NEW!!! Listen to this Sermon\u00a0<\/font><\/strong><\/u><\/a><\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
Global Positioning Systems<\/strong><\/font><\/p>\nPsalm 16:11<\/strong><\/font><\/p>\nJohn 20:30,31\t<\/span><\/strong><\/font><\/p>\n
<\/font><\/p>\nToday is a Good day. It\u2019s the second Sunday of Easter and so we continue the celebration that began last Sunday. Also this is a Sunday where we welcome new members into our congregation. \u00a0For this reason I have prepared a brief sermon so that we will have time to hear and savour the stories that Billy and Alicia Good will share with us in a few minutes. \u00a0Did I mention it is a \u201cGood\u201d day, today?<\/font><\/p>\nBilly and Alicia Good, as with all new members to our congregation, have been invited to share with us parts of their individual faith stories. \u00a0And as they do so we will get a glimpse into the unique way that God has walked with them and guided them along the way. \u00a0<\/font><\/p>\n\t<\/span>As we listen to their stories we may find ourselves reflecting on our own journey toward God and how that journey also led us to become part of this congregation. \u00a0<\/font><\/p>\nIf we pause to think about it for a moment we might recall that during each of our spiritual journeys unique signposts have guided us along the way. \u00a0Guideposts for your journey might have included important mentoring relationships, service experiences, childhood and\/or youth group experiences within the church, retreat times, and educational experiences or formative occasions in your church or family of origin \u00a0– for better or worse. \u00a0All of these events\/experiences are part of how we understand where we are or where we have found ourselves. \u00a0They provide for us a kind of Global positioning system. As I thought about using The Global positioning system, or GPS as we have come to call it, as a metaphor this morning I had to find out a bit more about it. \u00a0Apparently it makes its calculation of position or location by taking information from four satellites and the GPS receiver only works if it has an unobstructed view of the sky. \u00a0With this metaphor in mind, I took a look at our scriptures for today.<\/font><\/p>\n\t<\/span>And as I did, I was struck most by the last verse of both Psalm 16 and the last two verses of John 20. \u00a0I\u2019ve always wanted to preach about just one verse and today I think I\u2019ve narrowed it down to three, so I guess my one verse sermon will have to wait for another time. \u00a0 This morning I will preach about these three verses. \u00a0Let me refresh our memories.<\/font><\/p>\nPsalm 16:11 says, \u201cYou show me the path of life. \u00a0In your presence there is fullness of joy; in your right hand are pleasures forevermore.\u201d \u00a0<\/font><\/p>\nJohn 20:30,31 says, \u00a0\u201cNow Jesus did many other signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not written in this book. \u00a0But these are written so that you may come to believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that through believing you may have life in his name.\u201d<\/font><\/p>\n\t<\/span>I want to note first what these two verses share in common. \u00a0First, they are about life and a certain quality of life. \u00a0In the Psalm \u2013\u201cYou show me the path of life.\u201d \u00a0– one full of joy and pleasures And in John, \u201cthat through believing you may have life in his name.\u201d \u2013 life lived in Jesus\u2019 name. In each case their emphasis on life continues our Easter season theme and celebration. \u00a0Second, in what way does our metaphor about the Global Positioning system enliven these texts? \u00a0Do these texts and others like them help us to know our location?<\/font><\/p>\nIn Psalm 16:11, it seems fairly obvious \u2013 \u201cYou show me the path of life.\u201d Already I think our metaphor is breaking down a little bit. \u00a0A Global positioning system shows us where on the path we are, but really doesn\u2019t care a bit about what path we are on. \u00a0We could be 200 km from where we want to be and the GPS system is just happy to pinpoint us there, unless of course we have told the GPS navigator ahead of time where we want to go. \u00a0Then it seems happy to talk to us about our relationship to our destination. \u00a0It might say things like \u201cyou are approaching your destination.\u201d \u00a0Or I love what happens when you make a wrong turn, overshoot your destination or change your mind about your route without telling the GPS navigator \u2013 then it says, \u201crecalculating,\u201d or something like that. Have you ever wondered if it gets annoyed when you do that?\u00a0<\/font><\/p>\nGetting back to our texts –\u00a0<\/font><\/p>\nKnowing where we are is one thing. \u00a0Making some sense of where we are or finding meaning in the journey and knowing where we are headed \u2013 having a desired destination – these are entirely different things. \u00a0These are things about which the inanimate nature of the GPS can\u2019t help us. \u00a0<\/font><\/p>\nThis is why our scriptures are different. \u00a0We don\u2019t believe they are a disinterested inanimate object in our lives simply providing us with helpful information \u2013 and not caring where we are or where we are going. \u00a0The scriptures can be inanimate or dead if you will, if we read them as the \u201cletter of the law\u201d and interpret them as such, but in general when we come to them believing that they are God breathed and inspired or in other words one way that God chooses to speak to us, then everything changes. \u00a0John 20:30,31. \u201cNow Jesus did many other signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not written in this book. \u00a0But these are written so that you may come to believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that through believing you may have life in his name.\u201d \u00a0<\/font><\/p>\n\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0This morning I\u2019m choosing not to unpack all the things verses like this may trigger in you \u2013 like questions about belief and what exactly we believe and do we all believe exactly the same things. \u00a0The point I wish to make about this verse this morning is that the Scriptures, the things that were written down for us have the potential to go way beyond Global positioning systems. \u00a0Global positioning systems \u2013 locate us within life. \u00a0The things written in this book have the potential to bring us to life \u2013 a Life that can be lived in Jesus name and can be filled with Joy and pleasures evermore.<\/font><\/p>\n\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0Yesterday at the Mennonite Church of Eastern Canada Gathering we heard from several people what they heard the Spirit of God saying to the churches. \u00a0
\nEach person provided us with an inspiring and deeply hope-filled word. \u00a0(Videotapes of those addresses will be available to us in the future) One of the persons who was asked, \u201cwhat do you think the Spirit is trying to say to the church?\u201d was Ralph Lebold, however, Ralph is now too elderly and infirm to speak publicly, so David Martin Executive minister of MCEC and Lisa Carr Pries went to his home and recorded his response. \u00a0One thing that he named as important for the church was to find ways to relearn the joy of studying the scriptures, maybe by committing parts of it to heart or to memory again. After the presentation by Ralph yesterday, an animated woman from the Jane Finch community here in Toronto got up and reiterated some of the things that Ralph had said and there was one thing that she said that really struck me \u2013 She said, \u201cStudy the Scriptures and God will reveal life to you.<\/font><\/p>\n\t<\/span>Study the Scriptures and God will reveal life to you! \u00a0May we take these words to heart. \u00a0Way beyond what a Global positioning system can do, through this treasure, God will show us the path of life and these things are written that we may have life in Jesus name. <\/font>\u00a0Amen. \u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u00a0 View Archived Sermons \u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0 NEW!!! Listen to this Sermon\u00a0 \u00a0 Global Positioning Systems Psalm 16:11 John 20:30,31 Today is a Good day. It\u2019s the second Sunday of Easter and so we continue the celebration that began last Sunday. Also this is a Sunday where we welcome new members into our congregation. \u00a0For this reason I have prepared a brief sermon so that we will have time to hear and savour the stories that Billy and Alicia Good will…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1257","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sermons-a-worship-audio"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tumc.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1257","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tumc.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tumc.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tumc.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tumc.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1257"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.tumc.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1257\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tumc.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1257"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tumc.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1257"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tumc.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1257"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}