Reading this quote from Dostoevsky’s House of the Dead novel reminded me of Stalin, Hitler, Mao and their totalitarian regimes that brought the enslavement and destruction of so many tens of millions. “Tyranny is a habit capable of being developed, and at last becomes a disease. I declare that the best man in the world can become hardened and brutified to such a point, that nothing will distinguish him from a wild beast. Blood and power intoxicate; they aid the development of callousness and debauchery; the mind then becomes capable of the most abnormal cruelty in the form of pleasure; the man and the citizen disappear forever in the tyrant; and then a return to human dignity, repentance, moral resurrection, becomes almost impossible. That the possibility of such license has a contagious effect on the whole of society there is no doubt. A society which looks upon such things with an indifferent eye, is already infected to the marrow.”
Fyodor Dostoyevsky. The House of the Dead; or, Prison Life in Siberia / with an introduction by Julius Bramont (Kindle Locations 3557-3562). Kindle Edition.
Do you have any blind spots? I do. Are there any areas where you are not self-aware? We can easily come to church with blind spots that we are not aware of. Blind spots can bring a business-as-usual attitude. Did you come with great expectations today for our healing service? Our expectations often shape what we receive. Pregnant mothers are often called expectant mothers. Why is that? People often say “don’t get your hopes up. You might be disappointed”. I want to challenge you today to get your hopes up. Hope is about expectation. Expectation in Latin is exspectare ‘look out for’, from ex- ‘out’.
Do you have expectant eyes today?
Alyosha the protagonist in Dostoevsky’s Brothers Karamazov, had ‘expectant eyes’. This initially annoyed his older worldly brother Ivan, but then he grew fond of Alyosha’s expectant eyes.
What expectations did you bring this morning? (Pause for the congregation who shared their expectations.)
Let me ask you a trick question. Is the Anglican Church Catholic or Protestant? The answer is yes. We are reformed catholics. All Saints Church as part of the Anglican Mission is a three-stream church, catholic, evangelical and charismatic. This means that we focus in Christ on sacrament, word, and Spirit. You may have heard that the word without the Spirit, you dry up. The Spirit without the Word you blow up. The Word, Spirit and Sacrament together, you grow up.
How many of you have a Bible that you read? How many of you have an Anglican Prayer Book? (Probably a lot less.) The good news is that today it is all online. I was raised in soft Anglocatholicism where very few of us had bibles at home. While being confirmed, I was taught about the Prayer Book catechism, but nothing about the Bible. Fortunately the Prayer book is 80% portions of the Bible. No one told me when I was young that the Anglican book of Common Prayer on p. 587 has a very powerful 11-page healing service with laying on of hands, healing prayers, reading of healing scriptures like James 5:14-16, confession and absolution, anointing with oil, and holy communion. It is the full deal approach to serious healing, yet sadly forgotten by most Anglican churches. Here is a sample prayer from the Anglican healing service: “Our Lord and Heavenly Father, who relieves those who suffer in soul and body: stretch forth thine hand, we beseech thee, to heal thy servant and to ease his pain; that by thy mercy he may be restored to health of body and mind, and show forth his thankfulness in love to thee and service to his fellow men and women; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.” One of the Anglican healing prayers specifically spoke about “preserving thee in all goodness”? How many of you in today’s healing service want to be preserved in all goodness? The Holy Spirit is God’s great healing preservative. Preservative, like the word conservative, both mean to keep safe from harm. That is what today’s healing service is all about. God today wants to conserve you and preserve you in body, mind and spirit. Healing is not just physical but involves the whole person.
How many of you know the medieval term for anointing with oil? Unction which is Latin for anointing. Sadly many people lost sight of its healing potential and just relegated it to be used as last rites in what became known as The sacrament of extreme unction. I have been amazed the number of times when I anoint people during last rites that they get better, instead of dying.
Unctuosus in Latin literally meant ‘greasy or oily’. Today at our three prayer stations, you can ask to be anointed with oil for healing.
