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Rev. David L.S. Robertson

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Why bother choosing to be a Follower of Jesus?

Date: Sunday, March 18, 2018 Teacher: Rev. David L.S. Robertson Duration: 23 mins 20 secs

Passage: 1 Peter 4:1-11

Series Why Bother - Winter 2018

Description: I follow the Way of Jesus. I am a Christian. But what does that mean? I don’t know that if I had been born and raised in another part of the world in another culture in another faith whether I would be Christian today, but what I do know is that I am committed to the Way of Jesus. I am committed to following the teachings of Jesus and learning from the Way he lived. I have given my heart to this person who lived 2,000 years ago, who exuded the unconditional love of God, who challenged the authorities of the time just by being himself, and who suffered and ultimately died on a cross for preaching and living the love of God. Our scriptural guide this morning for exploring what it means to be a follower of Jesus is the 1st letter of Peter, chapter 4, found near the end of the New Testament. Peter, good old Peter. One of the first disciples called to follow Jesus, but at that time he was called Simon, the fisherman, who made his livelihood fishing for tilapia on the Sea of Galilee. Simon didn’t hesitate when Jesus walked by and said, “Simon, come and follow me.” Simon & his brother Andrew immediately heeded Jesus’ call, jumped out of the boat, abandoning their father Zebedee, who was left to deal with the day’s haul of fish.

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Why do we take time to worship?

Date: Monday, March 12, 2018 Teacher: Rev. David L.S. Robertson Duration: 20 mins 41 secs

Passage: Colossians 3:12-17

Series Why Bother - Winter 2018

Description: Why bother with worship? Psalm 100: 2-3 says, Worship the Lord with gladness; come into his presence with singing. Know that the LORD is God. It is God who has made us, and we are his; we are his people and the sheep of his pasture. (Ps. 100: 2-3) This is why we worship. We are designed to worship God. It’s in our DNA. It’s rooted in our tradition. Our theology of worship is grounded in ancient wisdom that affirms a special, intimate relationship with the One who has made us; the One who claims us as his beloved—his people, and the sheep of his pasture. I mention Psalm 100 because it lies at the very foundation of everything that follows into the time of Jesus and Paul as we consider prayer and public worship. The collective wisdom of our Judeo-Christian roots proclaims that we pray and worship not because of want but, need. Our greatest purpose as human beings, according to the wisdom of our faith is to offer God our gratitude, praise, and worship. Consider prayer for a moment. In the Muslim Tradition, prayer is offered 5 times a day. In the Jewish Tradition, it’s 3 times a day. In the Christian Tradition, according to the rule of St. Benedict and earlier (4th – 6th centuries), prayer is still offered 8 times a day in monastic settings. These prayers are called the liturgy of the hours. In the Middle East where all the Abrahamic traditions intermingle, the call to prayer is proclaimed from the minaret, by the time on the clock and/or the place of the sun in the sky. In every case the call to prayer is meant to be an interruption in the day. Work stops. Tasks cease. Room is created to pray. What I appreciate is the notion that prayer interrupts. Prayer is designed to get in the way of the many things that serve to keep bread on the table, keep others happy, keep things operating. Worship and Prayer go together. They exist to get in the way of the many things we deem important or that otherwise serve as distractions from tending to our soul’s need to commune with God. The intent of prayer and worship is to get at the very center of our life in order that we may be reminded again and again about who and Who’s we are.

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Why bother being a Church?

Date: Sunday, February 04, 2018 Teacher: Rev. David L.S. Robertson Duration: 17 mins 50 secs

