SERMON: Abundant Rain (Earth Days 5/6)

 10:30 am, Sun, May 21, 2023 - JGWhite/FBCA

(Psalm 68:3-10; 32-35; Acts 1:6-14)

It’s raining.

Ain’t it grand? We could use some, I think. It has been a dry spring. Not only here: across Canada, in places, as we well know. The fires, and their smoke, cover a huge area.

Water is ‘an element’ for our attention today. Our bodies are made up of about 60% water – more if you are a child – and every other living thing has its portion.

Coming out of a drier land than Nova Scotia, our holy scriptures treat H2O a bit more preciously than we usually do. Their wildernesses were deserts, their community wells were very important meeting places, their food and livelihood were truly at the mercy of the elements.

Ours too, though we often can go on without noticing. Hot and cold running water – even at our cottages – is a luxury every single one of us may well have.

We turned back to the first stories of Luke’s second volume today, the book of Acts. Jesus, alive and well again, is giving final instructions to his closest followers, before He disappears for good. One of His promises is that God will arrive in a new way, to make the Spirit of Jesus present for all. “John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.” (A 1:5)

It is no wonder that cultures around the world have used water in their rituals. Judaism has had washings of hands and so forth. And baptisms. Jesus followed the example, and as with Jewish Passover, He gave baptism a new impact.  

Just think about baptism – full immersion, as we call it – and how it takes quite a bit of water. No challenge for Nova Scotians, but more significant in the Middle East. There was no taking for granted of water in scripture.

Whenever we read of the promise of ‘abundant rain’ in the Bible, it is part of a beautiful picture. It means a lot! Our modern translation of Psalm 68 celebrates with such imagery. God rides upon the clouds and sends showers upon a thirsty land.  Rain poured down.  

Let your people be happy & celebrate because of you!

God is a God of abundance. Perhaps this is the lesson of the rains today. Our Creator and Saviour is not a God of scarcity, but of abundance. God is more abundant than the massive enemies that threaten, whatever they may be. Evil, injustice, apathy, disease, hunger, thirst.

The Biblical way often starts with help for the faithful.

There shall be showers of blessing –

Precious reviving again;

Over the hills and the valleys,

Sound of abundance of rain.

                 Mercy drops ‘round us are falling,

                 But for the showers we plead.

Sometimes, sometimes we plead as if ours is a sorry lot. As if we need so much help and encouragement from our Dear God. We forget how good we’ve got it.

This past week Sharon and I took in the Integrate church leaders conference in Saint Andrews. One theme that came from Dr. Amy Sherman, and others, was the abundance of God. Dr. Amy recommended we embrace an asset-based perspective. In other words, in our churches, we set out sights on all the human resources we have, not what we lack. Not to mention all the valuable things we have at hand. Here, we have a great location, an amazing building, incredible finances, some great ways of doing things, and on and on. We church people can too easily fall into thinking about what is scarce, instead of what is plentiful.

I remember talking once to a colleague, a minister from another church in my town, who had quit coming to the monthly ministerial meetings. He had two reasons, he said, one being the negative conversations every meeting. The other pastors were always bemoaning the non participation of younger people, the competing events people took part in, and so on. This pastor wanted to get together with other ministers who would talk about possibilities, and work together on good things: Outreach and successes.

Is the Spirit of Jesus in our midst like a fountain of living water, or not? Has God dried up? I realize I have been hearing for years about what Amy Sherman called an Asset-based perspective: not a scarcity mindset, an abundance attitude. One way of thinking about it has been spiritual gift focus. We each learn what we are here for in life, and what we can do well, thanks to our Maker.

A big part of how God and Church make the most of us, the people, came to light at last week’s leader’s conference. It was all about integrating people’s faith and their work. What any person does for their work is a place for serving the world in Jesus’ name. Your workplace is a key place to be a disciple of Christ. One of a teacher’s main places to be with God in their life is when they are doing a teacher’s work. So too with a truck driver, or a store clerk, or a lawyer. So too with a retired person, or a work-at-home person. So too in all our volunteer work, in the fire department, the Lions club, the curling club, or the 50+ Club. So too in our time off, our relaxing, our sports, our reading, our relaxing, our cottaging, our travels.

These are the places and the activities we Christians get to do with the Spirit of God. In all our vocations and our vacations we get to make a difference in the world. We are each giving. We are creating. We are cooperating. We are blessing.

Our abundant God can pour out the Spirit upon all the things we do. The flow never dries up. God bless our business deals, buying and selling. Our taking care of grandchildren. Our gardening. Our bass fishing and picking fiddleheads. Our kite flying and our golfing. Our shopping and throwing parties. Our studying and learning, our time around the campfire with loved ones, or attending a Mooseheads game in Halifax or Moncton.

So, what is going on, from a Church, is abundant, even when it is not abundantly clear. Remember, where is First Baptist on Monday afternoon? Where are you going to be? Not here. You and I will be all over the place. And wherever our places, we are the Church there.

God is an abundant God. Each one of us a little raindrop, in the refreshing, deep showers, that water this earthly society. At our better moments, we remember the difference we are making. And when we do do projects together, they are us cooperating to make a difference, to give blessing.

Like our warming centre project. With other churches in town, we met the other day to review the whole thing, which was blessed and is still blessing us by teaching us things. Ashley Legere, of Cumberland Homelessness and Housing Support Association, met with us the other day. Amid a bit of laryngitis she had, she energetically and enthusiastically commended us for the work we did, and how we did it so well together, as a big team. She praised our volunteer teams Big Time! [By the way, CHHSA has just now been able to open the shelter back up during the day, for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, seven days a week, now until mid-August.]