I will never forget the healing mission that I went to with a blind Anglican healing evangelist who joking called himself Mr Magoo. Many were healed that weekend as he spoke movingly about the healing power of the Eucharist, of receiving Holy Communion. While I valued the Lord’s supper, I had never before fully appreciated it’s connection to the healing ministry. Yet the Anglican catechism that I had studied said clearly that the benefits of receiving communion are “the strengthening and refreshing of our souls and bodies unto eternal life by the Body and Blood of Christ.” How many of you want strengthening and refreshing today both physically and spiritually?
In the first Anglican Prayer book written by Archbishop Thomas Cranmer in 1549, people were given communion while saying these words “The body of our Lord Jesus Christ which was given for you, preserve thy body and soul unto everlasting life.” Many grumbled that this was too Catholic, so in the next Book of Common Prayer written by Archbishop Cranmer in 1552, it was dropped and replaced with the words “Take and eat this in remembrance that Christ died for you and feed on him in your hearts by faith with thanksgiving.” Sadly King Edward the sixth died, Bloody Mary kicked out the prayer book, and burnt 300 people at the stake including Archbishop Thomas Cranmer. He was so badly psychologically tortured that he signed a document renouncing the very prayer book that he had written. As he was being burnt alive, he took his right hand and stuck it in the flames, saying “with my right hand, I renounce my renunciation.” He died a martyr for the faith.
After Bloody Mary died from influenza in 1558, her half sister Queen Elizabeth took over, restoring the prayer book. This time, she used both phrases at communion, preserving both the Catholic objective side of communion and the Protestant subjective side of communion. Yes, it is the body of Christ spiritually. Yes, Jesus is really present in the Eucharist spiritually, but it must be received in your hearts by faith. Without a lively faith, as the 39 articles puts it, you are merely chewing on bread, as Saint Augustine put it ‘carnally and visibly press with their teeth’.
When you receive communion by faith, it is medicine to our body and soul.
In the old days, you could not receive communion in an Anglican Church without being confirmed. I got confirmed to make my mother happy. After being confirmed, I had great expectations for my first communion, but never realized that it was medicine. I was greatly disappointed. There was nothing wrong with the body and blood. But I didn’t receive it in my heart with thanksgiving. I believed in Jesus in my head, but had never received Jesus in my heart by faith with thanksgiving. After I received Jesus in 1972 during the Jesus movement, I went back to my local Anglican Church, and noticed that communion had improved. I added subjective faith to the objective sacrament. Seven years later, I received the gift of tongues, and remarkably communion improved again. I have noticed since that every time I forgive others, every time I apologize to my wife, every time I choose to be generous, every time I surrender my will, communion improves. The problem is not with the sacrament. The problem is my hard heart. How’s your heart today? Does it need to soften at all? Would you like communion to improve for you today?
In Vs 22 & 23, we are told that “They came to Bethsaida, and some people brought a blind man and begged Jesus to touch him. He took the blind man by the hand and led him outside the village”
Jesus will sometimes use privacy to protect us from other’s manipulation and negativity.
Vs 23b tells us that Jesus spit on the man’s eyes and put his hands on him.
Spitting is very incarnational. In other places, he used mud with spit. Jesus like matter. It is not a coincidence that he called communion his flesh and blood. The sacraments are the material and spiritual integrated in a holy mystery, as the Eastern Orthodox call the sacraments. You may have noticed that Bishop Peter likes to be sensitive to people’s preferences, like grape juice or wine, gluten or gluten free wafers. Today he has decided that we will offer three healing stations: one with spit, one with mud, one with anointing oil. 😉
In Vs 23c, Jesus asked, “Do you see anything?”
Jesus asked many amazing diagnostic questions in his healing ministry, such as “Do you want to be well?” We might want to do that as well when we pray for healing for others. His three-fold ministry which Jesus passed on to us is preaching, teaching, and healing the sick. The good news is that he is still present to heal today. (The power of God was present to heal the sick. Luke 5:16-26) He is still both willing and able to bring wholeness to us. ( “Lord, if you will, you can make me clean.” 3 And Jesus stretched out his hand and touched him, saying, “I will; be clean.” Matthew 8:2-3) Healing is God’s will; sometimes a fuller healing is delayed. We sometimes grumble about that. You may have noticed that all of us die, entering in God’s full healing.
