Good Shepherd Models Sacrificial Love (Easter 4b)

Commissioned, Empowered & Guided by the Holy Spirit (Ascension, Year A)

 Ascension is the final direct teaching moment in Jesus ministry. He is comforting the disciples with the news they will be commissioned, guided and empowered by the Holy Spirit. This is good news for us as we too live in a hostile and dangerous place. Like the disciples we cannot continue Jesus ministry on our own. Like them we need both a community for emotional support and the Holy Spirit to commission us, guide us and empower us for ministry. We live in the spiritual wreckage of failed politicized churches that did not depend on the Holy Spirit to commission, guide and empower them.

 1.  “You will be baptized by the Holy Spirit” (Acts 1.5)

We Are In the Healing and Reconciliation Business (Proper 16)

 When I was the Business Librarian at the Richard Ivey School Of Business Administration I heard a wonderful story about defining “what business you are in” as a key to business focus and success. The Adams Adding Machine Co. was a small US company making pre-computer adding machines. The son took over and decided they needed a more ambitious name for the coming computer age. He chose International Business Machines - which is still one of the most sucessful computer companies in the world. The Readings this Sunday teach us we are in the business of healing and Reconciling people to God.

1. The Church is to be Holy Spirit Led

Developing Relationship With Jesus (Easter 4)

(Homily will be on YouTube on Sunday May 3 with a home Holy Communion service

https://youtu.be/g-YK8ywGVec)

In John 10.1-10 Jesus challenges the Pharisees to give up their legalistic dependence on the Law of Moses and depend on Him as Messiah and Saviour.  Jesus is describing Himself as the new shepherd of Israel and the (not a) “gate” each person must pass through into eternal life in His Kingdom. The test is that they know His voice and He knows them personally. The big question is how do you have a relationship with someone who died over 2,000 years ago? The Good News of Easter is that we can have an intimate, personal relationship with the Risen Jesus. The other Readings (Acts 2.42-47 and 1 Peter 2.19-25) teach us how to do this:

·      Jesus left a community of Apostles and believers in a growing home church.

·      This is where we all are today.

·      Sharing a spiritual communion service and teaching how to develop a home relationship with Jesus through:

o   Reading and sharing the “Apostles teaching”

o   “Fellowship” or developing a caring community

o   Relevant “prayer” and worship that connects us

o   Outreach or sharing to serve the needs of others

1. Developing Relationship through “Apostolic teaching”

Jesus Grew in Wisdom, stature & favour with God & Man (Christmas 1)

The Readings for today (1 Samuel 2.18-26; Colossians 3.12-17; Luke 2.41-52) teach us how to prepare to have a rich spiritual life of love and service as God’s chosen people. This new life begins with a rediscovery of our identity as children of God which has been stolen from us by a secular culture. Jesus was fully human so the Readings show us how he grew spiritually by reading the Scriptures, seeking out wise teachers and spending time with them. It was only after He had spent 30 years growing in wisdom and stature that He was able to step out in ministry as a teacher and healer. These readings explain why many churches are not thriving in our time – they have lost their spiritual identity and are not in favour with God and man.

1. Our identity as “God’s chosen people” has been stolen

Where’s A Good Church?- Canadians Respond from the Pulpit, Podium and Pew (Book review and ministry effectiveness map)

This book was published in Canada in 1993 and the co-author Don Posterski gave a one day Workshop at the Toronto School of Theology in the same year. The other author, Irwin Barker was Senior Research Director at Angus Reid, one of Canada’s most respected public polling companies. They used a combination of 26 focus groups and 761 survey returns asking the most basic questions facing a church that is serious about examining itself and trying to figure out what it has to do to grow and thrive. The first question of course is “are we desperate enough to honestly examine our ministry and consider changing what we do if this will help us grow and thrive?” For some churches the honest answer is sadly no. St. Mark and St. Phillips in Calgary made this choice and are now selling their church. My hope is that the following Canadian research on what people in Canada are looking for in a “good church” - and the ministry mapping exercise will help the leadership in other declining churches find a better approach to ministry and thrive.

 1. What are the characteristics of a good church in Canada?

We All Hunger For The Fellowship of the Holy Spirit (Proper 21)

 

For the past three weeks churches using the Common Lectionary have been studying the same passage in John’s Gospel (6.25-69) which is about Jesus as the “bread of life” that feeds our eternal spiritual life. Jesus is using the historical experience of the Hebrews in depending on God to keep them physically alive with mana; to explain how Christians must depend on Jesus gto keep them spiritually alive both in this life and after physical death. The key is our dependence on the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God and our fellowship with the Holy Spirit. This is the opposite from the (false) hope many people in our time have in “self-salvation” through good works or good moral behaviour. Self-salvation is the greatest lie of our time.

 For over twenty years I have been working with generally declining Anglican churches to help them find the key to stopping the decline, thrive, grow and be more spiritually nourishing. Last week I had an epiphany moment after a particularly nourishing and uplifting experience WITH the tiny (14 people) congregation in Sundre, Alberta. I asked myself why was this experience so spiritually nourishing? What is so different about this congregation?

 1. These people regularly depend on the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ

Why Is Working With Other Churches Important to St. Edmund’s? (Bow-Mont Ministerial Service, Aug. 9, 2015)

 

In writing to the Christian community in Corinth, the Apostle Paul said

“Just as a body, though one, has many parts, but all its many parts form one body, so it is with Christ. For we were all baptized by one Spirit so as to form one body—whether Jews or Gentiles, slave or free—and we were all given the one Spirit to drink. (1 Corinthians 12:12-13)

We are all baptized into the same spiritual body. This body is more effective when all the parts – all the churches, work together. People in our time are isolated and confused about religion. They are seeking community, fellowship and meaning in their lives. We call this ‘spiritual life’. But what do the un-churched see? They often see churches breaking into smaller and smaller fragments – and fighting over minor theological issues. The message we send out is that nobody really knows the truth about Jesus – so why bother attending church?