HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Citizen, 2011-05-19, Page 16PAGE 16. THE CITIZEN, THURSDAY, MAY 19, 2011.
By Rev. Dr. Peter Kugba-
Nyande
Duff’s United Church
The greatest gift of all is the gift of
intimacy with God.
Jesus says, “I am in my Father and
you are in me and I am in you.”
There is an intimacy of love here
that is without correlation in the
religious world. There may be much
that is wonderful and inspiring in
religious teaching of all kinds, but
the intimacy Jesus speaks of here is
without parallel. He speaks of the
love that exists between those who
cherish and honour his teachings and
how they are loved by God and by
himself.
There are, of course, other
different levels of love. We often say
as Christians that we love our
neighbours without really knowing
who they are. There is also the kind
of love we feel for friends, for
children, for spouses, and even a
type of love we reserve for things
like ice cream and back scratches.
The love that God shows for
humanity is a love without bounds.
Our God is the God of Creation who
brought order out of chaos, our God
is the God of Israel who brought
slaves into the promised land, our
God is the one who when we have
gone astray from God’s principles
has sent prophets to call us back to
justice, and our God is the one who
is also Jesus our teacher, prophet and
saviour who tells us that love is not
reserved for the powerful but is also
for the least of these.
“If you love me, you will keep my
commandments. And I will ask the
father, and he will give you another
Advocate, to be with you forever.
This is the Spirit of truth, whom the
world cannot receive, because it
neither sees him nor knows him. You
will know him, because he abides
with you, and he will be with you.”
(John 14:15-17)
The love Jesus wants his hearers to
embrace is not an abstract
philosophical concept but the lived
reality revealed in the life,
relationships and actions of a simple
Nazarene. The love that Jesus offers
them is in fact God’s love. He feeds
the hungry, touches the lepers, heals
the sick and speaks and acts toward
women with care and regard. Love is
seen in his life as service and
compassion.
In this text we see Jesus, operating
in the community, with his disciples
and other people he serves. Jesus
clearly promises his presence and
the presence of the Spirit to those
who keep his commandments to love
and to serve. The love Jesus
commands is not a feeling about
certainty about union with Christ.
The love Jesus commands is about a
master washing the feet of his
disciples and a king dying the death
of a criminal.
Here in John 14 the focus is on
doing the Father’s works, just as
Jesus had done, and doing them in
all the world (14:12). When the
disciples love Christ and get on with
the job, two important things will
accompany them. John lists them in
14:16-17 and in 14:18-21. Jesus
defines his own role in 14:16 as a
‘helper’ (parakletos). The primary
task, then, of the Holy Spirit is
reminding the faithful of the truth,
jogging the memories of the
followers of Jesus about all of his
commandments so that they can
keep them in love, whispering the
lyrics of the never-ending hymn of
faithful obedience in their ears.
The Spirit makes his home in us;
the Spirit gives us a new mind
(attitude); that focuses on Christ
instead of the law and the flesh. The
Spirit gives us freedom—but not
freedom to sin. Instead, the Spirit
gives us freedom to abandon our
fears in order to love. In the story of
the Good Samaritan, the Pharisee
and the Priest were bound by their
laws and were afraid to touch a man
who was almost dead. The
Samaritan had no such fear; he
rushed in where the religious
wouldn’t go. The reality that love
creates discloses to us the truth that
God calls us to be neighbours – to
recognize in the “other” one whom
God also loves and calls us to love.
Jesus not only claims that God’s love
is true; he also claims that God’s
love is the source and the goal of our
lives.
In the story of Esther, even though
she was a queen, she was not
allowed to approach the king
without the agreement of his team of
advisors. The Holy Spirit is the one
that takes our requests past the
mediators, past the advisors and
straight to God. The Spirit takes our
innermost needs and incomplete
words and translates them into a
language that is proper and right. I
may ask for a new truck but the Holy
Spirit brings it to God and says:
“The Bible indicates that love is
from God and is one of the primary
characteristics of God. Likewise,
God has endowed us with the
capacity for love. This capacity for
love is one of the ways in which we
are (www.godandscience.org/
evolution/imageofgod.html) created
in the image of God.”
