CAPTIVATED BY GOD’S PASSION FOR PLACEMAKING

Passage: Jeremiah 29:4-11

The first time we encounter the word ‘placemaking’ is in 1562, when the second edition of the Geneva Bible (aka “The Placemakers’ Bible”) was printed. In it, the gospel of Matthew, chapter five verse nine reads: “Blessed are the placemakers: for they shall be called the children of God.” Oops! I do think God loves placemaking, but I’m pretty sure that’s not what Jesus actually meant in the Beatitudes.

In any case, the terms’ current usage can be traced back to the 1970s when architects and planners used the word ‘placemaking’ to describe the act of designing spaces that were pleasurable or interesting. Forty years later, the term is now understood more as a transformative communal process that seeks to build resilient and dynamic neighbourhoods and public spaces.

This morning, as we continue in the series “Captivated by God’s Passion”, we consider Jeremiah 29: 4-11 which gives us a vivid picture of what it might look like to care passionately about where you live and, together with others, to make it a safer, friendlier, better place.
(Kim Pierrot)

Come…Come…Come…

Here at Cap we believe that God invites us into a present and active relationship with Him. Our aim is not simply to know more about God but to know God more. Since we cannot see God, it is common to relate to Him similarly to how we would act in a long distance relationship. However this morning Brian Dean will be sharing from Isaiah 55, where God invites His people to come, be with Him, and listen. To do this, communication is vital and in Christianity this is often called prayer.

Henri Nouwen says that “Prayer helps us stand in the presence of God with all we have and are: our fears and our anxieties; our guilt and shame; our sexual fantasies; our greed and anger; our joys, successes, aspirations, and hopes; our reflections, dreams and mental wandering; and most of all our family, friends, and enemies—in short all that makes us who we are. With all this we have to listen to God’s voice and allow God to speak to us in every corner of our being.”

(Brian Dean)

Justice Sunday

Today is Justice Sunday at CapChurch. The Justice Hub@Cap has a four pronged mandate around advocacy for the marginalized: to celebrate God’s justice; to educate the community; to support Cappers doing justice; to call justice “passions” out of the community. Today is about advocacy on behalf of the sexually victimized. This “justice passion” arose from a book group comprised of Cappers and non-Cappers which read Half the Sky. This group is planning a Half the Sky awareness day at Park Royal South for Sat May 12th 10am – 5pm to call people to act on behalf of the victims of sexual trafficking.

Half the Sky presents stories of the worldwide abuse and exploitation of women and how these women are and can be empowered to overcome adversity. Newscaster Tom Brokaw says, “Half the Sky is a passionate…plea to all of us to rise up and say ‘No more!’ to…abuses to girls and women… This is a book that will pierce your heart and arouse your conscience…. [around] one of the most shameful conditions of our time.”

To speak to the issue of Doing Justice And Giving Mercy To The Sexually Victimized we’ve asked Gwen McVicker and Sue Todd from Linwood House. Linwood House ministries beckon the tired, the broken and the lonely; particularly women living in the Downtown Eastside to rest and hear the message of Jesus: you are loved, you are worthy, you are beautiful.

(Mike Nichols)

Good Seed Sunday

Today is Good Seed Sunday at Cap. We believe that the earth is the Lord’s and everything and everyone who lives on the planet belongs to him. Because we believe this, self-care; care of one another in community and care of creation are important values for us. We want to love and tend to the earth and all of God’s creatures [including us!]. We’ve invited our own Luke Wilson who works with the Christian conservation ministry A Rocha to remind us of the great gift God has given us to tend and what it means in our day to lovingly tend the earth and not abuse it.

Did you know that A Rocha is fighting poverty through conservation? They even have a work in Uganda. A Rocha is working with slum dwellers on the edge of Kampala protect the wetland on which they depend for water, food and building materials so that they and the wildlife can thrive together. This is includes providing clean drinking water and finding new ways to dispose of sewage and rubbish. Doing conservation here is bringing health and dignity to people as the pollution of the swamp is being reduced. Sounds like kingdom work to me.

(Mike Nichols)

How to Live in Community with People You Don’t Like

Community. Yep we call ourselves—Cap Community because we believe there is much to learn from relationships. Community at its best is an experience, according to Henri Nouwen not only of, “I am beloved; you are beloved; together we can create space for God and others but also an uncomfortable place because it is often the place where the person you least want to live with always lives. Community is not some idealized place where everyone is comfortable, always loved and always gets along. Community is real. If you expect some sort of perfection you will have no end of disillusionment. Church is a great place until you invite people.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer in Life Together says that when God’s grace comes to a faith community their ideals of how they expect to be treated will crumble to such an extent that the only way they can continue to live together is by forgiveness. In other words a community of faith must learn to “do the gospel” with each other if they are to be God’s people in their time. Today in Romans 14:1-15:6 we talk about how to live with those you least want to be with in community.

(Mike Nichols)

Resurrected Jesus and Believing Thomas

Does it seem strange to you, on the Sunday when we declare and celebrate “Jesus is Risen!” that we are reflecting on the experience of Thomas, the one best known for his doubt in the whole resurrection thing? Well, frankly, I think poor Thomas has been given a lot of bad press over the years.

