Outsiders and insiders: Ever feel like an outsider? Not a nice feeling to be pushed out or kept out of somewhere you want to be. If you can relate to that, then you are well set to understand one of Jesus’ parables of judgment on those who make people outsiders. This is not only personally relevant but has big implications for the church in our day. The biggest question facing the church in the post modern world is the question of inclusion and exclusion—who is in God’s kingdom and who is outside. Today I’m not going to tell you what to believe, but help you figure out how to think biblically on an issue like this.

The parable for today which concludes our series on Outrageous Grace is from Matthew 22:1-14 known as the parable of the Wedding Banquet. My title is “Count Yourself In!” (Mike Nichols)

Linda Del Fabro-Smith speaks to us about the Parable of the Temple Tax.

MATTHEW 17:24-27 24When they arrived at Capernaum, the tax men came to Peter and asked, “Does your teacher pay taxes?”
25Peter said, “Of course.”
But as soon as they were in the house, Jesus confronted him. “Simon, what do you think? When a king levies taxes, who pays—his children or his subjects?”
26-27He answered, “His subjects.”
Jesus said, “Then the children get off free, right? But so we don’t upset them needlessly, go down to the lake, cast a hook, and pull in the first fish that bites. Open its mouth and you’ll find a coin. Take it and give it to the tax men. It will be enough for both of us.”

When we read the Bible it’s best to read a full chapter as a whole – rather than pulling out one verse or section to study. By reading the chapter as a whole we can see repeated concepts and themes which lead us to the main truths of the passage. Matthew 20 is a look at the hierarchy of God’s Kingdom. Matthew 20 contains a parable about workers in a vineyard (and their desire for fair hierarchy), prediction of Jesus’ crucifixion, a mother’s fight for her two sons to get some glory, and the fight of two blind men seeking sight. The repeated refrain of THE FIRST SHALL BE LAST is explicitly stated and highlighted in parable and interaction with the disciples. What does this mean? Why does God think the first shall be last and the last first is a good idea?

(Robbie & Jenn Ohlhauser)

The parable of the tenants is a wonderful example of what happens when Jesus encounters the religious leaders of his day. They have already questioned Jesus’ authority, and in this parable it’s his turn to question their use of authority and power. At the end of the parable, Jesus talks about the Kingdom of God being taken away from these leaders. He wraps it up by talking about the choice between being ‘broken’ or being ‘crushed’. Yet, in the midst of his judgment (and theirs) there is a message of grace.

What does it mean to be a good tenant, and what makes a bad one?

The parable of the Good Samaritan is one of those jewels in the Bible that has all the features of a satisfying B movie. It’s got a victim, some villains, a crime, some more villains, a hero and a happy ending. But who would think that such a simple tale would shake the cultural status quo to its bones when Jesus told it to a young Pharisee? That this story of kindness shown by a stranger would be so controversial – then and now?

Today we’ll examine how the parable expresses something profound and outrageous about the Kingdom of God and how we are invited to participate in loving without limits.

I am shaking with nervous excitement as I write out how this parable has changed my heart and mind. God led me towards an honest examination of how Christ speaks in this parable. It has been deeply helpful for moving forward in my own story.

Honestly, I have been sitting around waiting for God to give me that moment of “inspiration”. When it came, I wanted to wait around and believe that I should pray more about it or decipher the code and disbelieve that it was the Holy Spirit. But, it was simpler than I expected. For me, this story relates to me working towards my Master’s degree. For a long time I have hesitated from moving forward with this Master’s because I don’t honestly want to do the work. I put on a very excited face and charm when people ask me about doing my Master’s but afterwards I feel far from integrity, closer to pride, and scared that I won’t find a ‘home’. Yet, I have looked at this situation very practically; I have an opportunity to “use” my parent’s money in order to fit into a culture that will see me differently after I have my Master’s. I believe that while this step still makes me cringe, I am going risk being shrewd in order to live a radical future in the work of God’s kingdom.

We as people and a community are constantly being pulled into the purposes of God, in spite of our lost-ness.

(The parable for today is Luke 16: 1-9) (Luke Wilson)

This morning we talk of money. It would be better if you left your wallets and purses at home. You might be caught up in a wind of frivolous generosity! Watch out!
Plus! We host a debate between Scott Campbell (advocating for a Christian community where the rich care for the poor) and Dave Strilchuk (advocating for affluence without avarice, generosity with personal responsibility) — at least that is how I summarize it.

