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Yorkminster Park Speaks - Week Four

Monday | Unencumbered grace
Submitted by: Carol Roberts

"It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God."
- Mark 10:25, NIV

This particular scripture can be understood quite literally... it is impossible to stuff a huge camel through the tiny eye of a needle. Jesus is juxtaposing our wealth/riches against the narrow and focused way of the Christian life. So what relevance does this passage have and how can we apply this to real life? The distortion of perspective is what is being addressed here. Jesus is illustrating and cautioning against placing more value on material possessions than on His Kingdom. Wealth can create an inflated sense of self and encourage a false sense of independence. Jesus wants our dependence, focus and gaze to rest solely on Him and not on our worldly possessions.

Throughout scripture we are reminded that the ability to get wealth comes from God and Jesus never wants us to lose this perspective. He continually assures us that "He shall supply all of our needs according to His riches in Christ Jesus." (Philippians 4:19) We are to hold our possessions loosely and to hold Him tightly.

Wealth or obsessing over money has a strong inclination to take our attention away from God. Because we become more focused on maintaining what we have or inviting worry about what we do not have, we neglect to pay attention to the things of God. God wants us to have a healthy regard for money and to see it soberly for what it is - simply a medium of exchange. In Revelation 3:17-18 the Apostle John has this to say about wealth: "Because you say, ‘I am rich, have become wealthy, and have need of nothing'-and do not know that you are wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked- I counsel you to buy from Me gold refined in the fire, that you may be rich." Jesus wants our spiritual eyes open.

It's true that we can be blinded by our material possessions but our solid hope rests in God's amazing grace and in the power of His Holy Spirit that indwells us. Through Jesus Christ we can overcome the subtle pitfalls of a distorted perspective of money and enter easily into His kingdom completely unencumbered.

Questions to Ponder:
If Jesus were to whisper in your ear right now and ask you to "give up all of your material possessions and follow me" could you do this easily?
How does your relationship with God shape your views about money?

Final Prayer Thought:
Dear Lord Jesus, please continue to remind me daily that you are my source for everything and all of my material wealth. Please help me to have a healthy perspective about money and may the fruits of my labour be always glorifying to you. In Jesus name. Amen.

Your Questions or Comments?

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Tuesday | Do I Believe God is Good?
Submitted by: Rupen Das

"Test me in this and see if I don't open up heaven itself to you and pour out blessings beyond your wildest dreams."
- Malachi 3:10, The Message

As large numbers of Syrian refugees continue to cross over the border into Lebanon, significant portions of them are Christian. Most have fled as their towns have been turned into rubble and as their churches have been ransacked by criminal elements or damaged because they were caught in the middle of raging battles. One reporter commented that he hadn't seen this level of urban destruction since the battle for Sarajevo in the Balkans in the 1990s. Variations of this story are being repeated right across the region, whether it is Iraq, Egypt, or Palestine, as Christians feel increasingly threatened and abandoned. Yet the Christians in the Middle East have very deep historical roots. Wadi Nasara (Valley of the Nazarenes) in Syria has some of the oldest monasteries in the world and is the only place where they still speak Aramaic, the language that Jesus spoke.

They have kept their faith for the past two thousand years in the midst of invasions, wars, revolutions, droughts, famines, and prosperity. Yet now they are losing their homes and their countries.

The prophet Malachi speaks during a similar time in the history of Israel. The nation had endured seventy years of exile and had returned around the years 538 B.C. with high hopes. As they came back they referred to Isaiah 40-55, believing that the messianic age would come soon and that the future described in Isaiah was to be theirs. They finished building the temple (Ezra 6:14-15) with the encouragement of prophets like Haggai and Zechariah, believing that the blessings of God would now flow. Yet what they experienced was poverty, oppression, drought, famine and an increasing moral and spiritual decline.

While Malachi warns of God's judgment (3:2 "For who can endure the day of his coming?"), he asks them whether they still believed God is good? God makes one of the most stunning offers to those who are in the darkest of times: "Test me in this and see if I don't open up heaven itself to you and pour out blessings beyond your wildest dreams." (Malachi 3:10)

Question to Ponder:
It is easy to believe in the goodness of God during times of peace and prosperity. Reflect on Habakkuk 3:17-18: "Though the fig tree does not bud
and there are no grapes on the vines, 
though the olive crop fails
 and the fields produce no food, 
though there are no sheep in the pen
and no cattle in the stalls, yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will be joyful in God my Savior." What do I need to know and believe about God to praise Him as Habakkuk suggests?

