The season for vacations is nearing, and many of us are looking forward to time away from our work. The word, “vacation,” has Latin roots, and has given rise to several other English words depicting emptiness. “Vacate” and “vacant” have the same Latin origins, and both of them imply that something is empty. When we go on vacation, we vacate our lives of their normal routines (job, education, etc.) and we begin a time of leisure. We become exempt from our normal duties and we are no longer required to serve at our jobs as we normally do. Still, most of us when on vacation, in emptying our lives of our normal routines and duties, fill them with something else. Many of us fill our vacations with activities that keep us busy: travel, sightseeing, and camping (where tending to our daily needs like preparing food is far more difficult than what we have in our well-equipped kitchens at home). Yet, while we are often busy during our vacations, we do empty our lives from the normal routines.

And this is why many will say, “A change is as good as a vacation.” Thus, some may opt to volunteer with Disaster Response Services, an organization that helps people rebuild homes after a natural disaster. Joining together with a group of like-minded people can be an invigorating exercise for many and may provide a welcome vacation from the routines of life. Others may own a cottage or second home and find themselves maintaining that property on their vacation time. Yet, for them the change of pace is a change from the routine and they feel it is a holiday. Others may participate in what we have come to call a “staycation” meaning that they stay at home and enjoy their life there without having to go to work.

It is true that vacations as we know them are a relatively new concept. People who work in a fulltime position receive pay throughout their vacation. This was not always the case. Only 100 years ago, unions were advocating that workers receive pay on significant public holidays: Christmas, Thanksgiving, Canada Day, etc. As this idea took root, unions began to advocate for more days off, and paid vacation leave became standard practice. In fact, if an employer does not give paid vacation to its employees, they are required to give them additional pay to compensate for this absence. Paid vacation leave, something we consider to be our right, is not something that most people have enjoyed for most of history.

As we may know, the British do not use the word, “vacation,” but, rather, call their vacations “holidays.” Many Canadians interchange the two words. “Holiday” is a contraction of “holy day,” and early holidays were given in which people were given permission to refrain from attending to their normal jobs on days that were dedicated to special Christian days. Thus, Christmas, Good Friday, Ascension Day, and the like were days when people did not have to work but, rather, could participate in worship services and celebrate God’s faithful provision of salvation. Again, in England, as in North America, the concept of a holiday was expanded from just those special “holy days” to also include paid leave from work. Holidays, in England today, have very little to do with celebrating God’s grace in Jesus Christ. It might be better if the British change their word to “vacation,” because that is really what they are doing, emptying their lives of their daily routines of work and education.

While the idea of being given paid time off for vacation is relatively new, being given time off for entertainment purposes can be traced back to Roman times. If they saw fit, the emperor would declare a public “holiday” so that the people of Rome could go to the Coliseum and watch gladiators kill each other for sport. There is no doubt that that some of the early Roman “holidays” were rather unpleasant for Christians, for they were the ones who suffered death while the rest of the “vacationing” Roman population cheered as the lions and bulls destroyed the lives of followers of Jesus Christ. (But this is not something we like to associate with the concept of holiday or vacation.)

Back to our vacations (or holidays). As I reflected on the privilege we have to take vacations (often while receiving a salary), we should be thankful that we live at a time and in a place where this is possible. We forget how privileged we are to be able to take time away from our regular lives to enjoy ourselves without having to work for our daily bread. We can be thankful to the unions of a century ago who fought for this privilege and for an economy which is strong enough that businesses can pay workers even when they are not producing. These are gifts we should never take for granted.

Of course, we should also recognize that long before unions, God built into this world the ability for all of us to have time off from our normal routines to enjoy a day when we don’t have to work. It is actually true that God designed the world in such a way that instead of having the ability to vacate our jobs for just a couple of weeks every year, we can take almost 8 weeks (52 days) off from our jobs and not have to worry about the loss of wages that comes from not working. We spread those 52 days out over the entire year, and they occur every 7 days. We call these days when we don’t have to work to stay alive “sabbaths.” When we rest from our labours once every 7 days, we do so with the assurance that God will provide for us, that we don’t need to work to stay alive. Those days of rest a truly a gift from God, and we should be always thankful that we can rest from our labours. For our vacation times (2-3 weeks for most fulltime workers) we give thanks to unions who advocated for us and for employers who continue to provide for us so that we can take time away. But for the other 7½ weeks, we give God thanks that he has promised that he will take care of us as we refrain from our labours.

As I think about this, I do grow a little concerned. Even though unions have earned for us our paid vacation, they have not protected us from employers who have taken those 7½ weeks away from us while giving us a mere 2-3 weeks. We might wonder if we have lost more than we have gained. Perhaps we should again reclaim the importance of Sabbath rest, rejoicing in the fact that God gave us almost 8 weeks every year in which we need not work. That is much better than anything else any employer allows us.

In our Bibles, there are at least 15 books which are labelled as prophetic books, Isaiah to Ezekiel and then what we normally refer to as the minor prophets, Hosea to Malachi. Daniel, while containing prophetic material, is often categorized as more of an apocalyptic book, more in line with the book of Revelation. In addition to the writings of the prophets, we encounter a number of other prophets in Scripture, the main ones being Elijah and Elisha. Nearly all of the prophets (with the exception of Haggai, Zechariah and Malachi who prophesied after the exile) lived during the period of time recorded for us in 2 Kings.

According to Deuteronomy 18:14ff. the office of the prophet was occasional, meaning that prophets were called by God to their task only during times when the occasion demanded it. The occasions which demanded prophets were almost always during times when God’s people had strayed from the truth and had engaged in varying kinds of ungodly beliefs and practices. Elijah, for example, did almost all of his work during the time of King Ahab and his wife Jezebel who together were leading the people to abandon God and worship the Canaanite god, Ba’al. Nathan appears on the scene after David had committed adultery and murder and thought he had gotten away with his sin. Isaiah is called by God to go to the nation of Judah when its king began to consider finding help from foreign nations rather than seeking help from God. Jeremiah was given the difficult task of calling God’s people to account when they had all but forgotten him. Prophets were used by God to call people to account and turn them back from their sin.

