[0:00] My Father, you have spoken in times, glassed by the prophets, spoken, center, core, mystery, and person of Jesus Christ.
[0:13] May you indeed speak to us as we are gathered in the spirit of the Spirit. I've got so many things I want to tell you that I don't even trust myself to begin, except to say how delighted Fran and I both are.
[0:45] For all that has been part of the six months, for all the love and kindness, care, and provision that you've made for us during these six months, for the fact that despite of all my personal fears of flood and ostentations, here at the end of six months, we're back and this is delighted to be that feeling.
[1:09] This is holding the way of the people who have been further understood, apart from having been away from the people so long. So we are very much, um, enjoying the only partly renewed home to which we have returned, which not only was renovated, and I hope that you all come over for coffee after maturity.
[1:39] One of these Sundays. I hope that you're not going to be the same for the people who have been doing this. But, uh, it was also scrubbed within an inch of its life, which, uh, was, so it was a lovely, lovely homecoming that way.
[1:56] Um, we, we met St. John's people in New Zealand, Australia, England, and Israel, and so it's nice to be a big part of, uh, the extended congregation of St. John's.
[2:09] I came home to some bad news. Um, told that lots of people have left for some periods. That's nothing new. They've been doing that for years.
[2:22] They're great. Great problem is the people who don't quite get there. They leave here and don't get there. And then, of course, there are the people who leave there and don't quite get here.
[2:35] So that we, when they help the whole parent is, I think, getting hold of the people who got lost in the dream.
[2:46] So, uh, that's not particularly alarming to me. Uh, we're $50,000 behind in our budget at this point in the year.
[2:57] That is the budget which we've committed ourselves to as a congregation of the community in on this, um, in January.
[3:08] And, uh, I am wonderfully confident that, uh, that our, that that's really an important fact for our life together as a congregation.
[3:23] Um, I think we've been doing so long on, um, I suppose the generosity of the community.
[3:34] And it's good that we can share that responsibility worldwide. So, I think that's very serious. Um, a lack of foundation of support in our questioning program and, uh, for that aim, I will please discern these stories and we'll do more about that.
[4:00] Uh, this, in terms of telling you about the scriptures and your call of Mormon beings. It's hard to believe when we find a way that I would live this long.
[4:12] Ah, hey. Um, so, uh, it's, uh, one of the great joys of, uh, having a bone surgery and getting old is, uh, you're very thankful for a day or a week.
[4:28] Number one. Here it is. Six months I've survived. And, uh, we've been getting very well from the school. Um, so, uh, it's, uh, just a tremendous sense of thanksgiving.
[4:41] And Fran and I will share the impact on you and, uh, share with you with Archie, Bernie, and all of the things. And so, uh, this, it's a delight.
[4:54] You're a wonderful, uh, and it was a calendar over the middle. And, uh, it's, uh, it's a delight.
[5:10] Well, it's leading to those passages of scripture which we read this morning. Um, one of the, one of the results of having traveled quite a bit.
[5:25] Um, one of the things that I've been doing is that I'm fed up with the high and teeth of religion.
[5:38] There is so much of it. And, uh, it is in such a total state of chaos that, uh, the most serious temptation that I wonder when during the whole six months was to, was to give up religion altogether.
[5:53] Because it is such a safe part of our whole international society. It's, um, it's very important, I'm sure. But I, um, I'm not surprised that many religious people have decided that God's given up on religion, too, and has gone into politics, and sure they, hey, hey, hey, hey.
[6:17] Um, but I, um, don't think that that's the, uh, that's the truth. Um, Vancouver's a wonderful place because it's almost free of religion.
[6:31] Uh, hardly anybody pays any attention to it at all. And, uh, that's, uh, of course they do run a lot.
[6:46] And, uh, they may, they may feel that that's the way. They may be, I'm never sure whether they're running away or running towards something, but they do keep running.
[6:57] And that's, uh, that's probably a good indication, at least. But it seems from the scriptures this morning that God has the same concern.
[7:10] And if you were to look at Ezekiel chapter 34, where we started, you would see that God, God, through the prophet Ezekiel, says that, uh, he's fed up with the way the shepherds have, uh, looked after or cared for or pastored the people.
[7:33] And the promise comes through Ezekiel in chapter 34, verse 11, page 761. And, uh, he says, For thus says the Lord God, behold, I myself will search for my sheep, will seek them out.
[7:50] The shepherd seeks out his flock. Some of his sheep have been scattered abroad. So will I seek out my sheep.
[8:01] And it's almost like me to think of it in terms that God is fed up with those who profess to call themselves his shepherds.
[8:12] And, uh, haven't done the job. And God, in effect, is saying, I'm working with you, I'm suffering. I am working with you, the shepherd of mercy.
[8:25] The sheep are going to relate to me. A profound statement, a great sort of angry statement, is the reality of our faith.
[8:38] The Lord is indeed my shepherd, your shepherd. He wants to be in that kind of mutual, and personal relationship with each of us.
[8:52] Bring us back from our wanderings. Find us when we're lost. Heal us when we're crippled. Feed us when we're hungry.
