Sunday Feb 23rd All Saints sermon
by Rev. Dr. Ed Hird
Isaiah 63:16-19 NIV
“But you are our Father, though Abraham does not know us or Israel acknowledge us; you, Lord, are our Father, our Redeemer from of old is your name. Why, Lord, do you make us wander from your ways and harden our hearts so we do not revere you? Return for the sake of your servants, the tribes that are your inheritance. For a little while your people possessed your holy place, but now our enemies have trampled down your sanctuary. We are yours from of old; but you have not ruled over them, they have not been called by your name.”
How many of you have skeletons in your family closet? A couple of honest people 😉 95% of people have skeletons in their family closet, and the rest are … liars, as Bishop Peter Klenner often comments about our mutual brokenness.
My Great-grandfather Tom Hird was a complicated individual. He was an Albertan beekeeper who sold his booze made from honey, called mead, to the RCMP. I am not sure how that worked😉 All my Hird relatives are Albertans going back to my great grandfather Tom. Does anyone hear have any Alberta heritage? My mother was the BCer from Revelstoke whose great grandparents moved there from Regina and Toronto. My great-great grandfather Tom Allen was the senior Alderman of the City of Toronto for 18 years, which may explain some of my political interests. Albertans who often love cowboys hats, particularly during the Calgary Stampede, are sometimes seen as honorary Americans. When my wife and I go overseas, Janice is often seen as a Canadian (being more gentle), and for some reason, they often think than I am an American 😉. This is probably my Alberta heritage.
My Saskatchewan-born wife lived in Calgary for ten years. Does that make her an honorary Albertan? What do you think? Have you seen that rude cartoon saying that California should join Canada and Alberta should join the USA. I thought that it was particularly insensitive. Let me tell you something potentially shocking: I love the three ‘A’s, 1) Albertans, 2) Americans, and 3) Australians, warts and all. Say hi online to Bishop Peter & Jenny who are vacationing in Perth Australia.
I am into that outdated biblical concept of loving one’s neighbour as oneself, even with tariff uncertainty. Canadians often pride ourselves on how good-tempered and kind and gracious we are. Some of that has been stretched recently with certain political uncertainties. It is too easy to curse those who make us feel uncomfortable. What if we bless those who may curse us, returning good for even potential harm? It saddens me that many perhaps drunken Canadians, egged on by our legacy media, are now becoming ruder than some of our southern neighbours, booing people at sports games. I don’t think that this is being a true Canadian. What ever happened to Canadian politeness?
We thank God for Psalm 133 chiselled on the Peace Arch: “Brethren dwelling together in unity.” Since the inconclusive War of 1812, we had have the best relationship as neighbouring countries with our southern and actually northern neighbours (including Alaska, because we are in the middle of the USA and they barely notice). That is very unique. Countries often like to quarrel and be grumpy, sort of like families. In this fractious time, we pray for a Peace Arch in the Spirit. I like the name Peace Arch Alliance Church 😉 Jesus said ‘Blessed are those who win the trade disputes.’ Or did he say ‘Blessed are the peacemakers for they shall be called children of God.’ We say no, as Kingdom people, to hatred and bitterness in times of uncertainty.
Who is on the Canadian five dollar bill? Wilfred Laurier. Our seventh Canadian Prime Minister, who was our first francophone PM, brought the provinces of Alberta, Saskatchewan and Yukon into the Canadian Confederation, saying ‘Canada first, Canada last, Canada always.’ As one of our longest standing PMs, he was defeated after proposing the first free trade agreement with the USA. They falsely accused him of being unCanadian and advancing our annexation by the USA. I agree with his general sentiment as an penultimate statement, but not as a ultimate statement. Penultimate means ‘almost ultimate.’ I love our nation. For Christians, our nation is important but must come second. We are Jesus and Kingdom first, last and forever. It is far too easy for nationalism to become idolatrous if it is our ultimate value.
Great-Grandpa Tom Hird, by the way, was also a Methodist lay evangelist who preached the hot gospel. How many people know what the hot gospel is? How many have ever heard a ‘turn or burn’ sermon? In my family, we associated ‘turn or burn’ with street corner placard-wearing fanatics, predicting the imminent end of the world: ‘It’s all going to burn, brother.’ Or as they say down south, ‘It’s all go to burn, baby.’ 😉
I won’t be preaching a ‘turn or burn’ sermon today. So you can relax. Instead, I will be preaching a ‘return or burn’ sermon. Unless we return home to our Father, nothing will work right. Do I hear an amen?
Unless we return home to our Redeeming Father, we will burn with anxiety, fear, guilt, shame, and emptiness. Some of you know exactly what I am talking about because you have lived this. I lived this out before I turned to Jesus. You see, Hell is not just for life after death. Hell is for right now when we refuse to return home to our Father. Sin and selfishness is hell on earth right. Do I hear an amen? Eternal hell is just a continuation of our selfishness and alienation. Ultimately, God will let us have our own way, and if we ultimately say no to God, it is hell. It is alienation, it is darkness, it is brokenness. Whatever burning ultimately means, how literal it is, you don’t want to go there.
