Lessons from Lourdes (John 7, 4 and 5)

Presented to The Salvation Army Alberni Valley Ministries, 11 June 2023, by Major Michael Ramsay

 

John 7:37-38: On the last and greatest day of the festival, Jesus stood and said in a loud voice, “Let anyone who is thirsty come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as Scripture has said, rivers of living water will flow from within them.”  

 

 

We went to Sanctuaire de Notre-Dame de Lourdes. They have healing water in a spring there under the church that you can walk right up to. The story of the healing spring and the cathedral goes a little like this: Bernadette Soubirous, a 14-year-old peasant girl, on 11 February 1858 saw a vision of Mary, the mother of Jesus and was told to go and drink water from a spring which was to appear inside the grotto and wash herself with it. She did and she kept going there and by mid-July had seen Mary 18 times. She was also told to tell the priests to build a chapel at the grotto site. They did. The Cathedral was built over the spring and people – like us - still visit today.

 God is a God of miracles even today. There is a whole community built up around that healing. The rocks with healing water running from them – the Cathedral is built on top of those rocks - and people line up to touch the healing water flowing through them. There are also fountains with taps and troughs where people can touch the water. (This actually reminded me of a trip we took to Santuario de Chimaya in New Mexico in the USA – but there it was healing dirt instead of healing water - I have both healing dirt and holy water from there in my office.) In Lourdes, where we just were, there were nuns in habits everywhere. There were physicians and caretakers everywhere. There were patients, sick, and infirm everywhere. People in search of God and people in search of healing everywhere: People come from all over the world to hear God and be healed by Him. It reminds me of Luke 13.

Luke 13: 29-30: People will come from east and west and north and south, and will take their places at the feast in the Kingdom of God. Indeed there are those who are last who will be first, and first who will be last.”

 

Here is a picture of the lantern procession. People from the east, west, north, and south gather to take part. It was quite something. The Cathedral was right below our hotel room. We went down, got ourselves a couple of lanterns and joined them. There were thousands of people there – from all over the world, speaking in all kinds of languages, singing in all kinds of languages, praying in many languages. It reminded me of Acts 2

Acts 2:5-8: Now there were staying in Jerusalem God-fearing Jews from every nation under heaven. When they heard this sound, a crowd came together in bewilderment, because each one heard their own language being spoken. Utterly amazed, they asked: “Aren’t all these who are speaking Galileans? Then how is it that each of us hears them in our native language?

Now I did not notice the gift of tongues or more accurately the gift of hearing languages that is mentioned in Acts Chapter 2 but I did hear the words sung, recited and prayed in English, German, French, Spanish, Latin… and people were gathered from far away places. Groups would be there flying their national flags in the holy procession showing that they are part of the gathering of the nations like in Acts 2, Matthew 25 or Revelation. Nations from all over the world were gathered here together, today, on that day, expecting a miracle and many received miracles and they were worshipping our Lord at the Cathedral in Lourdes, France.

One of the things that was quite moving about this whole experience was just like the pericope we read from John Chapter 5 about the man wasn’t able to be healed because no one would bring him to the healing water. I am sure this passage must have been in the minds of so many people there: for at the front of the line of the procession were nuns and nurses and others pushing people in wheelchairs bringing them to the front of the line of people cueing up for the healing at the waters. This love and compassion also reminded me of Luke Chapter 5. Do you remember this story?

Luke 5:17-25: One day Jesus was teaching, and Pharisees and teachers of the law were sitting there. They had come from every village of Galilee and from Judea and Jerusalem. And the power of the Lord was with Jesus to heal the sick. 18 Some men came carrying a paralyzed man on a mat and tried to take him into the house to lay him before Jesus. 19 When they could not find a way to do this because of the crowd, they went up on the roof and lowered him on his mat through the tiles into the middle of the crowd, right in front of Jesus.

20 When Jesus saw their faith, he said, “Friend, your sins are forgiven.”

21 The Pharisees and the teachers of the law began thinking to themselves, “Who is this fellow who speaks blasphemy? Who can forgive sins but God alone?”

