Reflections on the Table, Part 5 (Finale May 30)

When one of those who reclined at table with him heard these things, he said to him (Jesus), "Blessed is everyone who will eat bread in the kingdom of God!" But he (Jesus) said to him, "A man once gave a great banquet and invited many. And at the time for the banquet he  sent his servant  to say to those who had been invited, 'Come, for everything is now ready.' But they all alike began to make excuses. The first said to him, 'I have bought a field, and I must go out and see it. Please have me excused.' And another said, 'I have bought five yoke of oxen, and I go to examine them. Please have me excused.' And another said, 'I have married a wife, and therefore I cannot come.' So the servant came and reported these things to his master. Then the master of the house became angry and said to his servant, 'Go out quickly to the streets and lanes of the city, and bring in the poor and crippled and blind and lame.' And the servant said, 'Sir, what you commanded has been done, and still there is room.' And the master said to the servant, 'Go out to the highways and hedges and compel people to come in, that my house may be filled.For I tell you, none of those men who were invited shall taste my banquet.'"                                           -Luke 14:15-24 Dear Grace Vancouver Family, At the centre of any home with any sense of health, joy, togetherness, belonging and family. . . is a Table. As Eastertide comes to a close tomorrow Sunday May 31st on Pentecost Sunday (50 days following Easter), this piece will be my last in this series on "Reflections on the Table." Last week, I said I would write another piece on the Table of the Lord's regarding this question, "Who Comes to the Banquet Feast (and Who Refuses It?)" We've been spending a fair amount of time in this series reflecting on the blessing of gathering together as God's people on the Lord's Day around the preaching of His Word and participating at His Table together. I've written this to continue to help us gain a deeper, richer and fuller understanding of who we are as God's people together and what is the meaning behind the sacrament of the Table we participate in together. I felt especially compelled to write this series since we have been kept from gathering and participating in the Lord's Table together as a church family for a number of months now and the longing to be at His Table seems to be stirring in many of us. In today's piece, I suppose I write in the prophetic tradition of guys like Isaiah who end with a warning. I am a pastor and a shepherd first and foremost, but it might be that, with God's help, a great warning might be exactly what the Great Physician ordered. After all, the Word of God is often described as a sharpening sword (Hebrews 4:12; Ephesians 6:17). I share this particular set of verses in Luke 14 because, for a number of years now, they have captured my imagination regarding the Kingdom of God and that the people who come to it might look a lot different than who I typically am around in the middle-class professional educated churches I have mostly been a part of through my thirty years of following Jesus. That's not to say that there aren't true believers in those/my churches (I think we mostly are at Grace Van!), but to say we might get to the New Heavens and New Earth and discover that people who look like most of us (upwardly mobile, professional and educated) turn out to be minority residents in the Holy City of God. Luke's passage in particular, reveals idols that people with means, income and who have the "most to lose" as far as earthly blessings, are most likely to serve. Such folks are the most likely to turn down the invitation to "eat bread in the Kingdom." Again, I close my writing today in the prophetic tradition. Of course, mostly I've sought to encourage you through this series. We've spent a fair amount of time through this series reflecting on the power of God's work in drawing His children to His Table, to feed, nurture and care for them. We talked about the yearning we have to be together again, gathered around the power of His Word and participation together at His Table. My hope has been that if you have followed the series to this point, you have been strengthened and encouraged by your time of being at home and away from the kind of daily meaningful "neighbourly" contact we were meant to experience on a regular basis. Mostly I've wanted to encourage you.... So here comes the "holy but" (as one of my friends used to say)... BUT, you know this if you read passages like 1 Cor. 11 closely,... participation in the Table also comes with a sober warning of judgement regarding those who come "unworthily" to the Table (1 Cor. 11:27). Coming to the Lord's Table is a bit different than the casual nature of my dinners at home, with a table full of teenagers, where we mostly have light-hearted conversations about everything under the sun, sometimes joking, sometimes talking over one another, sometimes teasing one another. At the Lord's Table, ultimately we "remember" our sin that sent Christ to the Cross and we take into our hearts His great love for us. We examine our hearts to see where we have not been right with God and with others. In a word we "repent."  So, since there is this glorious vision of the nations coming into the Holy City of God at the end of the Bible and to the Marriage Supper of the Lamb (Rev. 19) and that the warning is to come "worthily" to His Table,... I thought it might be helpful to ask on a grand scale, who comes exactly in the end? Also, who refuses the Table ultimately?  This is where our Luke 14 passage comes in handy, because it identifies three particular excuses individuals give for refusing the invitation of this great banquet feast that signifies the Kingdom of God. Interestingly enough, the excuses are not particularly dramatic but pertain to the stuff of everyday life for most who live in the world of "professional, middle-class working families." By the way, if you had to guess, knowing nothing about Luke 14, what might you think were the reasons invitations were refused to this great banquet feast of the Kingdom? Would you say, "well, I'm sure they were bad things that served as excuses"? For example, I'm sure a lot of people wanted to have a night out partying on the town, doing illicit drugs, maybe smoking some weed? Maybe even worse, frequent the engaging of prostitutes and steal from others, loot and promote violence? Would you say, rapists and serial killers are the ones kept from God's house? Maybe another guy cursed a lot and was always taking the Lord's name in vain? As the story of goes of the Christian who boasted of his moral purity, "I don't curse, smoke, drink or chew... neither do I date the girls who do!" Maybe "chewing" was a thing of my generation, but the "naughty kids" would get hold of the "skoal bandits" chewing tobacco tins and try to get away with hiding the little tobacco packets in their lips at school.   The REALLY BAD STUFF must have been the reasons given for refusing the Feast of the Kingdom. Is that what you would guess? If so, you would be completely wrong; we find Jesus illustrating a completely different set of excuses... in this passage, he is in the house of an accomplished and spiritual Pharisee, so Jesus exposes a set of excuses that cut to the heart of not first and foremost the people doing "bad things," but to those many consider to have "good lives."  What are the three excuses given for refusing the Kingdom of God in Luke 14? "The first said to him, 'I have bought a field, and I must go out and see it. Please have me excused.' And another said, 'I have bought five yoke of oxen, and I go to examine them. Please have me excused.' And another said, 'I have married a wife, and therefore I cannot come.'"  -Luke 14:18-20 1. Land. I have bought a field, and I must go out and see it. 2. Work. I have bought five yoke of oxen, and I go to examine them. 3. Family. I have married a wife and therefore cannot come. Excessive concerns around "Land, Work and Family" are the primary excuses that revolve around turning down the invitation to the Banquet Feast of the Kingdom of God.  These are generally three things we consider to be good gifts of God, right? To have Land (a place to inhabit),... in our case as city-dwellers, to have a home a place of habitation, earthly possessions to bring a level of stability and security to our lives. Work is a blessing that allows us to provide for our needs and those of our family and of others,... Personally, I've always thought it to be easier to be generous towards others than to receive generosity from others. Work gives me the income to be able to be generous towards others. Some even find a deeply-rooted "life meaning and purpose" out of their work. We think of frontline workers in this time of Covid as nothing less than heroic. Work can represent heroism for others. Marriage and family... no one can argue here that marriage and family, when together, healthy and loving,... to be anything other than a good thing. YET, these "good things" are precisely that which represents the three excuses that are given for REFUSING the Table of the Kingdom here in Luke 14. How do we make heads or tails out of this passage? Well, what Jesus is pointing us to is what we might call three classic idols of the heart, "Land (or Possessions), Work and Family." What is an idol? An idol is something we worship in the place of God. An idol isn't necessarily a bad thing (it can be, having a lust for power over others as one example), but an idol can also, at least begin, with a good thing; where that good thing becomes a dark thing is when it goes from being good to ultimate in our lives. In fact, the Apostle Paul defines idolatry as the worshipping and serving of "created things rather than the Creator who is to be forever praised" (Romans 1:25). We know that all things God created were originally created good. An idol can be anything we place in our lives over God as more important and more worthy to be pursued, worshipped over and above God Himself. An idol is what we might call an "over-desire," an "excessive desire," turning a good love into an ultimate love,... going from "that would be a blessing if I got that job/degree/pursuit to,... I HAVE to HAVE that job/degree/pursuit or my life will be meaningless."  In C.S. Lewis' narrative The Great Divorce we come across a bitter old lady who refuses the blessings of heaven because while on earth she had lost her son prematurely; she argues vehemently with the gnashing of teeth that by taking her son far too early, God had violated the most universally-held and greatest principle of love, that of "motherly love." So for all of the rest of her dark eternity, she gnashes her teeth refusing to move even one inch towards such a God who, in her mind, would do such an unspeakable evil. The narrative ends with her shrill voice yelling with hatred and vitriol to the heavens, "Give me back my son! Give me back my son!" You see, for this woman, her son was the ultimate thing and the great non-negotiable, not God,... Her son had moved from being a good love from the Lord to an ultimate love her life could not do without, so she discarded God and worshipped the dark idol of her son... into hell,... for all eternity.  In Lewis' character, we can hear echoes Jesus' rebuke of the woman in the crowd in Luke 11:27,28, "As he said these things, a woman in the crowd raised her voice and said to him, 'Blessed is the womb that bore you, and the breasts at which you nursed!' But he said, 'Blessed rather are those  who hear the word of God and keep it!'" There is so much more that could be said about these three classic idols of "land, work and family," especially as we reflect on their place in the creation account at the beginning of the Bible in the book Genesis. We are limited here, as this is supposed to be only a reflection, not a dissertation! But let me say this much about this "Big Three" in the creation account... All three of these "good things" were actually creational ordinances, blessed and sacred gifts of God, meant to be places of blessing, "sacramental" as I talked about in these reflections, part 3. Our first parents were to live and minister out of their togetherness, as "one" sharing the joys of the covenant bond of marriage (Gen. 2:24,25). Through our years struggling with infertility in our 20s, I read a terrific piece by Roman Catholic ethics professor Gilbert Meilaender where he described the laughing and joy of children as an embodiment of the love of their parents. Meilaender spoke of "loving-giving leading to life-giving" and children being an embodiment of that love and life.... Then again, late Presbyterian theologian John Gerstner also was fond of referring to children as "vipers in diapers," hahaha (so I suppose there is a balancing out of these ideal visions of marriage and family with their sometimes unpleasant realities in our homes). Either way, the point is that marriage and family could only be "conceived of" originally (pardon the pun!) as very good things, as a creational ordinance of God.     The same goes for work. The man and the woman were to do good work for the Lord as a way of co-reigning with God, and the work was to reflect/"image" faithful stewardship and care for the land (Gen. 2:15... much more could be said here regarding Gen. 1:28 too). Today we think of marriages that are holy places of loving mutual service, of the most effective couples working in concert together to love and serve. Also we pray at our church for God's people to see that "Mondays Matter" and ask God to give us wisdom in life and to establish the work of our hands (Psalm 90:12,17). The same goes for "land" in the creation account. We have in our vision statement that we are to be "faithful stewards of the Kingdom of God." We don't shy away from topics around generosity and being open-handed with our resources and possessions, through tithing, giving to our Care Fund and supporting various partnership ministries,... to opening our homes in hospitality to others. For those who have the blessing of "space" in Vancouver,... outside of this time of pandemic, normally we have genuine opportunities in our city that is often described as "lonely" and "disconnected," to welcome others to our tables. We've always wanted our people to be intentional in thinking and praying about what faithful stewardship of their "land" looks like for them in their lives and how to be neighbourly with those good gifts. Land, Work and Family were all God's good gifts in the beginning, indeed creational ordinances. And for the redeemed in Christ they continue to be viewed as such. Yet Adam's sin made a mess of things and the good things of creation easily became elevated as ultimate things,... our fallen sinful hearts began to worship the good gifts of God above the Giver. We began to replace the Benefactor with the Benefits and worship the Benefits in the place of the Benefactor. And in this time of pandemic, it's as if God kicked the legs out right from under the three-legged idol stool of "land, work and family." If we have been worshipping at the altar of any of the three of these classic idols, we have found ourselves more fearful, anxious, stressed and uncertain than ever. In a way, this time has revealed where our ultimate hopes are found for our joy, meaning and even salvation. When I was interviewed for the Lead Pastor position at Grace Van some years ago, I was asked the idol I most struggle with in life. My answer was my wife Tanya; I can't imagine life without my best friend, marriage partner in life for 25 years and the girl with whom I became friends at the age of 16 and fell in love with at the age of 18, the person who was most instrumental in bringing me to Christ too. Yet I've discovered through the years that while Tanya is a terrific wife, she is a severely inadequate Saviour. So what might be some ways this time of pandemic, i.e. testing, has kicked the legs out from under this three-legged stool? Let's consider.  