In vs 24, we are told that the blind man looked up and said, “I see people; they look like trees walking around.”
This partial healing of sight is often true in our lives, not only physically but also spiritually.
E Stanley Jones from the first Christian Ashram retreat in 1930 held a healing service and a communion service. Communion as I have said is healing. Jones who recorded hundreds of healings in his 28 books, believed oblique or indirect healing. More physical healings take place when spiritual and emotional healing comes first. I ask some of you today: who do you need to forgive? Who are you no longer talking to in your family? Could bitterness be holding back a physical breakthrough?
After losing my voice in 1980, I became passionate about the healing ministry, becoming an Order of St Luke the Physician Chaplain. On May 25th 1982, I had throat surgery at Vancouver General Hospital which restored my voice, though initially leaving it breathy, very quiet and raspy. Don’t give up when you only see people like trees. Thank God for that partial healing. Sometimes you need to soak for a while in God’s healing presence as more breakthrough comes.
Vs 25 tells us that “Once more Jesus put his hands on the man’s eyes. Then his eyes were opened, his sight was restored, and he saw everything clearly.”
Would you ‘see’ more clearly in your life? Do you ever treat people as trees, as less than human? All genocides and war crimes come from our seeing people as trees. In Rwanda, Tutus were called cockroaches as they were being slaughtered.
In vs 26, we are told that “Jesus sent him home, saying, “Don’t even go into the village.”
Sometimes to keep your healing, you have to be careful who you share your healing with.
It is very easy to be impatient as we seek healing for ourselves and others. One of my biggest temptation is impatience. I seldom have car accidents. The few I have had have been connected to my impatience.
Nicky Gumbel recently tweeted: “Abraham waited for 25 years. Joseph waited 25 years. Moses waited 25 years. Jesus waited 25 years. If God makes you wait, you are in good company.”
Have you ever thanked God for unanswered prayers, how God protects us from our naivety and foolishness?
Our impatience can tempt us to try to twist God’s arm. Healing is not about getting our own way in our own timing. Healing is about the surrender of our will, about aligning our will with God’s healing will.
Let us pray that God will strengthen our patience as we minister healing to others in Jesus’ name. Never give up.
Alex Christofi, Dostoevsky in Love (Bloomsbury Continuum, London, UK, 2021), p. 53
With only a New Testament for company (in prison), Fyodor Dostoevsky had spent the past four years thinking deeply about God and religion. “At such a time one thirsts for faith as withered grass thirsts for water. I am a child of this century, a child of doubt and disbelief, I always have been always will be (I know that), until they close the lid of my coffin. But despite all that, there is nothing more beautiful, more profound, more sympathetic, more reasonable, more courageous, more perfect than Christ. Moreover, if someone succeeded in proving to me that Christ wasn’t real, I would rather stay with Christ than with the truth. (Fydor Dostoevsky, Letter to Natalia Fonvizina, 20 February 1854).
I’m happy to announce that we’re having Church@Church this Sunday. This week we’re celebrating All Saints’ Day. Think back of all the great people of God you’ve met, all the great people of God who have ever lived, and all the great people of God who are yet to be born. We thank God for all those who have loved and served Him faithfully. We also take time on Sunday to remember those who have died for the cause of freedom, making sure that the freedoms we enjoy were not lost. My sermon this Sunday is based on John chapter 6, when Jesus feeds a whole lot of people. Come and find out how to face the impossible!
So come, join us as we worship the triune God together. Here’s the announcement:
Church @ Church this Sunday—the 6th November at 10:00am
In case you missed it, you can find the service from last week by clicking HERE. or the sermon “Why Does Evil Smile So Much/?” (Proverbs 26:24-26)
Important Dates:
1. This week we continue Operation Christmas Child. Come and pick up your shoe boxes and we’ll send them all over the world. (Return them by Sunday the 13th November.)
2. For your forward planning: Sunday the 20th November, the Reign of Christ Sunday is a Healing Service. The Rev. Dr. Ed Hird will be preaching on the subject of healing. There will be opportunities to receive healing prayer. Again, everyone is welcome.
