Father, our hearts, you have made us for yourself, and our hearts are restless till they rest in you.
We ask, Father, we give you thanks and praise that you are the end of our longings and our yearnings,
that the deepest longings and yearnings of our life find their rest and their true home in you.
We ask, Father, that at this time, as we gather around your word,
that your word would speak very deeply into our hearts,
and that we might know who Jesus is, and that we might rejoice in the grace that he gives,
and we might respond this morning to the grace he offers us even today in a way which is worthy of that grace and good for us.
And we ask this in the name of Jesus, your Son and our Savior. Amen.
Please be seated.
I did a funeral yesterday the first time. Is this working right? Am I fine? Okay.
It's just weird to be on one side of the speakers sometimes.
Anyway, I did a funeral yesterday, the first funeral in quite a while, actually,
and St. Peter's and St. Paul's church graciously allowed us to use their facilities for the funeral.
And I know we all can differ on this, but gosh, it was nice to be in a church.
Like, it was just, it was so nice to just be in a place which is designed for Christians to worship.
And I know it might seem fuddy-duddy to a lot,
and a lot of churches nowadays actually just look like a theater,
only, you know, the front would just be all beige,
not even necessarily a cross, but it was just really nice to be in a church.
On the other hand, I was thinking that there is something to be said about worshiping where we are.
I know that people who are watching this online who've never been to the Ottawa Little Theatre,
when they see the band, they get a bit of a sense of the whole set.
But there is something to be said about worshiping in a set that looks like where we live.
To remind us that the Christian life is just not to be one perpetual church service,
or to live a type of oil and water life,
where we live one way when we're sort of in a churchy type of environment,
and another way when we leave the churchy environment,
which is basically all of the rest of our life and our time.
There is something to be said about reminding us of this all the time,
to have a place to worship like we do.
I just finished watching an HBO series called Perry Mason.
I'm not necessarily giving any recommendation for it.
But one of the things in that show,
it was set in the 30s in Los Angeles,
is sort of what was driving it was a murder connected to a church.
And of course, as the thing goes on, there's a great disconnect.
Lots of the church people act one way when they're in church,
but the fact of the matter is there's shady business deals
and crooked business deals going on the rest of the time with their life,
and there's this fundamental disconnect to the church life
and to the rest of life.
So there is something to be said for worshiping in a place like this,
where the set is a person, a writer, I think in the 50s,
obsessed with death, which is why it says,
West of the Dead, Cold Secrets, Dark Garden, Five Down, etc., etc.
The two stories that we're going to look at today in the gospel,
they throw before us a bit of a challenge,
because you see, what often happens to us unconsciously
is that, you know, I say that it's important to live our life and all that,
and we all go, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
But the problem is, often when we read the Bible, we forget that,
and we read the Bible text purely from a churchy point of view,
not from how you live your life 24-7, 365 days of the year point of view.
And so one of the things that we're going to do today is,
when we look at it, is I'm going to try to push us
to see how that connects to the rest of life.
So let's look at the text.
It would be a great help.
That's, I was on the wrong page of my notes,
is why they didn't look right.
Turn with me to Mark chapter 2, verses 18 to 28,
which is the text that we're going to look at today,
two different stories of this ancient biography of Jesus.
And it begins like this.
Now, John, just, actually, here's just a little tiny bit of a timeout,
bit of note.
You know, sometimes you'll talk to people, and they'll say,
well, one of the reasons we can't trust the Bible
is that it's filled with, you know, the textual tradition.
You know, from the original manuscript today,
there's all these errors in it.
And they can count.
I don't know.
Like, there's millions of them.
But what they don't tell you when they tell you things like this
is that, in fact, most of those supposed errors
are not errors at all.
They're doing what I just, I'm about to do.
So, for instance, I'm about to read this.
Now, John the Baptist's disciples and the Pharisees were fasting.
And if you look at your Bibles, if you're following along
and you see it up there, you'll see it doesn't say John the Baptist.
Now, the John is referring to John the Baptist,
but what I've just done is I've clarified it for people
who aren't very, very, very, very familiar with the Bible.
And if they're not very familiar with the Bible and they see John,
they might wonder, is it, like, the disciple John?
Or, like, who is it, right?
So I've just clarified it.
And none of you listening to me would say
that I've now made the text untrustworthy.
I've just tried to help you.
And that's the same type of thing that actually goes on
in some of the scribal things,
is one of the things that happens in the original text,
which would never pass a modern editor,
is it goes he, he, he, he, he, he.
I'm not giggling, but he said, he said, he said, he said, he said.
It's a long, long string of he's.
And if you're just listening,
you can forget, okay, one moment, who said that?
Which he is it?
Is it Jesus or the other person?
And so sometimes the scribes will just,
rather than having the word he, they'll put in Jesus.