1) Land (including possessions and resources) have become even more unstable with concerns about being able to pay the rent/mortgage and cover our basic expenses. Will what we have enough and be able to provide for the life we hope and believe we should have? Are our spending habits shaped by consumer society sustainable ultimately in this time of what is described by investors as a significant "capital loss environment"? I've been helping to manage my parents' estate ever since mom was given her terminal diagnosis. My parents have spent a lifetime accumulating their wealth; I heard mom voicing out loud the other day, "will it all be gone through this economic disaster created by the pandemic?" They've accumulated a lot, so they stand to lose a lot,... of course this altar of "land" is much easier for them to worship at, than those who never had much in the first place. Remember the empty promises of the Devil to Jesus offering the greatest of all possessions? and Jesus' response in Matt. 4:8-10? "...the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor. 'All this I will give you,' he said, 'if you will bow down and worship me.' Jesus said to him, 'Away from me, Satan! For it is written: `Worship the Lord your God, and serve him only.''' 2) Work has left many either unemployed or underemployed through a significant downturn in our economy. Even for those who still have steady jobs, the nature of work has shifted dramatically with most of our work being done online for the last few months. What will work look like moving forward as we re-engage? And while some jobs might be steady, we see the global connectedness of our work and know that our businesses if not now, a few months down the road, could be receiving significant cutbacks, adjustments and possible layoffs. Tanya's sister who is the president of a large advertising firm in New York has had to lay off a number of long-time employees who have been like "family" to her for many years now. A cousin of mine in a similar position of influence has had to do the same; in tears, she let a number of her employees go. With appreciation for these workers, in addition to the severance they received, my cousin divided her bonus (as CEO of the company) among the workers she had to let go. We see some beautiful gestures in this time, even heroic ones,... yet even such kindnesses do not mask the realities of some significant economic shifts in our work environments that are coming. These are challenging times, especially for the most established and "successful" people many might have assumed (wrongfully), prior to Covid, would continue to enjoy their economic successes, without interruption, for many years to come.  3) Families have been challenged both in their "forced togetherness" as well as concerns for the welfare of our children. I know mine seem like small costs in light of all the suffering from Covid, but Tanya and I have grieved the loss of an actual high school graduation ceremony for our graduating daughter Mia (and loss of all the activities that come with this significant achievement in our daughter's life). Again, perhaps small, but I was set up to coach my son Calvin's flag football team, which we believe had a good chance to win BC provincials in early June (scheduled for next weekend), among a field of what would have likely been 60 teams. Perhaps more significantly, two of our engaged couples at Grace Van (Jon and Gloria and Rolland and Hannah) have had to either dramatically alter their plans or hold them with a great deal of flexibility. And then those longing to be married with family have perhaps felt isolation and loneliness more acutely being forced to shelter in place during this time. I haven't been able to see my dad in his care home since last March and I find myself always wanting to be in two places at once, to be everything I can be to my mother through her cancer fight and to be present to my kids, especially as Mia graduates from high school here in a few days. What a year it has been! I've discovered I can only be in one place at one time! Will I trust God with my family here in Vancouver and also in Seattle? The idolatry of marriage and family tends to be there whether married or single, and either way, at least in our parable,... it has kept many from coming to the banquet feast of the Kingdom.    What is God trying to teach us NOW in this time of pandemic dear friends? Which idol(s) is He seeking to reveal in you so that you will dislodge your heart from their devious grip? Is it one of the "Big Three" described here in Luke 14? Perhaps all of the above? and then some more? As one good brother asked us staff to pray for him and his family that they would not only survive, but flourishing and thrive through this difficult time. Are you flourishing and thriving during this time? If not, why not? Could this passage in Luke 14 reveal some of the reason?  For me the lesson has been to learn to love and fear the Lord more than the very best things I have going on in my life. As an example, if I love and fear the Lord more than the welfare of my children, then I find I am no longer controlled by my anxieties about their lives, for they are in the Lord's hands. If I love and fear the Lord more than my work as pastor, then whatever economic uncertainties are there (we have had a drop in giving since the time of pandemic, which is understandable in some ways, and we had a huge transitional year in 2019 losing a number of families),... such uncertainties are overcome by my trust in the Lord who holds all things in His hands and who is the Lover of His people. If I love and fear the Lord more than my "land," then I don't have to worry about the uncertainties of being a renter in this very expensive city, a city now struggling even further. I don't have to worry about if there will be enough there to support a daughter now headed off to university in Langley (I think life is about to get a lot more expensive!)  As we finish here, we answered the question regarding who refused to eat the "bread of the Kingdom" and the excuses that were given, but we never quite got around to reflecting on those who actually would come to fill the banquet hall of the King... Luke is pretty clear on that in verse 21... "the poor and crippled and blind and lame" as well as in verse 23 those in the "highways and hedges" (the far-off places, travelers who do not occupy places of power, influence and wealth). Jesus' banquet hall in the New Heavens and New Earth, it turns out, will be filled with many more people who DO NOT look like me with my degrees and professional upwardly-mobile friends and family. Instead, it will be filled with people who never had much in terms of "land, work and family," so had little occasion to use them as excuses for refusing His Table at His Great Banquet Feast of His Kingdom. I have to admit, this passage puts some holy fear into my heart, but that's good right? What is God trying to teach us in this time of pandemic? Ending this series in the prophetic tradition with a word of warning and exhortation, I give you again the words of our Lord, "Worship the Lord your God, and serve him only."  As you do, I'm convinced you will discover that at the centre of the Lord's Table is health, joy, togetherness, belonging and family. . . . with the bread of the Kingdom.  I am very much looking forward to that time when we will be able again to re-gather together around His Table. Blessings dear friends, Pastor Mike