The next new things of First Baptist do not need to be inventing new programs that we have to find workers for. It can be finding what we are already doing, and bank on that. Pay attention to God blessing that. Count those human resources, our assets. Showers of blessing are already coming down.

What the Spirit of God will do next with us, together, is an abundant thing. There are quite a few of us. And our other resources are plentiful, as we’ve noticed.

Together… we can even make a difference to the actual, real water of our world. How we use paper makes a difference. Right? How much water gets used in the manufacture of paper? Can be up to five litres for one sheet of paper! So much water becomes wastewater, it is rather nasty, a terrible problem. We can care; we can learn to do some things differently.

And when a congregation learns to do things differently in the organization, that sends a message to all of us. We get prompted to try learning new things at home. And we become a good influence in the wider community.

Jesus sent the fire of the Holy Spirit to His people to make a difference to hungry people. To make a difference to the lakes and rivers. To make a difference to the way people do their jobs, or lack thereof. Can you see it?

It’s raining.

Ain’t it grand?

SERMON: Life & Breath & All Things (Earth Days 4/6)

 10:30 am, Sun, May 14, 2023 - JGWhite/FBCA   (Acts 17:22-31; John 14:15-21)

For the prayer before the preaching, let us quiet ourselves for a breath prayer…

About twenty-five years ago, one of my faithful few people of the Port Greville Baptist Church was in hospital, here in Amherst. Dear Jessie was a delightful woman, with energy and a sense of fun, in the midst of the quiet life she led, of a widowed senior in a quiet village. I remember some fun little stories she told me. She had a lung problem – I forget now if it was emphysema, or COPD, or what – and so she landed in hospital, periodically. I never shall forget, as she paced herself, talking to me, in her hospital bed, with oxygen from a tube, as she said, “When you can’t breathe, nothing else matters.”

You can’t deny that!

Today, another ‘earth day’ Sunday for us, this time with the theme of AIR. It is said of fish they don’t know what water is; but they must. We know what air is. We know it when we need to breathe deeply, or hold our breath. We know it when it blows strongly in north Cumberland County. We know it when we smell smoke, or mayflowers, or a skunk, or supper burning in the kitchen, or any other common stink. I recently gave a staff member a birthday gift, a book titled: Jesus Farted and Other Uncomfortable Thoughts.

On the other hand, do we know when the wind of God the Holy Spirit is blowing in the midst?

Breathe on me, Breath of God,

Fill me with life anew,

That I may love as Thou dost love

And do as Thou wouldst do.

I am, in these earth day weeks, treading a fine line. The line between preaching a Bible study about religious ideas, using the images of earth, air, water, and so forth. Or, preaching about creation, the environment, and things like the climate crisis or the big extinction that is happening now.

Today, from the four scriptures for this Sunday of the year, I took two: Acts 17 and John 14. Sometimes I feel that I am performing eisegesis, which is not a swear word. E I S E G E S I S, eisegesis, is taking Bible verses and putting your meaning into them, instead of being influenced by the holy text itself. (That’s called exegesis – the meaning coming out of it.)

 The words of Paul, preaching one day in Athens, Greece, sound wonderful for a sermon about the air we breathe. God “gives to all mortals life and breath and all things.” This was common ground for Paul and his audience, in general: there is a Creator, and our life, including our breathing, is a gift. But the points of Paul’s sermon were about God, who God is, how to worship and relate to this God. And it happens through a Human who was raised back to life: started breathing again.

At the basis of Christian thinking and living are facts like: physical life is a gift, including the oxygen we breathe in, and the carbon dioxide we breathe out, along with a lot of nitrogen, other gasses, and material of all sorts. ‘Life and breath and all things’ does pretty much cover everything. With everything we have, getting along well with the Source is a great thing to have going for us.

So much of our talk – and music – in Church just uses things like ‘breath’ as a metaphor for spiritual stuff. This is a biblical thing to do. It can be poignant and beautiful.

                 Spirit, Spirit of gentleness,

                 Blow through the wilderness

                 Calling and free…

But if we have no breath in our lungs, our living here is done, & we won’t have the Breath of the Spirit in us here either.

On Mother’s Day quite a few people (of course not all) think with fondness of the good things they got from their mothers. Air, breath, is one of them. Most of us spent about nine months on the inside, and where did the oxygen we needed come from then? The body that was our home, our mother.

All together, we realize for earth the lungs are the plants (mainly) on land and in the waters. They take in CO2, and turn that gas into two things: wood and other solid material, as well as O2 gas, which they release in great amounts. These plants are solar powered: there’s the energy they use to do this. ‘Mother Earth,’ or ‘Gaia,’ the whole environment, is something we are part of, and don’t live without. Remember that canticle Francis of Assisi composed, saying to God:

Praised be You, my Lord, through Sister Mother Earth.

who sustains us and governs us and who produces

varied fruits with coloured flowers and herbs.

These days, eight hundred years after St. Francis, we see a climate crisis. Praise be God through brother wind, and through the air, cloudy and serene, which warns us of many things. All that surrounds us sustains and governs us. This is part of how God sustains and governs us. We know it is not just the supernatural that proves God or intervenes in our lives. It is the natural, every day, that keeps us living and shows us the way.

So, the Spirit of God points us toward creation care. You may well know that in the Hebrew Bible and the Greek Bible the words for ‘spirit’ are the same words for ‘wind’ and for ‘breath.’ Both the immaterial Spirit of God and the physical atmosphere govern us.

I think climate change is to bring about a spiritual change in Christianity. And physical changes. (Such as how we use paper, perhaps?) Change is beginning. Like several other important challenges of our age, the environment is calling for it’s own health and salvation. Practical projects are popping up.