But nobody reading that would say that that's an error in the text.
Like, not really.
Anyway, that's just a bit of an aside.
So I'm going to, in a sense, cheat a little bit as I read it
to help you to understand.
But here's how it goes.
Verse 18.
Now, John the Baptist's disciples and the Pharisees were fasting,
and people came and said to Jesus,
why did John the Baptist's disciples and the disciples of the Pharisees fast,
but your disciples do not fast?
Now, just sort of pause there for a second.
Fasting is a deeply religious practice.
Buddhists fast.
Muslims fast.
Hindus have times of fasting.
It is a characteristic of religion and spirituality
that there are times of fasting.
And so one of the things which is going on here in the text
is that the Pharisees are trying to figure out what's going on with Jesus
because obviously he's, like, spiritual or religious.
Like, that's obviously the case.
He has a type of authority about him, but he doesn't fast.
Fast.
And his disciples don't fast.
So they're trying, in a sense, they just use from the normal,
in a sense, the normal human mind
and the way the normal average human mind
evaluates religious and spiritual things
and things like fasting are part of it,
and Jesus doesn't seem to be doing it,
and they're trying to sort out and figure out what's going on,
who is he?
They're trying to, in a sense, put Jesus in their categories
and their criteria,
which they, in a sense, say,
my categories and criteria,
that's what reasonable people understand,
and you need to fit into that.
At the end of the day, of course,
when Jesus rises from the dead,
what partly is happening
is that all human categories
and criteria for religion get blown up.
But that's sort of towards the end of the story.
And part of, actually,
the history of renewal and reformation movements
within the Christian movement
is that we start to sink into religion
and fitting into the criteria
of the way the mind normally works,
and God, by his Holy Spirit,
brings us back to the Scripture,
and we realize we've got to throw that stuff out,
that we've got our criteria all wrong.
But that's what they're doing.
It's a very...
In fact, actually, a few years ago,
just a few years ago,
I read an article by a Muslim fellow,
and one of the reasons he said
that Islam is superior to Christianity
is that most Christians hardly ever fast.
But Muslims fast for Ramadan,
and that was, in fact,
a sign of the superiority of Islam
over Christianity.
So they're asking this question
out of this in a sense
that the normal way a human mind works
and tries to evaluate things.
In verse 19, let's see how Jesus answers them.
And he only gives them a bit of a partial answer,
by the way.
Anyway, let's look at it.
And Jesus...
Actually, he gives them
the wisest answer in the world.
He doesn't answer all of our questions
with this text,
but he gives them the wisest answer in the world.
Verse 19,
And Jesus said to them,
Can the wedding guests fast
while the bridegroom is with them?
As long as they have the bridegroom with them,
they cannot fast.
Now, a couple of things going on here.
First of all,
if you don't know anything
about the custom of the time,
this will be very helpful for you.
In our day and age,
when you have a wedding,
and then afterwards,
you might have a reception
or maybe a breakfast the next day
or both or something like that.
But that would be it.
But in the Jewish culture of the time,
if it was a man and a woman
marrying each for the first time,
the wedding celebration went for seven days.
So it was seven days
of eating lots and lots and lots
of skewered goat and chicken
and having fish
and eating baklava
and drinking wine
and just seven days of feasting.
Okay?
It sort of...
And so it makes a lot of sense
that if you're actually in there
with the bridegroom,
you don't fast during that time.
I was thinking nowadays,
modern couples,
what we do is we fast
and try to lose weight
before the wedding
so we look good in our wedding dress
or in our suit or whatever
so we look really good
on our wedding day.
But, you know,
that's one type of fasting.
But you wouldn't fast at all.
And the other thing about this
that's going on here,
which isn't obvious to us
as we read it
because we're not that familiar
with the Old Testament
or we forget,
is that Jesus is making
a claim to deity.
He's actually saying he's God.
Now, one of the constant images
in what we call the Old Testament
and our Jewish friends
call the Torah or the Tanakh
is that, in a sense,
God is the husband
of the covenant people Israel.
Some of you might remember
when we went through
the book of Lamentations,
where, in a sense,
Lamentations tackled me.
I don't know if it tackled you,
but it definitely tackled me.
And there was this constant refrain
about adultery.
And if you're familiar at all
with the prophetic literature
in the Old Testament,
there's always this claim
of Israel being adulterers,
that they're cheating
on their true husband.
And so that's all part
of this very powerful imagery
in the Old Testament,
that God, in a sense,
he's not the husband
of each individual believer.
He's a husband, in a sense,
of the covenant people
of Israel as a whole,
who are his bride.
He is the bridegroom.
Israel is his bride.
So when Jesus here
is using the analogy
of why they're not fasting,
which we'll see,
look what he says in,
yeah, what he says
very specifically,
they cannot fast.