3. Our next All Saints Community Lunch is after the service on November the 20th. Everyone welcome.
If you want to see our monthly church schedule, you can find that on our website, or by clicking HERE.
If you have any further questions, or need help in any way, don’t hesitate to contact me.
Thank you Church.
Stay vigilant and prayerful.
Love each other deeply and keep Jesus at the very centre of everything you do.
Click to view the video version of the message. “Enemies disguise themselves with their lips, but in their hearts they harbor deceit. Though their speech is charming, do not believe them, for seven abominations fill their hearts. Their malice may be concealed by deception, but their wickedness will be exposed in the assembly.” Proverbs 26:24-26 NIV https://bible.com/bible/111/pro.26.24-26.NIV
I was so pleased to have Dr Brian Stiller speak on Friday at our 37th annual White Rock South Surrey Leadership Prayer Breakfast. How many of you attended? What was it like for you? I was reminded of the Oikos Project when Dr Stiller said that God can do miracles of multiplication through us when we choose like that little boy to share our five loaves and fishes. Dr Stiller has remarkable energy and wisdom at age 80, having visited the Ukraine four times in the past year, helping mobilize global relief for the refugees. He said that he has never wept as much as when he is there in the Ukraine. He sensitively said that there are many Russians who are struggling with this issue. In an autocracy, you can suddenly disappear when you publicly question the government. Dr Stiller talked about needing the wisdom of Solomon for such intractable issues. In democracies, we need to always guard against government overreach, particularly in the area of media, education, and family. As I have been praying a lot for reconciliation and peace between Russia and Ukraine, God keeps leading me to the wisdom of the book of Proverbs. James 1:15 says “If any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to you.” We as a church are called All Saints. Saint means holy. We are all called to be holy. On Nov 1st each year, All Saints Day, we remember that all of us who love and serve Jesus are saints, which means holy and forgiven. In the Jewish tradition, a day begins on the evening before. An example of this is Christmas Eve which kicks off the day of Christmas. Similarly All Saints Eve begins on the night before on Oct 31st with a holy evening. Few realize that Halloween comes from the older word ‘Hallowed’ as in ‘hallowed by thy name’. We live in a culture that has no idea how to celebrate holiness. It is often far more attracted to darkness, falsehood, and deception. Fifteen billion dollars are spent on Halloween paraphernalia every year, a lot of it on unholy ghosts, demons and witches. Four hundred million dollars are spent annually on Halloween items for dogs. Galatians 6:7 says “Do not be deceived. God is not mocked. For whatever one sows, one reaps” What will you be sowing on All Saints Eve? Deception is a huge topic in the biblical wisdom literature. You will notice how Proverbs 26 twice talks about deception: that evil people carry deception in their hearts and that malice temporarily conceals deception, but it is all exposed eventually. Deception and falsehood are addictive. Like in the murder mystery mysteries, one lie leads to another. As 2 Timothy 3:13 says, evildoers and impostors will go from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived. That is why Jesus wants us to being passionate about truth, letting our yes be yes and our no no. Dr Brian Stiller said that each of us can release feelings of hatred or humanity. He noted that each of us do good and harm every day. It is easy to point out the deep and tragic harm that Putin is doing to the Ukrainian people. But each of us need to also face the potential for evil in our own hearts. As Jeremiah 17:9 puts it, our hearts are deceitful and desperately wicked. Evil is not just out there; it is lurking in the heart of All God’s Saints. As King David said in Psalm 139, “Search me, God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.” Psalms 139:23-24 NIV Sometimes as God’s forgiven saints, we are naive and unaware about our own potential for evil and self-deception. There are few people more dangerous than self-righteous Christians, convinced of the purity of all of our motives. It is so easy to slip into the blame game where evil is some one else’s fault, the government, our coworkers, maybe even our spouse. What if tomorrow on All Saints Eve, we started searching our own hearts and admitting our own wickedness and offensiveness? Revival, reconciliation, and real fellowship often start when we walk in the light as he is in the light, just like in the East African Revival. In 1 John 1:8 If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. What might it prayerfully take to bring