An old friend in Annapolis County was telling me about things in her congregation, including little crocheted animals they are making and selling. Lots going on in our church, wrote Janet. We are working on a project to raise funds for our solar panels that are going on the church roof.  It involves making 480 "Worry Worms" that we are calling "Earth Worms" to tie the sale of the worms to our efforts to improve the environment.  We are aiming to sell 480 because the panels cost $480 each and we want to symbolically sell enough to cover the cost of one solar panel.  A couple other women have agreed to learn how to make them, and they went to my friend’s house for a crochet lesson.

Let us be grateful for the messages we are hearing from the air we breathe, from fellow humans: our siblings in Christ, and the inner voice we call the Breath of God. A worship song says:

This is the air I breathe,

This is the air I breathe,

Your holy presence living in me.

May we be aware of the presence of God, who can turn the page of a new chapter for us. A chapter of touching the earth lightly, using the earth gently. We do this for everyone’s breath.

“When you can’t breathe, nothing else matters.” This is true for the atmosphere going in and out of our lungs, and the leaves of each plant; and it is true for the values and the spirituality we share – for our spirit. So, we do not take for granted the life, and breath, and all things we and our world have been given. Thanks be to the Breath of God!

SERMON: Rock of Ages (Earth Days 3/6)

 10:30 am, Sun, May 7, 2023 - JGWhite/FBCA

(Psalm 31:1-5, 15-16; 1 Peter 2:2-10)

 Welcome, welcome again, to this room walled in by sandstone quarried near here, almost 130 years ago. The stone itself we say is about 300 million years old. Perhaps you took note of its beauty as you arrived today, even though you may have come in many times before, and become used to the walls and turrets of red rock. Like any stone, it is ancient; we could call it ‘rock of ages.’

We will sing that hymn later.

Rock of ages, cleft for me; let me hide myself in Thee.

We know our whole planet is made of stone, so to speak, and we all live merely upon the surface of it. We live upon rock; no wonder it has always been an image and a metaphor for the divine Source of creation: God. God is our Rock, the ancient Hebrews declared, and we say the same to this day. Apostle Paul went so far as to speak of Christ as the spiritual rock that followed the children of Israel in the desert, with Moses.

And why do we see the unseen God as rock? Because of the safety and security of stone. A solid and firm foundation. A hiding place in times of threat.

With a newer English rewording we spoke these words of Psalm 31: Your granite cave a hiding place, your high cliff nest a place of safety. You’re my cave to hide in, my cliff to climb. Such Bible imagery lives on in hymns old and new, sung by the Church. On Christ the solid Rock I stand; all other ground is sinking sand.

We know there are many moments when a hiding place is needed, a safe refuge from the storms of life and the enemies that threaten. In that amazing prayer by a Serbian Bishop, a prayer for enemies, it declares: Just as a hunted animal finds safer shelter than an un-hunted animal does, so have I, persecuted by enemies, found the safest sanctuary, having ensconced myself beneath your tabernacle, where neither friends nor enemies can slay my soul.

Yet, more than this, more than God as our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble, The Rock is also our Foundation for building. Ed took our attention to the great imagery of Peter’s first letter, about Jesus the Cornerstone, and we the living stones of a spiritual temple, built together, built beautifully, built with purpose. 

So, a stone building is a fitting temple, when it does not become more important than the living, human stones who meet inside it. Deacon Cindy brought to my attention at a recent meeting this brick, with a label on it, kept in a cabinet in our Parlour. Many of you know what this is. In part, it says:

This brick is from the wall of the house built by Samuel Freeman Sr. in or about 1800 and torn down by Samuel Freeman 3^rd in 1890. In this house the Amherst Baptist Church was organized and met frequently. That was in 1809.

It is always good for a congregation who has a spectacular building to remember that this was not the first edifice wherein our Church met. This is at least the fourth; perhaps it is not the last. From this base of operations, this meeting house, we are sent out every week to serve and have our impact in the wide community. Can it still be said, of us, that we are chosen? A royal priesthood? Holy? God’s own?

Without divulging details, I am excited about the work and conversations of our Search Committee for Assistant Minister. Thank you – 57 of you – for your responses to the survey. They are inspiring some creative thinking about the whole work of First Baptist. How we meet, what we do, who we want to touch. We look to the next chapter of how we shall proclaim the mighty acts of God who called us out of darkness into marvelous light. We, the living stones, may be a more impressive reflection of Christ than 90 East Victoria Street.

I have been speaking, already, of the beauty of stone, be it physical rock, or metaphorical spiritual fellowship, that is built well together to achieve its purpose. In our Biblical imagery we have stone as a source of beautiful perspective. Think of the many ‘mountaintop experiences’ in the stories: Moses on Sinai, Elijah on Horeb, Jesus on the mount of transfiguration. The Jews had this understanding of hilltops as places where earth and the heavens meet. No wonder. As I’ve asked before, why do they put all the beautiful views up on a hill?

It so often is a matter of perspective. You get to see the big picture when you are up there. And what it is about a craggy rock, or the view of a landscape that is gorgeous? Did we all just learn that a view is beautiful, or a pinnacle of rock by the ocean, or an amethyst sparkling in our hand? Or are these all truly beautiful, enjoyable, impressive, in and of themselves?

Someone said, ‘beauty is truth, and truth beauty.’ We know the glorious things of life inspire us. We find creative ideas, answers to questions, hope and emotional energy when we enjoy something. From the beautiful stone on a beach to the giant rock pinnacles upon a mountain, many natural places can become sacred to us. We find ourselves on holy ground.