For when we look closely at the gospel account in John 20, when we take note of what Thomas was longing for and the way Jesus responded to him, we find a model, not for doubting, but for believing.

Sermon text: John 20: 19-31

(Kim Pierrot)

NOT WHAT I EXPECTED FROM GOD

Passion Week is a week of Stories—the stories of Jesus last week on earth—stories of a parade, a meal, a betrayal, a mock trial, an execution, and an empty grave. Stories invite us to see how our own personal stories jive with the larger story of God’s work in our world.

Our goal today, and on Good Friday at 10 a.m. and next Sunday Morning at 7:30 a.m. at Ambleside when we baptise 6 Cappers; and at the 10 A.M. Cap worship where we celebrate resurrection life, is to retell the stories of Jesus last week in a manner as close to the way the Bible tells the story. We believe that we find our stories in this grand story. So, join us for Story week.

(Mike Nichols)

AN ASTONISHED HEART

Today’s readers of the letter to the Romans are likely to skip over chapters 9-11. What does the absence of faith in Christ by so many of the Hebrew people have to do with today’s church? Paul can’t so easily dismiss this question. He says that he would welcome his own damnation if it could mean salvation for the Hebrew people. Three questions are addressed in Romans 9-11:

• Has God’s word failed [9:6] to open hardened hearts?
• Is God unjust—if salvation depends on God’s mercy and God’s initiative is he not unjust or immoral to exclude the Hebrew people [9:14]?
• How can God blame anyone for unbelief if his grace is irresistible? [9:19-22]

Paul’s answers are to lead to an astonished heart which opens Romans 12 with the phrase—“therefore in light of this mercy of God let us offer ourselves fully o God”. As we work through this material today, attend to your own heart and see if it is astonished. (Mike Nichols)

GOD FOR US

The most important word in this three word sentence: God for us is “for”. Consider uses of “for” in Rom. 8:18-39.e.g. vv. 26-27: the Spirit himself intercedes for us through wordless groan; vv. 28: And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him. Vv. 31-32 If God is for us, who can be against us?2 He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things?

This preposition can mean “to extend benefit beyond the present situation”; “for the betterment of”; “for the sake of” “on behalf of”. Plug some of these meanings into the text and it considerably bumps up the intensity. For e.g. The Spirit himself intercedes for our betterment through wordless groans; verse 28: And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him. Verse 31: What, then, shall we say in response to these things? If God is for us; acting on our behalf; working for our betterment; doing everything he can for the sake of our salvation, who can be against us?

Today we celebrate God for us.

LIFE ON GOD’S TERMS

Text: Romans 8: 1-16

As important as it is to consider what we are freed from, we also need to ask what we are freed for. After hearing the incredibly good news that we have been set free from the law of sin and death through Christ Jesus in Romans 8:1, it might come as a shock to read in Romans 8:12 that we nevertheless have an “obligation”. Yet it is not the obligation to behave well, to prove that we deserve the gift, or to accomplish “great things for God”. Ironically, that would still be to live according to the “flesh”. This morning, as we consider what life on God’s terms looks like, we will discover that the same Holy Spirit that raised Jesus from the dead empowers us (and even obliges us) to live lives as adventurously expectant children of God. As Mary Oliver asks in the final line of her poem, “The Summer Day”, Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?

(Kim Pierrot)

TORN BETWEEN ONE WAY AND ANOTHER

Text: Romans 6-7

The idealistic pessimist (or should that be pessimistic idealist?) in me is deeply satisfied when I read Romans 6-7. We find two certainties outlined clearly within these chapters: first, that we are called to live differently as a reflection of our new relationship with Christ; secondly, that it is an immense struggle to do so.

This morning, as we explore this tension in the text, we come to realize that living out the truth of our death to sin and new life in Christ also involves agreeing with the apostle Paul as he describes the mighty struggle between the good he wants to do and the evil that he nevertheless keeps on doing. Living in the gap between the way God calls us to live and our seeming inability to do so positions us perfectly to understand and receive God’s immeasurable mercy.

As John Stott puts it: “Indeed, an honest and humble acknowledgment of the hopeless evil of our flesh, even after the new birth, is the first step to holiness.”

(Kim Pierrot)

THE GOSPEL’S VAST EMBRACE

The title of today’s sermon “The Gospel’s Vast Embrace” could be phrased as a question, “How vast is the gospel’s embrace?” This is a hot topic in church circles today under the rubric of inclusion and exclusion or who is in and who is outside of the Christian fold.

Part of the argument for inclusion goes like this: God’s love extends to all humanity (1 Tim 2:4; Rom 11:32; 2 Pet 3:9); Salvation for the world is reached by way of particularity in Jesus. God saves the many through the One. Grace is universal because it is particular; God is at work redemptively in the lives of all people. God is free to work salvifically in various cultural, temporal, geographical and religious contexts. The particularity of salvation in Jesus is not to be equated with a restrictiveness of salvation.

Part of the argument for Exclusivism is taking various scriptures at face value e.g. John 14: 6—Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” Exclusivism holds that at best we do not know for sure what God might do about the un-evangelized. But unless they hear the Gospel and receive Jesus Christ as their Savior they have no hope.