Think of these thoughts from the Bible scholar, William Barclay: “Money in itself is neither good nor bad; it is simply dangerous in that the love of it may become bad. With money a man can do much good; and with money he can do much evil. With money a man can selfishly serve his own desires; and with money he can generously answer to the cry of his neighbour’s need. With money a man can buy his way to the forbidden things and facilitate the path of wrongdoing; and with money he can make it easier for someone else to live as God meant him to live. Money brings power, and power is always a double edged thing, for it is powerful to good and powerful to evil.” (Paddy Ducklow)

Theologian Miroslav Volf once wrote, “There is a profound ‘injustice’ about the God of the biblical traditions. It is called grace.” Today we will be encountering a parable that is often considered a parable of judgment—a parable that deals with the execution of justice. But is there room within grace for judgment? And should there be? Why does Jesus tell this parable to his disciples, and what are we to take from it? How does this parable confront us with the mystery of the Kingdom of God? Is grace simply the bait used by God in a cosmic bait-and-switch strategy, or is judgment an integral part of His plans to embrace, bless, and empower? We will explore these and other questions together as we look at the parable of the entrusted treasure, often called the parable of the talents, in Matthew 25:14-30.

This week, Kim continues our series on Outrageous Grace, speaking about the parables of the Lost Sheep and the Prodigal Son.

Having to explain the punchline of a joke is a little like trying to preach on a New Testament parable. Jesus’ words had immediacy and a simplicity that is easily lost on us today. Jesus took everyday things and characters from his world, and told stories about them to confront his listeners with truths about the Kingdom of God. If a preacher explains and dissects too much, the power and provocation inherent in Jesus’ parables gets lost. So, as we begin our summer series on the parables of Jesus, our plan is to tell them as simply as possible, and then wonder about them together as a community, listening to what God might provoke and stir up in us as we listen to His word and to each other.

Our good friend and Regent College scholar, Dr. Iain Provan, concludes our series on the importance of the Old Testament for Christ-following, church-going types this morning. For those of us who mostly “just read the red” (e.g., the words of Jesus), this should be an interesting and confronting discussion.
Iain’s theme for this morning: We can’t have a smaller Bible because we need our larger Bible to help us to love our neighbor.

Our good friend and Regent College scholar, Dr. Iain Provan, will be speaking for 3 June Sundays on the importance of the Old Testament for Christ-following, church-going types. For those of us who mostly “just read the red” (e.g., the words of Jesus), this should be an interesting and confronting discussion.
Iain’s theme for this morning: We can’t have a smaller Bible because we need our larger Bible to help us to love God. Click here to read the materials that supplement Iain’s sermon.

Our good friend and Regent College scholar, Dr. Iain Provan, will be speaking for 3 June Sundays on the importance of the Old Testament for Christ-following, church-going types. For those of us who mostly “just read the red” (e.g., the words of Jesus), this should be an interesting and confronting discussion.
Iain’s theme for this morning: We can’t have a smaller Bible because Jesus gave us a large one–a Bible exactly the right size for our needs. Click here to read the materials that supplement Iain’s sermon.

Today, we tackle what some might consider the toughest verse in all of the Lord’s Prayer: “Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil”. Do we really need to ask God not to tempt us? And what does it look like to be “delivered” from evil? To begin to answer these questions, we will turn to the gospel of Matthew and consider Jesus’ own experiences of temptation and deliverance.

As we continue in The Lord’s Prayer, we now get even more personal to consider the issue of forgiveness. Frankly, we need to be forgiven and to forgive as much as we need daily necessities like bread. This morning, our own Tyler Milley will talk to us about our ability to forgive others which comes as a response to our being forgiven. Stanley Hauerwas writes: [Forgiveness] is not so much an act of generosity toward our fellow offending human beings as an act of gratitude toward our forgiving God.”

“Give us today our daily bread”. Here’s where things start to get a bit personal, maybe even a little uncomfortable. If we didn’t see it before, here’s where we realize that praying the words Jesus gave us has relational, political and economic implications. As we truly consider the idea of receiving daily bread from God as a community, we begin to ask questions like: “What about people on the Downtown eastside?” and “Should we purchase RRSPs and life insurance or not?” There are no easy answers, and no “official CapChurch stance” on these issues. But I am delighted that we can talk freely as we gather, ask honest questions, and come to answers (even different ones) together. (Kim Pierrot)

After 5 years of visits to Bufukhula the Missions Team thought it would be a good time to review how we got here, what has happened and where we might go with this relationship.