This rock upon which we do all our living, is our home. Thanks be to God we have this world as it is, and in just the right orbit around the sun, for life: our lives and everything’s life. In fellowship with everything upon earth, we find our purpose and our joy.

The latter part of our worship, now, points to Jesus, the Rock of ages, cleft for you and me. Like us, Jesus of Nazareth was a carbon and water organism. He breathed out carbon dioxide that plants took in and made into wood, which is now buried in the earth today. He breathed out water molecules that we are still enjoying today, and still flows down mountainsides, through rivers, into the oceans. He bled real blood, with iron in those cells, that was a sign of the life God was giving to people, and all creation.

With every digging in the ground you do, remember Jesus, also made of clay. With every stone you pick up on a beach, consider how Jesus is putting you into the building called His body today. With every little mountaintop experience you have, pray for the ways you can be a blessing to people, to all living things, and to the ground itself. You and I are here to be a blessing, not a curse. Our spiritual sacrifices will be practical and physical. X will be your Safe Leader & Mountain Guide.

SERMON: Green Pastors

 10:30 am, Sun, April 30, 2023 - JGWhite / FBCA

(Psalm 23; 1 Peter 2:19-25)

 [SCENE ONE] One year ago this weekend Sharon and I took possession of our house up on Clinton Street, and after almost ten months ‘on the job’ now, you have a pretty good idea what you’ve got. For one thing, you got a ‘green’ pastor. Yes, yes, I know my name is Jeffrey George WHITE, but I am green. Not green in name, like Dan Green, but environmentally green, nature-loving green, creation curious green.

At this moment, I am part of the CNC and the CNC. I am a member of the Chignecto Naturalists Club; in fact, in a moment of need, I ended up becoming President. And I am taking part for four days right now in the City Nature Challenge, in which citizen scientists log many observations of plants, birds, lichens, fish, mammals, insects, fungi – every living thing they can find. I’ve been trying to get as many pictures of as many plants and organisms as I can (up in Westmorland County, actually) and post them online to the iNaturalist platform.

Yesterday I spent some time traipsing and trespassing in woods up towards Cape Tormentine. I observed this plant: Eastern Skunk Cabbage, which I befriended when I lived in Digby County.

Why would I care? Why would I care for you to be interested? Because I am a Pastor, a Shepherd to you, who can share creation deeply with you. I even pick this out of the world’s favourite Psalm, number twenty-three. YHWY God is a Shepherd, lies me down in green pastures, leads me beside still waters, provides everything needed, and leads on right paths. This is the same ‘LORD’ whom we praise as Creator, Creator of life, all life. I truly learned that ‘pastor’ and ‘shepherd’ are the same thing when I spent time in Bolivia. In Spanish, the Psalm begins: El Señor es me Pastor.

This sermon is really a testimony. I am going to work back through time. Let me end Scene One by answering this: Why am I so green? Because there is so much to enjoy in nature!

Here’s SCENE TWO. Beginning with a ‘plant’ I observed yesterday for the nature challenge: Orange-Cored Shadow Lichen – which is not quite a plant – it is a combination of at least one fungus and at least one alga. Many of the lichens that grow on trees and rocks and the soil are very sensitive to disturbance: to tree cutting, to air pollution, and so forth.  Their presence can be a sign of health, of old-growth forests; the absence of certain lichens is a sign of a wrecked landscape. I am reminded by orange-cored shadow lichen of what Christian environmentalism is.

In my mind, I go back thirty years, to meetings of the CABF, which then was called the ABF, a left-wing Baptist group of which First Baptist has always been in fellowship. ‘Back in the day,’ I would meet up with a retired Old Testament professor at these meetings, Dr. Morris Lovesey. He knew I had first graduated in Biology and Chemistry; he himself had a degree in geology. Again and again, he would say to me: work with Christianity and biology, the Church and science! For years I was not sure what on earth to do. When I finally preached my first Earth Day sermon, in about 2012, I got in trouble with several leading voices in the congregation!

Our religion can truly at times seem to be ‘so heavenly minded we are no earthly good.’ But we are here, on earth, where God indeed joined us, as one of us: Jesus of Nazareth, our Good Shepherd. We heard, in Peter’s advice to believers in households of long ago, ‘Return to the Shepherd and Guardian of your souls.’ Good advice. Yet we can hear this word speak and take us farther than usual. Is God not the shepherd and guardian of this planet? This Universe? And are we not to be little shepherds under the Good Shepherd? If I am a ‘shepherd’ or ‘pastor’ among you, many of you are also guides to other people. We all must work together to make a difference in this world of earth, wind, fire and water, and of every living thing. You, be a ‘green pastor’ too.

Why am I so green? Because of many people God used to influence me. Dr. Morris Lovesey. My Digby friend, Jonathan Riley, who became an amateur lichen expert to save them and the local forests. Linda Vogels, whom I got to know and love at seminars about creation care, and who keeps speaking out about doing the right day-to-day things for mother earth, aka Gaia.

SCENE THREE (of four. These scenes are getting too long!). The last couple days I observed a lovely, common shrub sometimes called Northern Wild Raisin. The long, brown, suede-like buds are just expanding to open now, and become leaves. This bush, and its Latin name, Viburnum cassinoides, always takes me back to the summer of 1992.

Picture me, freshly graduated with my science degree, and working for the summer at Acadia’s biology research station on a Shelburne County island, called Bon Portage. Oh, to be twenty-one again, and spend the summer on a windy, maritime island. I did not learn many names of plants in my degree; I learned them ‘for the fun of it,’ that summer, working on this with a masters student doing his research at the same place. Viburnum cassinoides was part of the botany we learned there.

