Jesus Delivers Us from Evil (Epiphany 2)

 This is how our Psalm (40) ended. It summarizes the three Epiphany moments of the Readings and also of course, the Lord’s Prayer. This is the great cry of our hearts when we are in trouble. The three Epiphany moments in the Readings are:

·     Isaiah: In Babylon the Hebrews realized they could not save themselves

·     John: realized Jesus was the Lamb of God who would deliver all people from the bondages of sin and spiritual blindness

·     Paul: The Corinthians, like us, needed to experience Jesus deliverance from both the bondage of sin and spiritual evil

·     We all need epiphany moments when our spiritual eyes are opened by Jesus, the light of the world 

 

1.    We cannot save ourselves

How To Be People of Light in a Dark Time (Proper 33A)

Last week was probably one of the darkest times in many people’s lives. We have been traumatized by 10 months of fear, isolation, confusion over the Pandemic and the outcome of the US Presidential election. The Readings challenge us to be people of the light in this darkness. We are to have a faith, love and hope that encourages those ensnared the darkness of fear, confusion and hopelessness. Paul teaches us to not be found sleeping when Jesus returns. We are to use the gifts our master Jesus gives us to grow in love, faith and hope by putting on the breastplate of faith and love and the helmet of hope and salvation.

1. What was the darkness that ensnared the "wicked servant"?

Forgiveness, Healing and Reconciliation (Proper 11 A)

(Available on Youtube June 14)

We are all like Sarah and tend to laugh at God when we are promised something that sounds impossible:

·      Having a child in old age

·      Raising from death

·      Forgiving our rebellion and sin to make us holy

But this is the business our God is in as he continues to reach out to us with the offer of forgiveness, healing and reconciliation into our eternal spiritual life with God. He knows we cannot work hard enough to overcome our natural rebellion and spiritual un-holiness. Sadly, many in the Church also laugh at God’s supernatural gifts and fail in their responsibility to bring in the full harvest of heaven. Paul challenges us to persevere in example of Father Abraham and have faith in God’s promises of forgiveness, healing and reconciliation. This is why Abraham was chosen by God as the father of our faith.

1. Un-forgiveness separates us from God, self and others

We Will Come To You (Easter 6a)

(Home Communion video will be available on John Gishler Youtube channel May 16 

https://youtu.be/zgLeSfv68S8https://youtu.be/zgLeSfv68S8)

Jesus is preparing His followers for the traumatic experiences of His death, Resurrection and Ascension (John 14.15-21). The death and Resurrection of Jesus shows us what believers go through at death. It authenticates the whole Covenant of Jesus and His teachings as of divine authority. The Good News is that we are not abandoned – God is with us always in the form of the Holy Spirit with all the power and authority of Jesus.

1. “Because I live you also will live” (v. 19)

Our greatest fear is death. We push it away with distractions but in this time of pandemic we are all more conscious of our mortality. The Good News Christians bring to this time is that death is a false ending.

Spiritual Relationships (Easter 5)

(Watch on John Gishler Youtube channel https://youtu.be/35cjkbOehRM)

In the Gospel Reading (John 14.1-14) Jesus is comforting His disciples with The Good News that they will not be left alone. He will continue to be with them in the form of the Holy Spirit until they join Him in heaven. This will be a new type of spiritual relationship. He is explaining that the way into this new relationship is belief in Him. Specifically by dying with Him to their old sinful past life and being raised or born again into a new spiritual life in Him. His death and resurrection is a sign of the truth of His promise. His sending of the Holy Spirit will give life to them through this new spiritual relationship.

1. How does this work?

Spiritual Communion Gives Us Hope and Comfort

(Notes for Holy Communion service and teaching available on 

YouTube Channel "John Gishler" Sunday April 19 at https://youtu.be/D_RSeMljU8s ) 

The Christian Church has always taught that Holy Communion is "an outward visible sign of an inner spiritual grace" and that God answers the prayer of our hearts. Like many Anglican priests I am celebrating at home with my wife Lucille in Calgary and invite you to join with us and participate as fully as you can intentionally in your heart. Many will know the responses and everyone can say "Amen" to the prayers. There will be silences for you to participate in the Confession and Prayers of the People at home. We will be honoured to "stand in the gap" for you in receiving the bread and wine. Like Thomas we all need a personal experience of the Risen Jesus and Holy Spirit to really believe in Jesus and find comfort and hope in this challenging time.