[9:03] And give us water from the church. He's making himself responsible for us. He wants to live in relationship with the brethren and to us.
[9:16] And out of that tremendous awareness, you see certain things have gone wrong. And, uh, I want to suggest that things that don't happen any longer, once God becomes the shepherd of his people.
[9:36] When God is truly the shepherd of his people. The first thing I'd like to point to you is that there's to be no more fat shepherds.
[9:49] And, uh, what he is saying, if you look on, uh, these lectionaries that pick the nice bits and leave out the rough bits. But, uh, if you were to look in, uh, in the passage which, uh, follows the Old Testament lesson, verse 17.
[10:08] As for you, my fault, thus says the Lord, behold, I judge between sheep and rams and eagles. And, uh, he tells them that, that, uh, what I've done, I've given you the wrong word.
[10:25] And you just wind that back and, uh, go back to, uh, verse 10.
[10:37] Verse 34. No more fat shepherds.
[10:52] And it's, I want to say, religion is such a powerful force in the world.
[11:05] And it's such a powerful force in our lives.
[11:18] Even though we tend to be fairly blasé about it, it's still very much there. And, uh, you know how, I don't think of the sensibilities of being feely, but how pimps live off the kind of sexual propensities of being.
[11:41] They take advantage by offering illegitimate gratification of those desires. So, spiritual beings, or fat shepherds, as they're called, in Ezekiel, live off the religious guilt feelings of being.
[12:05] And themselves grow fat while the people who are not finding the satisfaction that they need, or is intangible, or is intangible, not finding the provision that God has made, grow thin.
[12:21] So you see a world in which lots of fat shepherds. And, uh, it is, uh, it is to do better.
[12:44] And yet, more of that, that's it. Uh, for living off inciting the guilt of being.
[12:59] But, uh, now we have to live. Not very, well-spoken. Exciting people's guilt feelings.
[13:12] And announcing and proclaiming God's provision for all healing and our forgiveness. And, uh, the second thing that he says is that there's no more spiritual rams and goats.
[13:29] Spoil the pasture and muddy the waters. This is where we come to that passage we read before in chapter 34, verse 18.
[13:42] And he says about these, uh, goats among the sheep. It's not enough for you to feed on the good pasture that you must tread down with your feet the rest of your pasture.
[13:56] You drink of clear water, but you must foul the rest of your feet. Must my sheep eat what you have trodden with your feet into and which are foul with it.
[14:10] And, uh, see as the first no more had to do with fat shepherds. The second no more has to do with congregations.
[14:24] The congregations were offered in their pasture running waters. And foul them and muddy them so that the stranger who comes among us cannot find the food for which is so long.
[14:41] And the purity of the gospel by which God has provided for us in Christ is so fouled and so muddy by religious people.
[14:55] Nobody could even partake. Yeah. It's to be your home. People are to be fed in green pastures and treated from deep well.
[15:16] But again, the problem is deep. And you can see how deep the problem becomes. If you look at the epistle that we read this morning when it talks about, when it talks there about what congregations want.
[15:37] Uh, there's to be no more catering to this need. In 2 Timothy chapter 4, in verse, uh, 3 following.
[15:56] This is what the religious community in our world wants. People, uh, will not endure sound teaching. But having engineers, they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own likings.
[16:13] They will turn away from listening to the truth and wander into myths. And religion is not to be, and may by God's grace, this congregation, the Church of Jesus Christ, not be the place which caters to the people who, having itching ears, accumulate teachers to suit their own likings.
[16:43] And the people who, having itching ears, turn away from listening to the truth and wander into myths. It's an enormous market for spiritual junk food.
[16:58] And, uh, uh, publishers are getting fat on it, and it's being spewed out all the time. And people are turning to that instead of the Word of God, in which we are to feed, and by which we are to be nourished, and of which we are to drink deeply.
[17:25] In which we are to��us coming from, let's chew through the proposing, but failure, won't we have to deal with the concept? In which we are to, of which we are to deное to большой bones of the gift . the truth. No more catering to that desire that people have to be told what they want to hear.
[17:45] Then the fourth thing that there's to be no more of and that is if you turn to John 21 we'll see what ministry is about here.
[18:06] No more dishonesty at the heart. No more pretense.
[18:18] No more pretending that we are wiser than our fathers or that we are better than we are. And it's wonderfully pictured for us that encounter we stood on the shores of Galilee at the place where it is presumed to have taken place.
[18:40] Jesus having prepared breakfast for his disciples and they having come in from the boat to share that breakfast. And Jesus from St. Peter to me he comes in and he says who are you from?
[19:08] Yeah. And that's the only thing that cuts through the sham of the city.
[19:26] It's gathering around religion. There are religious pretensions. He says and he says when Jesus looks and asks as he looked at Peter he said he says to you Peter love you.
[19:49] Peter is honest enough to pray to Christ three times saying you know can I care of you.
[20:00] Peter had failed before.
[20:11] Peter had boasted before. Peter had pretended before. Peter had had a higher opinion of himself than he ought to have.
