Today is election day in Canada. By this evening it is likely that we will learn who will be the governing party taking on the responsibility to lead our nation.
Choices will be made and consequences rendered. But the one thing that is clear in this unclear political scene is that the consciences of Canadians are conflicted.
The Darkness of Sunny Ways
In a troubled world, many people welcomed the brightness of Justin Trudeau’s retrieval of Wilfred Laurier’s “sunny way” approach. Though lauded among celebrities, Trudeau and his circle have shown the darkness of man-made designs. It has become difficult to view the message of ‘sunny ways’ as sincere when influence peddling and strong-arm tactics against dissenters came forward. Trudeau’s effervescence still signals the wish of many world-weary Canadians. But sadly the darkness of his sunny ways has left their hopes as mere wishful thinking.
Conserving Good and Bad
Andrew Scheer, the Conservative leader offers low-key middle-class stability as his appeal. His aim is to conserve the good of sound principles for fiscal management along with a slightly more ‘sunny’ approach to public relations than his predecessor Stephen Harper. Yet for all of its attempts to conserve the good, it cannot be overlooked that Scheer will aim to conserve the bad as well. There is no intention of legislating to restrict abortions at any stage of pregnancy. Such views would be extreme even among pro-abortion groups in other countries. This is the glaringly conflicted platform which Scheer’s Conservatives offer.
Collective Anxiety
The NDP and Green parties have argued in varying degrees for more collective approaches, and environmental concerns at top of mind. Each offers their own version of the sunny ways that sad citizens are desperate for. Suspicious of big business and desiring to keep the pristineness of Canada’s beauty undeveloped, they offer a vision of protection for ideals that many wish could be achieved. Yet sadly as they offer their plans for protecting the welfare of citizens alongside the welfare of our natural environment, they really offer dreams, rather than wisdom. This mystical ‘sunny ways’ approach has been heightened with the contrasting threat of climate change judgement and the 10-20 year countdown before a planetary crisis. Voters are offered utopian dreams or collective anxiety either way.
I am the light of the world
As citizens of Canada, Christians will feel conflicted. As participants in a democracy, they have the right and responsibility to make choices. Yet their citizenship belongs to a different kingdom, even heaven itself (Phil 3:20). Our Saviour offers to us sunny ways that are true and right and undimmed. He said of himself:
I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life”
(John 8:12)
That is the most important ‘vote’ of all, and one to which every Canadian is urgently summoned.
The word of the year in 2016 was “post-truth”. The Oxford Dictionary defined it as, “Relating to or denoting circumstances in which objective facts are less influential in shaping public opinion than appeals to emotion and personal belief.” In subsequent years, “post-truth” has become a true description of our society’s bent.
Yet the Christian cannot succumb to the spirit of the age. We cannot permit ourselves to operate on a post-truth basis. We must be seekers of the truth, because we belong to Jesus who said, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me” (John 14:6).
Lead Me In Your Truth
From David’s Psalms, we learn to ask God to actually lead us in God’s truth (Psa 25:5), since he sends out his light and truth to do the leading (Psa 43:3). God is viewed as a conquering defender for “the cause of truth” (Psa 45:4) because truth is his delight (Psa 51:6). The one who follows God wishes to be taught to walk in God’s truth (Psa86:11), for hope resides in God’s “word of truth”, which would be devastating to lose (Psa 119:43).
Speaking Truth in Love
We know Jesus Christ through the true testimony of the Evangelists. Truth is valued by Jesus and his witnesses. All it takes is to survey the adjective, “true” used by Jesus himself throughout the Gospel of John. At the end of John’s Gospel he has a declaratory statement about the whole saying:
This is the disciple who is bearing witness about these things, and who has written these things, and we know that his testimony is true.
John 21:24
It is no wonder then, that the disciples of Jesus would be commanded to “put away falsehood” (Eph 4:25a). In fact, there is a positive command given to believers which requires them to be not only seekers of truth, but speakers of truth. Paul says, “let each one of you speak the truth with his neighbour, for we are members one of another” (Eph 4:25b).
This is the pattern of life of the Christian. This style of living and speaking is called “speaking the truth in love” (Eph 4:15). It is (super)natural for the Christian to do this because the Spirit of truth guides the believer into all the truth (John 16:13). In so far as a Christian is being led by the Spirit, they will be a truth-teller, speaking the truth in love.
Truth Seeking and Saying
Personally, we need to speak the truth, but also “practice the truth” (1 John 1:6). John makes the point that if our speech claims are inconsistent with our behaviour, then we are in fact lying. The distortion of lies requires truth to be exchanged. It is the conscious and subconscious exchange of truth, in preference for lies. Paul made this point explicit in his letter to the Romans when he said:
they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen.
Romans 1:25
Christians, must confess the truth, from God himself, through the true evaluation of God’s universe. Christians will even risk being misunderstood because they love others enough to speak the truth. Paul warned the Galatian church, “Have I then become your enemy by telling you the truth? (Gal 4:16).
Gentleness in Service to the Truth
What is ironic in our post-truth age is that people are prone to advance “their truth” (not true truth), by demonstrations of power. This can be the power of words on social media. Or it can be the power of legislation from governments.
By contrast, Christians have their truth-telling enveloped by gentleness. This means that they make careful movements in the conversation. It does not require striking a blow when a sensitive, but firm stance will do. This is the counsel that Paul gave to Timothy, namely to correct “with gentleness”, with the hope that “God may perhaps grant them repentance leading to a knowledge of the truth” (2 Ti 2:25).
