Garry Mullen

Today’s Scripture Reading (January 29, 2012): Psalm 122 & 123

A church service should never be just another ritual. It shouldn’t be something that we feel that we have to do or accomplish – part of our spiritual duty. It can’t be just another requirement as we earn God’s approval and assure our path to heaven. It has to be more than that.

I am convinced that our church services should be fun. There should be nothing more pleasurable than coming together with the family of God and giving worth to the one who created us. It is not that our ritual and liturgies are wrong. But if they have become for us just something that we endure, then they are wrong.

The worship time should be a time that we anticipate, a time when we know that we are going to have a chance to love and encourage others that will worship with us – and a time when we get to allow others to come and minister to us.

The worship service should be so much more than just something that we get through. My fear is that we have lost the anticipation that the Psalmist speaks about – that maybe the thought that we should experience joy at the anticipation of the worship service is a foreign concept. But my hope is that it is an anticipation and a joy that we can recover.

I rejoiced with those who said to me, “Let us go to the house of the LORD.” It is time. Come, let us worship.

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Psalm 126, 127 & 128                                    

Note: The VantagePoint Community Church Sermon “The Essential James Part 1 – The Door is now available on the VantagePoint Website – you can find it here

           http://www.vantagepointcc.org/The_Essential_James_Part_1___The_Door.htm

Today’s Scripture Reading (January 28, 2012): Psalm 118

 I admit that I sometimes suffer from a disease called “church envy.” I look around me at ministries of others and I wonder why we can’t do some of the things that they do. In fact, I suffer so much that there is one church in the city that is known affectionately in my family as “Garry’s Church.” To be honest, I have no idea what goes on inside of the building, but from the outside the building is beautiful.

It is a trap that we all can fall into. We look at the outside of something and decide that it must be good because it is beautiful. We do the exact same thing with people. If they are beautiful, if they wear the right clothes, if they have the right jobs and the right social connections – then they are good. And that attitude probably says a lot about our inability to find solutions to some of the social problems that is brought on by poverty – because somewhere deep in our psyche we believe that the problem of poverty is the problem of evil (which is true) but our solution is to try and make it (and them) beautiful. We address the outside issues without even trying to address the inner problem – part of which is our own greed. And the problem is that we have an unhealthy connection between what is beautiful and what is good.

The biblical image is repeatedly the reverse.  Jesus said that the last shall be first and the one that is the least will be lifted up to the position of the one of privilege. It is the great reversal. The reality is that God sees things differently than we do.

And it just isn’t about us. The Psalmist talks about the stone that the builder has rejected has become the capstone. Literally, the stone that the builder rejects becomes the one that is given the highest visibility – it is placed on the top of the wall. Normally it is the position that is saved for the best (and most beautiful) stone that was available for use by the builder. But the Psalmist reverses the processes. And in the New Testament, this reversal is applied to Jesus. He is the stone that the builders have rejected, and he has been made the capstone.

Beautiful things are great, but they aren’t necessarily good. And the reverse is also true. Isaiah wrote some other words that have been applied to Jesus.  

¹ Who has believed our message
and to whom has the arm of the LORD been revealed?
² He grew up before him like a tender shoot,
and like a root out of dry ground.
He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him,
nothing in his appearance that we should desire him.
³ He was despised and rejected by men,
a man of sorrows, and familiar with suffering.
Like one from whom men hide their faces
he was despised, and we esteemed him not.

                                                                        (Isaiah 53:1-3)

The stone the builder has rejected has become the capstone. And the great reversal is the great reality of our lives. As Christians, we daily come to give honor to the one who was rejected.

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Psalm 122 & 123

Today’s Scripture Reading (January 27, 2012): Psalm 115

Genesis starts off with the story of creation. And in the middle of the story of creation is the story of Adam’s first job. Adam was the first biologist and the task that he received after creation was to find and name the animals. It must have been an amazing job. Imagine trying to put words to a creature that has never before been named – there is no Latin or German or French names on which to base the new name. Everything that you are naming has never before possessed a name.