Being a prophet was a thankless task, for most often the people did not want to hear the prophet’s message. Generally, things seemed to be going quite well for the people as the economy boomed, as jobs were plentifully, as there was little threat of war. The people had come to believe that they really didn’t need God and that obedience to him was not all that important. The prophets were sent by God to warn the people that their good lives would disintegrate if they did not turn back to God and live faithfully before him. This was an unpopular message, not well received by the prosperous people to whom the prophets were sent. Sometimes the prophets were treated horribly. Tradition has it, for example, that Isaiah was sawn in two when after being pursued by King Ahaz, he hid in a hollow tree. Ahaz ordered the tree cut down with Isaiah inside. Jeremiah spent weeks in a nearly dry well because he didn’t deliver a positive message to the king but rather warned of impending defeat to a marauding army from the north. Elijah was forced to flee for his life and live in loneliness and obscurity for three and a half years as the king and his wife sought to take his life. God provided for him, but his life was not easy.

Speaking prophetically became more urgent the more God’s people turned away from him. The greater their sin, the more they needed to hear God’s voice. While the prophets often had a harsh and negative message, we must be reminded that God sent his prophets to his people not to announce impending doom but to call them to repentance so that the doom could be avoided. God did not want his people to forget him because if they did, they would not longer receive the blessings he offered to them. The collapse of their world and the resulting devastation was something that God wanted to avoid. Unfortunately, the people refused to listen, and God left his people to experience what life was like without him. We might judge the prophets to be unsuccessful because it was rare that the people returned to the Lord when called to do so. The one notable exception is Jonah who was so highly successful that the entire population of Nineveh, the capital of the Assyrian Empire, was on its knees in repentance only hours after he began to announced God’s anger with their sin. Oddly, the people of Nineveh responded positively to a prophet’s warnings while the people of Israel did not.

The question that arises is this: does God still raise up prophets today? The Heidelberg Catechism (Q&A 31,32) indicates that just as Jesus Christ is prophet, priest, and king, so we also, as his followers have that calling. In other words, the church, God’s children through Jesus Christ, have a prophetic ministry. The urgency of that calling is determined by the state of the world in which we live. To determine that, we need to judge the state of the world around us, not on the basis of how luxurious or easy life is, but on the basis of God’s Word, the Bible. We may not assume that just because we have it pretty good right now that we are in line with the Word of God. Prosperity can be deceiving, for prosperity obscures the reality of how things are, and we can be misled to think that just because we are prospering does not mean that we are faithful.

I think it is safe to say that Canadian faithfulness to Scripture has been declining, perhaps quite rapidly, over the past decades. At the same time, we are far more prosperous than we were half a century ago. It is not an easy thing to speak God’s Word in this kind of situation, for we will have to say that things are not going well, and we will look like we are deluded. But that doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t be willing to be used as prophets to our communities. If we truly care about our unbelieving family, friends and neighbours, then we do need to call them to account according to God’s Word. God didn’t send prophets to condemn the world; rather, he sent them to bring people back to himself so that they could know his grace and love. God’s primary business is not condemning; it is saving. And that is the task of the church as well. As we love the world around us, we do need to speak prophetically, as unpopular as that might be. And, even more, we should also consider that speaking prophetically needs to be backed up by prophetic lives, meaning that we live according to God’s Word first.

I have a feeling that the world around us is not going to become more faithful to God’s Word, and it certainly won’t if it doesn’t know what God has said. Thus, the prophetic voice is more urgently needed now than ever before. Let us only pray that the results of our work will be much more like Jonah’s than that of the other prophets. Of course, changes in others’ hearts are not our doing but the work of the Holy Spirit. Our call is not to change people; it is to be God’s voice, to speak prophetically so that people can hear God’s voice and respond and be saved.

This past weekend we had the opportunity to spend a few days away. On Sunday, because of a scheduled event on Sunday afternoon, we had to begin our travels homeward, and we were unable to attend a worship service in a local church. We decided to listen to a worship service from one of my former congregations. The one who delivered the message that day was a high school student in that church when I was the pastor there, and it was good to listen to him. Sam and his wife are living what we might call a non-traditional Christian lifestyle, choosing to live in a rather impoverished area of a small city in Ontario. They make it their ministry to reach out to neighbours to befriend them with the hope of sharing God’s grace with them. Many of their neighbours are recent immigrants who have come to Canada to have a better life for themselves and their children.

Many immigrants who come to Canada have the same dreams that we have as Canadians. They want to live in a place that is free from oppression and violence and where there is the opportunity to thrive and prosper. Sam, in his message, mentioned the impending election (now over, of course) and what he said sparked my interest.

Sam said that many immigrants to Canada leave countries where the governments are corrupt and the judicial system has failed. They see Canada as a place where the leaders care about the people and where there is hope for the future. Sadly, many of them have experienced a significant level of disappointment because they have discovered that Canada is not perfect. While we may say that there is opportunity in our country for anyone who seeks to get ahead, the reality is that if we aren’t part of a community or social structure where we have access to that opportunity, we probably won’t be able to achieve our dreams. Most of us have what we have simply because we have been given opportunities not afforded to those whose parents were not already well established. Most of us would not be able to achieve what we have without having been catapulted to our positions by those who have gone before us. We have a significant advantage, although we often do not recognize it.

Sam, in his message, talked about the impending election (now over, of course). He said that many Canadians are feeling stress as they sense that the doors of opportunity are becoming less available to them, and they are looking for someone to solve their problems. He said that after the election many Canadians are going to be disappointed that the party they voted for did not take power, and they will have a bleak outlook of the future. Long-time Canadians, he said, are not much different from immigrants because we too are looking for a government which will make our problems go away. And, like the immigrants who had hoped for more when they came to Canada, we will be disappointed, for no government will fulfill our expectations.

Sam went on to talk about how followers of Jesus Christ are not first and foremost citizens of a particular nation. We are citizens of the Kingdom of God, and it is to Jesus Christ to whom we hold our first allegiance. How we vote (and live) must be filtered through our commitment to the Kingdom of God and its King, Jesus Christ. Our commitment to the Kingdom of God must be primary come before all other commitments.