1. Easter Gives Us the Hope of Eternal Spiritual life

Reconciliation Is The Way To Spiritual Life (Epiphany 6a)

The three readings remind us that God has called us into a covenant relationship of love and obedience. This requires us to make a serious choice between life and prosperity and death and destruction. There is nothing in the middle. You cannot be a sort-of Christian in the middle and expect to share in the joy of a rich eternal spiritual life in Jesus Christ. The readings explain why this is so.

1. Moses reminds the Hebrews they must choose.

How Do We "Get Free From the Darkness That Ensnares Us" (Proper 33)

The Collect is a prayer that focuses us on the general theme of the readings for each Sunday in liturgical churches. Proper 33 is the last Sunday in the Church year before the "Reign of Christ" (next week) which marks the end of Year A. This is important as a final message generally sums up all that has gone before. The readings begin with a contrast between the disasters that fell on the Hebrew people when they abandoned God, and the military victories and good times when they returned to faith and kept the Covenants of Abraham and Moses. Paul's letter to the people in Thessalonica (1 Thess. 5.1-11) describes this contrast as between people of light and people of darkness. The parable of the Talents (75 lbs. of silver) is a reminder that Jesus will come back to judge us based on what we have done with the gifts we have been given in life. This is not about good works but about faith, hope and the development of spiritual life.

1. What was the darkness ensnared the "wicked servant"?

Notice that he was not accused of the usual sins we think of as preventing inclusion in the Kingdom of God:

Jesus is the Lord of a New Covenant (Palm Sunday)

The readings are preparing us for the Maundy Thursday, Good Friday and the Easter Experience. The Readings remind us that Jesus had great courage in facing opposition, modelled humility and obedience and made a New Covenant of forgiveness with believers. This New Covenant includes the Ten Commandments but adds the possibility of forgiveness through repentance and faith in the shed blood of Jesus. The Readings help us understand that Jesus is more than a teacher of goodness. Jesus is the Lord of a New Covenant relationship with God. As we prepare ourselves for the Easter experience it is a good time to examine our lives for evidence of humility and obedience to our half of this New Covenant – which is our Baptismal Covenant.

1. Have you “set your face like flint”?

Jesus Gives Us the Spiritual Gifts of Love, Joy and Peace (Christmas)

The Good News of Christmas is that God intervened in history to come and live among His creation as a man and make a New Covenant. Covenant of Moses and the Law had been broken several times by the Hebrew People and they were crying out for a Saviour who would free them from Roman occupation and religious corruption. God did much more. He showed His love and trust by coming as a helpless baby who would grow up and give His life as a ransom to establish a New Covenant of forgiveness. This New Covenant broke the power of Satan and freed believers from the spiritual yoke of human sin-guilt that separated them from God and led to spiritual death. Jesus promised the Holy Spirit to come and live inside believers  – giving them the spiritual gifts of love, joy and peace as a sign of relationship.

1. Jesus birth shows us God’s love as relationship, community & belonging

Preparing For the Spiritual Gifts of Love, Joy and Peace

During the four weeks of Advent we are getting ready for the coming of Jesus both at Christmas as a specific date and at the End Time which is an unknown date. We live in a culture of unhappy people focussed on shopping for material gifts to make them feel good. This distracts us from preparing to receive the spiritual gifts that Jesus gives us through the Holy Spirit. These gifts – Love, Joy and Peace cannot be bought in a store; they are free gifts given to anyone who goes through the work of preparing their heart to receive them:

·         Love – being in emotional relationship, community, belonging

·         Joy – having meaning in our life, happiness, thankfulness

·         Peace – overcoming our fear of death, failure, guilt, shame

These are the real gifts that everyone wants but only people in serious Christian community have.