In a post-truth society, when Christians speak the truth in this gentle, but firm way, it will stand out. By rejecting every play for power, Christians can humbly return to their role as truth-tellers without the tribal agendas of our day. The only agenda that we broadcast is the rule and reign of the Lord Jesus Christ. That truth needs to be heralded far and wide until all post-truth claims fall helplessly to the ground.
The influence of a sixteen-year-old has risen on the world stage, and Christians should take notice. Greta Thunberg, or just “Greta” is an environmental activist who is speaking at larger and larger events. Recently she spoke to a half million people in Montreal. Clearly, Greta has inspired people with her message.
The Search for Inspiration
Regardless of the degree of concern, you have about climate change, you can’t ignore the way a teenager has given inspiration to many of her peers and their parents.
Since Greta speaks with clarity and boldness about her views, she has galvanized the attention of young people in a hyper-distracted age. We know that keeping people’s attention is very difficult. Greta has spoken into the cultural moment with something that Millenials have been hungering for: inspiration.
It is easily forgotten that for all of our googling wisdom and instragrammed postures, there is a sterility and banality about life which millenials are feeling deeply. The result is that they know something isn’t right. And they don’t want to hear platitudes from the Boomers and GenXers that everything is going to be okay. As Greta said:
Adults keep saying we owe it to the young people to give them hope. But I don’t want your hope. I don’t want you to be hopeful; I want you to panic. I want you to feel the fear I feel every day. And then I want you to act, I want you to act as you would in a crisis. I want you to act as if the house was on fire, because it is.
Greta has inspired the Millenial generation to think about more ultimate issues than cat videos and the Kardashians. But her message of inspiration, like so many other would-be prophets, fails to be ultimate enough. Her universal call for panic is not panicked enough, and in another way, it is panic that is misdirected.
The Panic of Hell
What Christians should recognize is that Greta has reintroduced the power of future damnation into our minds. The panic of global climate catastrophe (only about a decade away it is claimed), has created an urgency, immediacy and summoning power to a teenager’s message. It is a secularized version of the panic of being hell-bound.
At a time when evangelical Christians have utterly muted any talk of the panic of a literal damnation in hell, Greta has placed the panic of ‘the house on fire’ as her central point of inspiration.
An Urgent Message
Maybe Christians should learn to both inspire and warn in ways that Greta cannot. Who among evangelicals today does not get just a bit squeamish to say along with John the Baptist, “flee from the wrath to come” (Luke 3:7)? Or Jesus’s striking words, “For judgment I came into this world, that those who do not see may see, and those who see may become blind.” (John 9:39)?
Could the warning to metaphorical ‘weeds’ of the world be any more panic-inducing than to tell them where they are going? As Jesus said they go into “the fiery furnace. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.” (Matthew 13:42).
Maybe we should inspire and warn in the ways that Jesus did. Greta is doing it for her message. How much more should we do so for the message of Jesus?
Nobody wants to stick out. People may want to lead or be on top, but generally speaking few of us like to stick out from the crowd. We certainly don’t like to stick out when there is no noticeable benefit. This is a proverb that exists in many cultures: The nail that sticks out will be struck down, or, The tall poppy will be cut off.
Christians feel this fear too. They don’t want to be left out and they prefer to fit in, even blend in. But that is where the problem lies. Christians will always stick out unless they are Christians in name only.
Sticking Out in the Right Way
One of the first temptations to deal with is the mistaken pursuit of being obnoxious. Christians can think that they need to be brash in order to be bold. They can mistake the negative responses by others as mini-persecutions when really they are just sick of a Christian’s bad manners. When Paul instructed Titus on the subject he said:
Remind them to be submissive to rulers and authorities, to be obedient, to be ready for every good work, to speak evil of no one, to avoid quarreling, to be gentle, and to show perfect courtesy toward all people.
Titus 3:1-2
I have wondered sometimes if pastors (as well as church members) need to take a rudimentary course in manners. To even say it sounds quaint and dated. But the fact is that in any culture the norms of courtesy express honour, respect, care and love. These expressions are all the more important when you are in disagreement with someone else. Since they are not at home in this world, Christians are always in a state of disagreement with it. So we need to figure out how to stick out in the right way without being needlessly offensive.
Sticking Out for the Right Things
If Christians are meant to stick out, like a lamp on a stand or a city on a hill as Jesus described (Mat 5:14-16), then they must stick out for the right things. It ought to be clear that what Christians say and do expresses the imitation of Jesus Christ and the fruition of Jesus’ work in their lives. The right thing to stick out for is that you have been called “out of darkness into his marvellous light” (1 Pet 2:9).
Ultimately, Christians will stick out because they are following Jesus “outside the camp” in order to “bear the reproach he endured” (Heb 13:13). By following Jesus, they are sticking out for the right things. Other things, such as what we eat, drink, and wear shouldn’t be things that we are overly concerned about (cf. Matt 6:31). And they aren’t things that we should prioritize being different in. There is a certain self-forgetfulness that should apply to such things. We may fit in or we may not. But the key idea is that we stick out because we are following Jesus.
Sticking Out and Ready to be Struck Down
In following Jesus, we know we will stick out. So we can expect the hammer. The world, under Satan’s sway, demands conformity (cf “the elementary principles of the world” Gal 4:3, Col 2:20). When we realize how we are perceived because of our allegiance to Jesus, it will help us to understand what to expect.
As believers follow Jesus, they will resemble the apostles who are “a spectacle to the world, to angels, and to men.” (1 Cor 4:9). Paul’s experience was that “When reviled, we bless; when persecuted, we endure; when slandered, we entreat. We have become, and are still, like the scum of the world, the refuse of all things.” (1 Cor 4:12-13). This is not a recipe for becoming cultural champions.
