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Vocabulary is a wonderful thing and yet at the same time can also be a very confusing thing. From the very beginning of our lives, we are taught to sound out and use the different words that will make up our ever-growing vocabulary. It’s not only important to know how to spell and say the words but also to know how to understand the meaning and context of them as well. It is the combination of all of these that makes our vocabulary useful and understandable.
It can be very interesting how different groups and organizations can gravitate towards using a set group of words that become key words to how things operate in that space. This local lingo is essential to how the group works and communicates and unless one knows these buzz words, they might become confused and lost. Let’s take a school for example. Some of the key words one would hear in a school would be: standards, grades, homework, tests, and principal. Or how about at a bank: loan, interest, teller, credit score, finances, and ATM. A hospital would be another interesting one: surgeon, scalpel, inpatient, ward, and ICU. Or what about a museum: gallery, exhibit, conservatory, curator, and pavilion. Now one could see how, over time, an understanding of these words would be accomplished, but stop and think about how you or I came to an understanding of these words in the first place. There was a context and an experience with these words, we might have had others show or explain to us the meaning of these words, or we may have read or studied them ourselves. Now consider someone who is new to these settings and hearing these words for the first time, or has a completely different understanding and context to these words altogether? That would be quite challenging. The church is no different. We too have key words and a local dialect of our own that needs experience and context for understanding. People who are new to the church might get overwhelmed with the over-used “Christianese” terms that they may hear. Even people who have been in the church and have been surrounded by these words for much of their lives can even benefit from a review of these foundational vocabulary hallmarks. This week, we come to such a word: Worship. Worship is everywhere in the church. We have worship services, worship centers, worship songs and music, worship nights, and worship directors. It can be good to look back at just exactly what worship is. Who is it for? What is it about? What does it look like? As we look into these questions, among others, God desires and invites us to worship Him. He calls for us to worship Him not only because He is worthy and deserves it, but because it is within worship that He gives us something as well. God seeks to bless us in our worship of Him. He wants to remind us of our place as His child and He wants to share with us His heart. May we seek to worship our King in the spirit and truth that He gives and shares with us. “Come, let us bow down in worship, let us kneel before the Lord our Maker; for he is our God and we are the people of his pasture, the flock under his care” (Psalm 95:6-7 NIV.) Pastor Ben
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This past weekend, our family was in Moorhead, MN for the funeral of Jenilee’s grandma. Grandma Ruth was 87 years old when she passed away, and she was one of the most generous and spunky human beings I have ever known. It was great getting to be a part of her life for the past 8 years in various capacities and at family gatherings.
It was during the process of this weekend that my mind was drawn to this week’s topic of Eternity. Death always seems to bring out that very reality that many of us often push out of our minds and try not to think about as much. When we attend a funeral, read an obituary, or hear the news of the death of someone, we are ultimately met with the reality of our own mortality. It is inescapable, and many people go to great lengths to prolong the inevitable, harsh reality of life in this world: death. Every day, many of us take numerous precautions to ensure our survival and the survival of those around us: we eat food, drink water, buckle our seat belts, look both ways before crossing the street, we get sleep, we don’t take unnecessary risks that might lead to extreme injury, we avoid situations that could cause harm, and the list can go on. For many people, the driving factor behind these actions could simply be that they want to live as long and as well as possible, and who can blame them? However, for others, these actions can be driven by an unknown of what comes next? It is one of the age-old questions of humanity: What happens to us after we die? Is there an afterlife? Is there something beyond this present world and my time in it? This is a pressing question and a pressing issue for many. And yet, it is this question that has an answer in the heartbeat of the Christian faith. I was reminded this past weekend that, even though it is always sad to lose a loved one and close family member, we have hope beyond the grave as believers in Christ. Through His victory, won for us at Calvary, death has been defeated on our behalf and Christ’s victory is now ours, His resurrection is now ours, and His hope is ours. Our view of death and eternity is shaped entirely differently than many in this world, and it is this hope that we are invited to communicate and encourage others with, that they too may see God’s amazing gift to us in eternity. The Apostle Paul reminds us of this very fact in 1 Thessalonians 4 where he writes: 13 Brothers and sisters, we do not want you to be uninformed about those who sleep in death, so that you do not grieve like the rest of mankind, who have no hope. 14 For we believe that Jesus died and rose again, and so we believe that God will bring with Jesus those who have fallen asleep in him. 15 According to the Lord’s word, we tell you that we who are still alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will certainly not precede those who have fallen asleep. 16 For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. 17 After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever. 18 Therefore encourage one another with these words. May each of us be encouraged by the promise of our Lord and Savior that gives us hope for an eternity in His presence, in His house: our forever Home. Pastor Ben I love to read and one of my favorite book series that I remember reading in a summer was J.R.R. Tolkien’s Hobbit and his Lord of the Rings collection. What was even better was that there were movies to accompany these books, which brought the images and characters I had read about to life in very vivid and breathtaking ways. Tolkien was known for weaving his Christian faith and the message of the Gospel into his writings and his work extended beyond some hobbits in The Shire trying to destroy the One Ring of Power. Tolkien also wrote another book, a lesser-known short story entitled, “Smith of Wootton Major.” As we talk about Stewardship this week in our Believe series, Tolkien offers us a thought-provoking take on God’s gifts to us and how He intends that we use them for both Him and others.