22 Jesus knew what they were thinking and asked, “Why are you thinking these things in your hearts? 23 Which is easier: to say, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Get up and walk’? 24 But I want you to know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins.” So he said to the paralyzed man, “I tell you, get up, take your mat and go home.” 25 Immediately he stood up in front of them, took what he had been lying on and went home praising God. 26 Everyone was amazed and gave praise to God. They were filled with awe and said, “We have seen remarkable things today.”

I was really impressed to see the parade of nuns in habits and others each pushing someone in a wheelchair in the morning to the healing water and in the evening to the parade of worship and praise. People for more than one hundred years have loved their neighbours, their family members and others enough to save up enough money for a trip and travel, enough to take time off from their lives and their day-to-day responsibilities; people since the 19^th Century and even now are sacrificing and putting everything on hold to bring others to the water in Lourdes to be healed and to be saved. This is a perfect parable, an accurate analogy for our responsibility as Christians, as friends, as family members, as people who know the healing power of God and from where it comes.  John Chapter 4, that we read earlier tells us Jesus is the Living Water!

Now we all probably know that God doesn’t heal everyone how and when we expect as they are brought to the water in Lourdes. And, we all probably know from experience and other ways that God doesn’t heal everyone here, how and when we expect – even when they are brought to the Living Water of our Lord (sometime before Jesus’ return, of course, each of us will still have to die of something) but sometimes, so we know it is a miracle and so that we know that God is sovereign and sometimes so that we know God loves us, sometimes He heals us, through the Lord’s Living Water like He has healed many people through the Cathedral healing water in Lourdes.

          It is to this end today that I would like to encourage us all. May each of us here be as bold and as loving as those who bring their friends from all over the world to be healed by the water at Lourdes. Let us not hesitate to bring our friends and family to the Spring of Eternal Life and the healing power of our Lord and Saviour. We don’t need to take time off work, like maybe people do to visit France; we don’t have to book flights to introduce people to the healing water of the Lord Jesus; we don’t have to reschedule our whole life to introduce people to the Lord. We can simply call up or sit down with our loved ones and when they tell us of the healing they need both now and forever or when the Lord reveals to us a time and a place, we can simply fill that time and that place with the love of the Lord and point all those we love to the love to the spring of Eternal Life.

Let us pray

Numbers 21:1-9, 2 Kings 18:1-4, 1 Corinthians 10:1-13, John 3:13:16: No Nehushtan; Salvation comes from Christ Alone.

Presented to Swift Current Corps of The Salvation Army, 21 September 2014 by Captain Michael Ramsay. And Toronto's Warehouse Mission 614, 13 November 2017 and Alberni Valley Ministries, 07 May 2023

   

This is the 2023 Alberni Valley version. To view the 2017 Toronto version, click here:  http://sheepspeaks.blogspot.ca/2017/11/numbers-211-9-2-kings-181-4-john-31316.html

 

To view the original 2014 Swift Current version, click here: http://sheepspeaks.blogspot.com/2014/09/numbers-211-9-2-kings-181-4-1.html

 

Elements of this sermon were incorporated into Major Michael Ramsay's sermon to the Alberni Valley Community Lenten Service, John 3:16-21: Snake Clowns, 10 March 2024 which you can view here: https://sheepspeaks.blogspot.com/2024/03/john-316-21-snake-clowns.html

    

The following is allegedly from the US Government Peace Corps Manual for its volunteers who work in the Amazon Jungle. It tells what to do in case an anaconda attacks you:

1.     If you are attacked by an anaconda do not run. The snake is faster than you are.

2.     Lie flat on the ground. Put your arms tight against your sides, your legs tight against one another.

3.     Tuck your chin in.

4.     The snake will come and begin to nudge and climb over your body.

5.     Do not panic.

6.     After the snake has examined you, it will begin to swallow you from your feet and always from the end. Permit the snake to swallow your feet and ankles. Do not panic.