Reflections on the Table, Part 4 (written May 21)

"Today is Ascension Day, and that means that it is a day of great joy for all who can believe that Christ rules the world and our lives."

-Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Letters and Papers from Prison

"And he led them out as far as Bethany, and lifting up his hands he blessed them. While he blessed them, he parted from them and was carried up into heaven. And they worshiped him and returned to Jerusalem with great joy, and were continually in the temple blessing God." -Luke 24:50-53

"He was lifted up on clouds of glory in order to go to His Father for the purpose of His coronation as our King - as the King of kings and the Lord of lords. He ascended into heaven to fulfill His role as our Great High Priest, interceding for His people daily. So as He sits at the right hand of the Father, exercising His lordship over the whole world and His intercession before the Father on behalf of His people, He improves our condition dramatically. Not only this, but before Pentecost could come and the Holy Spirit could be poured out upon the church, empowering the church for its missionary enterprise to the whole world, it was necessary for Christ to ascend so that together with the Father He might dispatch from heaven the Holy Spirit in all of His power." -R.C. Sproul

"For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet." 

-1 Cor. 15:25

"On this mountain the Lord of hosts will make for all people
      a feast of rich food, a feast of well-aged wine,
      of rich food full of marrow, of aged wine well refined.

And he will swallow up  on this mountain
      the covering that is cast over all peoples,
      the veil that is spread over all nations.
      He will swallow up death forever;
and  the Lord God will wipe away tears from all faces,

      and  the reproach of his people he will take away from all the earth,
      for the Lord has spoken."       -Isaiah 25:6-8

"And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also." -John 14:3

"And the angel said to me, 'Write this: Blessed are those who are invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb." -Revelation 19:9

Dear Grace Vancouver Family,

At the centre of any home with any sense of health, joy, togetherness, belonging and family. . . is a Table. . . . and today is Ascension Day!!!

My heart is about to explode as I write this fourth part in our Reflections on the Table series. Today is exactly forty days from Easter Sunday, in the Scriptures signifying the day Jesus raises into the heavens and is coronated at the right hand of God the Father as King of kings and Lord of lords. From that place of Kingship, Jesus is orchestrating all the events of human history to culminate in His children from among the nations gathering to a great Table of feasting, in fact a Table that is called the "Marriage Supper of the Lamb" near the end of the Bible in Rev. 19.

Mom had just been diagnosed with an aggressive stage 4 cancer back in late November of last year. I was meeting with my spiritual director every few weeks,... and I had begun traveling to Seattle on a weekly basis to help out mom as well as the family. I confided in Mark (my spiritual director) that I had been praying for my mom to give her life to Jesus for almost 30 years now, and so often for so many years those prayers seemed to fall on hard soil and to produce little fruit. I had developed a really great relationship with my mom for the last 20 years; ever since I became an emerging adult, mom and I had become good friends, and in many ways I had become her confidant as she would often run things by me.... yet she seemed to be so far and distant from the Lord as the years would pass one after another. And now she had received a terminal diagnosis and the weight of her eternal soul came down on me like a one ton steel beam where it seemed that neither I nor a hundred men could lift. If my efforts had seemed so often fruitless in bringing her to Christ over 30 years, what if she only had 30 days? What was I going to do now? 