(www.godandscience.org/love/bibli
callove.html)
The apostle Paul drives home his
point that the reason for our
gratitude that nothing will separate
us from God’s love, not even:
• Death with all its terrors and
uncertainties
• Life with all its allurements and
attractions
• Angels nor principalities,
supernatural in power and
knowledge
• Powers, whether human tyrants
or angelic adversaries
• Things present, crashing in upon
us
• Things to come, arousing fearful
forebodings (Believers Bible
Commentary).
“I pray that out of his glorious
riches he may strengthen you with
power through his Spirit in your
inner being, so that Christ may dwell
in your hearts through faith. And I
pray that you, being rooted and
established in love, may have power,
together with all the saints, to grasp
how wide and long and high and
deep is the love of Christ, and to
know this love that surpasses
knowledge – that you may be filled
to the measure of all the fullness of
God. Now to him who is able to do
immeasurably more than all we ask
or imagine, according to his power,
that is at work within us, to him be
glory in the church and in Christ
Jesus throughout all generations, for
ever and ever! Amen.” (Ephesians
3:16-21)
THE CATHOLIC PARISHES OF NORTH HURON AND NORTH PERTH
CORDIALLY INVITE YOU TO ATTEND HOLY MASS.
OUR SUNDAY LITURGIES ARE AS FOLLOWS:
Brussels:
St. Ambrose
Saturday
6:00 p.m.
17 Flora Street
Wingham:
Sacred Heart
Sunday
9:00 a.m.
220 Carling Terrace
Listowel:
St. Joseph
Sunday
11:00 a.m.
1025 Wallace Avenue N.
Youre Invited
to come worship
with us
Sunday, May 22
Brussels Public School
at 10:30 a.m. and 6:30 p.m.
Sunday School for children
4 to 11 years of age (mornings only)
Childcare provided for infants and toddlers
Coffee & cookies after the morning service
For additional details please contact:
Steve Klumpenhower 519.887.8651 Rick Packer 519.527.0173
Chris McMichael 519.482.1644
THE ANGLICAN CHURCH OF CANADA
Welcomes you to come and worship with us
Trinity, Blyth
9:15 a.m.
Church Office: 519-357-4883
St. John's, Brussels
11:15 a.m.
519-887-6862
Sunday, May 22
Rev. Perry Chuipka
www.nabcom.ca/church
MELVILLE
PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH
BRUSSELS
Rev. Elwin Garland
SUNDAY, MAY 22
Wheelchair accessible ~ Nursery care available
519-887-2664
10:00 am - Sunday Morning Worship
- Sunday School
getlivingwater.org
Pastor: Ernest Dow ~ 519-523-4848
Living Water
Christian Fellowship
10:30 a.m. ~ Worship & Sunday School
at Blyth Public School,
corner of King & Mill
Tuesdays 7:30 pm - Wingham Small Group
1st & 3rd Wednesdays 7:30 pm - Women’s Ministry
May 22: Acts 18:24ff
“The Church
You’ve Always
Longed For -
Empowers
Each
Individual”
50-Day Spiritual
Adventure!
Evangelical Missionary Church
Worship Service & Sunday School at 11 a.m.
CORNER OF DINSLEY & MILL STREETS
MINISTER
Rev. Gary Clark, BA, M. Div.
All Welcome
MUSIC DIRECTOR
Floyd Herman, BA, M. Ed.OFFICE: 519-523-4224
May 22nd ~ Free Breakfast 9-11 am
Please, Won’t You Be My Neighbour
May 29th ~ SERVICE AT 10:00,
“Stop, Drop and Roll”
Please join us for worship
Hwy. 4, Blyth 519-523-4743
www.blythcrc.ca
SUNDAYS
Morning Service 10:00 am
Evening Service 7:30 pm
BLYTH CHRISTIAN
REFORMED CHURCH
BRUSSELS - ETHEL PASTORAL CHARGE
UNITED CHURCH OF CANADA
Sandra Cable, Worship Leader
Church Office 519-887-6259 E-mail - beunitedchurch@gmail.com
Sunday, May 22
Ethel United Church
Worship Service and Sunday School - 9:30 a.m.
Brussels United Church
Worship Service and Sunday School - 11:00 a.m.
Celebrating our Christian Faith together in worship
119 John’s Ave., Auburn
519-526-1131
www.huronchapel.org
9:30 a.m.
Sunday School
10:30 a.m.
Morning Worship Service
Guest Speaker:
Rev. Eugene Neudorf
From the Minister’s StudyIntimacy with God can be greatest gift
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