In a number of cultures, to know the name of something implies ownership and control. A name is sacred. It is interesting to me that God didn’t give to Adam a list of names and pictures of the animals to go with the name. God didn’t want to give Adam everything. What he wanted was for Adam to take responsibility for creation. So to learn responsibility, he gave Adam the task of finding and giving the sacred name. And all of this is part of our essential understanding about God. He has given us the freedom to live our lives on the earth, but not the freedom to do what we want with the earth. It is ours. We named the animals and the plants and places. We own them, but more than that, but we are also responsible for it. And we will answer to the creator of the earth for what it is that we do with his creation.

It is the message of the Psalmist. Understand that the heavens belong to God – and God is responsible for it. The psalmist actually repeats the name heaven, it is this repeated emphasis that the translator has called the highest heaven, or the heaven of the heavens. It is not the place of the stars, but the home of God that belongs to God. The rest he has bequeathed to us.

But we need to remember the responsibility we bear for what it is that has been given to us – and that which we have named. We are the giver of the names. But that doesn’t mean that we can do what we want with creation. It has been entrusted to us with the understanding that we will defend it and care for it.   

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Psalm 118

Today’s Scripture Reading (January 26, 2012): Psalm 113 & 114

I am not a children’s pastor. Children tend to scare me (well, not really.) Maybe the real problem is that I am still a child myself – somehow I never got around to growing up. The real problem is that I am a fairly large man. And when you are small, big can be intimidating. I have a couple of nieces (Kyla and Kenzie) that were petrified of me for the first few years of their lives. If they had to cross a room that I would happen to be in, they would only do it on the run. If only they had known how much that I loved (and love) them. Their brother, Kieran, was too tough to admit that he had a problem with me. But I do recognize that my size can be a problem.

Maybe one of the best compliments I have ever received was from a Children’s Pastor that I had to cover for (for just a few minutes) at a Vacation Bible School. As she tells the story, she left the room to go and answer a phone call and left me with the kids, and when she got back I was laying on the floor playing with them, which according to her was exactly the right thing to do – to make an effort to get down on their level.

This is the image that I think of as I read the Psalmists words. The Psalmist speaks of a God that is bigger than anyone or anything that we could imagine. The Bible calls him a God who should be feared – because he holds the power to create and destroy in his hands. He is deserving of our worship because only he can truly create anything out of nothing – God does not requiring any materials in the act of creation. God is so far beyond our imagination that he is hard to describe or understand. He is completely other.

And yet, it is this God that bends down to communicate with us. He is the one that is concerned with the most mundane aspects of our existence. Out of his magnificence, he stoops down so that we can recognize who it is that he is. And that God would bother with something as insignificant as us is more than just a small mystery.

And yet … he does. And one of the purposes of poetry is to give us a picture of the things (like this) that are hard to understand.

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Psalm 115

Today’s Scripture Reading (January 25, 2012): Psalm 112

There has been some interesting research lately concerning the overall health of a country (including the physical, social, mental and spiritual health) as it relates to the economic realities of that country. And part of what is being revealed isn’t all that surprising. As the amount of money that the individual has at its disposal rises, so does the health of the people. And that makes sense. As the disposable income rises, people have more money to spend on health issues and health care. And if this were the only reason, this is enough evidence to suggest that that those that have wealth need to be actively involved in the care of those that have not.

But the research also led us to a result that we weren’t expecting. There is a limit to the benefit of wealth. In fact there are certain diseases (such as obesity, high blood pressure, diabetes and some kinds of cancer) that are becoming known as the “diseases of the rich.” These are the diseases that impact the rich more than they do the poor. And there is an amount of money that we can possess where the health of the person actually begins to drop. But beyond that, there was another effect that wealth has on health. As the split between the wealthiest 20% and the poorest 20% widens, the health of the entire nations, including the health of the rich, begins to decline.

Canada would seem to be at about middle on the list of nations. In Canada, we have an average gap (the richest 20% in Canada have about 5.6 times more money when compared to the poorest %20.) Japan has one of the smaller gaps (sitting at about 3.4 times more money for the rich) and one of the best health indexes. The U.S has one of the largest gaps (8.5 times) and is at the top of the scale having one the most health related problems when compared with the other nations of the world.

Armed with this knowledge, it shouldn’t be a surprise that the Bible preaches living a generous life. Generosity helps the poor, but it also helps the rich. When we are generous, ensuring that the poor have enough to survive out of the excess of the rich, the health of the entire society rises – and that means that both the rich and the poor receive a health benefit.