About a week before that conversation with my spiritual director Mark, mom had said something amazing to me, using words that I had never heard come out of her mouth in my 48-yr relationship with her. She said regarding her cancer diagnosis, "Michael, this cancer is so much bigger than me; I feel like the Lord has been in my heart for some time now and that He is humbling me." I shared those words with Mark, but then I immediately jumped into sharing how much pressure I felt to "close the deal," to bring my mom to Jesus, given the limited time she had left.

Mark mostly listened to my great fears and anxieties for about twenty minutes. And then he said, "Mike, you've been a pastor for a long time and you know the Bible well, so you go ahead and test what I'm about to say with the Scriptures." 

I leaned in. 

Mark continued, "Salvation is the work of God, not us humans. God is gathering His children to His table; it's His work, not yours. What we get to do as His Beloved children is witness what He is doing and participate with Him in His work." 

My heart was beating fast with fear, joy, hope, anxiety, yearning, awe and worship all at the same time. I was completely locked in. 

Mark continued, "When your mom said that the Lord has been in her heart for some time now and that He is humbling her, where do you think those words came from? Again, test what I am saying, but her words are enough for me. Shouldn't they be enough for you to know that God is gathering your mom to His Table? He seems pleased to include you in His story of salvation, but the writing of the story is His work, not yours."

Mark wasn't speaking; it was the Holy Spirit. I had no words, only tears. I began to weep uncontrollably. A one ton steel beam had just been removed from my shoulders.

Throughout our Eastertide series, we have heard powerful and wonderful messages from Professors Ross Hastings and Jonathan Wilson, as well as our staff Tunyi and Rolland. This Sunday we get to hear from Tony Lee. A couple of weeks ago, our pastoral intern Rolland got us to think about Christ as Prophet, Priest and King and what a terrific message Rolland gave.

I want to add to Rolland's message today, that it is from that place of Jesus' enthronement as the Risen and Ascended King that Jesus continues to serve as Prophet, Priest and King. Whether it is through His priestly work of intercession or Kingly work of reigning, Jesus does this work as the Incarnated Son of God, from His exalted throne in the heavens at the right hand of God the Father. And it is a work that is immutable we might say; unlike the work of human hands. His work as a part of the Triune Godhead, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, cannot be frustrated or thwarted. To return to Mark's statement, "Salvation is God's work, not ours." 

It's a home, a Table that the Lord is bringing His children to, as He reigns and as His Kingdom comes. 

I cannot wait to participate in the Eucharist, the Table of thanksgiving, with you again. We wait for our ability to regather as His Church again before we participate together again, but in the meantime we open our eyes to seeing the Power of the Table at work all around us and in our lives, the lives of our loved ones and family members, friends and neighbours, especially among those who mourn, thirst and hunger. Let us not neglect the gathering/communion of the Saints when the doors of Grace Van reopen again (Hebrews 10:24,25), but let us also reject the belief that somehow God's power or mission is limited because we are so severely limited. God is gathering His children to His Table; it is indeed His work, not ours. Might we participate with Him in that work, regardless of our limitations, seeing that the work of His Table is powerfully at work all around us in the small moments of life, in our relationships and in our world. 

And might we rejoice in all of it because today is Ascension Day, "Today is Ascension Day, and that means that it is a day of great joy for all who can believe that Christ rules the world and our lives."

Blessings dear friends,

Pastor Mike

Next Message in this Series: Who Comes to the Banquet Feast (and Who Refuses It?)

Reflections on the Table, Part 3 (written May 13)

Dear Grace Vancouver Family,

At the centre of any home with any sense of health, joy, togetherness, belonging and family... is a Table. 

Well, here we are in week 3, part 3, already with this series of reflections on the Lord's Table. We ended last week's reflection on the Table with this: what is the sacramental life? On the backside of every bulletin we pick up on Sunday mornings at Grace Van or more recently have downloaded as a link, there is the fine print describing some of Grace Van's vision. Under the middle section on "Inward: Transformed by the Peace of God in Christ," there is a simple statement on the sacramental life and it simply reads like this, "our participation in the sacraments of bread and wine flow into our everyday lives." Have you read the fine print? Sometimes the fine print matters.

So maybe a starting point for today's reflection is asking, "what do the bread and wine signify for us?" Well, there are certain words that we as believers use that are not explicitly Biblical words, but they are words that can easily and necessarily be "deduced" from Scripture and they are important words; the two that jump to mind immediately for me are "Trinity" and,... well,... "Sacrament." 

Sacrament comes from the latin word Sacramentum which simply means "mystery." The New Testament Greek word for mystery is musterion and what musterion always refers to is the "mystery of the Gospel." The Apostle Paul says in Ephesians 3:6, "This mystery (musterion) is that the Gentiles are fellow heirs, members of the same body, and partakers of the promises in Christ Jesus through the gospel." Who are the Gentiles? The Gentiles are all who are outside the ethnic people of Israel from the Old Testament,... in essence, Jewish people. So the grand "mystery" of the Gospel is that you and I (as Gentiles, nonJewish people) have been included in the promises of God, incorporated into the family of Israel by faith,... whoa... AWESOME. 

The mystery of the Gospel is that we have been included, that you and I BELONG. Romans 1:6 says this grand mystery of the Gospel includes the Gentiles/Nations who now belong to Christ Jesus. There are very few words in my vocabulary that penetrate my heart as the word "belonging," so much so that I spent six long years working on a doctorate on the very topic!  