So we need to be prepared to be struck down. Jesus reminds us that the reception of fierce opposition is part of our witness. In the sermon recorded in the fifth chapter of Matthew, Jesus said:
“Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.
Matt 5:11-12
As we receive the blasts of opposition because we are sticking out in the right way for the right things, we join the gospel’s long line of witnesses or rather the “great cloud” of them (Hebrew 12:1). Paul could say:
Do all things without grumbling or disputing, that you may be blameless and innocent, children of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and twisted generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world, holding fast to the word of life, so that in the day of Christ I may be proud that I did not run in vain or labor in vain.
Phil 2:14-16
If we stick out in this way, we bear witness that something is wrong with the world, and only in Christ can it be made right.
Many people are feeling a lot of anxiety about climate change. There are even strikes among school children aimed at raising awareness about the issues. These two words–“climate change”– represent a lot more than a surface reading. “Climate” is the broad word used to describe relative geographical temperatures and weather patterns. “Change” is just that. A change. And that change is causing people around the world to become very worried.
Climates Change
I live in Alberta where the proverb states, “If you don’t like the weather, wait 20 minutes”. The actor Leonardo DiCaprio famously witnessed evidence of climate change. He saw how quickly a Chinook can change the temperature, as the west wind descends from the mountains and melts all the snow as it heads east. The climate does change and indigenous people have been watching this “snow eater”for a long time.
So that’s just it. Climates change. Growing up on a farm, everyone who works out in the fields recognizes that within a few miles there can be different microclimates: some are wetter, some drier. Those microclimates can change with passing cycles of wet years and dry years.
Concerns, Presuppositions and Predictions
Of course when most people refer to “climate change” they are referring to something more like environmental deterioration or pollution-based changes in weather patterns. Climate change has become so familiar to us that we all know that these words are now equated with a whole range of environmental concerns, philosophical presuppositions and even accepted predictions about the future. To disagree in any degree with the concerns, presuppositions and predictions is to be a “climate denier” even though no one disagrees that there is such a thing as climate.
Empathy with Environmental Concerns
Into this mix, the Christian believer has empathy with the wider concerns for “climate change”, but Christians also have a surprisingly bleak outlook for the earth.
On the one hand, the stewardship of the earth is part of the mandate given to Adam and Eve in the second chapter of Genesis. Their calling required them to “be fruitful and multiply” and to “tend and keep” the extendable borders of Eden. Population control was not in view, but rather population expansion. More people would mean more environmental change. The wildness of the natural world would be brought under cultivation and put into a tamed order. At least that’s how it ought to have been.
With the sin of Adam and the curse upon his lineage, there was the accompanying curse upon the earth itself. Weeds would grow and require removal. Now consider this question. What do you do with weeds? You pull the weeds by hand if you’re a gardener. What do you do with the pulled weeds? You must put them in a pile somewhere. If you don’t dispose of them carefully the seedlings of the dead weeds can be carried by the wind right back into your garden. So we can say that the gardener’s weed pile is the consequence of the third chapter of Genesis.
Burning Weeds East of Eden
For millennia, people have burned their weeds. The reason being that they are not returning the weeds to the soil (to take root) or permitting the dead weeds to re-seed the cleansed field when they’re piled up. Incineration has always been the most effective disposal method. But when you burn things, you are releasing carcinogens, i.e. pollution. Imagine the weed piles burning east of Eden.
The alternative is to make piles, even if we call them organic piles of ‘compost’. Piles of refuse are the consequence of the Fall. These piles require quarantine and management. How a society deals with their piles indicates how well ordered they are. Municipalities everywhere are running out of room for their piles. But pile management is an old question which even the Levitical laws had an answer for.
Sin’s Pollution
So the point I’m making is that the curse upon Adam and the earth, combined with a mandate for population expansion results in a crowded polluted world. The sin of fallen mankind also ensures that human beings will care less about how their personal actions injure others. We will pollute because it’s convenient, or because we don’t have the ordered leisure to pollute in less injurious ways. Sin will also blind us to the reality that our plight in this fallen world is the result of inherited sin. It’s not curable by education, politics or any other man-made reform.
The End of the World
Added to this reality of a polluted earth is the prophecy which promises that the end will not be a utopia. As Peter indicated (2 Peter 3:7), “the heavens and earth that now exist are stored up for fire”. The intention of this promise is to summon people to faith in Jesus Christ who offers security of life beyond the grave, and the hope of heaven beyond the sorrows of earth. As the United Nations predicts that there are only 11 years until “climate catastrophe”, isn’t it all the more reason for people to heed the message going out since the days of John the Baptist, ” flee from the wrath to come”?
Between Aspiration and Compassion
If the language of catastrophe is overblown, no one can deny that Christians want to be good stewards of the earth, just as the original dominion mandate indicated. However, this is also where the conflicts between aspirations and compassion come into play. In Mediterranean climates that offer little temperature change throughout the year and few distinguishable seasons, there is a geographical luxury to pursue experiments in addressing “climate change”. But for northern climates (like Canada’s) every apartment building, house and business is heated by hydrocarbons.
What if bread was denied to children in Revolutionary France because it was made in Royalist mills? What if a fire in the fireplace was denied to a single mother in Dickensian England because the fuel was not carbon-neutral? Our compassion requires us to admit that utopian visions don’t always square with practical realities. As James flatly stated, “if one of you says to them, “Go in peace, be warmed and filled,” without giving them the things needed for the body, what good is that?” (James 2:16). As we seek good stewardship, just laws and practical compassion, we need to be careful that we don’t consign the weak and vulnerable to suffering in order to placate the consciences of the affordably secure.
