Well, Doug’s away this Sunday. He asked me to take the service. My name is Richard and despite the shirt, I do not come from Salt Lake City. So, the teaching will be from the Bible. This morning, we have the privilege of coming before the Lord at his table. And we do so not just to remember briefly the events at Calvary, but to encounter him. Uh to be cleansed and to be refreshed, to be embraced by God’s love and strengthened for the week ahead. Jesus has promised to meet with his people when we gather in his name, right? He said, “Where two or three of you gather in my name, I am present with you.” Yes, there was a fill in the blank there. >> [laughter] >> All right, I will fill in all those blanks. Well, Jesus assures us, or James does, Jesus’ half brother, that if we draw near to God, blank, he will draw near to us. And that’s both a wonderful privilege and a bit of a sobering um reality. What would it mean to um have the holy sovereign God close by? He’s described as both light and love, a consuming fire, and a tender father. Well, while Jesus walked this earth, he drew some men and women to follow him, to be near him, but as opposition to him mounted, even after being hailed king on Palm Sunday in the wake of his amazing miracle of raising Lazarus from the dead, in the upper room before he was lifted upon the cross, he told his follower Peter that he was about to cave in his allegiance. That Satan was going to sift him, shake him, intimidate him. And knowing this, Jesus said he’d been praying for him that, quote, his faith may not fail. Peter, I’ve been praying for you that your faith may not fail. Do you recall how wet Peter got when he tried walking on water, but then took his eyes off of Jesus? The failure to trust in Christ is a possibility. In fact, it happens all the time. Wind and waves occupy our lives, too. We can be tempted to distance ourselves from Jesus in our own cold, dark courtyards when accused, harassed, and intimidated. But Jesus intercedes for us and is present with us to strengthen what remains. And so, we have the opportunity today to let go, to let go of some heaviness, some burdens, and be touched again by divine love from the heart of God. Well, I’ve enjoyed the inspirational poetry of a woman named Annie Johnson Flint for many years, and I discovered a new one just this week that I’d like to share with you. And it regards trusting God when we face an impossible situation, as the Israelites did when leaving Egypt and hitting the obstacle of the Red Sea. So, this is called the Red Sea Place. Have you come to the Red Sea place in your life? Where in spite of all you can do, there is no way out, there is no way back, there is no other way but through. Then wait on the Lord with a trust serene till the night of your fear is gone. He will send the wind. He will heap the floods when he says to your soul, “Go on.” And his hand will lead you through, clear through, ere the watery walls roll down. No foe can reach you. No wave can touch. No mightiest sea can drown. The tossing billows may rear their crests. Their foam at your feet may break. But over their bed you shall walk dryshod in the path that your Lord will make. In the morning watch ‘neath the lifted cloud, you shall see but the Lord alone when he leads you on from the place of the sea to a land that you have not known. And your fears shall pass as your foes have passed. You shall be no more afraid. You shall sing his praise in a better place, a place that his hand has made. I’d like to suggest to you, though I by no means always find a quick relief myself in every circumstance, that nevertheless our burdens are lifted at Calvary. Oops, I haven’t even been paying attention to this. You were supposed to get that picture in the last one. Here’s a person who’s heavily burdened. Our burdens are lifted at Calvary, at the cross, as we give our burdens and ourselves again and again to Jesus. The woman who wrote that poem and many others that have blessed countless people over the decades was herself severely afflicted by arthritis and spent much of her life in a sickbed. The burden of her condition remained, but her faith did not fail. Recently when visiting my parents in Victoria, Sandy and I had the opportunity to attend a church that was home for some of our relations there and so we went to that church and I have no way of judging whether this was typical of their services, but while I was sitting there, I experienced a really unusual hunger and thirst for Jesus. Like I was almost panting. I was groaning inside. I was craving a touch from the Lord. There were some important matters to attend to regarding my parents and where they could go if they um deteriorated any more and um there was an awareness of various spiritual undercurrents in the spaces that we were exposed to that was kind of new to us and I found myself really craving that touch from Jesus, some reassurance, something, you know, solid under my feet. But uh for that particular service anyway, I’m afraid I was largely disappointed. The teaching was on community and really didn’t reference the koinonia of the spirit