Remember how I opened this series and have repeated each part of it? "At the centre of any home with any sense of health, joy, togetherness, belonging and family... is a Table." So when we participate at the Table together, we participate in a table of BELONGING. And the "musterion," the awesome, unbelievable, hidden truth revealed is that we have been included as children of God to belong! 

Well, the children of the King must also behave in a way that befits their status as royalty, so this is also why we must repent and make sure we are right with King Jesus as well as our brothers and sisters every time we come to the Table.

Alexander Schmemann wrote this in his terrific book For the Life of the World:

"No one has been 'worthy' to receive communion,... all merits, all righteousness, all devotions disappear and dissolve. Life comes again to us as Gift, a free and divine gift.... we call the Eucharistic elements Holy Gifts. Adam is again introduced to Paradise, taken out of nothingness and crowned king of creation. Everything is free, nothing is due and yet all is given. And therefore, the greatest humility and obedience is to accept the gift, to say yes- in joy and gratitude."

It is this gift of G-R-A-C-E (God's Riches At Christ's Expense,... thank you J.I. Packer) that we celebrate and receive every time we come to the Table. John Calvin called the Table a "visible word" of the Gospel of Christ, of this great wondrous mystery that we have received His Grace.

So, if we are restored to our Kingly status of royalty every time we partake in this Table of belonging together as children of royalty, how ought we then step into the world on "Monday"? Well, I think the answer is fairly straight-forward, isn't it? As children of the King who continue to renew themselves in the power of the Table week-in and week-out. We live according to this "Gospel Remembrance" in all that we do and in everything that we are,... this is the Sacramental Life.

Paul put it this way in Galatians 2:20, "I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me." Do we understand we participate in His sacrificial death, again and again, whenever we participate at the Table? At the centre of any home with any sense of health, joy, togetherness, belonging and family... is a Table. We "touch and taste" the "Visible Word" of God that tells us Jesus loves us.

Pre-eminent 20th century theologian Karl Barth was once asked, "what is the most profound truth found in all the pages of Scripture?" Barth answered, "Jesus loves me this I know, for the Bible tells me so." So we touch and taste this goodness when we gather around the Table by faith. Jesus loves us indeed.

The Sacramental Life is the whole of life set apart in love and service to our Great God. This morning I fixed my mom breakfast, paid some bills, talked to mom about going to the bank for her, picking up some meds,... also talked to her about the Day of Atonement in Leviticus 16 and the fully sufficient sacrifice of Christ in Hebrews 10. She asked questions about Moses and Jesus, who they were,... the relationship and timeline of the Old and New Testaments (she's never professed faith in Christ before!) She learned the meaning behind the word "atonement" and that the first five books of the Bible are also known by the name "The Book of Moses." I've asked many to pray for her to receive Jesus. She is now on her iPad, also taking her blood pressure,... oh, reading the New Testament book of Hebrews too in her Chinese Bible! 

I am writing this article, though I did take a break watching some YouTube clips. I'm a sucker for old professional wrestling clips with Andre the Giant and Hulk Hogan (I wasn't a churched kid, but I was very faithful to be in one place every Sunday at 10a... sitting in the church of the World Wrestling Federation with patron saint Hulk Hogan, haha)... I was just ushered back into one of the sweetest moments of my childhood... Hulk Hogan body-slammed 500 lb. Andre the Giant in Wrestlemania III,... amazing (Andre did a terrific job in the Princess Bride too, not too long before he passed away). In recent weeks, I've been getting into "The Last Dance" on Netflix about Michael Jordan's remarkable basketball career; yes, I had "Air Jordans" as a young teenager in the early 80s. When I was home in Vancouver "on quarantine" because of my travels to Seattle, I worked out with my daughter Mia, when I was "off quarantine," I went and threw the football at Memorial park with my boys. We celebrated Mother's Day together last Sunday, and will celebrate Calvin's 15th birthday this Sunday. Today I have a 5:30p online workout and will talk to an asset manager about nexts steps in getting mom and dad's estate in order. I will FaceTime my dad and get new tires on my car. My sister will drive me, even though it will take less than an hour to change the tires, for precautionary reasons, I choose not to sit in the shop at this time. Tomorrow I will take my mom to get a blood test at a lab. Meanwhile, I meet with my small group on Zoom on Thursday nights, staff meetings Tuesday afternoons, had an elder candidate and advisory member training session Monday night through the Westminster Confession of Faith and a book by Michael Horton called "Putting Amazing Back into Grace." I hope to be home on Saturday and back on a 14-day mandatory quarantine. I've struggled with being home-bound so much and get down at times too like many of you.

Why do I give you all these mundane details of the minutiae around my life?... actually, I forgot to add that I brushed my teeth this morning and prefer Colgate to Crest! ... I give you these details because I want you to know that all of life is sacramental,... yes, I even brush my teeth for Jesus : ) Actually,... I do, because I want to take care of this life I have been given and honour Him with it, because it is ultimately His,... my teeth too!

This is the Sacramental Life,... the elements of the bread and wine flow into everyday life. This Sunday cannot come soon enough as Tunyi will be giving his message this Eastertide season out of John 21, where he will point us to how the disciples returned to their trade as fishermen in the wake of the resurrection. There will be much to receive from Tunyi regarding all of life as being sacramental, as Tunyi continues our series on "Living the Resurrection."

That's the Sacramental Life... sometimes the fine print matters.

Blessings dear friends,

Pastor Mike

Next Message in this Series: The Wedding Supper of the Lamb and Who Comes

Reflections on the Table, Part 2 (written May 6)

Dear Grace Vancouver Family,

At the centre of any home with any sense of health, joy, togetherness, belonging and family... is a Table. 

