Living in Hope

One of the greatest moments in my life came the week I was leading the study. I got the chance to reuse my joke about hoping that the Riders would win the Grey Cup and because it was entirely new group of people, they all went for it! Score one for Amanda!!

This wouldn’t be a proper bible study on hope if I didn’t use Hebrews 11:1. Have a peek and you’ll see why…

Now you know the definition that we’re using and we can move on from there.

Things hoped for; what does that look like? What do we really hope for? In everyday conversation you might hear someone say “I hope this wind lets up,” or “I hope that never happens to me.” The hopes that are being expressed are describing something that isn’t currently happening. It is currently windy; you wish it were not. You are currently afraid of something; you wish that you would not be. If the only child says “I wish I had a sister,” it sounds normal. When I, with one young sister say, “I wish I had a sister,” people look at me funny. When we put our hope in Christ, what we’re saying is that our hope is in something better than what we have in this world.

Unfortunately, in using the word hope as any of us would use it in a sentence, it creates a simile to wish. And a wish is something that we want, but realize is not a certainty. Our hope in Christ is different though, because it is a certainty. We have the wisdom of those who have gone before us. Our hope is built on the faith given to us by the Holy Spirit, but solidified by the hope that was shown by the writers of the gospels and the people of the Old Testament who lived out their faith in everything that they did.

Our hope is one that extends beyond the boundaries of this life here on earth. Our hope is that which is found in 1 Thessalonians 4:13-14. We state every week that we believe in the resurrection of the dead and the life everlasting. Everything else that has been said has been leading up to this statement: Our hope is in the resurrection. There’s no other reason that we are without ignorance in death, that we live unlike those that have no hope than the fact that we believe that Jesus died, rose and ascended into heaven and he promises that we will too. Our hope is in a resurrected Saviour and the promise that we too will join him in eternal perfection. 

F is for Faith

And also for forgetfulness!

By that I mean, that I tend to talk off the cuff and I promptly forget what I’ve said 5 seconds later, never mind a whole week later!

But sometimes I forget about my faith in my everyday life too.

Mostly this happens when things are going just terribly. I lose faith in God’s abilities and in try to fix things on my own. Those of you who have seen my handyperson attempts will know what a disaster this is! But that faith that I am losing, that I am forgetting isn’t the faith that comes from God. That lost faith is my own lack of understanding, it’s my own doubts and insecurities coming to the surface.

I’m sure that you don’t care too much about my doubts and insecurities, and if you do it’s probably because I’m laying on a sofa paying you big dollars to care! Since that isn’t the case let’s look instead at the faith that comes from God!

I’ve been throwing this faith word around willy-nilly but haven’t really taken the time to talk about what it is. To do so I want to throw a couple of bible verse at you Ephesians 2:8-9 and Galatians 3:23-28. So faith is a gift, according to Ephesians and according to Galatians it is what frees us from the obligations of the law. So for our definition: Faith is a free gift that frees us from the obligations of the law. That’s scripture, baby!

But of course faith isn’t something that exists only as an entry in the Oxford English Dictionary, it’s an action; something that we see happening!

We are given numerous examples of what faith looks like from the Old Testament. Peruse through Hebrews 11 for a bit and there are some amazing examples of faith. And how beautifully written is Hebrews too by the way? Just a bit of Hebrews love is all. But for serious, go have a look, and here are some fun faith bits (like Alpha-bits?) in Hebrews!

An addendum to our definition “Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.” A couple things stand out: hope and conviction. We talk a lot about wishing and hoping (and thinking and praying) but it always seems like a 50/50 probability. It might happen, or it might not. I hope that it won’t snow. Now there is a possibility that it might not snow, although it’s more likely that it will. Hope doesn’t seem to have a sense of certainty attached to it; unless, of course, you read it in Hebrews, in which case the next phrase is attached, the conviction of things not seen. Our faith is not something that we view as something that might or might not happen. We are convinced that it is real; it is true, even though we cannot see it. And in a world full of people living out the adage “Unless I see it with my own two eyes…” (are pirates exempt from this?) the idea of being fully convinced of something without the physical, scientific proof is really quite the anomaly.