Look at verse 20.
The days will come
when the bridegroom
is taken away from them
and then they will fast
in that day.
He's making a claim of deity,
that the Old Testament image
of the bridegroom,
that's Jesus.
Why are they not fasting?
The bridegroom's right here,
right now.
You know that bridegroom
you read about all the way
from Genesis chapter 1
to the end of Malachi?
He's standing right here.
That's what Jesus is saying.
And he's also actually
making a reference
to his death.
Look again at what he says
in verse 20.
The days will come
when the bridegroom
is taken away from them
and then they will fast
in that day.
This is the first time
in the gospel
that an allusion,
a pointing head
to his death
is evident.
I don't know how many of you
have watched Fahuda
and I'm not necessarily
recommending it.
It's an Israeli series
and in that Israeli series,
I think it's the very first episode,
it's not a spoiler alert,
I think it's in the very first episode,
there's a Mossad operation
in the West Bank
in Palestinian-controlled territories
and in the process
of that event,
it all goes upside down,
sideways, inside out.
It just goes in a disastrous direction
and what happens
is that they end up
killing a man
in the wedding ceremony.
They kill the groom
and that fuels
all of the chaos
and the terror
that goes on
for the rest of it
because it's such a huge offense
for the groom
to be killed.
And we know
that if there was a shooting
at a wedding,
it would be in the news.
It wouldn't matter
if it was in New Mexico
or if it was in the Bronx,
it would be in the news.
And so Jesus says
this very, very puzzling thing.
He's saying two types of things
which would have just
very puzzled them very deeply.
On the first hand,
he's saying,
I'm the bridegroom.
The second hand,
he said,
the bridegroom's going to die.
The bridegroom's going to be taken away.
And then he goes on in verse 21.
I'm going to sort of
just tell you a little bit
about the significance of that.
In 21,
though he says,
no one sews a piece
of unshrunk cloth
on an old garment.
Actually,
that's not entirely
true if you're a clueless
16-year-old male
like I was.
And it was cool
to have jeans
that were ripped
and to make patches,
put sew patches on it.
I didn't know that
because I was a clueless
16-year-old male.
I thought you could put
fresh cloth
in old jeans.
But generally,
people who are wise
would understand,
verse 16,
no one sews a piece
of unshrunk cloth
on an old garment.
If he does,
the patch tears away from it,
the new from the old,
and the worst tear is made.
And no one puts new wine
into old wineskins.
If he does,
the wine will burst the skins
and the wine is destroyed.
And so are the skins,
but new wine
is for fresh wineskins.
And that particular image,
back in the day,
they would use,
obviously,
they'd been cured a bit.
They'd use animal skins.
They'd put the new wine
in there.
There'd be still
some fermentation
that would expand.
And because it was a skin thing
and it had some flexibility,
it would grow.
And that's the high image.
But here's the thing.
When Jesus says,
you don't put a new patch
on an old garment
and you don't put new wine
into new wineskins,
what he's not doing,
what he's not saying,
is what you normally hear
from evangelical churches.
He's not giving
a consumerist understanding,
hyper-modern understanding
of the Christian faith.
He's not saying,
you take from this,
by the way,
boys and girls,
men and women,
that we should always
embrace the new.
You know,
there's a new thing happening.
It involves smoke machines
and lasers
and you can't put that
with the old thing.
You've got to get
with the new.
He's not saying
that you have to do
as in consumerism,
that you have to always
buy the latest stuff
and you always have to get
on board with
the latest trend.
He's not saying
that at all.
You can't use the text
to justify consumerism
or hyper-modernity.
What he's just saying
is that God is doing
something very,
very, very different,
very, very shocking
and he's doing it
in the person of Jesus
that there's this
profound mystery
that the bridegroom
has come
and the bridegroom
is going to die
and the bridegroom
is going to die
and that is how
all of these separate texts,
all of these texts
that on one hand
have the image
in the Old Testament
of the bridegroom
and his bride
and all of these
other images
of the unfaithful bride.
It's not putting down woman
because it's talking
about Israel.
It's talking about
the covenant people
and all of these things
about how they've become defiled
and they're broken
and they're enslaved
and they've ruined
their entire lives
and all of these texts
that talk about
the bridegroom
and the bride,
it's the death
of the bridegroom
that is going
to make the bride
beautiful
and going to make
the bride free
and it's all done
out of love.
That God is making
a new covenant people.
He's making
a new covenant
that emerges
out of the bridegroom
having been present
and out of in love
dying to make
a bride
who is beautiful.
See, this is
one of the reasons
why
if you have
Jewish Christians
and then if you have
Nigerian Christians
and you have
Scottish Christians
and you can add
a few other things.