7.     The snake will now begin to swallow your legs into its body. You must lie perfectly still. This will take a long time.

8.     When the snake has reached your knees, slowly and with as little movement as possible, reach down, take your knife and very gently slide it into the side of the snake’s mouth between the edge of its mouth and your leg, then suddenly rip upwards, severing the snake’s head.

9.     Be sure you have your knife.

Our pericope today is about snakes. It is actually a passage that we have spoken about a few times in Bible study, Numbers 21:1-9. We notice in Numbers 21:1-3 that the Israelites are on a spiritual high. The Lord has delivered them. The Israelites have just won a military victory, a physical contest: the adrenaline is flowing. They are excited. The Lord has delivered them. They are celebrating and telling all the stories, I imagine.

 

And then, Verses 4-9, the people revert to the complaining that led to an earlier generation forfeiting entrance into the Promised Land.[1] They complain against God and against Moses and about the bread from heaven that God has been sending to them to keep them alive. They say of this bread from heaven through which God is saving them from starvation, they say of this bread from heaven to which the Lord Jesus Himself is compared (John 6:22-59) – they say of this sustenance of salvation from God – they say, “We detest that miserable food!” (Numbers 21:5). Parents, how do we feel when our kids say they hate the food we made? How do you think God feels?

 

There were consequences for rejecting their bread of God’s salvation. The consequence is a plague of snakes. Who here likes snakes? Who here likes big snakes and poisonous snakes? And there is even more. “The Hebrew phrase hannehashim hasserapim, [means literally] ‘the burning snakes’ or…‘the snakes that produce burning’. The ‘fire’ was in their venom, of course… The poison in these snakebites must have been particularly virulent, leading to horrible, agonizing deaths.”[2] The Lord sends these poisonous serpents among the Israelites and they bite them and they die probably painfully. Just as Adam and Eve died at the hand of the serpent – so to speak - (Gn 3) so too these children of Israel.

 

At this point they realize what they are doing wrong in blaming God and rejecting the very life that He is providing. They realize their sin and repent of it. They call out to Moses; they beseech him to speak on their behalf to God; they ask for deliverance from the consequences of their sins.

 

God then tells Moses that He will yet again deliver these people. Verses 8-9, “The Lord said to Moses, ‘Make a snake and put it up on a pole; anyone who is bitten can look at it and live.’  So Moses made a bronze snake and put it up on a pole. Then when anyone was bitten by a snake and looked at the bronze snake, they lived.”

 

This is great and this is exciting. This deliverance from the serpents meant so much to the Israelites that they actually kept that bronze snake around for a long time to remember this miracle. They kept this symbol of what God had done with them their whole time in the desert. They kept this bronze snake with them throughout the whole life and leadership of Joshua. They kept the bronze snake safe and secure for generations. They kept it through roughly 400 years of alternating oppression and liberation in the time of the Judges. They kept this bronze snake with them through the entire existence of the United Kingdom: through the reigns of Kings Saul, David, and Solomon. They kept this bronze serpent during the divided kingdoms, using it during worship, through many kings and political administrations, through many wars and trials and tribulations and throughout all these generations.

 

  They used this snake in worship for much longer a time period than the time between today and when the Europeans first organized in Quebec and Montreal. For hundreds of years they used this bronze snake that Moses had made in the desert as a part of their worship and then, 1 Kings 18:1-4:

 

In the third year of Hoshea son of Elah king of Israel, Hezekiah son of Ahaz king of Judah began to reign. He was twenty-five years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem twenty-nine years. His mother’s name was Abijah daughter of Zechariah. He did what was right in the eyes of the Lord, just as his father [ancestor] David had done. He removed the high places, smashed the sacred stones and cut down the Asherah poles. He broke into pieces the bronze snake Moses had made, for up to that time the Israelites had been burning incense to it. (It was called Nehushtan.)

