Christians Are to Make Disciples of All Nations (Trinity Sunday Readings)

Jesus did not teach His followers to just attend church, be good and hire evangelists. He challenged them – and us to “...go and make disciples of all nations...”. (Matthew 28.19). “Make” is a verb – an action word. As Christians we have been baptized into a new covenant relationship of fellowship with the Father who loves and protects us, Jesus who died in our place for sin and the Holy Spirit who guides, heals and nurtures us. As we grow deeper in this relationship and discover our spiritual gifts we naturally want to share the good news of Gods’ grace, love and forgiveness with others. This is a challenge in our time as the dominant cultural values of liberalism are secularism and not offending the religious beliefs of others – like Jesus did!

 1. We are Baptized to proclaim the “grace of our Lord Jesus Christ...”(2 Corinthians 13.14).

Our Baptism is to strengthen and protect us in the ministry we are baptized into. That ministry is to “make disciples of all men”. “Make” is a verb, an action word that means working with other people to teach them what they need to know to experience the ‘grace’ of our lord Jesus Christ and become committed followers – disciples.
·         By sharing the good news of the “grace” that we have received.
·         By explaining the meaning and importance of grace as a way out of bondage to anger, bitterness and un-forgiveness
·         By being a sign of Grace and forgiveness in the world
·         By helping others understand the importance of being in a right relationship with God and receive the gifts of the Holy Spirit

“Wholeness through Christ” Healing Ministry Model

(from a workshop presented to Diocese of Windward Islands Clergy, 2014)

 

The Good News of the healing ministry in the Christian Church is that when people come for healing, the Holy Spirit will help us work with them to discern the root cause in their sin or some form of inherited sin-guilt or curse, break the power of the sin through repentance, confession and absolution and build them up spiritually through the infilling of the Holy Spirit. The Wholeness Through Christ Healing Model helps us understand this ministry by defining the goals of Christian healing ministry as:

·         Sins forgiven
·         Wounds healed
·         Evil spirits cast out
·         Bondages broken

Pentecost - Welcome to the Healing Ministry of Christians!

In Luke’s Gospel the ministry of Jesus began after two dramatic encounters. In the first He is tested by Satan (Luke 4.1-13) and puts loyalty to God over materialism, earthly power and spiritual authority. In the second (Luke 4.16-21) Jesus claims His destiny as Saviour and His plan of ministry. All of Jesus ministry was related to healing the separation of individuals from God by destroying the power of sin, evil and deception. We need to study and imitate Jesus model of ministry. Praying for healing was a major part of this ministry – and should be a regular part of our ministry. Let us examine how Jesus approached His Ministry:

1. “The Spirit of the Lord is on me because He has anointed me to proclaim Good News to the poor.”

First of all Jesus ministry is anointed and guided by the Holy Spirit. We have in our time many false teachers and self-appointed ministers. These people have no authority or power from God. Unfortunately, the bad news is that Satan does seem to be able to empower his followers to do counterfeit miracles and healing.
·         Christian healing ministry needs to be under Episcopal or Church authority
·         Ministers need to be carefully chosen, trained and supervised
·         Clergy may not have this gift and need training and support
·         Healing Ministry is Holy Spirit led and experience – based
·         Show up, shut-up (listen) and be available
·         All ministry begins with “proclamation”

Jesus is the Way, the Truth and the Life (Easter 5 Readings)

 This claim to absolute truth was made Two Thousand years ago. Every moment of every day we make choices between this claim and what other voices around us say. Other voices question the truth of this claim by presenting good works, secularism, multi-culturalism and religious pluralism as alternative ways. There is a real conflict between respecting the right of other people to believe in these other ways; and our Baptismal promise to proclaim Jesus as the way, the truth and the life. The cost of silence is our failure to proclaim the Good News of Jesus and the proclamation that other ways are valid. On the surface our silence appears loving. In reality it is unloving. By not proclaiming the Good News of forgiveness and salvation in Jesus we fail to love our neighbors enough to share the Good News and abandon them to ignorance and spiritual death.

 1. Jesus claimed to be" the way" (John 14.6)

In fact the early Christians were known as the people of the Way. What do we mean by "the Way"? It is a short version of way to salvation through belief in the sacrificial death and resurrection of Jesus. Christians believe their way to salvation or eternal spiritual life is through Jesus Christ. Last Sunday we talked about Jesus being like a gate that people had to go through in order to be saved or to receive eternal spiritual life.

Priests of the Caribbean: Reflections by Rev. John and Mrs Lucille Gishler

We arrived in our Companion Diocese of the Windward Islands in November and stayed until Easter. The Diocese includes three main Islands which are also independent states, running from about 100 miles Northwest of Venezuela in an arc that reaches toward Cuba – Grenada, St. Vincent and the Grenadines and St. Lucia. Advent began with a huge gathering (1,200+) of the eight parishes on St Vincent (diameter 26 miles) in an outdoor stadium – I am fourth from the Left.

The Bishop was very interested in the Alpha Course and Cursillo and asked each of the eight parishes on St. Vincent to send two people for training and another four to take the course. You can see the joy after the Alpha Weekend in the picture. We left the training video, Leaders Guide and Alpha Course DVD with the Diocese so they can roll out Alpha in each parish.

Easter Sunday - The Resurrection Validated the Covenant of Jesus

Easter is the celebration of one of the most important events in human history. The Resurrection of Jesus Christ was God’s cosmic yes to all the teachings of Jesus. Jesus taught that he was the long promised Messiah of Deuteronomy 18.18 and Isaiah 52 - 54. He proved his authenticity by healing miracles and prophesying His own death and resurrection. Jesus taught that God was making a new Covenant of forgiveness. This Covenant offered forgiveness of sins through repentance and faith in Jesus sacrificial death. It did not replace but did supersede the Old Testament Covenant of Moses.

1. This sounds too good to be true

It is hard for modern scientific people to believe in miracles. Many have sadly bought into the great lie of modern liberalism which has deconstructed the Bible and questioned everything supernatural. There are three reasons for believing the resurrection story is historically true. First of all the specific details about the linen bandages and napkin suggest an eyewitness account as opposed to a made up story. Secondly the non-heroic confusion and misinterpretation of the Disciples also suggest this is real life rather than fiction. But the biggest reason for belief is the changed lives of the people who were there. This small group of people who had known and seen the risen Jesus went on to change the world. They went fearlessly to horrible deaths with joy on their faces as they witnessed to the intervention of God in history

Priests of the Caribbean: Fr. John and Lucille Gishler in St. Vincent

Santa from Canada and Fr. Brooker

We arrived in our Companion Diocese of the Windward Islands in November to be in place for Advent and the beginning of the Church’s liturgical year. They really celebrate things here so Advent begins with a huge gathering (1,200+) of the eight parishes in an outdoor stadium with all the clergy in full vestments and the Bishop celebrating the Eucharist. I was able meet the clergy, address the gathering and present a special purple cross, blessed by Bishop Kerr-Wilson to Bishop Friday. Bishop Friday loves to joke and noted that he was already wearing a cross so this might be a double cross.