But lest we think that we are the only ones considered fools for our faith, continue reading Hebrews 11. Some of our greatest known biblical heroes, known for their strong faith, found themselves in this same boat. Abel had great faith and was killed for it. Abraham wandered in an unknown land for his faith. Moses cast off the privileges associated with being Egyptian royalty and lived the life of a nomadic Israelite outcast. These are our great biblical heroes. The reason why is because they were faithful. Even though they had more to gain in placing their faith in the ways of the world: keeping the best of their crop for themselves; staying at home where they would be guaranteed all the comforts they had worked for; and living in the lap of luxury rather than living out the rest of your life in the unforgiving desert, that isn’t what they chose. They took the more difficult path of faith, and even though they didn’t see the rewards during their lifetime, we see them now as having been rewarded for their faith.

Now, we aren’t being called in faith in the same way. We don’t make sacrifices, there isn’t really a desert nearby and Egyptian royalty is essentially a death sentence. So what are we supposed to do?

If we look in James we’re told that our faith is lived out through our deeds towards others. And you’re going to freak out and say SOLA GRATIA, SOLA FIDE, SOLA SCRIPTURA!!!!!! DIDN’T YOU LISTEN DURING THE REFORMATION SERMON!!!!! And of course, we’ve already defined faith as a free gift that we can’t earn, but we also said that it isn’t something that exists only in definition. It is meant to be used! I always thought that the cruelest thing a person could do was to buy a toy, say a Barbie, for a kid and then tell them that they had to keep it in the box and not play with it because, of course, toys are meant to be played with. If someone is giving you a gift, you then should have the ability to use it, to play with it. This is the same with our gift of faith. It’s not meant to sit on the shelf with our collector Barbie, it’s supposed to be used. We have the great example of how the people of the Old Testament used their faith, and we are called to do the same thing. We gotta have faith.

D is for Diaconate

Hmm, now what reason could I have for studying this? OH RIGHT! That one where that’s totally what I do!!

Now going in I was sure this would be the easiest bible study ever. All I’d do is recount some funny DPS stories, talk about what I do, how I got into it and maybe look at the bible a bit. No big deal.

But then I started thinking; what do I do? Is what I classify now as being part of my job actually part of what it means to be a deacon? I’ve learned by now what the difference between the responsibilities of a pastor and a deacon are, but are there differences between deacons and the laity?

A lot more work than I first thought!

Now I’m a bit of a free spirit. Well, no, that’s not exactly true. I am, however, stubborn and I dislike being told what to do. Oooh that works well for someone whose main job descriptor is to help people! But I did have a point to this! My point was that as someone who has difficulty being told what to do, I always inwardly groan when I think of the “job description” of a deacon in 1 Timothy 3:8-13. Now, there’s nothing wrong with it. I think I would agree with all the points (except maybe the wife thing) but as a sinful human being I know that I can’t be all of those things all the time: Dignified, when I need to; proven blameless, well, I very rarely take the blame for anything if that counts; not addicted to too much wine, oh boy, it’s loud in here.

Looking at this list it speaks to the logistics of the job. It tells you what you need to do to accomplish the requirements of being a deacon. But why does that even matter? I alluded to it earlier when I started to question the difference between a lay person and a deacon. The answer that I can come up with is: nothing. The only difference comes in terms of intent. A deacon isn’t the person who fulfills all of the qualification, but instead they’re the people who have desired to take on this position full-time.

I want to go back a bit to the book of Acts. Particularly Acts 6:1-7. What the deacons were called to do wasn’t anything exceedingly extraordinary. Essentially it boiled down to taking care of those who were in need, something that we’re all called to do.

The thing is, our good intentions stay as that; intentions not actions. We need some form of organization, and I’d say that’s where the role of the deacon comes in. The idea is not to rise to a greater authority; to take over someone’s role, but instead to help them. The role of deacon is supplementary. You’ll notice in the 1 Timothy and Acts descriptions that the implementation of the diaconate is on an as needed basis. The diaconate is not meant to take over the role of the pastoral office, but to support it. The diaconate is not meant to take over the responsibilities of the laity, but again, they are there to support them.