 

This is the snake that God had Moses make hundreds of years earlier in the desert to deliver the people from the serpents. This is an heritage item, an historic artifact; this is a part of worship. This is a symbol of the healing by God in the desert and this snake is a symbol of salvation and now the King of Judah did what was right in the eyes of the Lord by breaking it into pieces, destroying it forever. Why would God have this powerful symbol of salvation created by Moses, destroyed after the people of God had gone to great effort over hundreds and hundreds of years of adversity and affluence to preserved it? Why would God have destroyed this powerful symbol of salvation that He Himself ordered created in the first place?

 

He had it destroyed because instead of using it as an aid to worship God; they began worshiping the bronze snake itself.[3] It had become an idol. Are there things like this in the churches today? Are there tools that were made to help us worship God that can they become idols? Can people come to think that they are saved by something other than God, such as being baptized or taking communion or saying the sinners’ prayer or…? Can people take good things that may have even been ordained and commissioned by God Himself – like Nehushtan - and adore those things more than, instead of, or as well as God?

 

The word ‘worship’ means ‘to adore’. Are there things in the churches, in our spirituality; are there things – or people - that maybe God has used to great effect in our lives that we now adore like we are supposed to adore God? For those who grew up in the Army here: what if we removed the flag? What if we removed the uniform? What if we removed the Mercy Seat of if people sat on it, the very spot where we are to come to meet with God Himself? Would we grumble every time we came here? Do we love these articles as well as we love God? Is there an author or a theologian or a pastor or a person that you follow so closely that whatever he, she or they say must be correct; so much so that you don’t even bother to test their words against the Scriptures or prayer anymore? Just accept them blindly? Some people say you need to do some things in order to be saved: baptism maybe? Sinner’s prayer? As soon as we start thinking that salvation comes through any item like the Mercy Seat; or food like communion; or a rite like baptism we are in trouble. If we think that without that rite, ritual, or relic, we are going to hell then that symbol of God Himself may have become ‘Nehushtan’ in our lives and need to be removed.

 

Hear me correctly: it is when we start to adore the things that are meant to help us adore God that they become Nehushtan and need to removed from our lives; when good things that used to help us worship God become things we worship, then we need to remove them: no matter how long we have used them as part of worship.

 

Listen carefully to me here - communion, baptism, the Mercy Seat, the flag, the uniform, and any other aid to worship as it brings us closer to God, as these things help us adore Christ than these are very important but when there is anything or anyone who we adore alongside or worship instead of Christ, it needs to be removed from our life. Christians, we need to worship Christ alone. Our Salvation comes from Christ alone.

 

There is one more thing that I want to point out too. John Chapters 12 and 3 point out that that snake in the desert is a symbol of our all-important salvation in Jesus Christ.[6] Jesus says, John 12:32: “And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself.” John 3:13-16: “No one has ever gone into heaven except the one who came from heaven—the Son of Man. Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the wilderness, so the Son of Man [Jesus] must be lifted up, that everyone who believes may have eternal life in him. For God so loved the world that He gave his only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have everlasting life.”

 

This bronze snake that God used was cast aside and destroyed after centuries of use because it began to compete with the Lord -whom it foretold- for the very hearts and minds of His people.[7] But what that bronze snake represents is alive and well: that is our salvation through Jesus Christ, through Christ alone. So today I encourage us all that if there is anything – even something in the church or a good person or a mentor in our lives – if there is anything that we have come to see as our salvation other than Christ, I invite us to leave it here in the sanctuary or even on the altar today and never to pick it up again. There is only one who can handle all of our problems and there is not a single thing that we will face in our lives that God cannot handle; so I invite us here today in all that we are going through, in all that we experience, in all that we do; to always look for our salvation from Christ and from Christ alone.  

Let us pray.