On one level,
if you spend time
with them,
you know that they're
your brother and sister
in Christ.
But the way they live
and the way they worship
might be very,
very, very different.
Because there's
a new covenant
and this new covenant
is for people
of every people group
on the planet.
And it's not that
we all have to follow
the Jewish laws
or anything like that.
God is doing
a new type of thing
where we're made
right with God
by what it is
the bridegroom has done
to die for the bride
that we receive
by faith.
Some of you might remember
there's quite a few years ago
we had a Nigerian priest
with us for three
or four years.
And on the final Sunday
that he was going
to be with us,
he asked if he could
do a Nigerian
Anglican service
for us.
And I don't know
how many of you
were here for that
and might remember it.
But at the hour
and three quarter mark
we hadn't hit communion yet
by the way.
But he realized
that he was in Canada
and he had to stop
and he apologized.
But one of the things
he announced to everybody
he said
and I was sort of
a bit prepared for it
he said
by the way
in Nigeria
we don't pass the plate
for collection
the collection plate
is right on the front
of the Lord's table
and we all sing
and we give our offering
by clapping
and singing
and dancing
down the aisle
to put in your offering.
And he said
so that's what we're
going to do
the band
Jono might have been
I don't know
you weren't the worshiper
and so he said
the band's all prepared
we're going to sing
this long piece
that's what we're going to do
and by the way
the rector is going
to lead the dance.
And I was gobsmacked
I think
whoa he didn't tell me
that I had to lead the dance.
So yeah I know
you should laugh
I'm terrified of dancing
by the way
I only dance
if there's absolutely
nobody in the house
and the blinds are drawn
like then I might dance
to some music
and so I'm like
I guess
there's these two people
in the church at the time
and they could tell
that I was the deer
caught in the headlights
and I was frozen
and so it was very funny
if we'd been filming it
these two people
it was Kendra and Guy
one Kendra comes
and grabs one arm
Guy grabs the other arm
and they do all the dancing
as they drag me down the aisle
and then the rest
of the congregation
come and you know
do the little waving
and wiggling
and anyway
you see
but the point is this
the point of it all
is this
is that when they're
talking about
they're doing a new thing
that's the new thing
which is being referred to
not hyper modernity
not having lasers
nothing wrong with lasers
and smoke machines per se
right
if that's how
people are going to
worship and enter God
that in a sense is fine
but it's not encouraging us
to be consumers
of spiritual products
it's talking about
the fact that God
in the person of his son
is doing something
radically
radically different
now
it sounds as if
all I've done
is talk about church
but here's the thing
that's going on
within the story
that starts to talk to us
a little bit beyond
what's going on in church
we have different intuitions
or clues
human beings in general
when they're reflective
human beings have
different intuitions
or clues
that there's something more
that there's something
transcendent
that there's something
bigger
that it's not just
you eat
you work
you sleep
you buy
you know
and whatever
and you just do this
one thing after another
but at different times
some people have it a lot
some people
it's only occasionally
we have these different
types of intuitions
or moments
that there's something more
and there's lots of
different categories of that
and in this image here
we have
two of those intuitions
are directly addressed
and the first intuition
is
that people have
if they think about it
is that there's something
broken with the world
there's something broken
with the world
I did a funeral yesterday
and
it was a very fine man
who died
he'd had Parkinson's
for a very very very long time
and by the time he died
for actually
for quite a few years
before he died
the Parkinson's
had really ravished him
he was a strong
handsome man
but long before his death
he was completely
and utterly
curled into himself
his whole body
was in a sense
just one
almost like a ball
because the Parkinson's
had ravished it
and a man
who was
intellectually
very very brilliant
his mind
had become
increasingly fuzzy
and
you know
those of you
who are doctors
or nurses
or those of you
who have a profession
where you deal with people
or those of you
who have family members
in situations like that
when you look at them
you say to yourself
there's something
broken with the world
there's something
broken with the world
and this
this story
talks directly
about that intuition
why is it
that the bridegroom
has come
and the bridegroom
is going to die
why is it
there's something
which would be
so shocking
if it happened
and we knew
that it was a bridegroom
dying
that it would be
in the news
the bridegroom
dies
because there's
something broken
with the world
that only God
can fix
and that goes
to in a sense
the second
one of the second
a second type
of intuition
that we have
and the second
type of intuition
that people have
is that love
is stronger
than death
now that defies
all reason
by the way
scientifically
it's not true
scientifically
there is just
one thing
after another
thing
after another
thing
and death
is just
one of those
