Sermon Rev. John Sovereign Thomas said to Jesus, Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way? Jesus said to him, I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you know me, you will know my Father also. From now on you do know him and have seen him. If I was to ask you Where are you going? Where is St. Thomas going? How can we find the way? what kind of answer would you give? Some of us wouldnt know. The answer appears obvious, but no one knows exactly. We keep going. It feels like were in the middle of a corn field and cant see anything but the sun directly overhead. All the certainties we knew years ago feel weak, but they still bring comfort. We keep going because without our church to anchor us we become lost in a field of culture, swaying with each passing breeze. Some of us would point to our past, to keep the church open. We are mindful of the buildings and the history. We could cite the good old days when St. Thomas was big and full and important. Even more, in those days the Church of England dominated religious life in Canada. We could speak about its positive, civilizing effect on the neighbourhood, and on Chilliwack. The church of our history was built with good purpose, and for power. Our grandparents have passed it down to us. Keeping it open is a sacred trust. And some of us might grieve another era, when we served the Lord with energy and confidence and prayer. And now we feel hollow, not so sure any more, and preoccupied with the cares of our world. Worship, liturgy and music are not the only reason to be at church on a Sunday morning. For some of us a church service is not that meaningful. For others, of course, a great service and a great congregation make the world go around. The high can last all week. I read the article in the Times on Historymaker this week. We get lots of promotional mail for Historymaker. It is a Pentecostal youth movement, and they take over Prospera Centre for a weekend. A lot of Chilliwack youth attend Historymaker. The article is very critical of the theatrical nature, the expense, and the over the top hype of Historymaker. The writer makes sure we know he is above the train wreck. He is an atheist. He knows that Historymaker is contrived. I did not agree with him, although I am not likely to attend Historymaker. Our biggest challenge is in the knowing. How can I know when God is speaking to me and not my adrenalin? How can I know when I am not just hearing voices. I had a friend in Schreiber with Schizophrenia. He had all kinds of voices, and all kinds of urges. Some of them were dangerous. He could tell the difference between himself and his voices, and so he was able to live in the community. Jesus himself seemed to know the trick of it. He knew his heavenly Father, God our Creator. Whoever wrote the Gospel of John, would tell you that knowing God is a spiritual thing. Jesus speaks a lot about that in John. It is the Gospel that gives us the phrase born again, and in which Jesus goes into long discourses about abiding in him and he in us. It sounds very circular. The truth is that faithfulness is not just about believing. I often refer to salvation as if God were rescuing us. I think there is some real truth to that, although i am also aware that salvation is not made of one single strand but many. So some of us are going to respond spiritually to the hype of Historymaker. God can both speak and listen in the noise and theatre. Atheists to the contrary. That might not work for me though, and I would be suspicious of my motives and emotions. The book Pilgrims Progress describes life in terms of challenges, distractions, responsibilities, and perseverance. These are categories of living that resonate with faith. It may be that the evangelists, with their confident Sinners Prayer and know for sure preaching have led us to think that everything can be shoved into a personal and spectacular encounter with God, as if life itself were based on intense ten second spiritual time bytes. My schizophrenic friend in Schreiber would tell you that deep inside you know if its real. You have to keep your wits about you. I have had a number of different encounters with God, including my call to St. Thomas, and they have all been different, and few have been intense. You just know, and if you stand back and look, you can see. Faith is based on call and encounter though. Even if youve always believed, and always been faithful, and always just known that God is there, it is call and encounter. The encounter is full time and the call is to a kind of obedience that is not about morality or ethics or what time to get up in the morning. The call is to seek and to hunger and to thirst for the Living God. If you have been shaken in your faith, and if you are looking for more, very often the Lord just asks you to keep following, keep seeking, keep hungering, keep hoping, keep believing. He is always one step beyond, but he beckons, and at some point you will know you have been found, that the search has brought needed change in you, that you are become his. The biggest temptation we can face is the temptation to stop searching. To fall asleep again, and slip beneath the darkness of this night. God calls us to search deeper because he wants to reward our search with growth and change and insight that we could find in no other way. Our persistence feeds our spirit, tears down our devices, and builds our faith, breaks down the walls we have placed around our hearts. Jesus is the Way, meaning we should seek to follow his lead and know the sound of his voice; the Truth, meaning he can withstand our questions, really invites our investigation, and encourages us to speak to our own generation - and the Life, meaning he wants to live in us and us in him.
Posted on: Mon, 19 May 2014 07:08:53 +0000
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