this perhaps an error?

We might in fact do well to listen to what this Spirit is doing among us. The Spirit might be moving us in new directions, in directions that bring about change.

Speaking of change, none of us likes change when it is imposed on us.

A motto of the Reformers was, the reformed church is always in need of reforming.

Reforming involves change, and change is hard.

If Peter faced criticism with bringing about change, of course we will too.

Are we then not being led towards looking wider when we move into the future? Currently, there are many initiatives being undertaken towards being faithfully present in reaching out to people who are not necessarily like us. This was the reason why Peter’s vision of the many animals, reptiles and birds coming down in a sheet from heaven enticed Peter to reach out wider. The result was that Peter’s eyes opened towards folks who were not like him.

There are initiatives that are happening that have many names, such as Cyclical 2.), the Centre for Missional Leadership 3.) at Vancouver School of Theology, Missio Alliance 4.), the V3 Movement 5.), and 3DM 6.) to mention only a few. The main gist of all these initiatives is to allow God’s Spirit to start fresh new life in the church, because we as the church are God’s sent ones. We are sent into our local neighbourhoods so that the Good News of Jesus’ love can be conveyed to all.

We know from Acts 10 and 11 that Peter’s sermon about Jesus is quite simple. God loves all people. No matter who they are.

There are men and women whom we reject every day who are searching for meaningful experiences in their lives. 7.) Captured by fears and uncertainties about their future and caught in cycles of despair, they lose hope. Is there an answer? Yes! While it may sound simple at first, it has the potential of making a profound difference in the lives of others.

There is an answer that can be found in a song that many of us first learned in Sunday school. “Jesus loves me! This I know, for the Bible tells me so.” Too simple you say. Not really. There are some people who have never heard these words. There are others who need to hear them again — for the first time. God has shared his gift with you — pass it on. Let us discern how God’s Spirit leads us into a new future.

1. Parts of the thoughts in this message come from a sermon by Andy Rowell “The spirit-led missional church” (https://www.andyrowell.net/andy_rowell/2008/04/my-sermon-the-s.html)
2. Cyclical—https://presbyterian.ca/cyclicalpcc/
3. Centre for Missional Leadership—https://www.standrews.edu/cml/
4. Missio Alliance—https://www.missioalliance.org
5. V3 Movement—http://thev3movement.org
6. 3DM—https://www.3dmovements.com
7. Used this illustration from a sermon by Rodney Thomas Smothe on sermons.com by the title “God’s gift is for all.”

Copyright 2019 – Heinrich Grosskopf, Minister of Dayspring Presbyterian Church

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Fourth Sunday of Easter, May 12, 2019

Scriptures:

• John 10:22-30
• Psalm 23
• Acts 9:36-43

For lots of years, and especially the last number of months, there was a scary feeling that started creeping up on me, more and more. It felt like I was pursuing “fluff” in a certain sense. Yes, when we look at the word, “fluff”, it might conjure up something worthless or merely nonsensical and standing in the way. This is in particular when we see it in conjunction with “substance.” 

When we heard the story about Tabitha according to Acts 9, she seemed to have had a God-given knack of finding the things of substance in this life.

We all know how literal fluff, and definitely not substance, accumulates under our beds, furniture and in the corners of our living spaces. Balls of fluff are kind of annoying. Why do they build up in the places that we’ve just cleaned? It seems as if the air circulation has something to do with the appearance of fluff. Can we do anything with the fluff? Not really, eh!

Think of the social media that we have increasingly been encountering the last decade or so. Think of the way many of us have been drawn into the lure of many interesting websites and links that seize a person’s attention. I have personally found Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and others to be quite intrusive in my productivity and I sense that I’ve become quite distracted and way less focussed than I would wish to be.

On May 12, 2017 (it happens to be exactly two years ago today) Bill Maher said something very non-political on HBO. He said, and I quote: “The tycoons of social media have to stop pretending that they’re friendly nerd gods building a better world and admit they’re just tobacco farmers in T-shirts selling an addictive product to children. Because, let’s face it, checking your ‘likes’ is the new smoking.” 1.)

Wherever we go nowadays, into malls, restaurants, airports, on the street, you see people with these nifty little devices called smartphones, scrolling for some new ideas, jokes or news. Of course there is a place for all of this, but there is a line which gets crossed ever so subtly. We get carried away by being available 24/7 and by swiping towards the void that our devices are supposed to fill. 