People and Promises
When I speak with friends from other parts of Canada there is often an assumption that the bitumen-based oil-sands (or tar sands/dirty oil if you prefer) cannot be anything but a massive expression of the polluting curse.
I could make an argument in favour of fossil fuels generally. Or I could note that it is fossil fuel that heats my friends’ homes and powers all of the unnoticed networks that supply their needs. Or I could mention the hyper-sensitive procedures the oil extractors now use that aim to reclaim ground in better condition than it was before.
But there are really two key factors which drive me to support realistic thinking about fossil fuels and their circumspect use: people and promises.
First, the oil business is made up of people, dads and mums who work to provide the means for our needs to be met —from stocking our supermarkets to heating our furnaces. It’s a strange sight to see people driving vans to a rally that want to shut down the jobs of the people that gave them their means of transportation.
Our church prays regularly for people who are unemployed. The callous may say— get a different job. But that is where the utopian aspirations bump up against the realities of local compassion. I pray that the oil companies would start hiring again because many families are struggling.
The second factor that makes me think realistically about climate change is the promises of God. Even if God is going to use the climate catastrophe as part of the means of bringing his final judgement, there is a climate security that he has ensured until then. He made a promise to Noah, after the subsiding of the flood and the covenant ratified by the rainbow in the sky. God said:
While the earth remains, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night, shall not cease.”
Genesis 8:22
So the earth will remain— for a time. During that interim, we must use the earth’s resources responsibly, but use them we must. For if we ignore the resources God has given us, then we run the danger of showing contempt for God as well as our neighbour.
Comfort for Climate Anxiety
The exhortations of Peter remind us that:
The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance.
2 Peter 3:9
As many people, especially young people, are being gripped by what is described as “eco-anxiety“, Christians need to offer an alternative eschatology. Our hope resides beyond this earth. As Peter concludes:
Since all these things are thus to be dissolved, what sort of people ought you to be in lives of holiness and godliness, waiting for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be set on fire and dissolved, and the heavenly bodies will melt as they burn! But according to his promise we are waiting for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells.
2 Peter 3:11-13
Let us be good stewards of the earth, but let us set our deepest hopes on heaven, delighting to see our Lord Jesus face to face for eternity.
Our church has been accepted to participate in a civic celebration of art called, Calgary Artwalk. What could our church offer? We are the stewards of a church building with distinctively blue stained glass. Within the stained glass windows are a series of symbols. The symbols represent Christian stories, themes and even doctrines. The artistic value of the stained glass symbolism is very high. But more than that is the profound symbolic significance which the windows provide.
Since we were included in the city galleries of Artwalk, we decided to offer interpretive tours through the church building in order to explain the symbols and introduce many non-religious people to the world of the Christian Scriptures.
This is the unedited tour guide script which the volunteer tour guides will use. Our hope is that as people come to study the beauty, craftsmanship and symbolism of the stained glass, they will inquire further into the message of Jesus Christ and his mission to deliver human beings from the banality of immorality and the lostness of their misplaced love.
Calgary Artwalk 2019
Symbols in Stained Glass
Exhibition Guide
Welcome to Calvary Grace Church. My name is [_____]. I’m a member here at the church. We are delighted to participate in Artwalk this year. And we are glad you could come and tour our historic building and see the our exhibition.
The exhibit is called, “Symbols in Stained Glass”. Our tour should take about 20 minutes. There are washrooms available downstairs. If you have any questions, please feel free to ask at any time. I’ll do my best to answer them.
According to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York city, stained glass was a technique which became well developed in the Middle Ages. According to the MET:
Most of what is known about medieval stained-glass making comes from a twelfth-century German monk who called himself Theophilus. An artist and metalworker himself, Theophilus described in his text, On Diverse Arts, how he carefully studied glaziers and glass painters at work in order to provide detailed directions for creating windows of “inestimable beauty.”
Stained glass became an artistic way to show the symbolism of Christianity. For the many illiterate people in the Middle Ages, stained glass became a picture-book for teaching them the faith.
In our tour, we are going to see as many as 20 different symbols in the windows. It’s going to be like flipping through a large colouring book on the walls! You’ll notice the graphic design and beauty of these symbols.
AGNUS DEI and the 7 Seals [Any ideas about what’s going on here?]
This image shows a lamb with the sunshine around the head with the cross inset. This represents “The Lamb of God”
John the Baptiser (They didn’t have “Baptists” back then) called Jesus “The Lamb of God Who Takes Away the Sin of the World”. Later in the Book of Revelation, Jesus Christ was called the Lamb of God and he is the only one deemed worthy to open the sealed prophecy about the end of the world. The singers said of Jesus, “Worthy are you to take the scroll and to open its seals, for you were slain, and by your blood you ransomed people for God from every tribe and language and people and nation,
Crown
This is the claim, not only that Jesus Christ is the King of the Jews, which is what Pontius Pilate labelled him when he had him crucified, but Jesus is also the eternal king who reigns in this way:
For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet. The last enemy to be destroyed is death. First Letter to the Greek Corinthians from Paul, the Apostle.
[Nobody likes death. But the Christian belief is that Jesus died and rose from the dead, so he beat death and will destroy it completely]
Candle
This symbol represents the saying of Jesus, ““I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.”
The Pelican in Her Piety [ Now what do you think is going on with this one? ]
This was an ancient symbol used by the early Christians to portray what Jesus did in sacrificing himself. People thought that the Pelican would stab itself and feed its hungry young with her own blood. In a similar way, the idea was that Jesus shed his blood to give life to his own.
[This is one of the more puzzling ones. Unless you’re an ancient history expert or a zoologist!]
From the Narthex, we enter the Sanctuary. We will turn off the lights and you can appreciate the blue light.