C is for Cookie, I mean, Covenant

Do you know what boggles my mind? The versatility of Harrison Ford. Well, more the fact that he featured prominently in two very distinct and different, yet both wildly successful theatrical series.

The one that comes to my mind at this point in time is Indiana Jones with which I hope you are all well enough acquainted that I can just delve into my point here. The point is in their search for the Ark of the Covenant. It’s made insanely interesting in that the Ark is essentially this mystical object that provides magical powers for those who possess it.

What is at the centre of the Ark though? The title says it all; the Ark of the Covenant. Whilst the movie focuses on the physical aspects of the Ark itself, for believers in God, the importance for us is in that second part, in the idea of a covenant with God.

If you look at the Old Testament it’s a series of covenants made with God and his chosen people. From the very beginning you see in God’s creation that he makes a covenant with Adam promising him that he will be taken care of, and expecting in return that Adam would serve as a steward over the land. The covenant in this is that God provides, and man cares for His creation, and of course stays away from one of the trees.

Being the good bible toting students that you are, you know how this promise goes, i.e. not well! Man fails to listen to what God has said. And as my confirmation class wisely pointed out, “Adam and Eve didn’t listen to God and that’s why we have to wear clothes!”

I’m sure that you’ve heard these phrases, “Once bitten, twice shy,” or, “Fool me once shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me.” Besides just hearing them I would imagine that you live fairly closely to their stated mandate where you give someone a chance and if they botch that up, well, tough luck for them next time!

Given the dismal failure of Adam and Eve in keeping this covenant with God, you would assume that God would take on a similar attitude. I would be pretty darn unwilling to take on any more promises knowing that I would be left holding the bag in the end!

Let’s look at another example found in Genesis 15:1-18 where God makes a covenant with Abram. The promise extends beyond just Abram and goes into the generations following. Abram is at a disadvantage because he wasn’t created perfect. Instead he was born into a sinful world and for the majority of his life did not believe in the God of Israel. But this was the man with whom God chose to make his covenant. In the past 12 chapters or so, however, God learned a lesson. He learned that mankind is not able to keep their side of the agreement. They tried really hard, but were unable. In this covenant we see God’s wisdom and grace as he ensures that this covenant will be kept in full by both sides by taking on the responsibility of both parties. Using the standard covenant contract of walking through the blood of sacrificed animals, God passes through, representing both parties and ensuring that this covenant would be upheld.

In the Mosaic covenant it becomes even more blindingly apparent how inept we are at keeping a covenant with God. In this covenant we are given rules that directly benefit us, and even so we are unable to keep them.

It takes a little longer this time but once again we see God taking on the same role as in the covenant with Abram in his promise of the new covenant. Jeremiah 31:33-34, Hebrews 8:8-13, Matthew 26:26-28 all talk about the promise of the new covenant. God has promised us that we will be given eternal life, that our sins will be forgiven and that He will make sure that it’s all taken care of. The sacrifice of Christ’s own blood is the covenant contract that enables us to live in this promise. In various circumstances God’s people showed how unable they were to keep these promises on their own. In the same way we know that we would also fail in living up to these promises.

But even while we were still sinners, Jesus died for us. Even though there was no way we could ever repay Him, God sent His son so that the promises we made to God might be kept. We know that we could never be righteous enough to enter into a covenant with God and keep it in its entirety. This is why we rely on Christ. His sacrifice, His blood, His love is the reason why God’s covenant remains.

B is for blasphemy

Let’s say you live in the great land of Saskatchewan. It happens to be the September long weekend. And on this weekend you are at Taylor Field wearing a jersey of blue and gold. Now in unison I hear you all cry out, “BLASPHEMY!”