1. John is teaching why we need to prepare to receive these gifts

Witnessing To the Light of Christ in a Dark World (Proper 33b)

As we approach the end of the Church’s teaching Year B we are being sent out to witness to our own experience of being healed, made holy by God and sharing in the love, joy and peace of His Kingdom in our Christian fellowship. People all around us are starving for meaning and fellowship in their lives. Young Muslims of both sexes are so bored and desperate they travel to the horrific violence and danger of the ideal of establishing a new Islamic State. The end of Christendom has left many people without hope or meaning. They have never seen or experienced the spiritual light of hope for healing, forgiveness and an eternal life of love, joy and peace that Jesus taught and modelled on Earth. They have been deceived by false teachers (Mark 13.5, 22) because nobody forcefully proclaimed the Good News of Jesus Christ to them.

1. Christians are being “made holy” (Hebrews 10.14)

Holiness is a lost value in our time. Many people are focussed on the hollow values of inclusiveness, materialism and individualism – that do not really satisfy our basic human need for meaning, fellowship and community.

“Whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life” (Holy Cross Day, Sept 14, 2015)

We are living in a post-Christendom time of “Cross-less Christianity”. Over the years since the Third Century Christian leaders in many places have compromised with political and military leaders to avoid persecution and conflict with popular culture. We have developed a mushy, inoffensive and vague liberal theology of love that denies the power and need for the Cross and personal salvation. False prophets have convinced us that as long as we don’t offend anyone and are a ‘good person’ we are a Christian and assured of eternal spiritual life. The Readings for Holy Cross Sunday remind us that in spite of our good intentions and good behaviour we are still all guilty of rebellion against God in some way – and need a personal Saviour.

1. Hebrew story reminds us of the consequences of rebellion

The One Who Feeds On Me Will Live (have spiritual life) - Proper 20

The Gospel of John Readings assigned for Propers 18-20 – four weeks of teaching, all cover the same central idea of Jesus as ‘the bread of life’. This is probably the most important – and hardest teaching of Jesus to understand. It is a summing up of the New Covenant of Jesus all the way from the Hebrews experience under Moses to the Pentecost experience of the first Christians. The subject is how to have a personal spiritual life that will last forever, including after our physical bodies die.

 1. Jesus explains He is like the mana that came from heaven

This is another example of using a visible and physical thing to explain an invisible and spiritual thing. The Bible teaches us that when the Hebrew people wandered in the desert for 40 years God provided a strange, powdery / flakey substance that formed on the ground in the morning and had to be gathered and eaten each day.

Jesus New Covenant Unites Us In His Spiritual Body (Proper 18)

The Readings help us understand how the new Covenant of Jesus helps us grow and mature together into the spiritual body of Jesus. They began with the Prophet Nathan rebuking David for “despising God” and breaking the Covenant of Moses in his acts of adultery and murder. In the Gospel (John 6.24-35) Jesus declares a new covenant, that adds to the teaching of the Moses Covenant, describing Himself as the bread of heaven that gives life to the world. Finally in Ephesians (4.1-16) the Apostle Paul urges us to grow up into the joy of maturity in our spiritual life as part of the spiritual body of Jesus.

 1. Covenants with God are serious and have consequences

Covenants have two parts – what we do; and what God does. In the Covenant of Moses the people were to love God and their neighbour as defined in the Ten Commandments. In return God promised land, children, prosperity and protection from enemies.

The Good Shepherd Models Sacrificial Love (Easter 4)

Jesus is teaching his followers the cost of being a serious Christian. Just as His life, witness and ministry modeled self-sacrificial love; so we as His followers are to model the self-sacrificial love of the ancient shepherds. This is not easy in our time:
·         Self-sacrifice is foreign to our a self-centred narcissistic culture
·         We live in a culture which has a very confused and opposing understanding of what love is – being nice, avoiding conflict and not offending others
·         Do we go along to get along – even if the result is people not gaining – or loosing eternal spiritual life – OR do we risk unpopularity by offending - to help people
·         Sometimes Jesus ministry was offensive and challenging
·         We need to understand that if we really love people we may need to sacrifice our comfort zone and challenge them
 

1. The Good Shepherd lays down his life for his sheep

The Resurrection Means I Will Not Die But Live! (`Easter)

Easter is a celebration of the Resurrection of Jesus Christ from physical death. This gives us the hope that when we die, our soul and spirit will live on in a different dimension and in a new Resurrection or spiritual body. The Readings assigned for Easter remind us of the Isaiah (25.7) Prophecy and Psalm 118.17 that God promised to intervene in His Story and create a way to save us from the fear and shame of physical death. The Gospel Reading describes the first human encounter with the Risen Jesus and the Acts Reading reminds us that those who believe in Jesus Christ will also experience this new form of life.