I used to be a sailing instructor for YMCA Camp Elphinstone with little Sabas and 25-foot sailboats. Was anyone ever in YMCA and YWCA? Before they largely forgot the ‘C’ of YMCA, the YMCA and YWCA used to be strongly Christian, being founded by Sir George Williams, the Billy Graham of the 19th Century. Everything in sailing, by the way, is about turning and returning into the wind. Do we have any sailors here? If you just go in one direction and never tack with the wind, it will not go well. The Holy Spirit is often described as like the Wind. How are you with tacking with the wind of the Holy Spirit?
Yesterday, at our Coldest Night of the Year walkathon at the White Rock promenade, a very windy wet storm blew in, turning my golf umbrella inside out SEVERAL TIMES. Only when I turned my umbrella into the wind did things go well. It felt more like the Wettest NIGHT OF THE YEAR! Thanks, by the way, for all those who supported our Peninsula People team with Kerry-Lynne Findlay who ended in the top ten fundraising teams. It is not too late to still contribute online to this worthy cause as we raise money for the local Sources Food Bank.
All of life is about which direction we turn and return. Which direction however should we turn? I would like to do a thought experiment with you. How many are willing to humour me? Please will everyone close their eyes? What does the front of the church look like in your mind? Where is the back of the church? Where is the front entrance: is it at the front or the back of the church? Is the Sunday School room in the front or the back of the church building? Would you feel comfortable if I preached the rest of my sermon from the back of the church ;? Ultimately, which way should we turn: front or back? Where is God?
Because God is invisible, it is not obvious which direction we need to turn in returning to God. We don’t even realize sometimes that we’ve turned our back on God. Where is God? Because God is omnipresent, he’s everywhere, but he is also manifest in particular ways and locations as our returning Father. When he returns, his presence is made present. God sometimes turns his face away from us in our rebellion. Historically, Christians have prayed Eastward because Jesus, in his second coming, is returning from the East. Jews pray facing Jerusalem. Muslims pray towards Mecca in Saudia Arabia.
Because God is invisible, it is complicated. You can turn your back on God and not even know it. I did that for years as a distracted teenager who golfed and skied religiously. You can turn your back on your spouse or your family, and not realize it. You can be emotionally divorced for years before you ever leave your marriage. You can be there and not there, because you’ve turned your face from your spouse emotionally.
For many people in Canada, it is unthinkable to go to church. Some feel like the sky would fall if they came into a church building. A lot of people peer through the front door glass, but would never walk in. Some walk in five or ten feet, but to come up near the altar table is ‘radioactive’ in their mind. 😉 It’s very interesting.
My Hird family has sometimes powerfully turned to God, and sometimes turned our backs on God. Does anyone else relate to this? I am so grateful that our grandchildren all go to Sunday School and church. Many Christian grandparents nowadays are forbidden by their adult children to even mention Jesus to their grandkids, but they can still be salt and light. It is not easy.
Our Hird family ultimately comes from the Yorkshire area in England. Hird either means Shepherd or in the Viking Danish version ‘bodyguard to the King’. There were many Vikings in Yorkshire. I am 6% Viking in my dna testing. Are there any Vikings or partial Vikings in our congregation?
I discovered, while writing a Light Magazine article on the famous Yorkshire man Smith Wigglesworth that Yorkshire people are known for their earthiness, gruffness, bluntness, people who say what they think without fear of the consequences. I thought ‘This is my Hird family 😉’. They are honest, sincere, and avoid pretense. That Yorkshire tendency has sometimes got me in hot water in my almost 45 years so far of ordained ministry. Many pastors are pressured into being people-pleasers who pretend as a survival strategy. Wigglesworth, through his bold healing ministry which he received through the Anglicans in All Saints Sunderland, led millions worldwide to turn back to God.
Turning and returning to God is a huge theme throughout the Bible. In Joel 2:12-13, it says: “Yet even now, declares the LORD, return to Me with all your heart, with fasting, weeping, and mourning. Rend your hearts and not your garments. Return to the LORD your God, for He is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger, abounding in loving devotion.” Many people are afraid to return to the heavenly Father because they mistakenly think that he is as bad-tempered as their own earthly father. My great-grandpa Tom had his moods. He did not have a good relationship with his son Vic. You see, we are made for our Father. God is our Father who doesn’t change despite the circumstances. He is our immutable Redeemer. As our kinsman-redeemer, He redeems us not only from sin, but also from selfishness, hatred, resentment, revenge, despair, hypocrisy, secrecy, and all sorts of disease. I think that we Canadians suffer from hypocrisy. We pretend to be nicer than we are. And painful people, like a certain unnamed president, are bringing out some of our undealt-with emotions. Some people say ‘I don’t like to fast because it makes me bad-tempered.’ But you know, fasting doesn’t make you bad-tempered. It reveals your bad temper 😉 As AA puts it, we are as sick as our secrets. Do you have any secrets that you need to return to our redeeming Father? What if we Canadians stopped pretending so much? In the AA Big Book, Rev. Sam Shoemaker, co-founder of AA with Bill W and Dr. Bob, said that if Christians would become even half as honest as AA people, we would see revival in God’s Church. But so many people come
to church and pretend:
“How are you feeling? Oh great, I’ve got cancer. My wife left me. I was fired at work. My kids won’t speak to me. But I’m good.’