A few weeks ago, Mark Wollenberg spoke to us about justice and began his comments with this statement, “The journey toward ‘justice’ begins by seeing the world beyond your own life experience.” This statement is just as credible if we insert the word “mission”. After hearing Mark speak and thinking about today’s topic, it seems that these two topics may run closer together than originally imagined.

If we consider the scriptures from 2Cor 5:17-21 we can see how various people have been called as “ambassadors of reconciliation” between CapChurch and Africa. As a result of this adventure many more people from Cap have welcomed sponsor children into their families as Jesus talks about in Matt 18:1-5.
Now we wonder who is giving and who is receiving? Who is changing and who is being changed? (Paul Milley)

If you are interested in reading the article Paddy Ducklow referred to on Mission’s Sunday from MacLean’s magazine asking the question ‘Do atheists care less? -Those who attend religious services are more charitable and more eager to volunteer.’ please click here.

“Jesus did not come urging us to think about him or to feel deeply about him. When he called disciples, he did not come seeking our disembodied individual spirits. Jesus came inviting us to join up with his kingdom. When we see him healing people, casting out demons, we are to know that ‘the kingdom of God has come upon you’… In saying ‘Your kingdom come,’ we are acknowledging that faith in Jesus is not simply an idea or an emotion. It is a concrete reality of which we are to become part” (Stanley Hauerwas and William Willimon).

 With its radical request: “Your kingdom come,” the Lord’s Prayer has the ability to function as a sort of pledge of allegiance for us as Christians. But how do we pray it without slipping into an unthinking ritualism that avoids the tension and concrete reality it addresses? What kind of community do we need to be in order to pray the Lord’s Prayer with integrity?

I have prayed the “The Lord’s Prayer” for most of my life, and only recently have I realized how radical it is. I love what Frederick Buechner writes about it: “We do well not to pray this prayer lightly. It takes guts to pray it at all. We can pray it in the unthinking and perfunctory way we usually do only by disregarding what we are saying.” Anyone up for doing some gutsy praying?

At its heart, this prayer is a communal call for God the Father to make things right on earth, as in heaven. And as we heard from Mark Wollenberg last week, praying the way Jesus taught leads us towards participating in God’s ways of justice in this world. So, for the next 5 weeks, we ask: “Lord, teach us to pray” in the hopes that
Jesus will change both our community and the world in which we live as we learn and pray His prayer together. (Kim Pierrot)

Mark Wollenberg, the Regional Representative in Western Canada for the International Justice Mission, speaks this week to teach us the difference between compassionate ministry and justice ministry. Before coming to IJM Canada, Mark was a pastor for 25 years, leading established churches as well as developing four new church communities in Edmonton & Yellowknife. He most recently served as senior pastor of the North Langley Vineyard Church in Langley, BC. Mark and his wife Brenda were also members of the national leadership team for Vineyard Churches Canada. Mark has coached pastors and church planters in Canada and a number of countries in Asia, as well as being a key leader for various city-wide inter-church events. Mark passionately communicates a vision of every follower of Christ committed to living justly in their community, and joining with others to see the wrongs of injustice made right in international contexts. He wants to see people from all professions and stages of life engaged in seeing justice prevail wherever oppression and injustice currently thrive.

Ever heard someone ask…, “Show me how resurrection works. Give me a diagram; draw me a picture. What does this ‘resurrection body’ look like?” In 1 Cor. 15 the Bible has this response. “There are no diagrams for this kind of thing. We do have a parallel experience in gardening. You plant a “dead” seed; soon there is a flourishing plant. There is no visual likeness between seed and plant…. If all we get out of Christ is a little inspiration for a few short years, we’re a pretty sorry lot. But the truth is that Christ has been raised up, the first in a long legacy of those who are going to leave the cemeteries.”

One week a year (Easter) is hardly enough to celebrate the central reality of our Christian faith—he is risen—he is risen indeed! I don’t know what your experience was this Easter season, but several people commented that independent of worship services they experienced being filled with hope—yes hope—that the resurrection of Christ makes all the difference in living in a world with lots of “death”. Hope is a powerful thing—allows you to live life with purpose and expectation that the substantial and real faith values we live are in fact like seeds that will flourish.