Today, I want to set the arguments aside and look at Romans 5—what does it say about the Gospel’s embrace?
(Mike Nichols)

A GOD-STORY, NOT A ME-STORY

The title of today’s message is a God-Story, Not A Me-Story. I suppose it would be more accurate to say that today we are going to talk about GOD’S STORY IN YOUR LIFE. The story of sin and salvation as given to us by Paul in Romans 3 & 4 is certainly the God’s story in the life of Abraham. In all the stuff going on in Abraham’s life, God was working His story. The result would be an example for all time of how God works His story into our lives. An awareness of God working faith into our lives; working a good relationship with Him into our realities is not just how the Christian life begins, but how it continues.

St. Ignatius [1491—1556] was a Spanish knight, hermit, priest from 1537, theologian; and founder of the Jesuits; from 1522-1524 He wrote his Spiritual Exercises, a 200-page set of prayers, and mental exercises designed to be carried out over a period of 28–30 days. In the first week of the Ignatian Exercises the participant in encouraged to reflect on the story of their life while asking God’s help to recognize signs of His presence through good times and bad. This exercise is sometimes called a “graced history” and falls much in line with 2 Corinthians 3:3 “ You show that you are a letter from Christ, … written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts”. You can see where I’m going—today we are going to talk about “graced history”—Abraham’s and yours.

(Mike Nichols)

WHO CAN REALLY JUDGE?

Judgment—we all do it; we all do it every day; but somehow we expect that God shouldn’t. Doesn’t judgment go against God’s loving nature? Turn to the Bible and judgments by God are easy to find. In the first book Adam and Eve are judged. Their judgment [which includes mortality] is described plainly. The Bible is a record of God’s interventions into human history, including His unmistakable judgments. One difficulty in making sense of God’s judgment is that we extrapolate from these Biblical judgments, and press them on to other events, which the Bible does not mention, or allow us to do.

This extrapolation suggests that a judgment of God is obvious when people are hurt or killed. And thus we develop a cause and effect world view [e.g. if your trusted friend gossips (i.e. sins) they catch a cold (i.e. God’s judgment). If your other neighbour gives to a charity (i.e. not a sin), their roses bloom big (i.e. God’s reward). The Bible does NOT suggest such a directly related view of good & bad, cause & effect, obedience & reward, sin & judgment. If you look hard at life you will observe that this is not so. Laws of cause & effect do operate, but our interpretative extrapolations are unreliable.

Georgia Elma Harkness (1891 –1974) the first significant American female theologian and the first women to obtain full professorship in a U.S. theological seminary once said, “The tendency to turn human judgments into divine commands makes religion one of the most dangerous forces in the world.” Today let’s see what Romans 1-3:8 have to say about who can really judge. (Mike Nichols)

Whatever Happened to Getting Along?

How do we read someone else’s mail? That is a good question. A few years back when I was cleaning out my family home I discovered a box of letters written to me by every girl I’d dated since grade 8. I had no memory of what I had written to any of these women so it made reading their letters very challenging. I had to reconstruct our possible dialogue from the one side of the conversation I had in front of me.

It dawned on me that in reading a biblical letter is similar in that we only have one side of the conversation. What the other side of the conversation included or may have included makes a huge difference in how you understand the letter. In Paul’s letter to the Romans we have in front of us one side of a written conversation which is 40 years shy of 2000 years old. The first step to making sense of the Bible for today is to figure out what Paul meant to tell his original audience. That is our posture. That is where we begin today.

(Mike Nichols)

Real Life, Personally Revealed

Real Life, Personally Revealed —that is what our current series is about. The Bible says so much about so many things. Various Bible teachers ‘prove’ just about everything quoting different texts. Sincere people disagree on what the Bible teaches. And then there are the difficult texts: the command for holy war [genocide really] in the Old Testament; sanctioned polygamy; and harsh words on homosexual behaviour. Then there are the language idioms that are thousands of years old and God words spoken into those cultures which simply could not be applied today as cultural norms are so different. This raises the question of what are the universal truths and what are the time bound truths in the Bible?

Is the bible worth reading? Renowned aetheist Lemuel K. Washburn says no, “There is absolutely no information in the Bible that man can make any use of as he goes through life. The Bible is not a book of knowledge. It does not give instruction in … sciences… no help to labor.. useless as a political guide…” At Cap we have a different view. We recognize that the Bible is an ancient and complex book to understand. But we believe the word Jesus spoke that life is not found in food alone but in digesting words from God [Matt. 4:4]. In this series, Making sense of the Bible for Today we are going to take a look at the book of Romans and try and demonstrate how to make sense of a complex bible text for today. Stick with us through this series and see if you don’t emerge better able to find life in the universal truths of this ancient text.

(Mike Nichols)

Today we are pleased to bring to the community the Reverend TERRY LEBLANC. Terry is Mi’kmaq-Acadian. Terry is the director and founding chair of North American Institute for Indigenous Theological Studies and is completing a PhD (ABD) in Intercultural Studies. Terry speaks to our community about faith, justice, and first nations.

