McPhail Baptist Church

May 24th, 2020

"When Morning Gilds The Skies"

Sue Sparks

When morning gilds the skies, my heart awaking cries,

May Jesus Christ be praised! 

Alike at work and prayer to Jesus I repair, 

May Jesus Christ be praised!

The night becomes as day, when from the heart we say,

May Jesus Christ be praised!

The powers of darkness fear when this sweet chant they hear,

May Jesus Christ be praised!

Be this, while life is mine, my canticle divine,

May Jesus Christ be praised!

Be this th’eternal song through all the ages long,

May Jesus Christ be praised!

"Favourite Hymns" 

Ernie and Lynda Cox 

Thine Is The Glory

Thine is the glory, Risen, conquering Son;

Endless is the victory, Thou o’er death hast won.

Angels in bright raiment rolled the stone away,

Kept the folded graveclothes where Thy body lay.

Refrain: 

Thine is the glory, Risen, conquering Son;

Endless is the victory Thou o’er death has won.

Lo! Jesus meets us, Risen, from the tomb;

Lovingly He greets us, scatters fear and gloom;

Let His church with gladness hymns of triumph sing,

For her Lord now liveth, death hath lost its sting.

Give Me Oil In My Lamp

Give me oil in my lamp, keep me burning,

Give me oil in my lamp, I pray,

Give me oil in my lamp, keep me burning,

Keep me burning till the break of day.

 Chorus:  Sing hosanna, sing hosanna, 

                       Sing hosanna to the King of kings. 
               Sing hosanna, sing hosanna, 

           Sing hosanna, to the King

Give me joy in my heart, keep me praising,

Give me joy in my heart, I pray,

Give me joy in my heart, keep me praising,

Keep me praising till the break of day.

Give me peace in my heart, keep me loving,

Give me peace in my heart, I pray,

Give me peace in my heart, keep me loving,

Keep me loving till the break of day.

All Through The Night

(These lyrics are especially meaningful for this difficult time) 

Deep the silence round us spreading,

All through the night;

Dark the path that we are treading,

All through the night.

Still the coming day discerning,

By the hope within us burning,

To the dawn our footsteps turning,

All through the night.

Star of Faith the dark adorning

All through the night,

Leads us fearless towards the morning,

All through the night.

Though our hearts be wrapt in sorrow,

From the hope of dawn we borrow

Promise of a glad tomorrow, 

All through the night. 

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Luke 24:44-53  (NRSV)

44 Then he said to them, “These are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you—that everything written about me in the law of Moses, the prophets, and the psalms must be fulfilled.” 45 Then he opened their minds to understand the scriptures, 46 and he said to them, “Thus it is written, that the Messiah[a] is to suffer and to rise from the dead on the third day, 47 and that repentance and forgiveness of sins is to be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem. 48 You are witnesses[b] of these things. 49 And see, I am sending upon you what my Father promised; so stay here in the city until you have been clothed with power from on high.”

The Ascension of Jesus

50 Then he led them out as far as Bethany, and, lifting up his hands, he blessed them. 51 While he was blessing them, he withdrew from them and was carried up into heaven.[c] 52 And they worshiped him, and[d] returned to Jerusalem with great joy; 53 and they were continually in the temple blessing God.

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Meditation: "Famous Last Words"

Rev. Ernie Cox

Print Version of Sermon

Choral Prelude on “Slane"

Sue Sparks

Article: The Forgotten Gospel 

Rev. Steve Zink

“He is the firstborn of all creation” (Col 1:15)

In the churches of our day, Jesus is generally thought of one of two ways. In the churches of traditional orthodoxy and or fundamentalism, Jesus is conceived of as a cosmic figure who intervened in the world of the past to save us from a holocaust of divine wrath by becoming a sacrifice of appeasement. In the mainline churches, where there is a more welcome attitude to historical-criticism, a different kind of orthodoxy has taken root. For these communities, Jesus has become a Confucius-like moral teacher, even a “social justice warrior” for partisan politics of today. The Jesus of the first group seems suspiciously unbelievable and aloof. The Jesus of the second group seems suspiciously modern. But there is another option, a largely forgotten gospel that avoids the hopeless literalism of the first group and also steers clear of the insipid moralism and purely human politics of the second group. 

Carl Jung said, “What happens in the life of Christ happens always and everywhere.” Christ thus represents our own life, prefigured and transfigured. In the text above, Christ is thought of as “the firstborn of all creation,” an archetype of our own life and destiny. The writer goes on to make this connection explicit in his own case: “…in my flesh I am completing what is lacking in Christ’s afflictions” (Col 1:24). The author then goes on to state that the “mystery” they proclaimed was “Christ in you” (Col 1:27). Here we see a very different kind of message from that heard in the majority of Christian churches today. It is “your life” that is “hidden with Christ” (Col 3:1). Christ is the archetype of each individual: “Christ is all and in all” (Col 3:11). In Christ we see our own path is reflected back to us in way that enables us to move more surely even if our deepest questions remain unanswered. 

The favourite self-designation of Jesus was “the Human One” (in older English translations, “the Son of Man”). In Christ we find humanity epitomized and perfected. Jesus spoke to his disciples of one day returning to them in the form of a companion presence (Jn 14:15-18). This would enable them to manifest in their own lives the repetition and extension of the Christ idea (Jn 14:12). The notion of personally repeating the Christ-pattern in our own lives is also suggested by Jesus’ macabre sounding instruction to “eat the flesh of the Human One and drink his blood” (Jn 6:53). And for the apostle Paul, looking at the Christ image was tantamount to looking at oneself in the mirror! (2 Cor 3:18).