The first half of Luke 24 does not portray Jesus’ disciples at their best. They are frightened, disbelieving and wondering. Even when they are presented with eyewitness testimony of what was (or wasn’t) found at the tomb, it all sounds to them like nonsense. News of the resurrection is not met with joy. At least, not at first. The idea of the bodily resurrection of their Master is just too ludicrous.

 Two thousand years later, are we that different from them? Resurrection is a lovely metaphor, but we remain frightened, disbelieving and wondering in the face of life’s challenges: a diagnosis of cancer, a struggling marriage, a battle with addiction. The idea of God resurrecting something out of that is just too ludicrous.

 And still, like Peter, we gather at the tomb. We have heard rumours of resurrection, and so we come to church on Easter Sunday, wondering. What if it is true? What if Jesus met us here and spoke words of life and truth? How would our lives change?

In the text for this week Jesus is described this way–Having loved his own who were in the world, he now showed them the full extent of his love. That is an amazing description. Whatever that means, I’d like to get in on the full extent of demonstrated love. It also raises a question for me: How do you show someone you love them completely? Along the road of life we all learn to substitute things for love. We learn to turn love into gestures. So, we substitute gifts for affection, jewelry for kindness manners for passion and so on. As we stumble along, we are all trying to figure out the movements of love. Is the full extent of demonstrated love simply the “As you wish” of the Princess Bride, or is there more? That’s what we are about on this Palm Sunday 2010.

Because of these words many permanently turned away from Jesus after initially being drawn to Him “for bread”. Peter wondered if there was any real alternative when he asked, “to whom shall we go?” What would cause you to turn away from Jesus? Hard sayings? Disappointment? Can’t see how faith works?

Today I ask you the question—where are you saying NO and where are you saying YES? Can you imagine saying NO to some good things to say YES to better things? And, to whom will you go, if not Jesus? Not the easiest of questions, but who wants to come to church to be bored?

What do snakes, poles, death, and a late night conversation with Jesus, have to do with life? That’s what we hope to make sense of today, the first Sunday of Lent. 

As we gather for worship today consider these scriptures:  Eph. 2:12: remember that at that time you were separate from Christ … without hope and without God in the world.” I Cor. 11 24-26:”This is my body, which is for you; do this in remembrance of me.” ²⁵In the same way, after supper he took the cup, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood; do this, whenever you drink it, in remembrance of me.” ²⁶For whenever you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.” Gal. 2:10 “All they asked was that we should continue to remember the poor, the very thing I was eager to do.” 2 Cor. 9:6 “Remember this: Whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows generously will also reap generously.”

Each week in response to the scripture you will have an opportunity to contribute to our worship in a variety of ways. So I encourage you to ask God prior to the Sundays of this month what He has for you to bring to our worship.

This series will include teaching and varied experiences to free us to bring all we are to God. Our prayer is that Cap will be reinvigorated in this time so that all of 2010 as a gathered community will be an experience of bowing down before our Lord and Maker and experiencing His care—for he is our God and we are His people.

Even as we are waiting for Jesus to be born in Bethlehem, and for Jesus to return to this earth a second time, we can meet Jesus in our everyday lives, knowing that He is indeed Emmanuel, “God with us” in the midst of our waiting.

Note: During this same service there was a special Prayer of Waiting and an advent benediction.

What does Glenn have to do with Hebrews 12—he well illustrates Hebrews 12:1-2:  Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us. Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfector of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.

I wanna talk about me
Wanna talk about I
Wanna talk about number one
Oh my me my
What I think, what I like, what I know, what I want, what I see
I like talking about you you you you, usually, but occasionally
I wanna talk about me

It sometimes feels like people believe that history began with their birth. It also seems that vision in politics, economics, and even faith often ends at the horizon. Sometimes it literally gets stuck on the horizon with no “big” perspective. If you can identify with that when it comes to faith, then Hebrews chapter 11 is a certain cure for such myopia.  Today we get to figure out what the life of faith is all about. (Mike Nichols)

How do we go about deciding who is the ‘greatest’ in our community? We don’t go around handing out stickers at church, but we aren’t that unlike the Wemmicks in the way that we are attracted to the smart, well-spoken people who smell good and have nice clothes. Are these the things God values too?

Bible passages like Luke 9:46-48 and the chapter on  Ministry  in Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s  Life Together remind us that whether “great” or “small”, we all have a place in God’s kingdom. And we all have something important to contribute to the community.

