What I Believe

What follows is a statement of belief that I created when I applied to my current church in New Brunswick. I publish it in response to my dear colleague Richard Bott's question "What do you believe?"

Statement of Belief

My faith begins in the person of Jesus Christ. He is my Saviour, my Guide, my Master and my Lord. I believe he is the Son of God, and that his life on earth was for the benefit of humanity. I believe he was raised from the dead on the third day, thus providing the first fruits for those who would follow. But Jesus is more than a series of theological propositions. Through the Holy Spirit, he becomes real to each Christian. That has been my own personal experience. The reality of Jesus in my life is far greater than any words that I have spoken about him, or any description I have read about him. And being welcomed into that fellowship with Jesus by God is an integral part of our Christian journey.

I believe in Scripture as the Word of God. I recognize the human component within its pages, and that it contains various forms of literature. But within the narrative, the history, the metaphor and the poetry, God speaks in a real and propositional way to his people. I believe Scripture to be the guiding rule in both faith and life. The Bible does not contain truths...the Bible is truth.

It is these two foundations, Jesus Christ and Scripture, which lead to the basis of all my proclamation as a preacher of the Church: the cross of Jesus Christ. The cross encompasses the holiness of God, the sinfulness of humanity, the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, and the ultimate defeat of the enemies of God’s people. The cross is the lens that focuses all other aspects of my theology.

The church then becomes the group of believers who stand in the shadow of the cross, recognizing their sin, and knowing the power of the God who has saved them in Jesus Christ. The church is the body over which God rejoices and exults, and is thus guided by his Holy Spirit to achieve good works in the world around us.

These are the basic points of my belief system. My beliefs are those of the historic creeds of the faith, Apostles and Nicene, and are consistent with the revelation of God in Holy Scripture.

Thanks be to God. Amen.

Strange Place for a Prayer Meeting (but not really)

We gathered in the school’s cafetorium. Pastors and members from seven area churches, Baptist, Wesleyan, Pentecostal, United, gathered for the third year in a row during Teacher Appreciation Week. Mid-week gatherings were cancelled. The crowd was mostly older, but filled with a sense of purpose. That purpose: to pray. Pray for the teachers, and staff at the local school. Pray for the students that use this building day after day. To pray for protection…for wisdom…for discernment…for guidance.

We opened by singing “Holy Spirit, you are welcome here.” And as the words of that song echoed in that space, the Holy Spirit was welcomed. As we prayed out loud our thanksgivings and praises, the Holy Spirit was there. As we gathered in small groups to pray for the staff, I sensed the overwhelming privilege we have to be able to approach a holy God, to seek his presence and seek his answer for us. To sit, eyes closed, hearing the muffled prayers, the interjected “Amens” and “Yes, Lords” was to know and recognize what God can do apart from our denominational label, apart from our theological distinctives. God was mighty in that room. We departed with a song of praise on our lips, and the love of the body of Christ in our hearts.

Holy Spirit, be welcome here, and everywhere.

I Cried over a Stupid Cat

She arrived at the manse in January 2005. She was the first one to jump out of a box that held several kittens born at a local construction company site. She was a tri-color domestic shorthair who bore a striking resemblance to my old cat, Rampage who had died in 2001. I named her Goodwin, after the 17th century Puritan writer Thomas Goodwin.

She became an important part of my life, and a constant source of amusement in illustrations for my children's stories every Sunday at church. She slept at the foot of my bed, and kept me company as I studied and prepared my weekly sermons. She was never a lap cat, but liked to be within viewing distance of wherever I was. When I got married, she didn't really like my wife at first. I would be trapped in bed between my wife and my cat, and really couldn't move that much at night. Goodwin grew to have some affection for my wife. (I really can't call it love!)

After 10 plus years, Goodwin had changed. She had lost a lot of weight, and was unsteady on her feet. I had come to the realization that she was suffering. So, after a lot of soul-searching, I made the decision to euthanize her. I cried that day. I cried after I made the appointment a few days later. I cried harder the night before, wondering about whether I made the right decision. I cried over a stupid cat.

I am acquainted with grief. I have sat with grieving families for 20 years, in all shapes and circumstances. But my own grief is always encased in a hard shell. So this past week, as I have grieved for my cat, Goodwin became a proxy for all of those people in my life I never got a chance to say goodbye to. For my brother-in-law who died after a sudden heart attack. My dad. My best friend. The mentor who stood with me at my ordination. As I looked into her cage and said goodbye for the last time, I cried. And felt at peace. For the first time in a long time.

So I thank Goodwin. For her years of dedication to me. For her constant companionship. For being such a good cat, right up to the end. RIP.

Summer in the Psalms

This week I begin what has become a summer tradition for me: preaching through the Psalms. I began this series of sermons with Psalm 1 in June 2008. Now in my eighth summer of this series I have reached Psalm 61, which I am preparing to preach this coming Sunday. And I approach these sermons with a great deal of excitement and some trepidation. But still I love to preach the Psalms. Here are a few reasons why.

1) They run the full gamut of emotion. From mountaintops to valleys, from lament to joy. Filled with moments of God's proximity and God's distance. Whatever you feel on a particular day, there is a Psalm for that.

