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A New Year and Jesus’ Name Day

January 1, 2023 0 Comments

We begin the New Year in 2023 with a reflection on the name of Jesus. It’s name day in our celebration of Christmas.

“On the eighth day, when it was time to circumcise the child, he was named Jesus, the name the angel had given him before he was conceived.” Luke 1:21 

When the angel appeared to Mary, he told her that the child to be formed by the Holy Spirit within her womb would be called “Jesus.” The name “Yeshua,” like Joshua in the Old Testament, means “Yahweh saves.” The name given to this body formed in mystery is the revelation of God’s salvation to us. Indeed, the apostles would speak of Jesus the Messiah, saying, “Salvation is found in no one else. There is no other name under heaven given to mankind by which we must be saved.” Acts 4:12 

On his name day, a new day of creation, Jesus enters into the covenant of Israel through circumcision. He not only becomes a participant in God’s promises to Abraham and Israel, Jesus also now embodies this promise. He would later say of his blood when sharing the cup with his disciples, “Drink from it, all of you. This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins.” Matthew 26:27-28

The early church honoured the name of Jesus in the hymn written by the Apostle Paul in the Letter to the Philippians. … Christ Jesus

Who being in very nature God,
did not consider equality with God 
something to be used to his own advantage;
rather, he made himself nothing
by taking the very nature of a 
servant,
being made in human likeness.
And being found in appearance as a
man,
he humbled himself
by becoming obedient to death—
even death on a cross!

Therefore, God exalted him to the
highest place
and gave him the name that is above 
every name,
that at the name of Jesus every knee
should bow,
in heaven and on earth and under
the earth,
and every tongue acknowledge that
Jesus Christ is Lord,
to the glory of God the Father.
Philippians 2:5-11

At the name of Jesus every knee should bow. At the name of Jesus — On this first day of the year and for every day of this year, may the name of Jesus be on your tongue. May we live yielded and surrendered to Jesus our Lord. May we speak the name of Jesus over all who need healing, comfort, and grace. May we lift up the name of Jesus in conversation with all those who seek truth. May we praise the name of Jesus with all his people.

Jesus, Jesus, Jesus. 

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DR: Facing Temptations

August 4, 2022 0 Comments

Read Luke 4:1-13

“When the devil had finished all this tempting, he left him until an opportune time.”

After a high and holy moment Jesus was moved by the Spirit into the wilderness, into a solitary place and the devil came to tempt him. This too is a holy season as Jesus persists in setting Himself into the Presence and purposes of God.

It’s Jesus’ commitment to the Father and his commitment to the way of the Father that is being tested. The devil need not come himself to tempt us. He has his agents but there is more. The Apostle James says that “each person is tempted when they are dragged away by their own evil desire and enticed” (James 1:14). And then there are the systems of this world that are opposed to the knowledge and way of God. We are tempted by their promises all the time to act and live independent of God as He is revealed in His Word and by the Spirit.

Jesus shows us the way forward when tempted as he constantly returns to His life with the Father and the realities of His Word. He resists the devil. 

Heavenly Father, whether I find myself in the solitary places or in the wildness of the crowds I know I am tempted to wander from You and Your ways. Seek me and set me in the delight of your love. May no willful sin dominate me. Protect me from the evil one and the lead me in the way everlasting. In Jesus Name, Amen.

Change, Daily Readings, Discipleship

The Goose, The Plan, and The Dissenting Opinion

May 14, 2022 0 Comments

This week while making my way to UBC I came to a brief but dangerous standstill on 41st Avenue. In the approach to Cambie a driver had staddled two lanes and was stopping, starting, then stopping again and again. What the dickens?!

Then I saw him. A Canadian Goose had successfully stoped us. I’m not sure what he was protesting. The driver in the blue Subaru Forester was trying to shepherd the Goose to the side of the road. Like a western cattle rancher he applied force and size to drive the Goose away. But the Goose was having none of that. I smiled and nervously watched the approaching traffic in my rear view mirror.

Surely frustrated, the driver finally honked. Success. Something in the horn’s tone must have resonated with the Goose because he took off in a flash toward Cambie where he turned right toward City Hall.

The Broadway Plan

Did you hear about the Broadway plan? It’s all the rage as we plan for progress. Dense, denser, and densier.

I’ve been more interested in the minority opinion though. It calls for the Broadway Plan to be rejected. Expressed by Gabriella Peters and Ruby Langan, who serve as Commissioners with the Vancouver City Planning Commission they elevate their concerns to life and death. Perhaps it feels to some that they would stop progress, but that’s not their point. They want progress to include everyone. As I surmise their concerns are three-fold. 1. We are in an emergency. “Disabled people are dying now.” 2. The Broadway Plan provides lots of details on density but it doesn’t provide specific details for going beyond current inadequate building standards that harm the disabled. 3. The plan does not provide a plan that keeps us from creating a “poor door” out of the city for the current renters.

