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Prayer of the People, 5 Feb 2023

February 9, 2023 0 Comments

Heavenly Father,

Thank you for bringing us into your communion — the communion of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. This costly grace formed in the life, death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus has granted us the faith in which we stand and has changed our lives forever. Thank you!

In Christ Jesus you have radically altered our past, present, and future.

You have forgiven us of our sins.
You have wiped the slate clean.
You have loved us.
You have brought us out of the kingdom of darkness and into the kingdom of Your Son.
You have given us a new heart.
You have filled us with your Spirit.
You are making us new.
You are renewing our minds.
You are transforming our attitudes and actions.
You are giving us new desires.
You are fulfilling your word.
You are pouring your love into our lives.
You will cause every promise in Christ to be a Yes.
You will return to set all things right.
You will redeem our lives.
You will be praised forever!

Oh Spirit, Come— Gather the Church of Jesus into praise and into intercession with you.
We long for every tear to be tenderly wiped from our faces.
We long for our faith to be sight. But even now Lord fortify us with the disciplines and rhythms that tap deeply into your life and your Word.

Oh Lord, we set before you peoples who feel forgotten and crushed by greed and poverty. We plead with you for healing across the whole planet. We seek You for peace in homes and the transformation of relationships fractured by neglect or even violence. We pray that the love of Jesus would abound so that our neighbours experience love and not accusation, hate or violence. May your grace bring more us into your joyful communion.

We seek You & your Kingdom so we pray as Jesus taught us:

(Please join me in the Lord’s Prayer)
Our Father in heaven,
hallowed be your name,
your kingdom come,
your will be done,
on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us today our daily bread.
And forgive us our debts,
as we also have forgiven our debtors.
And lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from the evil one;
for yours is the kingdom,
and the power, and the glory, 
forever. 
Amen

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A New Year and Jesus’ Name Day

January 1, 2023 0 Comments

We begin the New Year in 2023 with a reflection on the name of Jesus. It’s name day in our celebration of Christmas.

“On the eighth day, when it was time to circumcise the child, he was named Jesus, the name the angel had given him before he was conceived.” Luke 1:21 

When the angel appeared to Mary, he told her that the child to be formed by the Holy Spirit within her womb would be called “Jesus.” The name “Yeshua,” like Joshua in the Old Testament, means “Yahweh saves.” The name given to this body formed in mystery is the revelation of God’s salvation to us. Indeed, the apostles would speak of Jesus the Messiah, saying, “Salvation is found in no one else. There is no other name under heaven given to mankind by which we must be saved.” Acts 4:12 

On his name day, a new day of creation, Jesus enters into the covenant of Israel through circumcision. He not only becomes a participant in God’s promises to Abraham and Israel, Jesus also now embodies this promise. He would later say of his blood when sharing the cup with his disciples, “Drink from it, all of you. This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins.” Matthew 26:27-28

The early church honoured the name of Jesus in the hymn written by the Apostle Paul in the Letter to the Philippians. … Christ Jesus

Who being in very nature God,
did not consider equality with God 
something to be used to his own advantage;
rather, he made himself nothing
by taking the very nature of a 
servant,
being made in human likeness.
And being found in appearance as a
man,
he humbled himself
by becoming obedient to death—
even death on a cross!

Therefore, God exalted him to the
highest place
and gave him the name that is above 
every name,
that at the name of Jesus every knee
should bow,
in heaven and on earth and under
the earth,
and every tongue acknowledge that
Jesus Christ is Lord,
to the glory of God the Father.
Philippians 2:5-11

At the name of Jesus every knee should bow. At the name of Jesus — On this first day of the year and for every day of this year, may the name of Jesus be on your tongue. May we live yielded and surrendered to Jesus our Lord. May we speak the name of Jesus over all who need healing, comfort, and grace. May we lift up the name of Jesus in conversation with all those who seek truth. May we praise the name of Jesus with all his people.

Jesus, Jesus, Jesus. 

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DR: Facing Temptations

August 4, 2022 0 Comments

Read Luke 4:1-13

“When the devil had finished all this tempting, he left him until an opportune time.”

After a high and holy moment Jesus was moved by the Spirit into the wilderness, into a solitary place and the devil came to tempt him. This too is a holy season as Jesus persists in setting Himself into the Presence and purposes of God.

It’s Jesus’ commitment to the Father and his commitment to the way of the Father that is being tested. The devil need not come himself to tempt us. He has his agents but there is more. The Apostle James says that “each person is tempted when they are dragged away by their own evil desire and enticed” (James 1:14). And then there are the systems of this world that are opposed to the knowledge and way of God. We are tempted by their promises all the time to act and live independent of God as He is revealed in His Word and by the Spirit.