My People International’s mission statement is: To train and equip North Americans and other Indigenous people via the teachings of Jesus and to encourage spiritual life and the appropriate participation within the wider community of indigenous and other people who follow Jesus. See more at see more at www.mypeopleinternational.com/About.html

Asking God for a Fresh Start

Today we finish our devotional journey through the OT book of Lamentations in our series: Learning to Live in Lament and Hope. I particularly like the title of this series: Learning to Live in Lament and Hope.

Learning suggests that there are both things to unlearn and things to learn that will enable you to enjoy God and live a more redemptive life on this side of heaven. Lament and hope are in my estimation two “faith-life-skills” that when learned and practiced allow you to navigate the dark and hard experiences of life in a way that leads to life, rather than sucks life out of you. As we finish this series I want to add a third “faith-life-skill” to lament and hope and that is Asking God for a Fresh Start.

While I believe that learning to lament and learning to hope, via cold and broken hallelujah’s, are two basic skills for the God-formed life, they are incomplete without a third—and that is asking God for a fresh start. This trinity of lament; hope, and fresh start is in many ways the essence of redemptive living and all gifts of God by his Spirit to help us get on in this world.

Hope: A Cold and Broken Hallelujah

Scripture Text: Lamentations 3:19-33

Last week, our own Brian Dean introduced the Book of Lamentations to us and taught about the importance of lament, and the way it deepens our relationship with God and others. This week, as we continue in Lamentations, my assigned topic is hope. Next week, Mike teaches on making a fresh start. The problem is, lamenting, hoping and starting again are not stages as distinct from each other as our preaching calendar might suggest. Both the Book of Lamentations and our own lives tell us that our experience of grief is often a messy thing, sometimes even swinging from one extreme to the other. So, this morning as we consider what “hope” looks like in the Book of Lamentations, we see fundamentally, that it is a trust in the goodness of God even when our lives remain in ruins and our hearts remain broken. To paraphrase words from a favourite Leonard Cohen song, hope is less like a “victory march”, and more like a “cold and broken hallelujah”.

(Kim Pierrot)

Consolations & Desolations of 2011

It is our custom at CapChurch on the first Sunday of the year to thank God for our consolations from the past year; to lament our desolations and to commit our lives to God afresh for the year ahead. This year Brian Dean brings us our Consolations & Desolations sermon.

Do Not Fear

SCRIPTURE TEXT: ISAIAH 35:1-10

“Don’t be afraid.” When someone says this to you, does it serve to increase or decrease your anxiety? These are words that God speaks to his people throughout the Bible, and we find them today in Isaiah 35. And yet the call to “be strong” and “not fear” requires a bit of unpacking for us to hear it in the way it was intended, since it is linked here with images of God’s judgment.

In this, the second installment in our Advent series “What Are We Waiting For?” we get a glimpse of what it will be like when Jesus returns to this earth and how an understanding of this can change how we wait right now.

I Am The Way, the Truth and The Life

In this, the final sermon in the series we have called “The Seven Faces of Jesus”, we consider Jesus’ declaration: “I am the Way, the Truth, the Life”. While some take great comfort in Jesus’ words, others might wonder whether He isn’t being a tad exclusivistic when He declares himself to be the only way to the Father.

Hearing these important words in their proper gospel context helps us to understand more about what Jesus was actually claiming about Himself, and also what it actually means for us to follow in the “Jesus Way”.

I wonder if you have noticed a progression as we have moved through our series “The Seven Faces of Jesus”. Today, we consider Jesus’ claim: “I am the Vine”. This sentence finishes with Jesus making a statement about us as well: “you are the branches”. Jesus’ claims are becoming more confrontational as the weeks have gone by. It is no coincidence that as Jesus moves closer and closer to his death on the cross in John’s gospel, He makes claims that invite, perhaps even demand, a response from his listeners. If I accept that Jesus is the vine, then that makes each of us lowly branches. How do we feel about that? How does that change the way we live our lives, interact with Jesus, and with others? Today, we hear from Cory and Linda Smith as they share their reflections on this face of Jesus from John 15.

(Kim Pierrot)

By the way, did you know that the first gentile church after Christ’s resurrection was in the region where Uganda is located? Yes that is right. In Acts chapter 8 the Ethiopian Eunuch is converted and takes a scroll of Isaiah home to his native land just north of what is now Lake Victoria in Uganda. History tells us that his witness started a community of Christians. Some of the oldest churches are in this area. In meeting Moses you are meeting nearly 2000 years of Christian witness and heritage from this corner of God’s world. Cool!

This week’s sermon begins with an interview with Tony Strachan – a British World War II veteran and German POW – as we reflect on Remembrance Day and the sacrifices made for our country.