As we well know the values of the Kingdom of God do not align with any political party, and for understandable reasons. Governments of nations rule by using their power and authority to accomplish their goals, and it is necessary for them to do so. Any government that does not use its power (either legitimately gained or otherwise) to rule will not be able to function as the government. But that is not the way of Jesus. Jesus gained his position of authority by giving his life on the cross (see Philippians 2:5-11), and it is by his self-sacrifice that he defeated the powers that cause oppression, violence and brokenness. Those who follow him are called to live with the same kind of sacrifice, offering our lives for service to God (Romans 12:1-2). It is in this way that the Kingdom of God becomes influential and begins to bring change to our world.

Sam and his wife believe that God is calling them to live in a rather radical way, sacrificing their lives by choosing to live in an undesirable neighbourhood, one which their real estate agent had warned them about. They are following God’s call to reach out to a particularly marginalized segment of our Canadian society with the love and grace of God as we have experienced it in Jesus Christ. Their ministry is very challenging and yet very rewarding. Knowing Sam from several years ago, I am quite confident that he has a fairly decided opinion as to which political party he would support, but that is not his first priority. His first priority is to be a servant to his neighbours so that their lives can be transformed by the saving work of Jesus Christ. His vote will be cast for the political party that best enables him to do that, even while he fully recognizes that it is not the new government that will make the reign of Christ known but, rather, the sacrificial living of the follower of Jesus Christ. Sam and his wife have heard God’s calling to live in this non-traditional way and have responded positively because they have put their commitment to the Kingdom of God before all other commitments.

We are not all called to live as Sam and his wife live. Not all of us are called to be non-traditional in our lifestyles. But all of us are called to give first allegiance to the Kingdom of God and to submit ourselves fully and sacrificially to following Jesus Christ. We can do that regardless of what political party holds power.

In the rhetoric leading up to the election, it seemed to me that many people believed fully that the future of Canada would be determined by the one who gained power in Ottawa. While it is true that the path of Canadians will be determined in part by the kind of government that has gained power, it is also true that the real change in our world will be determined by the coming of the Kingdom of God to the lives of individuals and communities. And that change only comes through the work of God as the Holy Spirit equips and uses willing followers of Jesus Christ to fulfill the calling God has placed on their lives. For many, the outcome of the election is a crucial thing, but I wonder how important it is for God. Probably far less important for him than it is for us. But what is important for God the Father is that Jesus Christ reigns and that the Holy Spirit is equipping people to give their lives to live for Jesus. That is what will make the difference, in the long run.

Maybe you have heard the phrase said of yourself or another: “The prodigal son/daughter returns.” Usually what is meant by that phrase is that a son or daughter who has been away on a trip has returned. For most of my life, I believed that the word, “prodigal,” means “wandering.” It is only in the last decade or so that I learned that prodigal does not mean “wandering;” it means “wasteful.” A prodigal son or daughter is one who spends money lavishly and without necessity. Someone who goes to the mall and spends $1000 on clothes that they don’t really need might be considered to be a prodigal person. The prodigal son in Jesus’ parable wasn’t prodigal because he left home. He was prodigal because he wasted his portion of the inheritance. Prodigal is wasteful.

The parable of the prodigal son (Luke 15:11-32) is the last of three similar parallels. In the first, a shepherd has 100 sheep and one wanders off. He leaves the rest of the sheep (probably not abandoning them but leaving them in the care of another shepherd), and he goes to find that one lost sheep. Upon its recovery, he calls his friends and neighbours to rejoice with him. The second parable shows us a woman who has 10 coins but loses one of them. After searching diligently, she calls her friends and neighbours to rejoice with her. In both of these cases, Jesus gives the lesson: there is great rejoicing in heaven when one sinner repents.

The third parable is the parable of the prodigal son. This son doesn’t just happen to get lost. This son is deliberate in leaving his home, but before he does, he demands that his father give him his share of the inheritance. In those times, each child receives an equal share of the inheritance, with the eldest son receiving a double portion. Thus, this young man would have received one third of his father’s holdings, costing his father dearly and perhaps endangering the family business. Taking this huge sum of money, this young man goes far away and wastes it. He has lots of friends until the money runs out, and then he can barely find a job. Filthy, disheartened, and ashamed, he decides to return to his father’s house and ask to become a slave there. He knows that his father treats slaves better than his present employer, and he hopes that he might be able to live out his life with three meals a day and a place to lay his head.

We know the story well: the father has been waiting at the end of the driveway, looking eagerly down the road to see if his son will return. When he finally sees him, he runs to him, embraces him, and prepares a feast for him, calling his friends and neighbours to join him in his celebrations. We might expect that the parable would end as the others did with Jesus saying that there is great rejoicing in heaven when a sinner repents (as did the first two parables), but that is not where the parable ends. Jesus moves our attention to the older son, the one who will be heir to all that remains to his father, and this older son is angry. He has been entirely faithful for all his life, and his father hasn’t even given him a goat to have a celebration with his friends, whereas the father had provided the wasteful younger brother with a yearling calf. There was no rejoicing on the part of the older brother.

Because Jesus changes up the story, focusing on the older brother instead of the rejoicing in heaven, we are meant to be startled. Is this story really about the return of a wayward son or is it about the reaction of the jealous brother? Or is the story really about something else, or, should we say, about someone else? Perhaps this story is about the father, and, by extension, about God.

Timothy Keller, formerly a pastor and now with his Lord, wrote a book entitled, The Prodigal God. What kind of God do we have? Keller’s choice of the title of his book is a bit tongue in cheek, but he wants to make a point: what kind of God do we have who would “waste” his precious resources on people who have squandered everything he has given to them? Wouldn’t common sense say that God would be far better off spending his resources on people who are least trying to do what is right? But, of course, that is not how God works. God tends to put his efforts into welcoming back (and throwing a party for) those who have done the equivalent of demanding their inheritance. That seems so wasteful. Keller goes on to show us how God’s grace is immense and unbounded.