You work on a biology research station – a whole island for a classroom – and you meet many fellow travellers on the journey of learning about this awe-inspiring world. I met birders, not just birdwatchers: birders, and joined the Nova Scotia Bird Society. By boss was actually an ornithologist, Dr. Peter Smith, who got married that very summer to Linda Lusby, formerly of Amherst.

Our Biblical image of the Shepherd with all the sheep who know the Shepherd’s voice rings so true. The Good Shepherd wants, works, to keep us together. Sometimes, a common enjoyment of nature is one way God brings people together.

Why am I so green? A shared joy in nature, shared with the most wonderful people. And we share life with so many other life-forms. All one family; all gift. Siblings of Wild Raisin.

SCENE FOUR. Another plant I observed this weekend of the Nature Challenge: the Pitcher Plant, carnivore of the bogs. This has been a favourite of mine since before I first saw one.

I first saw one on a camping trip to Briar Island, with the Middleton Baptist Christian Boys Group, at age 12. My one and only photograph from that wonderful, boyhood experience is me with a blooming pitcher plant in hand. I have a weak memory. I remember barely anything from that four-day wilderness camp, except that it was an amazing time. I even ended up with ‘Camper of the Year’ award!

My childhood was blessed with opportunities to enjoy nature. The summer I was six we moved to the Annapolis Valley and my backyard suddenly was my grandfather’s 20-acre campground, with lots of wild spaces. My other grand-father in Ontario was a gardener in his yard. I had houseplants inside our house, and wildflowers planted outside.

“You were going astray like sheep,” wrote Peter to his Church friends, long ago. The ways we humans have gone astray in our lifetimes includes creation crushing. Children today – all the upcoming generations – need the support of our Faith, which calls us into right relationship with Creator and creation.

Why am I so green? Nature was my backyard in my formative years. Family members were plant growers. My Baptist Church took this kid out for wilderness camping on islands: Briar Island, Mosher Island, even Isle Haute.

We do walk thru a dark valley on earth right now… In the environmental crisis, the Good Shepherd is still with us. This is what we need to remember. This is how we live. This is what the next generations needs to know, from us. They get lots of good info from schools and so forth. What hope, what plan, do we, Christianity, give them? What community and togetherness does Christ make possible? Let us, Church, be ‘a green pastor,’ in other words: a team of good shepherds, guides in creation. Seek this miracle with me: that our grandchildren and great-grandchildren will find that goodness and mercy will pursue and chase them all the days of their life.

                 SILENCE

SERMON: Known in Breaking Bread (Earth Days 1/6)

 10:30 am, Sun, April 23, 2023 - JGWhite / FBCA

(Ps 116:5-14; Lk 24:13-35)

Today we begin a series of Sundays I’m calling Earth Days. Following ‘Earth Day,’ yesterday, we will pay attention to our life in creation, with our Creator. We have begun with the simple theme of food and drink, the basics of life.

Our sacred scriptures are filled with eating and drinking, sowing and reaping crops, and ritual sacrifices of food. The story of our Faith is filled with stories of breaking bread, and of growing it, and sharing it. Here is one example, a parable, a Bible parable, but a parable you might not know, even though we are Bible scholars. 😉

Listen to me now.

    Give me your closest attention.

Do farmers plow and plow and do nothing but plow?

    Or harrow and harrow and do nothing but harrow?

After they’ve prepared the ground, don’t they plant?

    Don’t they scatter dill and spread cumin,

Plant wheat and barley in the fields

    and [spelt] along the borders?

They know exactly what to do and when to do it.

    Their God is their teacher.

And at the harvest, the delicate herbs and spices,

    the dill and cumin, are treated delicately.

On the other hand, wheat is threshed and milled, but still not endlessly.

    The farmer knows how to treat each kind of grain.

He’s learned it all from God-of-the-Angel-Armies,

    who knows everything about when and how and where.

That’s from the end of Isaiah chapter 28. You might think of better-known parables about food. Stories Jesus told, and stories told about Jesus.

Like the that poignant tale we read today, of that big resurrection day, when a couple lesser-known disciples were walking to a village outside Jerusalem, met up with a fellow traveler, and told him all about what had happened, what had happened to Jesus. Then the three of them stop for the night. He took bread, blessed and broke it, and gave it to them. Then their eyes were opened, and they recognized him; and he vanished from their sight. It was Jesus. When did they know He was with them? When they ‘broke bread together.’

The sharing of food is the sharing of fellowship with the Spirit of Jesus. A prime time for us to know God is mealtime. We have a God who eats with us. No wonder we say ‘grace’ at meals. We have an unseen Guest. Or, perhaps, we are the guests of God at earth’s table, every single day. Daily, some strawberries appear. No wonder the Jews have Passover, which is a ritual meal of simple foods. No wonder we Christians have Holy Communion, which is a ritual meal of simple foods.

Of course, food is not just a symbol or a tool to point to things spiritual. The food and drink that sustain life are important to God, as much as they are important to us. From the ancient Hebrew instructions to leave crops in the fields for the orphan and the widow and the foreigner, to the many prayers for rain and for harvest in times of drought, the roots of our Faith run deeply into farming & gathering & food preparation.

The story of Jesus the Messiah is the story of God who joins creation, who becomes Someone hungry for food and thirsty for water. Christ is our great connection with the Divine, and Christ was a physical being, a human, to make that connection. God’s work of making relationships right is, in part, so that everyone gets food. ‘The Kingdom of God is a Party.’ Does Jesus not illustrate this with His miracles of feeding thousands?