THE SEVEN FACES OF JESUS This week we come to one of the most important “I am” statements that Jesus made. Jesus said this in the context of bringing his friend Lazarus back to life, If death and taxes are the two things we know will be part of our lives, then this reality, “I am the one who raises the dead to life!” demands our attention. We see so much of who Jesus is in this episode. Here is the story in brief starting in John 11:22:

Martha said, “Master, if you’d been here, my brother wouldn’t have died…Jesus said, “Your brother will be raised up.” Martha replied, “I know that he will be raised up in the resurrection… “You don’t have to wait for the End. I am, right now, Resurrection and Life. The one who believes in me, even though he or she dies, will live…Do you believe this?” “Yes, Master. All along I have believed that you are the Messiah, the Son of God who comes into the world.” After saying this, she went to her sister Mary… “The Teacher is here and is asking for you.” …she jumped up and ran out to him…and fell at his feet, saying, “Master, if only you had been here, my brother would not have died.” When Jesus saw her sobbing and the Jews with her sobbing, a deep anger welled up within him. He said, “Where did you put him?” “Master, come and see,” they said. Now Jesus wept…anger again welling up within him… “Remove the stone.” …”Take off the grave clothes and let him go.”
(Mike Nichols)

THE SEVEN FACES OF JESUS

Joel M. Hoffman, who holds a PhD in theoretical linguistics, has taught Bible in religious settings and translation theory at Brandeis University. He has published books and has a website called www.goddidntsaythat.com – Bible Translations and Mistranslations. Here is what he says about shepherd: To get started, here’s a question: which actor would you cast as a typical shepherd? When I think of a shepherd, I think of a scrawny man dressed in rags who spends more time with sheep than with people. In term of imagery, I might say, “as lonely as a shepherd,” or “as meager as a shepherd,” or “as ill-dressed as a shepherd.” (If you’re reading this and you are a shepherd, please forgive me!) So in terms of an actor, I think I’d pick Woody Allen. (And Mr. Allen, if you’re reading this, please forgive me; I still love your movies.) But we see a completely different set of images in the Bible. Shepherds were fierce, regal, and romantic. Back then, one might have said, “as brave as a shepherd,” “as strong as a shepherd,” or “or sexy as a shepherd.” So even though the Hebrew in Psalm 23 is ro’eh, and even though ro’eh literally means “shepherd,” I don’t think “The Lord is my shepherd” is a very good translation.

Today, I invite you to ask Jesus a series of personal questions in response to his self-declarative “I am the Sheep Gate”. It seems like some good questions would be: How am I listening to your voice? Jesus where are you leading me?

THE SEVEN FACES OF JESUS

For the next seven weeks, we are going to put you at the party with Jesus across the room and you get to ask him the question—“Jesus, what makes you tick?” The short answer is seven “I Am”
statements Jesus told to people who came to him in a variety of situations. Many have heard the three option response to the question “Who is Jesus?” Either he is a liar, a lunatic or Lord. I think this series, The Seven Faces of Jesus, is for all of us—for those who have not yet answered the question for themselves and for those who have. This was a critical question for me in my 20’s. I was invited by my friends in university to explore the question.

Now in my 60’s, having lived 40 years with the answer “Jesus is my Saviour and Lord”, I ask a different question—“Lord, what’s happening in your kingdom today?” And, “what are we – you and me – up to today?” Wherever you are in your life journey, it will be valuable to look – for the first time, or again, at the seven faces of Jesus.

September is ―Unique Lives and Experiences of God
month at Cap. Drawing from the book of Genesis, we
will be reflecting on the life of Abraham, our father in
faith, and how he encountered God. We will also listen
to the life experiences of people from our own community,
hearing how God has been at work in their lives,
in both hidden and compelling ways. This morning,
as we consider the unthinkable choice God called Abraham
to make, we are fortunate to have James and Barbara Atkins
share their remarkable life story with us.

Text this morning: Gen 22:1-19 (Kim Pierrot)
“By examining as closely and as candidly as I could the
life that had come to seem to me in many ways a kind
of trap or dead-end street, I discovered that it really
wasn’t that at all…there is no event so commonplace
but that God is present within it always hiddenly,
always leaving you room to recognize him or not to
recognize him, but all the more fascinating because of
that, all the more compellingly and hauntingly.”
-Frederick Buechner, Now and Then

UNIQUE LIVES AND EXPERIENCES OF GOD:
GOD’S PROMISE (AND THE DELAY IN ITS
FULFILLMENT)
September is “Unique Lives and Experiences of God”
month at Cap. Drawing from the book of Genesis, we
will be reflecting on the life of Abraham, our father in
faith, and how he encountered God. We will also listen
to the life experiences of people from our own
community, hearing how God has been at work in their
lives, in both hidden and compelling ways.
This morning, we consider how God’s promises and His
delay in fulfilling those promises form a part of our
lives. We are fortunate to have Anita Wenman–gifted
worship leader, faithful friend and follower of Jesus–
sharing her story with us today.

Text is from Genesis 15 (Kim Pierrot)
“By examining as closely and as candidly as I could the
life that had come to seem to me in many ways a kind
of trap or dead-end street, I discovered that it really
wasn’t that at all…there is no event so commonplace
but that God is present within it always hiddenly,
always leaving you room to recognize him or not to
recognize him, but all the more fascinating because of
that, all the more compellingly and hauntingly.”
Frederick Buechner – “Now and Then”