Matthew, Mark, Luke and John
[Can you name the 4 Beatles? (John, Paul, George, Ringo) or 4 Calgary Flames? (Johnny Gaudreau, Sean Monahan, Mark Giordano, Matthew Tkachuk)]
What about the 4 gospels? [Matthew, Mark, Luke and John]
Each gospel was a memoir of Jesus of Nazareth. And each memoir writer had an image which was connected to them.
The symbols are taken from Revelation 4:7 which speaks of “living creatures” who give testimony about Jesus.
Matthew: Flying Man– His gospel stresses Jesus Humanity
Mark: The Lion— His gospel stresses Jesus Royalty
Luke: The Flying Ox— His gospel stresses Jesus Sacrificial Offering
John: The Eagle— His gospel stresses Jesus high Deity (or God-ness).
Luther’s Rose
Designed by Martin Luther, founder of the Protestant Reformation.
A ‘graphic designer’ who developed what we would call a Brand, not by self-promotion, but simply because he had his own distinctive style of writing, art, music, and church ritual.
Luther believed that you can’t earn your way to heaven by being a goody-goody, because you’ll always fail. But you can trust Jesus as your sub-in, your substitute, because he’s is perfect. Jesus’ perfections can make you acceptable to God.
Lilies
[Is anyone a gardener? ] What happens when you plant a lily bulb? [it dies]. But out of the ground comes a beautiful spring plant. That is the symbol of Jesus’ death, burial, and three days later, resurrection from the dead.
The Lily is the symbol of literal rising from the dead by Jesus.
Lamp
“Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.” (Ps119.11)
Spiritual insight and understanding.
Book
Bible. 66 books with a common plot written over hundreds of years by diverse authors, with the dramatic climax in the death and resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth.
Stormy Ship
Who gets seasick?
This symbol represents the church on the stormy waters of the world.
It can also refer to the miracle when Jesus was sleeping on a boat during a terrible storm. When he woke up, he spoke to the wind and the storm ceased miraculously.
Palm Branches
Triumphal Entry
Roman conquerors
Son of David on a Donkey, humble, entering Jerusalem.
Palm Branches laid down in honour of the king.
At this point, if you’d like to see more we have two other rooms with stained glass. You’re welcome to continue or if you’ve had enough, you can linger here and look at the inside of the sanctuary until we finish the extended tour.
Extended Tour
[Sacristy/ Pastor’s Study] Globus Cruciger: The cross-bearing orb. When Jesus holds the globe with the cross on it, he’s called Salvator Mundi (Latin: “Saviour of the World”).
“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.
What’s the Bible reference for that one? [John 3:16] You see it as a sign in the crowd at football games or soccer stadiums.
Baptism and the Lord’s Supper
The two interior stained glass frames, aren’t really stained glass. They are more like painted glass. They are an inferior quality compared to the others.
The first represents the ritual of Baptism. Baptism is the outward expression of true faith on the part of the person baptized. It’s a person following Jesus, and identifying with him by this ritual of initiation.
The second shows the Lord’s supper, both the bread /in this case a wafer, and the wine.
The picture is of the meal where believing people participate in a spiritual union with Jesus Christ, by eating this regular meal together with the rest of the local church family.
At Calvary Grace, we pass around small gluten free crackers, and then small cups of ‘unfermented’ fruit of the vine.
This lesser quality glass pieces illustrate that the church is actually two separate buildings.
[Luther Hall] Bread of Life
[What does the Loaf of Bread represent?…. For a while we used to give away Cobbs bread at our services to anyone who wanted it.]
Jesus famously said, “ “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst. (Gospel of John (the Eagle] chapter 6.
Ichthous
[What is that? “A Jesus Fish”..Where do you see it? Back of a car…. sometimes you see the Darwin fish with the 4 legs sticking out of it.— Still looking for those transitional life forms between species.–smile—]
You might know the story, This was a secret code which the outlawed Christians would use to see if a person was a fellow outlaw. It can be drawn with only two lines. One person would write the top, and the other would draw the bottom making the fish.
The church was built by Germans from the Volga river in Russia, and they were Lutherans. That meant that they followed the Protestant Reformation begun by Martin Luther.
The called that room LUTHER Hall. And we do to this day.
Above the exit is Luther’s rose.
Luther explained it in his own words [Only for the diehard fans]. See attached:
Conclusion:
That concludes our tour of Symbols in Stained Glass. You are welcome to walk through the sanctuary and take pictures.
If you’d like to discuss more of the history of the church, church art, or the Christian belief system, you’re welcome to leave your contact and one of our pastors can chat with you.
You’re also invited to attend our worship service tomorrow at 10:45. It will be filled with people from all backgrounds and cultures. You don’t have to be a believer of any sort to attend the public services. As we say, “Skeptics are welcome!”
If you would like to have a free bible, you are welcome to take one, even if you just want to look up the art history references.
We are volunteers so if there is any way we can improve our tour for next year please let us know.
Thank you for coming and may you keep on seeking the substance behind the symbols!