things
that birth
is no more
natural
than death
they're both
just natural
processes
maturing
is a natural
process
having Parkinson's
is a natural
process
and I guess
they'd say
that falling
in love
or whatever
that means
having the
attraction
of one
of a male
to a female
so that there
can be procreation
that's part
of a natural
process
you can add
words like love
and meaning
and significance
to it
but it's just
a natural
process
but when we
see that
we say
no no no
no no
no
we have
this intuition
this clue
that love
is stronger
than death
that justice
is stronger
than injustice
that goodness
is stronger
than evil
that mercy
is stronger
than self
centered
vengeance
and getting
even
and here
we see this
being directly
addressed as well
because the image
that Jesus uses
for himself
is the image
of the bridegroom
the image
that
though
in a sense
what he's saying
for those who want
to try to pay
attention to it
is that your image
your intuition
your sense
that when you look
at something
like Christine
and Michael
that was the couple
and the man died
and Christine lived
and when you look
at their pictures
and see the love
that surely
surely
love is stronger
than death
and Jesus
is saying
you know what
that intuition
it's true
because the way
to understand
God
and the world
and creation
is that of
between the bride
groom and the bride
now
the next
story
goes even deeper
and it actually
goes in a deeper
way than at first
if you think about it
it's a bit disturbing
but you actually
realize what profound
good news it is
because it's going
to talk about
a different class
of intuitions
that we have
look what happens
in verse 23
and 24
one Sabbath
Jesus was going
through the grain fields
and as they made
their way
his disciples
began to pluck
heads of grain
and the Pharisees
were saying to him
look
why are they doing
what is not lawful
on the Sabbath
now just sort of
pause
most of us
don't know this
when we read
the Old Testament
where if we do
we forget
but in fact
what the Pharisees
are saying
is not correct
what the Old Testament
does
is it provides
remedy
and help
for the poor
and it also
in a sense
institutionalizes
hospitality
and generosity
and how does it do
that when you don't
have a modern
welfare state
and everything like that
what it does
is it creates
a law
that says
a poor person
a hungry person
isn't allowed
to go into
their neighbor's field
and they're not allowed
to take a scythe
or whatever like that
and to cut down
a whole pile
of their grain
they're not allowed
to do that
that's forbidden
but what a hungry person
could do
in ancient Israel
is when the grain
is there
when the orchard
is there
and they can see
the olives
or they can see
the figs
or the grain
on a day
when they're hungry
they can walk through
and they can pick
the stuff
that they need to eat
and they can eat it
they can walk through
the grape field
and they can take
some grapes
they can walk through
whatever other type
of fruit or figs
and they can pluck
some figs
and they can eat
to their hearts
and they can eat
till they're full
they can eat grain
and they can eat
till they're full
and the law
required landowners
to allow that to happen
and what in a sense
the law was doing
is the law was
making sure
that people
people
our hearts
naturally
are closed
to the poor
like our hearts
have a very
we have a deep
well of selfishness
within us
and it's very easy
to ignore the poor
and to forget the poor
and not care about the poor
or to say that the poor
deserve what's happened
to them
if they just
pulled themselves up
by their belt
you know
their shoe straps
or whatever
they could carry
and the Old Testament
knew that because
of the sin
that had come into the world
and broken the world
there would be easy
for people to say that
so this law
was required
for the Jewish people
that they
as a landowner
you couldn't
go out and yell
and say
why are you walking
through my
why are you walking
through my fig orchard
and grabbing a couple
of figs to eat
not allowed to do that
it was right
that a poor person
a hungry person
a traveler
where nobody
had offered them
hospitality
would have a means
by which they could
eat when their food
had run out
and so what
what the Pharisees
have done
is that they have
taken in a sense
that their view
of what should happen
in a church
type of world
that is so important
that the normal
concerns for
generosity
for hospitality
and for caring
for the poor
that you could
ignore that
that in fact
not only could you
ignore it
that you had to
stop it
you had to stop
caring for the poor
stop hospitality
stop generosity
because you had to
keep religious rules
around religious
observances
and that's what's
going on here
in the text
but listen to how
Jesus deals with it
in a surprising way
verse 25
and Jesus said
to them
have you never
read what
David
that's the fellow
who would later
become king
what David did
when he was in need
and was hungry
he and those
who were with him
sorry
David and those
who were with him
were hungry
how verse 28
how he entered
the house of God
in the time of
Abiathar the high
priest
and ate the bread
of the presence
which is not
it is not lawful
for any but the
priest to eat
that's in the
Old Testament law
and also gave it
to those
who were with him
now just pause
what Jesus is doing
is if you
when you're reading
the story
which is found
in 1st Samuel
you read it
and you realize