Matthew 9:13: "I Desire Mercy, Not Sacrifice"

Presented to Swift Current Corps of The Salvation Army, 13 June 2010; Corps 614 Regent Park and The Warehouse Mission, 16 Sept 2016; and Alberni Valley Ministries, 30 April 2023

 

This is the 2023 Alberni Valley Version (See below for links to versions from other places and other times)

 

Summer feels like it is here, I saw someone driving their fancy classic car the other day. Don, you belong to the car club. When do all the summer events begin? Seeing this made me reminisce about my first car, it isn’t quite as fancy as those classic cars but here is a picture of it…

 

Okay that’s not my car –but that isn’t entirely dissimilar from my car. My car only cost $100 and see how Fred’s car is propelled… It only moves because he runs with his feet sticking out the bottom. That was sort of like my Pontiac. Like Fred’s car, didn’t have any floorboards at all on the passenger’s side – so my passengers had to be careful not to drop anything on the floor because it would be gone. It was allegedly a two-door but the driver’s door never worked. This sometimes made it a little difficult especially considering one of my friends for part of this time was confined to a wheelchair so whenever I gave them a ride I would either have to climb over them to get into the car or more likely get in Dukes of Hazard style. (You remember the Duke’s of Hazard where they would climb in through the windows instead of using the door?) – Actually, before I was done with my car, we always had to get in Dukes of Hazard style because the other door broke too. Nonetheless I loved my first car. It was all mine. It did have one good thing about it. It had four really nice moon discs. They were shiny, they were good solid hubcaps and they were really cool.

 

‘I desire mercy’ is a quote from our text today. When I was a teenager I used to let friends drive my car. One friend – Bill– has his learner’s license. We load the car up with many of our friends and we go cruising around the town. At one point we decide to go through the drive through and get some water to drink (we couldn’t afford to buy anything else) so – Bill is driving – he takes us through the drive through and he cuts the corner too close and - ‘crunch’ – there goes my front moon disk and then instead of stopping, (because he is an inexperienced driver) he keeps going and ‘crunch’; there goes a second one. Bill is so upset as he is chased from my car by our friends. He starts walking home feeling quite sad. I take over driving. We order enough waters from the A&W for everyone and Bill too  – remember the quote from the scriptures, ‘I desire mercy’ – we pull up beside him. He comes up to the car and then we – well – we hit him with our waters. Okay maybe that is not a good example of mercy. We got it a little backwards.

 

Jesus said, “I desire mercy, not sacrifice’. This is significant. Look at what is happening in our text today. Jesus is having one of his all too familiar conflicts with the religious teachers. Jesus is walking along after performing a sensational faith healing in front of a large audience, he sees a tax collector and Jesus invites himself over to this house for dinner and the tax collector (Matthew) accepts.

 

Now we should put things in perspective a little bit here. Jesus is famous. He is as popular as any athlete or music star. Just like contemporary celebrities, crowds are following Jesus everywhere. He even has to hop on a boat after the miracle of the fish and the loaves to get away from them. Jesus is a pretty popular celebrity and all the people are following him and Jesus sees this tax collector and he invites himself over for dinner.

 

Anybody have a favourite celebrity here? Call out a name or two… what if _____ invited himself over to your place for dinner, would you accept? Of course. This is what Matthew does.

 

Now Matthew is a tax collector. Strictly speaking he is more like a customs officer, but it was the same idea: he collects taxes for Rome. Tax collectors are not the most popular people in the world these days.

 

It was even worse in Jesus' day. Do you remember who controlled Palestine in Jesus’ day? The Romans. Palestine was an occupied territory. I am the Legion Chaplain here.. As a Judean, for Matthew, sitting in his toll booth collecting taxes from his own people to pay Caesar may even seem be like collaborating with the enemy.

 

So here is Jesus, a celebrity preacher, who some people even know is the Messiah but misguidedly think he will destroy Rome and free the occupied territories and Jesus goes and invites himself over to one of the collaborators' places for dinner.

 

So Jesus’ adversaries think they see a weakness. They think that they can create a scandal that will discredit him. If there were newspapers, internet and the like back then the headline on the 6-O’Clock News would read like verse 11: “Jesus eats with sinners and tax collectors.”