And no wonder fasting is such a powerful spiritual practice. It is a very practical, physical activity. It is used across many religious traditions. For us, it keeps us knowing we do not live by bread alone. And yet, we do die without food or drink. Fasting keeps us in touch with what it is like to be hungry. If you are like me, and your stomach never goes empty and growls, you need an occasional experience of what hunger actually feels like!

No wonder we see the kosher diet in ancient Judaism, which may seem so strange to us today. So many foods are not to be eaten – even touched! – in order for people be holy, a special people, set apart for God. Think about it: food is so central to the life and religion of the Hebrews… and Christians.

No wonder we see in the Bible God’s ‘preferential option for the poor,’ as it is called. If God has any favourites, it is the poor and needy, hungry and thirsty. I always think of Mary’s words when she celebrated the news that she was to birth the Messiah: [God] has filled the hungry with good things, and sent the rich away empty. (Lk 1:53) That’s some of God’s best work. And ours too.

So, no wonder we have a designated ‘benevolent’ budget, and a benevolent committee. No wonder we cooperate with others in Amherst in the Xmas Cheer program: enough food to eat is not enough, there should be food for celebration also! No wonder that our little start at offering a ‘warming centre’ each Monday soon became mostly about sharing good food. No wonder we support what Canadian Baptists used to call ‘The Sharing Way,’ which is our relief and development work around the world, getting food to places of famine and war and natural disaster, getting wells drilled and water purified.

Yesterday, April 22, was Earth Day, the 54^th annual Earth Day. But, if every day should be ‘earth day,’ then today and tomorrow we can be trained by the God of the earth to do food better than before. We know the troubles of hunger in our populated world: the situation is disastrous in many places. And I’m just talking about hungry people. What about the plants and animals of the world? How much rain forest is destroyed so people can grow palm trees for the palm oil in our crackers? How much fossil fuel is used to bring us grapes from Chile in the winter, and so. many. other. products? We even call them ‘products,’ as if these are all produced just for us. Like the term we have for tending our own lands and waters: department of natural resources. Resources? The trees and fishes are more than resources for our use. But I am getting ahead of myself. My Earth Sunday for Living Things is next week, April 30.

A dear friend told me this story, once. A number of years ago she was working part-time in Halifax, and would sometimes pack her breakfast to eat early, down at Point Pleasant Park.  One early morning, she parked her car – just about no one else around – and went off to eat the bread and cheese and fruit she’d thrown together. 

A stranger approached her.  A rough looking man.  He… he was begging.  He wanted some money, for a coffee or whatever.

My friend was nervous.  She was a 70 year old woman, alone in the early morning there.  But, she bravely told him, “I don’t have any money to give you, but I have a bit of breakfast here, & I will share.”

The man looked at her, then went off quickly without saying anything, towards a nearby building.  “Was he gone?” the woman wondered.  “Did he go off to bring some friends back with him?”  She sat down at a picnic table and started to open up her breakfast.

My friend told me, with tears, what she saw next.  She saw the man coming back… to her table.  He had gone to the bathroom.  He had combed his hair.  He had washed his face, and his hands.  Done up his shirt, for breakfast. He sat down and shared breakfast with my friend.

In one of His stories, Jesus said, “Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world, for I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me…” (Mtt 25:34-5)

Every way food is shared, every time bread is broken, may these be times to know and be known by God.

SERMON: The Outcome of Our Faith

 10:30 am, Sun, April 16, 2023 - JGWhite / FBCA

(1 Pet 1:3-9; Ps 16; Jn 20:19-31)

 Let’s start with a mini-episode of Ripley’s Believe It Or Not: Last month I went out into the wet woods near here looking for one of the earliest spring flowers in bloom, Skunk Cabbage! Let me tell you about this incredible plant – it’s one of my favourites. It comes out of the mucky ground in March looking like a red onion. While the snow is still everywhere, the flower buds create their own heat, and melt a hole in the snow above. It does indeed smell skunky: all the better to attract the first flies and gnats that appear at the end of winter. Once the plant grows its big, green leaves, the roots that go deep into the mud shrink, and pull the plant down deeper. What talent! 

How good are you at believing the incredible, the amazing, the unbelievable? Well, what I have told you so far is all true. You are likely told, once in a while, something that is hard to believe. You have to be convinced, you need proof, or at least time to think it over, or just see for yourself.

Spiritual faith is often like this. In the New Testament texts today, we see a confident faith, and a lack of confidence: Peter’s encouraging letter, and Thomas the disciple doubting that Jesus was indeed alive again. Your reason, or mine, for doubting things today, is not the same as Thomas’s situation. We are a long way off from those resurrection days of Jesus, in the flesh. Thus, we are, after two thousand years, still facing the same tragedies of humankind, the same repeated evils that we people do, and same unsolved mysteries that bother us.

In the mid-twentiety century, prof at Union Theological Seminar in New York, James Muilenburg, said to his students, studying to be ministers, “Every morning when you wake up, before you reaffirm your faith in the majesty of a loving God, before you say I believe for another day, read the Daily News with its record of the latest crimes and tragedies of [hu]mankind and then see if you can honestly say it again.”

Sometimes we still gather, like this, to get encouraged, to find hope, to be able to say again, ‘Yes, I believe it!’ Sometimes we still gather because we know someone else needs us to have a bit of faith for them, and help them out.

It is Easter. It is a Sunday, so it’s a weekly easter. In the Church Year, it is the second of seven Sundays of Easter. So we sing hallelujah again. We are people of faith; this is what we do.

To celebrate the outcomes of our faith, we need to start with faith itself. And where the good comes from; what is the Source? As I say, sometimes we look for faith, we need it, we want it, we feel a bit short on our supply of deep believing.