that the text
this is always
a bit of an issue
in narratives
that the narrative
isn't saying
this is in a sense
something which is
bad that's happening
that the implication
is that this is
something good
that's happening
and so what
Jesus is saying
is if you look
at the stories
you realize in a sense
there's a way
to understand
and order
the you know
order types of things
I mean it would be
today as if
you know
even in places
which if you ever
go to Jerusalem
by the way
if you go to Jerusalem
make sure you're there
on the Shabbat
it's shocking
to see a city
almost completely
shut down
like it's shocking
that you have
these four or five
lane
four lane roads
six lane
sorry
like six or eight lane
three or four
on one side
three or four
going the other ways
that normally
is just
the traffic
is just going
like this
and you go there
on the Sabbath
and you could play
catch with your kid
on it virtually
because everything
just shuts down
it's really shocking
but even there
what you'd have
to understand
is you still have
to have doctors
working
stuff to feed
the poor
and part of the
reason we sort of
get that
is from the Bible
and how Jesus
helps us
to reframe
how you order
these types
of things
it's not that
you should just
disregard the Sabbath
but you've got to
realize that
you should keep
the Sabbath
but you keep
the Sabbath
in such a way
that you still
practice hospitality
still care for the poor
and you're still
generous
and he uses a story
but then he goes on
and says
and he said to them
the Sabbath
was made for man
and woman
not man and woman
for the Sabbath
so the Son of Man
is Lord
even of the Sabbath
if you come to
an Anglican wedding
and you use the
Book of Common Prayer
which is sort of
the basis of
modern Anglicanism
one of the things
which is said
is that marriage
was instituted
of God
in the time
of man's innocency
that's the old language
and what it's saying
is that if you go back
and you look
in Genesis chapter 1
and Genesis chapter 2
before evil
had entered the world
before sin and death
had entered the world
God created
a good world
and part of the
good world's creation
was that he created
men and women
male and female
with the hope
that many of them
would marry
and that was part of
God's original
creational intention
it's not as if
you know
that later on
he had to have
a law against stealing
well you didn't have to
the law against stealing
isn't in a sense
part of God's
original creational intent
you have laws
to go to church
well that
you wouldn't have
had laws about
not laws
you wouldn't have
had encouragements
to go to church
that's something
that's happened
as a result of the fall
and the remedy
of the fall
but part of the way
God created
human beings
is that he made
them male and female
man and woman
with the intent
that they
some at least
would marry
and that that was
part of God's
original good design
and what Jesus
is pointing out
here as well
is that the
Sabbath
is also part
of God's
original good design
because in the
six days of work
and in the seventh
day that God
rests
so here we see
Jesus is actually
making a second
claim to be God
he's making a second
claim to be God
he's saying
that the Lord
who created the
Sabbath
is now standing
in front of you
and he's pointing out
that why did God
create the Sabbath
God created the Sabbath
to bless human beings
God created the Sabbath
so that they would
know that there's
a dignity to work
there's a goodness
to work
but there's also
a goodness
and a dignity
to rest
and that part
of the dignity
of what part of
the thing about
the Sabbath
is that human beings
do not have to worry
and grasp all the time
that God will bless
and so you can have
a day when all you do
is you gather
to spend fellowship
with God
fellowship with other
human beings
to sleep
to eat lots of
extra food
because God
in his bounty
is desiring
to bless you
and to give you
a rhythm
and an order
to your life
that will make you
more fruitful
and able to fulfill
your creational intentions
and that's what God
has done
in creating the Sabbath
and this is how it touches
a third whole category
of intuitions
or clues
like if one set
of intuitions
and clues
is that love
is stronger
than death
like you can't
prove that
scientifically
an atheist
would say
that you just
I mean
Nietzsche
would just say
you don't have
the courage
to reject
the Christian faith
to acknowledge
that God
is dead
but we have
these dang
clues
and intuitions
that love
is stronger
than death
and we have
these dang
clues
and intuitions
that the world
is broken
and that
there must
be a way
to have the world
be unbroken
and fixed
and this is a different
type of intuition
and it's saying
it's the intuition
that comes
if you're on a canoe trip
or you're camping
and you're just
in the beauty
of nature
and the stillness
if those of you
who've been outside
of the city
where you're far away
from the city
there's a
there's a type
of a weight
or a presence
of the silence
it's not just
the same
as being in the city
where it's silent
and even
not just so much
that with nature
my wife and I
like about a month
or so ago
we were in Montreal
and we went
through Mount Royal Park
and everything
and there's just
something beautiful
about that mixture
of the beauty
of nature
and kids playing
and all men
and all women
walking
and you're safe
and at peace
and you just have
a sense of
there's something