 

Jesus doesn’t deny what he is doing. He is associating with unliked people. The Pharisees have caught Jesus red-handed with these ‘sinners’ they call them, and so, Verse 11: “When the Pharisees saw this, they asked his disciples, ‘Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and 'sinners'?’” Jesus overhears them and instead of denying his actions, Verses 12 and 13, “On hearing this, Jesus said, ‘It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. But go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice.’ For I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.’”

 

So this is interesting. Jesus is quoting Hosea 6. The Pharisees would have been very familiar with Hosea 6. Do you remember who are the Pharisees? The best of the Pharisees are like the good Bible-believing Christians of today, even encouraging us to holiness; Nicodemus and the Apostle Paul were Pharisees (Acts 23:6, 26:5). The worst of the Pharisees, I imagine, if they were around today would be intimidating people on social media who aren’t following societal rules of their day. These Pharisees, who themselves, are very careful not to break any religious laws accuse Jesus every time they catch him doing something that they do not think appropriate.

 

When accused here Jesus says to the Pharisees, Matthew 9:13: “But go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice.’

 

The Pharisees were really good at sacrifice. They did rightly believe in holiness. Amongst their number were probably some of the best of the religious people of their day (cf. Acts 22:1-5; Galatians 1:13,14). Maybe even better than us at following the scriptures. They tithed regularly. They read their scriptures. They come to the synagogue (church) regularly. They did not work on the Sabbath or do anything that would cause someone else to work (Dt 5; Ex20). They are very careful worshiping God by providing the appropriate sacrifices. If they were around today, they most likely would always have a wholesome radio station tuned into their car and/or their computer; they would always be dressed appropriately and they would be very careful to tithe and be self-sacrificing. This is good.

 

Where they go wrong is in pointing out that Jesus by eating with ‘sinners’ is like the sinners and not like them. Jesus agrees that he is not like them and he tells them why: He says the difference is that the Pharisees are not extending mercy. God loves people. The word ‘mercy’ here, ḥesed, means steadfast love or literally ‘covenant love.’ They are accusing Jesus of not being faithful to the covenant with God because he eats with ‘sinners’ but Jesus says that he is faithful to God’s covenant precisely because he does eat with ‘sinners’. Jesus says, quoting Hosea 6:6: “But go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice.’ For I have not come to call the righteous, but ‘sinners.’

 

The Pharisees sacrificed lots to do many good things right but Jesus says that is not what is most important. God desires mercy and not sacrifice.

 

I remember once when I was visiting a good church many, many years ago; a street person came in and lay down on the pews for a nap. A good, self-sacrificing pastor at this church asked him to leave. Jesus says, 'I desire mercy, not sacrifice.'

 

I have also seen congregations where nice, good, self-sacrificing church people have sat pouting, arms crossed all through the service because some stranger had dared to come an unwittingly sit in their seat. Jesus says, 'I desire mercy, not sacrifice.'

 

I have heard divorced people, single mothers and others tell me that they felt shunned in their churches by the good self-sacrificing Christians after their life circumstances change.  Jesus says, 'I desire mercy, not sacrifice.'

 

I have in my time heard good self-sacrificing Salvationists help the poor but complain whenever someone shows up for help who doesn`t look poor enough or needy enough or who does not seem marginalized. Jesus says, 'I desire mercy, not sacrifice.'

 

I have in my time seen good self-sacrificing Salvationists actually punish people for behaving in ways that are totally consistent with their diagnosis. Jesus says, 'I desire mercy, not sacrifice.'

 

Well, what about us here today? How do we greet the people God brings across our path? Do we extend to them the hesed covenant love of Christ who spends time with them (and us) no matter who they (and we) are.

 

Today, like always, I invite us to examine ourselves. Are we like it says in Matthew 23:24, ‘straining a gnat and swallowing a camel’? Are we ‘majoring in the minors’? Or do we openly embrace our brothers and sisters? Do we eagerly look for opportunities to show our love for God by loving our neighbours –poor or rich, nice or mean, scary or not scary? In short, if Christ showed up today in disguise would we welcome him warmly? If there are any ways that we here today have not been open to serving God by showing this hesed, mercy, covenant love to our neighbours, I would ask the Lord to reveal that to us, so that we can turn that and our whole lives over to Jesus Christ and I pray that people will indeed know we are Christians by our love.