Final Prayer Thought:
Father, in my darkest times, open my eyes that I would see your goodness and understand that you seek to bless me if I would only be willing to trust you unconditionally. Forgive my unbelief and give me the faith to be able to see You. I realize that I stand in Your presence only because of Jesus. Amen

Your Questions or Comments?

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Wednesday | Enriched in Every Way
Submitted by: Ruth Farrow

"You will be enriched in every way for your great generosity."
- 2 Corinthians 9:11

Generosity can be defined as "giving without expecting anything in return."Nature tells us that what is planted usually determines the return. Sow little, reap little. Invest little, profit little. So we can guess that if we give generously, we just might reap generously as well. Paul is not interested in reaping generously, however, at least not in the usual sense. Rather he is addressing the Christian purpose of giving here. Give, he says, to help those in need and consequently so that they will overflow with thanks to God. The Corinthian church was a relatively wealthy church that had promised to help the fledgling Macedonian community of believers and Paul was directing them in this passage regarding their generosity so that they might understand the nature of giving.

Giving is a mindset which can change the focus of our talents, time and money to something much bigger and greater than ourselves. True, we must carefully look after ourselves and our needs. But in this materialistic culture that we live in, looking after ourselves becomes an end in itself. We could do with a bigger, greater goal, to adopt a spirit of generosity. When one gives, says Paul in v.8, "God is able to make it up to you by giving you everything you need and more, so that there will not only be enough for your needs, but plenty left over to give joyfully to others." Notice that the promise is to provide for necessities and for enough to assist others.

We have a responsibility here at YP to look after ourselves and our church community. There is a lot of energy, good will and initiatives in many areas, but no church is a perfect church. The Corinthians had a lot of problems too, probably more than any of the other congregations Paul wrote to. That is why we can learn a great deal from Paul's careful advice to this fascinating and far-from-perfect church. His advice is to be a generous and thankful people to our God who has been and continues to be so generous to us.

Questions to Ponder:
What area of my life needs an infusion of generosity- my time, my talents, or my money?
What will be enriched through my generosity?

Final Prayer Thought:
Prayer for Generosity (St. Ignatius of Loyola)
Lord, teach me to be generous.
Teach me to serve you as you deserve. Amen

Your Questions or Comments?

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Thursday | One Hundred Percent
Submitted By: Alana Walker Carpenter

"Make an offering of ten percent, a tithe, of all the produce which grows in your fields year after year. Bring this into the Presence of GOD, your God, at the place he designates for worship."
- Deuteronomy 14:22 (The Message)

I have never liked numbers. Ironically, I married a mathematician. While the above passage above probably requires little to no math background, in every sense of the word it requires us to have a heart background.

There has been much debate on this passage. Firstly, in regards to the authority of the Old and the New Testament. Secondly, on whether one should tithe before tax or after tax. And, lastly on the amount one should give to the church vs para church. Taking it one step further, some consider the sacred vs secular charitable distribution.

To me, all of these things are irrelevant. From my perspective, it is 100 per cent no if, ands or buts about it.It is my belief that everything we own as individuals and within our organizations is on loan. Therefore, we are responsible to steward it all - one hundred per cent. And, that we will be responsible to God for the portion we do not tithe as much as we will for the portion we do tithe.

Truth be told, I skipped math class (several times). I did manage to get the basics of arithmetic. While I might not have got one hundred per cent, I tried. In essence, that is what God expects of us - for us to simply start to try.

Questions to Ponder:
Reflect on how you spend your monies after you tithe. Do your spending and saving patterns reflect the attitude that your resources our own loan and that we are equally responsible for the distribution? Evaluate your present philanthropic strategy both individual and corporate, if applicable. At what number would you feel that you would be giving until it hurts.

Your Questions or Comments?