about that
that's just
more
there's something
transcendent
about it
just from the
original creation
see part of the
problem that we
have in Canada
and we Canadians
drink it in
I mean we
Christians
drink it in
and I think
actually it's
a fundamentally
human problem
that's worse
at some times
than others
is that we have
unrecognized
incoherence
unrecognized
incoherence
you've heard me
talk about it
before
but if you think
about it
for a second
on one hand
we read an article
that tells us
that evolution
is true
and that everything
that came to exist
was through
that can be
explained through
that mechanism
and then maybe
after that
we go to a funeral
where we hear
about a person
who's died
or we talk
to a friend
who's lost
a loved one
and we both
just say
they've gone
to a better place
never sort of
thinking
that if we've
actually
if there is
a better place
to go to
then that means
that how you've
just described
how things came
to be
can't be true
that that's
like
incoherent
and then after
you've done that
you have a bit
of another discussion
about how to
understand a
particular moral
or ethical issue
that you're
trying to understand
but you never
stop to think
one moment
my understanding
of the better place
has nothing to do
with how I understand
how to live my life
in a way
that's good
and that has
nothing to do
with how I think
things came to be
but we never
stop to think
that those things
might be completely
incoherent
and then we go
after having that
discussion on our way
home
we go to buy
some crystals
or some other
types of techniques
that can help us
to get in touch
with the spiritual
things
never stopping
to think
that how we think
that right and wrong
happens
and how that
better place is
that when we die
and how things
came to be
in crystals
that's completely
incoherent
like those things
don't fit
like they don't
fit with each other
at all
like the better
place if that's true
then how on earth
does that work
with the crystals
and how is it
that you can have
a good life
but that has
nothing to do
with the
like that's
completely and
utterly incoherent
and then from that
we might go
to have
to watch
to listen to some music
and have a profound
aesthetic experience
but never stop
to think
that our aesthetic
experience
is different
than the crystals
which is different
than how you live
which is different
than the better
place you go
when you die
and it's different
than evolution
and we walk
through life
never realizing
that these things
are completely
in our
we live
in complete
and utter
unconscious
incoherence
and the shocking
thing here
of the bible
is that Jesus
says he is
the bridegroom
and Jesus
says he is
the lord
of the sabbath
and Jesus
says he is
the bridegroom
who will out of
for love's sake
and mercy's sake
will die
for the beloved
that in a sense
when you become
a Christian
you are being
invited to leave
your incoherence
behind
and to walk
to the end
to understand
that your intuitions
all meet
in just one person
the true and living
God
Jesus
God
the son of God
who came to die
for you
and you see
it's why
when you
come to
understand
that it's
only in
Jesus
that the
incoherent
intuitions
and longings
and practices
of our lives
can start
to find
a unity
not just
a unity
that we
create
because we
have to
find
a unity
but because
it's a natural
unity
it's not
something we
create
or invent
it's something
we discover
or recognize
it's not
something
that we
manufacture
but something
that's there
that we can
enter into
and that when
we enter
into it
we can learn
to live
out of it
and as we
learn to
live out
of it
as we let
the story
of the gospel
and the story
of the God
who's created
all things
and the breaking
of all things
and the fact
that God
has done
something
in the person
of his son
which will
restore
and rectify
and renew
and rebuild
all things
and there's
this one
story
it helps us
to understand
how we can
see
here's the
problem
with fasting
people use
fasting
to make
themselves
more powerful
but what's
at the heart
of being
how many
people
don't you
think
if you're
watching
a TV
show
or a movie
and the
person
says
I'd really
like to
have a
love
relationship
I think
what I
got to
do
is make
myself
way more
powerful
and people
would be
going
I think
making
yourself
more
and more
powerful
isn't
probably
the way
that you
enter
into a
love
relationship
because
that
normally
implies
I don't
know
vulnerability
giving in
forgiving
the other
person
you see
in religious
traditions
and spiritual
traditions
you fast
to clean
your body
of toxins
to be
more
powerful
you fast
to show
that you're
part of
the justified
to earn
those brownie
points
to be right
with God
in other
words
to become
more
powerful
but in
Christian
fasting
and obviously
Christians get
this wrong
all the time
they slip
into doing
it as a
way to
try to
get more
power
earned
brownie
points
but at
the heart
of fasting
is that
you voluntarily
it's connected
to that aspect
of the love
relationship
where
you know
if a husband
is never
vulnerable
with his
wife
the husband
is walking
away from
his wife
and pushing
his wife
away
we fast
not to become
strong
but to become
vulnerable
and to remember
that we have
this great
bridegroom
who's died
for us
and loves
us
and that
we are
closer to
him
in weakness
this whole
image of
the Lord
of the
Sabbath
anyway
we'll stop
there
no
I'm going
to do
that
there's
an old
joke