Last week I shared a reflection from Dietrich Bonhoeffer from his class work Life Together: The Classic Exploration of Faith in Community. In Bonhoeffer's excerpt, he reflects wonderfully on the blessing of the physical presence of a brother or sister in the Lord as holding a kind of yearning for the presence of the Triune God Himself.

Let me quote from the first couple of lines from last week's Bonhoeffer excerpt:

"So between the death of Christ and the Last Day it is only by a gracious anticipation of the last things that Christians are privileged to live in visible fellowship with other Christians. It is by the grace of God that a congregation is permitted to gather visibly in this world to share God's Word and sacrament."

Let me reflect on these lines, alongside a reflection on some Scripture verses from the Gospel of Luke 22:14-29a:

"And when the hour came, he (Jesus) reclined at table, and the apostles with him. And he said to them, 'I have earnestly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer. For I tell you I will not eat it until it is fulfilled in the kingdom of God.' And he took a cup, and when he had given thanks he said, 'Take this, and divide it among yourselves. For I tell you that from now on I will not drink of the fruit of the vine until the kingdom of God comes.' And he took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it..." 

What are some observations from these verses as well as Bonhoeffer's words?

1. Yearning is Described. Jesus "eagerly desired" to eat the meal of the Passover with his disciples. Bonhoeffer describes the great yearning isolated believers have for one another as a sign of the presence of Christ Himself.

2. Gathering Around Word and Sacrament is an Anticipation of "Last Things." Jesus said that eating of this meal, we now know as the Lord's Table, was an anticipation of the Day when He would return to make all things new, establish the fullness of His Kingdom and participate once again with His people in "eating and drinking of the fruit of the vine." Bonhoeffer called this the "gracious anticipation of last things." 

3. There is Undoubtedly a "Physical Togetherness" We Witness in the Promises of this Coming Kingdom. This is why Bonhoeffer was so adamant to speak of the presence of a brother or sister in the Lord "showing up" to the exile or prisoner as a sign of the presence of Christ Himself. There is the reference in Luke 22 where Jesus speaks of His own yearning to eat of the Passover Meal "with you." In other words, as much as His desire was great, there was no fulfilling of it until He was with His people and once again would be.

Conclusion: do we realize that when we come together as the Body of Christ on the Lord's Day and "assemble" as the Israelites of the Old Covenant,... when we do those things Jesus said we should do, "until He comes,"... we are participating in the powers of the Coming Age in a way we are unable to do the rest of the week?  If I can get a little technical here quoting from New Testament commentator Joel Green, when we come together, we participate in the "eschatological advent of God's dominion." 

Yes we are Jesus' Church when we "scatter" into the world and yes we are Jesus' Church throughout the week; as we like to say at Grace Van, "Monday Matters!" Yet there is something unique and distinctive about the actual physical gathering, the "coming together" of God's people around His Word and Sacrament. My pastor Mike Malone, during my seminary years, used to say, if we really understood what was happening on the Lord's Day when we gather together, and if we truly had the eyes to see, we would be coming to "church" in crash helmets. Makes sense, if we expect Jesus and the powers of the Coming Age to meet us in such a powerful and dramatic way as we gather.

Reflections: so this leads me to a question that has come up in a handful off conversations from different quarters in our congregation; should we participate in the Lord's Table virtually via Zoom, while we are unable to gather together physically? As I said last week what this reflection would be about, my answer has been, we should "wait upon the Lord to partake." 

ONE (Yearning), we should let the yearning and anticipation in our hearts grow larger, all the while feeding ourselves off of the fat of the Word of God and its promises. Our prayer lives should grow robust during this time of not being able to "touch and taste" the Lord's goodness in the elements of the bread and wine and not being able to do so together. 

TWO (the Church), we should reconsider if we have too much defined our Christian walks primarily by our own individual lives, rather than as set in the context of the larger, physical covenanted community that is called to gather physically together regularly, but given our extraordinary circumstances, has been unable to do so. Pastor Malone used to give an annual preaching series called "Who Loves the Church?" And by "Church," Mike meant the physical people who are really there in the church community and not merely some kind of spiritualized ideal of a universal church somewhere in the world, but not in our lives. What is more, when we come to the Table on the Lord's Day, we should always be looking to our left and right (as well as above to Him) to seeing who comprises God's family, His Church, and who we are together as His. It wouldn't be difficult to write another lengthy series on the many occurrences of the "one anothers" in Scripture.

THREE (the In-Breaking of the Kingdom), if we catch this vision of the gathering of the physical presence of the Body of Christ, covenanted by faithfulness of God and the promises of one member to another, our hearts just might begin to see each Sunday in our coming together (once we are able to do so again) as nothing less than the New Heavens and the New Earth breaking through (and maybe we will start getting to "church' on time too for the opening call to worship that invites God's people to assemble,... as who wants to miss the crashing in of this "eschatological advent"?!!! : ) Oh yeah, and maybe we will start showing up,... with crash helmets too!!!

I want to suggest that the great yearning to partake in the Table as soon as possible comes from a good place. Let that yearning grow, but let's also not short-circuit the meaning of the Table by trying to find a short-cut back to it, before we the Body of Christ are able to gather together by being able to be present with one another. In the meantime, let's take the proper amount of time to reflect more fully on who we are in relationship to the Grace Van community and what kind of answer we might give to the question, "Who Loves the Church?"