[20:21] He'd been caught on it time and time again. It's not going to be caught again. And after the third time when Jesus says to Peter, Peter, you love me.
[20:38] He says, Lord, you know everything. You know that I love you. And that has to be the absolute shrine of truth at the heart of our love.
[21:00] There is nothing false or hypocritical that can take its place. There is no myth or legend. There is no gratification for our sensuality that can take the place of Jesus saying to us, I know mine and I know my dreams and trust.
[21:31] Know my failure, know my mercy, know my pretension, know how I get carried away, know my bitterness, know my pain.
[21:48] Dr. I agree, know my achievements were the ones who did my learn to do this at кино, because I did not deliveraperone. No way in China.
[22:00] The only basis is I can relate to your Jesus. I don't know why I am. I don't ever want to be in the place.
[22:13] The word is in the name of God. I don't ever want to be in the place. The word is in the name of God, and the name of God.
[22:28] He is a very cross-crossing person. He is in that place. He is a very cross-crossing person.
[22:41] He is a very cross-crossing person. So there is to be no more of them. Finally, the last thing that there is to be something more of, a great deal more of, and that is the love that holds a thing, a new expression, the way that he commanded me to, he said, feed my sheep, feed my lambs, and then my sheep.
[23:21] The essential seems to be that our love for the Lord Jesus responds to his love for us, and the love is to find expression in serving people and caring for those who are dying.
[23:41] That's our work. That's what our life is all about. This love should find expression in that way.
[23:53] One of the really lovely things that happened in New Zealand is we stayed on a sheep ranch and watched a really good shepherd find sheep dogs.
[24:08] And he yelled at them in words that I had. I mean, it wasn't just New Zealandese. It was something beyond that. And they were wonderfully obedient to do exactly what he wanted them to do.
[24:27] The sheep would be over there, and he'd send the dog that was right here to get the sheep that were over there, and the dog that was right here would go that direction, all the way around.
[24:38] So the sheep never saw him until the time when he was behind them moving them in the direction the shepherd had fallen. I just want to be, in a sense, towards sheep dog to be absolutely invisible, except at the place of obedience to Jesus.
[25:05] the sheep and the sheep. The sheep would be just a stable and most of the obstacles.
[25:21] The sheep would be just a stable and most of the obstacles. The way they were sitting just reverting with anxiety and being told what to do. The sheep would be very low about the way they were relying on his little motorcycle.
[25:38] And the sheep would fight with the Farm Service blah. long on these little motorcycles. He had his staff on a roll for all the night.
[25:54] He didn't like you to have one. But I, but he would command these sheep and they would obey. And I, I just, long that we as those who love the Lord Jesus Christ could be standing in quivering in sight for the moment when he commands us to go.
[26:25] He would be the most. That's what I think it means. When God in true, ah, true Ezekiel the prophet says, that he will be our shepherd.
[26:46] That he will search for the sheep. Seek them up. Bring them to their own land. Bring their wandering to an end.
[26:58] We'll feed them. Bring them to deep and still waters. They may drink their food. Find the only self-reflection belongs to us in this moment.
[27:16] That is, to love with all our hearts. God has been so in this moment. a three- Train I let you put me get immediately.
[27:39] I will Be and about one two- A Bank Gât Thank you.
[28:25] Thank you.
[28:55] Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
[29:07] Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
[29:19] Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
[29:31] Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
[29:43] Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
[29:55] Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
[30:07] Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Let us pray for peace.
[30:25] Let us pray for peace.
[30:55] Let us pray for peace.
[31:25] Let us pray for peace. Let us pray for peace. Let us pray for peace. Let us pray for peace.
[31:37] Let us pray for peace. Let us pray for peace. Let us pray for peace. Let us pray for peace.
[31:49] Let us pray for peace. Let us pray for peace. Let us pray for peace. Let us pray for peace.
[32:01] Let us pray for peace. Let us pray for peace. Let us pray for peace. Let us pray for peace. Let us pray for peace.
[32:13] Let us pray for peace. Let us pray for peace. Let us pray for peace. Let us pray for peace. Let us pray for peace.
[32:25] Let us pray for peace. Let us pray for peace. Let us pray for peace. Let us pray for peace. Let us pray for peace.
[32:37] For the wealth and glory of its plains and mountains, its fruitful fields and teeming waters, for the precious things of heaven, the dew and sunshine, the snow and rain, and the season, for the precious things of the earth, and the fullness of the earth, for the land wherein there is bread and most famous, for all of us, and all of the young communities, for our son, the Savior, and the Son, we bless thee and magnify thy name.
[33:14] We pray we grant this grace for the sanctified being on our own, that in the world we know that thou art our God, forever and ever.
[33:26] We pray Jesus Christ, our Lord. As we pray for our good words, through our love, on this page or missionaries, a poem and a broad, by truth, page one, and a poem.
[33:54] Let us remember today, Reverend Bob Riesner, the member of our congregation and co-op. Let us remember the staff and staff, and staff, and staff, and staff, and staff, and staff, and staff, and staff.
[34:20] And staff, and staff. So years we 4, who are components, have the場 we call the the room,