that Jesus through his spirit binds us together. It seemed to draw a very large um circumference, but neglect the center. It spoke of their acceptance of one another, but not the joy of being accepted by our creator redeemer. But then we got to communion and I thought, well, surely, alas, now someone will tell me again the lovely story of redemption. So, I came there, but um sadly, that wasn’t the case. It was the quickest and palest communion service I’d ever experienced. So, sadly, um I came out of there still hungry and thirsty. And my my prayer, as I was preparing this, was that that wouldn’t be the case for us today. In fact, at a recent leadership meeting, um I told Doug that I I don’t have to worry about not being touched here at Knox. Do you find that, too? I feel I feel like people are earnest about seeking Jesus here, and that the Holy Spirit is present with us. I most Sundays come away feeling that as we’ve drawn near to God, God has drawn near to us. Well, um at this point, um when I was a pastor in Jasper, um uh over the years, uh sometimes I had to do [snorts] what the Gorwings do and and lead the worship. And uh I really think they’re deserving of a recording contract, don’t you? >> [laughter] >> Um so, I was surprised because I’m not much of a musician, though I I love music, that the Lord gave me a number of songs over the years. And I wanted to play one for you. This is called This Day. And it was just about um this uh expectation that if we draw near to God, God will draw near to us. We don’t have to uh do anything special. We just have to seek him. So, at this point, I’m going to ask Adam to advance the slides because I won’t be able to. And I’m going to just position myself over here. We’re told that God inhabits his praises. And um >> It was wonderful to hear those worship songs today. >> You know, and apart from the hymn, I remember learning each of those three other songs and thinking, “Oh, here’s a new song.” And some of those are 30 years ago. So, uh life goes by quickly, doesn’t it? And we don’t want it to go quickly by burdened by troubles. So, uh we could advance to the next slide and then you’ll just hear me out. I don’t practice this. So, we’ll see how it goes. >> [clears throat] [music] [music] >> This day, I will praise the Lord. [singing] This [music] day, I will seek His [singing] face. >> [music] >> This day, I will know the touch of my >> [music] >> He meets me [singing] in the gathering of His people. >> [music] >> He draws near when I draw near to [singing] Him. I cannot explain [music and singing] just how it all takes place. >> [music] >> With the eyes [singing] of my heart, I see His face. >> [music] >> This day, we [music] will praise you, Lord. This day, we will [music] seek your face. This [music] day, we will know [singing] the touch of our God. Meet us [music and singing] in the gathering of your people. You draw [music] near when we draw near [singing] to you. We cannot explain just how it [music] all takes place. But with the eyes of our [music] hearts, with the eyes of our hearts, yes with the eyes of our [music and singing] hearts, we see your face. We [music] see your [singing] face. We see your face. [music] There we go. Survive. If you got um where the song was coming from. And you know, we just had that tiny little church in the Rocky Mountains. And um yeah, we had so many visitors come and say, “Gosh, you know, the Holy Spirit’s with you. We really felt refreshed.” And um being part of a church network that uh our closest sister church was something like 3 hours away. God filled in the gap there. And and most of the churches in Jasper, you know, we were on a ministerial association, but um a lot of them were very liberal or very traditional, and there wasn’t a lot of fellowship. But God filled in that gap. He um gave us other brothers and sisters that we had fellowship with. Well, our mission statement, if you’ve gone to our website recently, and Charlene and I don’t know who else uh Adam, were you involved in that? It did an a major job on it. It’s really very nice now. Our mission statement says this, “Knox Church exists to experience and glorify God. Experience God. To build an authentic community of Christ followers into impact our world with the grace and knowledge of Jesus Christ. So, it’s good to be still and to wait upon the Lord. So, I’m going to give you an opportunity of 3 minutes to take a few short uh moments to meditate on a passage from Isaiah 40 that ensures us that those who wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength. So, we just have this slide coming up. Or maybe I can do it. Well, let’s return to our theme. Burdens are lifted at Calvary. Perhaps it might be good to remind ourselves, what does that term mean? Calvary. I looked up a a site called the Bible Analysis website, and this is what they said. >> [snorts] >> The term Calvary is derived from the Latin word Calvaria, which means skull. In the New Testament, Calvary is the English translation of the Greek word Cranion, as in Cranium, and the Aramaic word, which we’re probably most familiar with, Golgotha. Both