Jesus shows us the way forward when tempted as he constantly returns to His life with the Father and the realities of His Word. He resists the devil. 

Heavenly Father, whether I find myself in the solitary places or in the wildness of the crowds I know I am tempted to wander from You and Your ways. Seek me and set me in the delight of your love. May no willful sin dominate me. Protect me from the evil one and the lead me in the way everlasting. In Jesus Name, Amen.

Change, Daily Readings, Discipleship

The Goose, The Plan, and The Dissenting Opinion

May 14, 2022 0 Comments

This week while making my way to UBC I came to a brief but dangerous standstill on 41st Avenue. In the approach to Cambie a driver had staddled two lanes and was stopping, starting, then stopping again and again. What the dickens?!

Then I saw him. A Canadian Goose had successfully stoped us. I’m not sure what he was protesting. The driver in the blue Subaru Forester was trying to shepherd the Goose to the side of the road. Like a western cattle rancher he applied force and size to drive the Goose away. But the Goose was having none of that. I smiled and nervously watched the approaching traffic in my rear view mirror.

Surely frustrated, the driver finally honked. Success. Something in the horn’s tone must have resonated with the Goose because he took off in a flash toward Cambie where he turned right toward City Hall.

The Broadway Plan

Did you hear about the Broadway plan? It’s all the rage as we plan for progress. Dense, denser, and densier.

I’ve been more interested in the minority opinion though. It calls for the Broadway Plan to be rejected. Expressed by Gabriella Peters and Ruby Langan, who serve as Commissioners with the Vancouver City Planning Commission they elevate their concerns to life and death. Perhaps it feels to some that they would stop progress, but that’s not their point. They want progress to include everyone. As I surmise their concerns are three-fold. 1. We are in an emergency. “Disabled people are dying now.” 2. The Broadway Plan provides lots of details on density but it doesn’t provide specific details for going beyond current inadequate building standards that harm the disabled. 3. The plan does not provide a plan that keeps us from creating a “poor door” out of the city for the current renters.

Here’s the Dissenting Opinion, please read it.

https://twitter.com/mssinenomine/status/1525189748716761088?s=20&t=liK5fK8vfkTuzoCoICu8jA

Minority Reports

Minority reports and dissent seem to stand in the way of progress or at least someone’s vision of security. Within the Scripture from which I speak each week, minority reports and dissent is the way of the prophets. To ignore their voice is to court disaster. Famously Joshua and Caleb provided a minority opinion when they urged Israel to trust God and enter into the land on the other side of the Jordan river; the majority said “no we will not go” and so they wandered in the desert for years. Not so famously Jonathan son of Asahel and Jahzeiah son of Tikvah, supported by Meshullam and Shabbethal the Levite, opposed Ezra the priest and the assembly who sought to compel the men who had “foreign” wives to send the wives and children away; their dissent was noted but rejected and so a vision of God’s inclusion of people in covenant was reduced to blood lines for a time until Christ.

From within my faith tradition I see land, inclusion and visions of progress and security often contested. The record speaks for itself. However, I know of a church here in the Lower Mainland that listened to a minority report once. The whole body was voting to sell the land and call it a day at their location. But one child raised her hand and voted no. They stopped to listen. Imagine that! Progress was stopped by one child. They listened, reconsidered, and voted to stay put. Today this property hosts multiple congregations and is stewarded through a multi-ethnic and multi-congregational board. It’s not easy, but it’s glorious.

Will Vancouver listen? It’s hard for Gabriella and Ruby to be heard. As far as I can tell the Vancouver Sun has not brought their concerns forward to the general public. But the general public is having a hard time on any day to hear, listen, and be engaged in the many decisions shaping the future of Vancouver. We’ve got our heads down and we are trying to make sure our circles of comfort survive.

But at least we have Twitter.

Hear! Hear! I raise my morning coffee to Gabriella and Ruby.

Change, Leadership, Society

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Social Capitals

January 18, 2022 0 Comments

Babylon will burn and the corporate lament
shall not drown the cries of those
below their lines.

To be fair we might all benefit from ugly truth
‘less we are so damn sure that
our greed is just.

There is no social capital in hell; yet beyond
that fiery lake is a beach to a city
with an open gate.

So I look up and behold the God who came down.
So I look down and behold the souls bought at a price.

Now mercy brings me to this promised land but
Jesus reserved stern words for the mercied
who would not mercy.

The world watches social capitals work and
billionaires go green to make a deal
while the devil lies.

The Uyghurs cry out with Able. With Lazarus they sit
at the end of the drive waiting for golden warriors but
we are playing

games in social capitals.

***I felt enormous dismay at the interview confession with Chamath Palihapitiya in which he says, “Nobody cares about the Uyghurs.” This is a response to our common and dangerous situation: not caring.***

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