Similar situation: It is this same Sunday, you are on your way home to watch the Labour Day Classic, when you realize that you don’t have the necessary green and white munchies to watch the game. You stop in at the local Sobeys (because their logo is green) and are lamenting to the person in front of you in the line at how long this is taking. Said person turns to you and asks why you didn’t come in earlier. Your reply: I was at church. Said person gives you the hairy eyeball whilst proclaiming “I don’t believe in all that God business.” Now in unison I hear you all cry out, “Meh. To each his own.”

 

It’s funny how the word blasphemy has been turned around for us.

To get all fancy with you for a moment, let’s look at the etymology of the word blasphemy. It comes from the Greek blasphemia which simply means to speak harm. So while you’re not wrong in using the word blasphemy to express the horror of cheering for the bombers; it certainly does speak measures as to what we deem to be important.

Prepare your minds to go way back in time to a time before times: A time called the Old Testament. In your hands you will find an old crumbling book called Leviticus. In this book, in the 24^th chapter you find something disturbing. You find something which talks about speaking harm against God, and as a result facing death. It gets worse than that as you read on to discover that there is no turning a blind eye even for those that don’t believe. Blasphemy in this book is a really big deal! It’s so important that even those people who seemingly don’t know any better are called to be punished for speaking harm against God!

You return back to modern day Saskatchewan and you’re still a bit shaken up by what has happened. You worry about what you’ve said, and you’re afraid that you deserve to be punished by death too! Let’s be honest here, you absolutely do! You and I have both said things that blaspheme against the name of God. We have broken the first commandment so many times that we can’t even keep track anymore! There is of course something even greater at work in our lives. Although we realize that we deserve death for the things that we have done, we also remember that we have a loving saviour who died for all of our sins.

Let me recount a personal story. Whilst on my internship I was doing a children’s message one Sunday morning. During this message I was telling the kids about no matter what sin you have committed, Jesus will forgive you. Of course I had one young boy who was obviously smarter than I was and piped up, “What about the unforgivable sin?”

So, what about the unforgivable sin? What do we do with the passage in Mark 3 (and the other synoptic gospels) that tells us about the sin that can never be forgiven? What does it mean to speak harm against the Holy Spirit?

To see the Holy Spirit at work we can look at verses like Matthew 3:11 or John 3:5 which tell us about the gift of faith that we are given through the Holy Spirit. It is this gift of faith which saves us. Through the gift of faith we are forgiven. But as with any gift, it can be rejected. We don’t have to keep, use or believe in the gift of faith. This is when we start treading on dangerous ground, when we blaspheme against the Holy Spirit.

When we deny the power of the Holy Spirit, we deny the miraculous nature of Jesus, we deny ourselves the forgiveness of sins. This unforgivable sin is not saying that we are unworthy of forgiveness, but rather it’s us saying that we do not want to be forgiven.

Rather than leaving you with the fear of your salvation ringing in your ears, I want to leave you with the reminder of Romans 8:38-39 “For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.” The threat of blasphemy, so speaking harm against the faith giving power of the Holy Spirit is real, but the promise of salvation, the sacrifice of Christ is still stronger.

I like my faith like I like my coffee…bold!

It seems like whenever someone refers to me as bold; it’s never for a good reason. When my mouth works before my brain, my questions are referred to as bold. I might make a bold decision with my wardrobe (I still maintain my green shirt under my purple plaid shirt was a great choice!) Although people stop themselves from directly critiquing, the use of the word bold conveys their disapproval.

So why then am I advocating a boldness in faith? Do we really need more reasons to be critiqued for our faith?

Let’s look at the word bold in a different light. Turn in your bibles (or click the nice hyperlink) and go to Ephesians 3:12. Not just boldness, but confidence!

Now for me confidence in faith times comes up in two different ways.

1. Internal Confidence
2. External Confidence

Let’s look at #1 first.

When I’m talking internal confidence, I’m talking more about the confidence that we have in our salvation. It’s internal because it’s something that we believe and that is in us. For example, you’re reading through your bible and you come across a verse that really solidifies your faith, makes you feel good about yourself, let’s say a verse like 1 Peter 3:18. It reminds you that Jesus died for your sin and that you are promised life eternal in spite of all the crappy things you’ve done.