When Jesus tells a parable, in a sense we are encouraged to identify with one of the people in that parable. Most of us would be quite hesitant to identify with the younger son because, after all, who wants to admit that they have wasted our heavenly Father’s resources after doing the cultural equivalent of slapping him in the face? We don’t like to be perceived to be that person. We probably won’t identify with the father because the father represents God. We are left with identifying with the older son, at least until his true character is revealed, and then we are trapped because then we have to admit that we might not be as gracious as our heavenly Father. In the end, we have admit that if we are as graceless as the older brother, we are also in need of grace.

But the story isn’t about us. It is about our gracious God who leads the rejoicing in welcoming home repentant sinners. And we are among them, and it doesn’t matter if we are like the wasteful son of the seemingly faithful son. We are all in need of God’s grace, and when we accept God’s grace, there is rejoicing in heaven.

One of the most common words of the Hebrew Old Testament translated to the English word for “sin” is related to missing the target. In Judges 10:16, we read of soldiers who could sling a stone at a hair and not miss. The same word is used of the people of Sodom and Gomorrah who are accused of grievous sins (Genesis 18:20). Translators rightly have chosen the correct English words (miss and sin) so that we understand what was written. To the Hebrew ear, however, doing something wrong and missing the target had the same sound. Thus, when the people of Sodom refused to provide hospitality to Lot’s visitors and instead abuse them, they were “missing the target.” And when a soldier cannot hit what he is aiming at, he is “sinning.” We know the difference as did the Hebrews, but it is helpful to know that to the Hebrew ear, the words were the same.

There are a number of reasons that someone might miss a target, but there are two that are quite obvious. The first is inability. If you give me a sling such as the one the soldiers in the book of Judges used and asked me to hit a hair with a stone three times in a row, I can guarantee you that I won’t hit that hair even once. Even with good instruction and hours of practice, most of us would prove ourselves incapable of hitting the target perfectly every time.

When we think of sin, in Reformed circles, we are quick to talk about total depravity which leads us to understand why we are incapable of not sinning. We have sinful natures which cause every single thing we do to be tainted, at least a little bit, by sin. Total depravity keeps us from being capable, and even with good instruction and much practice, we still fail to hit the target perfectly even once let alone again and again.

The world would tell us that though we might not hit the bullseye, as long as we get close, that is good enough. It’s nice to think that, and maybe that is good enough for our friends and family, but it is not good enough for God. God has different standards than we do, standards that demand that we hit the target every time all the time. According to God’s standards, missing the target even once is enough to fail us, and when we fail, we are no longer qualified for eternal life with him. Thankfully, however, God does also correct things, and Jesus, who hit the target every time, sent from God the Father, gives us his results while he takes on ours. He gives us his perfection, and he suffers the consequences for our imperfections, and for that we must be thankful. The is the essence of the gospel, of course: we become righteous because we receive our righteousness through faith in Jesus Christ.

The second reason someone might miss the target is because they don’t know what the target is. What am I aiming at? When I was a kid, a friend had a fairly good slingshot, and we used it to shoot small stones. At first, we chose our targets, but since we could never hit them, we decided to just shoot at random. It was a lot more satisfying to be able to exclaim, “Did you see me hit that branch and break it off?” I wasn’t aiming at the branch, but there was a certain level of satisfaction in seeing the impact of what I was doing. Of course, because I wasn’t aiming, I could not really say that I had hit the target. If we don’t have a defined target, we might hit anything, and although what we do may appear impressive, we really haven’t accomplished anything concrete. To hit the target, we have to identify the target first.

So, when it comes to our behaviour, what is the target? Who gets to identify the target? There are two options: either we identify the target ourselves, or someone identifies it for us. In Canada the various laws help define the target. Our laws, for the main part, are based on precedent: how did previous judges rule when they encountered a similar situation? The question is this: how did previous judges decide how they would rule if they did not have precedent? It is not difficult to determine that many of the laws in Canada can be traced by to standards set out in the Bible. In countries which have an Islamic history, laws can be traced back to the Qur’an, a book Muslims believe was written by their greatest prophet who received what he wrote from Allah, the god of Islam. The target, in both cases, was defined someone outside of this world, by God himself. At one time, we would see that many sins found in the Bible were also considered crimes within Canada. (Proponents of Sharia law of Islam propose that breaking Islamic religious laws should be considered criminal violations and punished as such.) Over time things in Canada have changed. As Canada loses its Christian roots, more and more kinds of behaviour that were at one time considered both sinful and criminal have ceased to be criminal. Thus, it is now possible to use drugs or have sex outside of marriage and not be accused of a crime.

This has become quite confusing for many, for the target seems to have changed. Those who are not Christians are quite happy to redefine the target according to their whims, and biblically prohibited behaviour now becomes acceptable and even desirable while it seems that some biblically sanctioned behaviour becomes criminal. (Speaking out against some kinds of sinful behaviour is deemed discriminatory and could be punished in the courts.) It is quite easy for a Christian, who is not aware of this change to come to believe that because a particular sin is no longer a crime, it is permissible. Thus, there is a new target to aim at, and when someone hits that target, they believe they have accomplished what they intended to do. In other words, while they hit a target (one set by us), they did not hit the target (one set by God). This new target in Canada is defined by us, not by someone else, in particular, God.

Earlier I mentioned that the standard many hold today is that we come close enough, and that is a problem, for being close enough it not good enough, at least not by God’s standards. In that scenario, we have to convince people that God has higher standards that we do, something that is relatively easy to do. It is not hard to convince someone of their failure and guilt if they know and accept the standard given to us by God. Today, however, the real problem is that many people do not take into account that they have moved the target and they are aiming at the wrong thing and seem to be hitting it quite successfully. Many people think they are quite successful because they are hitting something. They are a little like I was when I hit the branch and claimed success because it broke, even though it was not identified as a target. So, before we convince someone that God’s standards are higher than ours, we first have to convince them that God’s standards are the target we should be aiming at. In other words, we must first convince people that it is not only the crimes that commit that God counts against us but the sins as well.