Next Message in this Series: The Sacramental Life; What is It?

Reflections on the Table, Part 1 (written Apr. 29)

Here is a series of posts I wrote for our church family beginning in late April. I thought I would post them here.

Dear Grace Vancouver Family,

At the centre of any home with any sense of health, joy, togetherness, belonging and family... is a Table. 

Today, I wanted to pass on a reading from Dietrich Bonhoeffer's classic Life Together: The Classic Exploration of Faith in Community. This excerpt has been one of my favourites for almost two decades now, and is especially meaningful in light of the times we are in. I was especially moved to share it, after Dr. Ross Hastings talked a bit in our Q&A time last Sunday about how this pandemic has challenged the very notion of what it means to be human and also what it means to be human together. He commented on how the best way to love our neighbour these days has been to stay away from them; whereas, true love and honouring our humanity includes embraces, touch and in the context of the Body of Christ, participation together in the sacrament of communion. 

I was so moved by Ross' comment that I thought I would do a multi-part series in the coming days on the meaning of the Table. How many parts to this series? I don't know; two? three maybe? More? We'll see. 

The first part of the series here will begin with me mostly quoting Bonhoeffer, because there is so much to appreciate about what he has to say here. Bonhoeffer wrote in Germany in an underground seminary at a time when the world was very unstable, between world wars. He gets us to think about how often when fellowship and worship with other brothers and sisters in the Lord is readily available, that we too often take it for granted. I think in a way that we have never been as Jesus' Church, at least in my lifetime, we are more open than ever to hearing and receiving Bonhoeffer's message.

So here it is, taken from his Life Together:

"So between the death of Christ and the Last Day it is only by a gracious anticipation of the last things that Christians are privileged to live in visible fellowship with other Christians. It is by the grace of God that a congregation is permitted to gather visibly in this world to share God's Word and sacrament. Not all Christians receive this blessing. The imprisoned, the sick, the scattered lonely, the proclaimers of the Gospel in heathen lands stand alone. They know that visible fellowship is a blessing. They remember, as the Psalmist did, how they went 'with the multitude... to the home of God, with the voice of joy and praise, with a multitude that kept holyday' (Ps. 42:4). But they remain alone in far countries, a scattered seed according to God's will. Yet what is denied them as an actual experience they seize upon more fervently in faith. Thus the exiled disciple of the Lord, John the Apocalytist, celebrates in the loneliness of Patmos the heavenly worship with his congregations, 'in the Spirit on the Lord's day' (Rev. 1:10). He sees the seven candlesticks, his congregations, the seven stars, the angels of the congregations, and in the midst and above it all the Son of Man, Jesus Christ, in all the splendor of the resurrection. He strengthens and fortifies him by His Word. This is the heavenly fellowship, shared by an exile on the day of the Lord's resurrection.

The physical presence of other Christians is a source of incomparable joy and strength to the believer. Longingly, the imprisoned apostle Paul calls his 'dearly beloved son in the faith,' Timothy, to come to him in prison in the last days of his life; he would see him again and have him near. Paul has not forgotten the tears Timothy shed when last they parted (II Tim. 1:4). Remembering the congregation in Thessalonica, Paul prays 'night and day... exceedingly that we might see your face' (I Thess. 3:10). The aged John knows that his joy will not be full until he can come to his own people and speak face to face instead of writing with ink (III John 1:14).

The believer feels no shame, as though he were still living too much in the flesh, when he years for the physical presence of other Christians. Man was created a body, the Son of God appeared on earth in the body, he was raised in the body, in the sacrament (the Lord's Table) the believer receives the Lord Christ in the body, and the resurrection of the dead will bring about the perfected fellowship of God's spiritual-physical creatures. The believer therefore lauds the Creator, the Redeemer, God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, for the bodily presence of a brother. The prisoner, the sick person, the Christian in exile sees in the companionship of a fellow Christian a physical sign of the gracious presence of the triune God. Visitor and visited in loneliness recognize in each other the Christ who is present in the body; they receive and meet each other as one meets the Lord, in reverence, humility, and joy. They receive each other's benedictions as the benediction of the Lord Jesus Christ. But if there is so much blessing and joy even in a single encounter of brother with brother, how inexhaustible are the riches that open up for those who by God's will are privileged to live in the daily fellowship of life with other Christians!

It is true, of course, that what is an unspeakable gift of God for the lonely individual is easily disregarded and trodden under foot by those who have the gift every day. It is easily forgotten that the fellowship of Christian brethren is a gift of grace, a gift of the Kingdom of God that any day may be taken from us, that the time that still separates us from utter loneliness may be brief indeed. Therefore, let him who now has had the privilege of living a common Christian life with other Christians praise God's grace from the bottom of his heart. Let him thank God on his knees and declare: It is grace, nothing but grace, that we are allowed to live in community with Christian brethren." END QUOTE.

Reflection: when we are able once again to come back together and to assemble together as the Body of Christ, will we have spent meaningful time in our time of isolation, repenting of our complacency towards the local church where Christ organizes His people and pours out His "inexhaustible riches"? Will we reject the spirit of consumerism that tries to "get something out of church," whether inspiring sermons or great music or otherwise? Instead will we come to see Jesus' Church as that place, despite all its flaws and foibles, lack of having it together in so many ways, where we are called to press into a common life of "incomparable joy and strength" offered to those who by faith willingly see a remarkable work present by Divine Grace and through God's People gathered around the Word and His Table?

Next Message in this Series: Waiting Upon the Lord to Partake Together.