Hating Families?

On Sunday we concluded our You Asked For It series by looking at a difficult passage. In Luke 14:26, Jesus teaches "If anyone comes to me and does not hate his father and mother, his wife and children, his brothers and sisters-yes, even his own life-he cannot be my disciple." It is not enough to just say Jesus could not mean that. There were plenty of ancient philosophers and religious teachers that believed that you needed to forsake family to achieve enlightenment. What I wanted to do, more than just tackling this passage, is to demonstrate a model for anyone to wrestle with any difficult passage. The first place to start is with Jesus' attitude elsewhere about family. If Jesus had a generally negative view of family then perhaps we need to take this at face value. Yet we find Jesus affirming the commandment to honour father and mother, and he even arranging care for his own mother while he was on the cross. Jesus had compassion on parents that brought their sick children to him. Jesus even appeared post-resurrection to his unbelieving brother James so that James could become a Christian and eventually the head of the Jerusalem church. Jesus had a generally positive attitude toward family that suggests that we must look deeper into the meaning of this verse. When we go to the parallel verse in Matthew 10:37, Jesus speaks about relative love rather than hate. Matthew is interpreting for us what Jesus meant by hate. We must not love family more than Christ. Jesus lived this before he commanded it. His family wanted him to stop what he was doing but God's will was more important than pleasing human family. The miracle is that our secondary love for families with God's power is greater than our primary love for family in our own strength. We are not to hate our families but love them after we have given our primary love and obedience to Christ.

Knowing

The other night Amanda and I watched an interesting movie called the Knowing. It centers on a single dad who believes there is no meaning to the universe and that every event is a random accident. His son receives a letter from a time capsule sealed at his school fifty years earlier. The letter was a list of numbers written by a disturbed young girl. The father deciphers the numbers as predictions for every major disaster or tragedy during that fifty years with three yet to occur. There is a lot else that takes place but in this movie we see the transformation of the father, whose own father was a pastor, coming to terms with the idea that there may be meaning to the universe. There is a lot of religious and biblical imagery in this movie (especially Adam and Eve, and Noah). Some of it, especially at the end, is a little too much like the old Chariots of the Gods blending of science fiction and religion. But overall it is an interesting, exciting and thought provoking movie. I highly recommend it.

Depression

As part of our You Asked For It series, someone asked that I speak on depression. This is a huge issue inside and outside the church. From my own experience, the church either ignores depression or misunderstands it so badly that it makes the person's experience worse. It is important that Christians seek to understand depression to reach out to those who suffer from it. I looked at three types of people who might be called depressed. First of all there are pessimists who choose to see the worst in every situation. I have been in this category. This requires a change of perspective and a choice to look at things positively. Secondly there are the situationally depressed. A bad diagnosis, the death of a loved one, the loss of a relationship, all of these can lead to depression. This is completely normal. Read the Psalms or Lamentations, there is no sin in mourning or grieving a significant loss. What is important is that you find someone to talk to and that you watch to see some improvement over time. Finally there are the clinically depressed that suffer from a bio-chemical imbalance. Often the clinically depressed require medication. There is no shame in this. We expect diabetics and epileptics to take medication, why not those with a chemical imbalance?

I then took a look at the story of Elijah from 1 Kings 19. Elijah displays the classic signs of depression including despair, fatigue, loss of appetite and lack of drive. God pursues Elijah but does it gently. God reveals His presence in the silence and gives Elijah a task suitable to his situation. This is a great model for the church to reach out to those who are depressed. Gently pursue such people, not with explanations or arguments with our simple presence, perhaps even in silence. We should also consider helping them find some sort of purpose or task. Whatever we do, we must acknowledge that this is a major issue and we must be willing to do something. For the next couple of weeks my message both text and audio can be found at www.meafordbaptist.ca.

A Hard Day

Today I took Abby to London to see a child psychiatrist, something she has been on a waiting list for almost a year. We have had lots of challenges with Abby and her autism. We had no idea of how the appointment would go. Would Abby be charming and pleasant, impressing the people examining her and giving the impression of everything being alright? It ended up that Abby showed them exactly what she was like, revealing her frustrations and behaviors. The doctor commented that she was "remarkably disabled." He also conformed what we had suspected, that Abby is developmentally disabled (mentally retarded). We knew in our hearts that she would fall into that category but it was still hard to hear the words. It was a hard day for our family but we continue to trust in God for strength. Our prayer is that this appointment will open up more doors for treatment and help for Abby.

How Do We Forgive?

Last Sunday on our You Asked For It series we looked at the difficulty of forgiveness.  Forgiveness is essential.  When Jesus taught the Lord's Prayer, He picked forgiveness as the one part to comment on.  This is because it is one of the most important issues and one of the hardest.  When, as Christians, we do not forgive, we are making a value statement of what we think of God's forgiveness of our sins.  However, even if we agree that forgiveness is important, it is still difficult to do in real life.  Here are some ideas for putting forgiveness into practice, especially in the difficult situations.