When we miss the mark because we are tainted by sin, we chalk it up to inability, and we put our trust in Jesus Christ to do what we cannot do. When we miss the mark because we have changed the target, that is called ignorance. To overcome ignorance, we first need to help people know, and what people need to know more than anything else today is that there is a God who created us and who loves us so much that he guides us in how we should live. When (since), we fail, we can also let people know that this same Creator God also cares enough about us that he will deal with our sin through Jesus Christ. People need to know, for if they don’t know, they will never know that the target they are hitting is not anywhere close to where they are aiming. Ignorance is never an excuse for breaking the law, so even those who have chosen to move the target are still guilty of sin. That too, thankfully, can be forgiven, but we must ask God for that forgiveness which is offered us in Jesus Christ.

On Saturday evening I attended a choir concert which featured four choirs: two church choirs and two Christian community choirs. All of the choirs did a beautiful job leading us in praising God. For the last four songs of the evening, all four choirs took the stage and the power of their voices filled the room. It was good to be there.

When I was in college a few decades ago, I attended a missions conference in Urbana, Illinois. Gathered together were about 25,000 college-aged women and men, and we had the opportunity to attend various workshops and learning opportunities. Each day all 25,000 of us would gather in the stadium of the university where the conference was being held for a worship service in which we heard God’s Word proclaimed and where we joined our voices in song. It was good to be there. The final evening of the conference was planned for December 31, and we gathered in the stadium for a worship service which began late in the evening. As the old year ended and the new year began, we celebrated communion together. If I live to be 100 years old, that New Year’s celebration will be the most meaningful and memorable. It was very good to be there.

A few days ago, I had a conversation with a salesman, and after making my purchase, we talked casually for a while. The conversation turned to our faith, and it was good to discover that both he and I worship the same God through Jesus Christ. He is from a different denomination, and he talked a bit about a new church that had started in his community. He was a little disappointed that there was a new church, for he viewed it as being so similar to his own that he did not see the need for a new congregation. He said, “When there is already a true church in the community, why do we need another?” Although he may not recognize it himself, I believe that deep down he was lamenting the divisions that exist within the church of Jesus Christ, divisions which are very difficult to overcome even when denominations are very similar to each other. Of course, by merely using the expression, “true church,” he was pushing a number of denominations to the sidelines, implying that they weren’t good enough to make it to the status of being a “true church.”

John Calvin, in his Institutes, talked about what makes a church a “true church.” He said that at least two things must be present: faithful proclamation of God’s Word and regular celebration of the sacraments. He implied that there might a third mark of the true church, namely the faithful exercise of discipline, although this third mark is often subsumed under the proclamation of the Word. These two (or three) marks have become the standard by which some judge other churches. If a church is not faithfully proclaiming God’s Word (teaching and guiding its members) and if it is not regularly celebrating the sacraments, it should not be considered part of the true church.

The question that arises in my mind is this: how faithful and how regular? How do we determine if a church is faithful enough in its proclamation of the Word of God? How often should we celebrate the sacraments? John Calvin said we should celebrate communion every week, but since we don’t, does that place Nobleford CRC outside the boundaries of being a true church?

Reading Calvin’s Institutes, I discovered that he was not so concerned that churches do things perfectly, or nearly so, before they can be considered part of the true church. In fact, he gives remarkable latitude when he says that even if those marks are present in a small amount, we must understand that church to be part of the true church. In other words, things are not nearly as black and white as we might want them to be, if we follow Calvin’s leading.

I would say that the 25,000 young men and women who gathered at the missions conference give us a picture of the true church. We were from a wide variety of denominations, most of which were not Reformed in their theology. Some of us were charismatic while others were from the far more ancient Roman Catholic and Orthodox traditions. In the crowd were people who belonged to house churches and people who attended megachurches. As we gathered the Word of God was proclaimed, and, on New Year’s Eve, we celebrated the sacrament of Lord’s Supper. I fully recognized that the method of our celebration would not have met CRC standards, for I was one of the servers, and I was not an elder at the time. I’m not even sure that the one who presided over the celebration was ordained, something that is required in our denomination. In spite of our differences, we were a small part of the true church of Jesus Christ, the one that is described in Revelation 7:9 as being from every nation, tribe, people and language who worship the one true God through Jesus Christ.

Although we did not celebrate communion at the choir concert last Saturday (that would have caused cries of outrage to be raised by some in attendance), I believe that those who were gathered there were also representative of the true church of Jesus Christ. We were from a multitude of denominations and some of us in attendance hold strongly to our traditions, but, yet, we were worshipping God together, proclaiming his Word in song. We were the true church, and it was good to be there.

Robots have become necessary in many manufacturing processes. Car bodies, once welded together by humans, are now welded more quickly and accurately by robots which do the same process over and over without tiring. Robots are especially adept at repetitive tasks requiring a significant amount of precision.

But robots also cause engineers significant headaches, and one of the biggest problems that must be overcome is what is referred to as “robot drift.” Let’s say, for example, that a robot must weld two pieces of steel, 10 cm long, together. Those pieces of steel are placed in a jig, and the robot then moves into place and engages the electrical current and welds them together. In order to have a strong weld, the robot must be exactly in the right place every time. The problem is this: robots, as well built as many of them are, tend to have a little play in their joints. After five or ten or even one hundred welds, this may not be noticeable, but after a full week of welding, the robot could be placing the weld a two millimetres to the right of where it should be. It doesn’t sound like much, but anyone who welds knows that the two piece of steel will not be joined together if this happens.

To solve the problem, engineers must design the robot so that it returns to his “home” regularly. This “home” is a fixed point where the software can reset so that any drift can be eliminated and the robot can begin anew. Robot drift is often imperceptible and even unmeasurable, but it can become quite problematic over time.

Culture is a little like a robot. The culture of a place rarely changes rapidly. Occasionally there are circumstances that introduce more rapid change (influx of immigrants, recession, invention of labour-saving devices), but most often the culture of a place appears to remain mostly the same, or at least as we perceive it.

