Sunday June 4 2017: Pastor Henk Bruinsma will be preaching
Prayer
“Teach us to pray.” This is one of the few times, if not the only time the disciples directly ask Jesus to do something for them.
It was a number of weeks ago now, when I heard a sermon on those lines. The preacher imagined what the disciples might have seen when they saw Jesus praying. The disciples must have seen heart felt love and that Jesus gave and received from his Father. The disciples must have seen the deep compassion as Jesus prayed for the needs that he encountered. The disciples must have seen his face light up with thanksgiving as loaves and fishes multiplied before the eyes of the 5000. The disciples must have seen the bitter anguish as Jesus wrestled with his future and pleaded, “not my will, but thine.”
The preacher, whose name I cannot recall, said, When the disciples saw Jesus pray, they must have thought, I want to pray like that! Teach me to pray. And with those simple words Our Father in Heaven, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come… Jesus taught them and teaches us to pray.
And some of us learn the lesson better than others. Through this, God gives the rest of us leaders and teachers who teach us to pray merely because they are following closely the greatest Prayer Teacher there ever was.
Two weeks ago, I had the opportunity to go home and to preach at my home church. The pastor, who has been there since before my family began attending was gracious enough to share the pulpit with me. He lead the service, and I preached the sermon.
He was praying for the needs of the world and the needs of the congregation and I was listening. I began to think, “hey! he says what I say!”or more profoundly, I say in my congregational prayers what my home church pastor says.
Rev. Jim Settles taught me to pray.
He never sat me down and said, “Now when you become a preacher, this is how you pray.” He never said in passing, “How do you pray for your flock? Let me tell you what I say.”
No, Pastor Settles just prayed, he prayed humbly and consistently, he prayed reverently with a deep faith that God would move mountains if God saw fit. He prays out of the deep conviction that we are God’s children and that God hears us because God loves us. He prays with those who come forward to pray and he prays with the whole congregation and there is no doubt that he prays alone, in the upper room where his Father can hear him.
And without knowing it, I learned from him how to pray. Thank you Pastor Settles for being faithful.
-Nate
To Follow the Crowd
Yesterday the sermon was on Luke 4, where Jesus offends a fawning hometown crowd by highlighting Elijah’s visit to the widow at Zarephath and Elisha’s healing of Naaman the Syrian. In the sermon, which can be found elsewhere on this website, we looked to see if we would find our own reflection in that hometown crowd. Do we also wish that Jesus would do for us what he did in Capernaum?
And more importantly, what is behind that wish? Surely there is nothing wrong with desiring a miracle. But miracles are signs, so what kind of sign is behind such a wish? A sign that points toward me or a sign the points toward God?
Given Jesus’ strong reaction, it is clear that the signs the hometown was looking for were signs that pointed toward them rather than toward God. The miracle in Nazareth would put Nazareth on the map. The miracle in Nazareth would have made us proud that Jesus was one of us. The miracle in Nazareth would have reduced Jesus to another exhibit in the Nazareth talent show. Someone to be proud of, but not followed. Come to Nazareth home of Jesus the Healer!
Jesus doesn’t want to be a part of the local advertising campaign. Yet, he does offer them a miracle; a rather odd miracle. He parts the crowd that is trying to throw him over the cliff and goes on his way. The mission of Jesus to find more widows at Zarephath and more Naamans who need a dunk in muddy Jordan, will not be hindered by a hometown crowd’s desire to pat their own backs.
Jesus shows that Nazareth crowd both then and today, that his miracles are signs of the kingdom, a kingdom that can’t be patented or trademarked, a kingdom that is not always invited and may not stay invited for long, but comes anyway. Jesus sets his own agenda, and goes on his way. Perhaps some in Nazareth followed him, tired as he was with the shameless self promotion all around. The Gospel writer Luke invites us to follow Jesus, for Jesus shows the way out of the region of self-centered, self promotion and leads the way into the dark world he came to save.
There is another sermon in this text, that tackles these themes from another angle. Rather than preach it, I thought I would outline it here. The beginning of Luke 4 is the famous story of the three temptations of Christ. There is the temptation to turn the stones into bread, the temptation to worship the Devil, and the temptation to ‘throw yourself down’ in some spectacular way. Jesus, like the blessed one in Psalm 1, defines himself in response to these three temptations as the one who does not.
Jesus does not live on bread alone, but on the Word of God. Jesus does not worship anything, but God alone. Jesus does not put the Lord God to the test.
As we continue reading in Luke 4, we can see again the pattern of temptation and Jesus stating that he does not. This time the source of temptation is not the devil, but the crowd. And this time, like so often happens in our lives, the temptations are not divided into neat little categories with clear little responses. The temptations come rather in a storm of activity and flattery.
All the temptations are there though. There were sick and dying in Nazareth, so the temptation to turn stones into bread was clearly there. The crowd’s praise and amazement surely offered a temptation to appease and render service to its desires. So the temptation to worship the Crowd, not God was present in Nazareth too. Finally, they wanted Jesus to do for them what they had heard he did in Capernaum. The final temptation to test God, to do something marvelous for its own sake, was there too.
As Jesus responded to the devil, so Jesus responds to the crowd. He quotes not one passage but three. The passage from Isaiah explaining who he is, and two passages from Kings explaining what prophets like him could be expected to do. Then Jesus does not and goes on his way.
From this perspective, we see Jesus tempted in every way that we are, yet with out sin. We see Jesus showing again that temptation is resisted by the power of God’s word and that the blessed one does not. And like Joseph fleeing the clutches of Potifer’s wife, Jesus leaves Nazareth, preferring his mission over the tiresome temptations of the crowd.
The place you find yourself on your walk with Jesus will probably determine which of these two perspectives meets you more where you are at. Some will relate to that crowd, longing for Jesus to do what I want! Some will relate to the tempted Jesus, trying to resist the urge to give in to what everyone else wants. Both can learn from the blessed way of Jesus who does not. Disciples do not demand what “I want” in prayer, they trust that their Father knows what they need and they let Jesus teach them to pray. Disciples do not give in to the demands of crowd but follow Jesus on his way.
(The image is of the CRC Synod 2014)
Being One Body
Being One Body is the summer youth project hosted by Maranatha.
Dates: July 2nd to 7th , 2013
Theme: “A spring welling up to eternal life” Our lives are like buckets that can be filled with good things or with bad things. Sometimes, our buckets are empty, sometimes they are drained out. However, the living water of Jesus is like a spring that wells up in our buckets, causing them to overflow and assuring us of eternal life.
Opportunity: This will be an opportunity for youth from various communities to come together to establish bonds of friendship, grow in Christian faith and gain an understanding of their involvement and or role in church and community.
We are excited to partner with Pastor Steve Frieswick.
Our projects will include: Interior painting of apartments and houses. Volunteer work for a Women’s Shelter. Volunteer work for a local food bank. Cross cultural engagement with the local Muslim community. And more!
Speaker: Donna Kramer, from Winnipeg.
Band: Happy the Dog
Stay tuned for more updates.