meaning the place of the skull. According to the Gospels, Calvary was the site just outside of the walls of Jerusalem where Jesus was crucified. The exact reason for the name is debated, and some think, well, maybe the hill looked like a skull in some ways, and others just believe, well, it was a place of execution, so it symbolized death. Historically, of course, Calvary holds immense significance for Christians. It was the setting of the most pivotal event in Christianity, the crucifixion of our Lord. And today, on that site, the Church of the Holy Sepulchre is believed to encompass both Calvary and the tomb where Jesus was buried and resurrected, but who knows, right? We don’t know about that. Pilgrims from around the world travel to that sacred site seeking a tangible connection to the events that shaped their faith. But, you don’t need to go there. You don’t need to go to Jerusalem. You don’t need to discover where Calvary was to have a tangible connection. Jesus makes these things known. The Holy Spirit brings the reality of those events into our hearts. Well, at the heart of Calvary’s meaning lies, of course, the crucifixion of Jesus Christ. And according to uh our doctrine, Jesus was sentenced to death by Pontius Pilate, led to Calvary, nailed to a cross between two criminals, and the act is considered the ultimate sacrifice for humanity’s sins. It fulfilled prophecies, and it established a new covenant between God and humankind. So, it’s viewed not as a tragic event, but as the turning point, actually, in salvation history. Theologians emphasize that at Calvary, Jesus bore the weight of the world’s sins, offering himself as a substitute for all people. His suffering and death are seen as the means by which humanity is reconciled with God. Thus, Calvary represents the intersection of divine justice and mercy, where the prince the price of sin is paid, and the possibility of redemption is open for all of us. Well, it may be helpful to remind ourselves that it was Jesus, not some defeated or guilty or arrogant Christians that inaugurated the ordinance of the Lord’s Supper, or communion. Well, when did he do that? Well, he did it the night before his death. And Romans 5:8 states, “God demonstrated his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. So, it wasn’t a group of his followers afterwards saying, “How can we make the best of this bad situation? How can we put a spin on this so that it looks like a good thing that happened?” Jesus already knew what was going to happen. He knew why it was going to happen, and it was for us. And it was out of God’s great love. Well, again in our website, if you go to the section on our statement of belief, number five says, “God’s gospel is accomplished through the work of Christ. We believe that Jesus Christ, as our representative and substitute, shed his blood on the cross as the perfect, all-sufficient sacrifice for our sins. His atoning death and victorious resurrection constitute the only grounds for salvation.” And that’s nicely worded, isn’t it? If you’re not sure what some of these things mean that we talk about in our services, go to the website and look through that statement of belief, and you’ll find a lot of answers are present there. Well, that same evening that Peter that we talked about earlier was warned about his uh impending failure, Jesus spoke these very comforting words that we read earlier in the 14th chapter of John’s gospel. He said, “Let not your hearts be troubled. Trust in God.” Some versions, “Believe in God.” But, “Believe in God” could just mean like a mental assent, like you you think, “Yes, this really did happen.” But, the trust goes further. It says, “Not only did this happen, not only is this true, but I’m going to rely on it. I’m going to put my faith in it. When I’m faced with troubles and burdens, when I’m not sure what direction to go, I’m going to trust that this is the compass for my life. This is what makes my life make sense. So, he says, “Trust in God. Trust also in me. In my father’s house are many rooms.” Do you notice that? The disciples were facing all sorts of worries and fears at the time. Jesus had told them one of them is a traitor. One their leader’s going to fail in faith. And he the opposition of the authorities was well known to them by this time. And then he said, “I’m going to be leaving you.” And rather than address all of those, he goes to a different place. He says, “In my father’s house, that’s what you should be looking at. Just like when Jesus was on the water, don’t look at the wind and waves, look at Jesus. In my father’s house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am, you may be also.” So, that’s very different than some of our experiences in life where a significant person in our lives has turned their back on us and walked away and abandoned us. That is not what Jesus did. He went away to help us. He said it it’s good for you that I go away. If if I don’t go away, the comforter cannot come. And he’s going away to Calvary and then the tomb to bear our burdens, our weight of sin. It’s good for you that I go away. >> [snorts] >> Well, the