Passage: 1 Corinthians 12:12-27 & Acts 2:43-47

Series Why Bother - Winter 2018

Description: Why bother going to church? Rabbi Schmuel Kaplan tells the story of an employee who approaches the boss in order to ask for a raise. Well, you can imagine the boss pummelling the employee’s request with any number of questions that have to do with justifying why a raise is so deserving. While going to the boss individually is a worthy endeavour, imagine the difference if all the employees showed up at the same time or, the union reps are part of the meeting? The weight of the request would shift in a very different way. No doubt, the rational for the increase in wage would be more convincing. No matter, the boss would have to hear the request very differently. Well says, Rabbi Schmuel, imagine one person praying to God compared to a whole community praying to God. Not that individual prayer is any less significant, but there’s more capacity when a whole community prays. We must not underestimate the power of corporate prayer. And of course, the Hebrew Scriptures and the New Testament writings are filled with expressions of corporate prayer. In fact, the synagogue was developed to create a context for local corporate prayer so everyone in their town could come together and pray. The roots of the Judeo-Christian faith are community-based and grounded in congregational life. And the soul reason for that is founded on praying together. Why bother going to church? We go because it matters that we pray together in community one with the other. We bring our whole self to church. We bring all that matters to us. We bring our worries, our anxieties, our intentions, our concerns, our gratitude, our joy, our compassion, our vision, our hope, our skills, abilities, talents, possessions, our desires for everyone’s well-being into a corporate community expression of prayer. Amazing really.

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Why Bother Believing in God?

Date: Sunday, January 21, 2018 Teacher: Rev. David L.S. Robertson Duration: 24 mins 17 secs

Passage: Deuteronomy 6:1-9 & Acts 17:16-28

Series Why Bother - Winter 2018

Description: Rev. David explores what it means to believe in God, in non-traditional terms and rooted deeply in the Judeo-Christian path.

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Opening Our Eyes & Minds to Hope

Date: Sunday, January 07, 2018 Teacher: Rev. David L.S. Robertson Duration: 13 mins 19 secs

Passage: Isaiah 60:1-6 & Mark 1:9-12

Series Why Bother - Winter 2018

Description: Arise shine, YOUR light has come. On this Epiphany Sunday, it’s like the words of Isaiah are saying to us Christians: “OK, you have passed through Advent and lit the candles of hope, peace, joy and love in anticipation of the celebrated birth of Jesus. You have gathered on Christmas Eve and lit more candles and proclaimed the light of God that even the darkness cannot put out. you have gathered around the manger and pondered the mystery of God’s incarnation—of being born—in the baby Jesus and how amazing that is remembering of course that it’s the tradition’s way of inviting you to be aware that you are also the embodiment of God’s presence—the hands and feet of Christ. Then, if your household is like mine, we collapsed into the week between Christmas and New Years—perhaps still frantically working the kitchen, cleaning, travelling, eating and drinking, enjoying family time. And then we land on Epiphany with Isaiah’s words. It’s as if the prophet is wondering, “OK you have done all that. Now what are you going to do about it? Arise, shine, YOUR light has come. The glory of the LORD has risen upon you…. Lift up your eyes, look around..... While this is an awesome text post Christmas. I think it would be even more fun to read on Groundhog Day imagining the returning spring light as we drift out of winter’s hibernation. But let’s not get too far from the point. I believe that Isaiah’s words are intended to help us bask in God’s light of hope and promise and vision. Our light has come. The Prophet’s invitation is to lift up our eyes and look around. This is especially significant for our congregation. We have weathered the past 5 years of our own version of exile and return post disaster. We have suffered emotional losses, material losses, human losses and physical losses to be sure. We are finding our way home to a new kind of normalcy how ever we understand that and now, in this season of Epiphany—the season when the tradition remembers and points to God’s revelation in the newborn Christ—we enter God’s light arising and shining upon us. It’s the time when we move more deeply and intentionally into our spiritual identity as God’s people living our faith and compassion in community as a congregation. It’s the time when we own what we say and do, proclaim it, and reconstitute ourselves for a life in mission and ministry together.

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A Quiet Space on Christmas Eve 9:00 pm

Date: Sunday, December 24, 2017 Teacher: Rev. David L.S. Robertson Duration: 12 mins 5 secs

Passage: Matthew 1:18-25 & Luke 2:1-20

Series Advent 2017

Description: Rev. David speaks of the need for quiet space on Christmas Eve to reflect on our faith.