UNIQUE LIVES AND EXPERIENCES OF GOD:
THE CALL September is “Unique Lives and
Experiences of God” month at Cap. Drawing from the
book of Genesis, we will be reflecting on the life of
Abraham, our father in faith, and how he encountered
God. We will also listen to the life experiences of
people from our own community, hearing how God has
been at work in their lives, in both hidden and
compelling ways.
This morning, we are privileged to have Jacob Penner,
our beloved elder emeritus, share parts of his life story
with us. His 90+ years of life have taught him a great
deal about courage, personal sacrifice, loving well, and
the faithfulness of God.
Text is from Genesis 11:27-12:9 (Kim Pierrot)
“By examining as closely and as candidly as I could the
life that had come to seem to me in many ways a kind
of trap or dead-end street, I discovered that it really
wasn’t that at all…there is no event so commonplace
but that God is present within it always hiddenly,
always leaving you room to recognize him or not to
recognize him, but all the more fascinating because of
that, all the more compellingly and hauntingly.”
Frederick Buechner, Now and Then

Today we are continuing with our study of the Mystery of
Christ from Colossians chapter 2: Here is the larger context for
the passage today from the Message:

You received Christ Jesus, the Master; now live him. You’re
deeply rooted in him…. You know your way around the faith.
Now do what you’ve been taught. School’s out; quit studying the
subject and start living it!

BASIC SPIRITUALITY – ‘Becoming a Wounded Healer’

This is the final topic in our ―Basic Spirituality
series. Basic Spirituality is about ―soul-life. At the
beginning of this series I contrasted Basic Spirituality with
Basic Christianity. Basic Christianity is about understanding
faith in Christ. Basic Spirituality is about living with Christ.
We believe that basic spirituality or soul life expresses
itself in at least three vivacities: Solitude, community,
and ministry. Becoming a wounded healer is about
ministry—giving away the life God has given to you so that
others may live.

The phrase ―wounded healer was used by Henri Nouwen
in the title of his book on ministry. He took the phrase
from the ancient Greek legend of Asclepius, a physician
who in identification of his own wounds creates a
sanctuary at Epidaurus in order to treat others.

In 2 Corinthians Paul writes: Praise be to the God and
Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion
and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our
troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with
the comfort we ourselves receive from God.
For just as we share abundantly in the sufferings of Christ, so also
our comfort abounds through Christ.
If we are distressed, it is for your comfort and salvation; if we are
comforted, it is for your comfort, which produces in you
patient endurance of the same sufferings we suffer.

This is wounded healing. This is our topic today.

BASIC SPIRITUALITY – ‘With God in Our Skin’
Text: Psalm 139

“Here we sit, with our soul tucked away in
this marvelous luggage, mostly insensible to
the ways in which every spiritual practice
begins with the body.” Barbara Brown
Taylor, An Altar in the World
This morning, in our 4th installment of our
series on “Basic Spirituality”, we reflect on
the most beloved of Psalms, Psalm 139,
which is attributed to King David.
Shelley MacDonald-Lin will consider what it
means for each of us to be “fearfully and
wonderfully made” by a loving, ever-present
God who knows each of us intimately.

BASIC SPIRITUALITY – Transformation 101
This morning Andrea Smith continues our series on ‘Basic
Spirituality‘. Mike Nichols introduced our series with the
following thoughts a couple of weeks ago:
Barbara Brown Taylor writes in her book, An Altar in the
World “Human beings may separate things into as many
piles as we wish— separating spirit from flesh, sacred
from secular, church from world. But we should not be
surprised when God does not recognize the distinctions we
make between the two. Earth is so thick with divine
possibility that it is a wonder we can walk anywhere
without cracking our shins on altars.” Get it? Stated in the
positive, God is everywhere and it is impossible not to
bump into him. A person aware of this is someone I would
describe as ―awake to God‖ rather than ―asleep to God‖.
At this stage of my life I have different questions about
life with God—questions that I wish I had asked at the
beginning. For example, I began my Christian life from the
viewpoint of accomplishing something—so the question
was, How do I find God? Now I believe a better question is
How do I to let myself be found by God? or Who am I to
God? This sermon series on Basic Spirituality will ask the
better questions with the hopes that we will bump into
God everywhere we turn.

BASIC SPIRITUALITY – Transformation 101
This morning Andrea Smith continues our series on ‘Basic
Spirituality‘. Mike Nichols introduced our series with the
following thoughts a couple of weeks ago:
Barbara Brown Taylor writes in her book, An Altar in the
World “Human beings may separate things into as many
piles as we wish— separating spirit from flesh, sacred
from secular, church from world. But we should not be
surprised when God does not recognize the distinctions we
make between the two. Earth is so thick with divine
possibility that it is a wonder we can walk anywhere
without cracking our shins on altars.” Get it? Stated in the
positive, God is everywhere and it is impossible not to
bump into him. A person aware of this is someone I would
describe as ―awake to God‖ rather than ―asleep to God‖.
At this stage of my life I have different questions about
life with God—questions that I wish I had asked at the
beginning. For example, I began my Christian life from the
viewpoint of accomplishing something—so the question
was, How do I find God? Now I believe a better question is
How do I to let myself be found by God? or Who am I to
God? This sermon series on Basic Spirituality will ask the
better questions with the hopes that we will bump into
God everywhere we turn.

BASIC SPIRITUALITY – Attending to God’s Voice
The series we are currently in is called “Basic Spirituality”.
Another title for the same thing would be “soul-life”. Like
your body, your soul has “life” which needs nurture to
grow and give satisfaction to the rest of your being. Basic
Spirituality is about soul life. Last week I contrasted Basic
Spirituality with Basic Christianity. Basic Christianity is
about understanding faith in Christ. This too is important
and in other sermon series we‟ve addressed these basics.
Cap‟s Alpha course does an exceptional job at addressing
the relational realities and beliefs of the gospel of Christ
we embrace. My hope in this series is to build on the
foundation of faith and understanding you already have
and lead you into “soul life”.

