Lord of the Beginning and of the End

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,

Mark 2:18–28

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

Genesis 1 · chapter mention

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 eat

you eat

you work

you work

you work

you sleep

you sleep

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

that surely

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

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

Genesis 1 · chapter mention

and Genesis chapter 2

Genesis 2 · chapter mention

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

and more

and more

and more

and more

and more

and more

and 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