"Friday Notes" for Sunday Worship for Jan. 28th

Hello,... each week, whenever I am delivering the sermon, I put out a small note to the congregation ahead of time on Fridays called "'Friday Notes' for Sunday Worship." I include those notes here. Also, our sermons can be accessed at the Grace Vancouver Church website here.

Hi GV Family,

I am looking forward to seeing you this Sunday when we will be finishing our 3-wk. January Vision Series that has been entitled, "The Church as a Kingdom of Priests." This Sunday we are looking at a few portions of Scripture, but mostly John 5:9-17 when Jesus heals a man who has been paralyzed for thirty-eight years. The sad thing about this account is that man doesn't acknowledge Jesus or know who he is, and even after Jesus returns to him later to confront him on his wayward heart and reveals his identity to him, instead of bowing down and worshiping the Lord, he turns him into the Jewish people and authorities who then persecute Jesus upon learning his identity. They persecute Jesus because supposedly he violates the regulations of the Sabbath day by healing the man. Yet what the people failed to understand was that it was none other than the Lord of the universe who was standing before them who was the Creator of all and had made the Sabbath day in order to rejoice in all of his acts of creation. And now that the human race had gone wayward and the world was under a curse, the very point of Sabbath was to anticipate a GREAT day of restoration when all things would be RE-created in joy. This was the purpose for which Jesus came and for which he gave his life for us. As he says, "My Father is working until now, and I am working." Lesslie Newbigin wrote of this passage, "God's Sabbath rest did not mean that he had ceased to give life- for babies were born on the Sabbath and rain still fell... God is always-even on the Sabbath- the giver of life and judge of all." Also, this Sunday we will consider how we participate with Jesus in the Father's work, perhaps in more ordinary ways, but significant nonetheless as our "works" are wrapped up in Christ. 

Also this Sunday we will introduce our new office administrator Victor Olawaiye, hear a few words from Sarah Dolan, also from Tim Huh who will be doing a Monday Matters vocational testimonial. I will give an update on elder nominations and we will celebrate the Campanelli's with cake following the service, as this will be their last Sunday with us. Also, our second week of our EHS class will continue at 12:15p. . . . whew, that's a lot! but what a Sunday we have before us- you are not going to want to miss it!

Blessings and see you soon,

Pastor Mike

Sermon Title: "And I Am Working"

Sermon Texts: John 5:9-17; Rev. 5:9,10; 1 Pet. 2:9-12

Sermon Quotations:

"When he assigned to the sea its limit, so that the waters might not transgress his command, when he marked out the foundations of the earth, then I was beside him, like a master workman, and was daily his delight, rejoicing before him always, rejoicing in his inhabited world and delighting in the children of man."  -Proverbs 8:29-31

"God's Sabbath rest did not mean that he had ceased to give life- for babies were born on the Sabbath and rain still fell. . . God is always- even on the Sabbath- the giver of life and the judge of all."  -Lesslie Newbigin

"Hiding your faith, is a way for a believer to survive what is often a conflicted journey. . . . It would be difficult for many, despite their deep desire to identify with Christ, to live openly true to what their faith demands."  -Mako Fujimura

"Here is also wonder and glory, joy and meaning. . . . There is good work to be done."  -Steven Garber

"And let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.  -Hebrews 12:1-2

Sermon Outline:

1. Jesus' Lack of "Success"
2. The Meaning of Sabbath
3. Our Participation with Jesus in the Father's Work
4. Our Hope in a Great Final Day and Present Opposition
5. The Joy of the Cross

Benediction: 

''Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labour is not in vain.'' -1 Cor. 15:58

Why Vocation Matters to the Disillusioned

This was a Facebook post from one of the brothers of a student Steven Garber teaches here locally at Regent College. Evidently Nagaland, India has a political climate and system that seems to tap into much of the disillusionment we feel here in the West.

Permanent Residents of Canada, Yay!

What a remarkable morning as, after over four years of living in Canada, today we were received as Permanent Residents of Canada! Tanya put much hard work into the application process, and our immigration official who received us today was a dual citizen (from the US originally) who so warmly and richly received us. We spent some time talking about Canada's Charter of Rights and Freedoms, and then the conversation turned to Michaelle Jean the remarkable Haitian woman who was a refugee and in time would become the 27th appointment (by the Queen of England) as Governor General of Canada, basically the highest office in the land. What a remarkable country to give opportunity for this noble woman to rise to such a position, especially in light of some of the grievous things said in recent days about Beloved Haiti. We also had to celebrate by going to Tim Horton's- what is more Canadian than that, eh?!

I thought a lot about my parents today who moved from Taiwan to the US in their mid-20s and some of what the land of my birth has meant to them as they were able to make a life of love and care for my sister and me in a strange and distant land that became home for them. The US has been quite good to them (and to us as well). Because we have been in Canada for a fair amount of time, should we pursue dual citizenship, our timeline has been expedited a bit, so that we could do so in two years.

The Greatest Showman

This behind the scenes clip brought Tanya and me so much joy we had to pass it on. We loved the sense that, despite doctor's orders for Hugh Jackman not to sing following surgery, his joy could not be contained. Art has a way of opening our hearts wide- as C.S. Lewis said, "the world rings with praise." The movie's great too!