BASIC SPIRITUALITY – Waking Up to God
Barbara Brown Taylor writes in her book, An Altar in the World
“Human beings may separate things into as many piles as
we wish— separating spirit from flesh, sacred from
secular, church from world. But we should not be
surprised when God does not recognize the distinctions we
make between the two. Earth is so thick with divine
possibility that it is a wonder we can walk anywhere
without cracking our shins on altars.” Get it? Stated in the
positive, God is everywhere and it is impossible not to
bump into him. A person aware of this is someone I would
describe as ―awake to God‖ rather than ―asleep to God‖.
When I first became a Christian I was given a book to read
called Basic Christianity by John Stott. It was an important
book for me. It has become a classic introduction to
understanding what Christianity is all about. I wish I had
also been given a book entitled Basic Spirituality on what
living with God is all about. At this stage of my life I have
different questions about life with God—questions that I
wish I had asked at the beginning. For example, I began my
Christian life from the viewpoint of accomplishing
something—so the question was, How do I find God? Now I
believe a better question is How do I to let myself be
found by God? or Who am I to God? This sermon series on
Basic Spirituality will ask the better questions with the
hopes that we will bump into God everywhere we turn.
Today: Waking Up to God.

JUSTICE SUNDAY

Today is Cap’s annual Justice Sunday where we focus on Standing with the Oppressed to Face Injustices. For 2011 The Cap Justice Hub has focused on two issues: human trafficking and Cap’s Justice Discovery
trip/mission to Gitsegukla that you will hear about this morning. Cap’s own Natalie Siewert works with Servants Anonymous whose mission is to get young girls off the street. Cap’s own Barb Atkins advocates for women on Vancouver’s downtown east side as the director of women’s ministries at Union Gospel Mission. All these people and ministries are worthy of our support.

In preparation for justice Sunday I reread the call to do Justice given by Amos to Israel and their love of form over substance. These are remarkable words—and in the Message translation/paraphrase they have both a ring and a sting to them for today’s church.
Amos 5:21-24 in the Message: “I can’t stand your religious meetings. I’m fed up with your conferences and conventions. I want nothing to do with your religion projects, your pretentious slogans and goals. I’m sick of your fund-raising schemes, your public relations and image making. I’ve had all I can take of your noisy ego-music. When was the last time you sang to me? Do you know what I want? I want justice—oceans of it. I want fairness—rivers of it. That’s what I want. That’s all I want.

JUSTICE SUNDAY
Last week we talked about running from God. Jonah made his decision to run from God out of anger that God would even consider revealing himself to the Ninevites; out of discouragement that he was being asked to give up a prejudice against his enemies, and out of mourning over the loss of his neighbours and homeland at the hand of the Assyrians. In worship Kim asked us in the style of a twelve-step meeting if we identified with Jonah to say ―I’m like Jonah because… How did you answer that question? I found myself like Jonah wanting to make sure that God’s mercy did not come to those I consider unworthy. The book of Jonah starts and ends with questions. One of the questions at the beginning is, “What have you done?” (The sailors knew Jonah was running away from the LORD, because he had already told them so.) I think this is a prophetic question—―what have you done?‖ when you try to alter the mercy of God. In many ways Jonah’s story is the story of ancient Israel and the modern church—we try to keep the unworthy away from God. One test of how we measure up to Jonah is to ask what we think of when we think of God being angry. Who is God most likely to be angry at – terrible sinners out there in the world? Maybe. But the book of Jonah is not alone in encouraging us not to be so sure.

JONAH REVISITED: HOW TO RUN FROM GOD
I have to say from the outset of this two week series on Jonah Revisited, that there are some things I really like about Jonah. Yes he is set up as a negative example. Yet I find a perverse comfort in the portrayal of Jonah as a reluctant, withdrawn and stubborn type who doesn’t get outside his box much. I identify with that. Jonah was never quite ready to go to Nineveh. By contrast people all over the Bible are getting up and going— in the OT Abraham and Sarah move out on a promise. Moses heads for Egypt with nothing but a shepherd’s crook and Aaron to write his sermons. Elijah stands defiant, facing four hundred and fifty Baal prophets but not Jonah. In the NT Fishermen are dropping their nets, tax collectors are forgetting about credit and debit; others are leaving their parents behind; Paul changes his whole way of thinking and acting because of meeting Jesus and then travels the Mediterranean witnessing about Christ—but not Jonah. Jonah stands on the dock with tickets for Tarshish—he is resisting God’s call—and he has his reasons. Even after the Nineveh experience Jonah is still stubborn—Jonah’s redemptive life is admittedly moving slowly—and I identify with that. There is a lot to learn or relearn here.