1. “He will destroy the shroud that enfolds all people (Is. 25.7)

This is a profound Prophecy about the human condition. We all die. This raises the question of what happens when we die? We all fear death, particularly as we get older and experience the loss of people we love.

God’s Love Frees Us From the Spiritual Prison of Our Desires (Lent 4 Readings)

Lent is a time of self-examination and spiritual cleansing as we prepare for the great celebration of Easter. Self-examination is not designed to make us feel guilty or bad. Self-examination is meant to free us from feelings of guilt and shame that prevent us from living a life of joy. The Good News is that “…God so loved the world that he gave His only son so that all that believed in Him might have eternal life.” It is hard for us to grasp how great the love of God is. It includes all people of all races and religions. It is like a father who loves his children enough to do whatever it takes to rescue his children from their mistakes and restore them to a right relationship.

·         The Readings teach us how this works – how God has provided a way through Jesus Christ to pay the price for our sins and restore us to right relationship.
·         Sin – any rebellion against God’s law of love is very serious and can lead to the death of our personal spirit and soul
·         God is holy and pure and nothing unholy can survive in His presence
·         Spiritual dimension specific & legalistic – sin must be paid for by death
·         Good news is God allows Jesus to pay the price for our specific sins

1. The Hebrew People wanted more than manna

Repentance Is the Doorway To Heaven (Lent 1 Readings)

The Gospel message (Mark 1.9-15) is that the Kingdom of Heaven is not a remote, faraway place, but a place that is near. In Jesus the Heavenly Kingdom has historically broken into our physical world. These divine interventions go back to Creation. In the Noah story God seems almost sorry for the mass destruction of life in the great Flood. God seems to be searching for a better way to bring humanity back into a relationship of love. In Jesus we see that this has happened. In the new Covenant of Jesus God has created a way - the way of repentance in Faith, to bring people back into a relationship of forgiveness and love.

1. The Good News is that there is forgiveness in Jesus Christ

Lent is a time of deep personal self-examination and repentance as we prepare to celebrate the Good News of Jesus Resurrection at Easter. Many people have confused ideas about what this Good News is:

He Is Risen!

(Teaching notes for Easter, 2012 by Rev. John Gishler)

These words “He is Risen!” announced a change in human history. No longer would humans have to live their lives in fear of the inevitability of death. If the promise of Jesus to rise from the dead after three days was true, all the other promises of Jesus were also true. Easter is a time to celebrate this Good News. Two very important questions arise:

·         Can we really believe God raised Jesus from death?

·         What does the Resurrection mean for us in our lives?

1.     Can we really believe God raise Jesus from death?

·         Modern people have questioned this since the Enlightenment

·         Modern people are skeptical about miracles – believe in their heads but don’t really believe in their hearts

·         Critical issue - our Faith in the reliability of the Teachings of Jesus as Lord and Saviour depend on the Resurrection

·         Without the Resurrection Jesus is at best a wonderful teacher

·         The alternative is fraud – Bible gives us no middle way

·         Evidence of no body – we can be sure the religious authorities who had Jesus crucified would try to refute the Resurrection

·         Evidence of the Bible – authentic confused human account (alternative of a fraud would be much more grandiose)

·         Evidence of changed lives – post-Resurrection Disciples were changed men – confident, fearless, determined, ready to die

·         Evidence of our own experience – many of us have personally experienced the supernatural or know someone who has and have no difficulty believing in the Resurrection

·         The news of the Resurrection is so good it is hard to believe – why it is called the Good News

2.     What does this mean for my life? (WIIFM): Resurrection Life