Here’s the Dissenting Opinion, please read it.

https://twitter.com/mssinenomine/status/1525189748716761088?s=20&t=liK5fK8vfkTuzoCoICu8jA

Minority Reports

Minority reports and dissent seem to stand in the way of progress or at least someone’s vision of security. Within the Scripture from which I speak each week, minority reports and dissent is the way of the prophets. To ignore their voice is to court disaster. Famously Joshua and Caleb provided a minority opinion when they urged Israel to trust God and enter into the land on the other side of the Jordan river; the majority said “no we will not go” and so they wandered in the desert for years. Not so famously Jonathan son of Asahel and Jahzeiah son of Tikvah, supported by Meshullam and Shabbethal the Levite, opposed Ezra the priest and the assembly who sought to compel the men who had “foreign” wives to send the wives and children away; their dissent was noted but rejected and so a vision of God’s inclusion of people in covenant was reduced to blood lines for a time until Christ.

From within my faith tradition I see land, inclusion and visions of progress and security often contested. The record speaks for itself. However, I know of a church here in the Lower Mainland that listened to a minority report once. The whole body was voting to sell the land and call it a day at their location. But one child raised her hand and voted no. They stopped to listen. Imagine that! Progress was stopped by one child. They listened, reconsidered, and voted to stay put. Today this property hosts multiple congregations and is stewarded through a multi-ethnic and multi-congregational board. It’s not easy, but it’s glorious.

Will Vancouver listen? It’s hard for Gabriella and Ruby to be heard. As far as I can tell the Vancouver Sun has not brought their concerns forward to the general public. But the general public is having a hard time on any day to hear, listen, and be engaged in the many decisions shaping the future of Vancouver. We’ve got our heads down and we are trying to make sure our circles of comfort survive.

But at least we have Twitter.

Hear! Hear! I raise my morning coffee to Gabriella and Ruby.

Change, Leadership, Society

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Social Capitals

January 18, 2022 0 Comments

Babylon will burn and the corporate lament
shall not drown the cries of those
below their lines.

To be fair we might all benefit from ugly truth
‘less we are so damn sure that
our greed is just.

There is no social capital in hell; yet beyond
that fiery lake is a beach to a city
with an open gate.

So I look up and behold the God who came down.
So I look down and behold the souls bought at a price.

Now mercy brings me to this promised land but
Jesus reserved stern words for the mercied
who would not mercy.

The world watches social capitals work and
billionaires go green to make a deal
while the devil lies.

The Uyghurs cry out with Able. With Lazarus they sit
at the end of the drive waiting for golden warriors but
we are playing

games in social capitals.

***I felt enormous dismay at the interview confession with Chamath Palihapitiya in which he says, “Nobody cares about the Uyghurs.” This is a response to our common and dangerous situation: not caring.***

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Del Rio and our Haitian Brothers and Sisters

September 23, 2021 1 Comment

I have struggled to know even where to begin to express my deep dismay at the treatment of the dear people who have sought refuge under the Del Rio International Bridge. Many of them began their journey for refuge as many as ten years ago by departing from the shores of Haiti.

These are survivors. These are strong, ingenious, creative people who have learned languages, leaned into deprivation, and held onto hope.

Some blame their journey on an earthquake. But there are other factors too that contributed to the violence, poverty, and political alienation that compelled them to leave. America stirs the pot with the left hand and crushes the hearts of people who climb out with the right.

Our neighbours have come to the border asking for refuge. But, we treat them with contempt.

During the week in which men on horses chased down and flayed away at the backs of our sons and daughters, in which people where corralled onto planes and flown back to Haiti without due process, I began reading Dominique DuBois Gilliard’s book, Subversive Witness, Scripture’s Call to Leverage Privilege. He writes,

“Hosea 4:6 explains that God’s people perish because of a lack of knowledge, and the masses also suffer when they lack godly leadership.

Narcissistic political leaders fear losing their power, influence, and possessions more than they fear God. Their insecurities lure them into idolatry, fear distrusts their vision, and paranoia prohibits them from affirming the imago Dei inherent in all their neighbours. Consequently, their dictates exacerbate existing chasms between the privileged and disenfranchised.

Immoral leaders understand that when marginalized people are politically diagnosed as a social albatross, it becomes acceptable–if–not patriotic–to vilify them, infringe on their human rights’ and become apathetic toward their plight….”

Subversive Witness, p. 22.

Immoral leaders.


Today, Daniel Foote, the special envoy to Haiti, has resigned in protest of immoral leadership. No one is listening to him and the Biden administration seems to be intent on going ahead with the forced transport of people to Haiti. Daniel Foote describes the situation, “I will not be associated with the United States inhumane, counterproductive decision to deport thousands of Haitian refugees and illegal immigrants to Haiti, a country where American officials are confined to secure compounds because of the dangers posed by armed gangs in control of daily life.”

Grieve and lament.

Affirm those who offer refreshment.

Call for the due process and kindness required to be given those who seek refuge.

Are you a follower of Jesus? Beware the evil wrapped up in patriotic justifications for the sacrifice of God’s dear children in order to “secure our borders;” it’s the siren call; it’s a tasty morsel; it bears death to the soul; it wounds the conscience and numbs the mind. It has nothing to do with Jesus. It’s a wooden idol; it leads us astray and we become unfaithful to God. It brings rot and eases all of us into a habitual rejection of the Kingdom of God.

Change

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