MISSIONS SUNDAY
We welcome Marnie Mitchell to share from Jeremiah 1 on the theme of “Watching and Waiting” and what it is to be First Nations, Christian, Canadian, and thoughtful. Marnie will speak to us as a Cowichan who grew up on and off of reserve, and who feels like she doesn’t belong to either. But she knows where she does belong: as a daughter of the King, a wife of a good man, and a mom to two amazing daughters, all of whom have taught her a lot about patience, faithfulness, and grace. Her passion is to see how God will unfold restoration among her First Nation’s people.

Marnie and her husband Peter have worked with The Salvation Army for the past
twelve years focusing on inclusion or what Marnie calls “a ministry of Others.”

WELCOME BACK !!!
Our Bufukhula team has returned home from their trip to Uganda. Welcome home Linda Byrnes, Ross McKenzie, Mike Nichols, Andrea Smith, Christy Adams, Greg Howard, Michaela Jamieson, Linda Willey & Helen Wall. Mike Nichols will bring us the message today, and we will hear from some of the other team members as they reflect on their experience. We are thankful to this exceptional group for representing us in our partnership with the people and community of Bufukhula.

EXPECTING
This has been such a rich ―History Month here at CapChurch! Two weeks ago, Sarah Williams began a series of three devotional reflections on history. Using Hebrews 11 as a foundational text, we have talked about―remembering as a basis for identity in the community of faith, and at how ―listening to the past reshapes our experience in the present. Today, on Sarah’s final Sunday with us, she will consider what it means to allow our shared history to fuel our ―expecting of what God will do in the future.

Last week we embarked together on the first of three devotional reflections on history. Using Hebrews 11 as a
foundational text we talked about the importance of remembering as a basis for identity in the community of
faith. This morning we will return to Hebrews and look at how our understanding of the present can be reshaped as we learn to listen the past and to anticipate the future.

This morning we are pleased to welcome Sarah Williams to preach at CapChurch. Sarah and her husband Paul joined the Regent College faculty in 2005, where she is a professor in Church History. A specialist in the field of nineteenthand twentieth-century social and cultural history, she is especially interested in the relationship
between religion and culture. We look forward to having her with us for the next three Sundays as she brings together both her love of God’s Word and of church history.

The novelist, Frederick Buechner, once wondered what would happen if God, instead of depending upon
our faith, decided to give us a proof–something scientific, something tangible, that would be beyond
the shadow of a doubt. “Suppose that God were to take the great, dim river of the Milky Way, brighten it
up a little and then rearrange it so that… written out in letters light years tall … I REALLY EXIST. Buechner
thinks the reaction would be dramatic–for a little while –until “I REALLY EXIST,” became a normal part of
nature. Our deepest need according to Buechner is not proof that there is a God somewhere who exists or
evidence that a resurrection happened some time ago in history, but a God who is right here, knee-deep in
the mud and mire of human existence. We need a risen Christ who comes to us every day to give life and
hope. That is a God who comes not in evidence but in the relationship of trust we call faith. God cannot be
seen when we draw a line in the sand and say, “Give me proof or I don’t step over the line.” God is
experienced by those who step over the line in trust. When we do, our eyes are opened; we encounter
Christ and the power of his presence. This is the risen Christ we worship today.

This morning, as a culmination of our Lenten series, we look at Jesus, who lived the quintessential ―good
life before God, a life of continually remembering who his Father was, a life of both loving God, and keeping the law. But Jesus is more than a good role model to us. Today, on Palm Sunday, we reflect on the notion that Jesus fulfills the very heart of the law not simply through His living, but through His dying for us.

Phil 2:5-11

If, as Mike preached several weeks ago, we follow Christ for more reasons than simply the promise of the afterlife, then how are we to live this life? How do we connect what we believe and how we live out our Christian faith that goes beyond “do’s” and “don’ts”? This Lenten season we will turn to the book of Deuteronomy, what some call the “heartbeat of the Old Testament”, to begin to answer this practical question as to what it means to live the “good life” that God intends for us.

Deuteronomy 14:22 – 28
Deuteronomy 15: 1 – 11
Deuteronomy 26: 1 – 11

How we find out who we really are when God chooses us – from Deuteronomy 7:7-9

If, as Mike preached several weeks ago, we follow Christ for more reasons than simply the promise of the afterlife, then how are we to live this life? How do we connect what we believe and how we live out our Christian faith that goes beyond “dos” and “don’ts”? This Lenten season we will turn to the book of Deuteronomy, what some call the “heartbeat of the Old Testament”, to begin to answer this practical question as to what it means to live the “good life” that God intends for us.

If, as Mike preached several weeks ago, we follow Christ for more reasons than simply the promise of the afterlife, then how are we to live this life? How do we connect what we believe and how we live out our Christian faith that goes beyond the “dos” and “don’ts”?This Lenten season we will turn to the book of Deuteronomy, what some call the “heartbeat of the Old Testament”, to begin to answer this practical question as to what it means to live the “good life” that God intends for us.

If, as Mike preached several weeks ago,
we follow Christ for more reasons than
simply the promise of the afterlife, then
how are we to live this life? How do we
connect what we believe and how we live
out our Christian faith that goes beyond
“dos” and “don’ts”? This Lenten season
we will turn to the book of Deuteronomy,
what some call the “heartbeat of the Old
Testament”, to begin to answer this
practical question as to what it means to
live the “good life” that God intends for