A young man by the name of Tristan Harris, who used to work for Google as a design ethicist, first established a big idea for the tech industry, and named it the Time Well Spent movement. Recently, he unveiled the sequel—making the bold statement that tech platforms are undermining humanity. His idea, which he calls “downgrading,” attempts to explain everything from smartphone addiction to political polarization. Is his diagnosis that humanity is being “downgraded” correct? This might be a good question to ponder on. 2.)

We agree that there is a balance to everything in life, and moderation has never hurt anyone. However, when beauty and youth, for example, become an obsession in our culture, it becomes hard to justify what we really are up to. The weight-loss industry is a $20-billion cash-cow. Cosmetic surgery is a $12-billion industry trying to keep us eternally young and wrinkle free. 3.)

The “fluff” and almost empty senselessness stands in stark contrast to the substance that is to be found in a relationship with Jesus Christ. 

When we allow God’s Spirit to nurture a wholesome, strong relationship with our creator-God, substance gushes forth. There is so much to be found in this deep relationship.

How does it come to fruition? Perhaps much of it can be found through allowing the Spirit to work in and through the scriptures. More of this may come through the fellowship of believers who care for one another. 

Substance comes through authentic friendships with people who can be seen, touched and heard, as opposed to the superficial “likes” and “posts” on social media. It quickly replaces the “fluff” that tends to be what technology shows us. 

Substance is found in a new balance that is acquired by setting the lightweight simple things aside in favour of more meaningful care for people on a face-to-face basis. 

Tabitha’s life according to Acts 9 was a life that touched other people’s lives in a sincere and substantial way. Jesus’ Spirit shone through her relationship life in Jesus Christ, it was evident in the good works and her acts of charity. Tabitha seems to have lived a life of substance.

In a similar way, the world mourns the loss of Jean Vanier, the man who founded L’Arche and who gave disability a newly found dignity. What a meaningful life that was filled with substance.

I don’t know how Peter raised Tabitha. All I can try and imagine, is that her life touched so many people’s lives, as Mother Teresa and Jean Vanier did and perhaps Tabitha’s life became such a living memory that she lived on as the Mother Teresas and Jean Vaniers live on, bringing substance to the world. But then, most likely she literally must have stood up following Peter’s sincere and honest prayer to God, when Peter said “Tabitha, get up!” She got up and appeared to the saints and widows. 

Peter too, lives on in the life of the church throughout the ages, because Jesus is the one who lives in him. 

We saw the good works that Tabitha had left behind. Perhaps tunics, cloaks, robes, shawls, and such. Peter had his own profound collection. Healed bodies, saved souls, and a living Tabitha. Such are the good works that the apostle leaves behind.

Peter’s example and Tabitha’s example challenge us. We see what each left behind, and we ask, ‘What is it that I leave in my wake? What is the impact and effect of you or I having been in a community, a church, a school, a workplace, a family?”

Looking at the example of Tabitha, we see that the good works she left behind remind us of her Lord. In the end He is the original artisan, after all, and He has generously shared his handiwork with us. The works of his hands lead us to songs of praises.

In a similar way, looking at the example of Peter, we see that the works he left behind also remind us of his Lord. We follow Peter, and we remember the Lord Jesus who sent his followers out, and I quote: “to proclaim the good news, to cure the sick, raise the dead, cleanse the lepers, cast out demons. You received without payment; give without payment.”

The deeds and lives of Jesus’ people, you see, remind us of Him. In the end, they are—we are—the good works that Jesus leaves behind. 4.) 

What do we aspire to do? Do we really want to pursue the fluff of social media and the the self-obsessed society we live in, or does a Christ-filled life of substance actually make sense? May God’s Spirit lead us day by day.

Amen.

1.) Cal Newport, “Digital minimalism: Choosing a focused life in a world of noise”, p.9

2.) From “The leader of the Time Well Spent movement has a new crusade” on theverge.com (https://www.theverge.com/interface/2019/4/24/18513450/tristan-harris-downgrading-center-humane-tech)

3.) Ramani Durvasula in “Should I stay or should I go? Surviving a relationship with a narcissist” p. 32 (Post Hill Press, 2015)

4.) From “The good works we leave behind” by David J. Kalas on sermons.com 

Copyright 2019 – Heinrich Grosskopf, Minister of Dayspring Presbyterian Church

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Third Sunday of Easter – May 5, 2019

Scriptures:

• Revelation 5:11–14 (NRSV)       
• Psalm 30 (CEV)
• Acts 9:1–6 (NRSV)

We just heard about a villain struck down by a flash of light. Jesus’ disembodied voice was calling him out as Saul, better known to us as Paul, on the road to Damascus. Don’t we tend to assume that Saul is the bad guy in the story? However, coming to think of it—is he the bad guy? What’s important for us when we hear the story, is to remember that Saul sees himself as the person with good intentions, who is trying to protect the faith. He could just as well be like you and me, a person with well-intended aspirations. Saul loves God, serves God devoutly, and wants to stamp out anything that, in his view, dishonours God. In this case, that means the Jews who had joined the movement of following Jesus.

