CAPTIVATED BY GOD’S PASSION FOR JUSTICE

God has a passion for justice – of that there is no doubt. Isaiah (42:4) prophesies that “God will not falter or be discouraged until he establishes justice on earth.”

The word justice however has broad connotations. In our culture we have a good understanding of retributive justice – that punishes moral wrongdoings that are legally defined as crimes. So when a wrong has been committed like a theft or a murder, there is a collective sigh of relief when the perpetrator is brought to justice.

We also understand social justice – which has to do with the distribution of wealth and power. To “do justice” in this sense is to do such things as feed the hungry, clothe the naked and protect the powerless.
While both retributive and social justice are prominent themes throughout the scriptures, Biblical justice goes beyond these categorizations to offer a much broader and more holistic view of justice.

In Jesus’ visit to the Nazareth synagogue (Luke 4), a picture of justice comes into focus that brings these categories together. In Jesus concise yet profound address to these law-abiding Jews, he outlines his ministry agenda, making it clear that, what is good news for the poor may be bad news for the rich.

(Jamie Munday)

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)

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)

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)

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)

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)