But, as we well know, culture also drifts. I daresay that Canadian culture is markedly different today from what it was 100 or even 50 years ago. Forces have been acting on Canadian culture so that today things that were unheard of half a century ago are now considered to be normal. Eating out used to be an event, but today many of us eat in a restaurant of some sort several times a month. (I didn’t eat in a restaurant until I was about 12 years old.) Sometimes the cultural shifts are quite innocuous, but sometimes they are more dangerous. Our minds might turn to the obvious ones – sexual practices or the legalization and use of mind-altering narcotics – but there are many less obvious but potentially equally dangerous changes. One family psychologist in a radio talk show suggested that families have a meal together once every week. As I was listening, I thought she would say, “once a day,” but apparently many families never have a meal together except, perhaps, for special occasions. One of the reasons cited is that children are often so involved in such a variety of activities that the family has no time to sit down together for a meal. The family unit is no longer functioning, this psychologist said, and, as a result, children are not receiving regular guidance from their parents. I suspect that half a century ago things were very different.

Culture, like robots, tends to drift, and the changes that are made are often imperceptible until, of course, we realize that something isn’t working. The accumulation of the drift is the real problem.

Like robots, culture needs to be reset. We need to return a home position, and we need to return to that home position often. It goes without saying that Scripture provides the “home setting” for all cultures. Scripture doesn’t impose a particular (e.g. western) culture on its readers, but it does outline some of the things that are essential for culture to be proper and good. Recognition and worship of a gracious and almighty God and a humble submission to his authority is one of the main teachings of Scripture. Trust in Jesus Christ of our salvation flows out of this. Caring for others is an essential part of Christian culture. We need to be reminded of these values often because, if we aren’t, we will drift further and further from them. In the home I grew up in, we read the Bible at every mealtime, attended Sunday School and catechism, worshipped twice on Sunday, and were encouraged in our personal devotions. Perhaps many of us have drifted from that, and, perhaps, as a result, many of us do not have the same intense commitment to God and his ways that former generations may have had. We might discover that we have drifted quite a distance from where we should be.

It’s not that we need to return to the way things used to be. That is not resetting ourselves. Rather, we should find ways to regularly engage with Scripture so that our minds and hearts can be turned again to the Lord and his ways. It might be that the old ways were the best, but it may also be that we have to find new and appropriate ways to reset ourselves by engaging God’s Word in different ways from the traditional ways, if the old ways don’t work for us. With new technology, the possibilities are numerous. But, whatever we do, we all need to be reset back to our homes, namely to the teachings of Scripture, very regularly.

One final note: culture will continue to drift, and it is very unlikely that we, as followers of Jesus Christ, will be able to prevent that drift. It is quite likely that attempts we make to influence our culture to return to what we define as a Christian culture will fail. It’s far more likely that we will find ourselves, as we reset, becoming more and more different from the culture around us. This we must accept, as hard as that may be.

If we return to the robot and its weld, it seems fairly reasonable to say that our current culture is welding far off the joint between the two pieces of steel. Things are not working as they should, and we can sense the problems. We are heavily influenced by the world around us, and we may think that drawing a bead of weld 2 centimetres from the joint is acceptable because that is what everyone else is doing. It is good to be reminded that, following first question and answer of the Westminster Confession, “our purpose as human beings is to glorify God and enjoy him forever,” and living by that wisdom is drawing a bead of weld where it belongs, regardless of what everyone else is doing.

The Heidelberg Catechism speaks of the providence of God in Lord’s Day 10, and in so doing says that “all things come to us, not by chance, but from God’s fatherly hand.” Over the past few weeks I have heard this quoted several times, and each time I have become a little troubled. I have become troubled because the one quoting this was speaking about some adversity that they had experienced, and it seemed to me that they believed that God had sent them that adversity, indicating that it appeared he was its cause. This is problematic because God does not cause evil nor is he the source of anything that is evil. While Lord’s Day 9 says that God sends us adversity, we must read that statement in its context, and when we do, we discover that the act of “sending” may not be the same as the act of causing.

Zacharias Ursinus was one of the co-authors of the catechism, and he also wrote a commentary on it. In that commentary he gives a bit of background into why he and his fellow author decided to include these statements in the catechism. He says that outside the teaching of God’s providence there are three basic explanations as to why things happen as they do: First, some people believe that the only reason things happen is because of cause and effect limited entirely to this world. Human beings are the cause of most things (although a grizzly attack is also a cause), and what we cause (do) has an effect (result). In this view, God does not involve himself in history. This appears to be the most common view held by people today who believe strongly that we can change our destinies, and we can do so without God’s intervention.

A second view says that built into the very fabric of this world is something we might call fate. Fate is a kind of force that pushes the events of history in a certain direction, and none can resist that force. Even God cannot resist this powerful force, and those who believe in fate are fatalistic, saying that there is nothing that can be done. We simply have to live with what we get.

A third view says that God doesn’t really direct how things happen in this world, but from time to time, he reaches down into the world to shake things up a bit. In this view, God doesn’t move things in a specific direction, but he does add energy to the system so that it keeps going. Human beings are responsible for their own destinies, and we must deal with things as they come our way. I don’t know anyone who holds this view, although there may be some who do.

In thinking of these three views, Ursinus found that they didn’t correlate with the teachings of Scripture. Rather, he thought that the word, “providence,” might be a better way of describing why things happen as they do. (It wasn’t Ursinus who developed this idea, but he thought it necessary to include in the catechism to answer some of the teachings of his day and ours.) He defined providence in this way: Providence is the eternal, most free, unchangeable, wise, just and good counsel of God, according to which he effects all good things in his creatures; permits also evil things to be done, and directs all, both good and evil, to his own glory and the salvation of his people.

Notice that Ursinus identifies two kinds of events in this world: good and bad. Relying on Scripture, he says that all the good things that happen in this world can be attributed to God. Not all things are directly attributed to God, for there is some human agency involved. Yet, the very fact that a mother loves her children or a scientist makes a discovery are the result of God building these good things into the world. Ultimately, we can trace all good things back to the nature of creation or God’s intervention in it after he created it. All good things come from God.