 

May we all today go from here with a renewed impetus to show hesed, mercy, covenant love to our neighbour and may they will know we are Christians by our love.

 

 

To view the 2016 version,  click here: https://sheepspeaks.blogspot.com/2016/09/hosea-66-matthew-913-i-desire-mercy-not.html

 

To view the 2010 original version, click here: https://sheepspeaks.blogspot.com/2010/06/matthew-913-i-desire-mercy-not-sacrifice.html

 

 

 

 

  

Lessons from New York: James 1:2-4, 1 Peter 2:11-18, Matthew 28:18-20 & more

 Presented to The Salvation Army Warehouse 614, 18 March 2018 and Alberni Valley Ministries, 23 April 2023, by Captain (Major) Michael Ramsay

This is the 2023 TSA AV Version:

Susan is on her way to Winnipeg in a couple of weeks. Immediately following that Susan and I are flying to France for a couple of weeks. As we were planning for all of this, I was thinking about some of the other trips we have taken. Our last one was, of course, of Covid trip. Before that we took a number of trips through the US. Back in 2018, in the span of one year we visited or drove through Washington, Oregon, Nevada, Utah, Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona, and California; Ohio, Pennsylvania, Kentucky and Tennessee, Buffalo, Brooklyn, and New York, New York. The following are three lessons I remember from our trip to New York.

 

LESSON 1

 

Matthew 5:43-45: 43: “You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbour and hate your enemy.’ 44 But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, 45 that you may be children of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.

 

Romans 5:3-5: And not only so, but we glory in tribulations also: knowing that tribulation works patience; And patience, experience; and experience, hope And hope makes not ashamed; because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us.

 

James 1:2-4: Consider it all joy, my brothers, when you encounter various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance. And let endurance have its perfect result, so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.

 

Romans 12:12: Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer.

 

My family and I really were blessed to visit New York with all three of our children.  I think this was almost the last trip that the five of us all took together as a family. We were still living in Toronto at the time – later that same year we would move out west here. It was a little bit of a drive from Toronto to Ney York but we don't mind, we used to live in Saskatchewan, we are used to long drives.

 

It is great we got to see the Brooklyn Bridge, the Barclay Centre (where the Islanders play – they were a favourite team of mine in the early 1980s), 5th Avenue, Broadway, Times Square, and Central Park, among other places.

 

We walked around outside quite a bit and enjoyed ourselves - and then it got cold. Have you noticed how things can change in an instant? A day can be perfectly enjoyable and then it becomes too cold (or too hot) and all of a sudden everyone's mood changes. The scenery hasn't changed. The neat things to see and do haven't changed. The monuments and parks haven't changed. Your enjoyment however can change quite a bit if it all of a sudden becomes windy and cold!

 

This is like life in general. Life happens to every one of us. We all have many exciting and enjoyable things to experience just as we have many trials and toils to endure. The difference is how we experience these situations. If we focus on ourselves, it is like we are inviting a cold wind into our day to make us miserable in the midst of all the wonderful sights around us. If we, however, focus on Christ, we will also notice others and have our hearts warmed and our lives enriched by His love as we take in all that He is doing around, in, and through us. Today let us take Jesus up on His offer of pleasant warmth and comfort in the midst of everything we are seeing and experiencing in this life. Lesson one: Romans 12:12, Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer.

 

LESSON 2

 

1 Peter 2:11-18:

 

It was a lot of fun seeing the sights in New York. We had never been there before and our family really enjoys learning about the history of places as we visit them. We read every plaque we see and visit as many museums as we can.