In this short story, a young boy named Smith Smithson receives a rare gift at his small village’s celebration: a piece of cake that contains a silver star. As he wears this star on his forehead, it shines brightly for all to see and it also allows him to travel to magical lands. Smith also discovers he possesses special powers and privileges all because of this silver star. One day, as he is travelling home from one of his amazing journeys, Alf, the Master Cook and baker of the cake given to Smith, starts walking right beside him. What Smith doesn’t know is that Alf is actually the king of all the land and the one who chose to give Smith the silver star in the first place. As they near Smith’s home, Alf says to him, “Do you not think, Master Smith, that it is time for you to give this thing [the magic silver star] up?” Smith replies, “What is that to you, Master Cook? And why should I do so? Isn't it mine? It came to me, and may a man not keep things that come to him so, at least as a remembrance?” The King said, “Some things. Those that are free gifts and given for remembrance. But others are not so given. They cannot belong to a man forever, nor be treasured as heirlooms. They are lent. You have not thought, perhaps, that someone else might need this thing. But it is so. Time is pressing.” When it comes to stewarding our gifts from God, whether it’s money, time, gifts and talents, etc., what if we had more of this mindset that Alf was communicating to Smith regarding his gifted silver star? We can be tempted to hold on so tightly to the things we have, the possessions we accrue, the skills we learn, the way we structure our life, but what if we were to hold on a bit more loosely? What if we were to truly recognize that all of what makes us who we are is a gift from God? Your personality, your talents, your abilities, your relationships, your time, your money, your possessions are not meant to be kept close and treated as personal heirlooms, but are lent. When God made you, He blessed you with all of these things so that you and I could bless others through them and that we might be used by God to draw others to Himself. It’s how He designed each of us with numerous gifts, interests, ways of doing things, unique and special ways that He has created us so that His grace might be expressed in each of us through our lives. 1 Peter 4:10 puts it like this: Each of you should use whatever gift you have received to serve others, as faithful stewards of God’s grace in its various forms. May God seek to show each of us how we can use what He has first given us to showcase who He is to those around us. Pastor Ben 1J.R.R. Tolkien, “Smith of Wootton Major” (Del Ray, 1967, 41.) Have you ever been shown compassion by someone else? How did it make you feel? Have you ever shown someone compassion or felt that feeling for someone or something else? What was that like? The feeling and emotion of compassion is one that is immensely strong and can cause one to do some pretty extraordinary things. The feeling that compassion creates inside of someone can drive them to quick action because of the way it grips them and doesn’t let go.
Compassion is one of the most powerful emotions one can feel. Even the meaning of this word drips with intensity. Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines compassion as “a sympathetic consciousness of other’s distress together with a desire to alleviate it.” And Dictionary.com defines it as “a feeling of deep sympathy and sorrow for another who is stricken by misfortune, accompanied by a strong desire to alleviate the suffering.” The idea and practice of compassion is amazing, impressive, and a gift, but compassion can be tough too. Compassion can be seen as being undeserved in some cases. “Show compassion to that person? Even after what they’ve done?” Compassion can be costly. It can cost time and resources and be quite seemingly inconvenient. Compassion can be something that can seem to be continually doled out by one side with no reciprocation. Compassion can be hard work. However, compassion is truly a generous gift. It’s a gift that is first and foremost given to us, and it is out of a response to what we have been given and how we have been treated by Christ that we are invited to show that same compassion to those around us. I’m thankful that God’s view of compassion is so much bigger than my own and that He doesn’t stop showing it to me because it costs too much, He has to do it all the time, and for the simple fact that I don’t deserve it. And yet, it still comes. It comes to me and it comes to you each and every day, in our good times and bad, when we have it somewhat together or are falling apart. The writer of Lamentations says it this way: “Because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.” It is out of that reality that the words of Paul in Ephesians 4 come to us as the Body of Christ as we are called to “be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you.” God’s compassion comes to you and me and we continue to share it to those around us. It truly is the gift that keeps on giving. Pastor Ben  Have you ever been shown compassion by someone else? How did it make you feel? Have you ever shown someone compassion or felt that feeling for someone or something else? What was that like? The feeling and emotion of compassion is one that is immensely strong and can cause one to do some pretty extraordinary things. The feeling that compassion creates inside of someone can drive them to quick action because of the way it grips them and doesn’t let go.
Compassion is one of the most powerful emotions one can feel. Even the meaning of this word drips with intensity. Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines compassion as “a sympa-thetic consciousness of other’s distress together with a desire to alleviate it.” And Dictionary.com defines it as “a feeling of deep sympathy and sorrow for another who is stricken by misfortune, accompanied by a strong desire to alleviate the suffering.” The idea and practice of compassion is amazing, impres-sive, and a gift, but compassion can be tough too. Compassion can be seen as being undeserved in some cases. “Show com-passion to that person? Even after what they’ve done?” Com-passion can be costly. It can cost time and resources and be quite seemingly inconvenient. Compassion can be something that can seem to be continually doled out by one side with no reciprocation. Compassion can be hard work. However, compassion is truly a generous gift. It’s a gift that is first and foremost given to us and it is out of a response to what we have been given and how we have been treated by Christ, that we are invited to show that same compassion to those around us. I’m thankful that God’s view of compassion is so much bigger than my own and that He doesn’t stop showing it to me because it costs too much, He has to do it all the time, and for the simple fact that I don’t deserve it. And yet, it still comes. It comes to me and it comes to you each and every day, in our good times and bad, when we have it somewhat together or are falling apart. The writer of Lamentations says it this way: “Because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is yourfaithfulness.” It is out of that reality that the words of Paul in Ephesians 4 come to us as the Body of Christ as we are called to “be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you.” God’s compassion comes to you and me and we continue to share it to those around us. It truly is the gift that keeps on giving. |
AuthorPastor Ben Bigaouette 
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March 2020
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