Appendix:
Luther on his graphic design of the Rose:
The first should be a black cross in a heart, which retains its natural color, so that I myself would be reminded that faith in the Crucified saves us. “For one who believes from the heart will be justified” (Romans 10:10). Although it is indeed a black cross, which mortifies and which should also cause pain, it leaves the heart in its natural color. It does not corrupt nature, that is, it does not kill but keeps alive. “The just shall live by faith” (Romans 1:17) but by faith in the crucified. Such a heart should stand in the middle of a white rose, to show that faith gives joy, comfort, and peace. In other words, it places the believer into a white, joyous rose, for this faith does not give peace and joy like the world gives (John 14:27). That is why the rose should be white and not red, for white is the color of the spirits and the angels (cf. Matthew 28:3; John 20:12). Such a rose should stand in a sky-blue field, symbolizing that such joy in spirit and faith is a beginning of the heavenly future joy, which begins already, but is grasped in hope, not yet revealed. And around this field is a golden ring, symbolizing that such blessedness in Heaven lasts forever and has no end. Such blessedness is exquisite, beyond all joy and goods, just as gold is the most valuable, most precious and best metal. This is my compendium theologiae [summary of theology]. I have wanted to show it to you in good friendship, hoping for your appreciation. May Christ, our beloved Lord, be with your spirit until the life hereafter. Amen
In Albert Mohler’s September 4, 2019 commentary, he observed how the moral revolution continues to pit the rights to religious freedom against the rights of the newly created fluid identities.
Mohler cited various examples of court cases in the US where religious schools were being sued for firing employees who broke their codes of conduct by pursuing some form of LGBTQ2 identity. At issue is the attempt to make the sexual rights prevail of religious freedom, As I listened to his commentary, I remembered something I wrote nearly four years ago about the moral situation in Alberta. What follows was my commentary back then:
Millenia-old definitions of human identity are tumbling like the price of so much unwanted crude.
Now, thanks to new legislation announced from NDP minister David Eggen, schools in Alberta must permit young boys and girls to self-identify in any way they prefer, and to go to any washroom or change room their heart desires.
Confusion reigns as boys will have access to the privacy of girls and vice versa. This goes for washrooms or locker rooms. This is government mandated voyeurism in Alberta schools.
The irony of the situation is that if a child is uncomfortable with the new intermixed activities of boys and girls (and those self-identifying in a personally preferred way), they don’t have a right to have the activity changed to ‘boys’ or ‘girls’. They are shunned away with the lonely option of ‘independent study’.
So the sexual confusion of a child now binds all other children (and educators) to accommodate. But the concern of another young child for their own privacy and safety, is marginalized to the segregated ‘non-gendered’ washrooms and separate study halls. Though many say it is all about human rights, it is clear that for the NDP government, some emotional damage is more equal than others.
January 20, 2016
As things go, the intensity of discussion around so-called Gay-Straight Alliances has died down. The new provincial government with a Conservative name, has not reversed the tide of the moral revolution which the previous government implemented. So what was revolutionary four years ago has become commonplace. Schools have GSA’s though they are not significant. Other schools don’t but that is not by design, and they would have to accept them if a student proposes it.
This is how revolutions bring real change. They take what is decidedly radical, and cause it to be so normal that it becomes the assumption of everyone.
The social engineers continue to pit LGBTQ2 rights against conscience rights for religious minorities. We see social engineers setting the rights of the Communist party over against Christian and Muslim religious freedom in China. It seems that social engineers are proving their skill as they restructure entire societies.
Yet the hope of the gospel is stronger than revolutions. The Evangelical Revival thwarted the spread of the French Revolution to England. Let us pray for the advance of the gospel to do what men and might cannot.
It’s Gay Pride Parade Day. Since the parade is scheduled at the same time that our church service meets, then I’m guessing you may not make it to our service this time.
But I want to extend an invitation for you to come. If you wish to just talk, I can preserve your anonymity and keep your confidentiality.
I recognize that it can be difficult to come out of the LGBTQ2 community. To even begin to question the orthodoxy of the Pride movement is seen as hostile, traitorous behaviour.
That’s why I want to invite you to an exploration of an alternative. Let me explain.
I think that for many LGBTQ2 folks there is becoming less and less confidence in the success formula of the rainbow movement. Many people have found initial acceptance in the community, only to feel deeper loneliness because of transient relationships. Others pursue long-term relationships but they never seem to be enough.
I also think that there are some people who live with being sexually abused, but they are not allowed to connect that abuse with their feelings today. I want to invite people who have been sexually abused to talk about what it means to be sinned against, to live in a sinning world, and to ask where a sinless refuge can be found.
There is a lot of pressure to be gay today. I think a lot of people at the parade are secretly feeling burnt out trying to be gay enough, or gayer than the next person. Or maybe it’s being more conversant with insider lingo or being more active in LGBTQ2 social issues. I think a lot of people are getting exhausted trying to be ‘enough’ for everyone else. They are tired of trying to meet impossible standards. I would like to talk with you about liberation from standard-keeping, through the perfect keeping of a higher standard; in fact the highest. What if there was a way to get a declaration that said you had done enough? That would be truly liberating.
I invite you to talk about your anger and your bitterness. I think that you feel you have been misunderstood, dismissed, and despised. And the result has been you’ve felt hurt, and your hurt makes you bitter and even angry. I’d like to talk with you about the possibility of forgiveness. It might seem crazy, and to your peers, it might seem to show weakness. Yet forgiveness of others is the only way that you can be released from the cancer of anger in your heart. I would also like to point out that until we are forgiven ourselves, having admitted our own offences against the Being who is supreme over all— only then can we objectively forgive others. To be honest about who is offending and offended brings clarity and the beginnings of hope.
If you are secretly having doubts about your identification with the LGBTQ2 movement, but you are too afraid to speak, then accept my invitation to speak anonymously and confidentially.
But the one thing I must warn you about is that Jesus Christ, in all of his love, will hurt our feelings. He does it because we need to hear his loving truth, even when the truth hurts.