The American rock band Huey Lewis and the News had a run of hit singles during the 1980s and early 1990s, eventually scoring a total of 19 Top Ten singles across the Billboard Hot 100. Their worldwide fame expanded when the song The Power of Love was featured as a key track in the film Back to the Future, and became a number-one hit. Back in Time was also used in the movie. The News combined a rock (and sometimes, a “blues rock”) backing with soul and doo-wop-influenced harmony vocals and Lewis’s voice. Following the success of The Power of Love and Back to the Future, Huey Lewis and The News released Fore! in 1986. Fore! was the band’s second number-one album on the Billboard 200. The album had widespread success, spawning two number-one singles, Stuck with You and Jacob’s Ladder. All told, the album had five top-ten singles on the Billboard Hot 100 and was certified triple platinum.

Take the lyrics of Stuck with You and think about them in terms of community life—had some fun; some ups and downs, rocky roads, but still around; thought about moving on (breaking up), but in the end –happy to be stuck with you. Not bad practical theology I’d say. Doing Life Together is about all these things as both the Bible and our theologian of the month Dietrich Bonhoeffer tell us.

Disillusionment teaches me that neither of us can ever live by our own words and deeds, but only by that one Word and Deed which really binds us together—the forgiveness of sins in Jesus Christ.” Wow! How different it is to be in an authentic Christian community. This is what we explore for the next month

Have you ever yelled at God? Ever protested to the Almighty? King David did. David protested “the ungodly who prosper” –this reality was very “painful” for him (Psalm 73:12,16). Jesus also protested when he prayed, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” (Psalm 22:1; Matthew 27:46; Mark 15:34).

Psalm 94 is known in the Psalter as a “community lament”. One third of the psalms are laments, but Psalm 94 is more of a protest than a lament. The Psalmist is praying against exploitation, arrogance, and evil. I imagine that not lots of your prayer life is spent praying this way. Today we are going to learn from the psalmist how to pray when you are anger, fed-up, and irritated with the injustices all around.

“Psalm 88 is that member of the family nobody knows what to do with. He’s at all the family reunions, and his name comes up in all the jovial stories, but nobody wants to get caught alone with him in the living room. He’s awkward… irrational… strange. So he sits there and everyone goes outside and explains why he’s so strange and how he fits into the whole family dynamic. But nobody takes the time to really listen to the strangeness and let him explain himself, and maybe change how everyone else views the family.” (www.rustyparts.com)

By listening to the “strangeness” of this psalm, and by hearing from those in our midst who have spent time praying it, we will be better equipped to approach God when life doesn’t make sense or seem destined for the “happy ending”.

- it’s a Rich Mullins tune. He died in 1987 but leaves us a wonderful collection of worship tunes, I recommend them to you. So – what does Psalm 145, written by David, teach us about praising God? Quite a few things that I hope we’ll practice this morning and incorporate in to our weeks ahead. God is listening! God is speaking and moving. God is alive!

Today, we begin with Psalm 90, which reminds us how very big and strong our God is, and how very little and weak we are. It’s a sobering thought, to be sure, and puts us puny humans in our place. And yet, on the other hand, it reminds us of the startling privilege it is to be able to speak to this God at all, and even to expect a gracious answer.
Kim Pierrot

Here are a couple of examples. Women, low-income people, and people of color don’t speak up as much in meetings because they don’t think their contribution will be important or “correct”. Often participants from these groups may have insight into how to solve a problem, but they hold back from sharing it. Fearing that her children will not succeed in the mainstream culture, an immigrant mother is overly harsh in disciplining them so they will “fit in.”

Internalized oppression makes its biggest impression on children, because they don’t have any context for understanding the injustices of society. It is easy to personalize the negative messages that are coming at you if you don’t have a framework for understanding oppression.

How does one heal from oppression? That is our topic for today.

There is darkness when we lose our jobs, or a close friend, or our marriages fail. darkness surrounds us when we struggle with addictions, battle with cancer, flunk out of school, give up on family plans. darkness especially attack us when we get wrapped-up in ourselves, and allow hate and resentment to control our lives. But the gospel reminds us that Jesus is not afraid of these dark place. He comes to be with us in these places; to walk with us and redeem what “the locusts have eaten”. Life with Jesus is essentially a mix of our story with Jesus story.

Today Ralph Winter, accomplished movie producer, speaks to us about not being afraid of the “dark”, and how we need to embrace some of that in how we tell stories and discern stories as Christians.