2012 Smythe Street Cathedral - Do Not Copy Without Permission

Transcription

1 The following document is a rough copy of Pastor Drost s sermon notes used in his message preached September 1 st, 2013 AM Services 2012 Smythe Street Cathedral - Do Not Copy Without Permission

2 I am going to start this morning reading a portion from the Gospels and then I am going to tell a story I heard Father Bill Brennan tell at St. Dunstan s Scripture reading (Please stand for the Gospel reading) These are some of the last instructions Jesus gave his disciple before he went to the cross to die for our sins: Jesus said, Now the Son of Man has been glorified, and God has been glorified in him. If God has been glorified in him, God will also glorify him in himself and will glorify him at once. Little children, I am with you only a little longer. You will look for me; and as I said to the Jews so now I say to you, Where I am going, you cannot come. I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another. John 13:31-35 (NRSV) Story: (This is a kid s story; you adults can listen in ) One time on this beautiful large island lived a people called the Green people." They wore green clothes, lived in green homes, drove green cars and believed that God was green. They lived only on part of that island because beside them on that same island lived the Blue people. They wore blue clothes, lived in blue homes, drove blue cars and believed that God was blue. Greens and Blues didn't speak to each other. In fact they hated each other. Green parents would teach their children to sing: "Green is happy: Blue is sad. Greens are good; Blues are bad." Blue parents would teach their children to sing, "Blue is happy; Green is sad. Blues are good; Greens are bad." Blues and Greens grew up seeing each other as "bad." They stayed away from each other, each in their own territories. They didn't go to the same church or the same stores or the same schools. A Green boy was walking with his father when he saw a Blue boy flying a blue kite in his field. When the Blue boy saw them he became frightened. The green boy wanted to get closer to see the kite. But his father said, "No, stay away from those blue people; remember what your mother and I taught you! Green is happy; Blue is sad. Green is good; Blue is bad." Remember, God is Green and He does not want you hanging around those bad blue kids. A few weeks later the Green boy was out playing with his pet rabbit. He chased it through the tall grass and into the open fields. He was having so much fun that he did not realise that he had crossed into Blue Land. He was about to catch the rabbit when the rascal jumped down a small cliff. Green jumped after him but he slipped caught his leg between two big rocks. He pushed and pulled, but could not move. He was hurt and he started bleeding. He called for help, hoping someone Green would hear him. Then he realised that he was in the land of the blue people. He was very scared because he had never met a Blue person. After a while he heard someone coming! It was a Blue boy, the same boy who had been flying the kite. The Green boy closed his eyes waiting for the blue kid to hit him. The Blue boy stood by the Green boy for a few minutes. Then he went to a tree and broke off a branch. The green boy said, "Don't hit me," thinking that's what Blue was about to do. Blue answered him. "I'm not going to hit you. The branch is to pry loose the rocks that are holding your leg." Blue pried loose the rocks. Then he tore a piece of his blue shirt into a bandage to stop the bleeding. Then he helped Green walk home and on the way they talked and became friends. When Green's father saw his son's leg tied with the blue cloth, he got very upset. "I told you to stay away from those blue people. They are bad!" The Green boy could not forget the Blue boy who had helped him. When his leg healed, he went into Blue Land to find him and say thank you. For a whole day the Green boy went door to door in Blue land looking for his new friend. Everywhere he went people slammed doors on him and called him names. Finally, he found the blue boy who had helped him and he went into his house. Page 2 of 6

3 The Green boy was happy to see his new Blue friend, and he gave him one of his green shirts to replace the shirt that the blue boy had torn to help him stop bleeding. The two boys became friends. Soon they introduced each other to their friends. And soon boys and girls were wearing blue and green clothes. Then they began going to each other's schools and visiting each other s churches. They even went beyond their own lands and visited the Yellow people, the Red people and the Purple people. Playing together and wearing all kinds of colours. After a while they started singing a new song: "Green is good, but so is Blue, Purple, Yellow and Red too - All the children should be glad, there s no colour that is bad." They discovered that they were also God s people! From then on they were known as the MULTICOLOURED PEOPLE Two Sunday s ago Jonathan Lambropoulos got baptised. Before he was baptised we saw a video of him reciting the Apostles Creed by heart. I want to talk this morning about a line that appears in the Apostles Creed and in the Nicene Creed (The two creeds used by most Christian in the world) ONE HOLY CATHOLIC CHURCH. We believe in one holy Catholic Church. The word catholic means UNIVERSAL. What it means is that we believe that there is only one universal church in the world. One family of God! My story is similar to the Green boy s story: My parents were wonderful God fearing people. They taught me about God and Jesus and the Bible and the cross why Jesus died! I will be forever grateful to my Christian upbringing. But the Church group we belonged to was a Oneness Pentecostal Denomination the believed that unless you were baptised in Jesus Name only you were not saved. And that the Church doctrine of the Trinity was a heresy passed down to us by the evil Roman Catholic Church. The Roman Catholic Church was the false church and the pope was the false prophet mentioned in Revelations. So any doctrine associated with them was bad. I was taught that Trinitarians (as we called them) believed in three Gods. We were Green and the rest of those Trinitarians were blue (If you get my analogy). We never associated with other Christian denominations. After all we were the ones in the truth and Green is happy; Blue is sad. Green is good; Blue is bad. One day I met a boy from another denomination a blue boy. We became friends and, to my surprise, I discovered that he was a preachers kid (I was a preachers kid), he loved the Lord, I loved the Lord. Page 3 of 6 We became great friends We prayed together, played music together (Piano/guitar). He taught me his worship songs I taught him mine. He did not believe in three gods like I was told he was a wonderful brother in Christ and a wonderful friend. Later I felt a call to full time ministry so I decided to go to Bible College. After my wife and I got married we decided to go to a Trinitarian Bible College. We met people from a variety of denominations (Blue people, red people, yellow people you get my drift!). But wonderful dedicated people who loved God and were there to serve God. My eyes opened to a whole new world of Christians. When I was leaving to go to Bible School my boss (a strong Oneness Pentecostal Green person ) said: How can you go to that Bible School, what fellowship does darkness have with light. I discovered some wonderful Bible classes: Hermeneutics, Church History, Systematic Theology, Bible Introduction, etc. A whole new world opened to me helping me make sense