Yet in his love, Jesus offered the first invitation long before mine. He said:
Few people will deny that the topic of sexuality rises to the top of all other discussions in Canada. Even in my own church we talk about these issues frequently. The public tensions center around sexuality in relation to the notion of equality. Yet no one can doubt that the subject of diversity is just as prominent. A Christian cannot ignore these ideas of equality and diversity. And in an interesting juxtaposition, my church hosted a conference that addressed the topic of sexuality, only a week prior to the annual celebration of the local Gay Pride parade.
1. Equality of Humanity
Both the attendees at our conference and the attendees at the Gay Pride festival are all equal in worth, dignity and value. That is the Christian viewpoint. Since all the attendees are created in the image of God (Genesis 1:27a), they have an equal standing as well designed, created beings. The design of the human body abounds with evidence of this design, from the microscopic universe of complexity in a human cell to the culture-producing capacity to make create art for the senses.
2. Equality of the Sexes
If the image of God is the first equality that human beings have, the second equality which humans beings have is the equality of sexuality. Since sexuality is the expression of sex, it finds its equal source in the binary sex displayed as male and female. When we consult with Genesis 1:27, we see that this binary division of male and female establishes equality in these two sexes
We know that this second equality applies to sexuality, because in Genesis 1:28, God commends and commands the equal male and female image bearers to be “fruitful and multiply”. This requires the sexual union of male and female; two equals, producing more equals. The equality status is built into God’s design because there are things that have a lower status. In fact, God commands equal, fruitful, human beings to “fill the earth and subdue it” (v.28). Equality is established because the earth, not other people, are placed below human “dominion”.
These equalites that God has established require the high valuation on life that ought to be confessed by all people. Terms today like “pro-life” are just as much “pro-equality”. The unborn child at conception is a human life, and so ought to be treated with dignity, worth and value. The same applies to the elderly or mentally underdeveloped, who are nevertheless equal in worth, dignity and value. No matter the nomenclature we ascribe to ourselves (Baptist, Hindu, Transgender, etc) we are equal in status, worth and dignity because we are created in the image of God.
3. Equality of Corruption
There is third equality that must be looked at before we can consider the diversities. The third equality is the status of fallenness or moral corruption. The tragedy that started it all is recorded in the third chapter of Genesis. Adam disobeyed God by eating what was forbidden (v.6). The result of his action was the equally affecting contagion which touched every human being:
Therefore just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned”
Romans 5:12
Prior to the spread of this corrupting contagion, human beings were equal in status. But afterwards, they remained equal in status, yet also equally contaminated and corrupt. This equality of corruption is not talking about the quantity of criminal acts. It’s not talking about individual’s lists of sins and their relative length. What it’s talking about is that every person from the goody-two-shoes to hardened prisoner has equality of corruption.
The equality of human beings is the reason why Adam’s sin corrupts all, not just some. The point is an important one because self-identified religious people can act like self-identified gay people are unequal and more corrupt. Of course the reverse is true too. Gay people can act like Christians are moral monsters, and undeserving of treatment as equals.
Celebrating equality is a good thing. It is the gift of a special status which God has given to all people. But we must also recognize that there is an equality of corruption which requires a deliverance, but deserves none. None of us deserves to be delivered from judgment. We are all equally under the condemnation of God (Ro 1:18).
Diversity of Equality
There can’t be a discussion of equality without a matching discussion about diversity. Diversity is built into the creation of equal human beings. Even as God created humanity in the image of God, he created two binary, biological sexes, male and female (Gen 1:27). The second chapter of Genesis shows that there was a diversity to the order of the male and female creation, with man being created first in time (2:7). Without a compatible, equal complement to him, God supernaturally created the woman from the biological material of the man (v.22). This diversity in time did not change their equality, but it established diversity within equality. The man was not a woman, nor vice versa. The man had responsibilities given to him by God, such as naming the animals and naming his co-equal corresponding image-bearer. Only the woman had the diverse characteristics to bear children. Yet equality remains.
Equality was not injured or altered by this diversity. But diversities developed, as equal human couples were tasked to socially separate themselves from their parents, being bound together in a union, and establishing new families. This extension of equality beyond one couple, or one tribe is the essence of equality for all of humanity. Although there is diversity in new heterosexual, covenanted unions that are blooming with new life, every new tribe inherently possesses all the equalities, both positive and negative.
Other Diversities
The binary diversity of sex, means that men and women will differ. They will have biological and social differences. Diversity, as in all art, provides variety and intrigue. The differences between men and women are not in terms of the quantity of their worth, but the characteristics of their design.
All peoples are diverse as descendents of Adam. The biological, genetic diversity cannot dispel the fact that we are all connected to each other at the root. We all possess the equalities, even as we celebrate the diversities. Although people may talk of races in the plural, there is really only one race, that is Adam’s race, which we all share in, however diverse we may be in other ways.
Sadly, all of us would like to deny the equality of value for all people, while at the same time selectively denying the equality of corruption for others. Due to sin, we are constantly elevating ourselves and denigrating others. People can celebrate pride as a virtue, when our equality should make us all humble, even repenting in dust and ashes. As Isaiah said:
“Woe is me! For I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts!”
Isaiah 6:5
Retrieving Equality
I was confronted by the distorted views of equality recently when I had a conversation with a woman via social media.
She had been criticizing our church for promoting a conference on sexuality and gender. Her questions were about equality. Did we believe in ‘equality’? Did we support ‘marriage equality’?
I responded in as winsome a manner as possible, trying to articulate the biblical view of equality and diversity. But she responded that I was speaking in a non-secular way. In other words, my definitions of equality (in keeping with standard English usage) did not correspond to hers. When she said “marriage equality” she didn’t mean the equal status of two binary male and female people joined in a covenant with the design that their union be exclusive and fruitful. She meant homosexual unions being re-defined as marriages. We seemed to be speaking different languages.