 

We went to Buffalo, New York before we went to New York City. In Buffalo we saw plaques and monuments to US President Fillmore. He was from Buffalo; he was the last Whig President. We saw a monument to President McKinley who was assassinated in Buffalo. We saw a statue of President Lincoln. I put a Salvation Army 614 toque on him for a picture; we did this unknowingly on or near an anniversary of one of his massacres of indigenous peoples. (Lincoln, sadly, was brutal: he was responsible for many horrendous acts and a lot of death and destruction including the largest mass execution in US history). We saw a monument to Canadian and American friendship noting that our two flags should fly side-by-side for eternity but, alas, they had Ireland's flag flying instead of Canada's. (This was ironically on the same day that our Canadian government mixed up the Belgian and German flags).

 

In New York we saw monuments to President Roosevelt and others and we visited the New York Museum of Natural History and the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Many great things have been accomplished by Americans. Some of the things celebrated by some of the monuments, however, were things that offended my Canadian sensibilities. But here is the thing: I am just a tourist. I can't vote in US elections. I can't change their laws or their culture. I don't have the rights of a US citizen and I shouldn't because I am not one. Even though many Canadians seem to forget it in this day and age as in both our social and mainstream media, we weigh in on their domestic policy as if it were our domestic policy. It is not. They are a foreign country. I am a tourist. When I am there, I am a gracious guest and I do not forget that I am no more than that.

 

It is the same in our life here on earth for those of us who are Christians. We need to stand up for Christ and we need to serve him. We can't get drawn into adiaphoron, matters of spiritual indifference - things that have no relevance to his eternal kingdom. I have seen Christians detract from the policies of Christ by promoting INSTEAD the policies of Conservatives, Liberals, Republicans, or Democrats as if Christ supports any of these parties over the others:  he doesn't! (They should support him!) We should support him! We need to serve Christ remembering that if indeed we are Christians our allegiance belongs to him for - just like us last week in New York - we Christians are just visiting until we return to heaven or until Christ returns to earth as Lord of it all. Let us not forget where our Citizenship belongs.

 

Question for reflection rather than response necessarily: how can we act as Christians in an other than Christian world?

 

LESSON 3

 

Matthew 28:18-20: Then the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain where Jesus had told them to go. 17 When they saw him, they worshiped him; but some doubted. 18 Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19 Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”

 

This trip that we are chatting about was our family’s first ever visit to New York City. It is not that long of a drive from where we lived at the time, in Toronto. In the months leading up to this trip we had also driven to Ottawa, Montreal, Kingston, Niagara, Buffalo (and even flown to the Island here, to Victoria).

 

When we are in those places, the world comes to life. In Montreal, Quebec, and Kingston, our history and identity as a people (as Canadians) is revealed and we can understand it in ways I never could if I never stood on the walls of the Quebec Citadel or looked out over the plains of Abraham.

 

In New York, we experienced a lot of American culture. It is really quite something to see one of the cultural centres of the US: so many of their TV shows, movies, and figures of their culture are set right there. We were able to walk through Central Park, see the Statue of Liberty, stand in Times Square and see so many other things that we recognize from their songs, books, and music. Like a great children’s book pointed out to me once: their thanksgiving history (and other history) is much different than ours. And so it is all the more amazing to see things like Central Park, the Statue of Liberty, 5th Avenue, and ride the ferry to Staten Island.

 

All of these sights mean a lot more when you actually experience them for yourself rather than just seeing them in movies and on TV. I have a much greater understanding and appreciation for New York than ever before now that I have walked its streets and experienced it with my family.

 

This is the same with Jesus. Jesus is as real as any of the places we have visited. The more time we spend walking around with Jesus and getting to know him with our friends and family, the greater we will love him. He wants us, he does want you to come see him and spend time with him. As you do, even more than visiting a new city, I promise your life will be much better for it. As such, my final encouragement for you today is this. If you have never experienced the joys of Christ before, I invite you to accept his offer as tour guide, host, and Saviour today. And if for some reason, you ha e strayed from the tour for while, I invite you to return, I promise you will never regret it.

 

And that concludes the lessons God affirmed in me from our trip to New York. It will be interesting to see what He has to teach us in Paris, France in a couple of weeks.