4 Page 4 of 6 of my journey of faith. I discovered the Apostolic Fathers, the Creeds, the why for the Canon and much much more. But I always kept my special oneness truth always on guard! Then one day as I looked on the lesson coming up I saw my waterloo: The lesson was on the Trinity. I stayed up late that night sharpening my Oneness sword, brushing up on my arguments and counter arguments. I was ready for battle. The next day as the teacher started the class I braced myself. I was going to show them the truth. But something strange happened, the more he talked, the more I realised that he was basically saying the same thing as I believed yet with some differences in terminology. I walked out of the class thinking in my heart: What a fool I have been. If that is the Trinity then I believe the Trinity. They did not teach in three Gods they believed the same as I did: There is one God who is Father, Son and Holy Spirit. After becoming ordained we left for Spain as missionaries. I still had real issues with those awful Roman Catholics! When I would look into a Catholic church I would watch them do all their strange things the crosses, Holy Water, the kneeling, chanting, crossing themselves! Crossing yourself was to me like some secret voodoo superstition thing. I mean, after all, the sign of the cross! I discovered that Christians from many ages back to the early church from all denominations did it I found out its meaning It was kind of a God story with humans in one simple reminder action: The Father, sent the Son and gave us the Holy Spirit (The creator loved us, sent His son to die on the cross and sent the Holy Spirit to guide us and lead us). The cross being the centre. Shortly after we arrived in Spain we were invited to a Charismatic retreat. There were Baptist, Mennonites and, yes, Catholics. As I walked in there was a priest fully dressed in his robes The presence of God filled the room (My head was arguing but my heart knew that it was God) The leader of the meeting said turn and give someone a hug the priest fully dressed in his robes was right behind me. God spoke to me and said This man is your brother That day I stopped being a protestant! So here is my poem: "Green is Christian, but so is Blue, Purple, Yellow and Red too All God s family can be glad, there s no colour that is bad." Jesus said: Where two or three are gathered together in my name, there I am in the midst of them. Matthew 18:20 He did not say: When you gather with the perfect doctrine I am there He did not say: When you gather with the perfect people I am there He did say: When you gather in my name, I am there! In the Spirit! As one of the very prominent early Church Fathers Irenaeus once said: Where the Church is there is the Spirit, and where the Spirit is there is the Church. If I have received God as my Father through Jesus my Lord, than you are my brother in Christ Jesus. Case closed! We read earlier in Psalms 133 Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity! There the Lord commanded the blessing Life forevermore. Psalms 133.1, 3

5 God blesses unity between believers! Our Gospel reading says: I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another. John 13:34-35 (NRSV) One another implies a definitive group of people! You see, if I can exclude someone from my one another list, then I am exempt from this commandment: Love one another but if that priest is in fact my brother then I am called by Christ to love him as my brother! I am not saying that we have to all forget our differences and be one cookie cutter (all the same) people, doing church the same, looking the same and liking the exact same things. What I am saying is that regardless of how this church does things, or that church does things, or the other church does things we are all ONE HOLY CATHOLIC CHURCH bought by the wonderful blood of Jesus Christ our Lord! I have heard Evangelical Christians make fun of the liturgical churches saying: They just follow some dry old liturgy We follow a liturgy (We have our way of doing things) - we have our style of doing things! Baptist follow a Baptist liturgy they have their style of doing things! Wesleyans have their style! Pentecostal have their style! You go down south to the black churches and they have their style I believe that the rich variety in the body of Christ in the world is beautiful Jesus said: I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. Matthew 16:18 (KJV) He did not say I will build my churches He said I WILL build my church! The Apostle John saw a vision of heaven. In the book of Revelations he says: I looked, and there before me was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and before the Lamb. They were wearing white robes and were holding palm branches in their hands. And they cried out in a loud voice: Salvation belongs to our God, who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb. Revelation 7:9-10 (NKJV) Somewhere in the world there are a group of Christians hiding from the authorities worshiping quietly they are part of this group! Somewhere in Russia there is an Eastern Orthodox cathedral doing church with no instruments they are part of this group! Somewhere in Africa there is a group of Christians gathered together doing church with a drum they are part of this group! Somewhere in Colombia there s a group of Latinos singing at the top of their voices, Cuantos dicen Gloria a Dios! They re part of this group! Somewhere in England there is a Cathedral. The pipe organ is playing Holy, Holy, Holy, is the Lord God Almighty They re part of this group! Somewhere there is a Pentecostal church rock and rolling with drums, guitars, and people dancing and bringing the house down They are part of this church! Page 5 of 6

6 Somewhere there is a priest lifting his hands and saying: The Lord be with you. And they are responding And with your spirit. Priest: Lift up your hearts. All: We lift them up to the Lord. They are part of this group! From every nation, tribe, people and language Part of this group! One Holy Catholic Church! And this morning, the believers in Jesus beside you They are part of this group! I give you a new commandment (Jesus said) that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another. John 13:34-35 (NRSV) Page 6 of 6