But evil or bad things do not come from God. They come from the fact that sin has entered into this world and things are not as they should be. There should be no cancer, and there should be no drug-fueled crime. There should be no car accidents, and there should be no divorce. These things happen because of sin. We must be careful not to attribute them to God. Rather, as Ursinus points out, God, while not causing them, permits them. This is an important distinction.

If it were true that God literally sent difficulty and adversity into our lives, we would have to say that God is more like a cruel dictator than a loving Father. At the same time (and this is something that often tries our faith), God permits evil things to happen. In his infinite wisdom (something we cannot understand), God allows cancer and crime and broken relationships. While they should not be, they are, and God has decided not to stop them, at least not yet. In the future, of course, God will rid his creation of sin, and evil things will no longer occur. We may never understand why God allows bad things to happen, but we have to trust that he knows what he is doing.

The final statement that Ursinus makes, however, is the most important: God direct both good and evil to his own glory and to the salvation of his people. Certainly, we can say that easily about the good things that he causes to happen, either directly or indirectly. It takes an act of faith, however, to trust that God can turn evil things, things that are a result of sin permeating this world, for his glory and for our salvation. And this is what is truly amazing about the sovereignty of God: unlike us who are often helpless in the face of evil, God can take that which is evil and somehow make good come from it. And he does that regularly and often. It is the devil’s design to use adversity to drive us away from God, but God often brings people closer to himself through times of adversity. I cite two examples: first, it is evident that when the church of Jesus Christ experiences persecution, it tends to become more faithful and often grows more rapidly. We saw that happening in China in the height of communist rule when the church grew remarkably. I cite a personal example as well: in 1977 my mother was involved in a tractor accident which resulted in her losing her unborn child and being hospitalized for half a year. It was a difficult time for her and my father, but God used those difficulties to cause my parents to grow in their faith. Especially in my mother I sensed a renewed sense of calling to serve the Lord, and she did so faithfully for the decades God gave to her after the accident, becoming a faithful leader in a variety of ministries in the church and a witness to the saving grace of God in Jesus Christ to her neighbours.

God’s providence is astounding, for in this providence we see his sovereignty. But let’s be careful, as Ursinus was, to understand that only that which is good comes from God’s fatherly hand. We can also be thankful that when living in a sinful world causes adversity, God is powerful enough to work through it and turn it to our good. And we can be thankful for a God who does intervene in this world, rather than being subject to fate or dependent on our own abilities. Our message to the world is this: we have a God who provides good things and helps us when things aren’t good. That is true for now and for eternity.

Years ago, I used to listen to a short radio show called The Rest of the Story. This program contained short vignettes in which the author, Paul Harvey, would talk about little known history that had given rise to much used commonplace things today. Harvey, for example, might talk about the inventor of the coffee machine or the founder of a restaurant chain. His goal was to help us understand where things we use every day came from. Most often, the history included unknown, ordinary people who had great ideas. The Rest of the Story was intended to help us all understand that sometimes ordinary people from ordinary places can do extraordinary things.

If Paul Harvey were writing about the beginnings of the New Testament church, he might well begin by talking about a man from a remote fishing village on the shores of a smallish lake in the Mideast, in an unknown province named Galilee. He would have noted that this man’s parents were not academic scholars or political leaders but, rather, were also of fisherman stock, plying their trade as their parents did before them. He would have gone on to say how this ordinary man, after becoming convinced that a local Rabbi had a life-changing message for the world, became a strong advocate for this Rabbi and went on to become a leader in a movement that has changed the world. If we had known Peter, we would not have suspected that he would become one of the early leaders of a religion that is now over 2 billion people strong. Telling the rest of the story simply by stating the observable facts would be inspirational for we see an ordinary person doing extraordinary things.

Of course, we know that there was much more happening than what can be learned from the story of Peter. Peter’s Rabbi, for example, was no ordinary man; he was and remains the eternal Son of God. Peter didn’t become the leader of the church through his own power and charisma or his unique set of gifts; he was empowered by the eternal third Person of the triune God, the Holy Spirit. While The Rest of the Story normally celebrated the accomplishments of ordinary people, the story of Peter and the rest of the apostles much celebrate the accomplishments of God working through ordinary people.

I suspect that few of us or few of the people we know will ever become the subject matter for The Rest of the Story. Most of us will not invent some life-changing device or develop a novel and helpful idea that shapes the course of human history. Most of us don’t have the ingenuity to develop something that can change the world. We are not going to make the pages of The Rest of the Story.

But Peter wouldn’t have either if it had not been for the powerful presence of the Holy Spirit working in him. Peter would have continued on as an unremarkable fisherman in Galilee, and we would never have known of him as we have never heard of almost all of the other fisherman of his time. Peter’s fame is solely a result of God working through him, and, as I already stated, it was because of this that Peter accomplished what he did. We could argue, further, that Peter was not always willing to be used by God to lead the church. He was plagued by reluctance and disillusionment, at least at first, although that was replaced with a deep commitment that led to his being willing to die for Jesus, which he did.

This all goes to say that while few or even none of us may ever make it to the pages of The Rest of the Story, that does not mean that we won’t be able to engage in life-changing work. It is possible that God may work in us to change the world. We may feel unqualified and incapable, but that hasn’t stopped God before.

We may not be like Peter in that we do something as significant as being one of the first leaders of the Christian church, but we can be used by God to change someone else’s life. It doesn’t take someone special or particularly qualified. All it takes is our response to willingly follow Jesus. Peter, as we recall, had to grow a little in that, especially as he denied Jesus at his trial. Jesus had to straighten him out a little after he rose again, and after that, Peter showed himself to be ready and willing. Peter’s life didn’t proceed as he planned it, we can be sure, but because he was willing, God used him.

The rest of our stories has yet to be written. We don’t know what lies ahead of how we can be used of God. Yet, we can be confident of this: if we are willing, and if we are committed to following Jesus, God can work in us to change lives and perhaps even change the world. As Peter, we won’t be able to say that it was our ingenuity or charisma, for all that we do must be attributed to God the Spirit as he works through us. But when we are willing and ready to follow Jesus, we can be quite sure that he will use us in ways we might not have thought possible.