What did Peter’s nice paragraph of good stuff end with? You are receiving the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls. The one thing I want to say about this today is: there is always a tension, always two directions we come at faith in God and salvation. It is from God, and it is up to us.

Where do you start?

I guess I have been so trained to understand the gospel in terms of the grace of God, that I say it is all up to the Eternal One. Salvation is a gift to us. What we just remembered Jesus doing is what accomplishes our renewed life that never ends. Christ comes back to life, and gets busy doing things like dispensing peace/shalom to His people, filling them with God, with the Holy Spirit, and giving them His power to speak real forgiveness to others. Give, give, give: this is how God does it. As the evangelical tradition says, it is grace, which is an unearned gift from God, something we cannot do for ourselves.

Yet what do we humans do? We have faith. We put our confidence in God, in Christ Jesus. Rely upon God instead of relying upon ourself. Nowadays, as it says, we are blessed for believing Jesus even when we did not get to see Him in the flesh, his broken, born from the dead, flesh. We do read the New Testament teachings about being judged, one day, by Christ, and think we must have to be good, or good enough.

But grace tells us all our being right is nothing – we put on Jesus and everything right and good about Him covers us. Hmm. I make it very simple by thinking faith is us opening a door that God gives us, with a whole wonderful world inside that we can walk into. We do have the choice to walk in, or not.

Well, let us get to the actual outcomes of our faith. The outcomes? I hear this word used more and more these days. Lots of organizations and agencies talk about outcomes now. For instance, our NS Public School Program says: Curriculum outcomes are statements of what a learner knows, is able to do, and value upon the completion of the learning process. 

So, Faith: what are believers going to know, be able to do, and be upon the completion of our lives? We could start by looking at the list from 1 Peter 1 that we read earlier. From the Christian Faith the outcomes can be:

the salvation of our souls,    (which is about now & forever)

a new birth,          (which is a new life in us, somehow)

a living hope,   (which is also this eternal life, starting now)

an inheritance,     (which is an indestructibleness we get)

protection of us,  (for all the good things we are here for)

rejoicing,      (that is, enjoying God and everything good)

love of Christ,      (we get a great relationship with Creator)

believing Christ.  (we get to enjoy Jesus as real)

You may well glean other things from this rich paragraph at the start of the first letter of Peter. Yet other outcomes of being a person of Faith can include the things we saw in that scene with Jesus and the disciples, just after Jesus arose. I already mentioned them. Jesus speaks peace, shalom, to His friends. (Salvation is friendship with Jesus, I’d say.) Christ speaks the Holy Spirit right into them – that’s God whom you get to have with you everywhere. The Saviour speaks about forgiveness: forgiving others, or not forgiving. This is a great power and responsibility: it is part of the package.

And it leads us to a third thing to rejoice in: the social side of salvation. There is something about faith that is not alone, not all private, not only personal. It is our faith, shared; not your faith and your faith, and your faith, and my faith. We are celebrating the outcomes of our shared faith in Jesus.

The old, 20^th century story is told of the evangelist preaching to a big crowd. He’s getting everyone excited. ‘Amens’ are heard from the congregation. He asks, “Don’t you want to go to heaven? Who wants to go to heaven? Stand up!”

The crowd stands up, they all stand up… all but one person. The preacher can actually see her, and so he speaks out: “Ma’am, you’re the only one; don’t you want to go to heaven?”

“Pastor,” she replies, “I do, but I thought you were getting a group ready to go tonight.”

There is a good point in that story. The bit about ‘going together.’ The social side of salvation, the shared faith we proclaim. As Charles Peguy said, “We must be saved together. We cannot go to God alone; else he would ask, ‘Where are the others?’”

I believe this goes for our faith life here and now, as well as after this life. One of the outcomes of our Faith is togetherness, family, fellowship, relationships, community, team. To use some Bible terms, faith is about reconciliation – we have a ministry of reconciliation – and it is about unity: Jesus prayed that His people would be one as He and God are one. It is about Church, which, in one sense, simply means the gathered ones, those gathered together. ‘I will build my ecclesia, my gathered ones,’ said Jesus, ‘and the gates of hades will not stand against it.’ We gather, and we scatter, we gather, and we scatter: as one.

First Baptist is an outcome of our faith; Hallelujah! Aside from all the human structure and tradition we have developed, and our faults and shortcomings, we are a creation of salvation. We, First Baptist, are an act of God. & not just in 1809: today. We are wonderful, in the midst of the wacko messes we get ourselves into. I love those words in 2 Corinthians that tell us we have the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ. But we have this treasure in clay jars, so that it may be made clear that this extraordinary power belongs to God and does not come from us.

The glorious, resurrected Jesus is here for us to share, with us just as we are today. A power, a treasure, in clay jars. Not in one clay jar; in us all, in all these clay jars.

The outcome of our faith is a Life that is the good life, and together we get to share it. Alleluia! Amen.

SERMON: Recognizing Jesus

 (Acts 10:34-43; John 20:1-18) J G White 

10:30 am, Easter Sunday, April 9, 2023, FBCA

 Christ is risen.  He is risen indeed!  This could be all that needs to be said.  It is as simple as that.  Jesus - human and God - is executed, and then is alive again.  Hallelujah!  How have we met Jesus alive? When did you recognize him?

Think again of that amazing moment when Mary Magdalene lingers at the tomb of Jesus that is suddenly empty. What has happened? And then the talks with the gardener; but it is not the caretaker of the cemetery after all. It is the missing Jesus. When He speaks her name, Mary, she knows him at last!