true, lasting reconcilation between the Ukrainian & Russian people? It is very difficult to discern what is really happening in the Ukraine as we listen to the legacy media. It is too easy to demonize all the Russian people and lose sight of their humanity, who are also being made in God’s image. God has been leading me to read the wisdom of Russian Christians like Leo Tolstoy, Fyodor Dostoevsky, and Alexander#Solzhenitsyn who understand the deceitfulness and potential violence of each human heart. Tolstoy and Dostoyevsky in their famous books War & Peace and Crime & Punishment show clearly both the trickiness of evil and the reconciling power of the gospel. I believe that rediscovering Tolstoy, Dostoevsky, and #Solzhenitsyn could be part of a genuine reconciliation between Russia and the Ukraine. Because Russia has a deep historic suspicion of the West, I am praying that they may rediscover the peacemaking message of their own Russian Christian writers. Solzhenitsyn insightly commented that “Violence finds its only refuge in falsehood, falsehood its only support in violence.” He also observed that “By the time of the 1917 Revolution, faith had virtually disappeared in Russian educated circles; and amongst the uneducated, its health was threatened.” This is not just a problem for the Russian elite. Without being rooted in God and the Bible, all of us will fall into carefully disguised deception. Solomon in Proverbs 26 says that enemies disguise themselves with their lips Our lips have an amazing ability to produce both genuine & fake smiles. Just for a moment, give me a fake smile. Now give me a genuine smile. What is the difference? How can you tell when Canadians are angry at you? You can see it in their frozen smiles. Many smiling Canadians are notorious for stabbing others in the back. There are over 500 smiles described in Leo Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina novel, many of them false. Have you noticed how many Dead smiles there are at Halloween? As a child, my favorite hero was Superman. I would dress up as Superman, even wearing a blue wig once, as the comic books gave him a blue tint. Who was Superman’s archenemy? Lex Luther. Who was his buddy Batman’s archenemy? The Joker. The most twisted thing about the joker was his smile, a dead smile. Have you noticed how much that ghosts, demons, and witches smile at Halloween? It drops our defenses. They feel harmless. As Proverbs 26 puts it, our enemies disguise their evil with their lips. We are warned not to believe them, as they have seven abominations in their heart. Seven is the biblical symbol here of complete deception. Many smiling people are completely deceived and deceiving. Those of us involved in politics have sometimes learned that not every smile is benevolent. That is why the sermon on the mount is so key where Jesus calls us to love and bless our enemies, the very ones who will stab us in the back. Ephesians 6:12 reminds us that we are not fighting against people but rather evil spiritual forces. I was somehow raised to think of demons as mythical cartoon characters in red suits with horns and pitchforks. But evil is not so obvious. It often disguises itself with a smile, appearing like an Angel of light. You may remember the song in Little Orphan Annie “You are never fully dressed without a smile.”You May have heard that evil live spelt backwards. Evil often looks more like a smiling Prince Charming than Lex Luther. Evil, as Proverbs 26 puts it, has a charming smile and charming speech. Have you ever been tempted by charming evil? As Bishop Peter put it, there is Kryptonite everywhere waiting to deceive All The Saints, the charming Kryptonite of worldly peer pressure, the charming Kryptonite of putting our family before God, and the charming Kryptonite of doublemindedness. Where is evil charming you this Halloween? Where are you being deceived with smiling half-truths? Where do you need to more fully surrender your life to our Lord Jesus? Where do you need to come clean and walk on the light on All Saints Eve? Let us pray: Father, open our eyes so that we will no longer fall into deception, particularly during Halloween. In Jesus’ name. Amen.
What do you have in your hand that God can use to bless others? Dr Brian Stiller spoke powerfully on moving forward in challenging times. The October 28th Friday White Rock/South Surrey Leadership Prayer Breakfast had around 280 people attending.
We are having a delightful in-person Anglican Mission Clergy Retreat at Richmond Emmanuel Church for the first time since COViD 19. Archbishop Masimango, the Anglican Primate of the Congo who licenses us and is doing ordinations, is here for both the Clergy Retreat and the AMIC Summit.
For keeners, feel free to read my doctoral thesis on strengthening marriages. Our 45 years of marriage for better for worse has taught us a lot that we love to pass on to others.
Edhird's Blog 