We should note, of course, that we will not always know how God uses us or the impact we might have made. A GEMS or Cadet counsellor may not know that a small conversation changed the life of one of their students, and a visit to another member of the church might change someone’s life forever, and we may never hear of it. Perhaps, a generation or so from now, someone might include one of us in their “The Rest of the Story.” It does not take ingenuity or special giftedness to make a lasting impact on someone’s life. All it takes is a deepening commitment to Jesus Christ and a willingness to be used by the Holy Spirit. May it be said, however, that in the end, we become part of The Rest of the Story as they recount how we were used by God to bring change to another’s life and, perhaps for some of us, to many lives.

In Revelation 5, John, the author of Revelation, shares with us a vision that he is seeing. In his vision he has been invited to observe what is happening in heaven, in God’s throne room. In this chapter, God is seated on the throne, and in his hand is a scroll that has seven seals on it. The seal contains the decrees of God that will shape the rest of history, both in heaven and on earth. Because the scroll is sealed, however, someone must be found who is qualified to break open the wax seals and thus enact what has been written there.

The question is put to all who are gathered there: who is worthy to break the seals and enact God’s decrees? No one comes forward and no nominations are made. This saddens John so deeply that he weeps uncontrollably. This was especially disconcerting for him because of his situation and the situation of the church. John had been exiled to a distant island by the Roman courts, a punishment that was almost as bad as a death sentence. The church which remained on the mainland was suffering greatly because of persecution, and unless God stepped in, it, along with the gospel entrusted to it, would be destroyed. Only God’s decrees could stop the powerful evil forces at play in the world, but, as John tells us, no one seemed to be qualified or worthy to break the seals. God’s decrees would go unenacted.

Seeing him weeping uncontrollably, one of the twenty-four elders (representing the entirety of God’s people, Old Testament and New Testament), told John to stop weeping, for someone had been found who was worthy to open the scroll. The elder tells John that “the Lion of Judah, the Root of David, has triumphed. He is able to open the scroll and its seven seals.”

This description of the one who is worthy to open the scroll brings to mind the prophecies of the Old Testament. In the Old Testament, we learn that God was going send a Messiah, one he had anointed to bring salvation to the world, and that through this Messiah God would make right the wrongs of this world and bring things to the end he desired. We know, further, that this Messiah would be a descendant of David, of royal lineage. The elder also calls the Messiah the Lion of Judah. Throughout the ancient world images of lions were found in places of great power, as is appropriate, for in the ancient world there was no animal more powerful than the lion.

Lions are also intimidating, for they can destroy life in a few seconds. They were used by the Romans in the amphitheatre to put to death those who were believed worthy of execution. The crowds thronged to the theatre to watch these blood spectacles which included the killing of Christians who refused to recant. John was well aware of these atrocities, and the fact that the one who was able to cause history to move forward was a lion who would stalk and destroy those who stood against God and his people.

If John’s vision would have stopped there, the implications for the church would have been far different from what they are now. If it were true that the Messiah, Jesus, were only a lion, the way forward would have been to tear the throats and crush the bones of those who stood in opposition to God.

This is the way of the world. How do powerful nations become powerful? They overpower weaker nations and take what belongs to others for themselves. Should a weaker nation resist, the more powerful nation will send its armies, usually justifying itself in some way, and, after eliminating resistance, they will take what doesn’t belong to them. Powerful nations always put two options before those from whom they intend to take. Option 1: Give it to us. Option 2: Resist, and we will beat you up, and then we will take it from you. This has been true throughout the centuries. This is how the Roman Empire became richer and more powerful. It is how the nations of Europe became rich and more powerful during the days of colonization. And it is how the powerful nations of the world today become richer and more powerful. They act like lions, preying upon those who are weaker and bullying them if they show resistance.

If God’s Messiah had come as a lion, this is what we could expect of the church. But that is not what we see. As soon as the announcement is made that there is someone worthy to open the scrolls, and that this worthy person is of regal descent and is one of great power, the next thing John sees is “a Lamb, looking as if it had been slain.” This Lamb has the appearances of being defeated, but yet lives. We know, of course, that this Lamb is none other than our resurrected Lord Jesus Christ who came to give his life as a sacrifice for sinners. It was in his death that he won the victory over the powers of evil. It was in his sacrifice that he continues to be victorious.

Scholars who have given great thought to this part of John’s vision, note how absolutely jarring and unexpected the appearance of the Lamb who appears to have been slain is. The decrees of God are going to be carried out, not by a lion who crushes and destroys but by a Lamb, the most helpless of animals, who has died on a cross at the hands of an earthly lion.

And this shapes the demeanour and task of the church. Instead of finding its work in crushing others, the church, following Jesus Christ, finds its work in following Jesus in sacrifice. The power of the church is not found in its institutions and in its placement of its people in positions of authority and power. The power of the church is found in the gospel, the story of Jesus who gave his life for sinners. The power of the church is not found in declaring its rights and privileges but in giving its life for the sake of others.

This message is easily lost by the church and by those who claim to be acting in the name of Jesus Christ. In centuries and places where Christianity was the majority and when positions of power were held by those who identified with the Christian faith, the church acted in the same way as the powerful nations of the world, exerting its control and demanding of people that they submit or be destroyed. When the church is weak, however, it can no longer use the ways of the world to advance its purposes (perhaps instead of the purposes of God), and it is forced to being a lamb (powerless and helpless) instead of a lion (dominating and destructive), thus following Jesus in his sacrifice.

To be powerful, Jesus did not come as a lion, although, truth be told, that could have been the way God got rid of sin from this world. God could have sent a lion among sinners, tearing out their throats and crushing their bones, but he did not. He sent a Lamb, and that Lamb, in succumbing to the lion in his death but being raised to new life by God the Father, became more powerful than any lion and established an eternal Kingdom marked by reconciliation and peace.

The power of the church, those who follow Jesus Christ, again, is not dependent on its ability to rule but in its willingness to sacrifice. The church grows as the followers of Jesus Christ recognize that when they are weak, Jesus Christ can be strong through them. And when the sacrificial Lamb does his work, it is then that we see the Kingdom come and God’s will be done on earth, as it is in heaven.