So if I understood her correctly, she saw equality as requiring interchangeability or fluidity. Further, like Orwell’s Animal Farm, she also understood that all are equal, but some were more equal than others. I was confessing a realistic view of the world where human beings are equal in value, worth and dignity, yet diverse in binary sex, ethnicity and amazing productive capacities. But this confession was forbidden.
I came away from the exchange realizing that there is a vast language gap between what Scripture says, and what our neighbours are saying, even when they employ similar sounding ideas.
Equality and Diversity in the Message of Jesus Christ
The most important way to retrieve equality and diversity is not by playing language games, but by the gospel of Jesus Christ.
The Son of God took on the equality of human beings, by adding to himself a human nature (Phil 2:5-11). This was a condescension because the Son who is God is by definition unequally superior to all creatures. Yet by adding this second, human equality, he could welcome a great diversity of human beings to be united to him. He bore their sin, receiving their due penalty, giving them a renewed equality as children of God, objects of the Father’s love (see 2 Cor 5:21; 1 John 3:1).
There is a new message which diverse humanity must hear in all of their equal corruption. It the message of the gospel that will bring together people from every tribe, tongue and nation to worship at the feet of the one who is superior to all, the Lamb who was slain (Rev 7:9).
In an article last year I wrote about a movement in the evangelical church to affirm gayness as in some way sacred or especially distinct as a gift from God. The impetus for that article was a conference put on by evangelicals, in fact, hosted by Presbyterians. I use the phrase ‘sacred gayness’ to describe the key quality which the advocates of that conference were trying to promote.
There is no real ‘turning’: no metanoia, no repentance.
If you place conditions on Jesus, before you will follow him, then your conversion is to a different kind of messiah.
I presented the gospel to a gay man and during our extended conversation, he admitted with tears that he didn’t think Jesus would let him keep his gayness. I told him he needed to come to Christ, and trust Christ to change his desires by starting with a new heart. At issue was whether he wanted Jesus and the new heart, or Jesus as an appendage on his old heart.
Sanctification
The ‘no-lordship’ position rises again.
Progressive sanctification is neither progressive nor sanctification. The Holy Spirit is viewed as powerless (contra, for instance, the Tim Chester book, You Can Change). Or, calls to holiness are viewed as oppressive or arrogant to claim that progress ought to be evidenced in sanctification.
Definitive sanctification is neither definitive nor sanctification. Because the same-sex desire is viewed as essential to identity, then definitive sanctification must make being gay sacred. Normally definitive sanctification is viewed as a positional status, but now being gay is included there, making gayness redeemed and sacrosanct. This idea is developed in the language of ‘redemptive suffering’ which attempts to create a sacred, divine category, akin to a new monasticism, which is on a higher spiritual plane than those not ‘called to’ the sanctity of gay celibacy.
The ‘givenness’ of same-sex attraction would make it seem to be a gift, as in ‘the gift of singleness’ (cf.1 Cor 7), and this contributes to the self-understanding that ‘LGBTQ Christians’ have a role as ‘prophets’ to the rest of the church. In other words, they have a special ecclesiastical role to play which is distinguished by their ‘sacred gayness’.
The identification of what is sinful as a mere cultural proclivity, leading to the redemption of ‘queer treasure, honor, and glory’ for Christ.
Sin
Sin is redefined and reduced to external acts only (such as same-sex intercourse).
Absent are the categories of a sin nature which would produce internal affections that are offensive to God’s designed order. Are you a sinner because you sin, or do you sin because you’re a sinner? The sacred gayness (SG) movement is not recognizing the call to mortify the flesh: “Put to death therefore what is earthly in you: sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry” (Col 3:5).
No apparent clarification of the doctrine of the Spirit and the flesh in the Christian believer. It is as if the flesh has been mistakenly redefined as only referring to the physical, when it is actually a metaphysical principle of the old age, that must be mortified according to the power of the Holy Spirit in the new age of the kingdom of Jesus Christ.
Marriage
SG advocates will be ‘prophetic’ in challenging ‘heteronormativity’ in evangelicalism, as they view it as the idolization of the ‘nuclear family’.
There is a desire for new Christian covenantal partnerships where two people of the same sex can be bound together in a Church-affirmed, Church-celebrated way.
If the Church affirms spiritually defined covenant partnerships, then you will have civil ratification for those partnerships. In this way you will have a church-branded version of same-sex marriage that enjoys the same privileges as same-sex marriage in the culture at large. It creates a parallel marriage structure for same-sex partners in the church.
Ecclesiology
Consider the false ecumenism of the sacred gayness movement:
Revoice was lead by Protestants and Catholics. Although Nate Collins affirmed a Protestant view, he was sharing platforms with Catholics (for instance, Eve Tushnet). This confuses the gospel and the fundamental question, “What is a Christian?”
As Al Mohler points out, SG endorses the Council of Trent’s view that concupiscence is not sin. So same-sex desire is permissible, but acting on it is not. This permissibility then allows them to build massive structures of sacred gayness, much like the declension in the monastic movement which the Protestant Reformers universally condemned.
This new movement is making an unholy demand upon the church. It is the demand to affirm the sanctity of gayness. To do so is to deny the holiness of God and the strong injunctions against same-sex desire in Romans 1:24, 26-27. It is a crafty way of creating a shadow culture that parallels the biblical culture. Yet affirming any sacred gayness is merely another example of permitting the worship of Baal in the house of the Lord (Deuteronomy 23:17).
We happily rejoice in the power of God to change our lives. That is why we wish to be clear about the changes he brings. That is the powerful truth we all need.
This article is a modified excerpt of a previous article published at clinthumfrey.com