1. Forgiveness is a decision.  Do not wait to feel like forgiving.  Do it because it is the right thing to do.

2. Pray for those who hurt us.  It is difficult to nurse a grudge when we are praying for God's blessings upon them.

3. Do not wait for the other person to repent before forgiving.  Some people will not repent and others can not (they may be dead).  We must free ourselves by giving unconditional forgiveness.

4. Forgiveness is not about staying in a dangerous situation.  We must forgive even those who abuse us, but that does not mean we must keep making ourselves vulnerable to their abuse.

5. Be sensitive to how another person responds.  John 21 tells us that sometimes repentance and forgiveness can come in some untraditional forms.  Be flexible.

For more on this important topic, you can find the full text of my message and the audio for the next couple of weeks at www.meafordbaptist.ca.

Family History

Years ago in high school, one of our projects was to put together a family tree.  I was only able to go as far back as my great grandfather Severe Bedard.  I really felt like I was missing a lot of my family history.  Recently I stumbled on a web-site that dealt with my family, going back to Pierre Bedard in the late 1400's!  It is amazing to look back at my family tree, even just seeing the names and dates, and being reminded that I am a part of something bigger.  My parents have both now passed but my children are continuing the tree in the other direction.  My prayer is that they will take the best from our family heritage and make their own place in this world.

Do We Choose God or Does God Choose Us?

There are deep convictions and disagreements regarding the issue of predestination and free will.  Are we confronted with the Gospel and then are allowed to choose whether or not to follow Jesus?  Or did God pick before creation who would be a Christian and does our salvation depend entirely and solely on being born as one of the elect?  My friend Jon Vinter, who has recently "converted" to a reformed position, challenged my to look at Romans 9 and to consider it for our You Asked For It series.  Jon's embracing of Calvinism has given him a renewed passion for the Gospel and ministry and for that I am thankful.  I decided to take him up on his challenge.

As Jon reminded me, Paul's thought process runs from the end of Romans 8 through to Romans 11.  But I decided to start with the bigger context.  The church at Rome began with Jewish Christians.  All Jews were forced to leave Rome in 50 A.D. because of the edict of Claudius.  This left the few gentile Christians to rebuild.  They built a thriving gentile church and then a few years later the original Jewish Christians returned creating conflict on both sides.  Both groups felt superior to the others.  This is what Paul is responding to in Romans.  What I see in Romans 9-11 is not a discussion on how individuals are saved but on God's choice to have first of all Israel and then the Christian Church as His people and as His presence on earth.  Neither of these choices of people were based on how great they were.  Certainly the Church has messed up enough over the centuries.  But God unconditionally elected Israel and the Church.  This is talking about peoples and not persons.  As Paul makes it clear in this section, we are saved by the confession of the mouth and the faith in the heart, not in the lottery of election.  We must choose God and put our faith in Jesus.  Then we become a part of God's chosen people.  In this way, we both choose God individually and are chosen by God as the people of God.  This study of Romans 9-11, rather than converting me to Calvinism, actually made me take even more seriously the role of choice and faith.  If you are interested, for the next couple of weeks the text and audio of this sermon can be found at www.meafordbaptist.ca.

 

The Boy in the Striped Pajamas

Last night Amanda and I watched a very powerful movie called the Boy in the Striped Pajamas.  The story takes place during the second world war.  An eight year old German boy named Bruno has to move to the country as his father, an SS officer, has just received a promotion.  That promotion is taking charge of a concentration camp containing Jews.  Bruno, left without friends his age, stumbles upon the camp and meets a young Jewish boy his age and a friendship develops.  Bruno is confused as to why the Jews always wear striped pajamas and we watch as his young mind slowly begins to understand some of what is happening around him.  I will not give away the end, but Bruno, who has an exploring nature, eventually puts on the camp uniforms (the striped pajamas) and enters the camp with his friend.  This is a powerful picture of the incarnation of Jesus.  In Jesus, God but on our clothes and entered into our camp.  Even without the imagery that I saw in this movie, this film is a moving portrayal of friendship that should be seen by everyone.  

Getting the Job Done

I have never been much of a handyman.  I am more comfortable in front of a computer or with a book than with a hammer and screwdriver.  However, there is much to be done at our house these days.  We have three ceiling fans to be installed so I volunteered to put one in our kitchen (the one room that does not get the central air).  About twenty minutes into it I encountered a problem and I gave up.  I made it pretty clear that I was not happy with my lack of ability.  Amanda, who is always my best cheerleader, would not let me get away with that.  She challenged me on my attitude and encouraged me to re-look at the instructions.  I fought her on that for a while but eventually looked at the instructions again.  I saw the answer to my problem and got back to work.  I encountered another problem and almost gave up again.  Once more, Amanda encouraged me to persevere.  To make a long story short, there is a very nice ceiling fan and light now in our kitchen.  Thanks Amanda for encouraging me and challenging me and helping me to get the job done.  This goes beyond a ceiling fan and it is really an image of what you do for us for life in general.  Thanks Amanda and I love you.