disciples were kind of like the Israelites, they, at the shore of the Red Sea? All of those things things look grim, hope seemed dashed, faith and trust appeared to be misplaced. But Jesus says, “I have prayed for you that your faith may not fail. In this world, you will have trouble.” Paul says, “It’s not without hardship that one enters the kingdom of God.” But Jesus said, “Take heart. I have overcome the world. I have prayed for you that your faith may not fail.” In the midst of this, the Lord speaks freedom to our souls. He implies that our hearts, though able to feel fear, feel dread, feel overwhelmed with trouble and burdens and of shame and sadness and doubt, that our hearts are more than our feelings. That we can choose to not let our hearts be troubled. Do not let Do not allow your heart to be troubled. >> [snorts] >> The exercise of trust and belief is able to see past current circumstances in the knowledge of who we know the Lord Jesus Christ is and what he has done and what he is doing. What is the Lord doing? He’s preparing a place for us with the Father. At the same time, he’s preparing us to receive our new home. In the 18th verse of that same chapter, he assures us, “I will not leave you as orphans. I will come to you.” So, that’s a promise. Those nights that you feel completely alone and abandoned, you feel like nobody knows you. Say those words out loud. Pray them. Say, “Father, >> [snorts] >> I’m praying these words to you that Jesus said that he would not leave me as an orphan. He would not leave me alone. I’m claiming that as truth, as a promise. And though I don’t feel it, I’m going to believe it. And eventually our hearts will yield to the truth of that. I remember one midweek day back in Jasper in that old church. It was a cool and unpromising day, very gray, and I was longing for the freshness of spring after being, you know, uh cabin bound, as it were, all winter long in our long winters. And the light and the warmth that, you know, allows one to go outside and you don’t have to worry about jackets, you don’t have to worry about gloves and hats. I wanted that so bad. I wanted just wander in the woods and the wilds without all that gear on. And um I was sitting there in the in the church sanctuary, and I was just feeling sad. And I was just feeling really alone. And I wanted to see the hearts of uh some of the people in the church that I’d been ministering to unburdened and free, joyful. And [snorts] it was during that time that a song came to me, which included some of those words from that passage in John, as a reminder that these troubles are momentary, and if we allow them, they’re achieving for us a weight of glory, a glorious prospect that the devil madly seeks to blind us to. For really that vision of the Father’s mansion and our place in it, it changes everything. >> [snorts] >> But, as I said, at that time I was feeling very alone and fearful of what steps to take. So, the song is called Jesus Come, and um Um let me do this. Oh, sorry. There was the scripture again. Um that’s a picture of our church there with Pyramid Mountain in the back. Um the pictures that are in this slide, um that’s one of the windows looking out onto, um you know, Whistlers Mountain, the one with the tram on it in Jasper. You can see it’s just a very dull gray day. And that uh cross uh my children and I came across all these pieces of um uh decaying old metal barrels in the woods. And we thought, well, let’s take them out of the woods and take them to recycling. And I ended up using them to construct a a cross in our church. So, that’s what those refer to. Um >> [snorts] >> but uh you know, I that that cross, let me just say this before I play the song for you. That became an important symbol for me. A symbol that God can redeem anything, anyone for his purposes. Right? What did Paul say in 1 Corinthians 1? God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. God chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things, the things that are not, to nullify the things that are so no one may boast before him. Our master did the supreme work of opening the door to eternal glory for you and for me. Now, he’s furnishing our suites. And he promised to come back and escort us to our new home. We’ll have to ask Ian if that’s common practice amongst realtors, but suffice it to say that though we may never pay off our earthly mortgages, there [snorts] will be no RBC or whatever banking institution you use in the new heavens and earth. Thank God. >> [laughter] >> In the meantime, will we wait at the bus stop for the golden city hunched over carrying the weight of the world on our shoulders >> [snorts] >> burdened or can we take a fresh look at both Calvary and the city of gold and find ourselves straightening up relaxed, unburdened our heads lifted up once more. >> [snorts] >> Burdens are lifted at Calvary. Jesus was lifted up at Calvary. Why? To draw all people to himself as he bore the weight of our sin. To stand between heaven and earth with its awful tug of gravity drawing us down and making us feel sluggish and heavy >> [snorts] >> yet