Unfortunately, if you’ve read that particular verse, more than likely you’ve read the one that goes before it too. In 1 Peter 3: 15 we are called on to the external confidence, the one that requires us to make known the reason for our faith.

This #2 reason is the one that calls for increased boldness.

Just to be clear, being bold in your faith, giving a reason for your faith doesn’t require you to stand on a street corner shouting out what you believe and condemning everyone around you. It doesn’t require you to make pamphlets, or go knocking door to door.

What it does require is you going outside your comfort zone…you can’t be bold whilst being afraid.

Your argument to me right now is going to be, “But I don’t know enough.” And you’re right, you don’t. You never will. Because you, like me, would like to have all the answers, to know the bible inside and out and to have the same amount of knowledge about all the different –ologies and –isms as 27 Religious Studies professors. What you want is an excuse to stay inside your comfortable bubble. Truth be told, I would like to do the same.

Unfortunately the bible calls us to give a reason for our faith, not to stare at the floor and hope that nobody ever asks us about it.

We are expected to give a reason for our faith, but we are not expected to go it alone. Matthew 10 tells us that in these situations we are given the words to say. Our words are those of someone much wiser, someone who can give the answers that we could never produce.

Our boldness in faith doesn’t come from us. Our boldness isn’t tied to our personality. The only way we can be bold in our faith is through the understanding of what Christ has done for us. In understanding our unworthiness, how we are all failures in our own right, we are led to the greatness of Christ and what he has done. Our boldness comes when we realize the reason for our faith is something so great that we just can’t keep it inside.

A is for Angels

Angels we have heard on high.

Angels in the Outfield

Touched by an Angel

Amanda.

All examples of angels in today’s society.

But what does that really mean for us?

We look for angels in all areas of our lives. Statuettes of angels crowd every corner of people’s homes. We talk about our guardian angel. We imagine our dead grandpa to be our guardian angel. We picture heaven and it’s filled with angels of every shape, size, gender and nationality playing their harps and drifting on their own personal cumulous.

Where are we getting this from?

When did this... 

...become this?

I would hope that my guardian angel would look more like Michael than a 12 year old teeny bopper.

Let’s first look at what an angel is. (If I were in a classroom this is where I would pull down one of those screen things and have a pointer)

So an angel is a part of God’s creation. They were created by God for a specific purpose. Believe it or not that purpose is not to help a rag tag baseball team. But we’ll get into that. As part of God’s creation they are beneath God. They aren’t meant to be praised. They aren’t God. They are made, not begotten.

Not only are they a part of creation, but they have been for a really long time. They are something that we are compared to but not something that we become. Just like there will never be another Amanda, the angels that we have are the angels that will be.

I already broke your heart by telling you that the main purpose of angels is not for the purposes of making baseball interesting (far too impossible) so why are they here?

Our guardian angel is a real thing. To what extent I couldn’t tell you but I’m sure I need 2 or 3. They’re present as messengers, as guards and even as warriors. Again I don’t think that puny girl up there is going to do much good against an army full of trained warriors.

God created angels with a purpose. He created them to guard, to guide, to be messengers, to be warriors. He did not create them as robots. As we see in several different records in scripture one of the angels took his responsibility as a perfect creation of God to a place that ultimately caused his downfall. The angel that you and I know as Lucifer was one that was created for a great purpose. He was in the upper shallot and was incredibly wise, incredibly beautiful and incredibly aware of his greatness. It was this awareness, this pride in what God had given him that caused him to believe himself to be like God, to be equal to God. This awareness awoke a desire to be greater than God and the slippery slope of free will descended into that of greed and pride; sin at its worst. This descent included several other angels and created Satan and his demons as we know it today.

God’s creation of angels is one that goes far beyond our understanding. It is unfair to place them as we have; as puny 12 year old girls playing harps, floating on clouds. They are capable of greatness, or even of the absolute forms of evil. They inhabit a role that is far beyond anything that we can properly understand.

And this, my friends, is the letter A.