Haiti the Beloved

Well, I was on radio blog silence for the entirety of 2017. For the first time since I began my blog in 2008, I did not post any posts for an entire year. Why not? Well, 2017 was a difficult year in many regards for me personally, not without rewards and heightened joys, but also accompanied by remarkable sorrows. Let's begin with the sorrows: my dad continued to deteriorate from Lewy Body Dementia which is a sinister form of dementia that Nashville artist Charlie Peacock commented on not so long ago having lost his own mother who had been afflicted with LBD. Peacock wrote of the condition, "not something I would wish on an enemy." How does one grieve properly the loss of the mental faculties of a father who has always meant so much to me and been present with me through thick and thin? Last year I wrote a short piece reflecting on my dad's condition in a compilation of reflections for Holy Week called The God Who Has Tears. You have to scroll down a bit to find the short reflection, but it is there.

My Beloved Tanya, wife of almost twenty-three years, continues to be afflicted by significant chronic leg and back pain to the point that some days I do not know what to do for her- I pray and I grieve the loss of what her life should be. We continue to seek various treatments and medications, but the loss and deterioration of her health is an enormous burden and we wait upon the Lord. Also, Vancouver has been a difficult place given its spiritual climate as very much a post-Christian place with little memory of Christ and the Church, and the economic pressures are significant for just about everyone who chooses to live here. Lee Beach's most excellent work The Church in Exile helps us here in North America to think intentionally about what life for Christians in a post-Christian age, where the Church is very much on the margins of society, without influence and power, means for us. We are already there on the west coast of Canada in Vancouver, and the rest of North America will soon follow. But the beauty of Beach's book presents a hopeful vision, because truth of the matter is that the Church has always been at its best in sacred history when we find ourselves outside the halls of power and influence.

This leads me to a fourth grief that has been overwhelming for me this last year. I haven't known what to do with the president not to be named south of the border. I have been in an inconsolable space of grief to see what my beloved home country has become under his presidency. I have been so glad to live north of the border and will seriously consider pursuing dual citizenship when the opportunity arises in a few years. But when questions come my way as to how we could have put this man in office, most of my immediate response is to give very little answer and mostly grieve in silence with the answer, "I can try to give you an answer as the US is very divided and the conditions that gave rise to his presidency were there long before 2016, but mostly I do not know and I am very sad." Some of my friends here in Canada have virtually no Christian influence, positive or negative, and know very little about "evangelicalism"; they ask me honest questions about the "evangelical vote," something they hear about only through media sources and wonder how evangelicals square the general lack of a moral center of some of the candidates they support with their belief system in the Bible, which purportedly has a moral center. Tim Keller's recent article in the New Yorker was helpful for at least one atheist friend who for the first time was given language to separate evangelicalism as a belief system from the cultural phenomenon of what it has become in certain pockets of the US, primarily as a cultural movement that seeks power and influence. I gave a sermon right after the 2016 election regarding some of my grief, and we lost one family (American) and the shot at gaining another (American), when they found my sermon to be offensive. However, most of our folks understood and were appreciative of the honest sharing I put forth and the directing of our attention to the Great Shepherd of the Sheep who did not disappoint as Israel's false shepherd leaders had again and again throughout her history. I barely spoke a word about anything going on politic-wise in 2017 at any point, but now Haiti and its people, beautiful as they are, were called out by the president not to be named as a "s-hole" country? Not OK.

I'm back posting, because I needed to say a word about Haiti the Beloved, a country I spent a number of years traveling to and learning from. As today is the eight-year anniversary of the terrible earthquake of 2010, I recall how the town of Mirebalais, Haiti in the Central Plateau region just a bit east of Port-au-Prince literally doubled in size overnight, because the many refugees and displaced from the capital city were taken in as strangers into the homes of those in Mirebalais and cared for in the midst of their suffering, trauma and pain. Has that ever happened here in the middle of the prosperity we experience in North America, where a town of a few hundred thousand doubles in size because of the culture of hospitality that is native to the people? It happened in 2010 in Mirebalais, Haiti and to God be the glory. There is no defense for the terrible comments by one who holds the most powerful office in the world as president of the United States- may we educate ourselves regarding the history of a place that has experienced untold corporate trauma through her history (here is a great starting point), before standing with disdain over such a beautiful and beloved people. The God who has tears, also sees His brothers and sisters in the faces of those who comprise Haiti the Beloved.

Oh yes, and I told you I would share some of the triumphs and heightened joys of 2017. After six long years, I finished my Doctor of Ministry dissertation! Here it is if you are interested in pushing through it- feel free to skip to the final forty pages of chapter 5- I think you might also enjoy the acknowledgements section which tells you some about why I have been so passionate about the project. I began the degree when my youngest Calvin was six-years-old, and I finished when he was twelve- way too long, but it is done! Another remarkable gift came to me when one of my doctoral advisors, friend and mentor Dr. Steven Garber took a job locally here at Regent College- Steve is now local and I often pinch myself to be so close to someone I have so long admired. Also, we continue to see God provide in marvelous ways for Grace Vancouver Church and the work of the Gospel here north of the border. Our family grows all the time with a tenth, eighth and seventh grader under our roof. Mia, Isaac and Calvin bring us untold joys (and some days untold griefs as well!) We were able to take the three of them, along with my parents and sister to Taiwan last fall, and they enjoyed some of their ethnic heritage in a new way, for the first time being in a country their grandparents grew up in. Dad did OK as well, likely his last time back home. So maybe I'm back blogging, I don't know,... but silence was no longer an option for me in recent days.