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Friday | Clothes Make the Christian
Submitted by: Jake Aikenhead

"You're done with that old life. It's like a filthy set of ill-fitting clothes you've stripped off and put in the fire... So, chosen by God for this new life of love, dress in a wardrobe God picked out for you: compassion, kindness, humility, quiet strength, discipline... And regardless of what else you put on, wear love. It's your basic all-purpose garment. Never be without it."
- Colossians 3:9, 12, 14, The Message

What I like about monastic-types from all religious traditions is that they are visibly identifiable. Whether it is the austere, red and yellow robes donned by Buddhist monks or the black and white habit worn by Christian nuns, when you cross paths with such individuals you immediately know-at least in a general sense-the shape and direction of their lives. In fact, the same is true about the anarchist punks and squeegee kids who, with their studded leather jackets and dogs in tow, make camp beneath the bridges and on the sidewalks of our city. And while I may not be able to relate to their particular worldview (or agree with it entirely), I am intrigued by the fact that they wear a kind of uniform, a physical differentiation from the rest of the population that is rooted in their understanding of what kind of world we live in.

But what separates the sheep from the goats, or in this case, the squeegee kids from the monastics, is the fact that it is possible to be a follower of Christ without joining a religious order, but it is not possible to identify as a squeegee kid without wearing the "uniform." There is no such thing as a squeegee kid who wears a three-piece suit or commutes from a comfortable home in the suburbs to wash car windows beneath the Gardiner Expressway. The garments, the daily activities and the living accommodations are all necessary components of that lifestyle and they all serve to support and justify the underlying beliefs that this section of society holds.

According to Colossians, what is true of the squeegee kid is also true of the Christian. Just as the former wears a "uniform" which is indicative of his/her beliefs, so also the Christian should appear distinct (and visibly so!) from the rest of the population based on his/her belief in the love of God made known in Christ. We have died to the old self and burned our old clothes and we cannot be followers of Jesus without wearing the "uniform" of compassion. Our understanding of the world requires that we "wear love."

And what is it to wear love? It is to adopt a certain posture, one that develops as we allow our hearts to be reformed according to the upside down economy espoused by Jesus, where the poor and the afflicted and those without hope are embraced and not ignored. Such a posture is not visible in the same way as a studded leather jacket, but rather, it is visible in the sense that it directs the Christian into places and interactions where the old self would never have been found. Its tangibility, therefore, cannot be detected in an instant, but is made evident in time, as individuals and the Church bear witness to the light of Christ in the dark corners of this world (including those beneath the Gardiner Expressway). To "wear love" then, is to continually proclaim with one's choices that money, status, power and appearance are not the bottom line, but rather that this is a universe where love reigns and that restoration and new life have come through Jesus Christ.

Question to Ponder:
What types of places do you find yourself in that your old self never would have visited?

Final Prayer Thought:
May all our hearts be receptive to the transformation that results from knowing the love of God. And may we become evermore visible in the world as we learn how to wear the love that we have inherited. Amen.

Your Questions or Comments?

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Saturday | Joyful Generosity
Submitted by: Kathleen Wilson

"This most generous God who gives seed to the farmer that becomes bread for your meals is more than extravagant with you. He gives you something you can then give away, which grows into full-formed lives, robust in God, wealthy in every way, so that you can be generous in every way..."
- 2 Corinthians 9:11, The Message

As Christians, we must value the importance of ‘training' ourselves to act and react in certain ways to certain situations. However many times this ‘training' can occur without our even realizing it. This is God's way of molding us into the type of people he calls us to be. Do you ever find yourself praying and calling out to God more when you need something? Or when a situation is not going ‘your way'? How do you think that makes Him feel? How can we let go of these things and allow God to step in and train us to be generous and thankful followers, despite our hardships?

Consider this passage as the outline or framework, if you will, through which God is equipping and training us to be a giving people. For it is only through His generosity toward us that we can joyfully reach out to others in the same manner. "You will be enriched in every way so that you can be generous on every occasion." This passage goes on to indicate that generosity is a form of worship (not all worship has to be musical!) saying, "... your generosity will result in thanksgiving to God."

Therefore, give joyfully and generously as your practical form of worship in which God has trained and equipped you through his abounding love and generosity.

Questions to Ponder:
Highlight some areas of your own life where you feel particularly blessed by God's generosity toward you. How can we at YPBC expand our worship to God through our generosity?

Final Prayer Thought:
Lord, thank you for every blessing you have bestowed upon me. Please train me to joyfully reach out in the same spirit of generosity to others. Amen.

Your Questions or Comments?

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