Saul is God’s champion. When he breathes “threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord” (as the story starts out according to Acts 9) Saul is championing for God by going after the “bad Jews” who are straying away from the tried and tested faith tradition. He sees Jesus’ followers as those within his own faith needing to be rescued from their error. He asks for letters to the synagogues in Damascus that will give him authority to conduct his policing there, to clean up his own faith community and rid it of the straying, unrighteous ones. As far as he is concerned, this is not a matter of going after people just to persecute them, but rather a correction of “Jews gone bad.”

Saul is the classic example of the devout person who is so determined to do good that they are blinded (literally!) to the destructive consequences of their purity campaign. He does as much harm as he is trying to do good. I’ve found myself trying my very best to do a great thing and to be helpful, only to find that I should have rather minded my own business or I should have been better at consulting ahead of time. You might know that feeling.

We must be careful, then, in how we portray Saul. Rather than painting a picture of him as a persecutor, we might see him as a committed and devout person of faith, someone trying to do the right thing so that he could strengthen the people of God.

The bigger question is whether it is wise to narrow, or is it wise to expand? When we read this story in a more sympathetic manner, we might wonder whether Saul is shocked not only by the flashing light, but also by being accused of persecution, “Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?” We might imagine Saul can hardly believe his ears, thinking, “Who? Me? A persecutor?” This is not Saul’s story about himself.

His one-track—very determined—focus on being correct and faithful narrows rather than it expands his vision of what God is up to. He is so convinced of the error of others that he cannot see the new thing God is doing in Jesus Christ and mis-reads it completely. He’s not only literally blinded by a bright light, but he is unaware of a blind-spot in his actions.

Saul’s blindness can help us see the ways our religious commitments, however righteous, can be obstructions. How do our religious (or political or ideological or social) commitments keep us from seeing the new thing God is up to? How do we narrow rather than expand God’s mission in the world? What, in our good intentions, do we mis-read completely? Do we have biases, prejudices that drive us towards a narrow vision?

At both ends of the ideological spectrum, Christian progressives as well as Christian conservatives look to purge what’s happening of any who step even slightly out of their line. The story each side tells about themselves is that they are holding firm to sacred values. They have principles. No one thinks of themselves as a persecutor in the stories we tell ourselves about our own commitments. We would be shocked to hear Jesus say to us, “Why do you persecute me?”

On this third Sunday of Easter, to respond to the Risen Christ, we expand, we don’t narrow the vision of what God is up to, far beyond ourselves. It’s our time to pause and examine our blind spots, often tied to our deepest commitments.

1.) This message is based on the insights of a commentary by Amy G. Ogden on workingpreacher.org

Copyright 2019 – Heinrich Grosskopf, Minister of Dayspring Presbyterian Church

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Good Friday, April 19, 2019

Scriptures:

Jeremiah 31:31-34 and Hebrews 10:15-25

There’s a type of disconnect that some people who go on a trip to Israel, to see the Holy Land, discover. They want it to be the real experience of walking where Jesus and his disciples trod. 

Several say they want it to feel worshipful. However, visiting a Byzantine or medieval church building just isn’t worshipful for them at all.

Some people in worship have no more communion with God than they could by contemplating cold stones on a Jerusalem sidewalk. Sadly, this can also be said about going to a regular church from an era 2000 years later, right now here in Edmonton, in 2019.

Maybe there are people who once looked forward to worship. They have pleasant memories of times with God and God’s people, but today they have no verve or zest, no vigour or vitality, which penetrates their lives through worship. It feels hollow and empty, a habit that used to be significant but now is as dry as the dust of the wilderness in Israel.

It becomes like that of a priest in Jerusalem’s ancient temple who, as Hebrews says, “stands day after day at his service, offering again and again the same sacrifices that can never take away sins.”

It could be that worship withers for people because they’ve forgotten that Jesus didn’t suffer on the cross just for the worst of people and problems, or even for the best of people and their potential. He hung on the cross for all of us, Jesus died so that even we could rekindle our expectancy for a burning, passionate experience with God.