The emphasis in interpreting the Christ-story must move away from questions of historicity. This was something the apostles themselves abandoned long ago (2 Cor 5:16). The emphasis must also shift away from trying to harvest a few moralistic maxims in the hopes of empty conformism. The emphasis needed requires absorbing the Christ-story in such a way as to illumine our own winding path of trials and of joys, of journeying and suffering, of the spiritual search for Transcendence. 

Given this notion that “What happens in the life of Christ happens always and everywhere,” let us consider an example one who embodies this pattern in a striking way. I am thinking here of the apostle Paul. I have put together a chart that shows the cardinal points in the Christ-story with the remarkable parallels in the life of Paul. 

Theme	Idea	Life of Christ	Life of Paul
Nativity	Life interpreted as divine in origin and direction	“The child conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit” (Matt 1:20)	“God, who had set me apart before I was born” (Gal 1:15)
Calling	The awakening inner sense of vocation or purpose	“Just as he was coming up out of the water, he saw the heavens torn apart and the Spirit descending like a dove on him. And a voice came from heaven, ‘You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased’…..Jesus came to Galilee, proclaiming” (Mk 1:10-11,24)	“[God] was pleased to reveal his Son in me, so that I might proclaim” (Gal 1:15-16)
Solitude	The time of refining that often immediately follows illumination	“And the Spirit immediately drove him out into the wilderness” (Mk 1:12)	“I did not confer with any human being…but I went away at once into Arabia” (Gal 1:16-17)
Conflict	The powers that be in opposition to original ideas that threaten prevailing orthodoxy	“Then the high priest tore his clothes and said, ‘He has blasphemed! Why do we still need witnesses? You have now heard his blasphemy. What is your verdict?’ They answered, ‘He deserves death’” (Matt 26:65-66)	“‘What does this babbler want to say?’…So they took him and brought him to the Areopagus and asked him, ‘May we know what this new teaching is that you are presenting? It sounds rather strange to us’” (Acts 17:18-21)
Betrayal	Where friends turn away or even turn against, joining ranks with the powers that be.	“All of them deserted him and fled”  (Mk 14:50)	“At my first defence no one came to my support, but all deserted me” (2Tim 4:16)
Crucifixion	The suffering endured for the worthy theme or enlightening ideas	“Then they led him out to crucify him” (Mk 15:20)	“I have been crucified with Christ” (Gal 2:19)
Resurrection	The “love stronger than death” that brings influxes of hope and light	“You are looking for Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified. He has been raised” (Mk 16:6)	"I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection” (Phil 3:10)

As you can see from the above chart, the Christ archetype continues to incarnate itself. As with Paul, so with ourselves. I could have added another column, an empty column marked “You.” Can you see in your own life where the same key junctures have arisen? The spiritual life consists of navigating these crossroads with the same creative courage we see in Christ. By absorbing to ourselves the Christ-story, we will find an inner key to negotiate both what is greatest and what is hardest in our lives. As Oscar Wilde put it: “That is the charm about Christ, when all is said: he is just like a work of art. He does not really teach one anything, but by being brought into his presence one becomes something. And everybody is predestined to his presence. Once at least in his life each man walks with Christ to Emmaus.” This is the forgotten gospel. Let us recover it and let us embody its transformative potential. 

Special Music: The Lord's Prayer 

Margot Lange (violin) and Terri-Ann Wint (vocals)

Note from Ernie: We thank Margot and Terri-Ann for providing special music for us this morning.Their piece is extra special this morning because we are privileged to view it 

for the first time in split-screen format.  For that, however, we have Jordan to thank who somehow came up with a magic piece of software on his computer that gave us the split-screen format. In fact, he tells me that we can even do a three-screen format, so that I could have been a third screen playing the piano. However, I declined, as I didn’t want to be the thorn between two roses. ☺

Coping with the Corona Crisis

(A series of responses from our McPhail congregants)

 Bob and Joan Mott

1.   All of us are confined to our homes. How are you spending your time?

Bob - reading, puzzles, taking walks and watching a series on Russia on Great Courses.       Supervise two students who help with my gardening and grass cutting. Joan - reading, scrabble with friends on computer, as well as playing games with daughters and sister on computer (together). Lots of cooking and baking. Walks in the park now that good weather is here.

2. How are you staying connected?

Bob - keeping in contact with my family and coffee buddies by phone. Facetime with our daughters every day. Joan - keeping in contact with my family by phone, Facetime and Zoom. Phone friends and some church family members occasionally. 

3. Some people have stopped following the Coronavirus news, suffering from an overload of information, much of it not encouraging. How are you handling all the news?

We try not to get too involved, but watch the news and read a little of the newspaper. Gets to be too much sometimes.

4. Have you been able to find a silver lining in the current situation?

Yes. The concern we have received from friends and neighbors who do all our shopping has been so special. When we go for our walks, strangers are a lot more friendly than they used to be, and everyone seems to care .

5.) What things do you especially miss?

We both miss going to church and seeing our church family. We miss going to Little Theatre and the Arts Centre.  We miss visiting with our own families locally, and are not sure when we will be able to see our own daughters in Vancouver in the near future.

Benediction

Ernie and Lynda Cox 

Postlude: "O For A Thousand Tongues To Sing"

Sue Sparks

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Did you know you can mail in your regular financial contributions to McPhail? Faith communities, along with cultural institutions and many businesses have had to close temporarily. Nevertheless, normal operational expenses continue as usual. In the light of this, do please consider continuing your support of McPhail by mailing your offering to: 249 Bronson Ave, Ottawa, ON. K1R 6H6