The Psalmist simply says to live your life generously. Lend freely out of your excess to those that are in need. Be aware of the justice issues that exist in your society. God demands it of us, but he does so because it will make this world a better place to live both for the poor and for the rich. When we are generous, the whole society stands in benefit of what is that we do are doing.

 Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Psalm 113 & 114                              

Note: The VantagePoint Sermon from January 15, 2012 – When Clean Hands Are Not Enough – is now available on the VantagePoint Website. You can find the link here – http://www.vantagepointcc.org/The_Essential_James_Part_1___When_Clean_Hands_Are_Not_Enough.htm  

Today’s Scripture Reading (January 24, 2012): Proverbs 30

There is a story that I heard at the beginning of my career as a student. The story was about the people that you meet on a University Campus. The first group are the ones that simply know that God exists – they have heard of God. The second group of people are the ones that have actually seen God. Their knowledge of God goes beyond the faith that God exists, but they have had actual sightings of God. The third group of people have not only seen God, but they have talked to God – they have actually spoken to God. And then the last group of people that you meet on a University Campus are those that have actually lived with God.

Of course, those that know that God exists are the highest academics of a University. Those that have seen God are the Professors and Teachers of the classes. Those that have talked with God are the Graduate students. And those that have lived with God and communed with are the second, third and fourth year undergraduates. Of course, the first year students are God.

The story is told tongue in cheek. But the intent is that the more you know, the less you know. And no place is a better example of that than a University Campus. The best way to be sure of anything is to stay a novice. And that is the intent of Agur as he starts out his wisdom passage. The more I know, the more I don’t know.

I am convinced that faith works exactly that way. The more we understand the grace and mercy of God, the less sure we become about this world that we live in. If we served a God who was totally committed to justice, it would be easy. Our actions would lead to undeniable consequences. But we serve a God of grace and mercy –a God that is all about forgiveness. And forgiveness is a game changer.

It is easy to think about God as dominated by rules when we first set out on our journey of faith. But as we go – his love changes everything and we have nothing we can do but agree with Agur – that we are a people without understanding.  

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Psalm 112

Today’s Scripture Reading (January 23, 2012): Proverbs 29

True friendship has a give and take to it. We value each other, but we also stand in a position where we remind each other of growth areas. Between friends that reminder is gentle touch – often done even without words, but just with our actions. And correction (or reminders of our growth areas), when done correctly can even be encouraging for us. It gives us hope that tomorrow can be even better. Through true friendships, we are built up – made stronger. We become better equipped to walk into tomorrow.

But that doesn’t happen when we just flatter each other. The warning of the Proverb is that those who just seem to want to flatter us need to be watched. There isn’t a real friendship at work there. It is more likely that the flatterer is simply setting a trap for us, hoping that we will expose ourselves for some purpose that will only benefit them.

The flatterer is a danger – and his purpose is not to build us up. The double impact of that is that we need to be careful around those whose purpose seems to be only to compliment. But we also need to be careful that the ability to flatter is not made to be the price for our company. We need to be willing to hear the correction from those who are closest to us – and to return the favor for them.

In that way we become stronger – and so does the community that exists around us.        

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Proverbs 30

Today’s Scripture Reading (January 22, 2012): Proverbs 28

Sometimes I am afraid that we are creating the wrong thing in the church. The church seems to be a place where we all dress up nice and act nice. But for a lot of us it is just an act. It seems that it doesn’t take long living inside the church until we learn how to play the game. And when we don’t play the game, we are even doing that with a purpose – there is a point that we are trying to get across. What we don’t seem to want to do is reveal who it is that we really are. We don’t trust that if people see the real us, that they will still be able to love and accept us.

So, our defense is to learn to play the game. We learn to act in a culturally accepted way. We understand that Jesus is supposed to make a difference – and so we pretend. In some ways that isn’t bad. It can be the first step to real life change because it creates the image of who it is that Jesus is creating us to be. But, sometimes, we simply get comfortable in the role play and we begin to live double lives – the role play becomes natural – and we become a different person when we are in church than we are at any other place in our lives. And that was never what God intended for us.