he says, “I have taken your sins upon myself. I have borne your transgressions. Your failures, your weaknesses were placed on him. What happened there on the cross? He made atonement. He paid our debt. He died our death. He removed our transgressions as far [snorts] as the east is from the west. The son of God died a violent criminal’s shameful execution in order that whom the son sets free is free indeed leading many sons and daughters to glory. And that’s why we say the burdens are lifted at Calvary. God who’s a lifter of our heads according to Psalm 3:3 and who is greater than our hearts, if our hearts condemn us, according to 1 John 3:20, has lifted up his countenance upon us. Who then can condemn us? After all, does not Colossians chapter 3 speak of the strange mystery that already here today, this morning, we are seated with him. We’re raised up with him in glory. So, let not your hearts be troubled. Trust in God. Trust also in Jesus. I want to bring this part to a conclusion so that we can receive the bread and the cup after Russ leads us in a time of prayer, but I haven’t yet touched on the song that this sermon was actually based on because uh I think I’ve only heard it once in my whole life and the circumstances were extraordinary. And the point of all of this was to um encourage you to believe that your burden can be relieved, that God loves you. Um I went to an evening service. I kind of hoped uh Janette was going to be here cuz it was just around the corner from where she grew up in Southern Wales, but in Totnes, in Devon, in England, I went to this little tiny gospel chapel and um I was um there was a young fellow there at the time. He was playing his guitar and I think there were only four other people present, but I felt I had to go. Um it was a small village uh outside of where I was staying on my sabbatical in a place called Buckfastleigh. I was staying at Buckfast Abbey, which was a Benedictine Abbey, a Catholic Abbey um by a national park down there. And after 10 and a half years of service Jasper, I had ended my time there and they gave me two weeks that I could assess things and I was very anxious about my future. And I was confused about what had transpired at the church and I confess I was a bit weary and wounded and I was depressed. In other words, I felt pretty burdened. But on the Saturday before this, so the day before this was a Sunday evening and so Saturday, I’d gone for a walk and I had discovered quite accidentally the remains of an old parish church. Let me show you that church. Let’s get past. That’s it there. This church had stood for 800 years serving that village until 20 years prior to my coming there, Satanist had burnt it to the ground. Didn’t burnt to the ground because of candles in the sanctuary, Satanist targeted a place of worship to the living God and deliberately burnt it to the ground. And I found myself wandering around the stone walls of a church with no stained glass windows left, no oak beam roof, no patina pews or furnishings or woven banners, just an empty shell surrounded by graves in the cemetery. Seems [snorts] like a fitting place to spend one’s vacation. But as I prayed and asked God if [snorts] he’d forgotten me because I felt that he had forgotten me. Or maybe he was just done with me. You’ve blown it too many times Bowler. And we were about to be homeless in about two months time. And for nine months I’d been sending out resumes hoping for a new position but nothing had happened. Well, something suddenly did happen right there. And it was something unlike anything I’ve ever experienced. The only warning I had that like Job I was about to be answered from the whirlwind was that above me, cuz there was no roof, I noticed there was a hawk motionless above me. It wasn’t flapping its wings and it wasn’t soaring on a thermal cuz it wasn’t moving. It was just there like a like a feather cross over my head. I thought that’s very odd. And as I looked up this invisible Niagara Falls of God’s love came cascading down into my troubled heart. And it was like power, a warm affirming power just filling me from head to toe. In fact after a few minutes of this I had to cry out please stop. I can’t take anymore. I honestly felt like I was going to burst. I was going to explode. You see it’s not that God’s love is too small for our situations. It’s that our faith and our hearts are too small for his love. His love fills the whole universe. That feeling began to ebb. Uh and and Wayne and and then when the experience was over my anxiety was over. My heaviness had disappeared. And a deep contentment and joy settled over my heart. And like Annie Johnson Flint whose arthritis was never healed or Job whose quest for justice and answers to his questions were were not ever addressed my situation remained the same. And in fact, 2 months later we we did become homeless for several months. And I didn’t have work for a year. But God’s amazing love and faithfulness were proved to be something larger than those present needs and worries. Sometimes God does not relieve us of our present burdens, and sometimes he does. Amen.