Returning to the Lord is even used to describe Tithing our first 10% in Malachi 3:8-10. Have you ever imagined that returning to God might involve returning your pocket book to God? All things come of thee o Lord and of thine own have we given thee. I had never heard of tithing as an Anglican until I was walking in a Baptist church and saw a poster that said ‘10%’. I said: ‘What’s that?’ They said: ‘It’s how much you should give to God.’ I said: ‘Great idea. When I become financially secure, I will one day.’ Was I tapping into my inner Scottish desire for financial stability? Nine years later in 1981, when I lost my voice (spasmodic dysphonia) and income for eighteen months, It decided to put God to the test and give him my first 10%. 10% of nothing, I could afford. The Lord met our needs for that year. I had a wife and first child. When God restored my throat through prayer and surgery, I started as an assistant priest at St. Matthew’s Abbotsford with a real salary. I thought that I can’t stop tithing now. So I never stopped. How many might want to put God to the test today and see him open the floodgates of heaven? For some people, that is unthinkable. Those raised in state churches like Anglican, Catholic or Lutheran churches are notorious for not being super-generous in our giving, because the state looked after us. It takes the wind of the Holy Spirit to turn us around to biblical generosity.
The good news is that turning and returning goes in two directions: us to God and God to us. Isaiah 63 teaches that God is a returning Father. As Arnold Ballantyne texted me this week, God the Father is our inheritance, even when people turn away, ultimately God is our Redeemer. God’s desire is for us to revere Him. God the Father wants us to inhabit his holy place and not let His enemies be victorious. We belong to God. He calls us by name.
Acts 7:39 tells us that “Our fathers refused to obey God. Instead they rejected him and in their hearts turned back to Egypt.” All of life is about which direction we turn: either back to the slavery of Egypt or forward to freedom in God’s Promised Land. Even as Christians we can slip into going back to Egypt. Have you ever gone back to Egypt? It doesn’t satisfy, does it? Has God ever said to you: “About Turn.”? How did you respond?
How many watched Godspell where they sang “Turn back o Man, forswear thy foolish ways.”? Our messianic Jewish friend Marty Shub who did our last two seder suppers, has the fascinating last name ‘Shub’ or Shuv, which is Hebrew for turning, repenting, and returning. His ministry is called Return Ministries. Returning for Jewish people is both physical and spiritual. Since 1948, 3.3 million Jews have physically returned to Israel in what is called Aliyah, going up to Jerusalem. There have always been Jews in Israel, but most were sent into exile by the Romans, who renamed Israel as Palestine, in an effort to antisemitically obliterate their memory.
There are 381 occurrences in the bible of the word ‘turn’ and 499 occurrences of the word ‘return’, all of which we will be looking at for the next eight hours together. 😉 In Acts 3:19, Peter says, “Repent, then, and turn back, so that your sins may be wiped away, that times of refreshing may come from the Lord.” How many of you want times of refreshing? Does Canada need this?
2 Chronicles 7:14 says that if we turn from our wicked ways, God will heal our land. I was converted in the Jesus revolution in which millions of young people turned back to Jesus. The word Revolution literally means to turn or roll full circle. How many today are willing to spiritually revolve back to Jesus?
Lamentations 3:40 says: “Let us examine our ways and test them, and let us return to the Lord.”
Acts 7:42 tells us: “But God turned away and gave them over to the worship of the heavenly bodies. (Astrology/ age of Aquarius)” Our Hird family dabbled in many new age practices, like horoscopes. The New Age is the way of idolatry and confusion. God turns away when we choose the identical twins of idolatry and idolatry, so prevalent in BC.
Jesus, in Matthew 18:3, said: “I tell you the truth, unless you change (KJV be converted, straphate, turn), and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of Heaven.” Only children can turn. Adults suffer from stiff necks until we get child-like necks.
In Acts 28:18, Paul recalls what God said in his turning/shuving/conversion: “I am sending you to the nations to open their eyes, so that they may turn from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins and an inheritance among those sanctified by faith in Me.”
Whatever you turn toward is what you turn into. Whatever you gaze on, you become. That is why pornography is so deadly. You become what swallows you. In the Christ child, you become more childlike and less childish. Only children can enter the Kingdom. Have you noticed how childish much of political discussion is becoming. What if we actually sat down and listened carefully to those with whom we may disagree? What if we stopped demonizing people with other political opinions?
God, in Zechariah 1:3, said “Therefore tell the people: This is what the Lord Almighty says: ‘Return to me,’ declares the Lord Almighty, ‘and I will return to you,’ says the Lord Almighty.” God the returning Father is calling us to return back home to Him. Where have you turned your back on God? Where do you need to seek his face? Are you willing to return back home? Are you willing to give up your idols? Are you willing to make Jesus your only hope? Let’s close in singing ‘Turn your eyes on Jesus’.
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