there's
an oil
tanker
going down
in the
water
and
they see
one
light
up ahead
big
light
but
just one
oil
tanker
has lots
of light
so they
get on
the thing
they connect
with him
on the
radio
and say
we're
an oil
tanker
you're
just
you know
we're
coming
you've
got to
get out
of her
way
the
person
at the
other end
of the
light
says
no
you
you've
got to
move
we're
not
moving
and the
oil
tanker
gets back
online
and says
no
you don't
understand
we're
an oil
tanker
you've got to
move
you've got to
get out
of the
way
the
other
light
comes
back
I know
we only
have
one
light
but
you're
the
one
who
has
to
move
you
have
to
move
we're
not
moving
the
oil
tanker
says
no
they're
really
getting
frustrated
you
you need
to
understand
we're
a
huge
super
oil
tanker
you've
got to
get out
of the
way
and
finally
the
person
in
their
life
says
we're
a
lighthouse
you've
got to
get out
of
the
way
and
you
see
that's
what's
happening
here
in
these
stories
it's
part
of
what's
at
the
heart
of
the
very
Christian
faith
if
Jesus
really
is
the
bridegroom
if
he
really
is
the
Lord
of
the
Sabbath
then
what
that
means
is
that
we
in
a
sense
don't
just
sort
of
fit
him
into
our
life
as
if
somehow
our
criteria
our
way
of
understanding
the
part
of
our
day
or
our
week
in
other
words
he
has
to
move
around
us
because
we're
big
and
he's
small
that
part
of
what
the
Christian
life
involves
is
coming
to
understand
that
he's
the
lighthouse
and
we
got
to
move
around
him
that
the
criteria
that
he
reveals
judge
our
criteria
that
we
fit
into
the
shape
of
what
he
brings
into
the
world
rather
than
what
he
brings
into
the
world
fits
into
the
shape
of
what
I'm
doing
with
my
world
that's
what it
means for
him to be
the
Lord
and to
be
the
bridegroom
and
frankly
for human
beings
that's
very
scary
that I
have to
relinquish
some
control
of my
life
and
start
to
have
his
criteria
be
the
criteria
by
which
I
evaluate
politics
and
money
and
sexuality
and
my
time
and
family
and
justice
rather than
him fitting
into my
commitments
and if
you're scared
by that
welcome to
the human
race
but all I
can say
is
what this
text is
telling us
is
why
wouldn't
you want
to
have
your
ego
die
so
that
love
forms
you
why
wouldn't
you
want
your
order
alguém
companies
and
blessing
forms
you
why
would
you want to think that your ego has to rule those things?
Don't you and I understand that if we die to our ego
and allows the one who loved us so much that he died for us
to form us, that that is both a way that
the intuitions and longings and clues of our hearts
actually we start to realize that they're not just intuitions or clues
but we can begin to enter into them and live out of them?
If you're hearing this or watching this and you're not a Christian
that's why you should become a Christian. You should say to Jesus, Jesus be my Savior and my Lord.
And for those who are here and those who are here who are Christians
that's why we say it is so good that we gather on a Sunday morning
to remember this and to recommit to it.
To remember, yes, I know it's hard to let my sexuality
be controlled by the gospel but it's worth it. I know it's hard to let my
relationship with money be shaped by the gospel but
gosh, it's worth it. Yes, my desire for vengeance, I want to just let that loose
but gosh, it's good to remember that it's better to be shaped by the gospel.
Shaped by the gospel and formed by the gospel
and learn to live out of something other than injustice or
hatred or vengeance.
It is so good to be a follower of Jesus and recommit to that.
Yes, let's live this week for his glory and the good of the city
and for our true good.
I invite you to stand.
Father, if there are any here who can feel
you knocking on the door of their heart,
we ask that the Holy Spirit would help them to
open the door and to look at Jesus and say,
Jesus, please be my Savior and please be my Lord.
Thank you that you are the bridegroom who died,
that I might be beautiful and free,
part of your beautiful and free people.
And Father, for those of us who have already opened the door
and allowed Jesus to be our Savior and our Lord,
we give you thanks and praise that we can gather on Sundays to recommit.
Father, for those of us who have mentoring relationships
or spiritual friendships or in small groups,
we give you thanks and praise that there are other times
when we can gather, whether it's with college and careers
or youth group or small groups,
and talk through how to live life shaped by the gospel
to share our triumphs and share our sorrows
and share our burden for the world and for the city
and for just life and be able to share that around the gospel
and to pray into that and to be formed by the gospel.
Father, we thank you that you have provided these means of grace
that are so important that we can gather around and be part of.
And Father, we thank you for your word.
We thank you for the gospel.
We thank you for Jesus.
We thank you that he is both the Lord of the Sabbath from creation
and he, by being the bridegroom,
is to be this, that you have called us to be part of a covenant of love
and that by his death for us, the bridegroom,
that he is the one who has made us, the church, beautiful.
Beautiful.
Father, we thank you for this.
Grip us with the gospel that we might live this week
shaped by the gospel, living for your glory.
And we ask this in the name of Jesus and all God's people said,
Amen.