So many days of our year we seem to have complex problems to solve, disagreements to resolve, or personal sins to absolve.  But at the heart of our Faith, and our church community, is a personal God: Jesus.  A God we recognize!

A little boy was sick on Palm Sunday and stayed home from church with his mother. His father returned from church holding a palm branch. The little boy was curious and asked, “Why do you have that palm branch, dad?” “You see, when Jesus came into town, everyone waved Palm Branches to honour him, so we got Palm Branches today.” The little boy replied, “Aw Shucks! The one Sunday I miss is the Sunday that Jesus shows up.” (sermon central)  

We celebrate today Jesus who shows up.  Though His appearances are often subtle and subversive.  How has Christ appeared to you in your life?

Today brings us all to Jesus, to point to Him, to enjoy Him, and marvel at Him, to put our confidence in Him, to lift Him up above other things that might seem important.  

Jesus once said, “But I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all men to myself." (John 12:32) He was referring to his execution by being hung on a cross of wood, a common death penalty at the time.  But today we find Him up and alive!  

This day is simply all about Jesus. Jesus, plain and simple. We are here to recognize that fact. Yet when He gets up and is alive again, He is no show-off.

When John the evangelist tells the story, here in chapter 20, he does not mention the spectacle that Matthew does. No earthquake, no angel descending from heaven, Jesus’ described as bright as lightning is not mentioned. The tomb guards shaking and the fainting dead are not noticed by John. Jesus is simply there, not even attracting attention. Not even being recognized at first, by one of His dear friends. Jesus Christ is simply present, alive, with them.  

Perhaps you have experienced moments and ways Jesus has appeared to you that were simple, almost ordinary. And yet, your recognized Him. And when we recognize the presence of the Son of God, we see Him for who he is.

Christ is greater than the angels. Those angels who opened the tomb, or any other impressive spiritual creatures.  Hebrews chapter 1 speaks at length about this.

Christ is greater than bunnies & chocolates & Easter dinners.

Christ is greater than the pagan origins of “Easter” or “Christmas,” and any other troubles with our religion.

Christ is greater than the Passover and the Jewish sacrificial system out of which He lived His life. 

Christ is greater even than the sacrificial atonement theories of Christianity. He is our ransom, our substitute, He pays our debt, He inspires by example, He wins a victory. all of this, & more.

Christ is greater than the best churches we’ve got, with the best vision statements, leaders, preachers and teachers, ministries, and music.  And Christ Jesus is better than the worst of Churches and Christian history.  

You know one of my own favourite themes about Jesus and what He offers.  He is available; the Kingdom has come near.  This is one of the best ways to put it. God and the good life is available to people - no matter what is happening in their lives.  Amid all the personal problems and disasters, and all the successes and happy moments, the best thing going is Jesus.

A wonderful Roman Catholic Priest colleague of mine (Michael Walsh), years ago, said this at a community Good Friday service: Jesus Christ died for me personally so that I might have life forever.  But unless I experience this salvation as a personal gift to me, my response to Jesus will always be less than wholehearted.  In order for Jesus to give me life, I must be open to that life and live my life for Him.  Jesus wants to give me life and salvation is a gift.  But it is a gift that must be received and Jesus is always waiting to open our hearts so that we will receive the gift of salvation.

One way to respond to the events of what we call Good Friday and Easter is to look for Christ in others. Remember, as you look around the pews, here or any pews, each other person you see is on some journey with God. From delightful obedience to desperate struggle, we are a variety.  Remember to look for God in the life of the other person. The person you idolize, the one you appreciate, the one who doesn’t attract your attention, the one you dislike, the one you’d rather never ever meet up with. Remember, theirs is a personal experience of the Spirit, different from yours.

Another thing to do is to take the joy and glory of Easter Day and enjoy it 52 times a year - every Sunday an Easter.  It was exciting this morning at 7 am to gather in Victoria Square, next door, with other believers, and then have joyful fellowship in here. It was a joy to walk with a cross and bless some places here in town on Friday morning.  But on every ‘usual’ Sunday, shall we anticipate a special time with our living Saviour?  Yes!

A third thing to do is seek His Lordship over every project in our lives. We plan a vacation... with Christ. We raise our children: with the Master’s guidance. We seek a medical doctor’s care: with the Great Physician at our side. We befriend a neighbour: in the name of our Saviour and Friend, Jesus.  

Christ as the centre, around whom everything revolves.  Lift Jesus Higher, says one gospel song.  For Jesus once said, “But I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself." (John 12:32)

Author and evangelism professor, Leonard Sweet, says: “We lift Him up and He does the drawing…  It’s not ‘come to church,’ it’s ‘come to Christ’.”  But Sweet finds, in his American context, that Christ is often missing from the churches, and he is missing Christ.  That breaks his heart.  

Jesus Christ is alive.  So our gospel, the good news, is alive today.  What is the Gospel? 

There is a Kingdom, of sorts, that is God’s.  It has come near, it is available, people can enter this kind of life that is with God and from God.  The opportunity to turn around and receive it is here. Jesus speaks of this, Jesus lives it, He is it, He provides it. 

We people can be saved from evil, sin, wrong, pain, injustice, even death.  The reality of Jesus Christ is the way.  

We can be saved for good works - to do well and make a difference in this life. We can be saved for eternity with God and God’s people, and God’s new creation.  

And our Gospel is rooted, simply, in the story of Jesus: crucified and risen. That’s how it happens. What He does. So today, we celebrate the Jesus we recognize. We, now, get to be the witnesses of all that He did, in Judea and in Jerusalem, in Yarmouth and Middleton and Tidnish and River Hebert and Amherst.