The church is supposed to be the one place where we can confess our sin, and we realize that there is mercy and forgiveness – not just from God, but also from the people who attend the church with us. It is there that we recognize that it is exactly for those sins that Jesus died. And we all have things that we are not proud of hiding somewhere in our lives – things that need to be forgiven.

The truth is that while we clean up well for Sunday morning, all of us bring baggage into the worship service. The challenge of Christ is not which of us come into the sanctuary the cleanest, but rather which of us is willing to confess the sin that holds us hostage and leave forgiven and clean.

It is time once again to come and find the forgiveness we need. It is time to really worship. See you in church!

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Proverbs 29

Today’s Scripture Reading (January 21, 2012): Proverbs 27

I meet almost weekly with a group of friends for a time of discussion. To be honest, we often have an agenda for the meeting, but we don’t always get through the agenda. Someone will make a comment and then all in a sudden a discussion that we could never have predicted begins. We don’t always agree with each other and a person who eavesdrops on us might even get the idea that we don’t like each other. But these meeting can be cherished times for me – and, I hope, for my friends.

Part of what these meetings – or these discussions – do for me is that they sharpen exactly what it is that I believe. And I need that. Sometimes I don’t realize where my belief is weak until the discussion starts. And I need to be pushed. Last Sunday in my message I quoted the poet Alexander Pope. He said that “some people never learn anything, for this reason, because they understand everything too soon.” Part of what I think Pope was trying to say is that we never really learn anything unless there is a struggle involved. If the concept comes too easy, we really don’t get the depth of what it really means – we only have a surface understanding. And what that means is that there might be very few things that we really learn in life.

As I was starting out as a pastor, I was told that you never own a sermon until you have preached it five times. According to that definition, I can probably count the sermons that I own on one hand – I just don’t get to preach many sermons multiple times. But I am beginning to understand the why behind the words – a sermon can’t become mine until I have really struggled with its concepts. And that only happens through a consistent studying and preaching of the sermon.

Nothing that is worth having seems to come easy – life just isn’t designed that way. Iron sharpens iron through a struggle of wills, one piece of iron almost damaging the other. I am lucky to have some friends around me that are willing to spend the time and be vulnerable enough to sharpen me. And I hope that I remain willing to be sharpened.       

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Proverbs 28

Today’s Scripture Reading (January 20, 2012): Proverbs 26

It is cold this week. Some of the forecast lows this week have approached -40 – and at that temperature it doesn’t matter if I am talking Fahrenheit or Celsius. At -40 it is actually the same temperature as the two ways of measuring temperature cross over. But that doesn’t really matter either, because -40 is just cold. It is around that temperature that we cease to have the ability to tell whether it is getting colder. It all starts to feel the same.

Actually though, we have been spoiled – because up until this week it has been a very mild winter. Where I live we haven’t even had much snow this year. At this point in time last year the snow drifts around my house were actually taller than I am and the problem that I had when I started to shovel the new snow that had fallen during the night was that I had no place to put the snow. And that just isn’t a problem so far this year.

But I have to admit that there is part of me that is screaming “we are going to pay for the good weather.” We are going to have snow in May and June and July because we have to get the quota of snow that Gad has for us. And I get that that is silly. But the truth is that I live in a part of the world that actually can experience snow during the summer. It isn’t a normal occurrence, but it does happen. And maybe this is going to be the year.

But there is a problem. Snow, when it comes during the summer, actually doesn’t have a purpose. During the -40’s times of the year, snow actually preserves life. It saves the plants that are lying dormant underneath its cover from the damage that the terrible cold can cause. But when snow shows up in July, it actually has the ability to kill. When rain comes at harvest time, the harvest has to stop. Rain is needed and snow is necessary, at least in climates like mine that experience bitter cold, but it is only helpful when it comes at the appropriate time.

The author of Proverbs makes the connection of snow and rain coming at inappropriate times with honor that is given to a fool. And the problem is that honor brought on us when we are being foolish stops the learning process. When we are rewarded for foolish actions, we begin to think that foolish actions are the right things to do.

I have some friends that are trying to shape the actions of one of their children. And what they are doing right now is ignoring the child when he does certain things. They want to be so careful that the behavior that they want to stop in the child is in no way rewarded. And that is exactly what the author of this proverb wants us to know. Don’t reward the actions of a fool – so that the fool can mature and become a member of the wise.

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Proverbs 27