2) They do not hold back in those emotions. The Psalms get to the very depths of our souls. They lash out in anger at enemies and false friends. They react with a violence that lies within us, and sometimes shocks us. (Psalm 137:9 comes to mind.)

3) They speak of things we have difficulty expressing in the church today. This is especially true in terms of lament. So often church has become about the experience, the high of worshiping God. But we do not always worship God from that joyous place. The Psalms let us know that that is OK.

4) The comfort of God in Jesus Christ is there on every page. The Psalms are frequently quoted and used in the New Testament, and because of that we can relate so much of their content to the life and work of Jesus Christ. The first apostles' relationship to Christ led them to the Psalms. When we think about our spiritual lives, and our kinship with Jesus Christ, can we do any better than turn to the Psalms. The songs speak of God our King. They speak of the God who comforts. They speak of the God who hears. The speak of the anointed one who would suffer. They speak to the Christian of Jesus Christ.

5) In all things praise God. The Psalms, in all their varied emotions, ultimately lead us back to God. In joy, praise God. In sorrow, praise God. In laughter and tears, praise God. In lament and frustration, praise God. In the presence of demons and angels, friends and enemies, praise God.

There Is a Fountain

When William Cowper was recovering from depression and nervous anxiety, he wrote the following song, in the knowledge that his sins and his feelings of unworthiness were taken up by Jesus Christ on is cross. The song was well known in evangelistic circles and played a part in creating the team of D.L. Moody and Ira Sankey.

I sang it this morning at the Anniversary service at Jacksonville United Church, as recorded in the video below.

Cruxifusion 2015: Revive

On the shelves of my upstairs library, there sits a seven volume set, "A History of the 1859 Ulster Revival." Within its pages are descriptions of the revival itself, the theology of revival and the effects of the revival in Ireland, England and throughout the world. These volumes bring out two real truths about revival. Revivals happen, and revivals cannot be contained.

I think of these books as I contemplate the third part of the Crux 2015 theme: revive. Each Wednesday morning when our Hartland area pastors gather to pray, one of the things we pray for is revival. True, Holy Ghost Revival. And when we pray, one thing we understand is that revival has to start with us, the pastors, the shepherds of the flock. Regaining that sense of passion for the lost and the hurting. Not getting caught up in denominational politics and the overwhelming dark cloud of demographic and statistical hopelessness. The 1859 revival started with 4 young men and a weekly prayer meeting. And God was mightier than their numbers. God was mightier than the doubters. God was mightier than the spiritual deadness and apathy that had set into the church culture of 1850s Ireland.

Each period of spiritual deadness must lead us back to the foundations of our faith, the Triune God, the cross of Christ and the words of Scripture. And there our own personal revival must start: Bible study, prayer, devotion to God and to his people. That is the only sort of spiritual first aid that is able to breath new life into the church of God. I cannot predict a revival of the sort future generations will write about. But after being in Burlington with so many brothers and sisters that have a heart for the Lord, I cannot count anything out. As we all sang in our worship, "Our God is mighty to save..."

Cruxifusion 2015: Reconcile

A continuing series of reflections on Cruxifusion's 2015 gathering in Burlington, Ontario.

RECONCILE

We all need to be reconciled. I need to be reconciled. It is part of our identity as Christian that we are a redeemed people, reconciled to God by the blood of Jesus Christ.

At this gathering I made a conscious effort at reconciliation. The overarching theme for me was being reconciled with this denomination I call my home. I have had a roller coaster relationship with the United Church of Canada. Someday I may write about why I stay within its ministry. Upholding traditional orthodoxy and traditional morality seems at times a fool's errand, a voice crying in the wilderness, or more likely a voice too timid to say anything at all.

I found reconciliation as I looked around the sanctuary and saw my brothers and sisters in Christ. I realized my denomination was not political statements, or bureaucracy, or mandated training sessions. This was the home I had searched for in the United Church of Canada for twenty years. And as I listened to Richard Bott, with whom I probably disagree more than agree theologically and ethically, I saw a fellow servant of the Risen Christ, even if we need to discuss who that Risen Christ is.

Reconciliation is a tricky business. It involves giving of self in ways that demand vulnerability. My persistent sins of cynicism and indifference needed to be named, lifted up and confessed. At the Tuesday Prayer Summit, that happened. I confessed, accepted God's forgiveness and tried to muster up my own forgiveness. It hit hard. But it opened up a way back to the fellowship of believers.

On the last day we sang "It is well with my soul." And as we sang I thought of all those behind me in that sanctuary...

• broken by their congregations
• broken by the denomination
• broken by grief
• broken by sin
• broken by illness
• broken by process
• broken by uncertainty
• broken by fear
• broken by exclusion
• broken by darkness
• broken by selfishness
• broken by doubt
• broken in ways beyond measure
• broken in ways they cannot yet see

and we sang "It is well with my soul." And these broken people, redeemed sinners, sang it as if they meant it. IT IS WELL WITH MY SOUL... And a lump came to my throat. And a tear came to my eye...and I could sing it too.

Reconciled....