No matter how much people enjoy criticising worship on the drive home from church, the book of Hebrews points us toward a problem that’s deeper than craving for novelty or yearning for the good old days in worship. Our dullness comes from a deeper source. The problem is deep within us, and that’s where God promises to make the real changes in worship.

Somehow we have come to a place where we’ve chosen not to face God. Did we maybe lose the faith we had as children? I recently saw a child-like faith in action that blew me away. This nine-year-old was inspiring me greatly. Her eyes light up as she talks about her passion to help people. Let’s call her Natasha. I couldn’t help but ask her why. Her reply was, “Because God loves people and doesn’t want them to go hungry either.” Her donations from knitting and selling scarves reached over $360 a year and was helping a local charity, as well as a women’s shelter. As I think of Natasha’s passion to help, it reminds me of Jesus, who passionately came to our messy planet to live with imperfect, broken human beings like us.

“This is the covenant that I will make with them…. I will put my laws in their hearts, and I will write them on their minds” (Hebrews 10:16). Here’s where God aims to meet us, right at the centre of our being that the Bible calls our heart.

God offers more than a twinge of peace, a spurt of inspiration, or an interesting new thought. The cool spring water of God’s love gushes up from a deeper source. When it truly springs up within you, you can’t stop it: water everywhere, the Spirit washing us of our sins and refreshing us into eternal life. Worship flows from God to us, not the other way around; it floods us with the presence of a God who will suffer for us. Thus, worship can be painful, even life threatening; yet it is infinitely hopeful.

No wonder there’s no joy in worship. How can you get excited about worshipping a God when you have a broken image of God? The folks in the Old Testament, be they ever so bloody or shortsighted, shouted for joy in the presence of the God they worshiped.

The book of Hebrews takes us to the deepest problem that God promises to address. “I will remember their sins and their lawless deeds no more” (Hebrews 10:17). This cuts toward the centre of the whole big problem. It’s a cleansing of our hearts and the forgiveness of our sins.

We’re not all such terrible people. It’s just that we’ve chosen to go our own ways, to form our own opinions, and to clutch our own values. We slowly push God out of our daily decisions. We’ve chosen not to pray about daily, mundane matters. We pretend we don’t want to bother God with such trivialities.

We need forgiveness, we need it like we need our life’s breath.

How can we truly return to God? How can we face God again, when we’ve consistently slipped so far away?

For Israel, their guarantee of God’s forgiveness was seen in their twice-daily worship services. Morning and evening in the Jerusalem temple they offered sacrifice to God. By an animal’s life dedicated to God the ritual helped people understand the seriousness of sin and the costliness of forgiveness. Most people felt satisfied with such worship. Some did not. How could a ritual with an animal assure us of God’s acceptance? Our Lord Jesus, just a few blocks to the west of the temple, suffered on a cross for six hours on a Friday we call “Good,” which means good for us anyway. On this Friday, we remember how serious sin is and to what lengths God goes to demonstrate love and forgiveness to us.

Our text says that Jesus has opened for us a new and living way into God’s presence. We have confidence to come back to God because of what Jesus has done — not because of what we’ve done, thought, or said, not because of what we’ve intended or promised; thus our confidence in approaching God can’t be erased by the promises we’ve broken or the resolutions we haven’t kept. God reaches to us through Christ and delivers God’s inscribed and embossed invitation through Jesus’ scarred hands. The invitation reads: “Therefore, my friends, since we have confidence to enter the sanctuary by the blood of Jesus, by the new and living way that He opened for us through the curtain (that is, through his flesh), and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us approach with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water.”

Our text proclaims, “He who has promised is faithful.” We accept God’s invitation and attend worship expecting to meet God here because God is faithful.

In response to God’s love and faithfulness, the book of Hebrews says we need to do three things: Continue to gather with one another for worship, cling tightly to our hope in God, and encourage one another in the ways of Jesus Christ. After we’ve met the great and good God, the faithful God who keeps promises and grants us unlimited access through Christ, and after we encourage one another in the faith, then remaining hopeful and continuing to gather regularly for worship isn’t that hard to do. In fact, going to worship expectantly now is natural for us, because we experience again that worship has become supernatural. Amen.

1.) Much of this message takes inspiration from a sermon with the same title at CSS Publishing, Inc., “Sermons for Sundays in Lent and Easter: Toward Easter And Beyond”, by David O. Bales

Copyright 2019 – Heinrich Grosskopf, Minister of Dayspring Presbyterian Church

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