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A Time for Hope

Date: Sunday, December 03, 2017 Teacher: Rev. David L.S. Robertson Duration: 19 mins 22 secs

Passage: 1 Timothy 6:7-19 & Luke 1:39-56

Series Advent 2017

Description: Perhaps you have noticed that the light in the front entry way to our church is left on 24 hours. Early in the building phase of this facility a decision was made to keep the light on as a beacon of hope for our town and the world. The light shines because we are people of light and hope following in the way and wisdom of Jesus Christ. Our mission clearly states that our church a community of help, home, and hope. The letter of 1 Timothy helps us think about what that means even more. But first, lest we be distracted by one thing, let’s get that out of the way. The writer of 1 Timothy makes it clear that money is not evil. It is the love of money that is evil. It is the love of money and riches that leads to the entrapment of senseless and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction and causes them to be pierced by many pains. Wow. So, let’s be sure we’ve got that. The second thing that we need to clarify is that 1 Timothy wants us to understand that because we are rich (and let’s just assume that by the world’s standards we are all rich) we are commanded not to be haughty or to set our hope on the uncertainty of riches but rather on God who richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment. We are to be rich in our good works, generous and ready to share… So where does this wisdom invite us to place our hope? On our riches? Or in God who richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment, our good works, and our practice of generosity? There is only one correct answer here. Our hope is God, the one who provides richly for us—the one who is the source of wisdom, the one who inspires hope. When we share generously, we rest our hope in God.

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Sabbath, not just a day off!

Date: Sunday, November 19, 2017 Teacher: Rev. David L.S. Robertson Duration: 21 mins 4 secs

Passage: Deuteronomy 5:12-15

Series A Journey with Time

Description: At the time when God was giving the Torah to Israel, He said to them: My children! if you accept the Torah and observe my mitzvot [commandments], I will give you for all eternity a thing most precious that I have in my possession. --And what, asked Israel, is that precious thing which Thou wilt give us if we obey Thy Torah? --The world to come. --Show us in this world an example of the world to come --The Sabbath is an example of the world to come (A. Heschel, The Sabbath, p. 73). Upon hearing this Jewish legend, I imagine all of Israel voicing, “Ah… I see”. But I wonder, is it the same with us? Do we imagine Sabbath as an example of the world to come—the most precious possession that God is willing to give to us for all of eternity? Over the last several weeks we’ve been exploring the various expressions and examples of Sabbath. This week the rubber hits the road. We come face to face with the tradition and the significance of Sabbath as the fourth of the 10 commandments, which is interesting in and of it’s self because, the Sabbath rests right in the middle; at the heart of the 10 commandments. It’s not the fourth most important, it is located literally next to center. Sabbath is a defining practice situated in the very heart of the Torah. We should take notice of that, I think.

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Sabbath creates room for imagination & creativity

Date: Sunday, November 05, 2017 Teacher: Rev. David L.S. Robertson Duration: 16 mins 32 secs

Passage: Isaiah 43:16-21 & John 14:15-27

Series A Journey with Time

Description: Susan and I sat in silence as the sun set over the Okavango Delta, in northern Botswana. We watched as giraffes, elephants, zebra, jackals and ostriches came to the water’s edge having migrated through the hot and arid Kalahari to the place where the water flows like rivers in the desert—quenching thirst, soothing parched lips, easing the anxiety of survival. Fed by the hills of northern Angola, the Okavango flood waters reach the desert sands of the Kalahari in dry season, providing the exhausted creatures the spa-like qualities of an inland delta. Here the wild animals honour their creator, and we mere mortals can scarcely take it in. The dangerous toll of the migration is past. The long trek to water is over. The young frolic, the old ones rest, those on watch close one eye in the presence of refreshing newness. There is no consideration of what is past. Newness springs forth. There is quite simply, the full presence and blessing of the moment—a natural sense of gratitude. And we humans, privy to the miracle of what we witness, having dipped our cup in the pure waters of the delta, declare praise for our maker. If there ever was a place on earth that captures the imagination of the prophet Isaiah, I would cast my vote for the Okavango. In the context of such natural wonder, one cannot help but seize the essence of God’s new thing and the spaciousness to perceive it.

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The Energizer Bunny

Date: Sunday, October 15, 2017 Teacher: Rev. David L.S. Robertson Duration: 13 mins 34 secs

Passage: Matthew 11:28-30 & Acts 2:42-47

Series A Journey with Time

Description: The energizer bunny thumped across my TV screen the other night. It just keeps going and going says the announcer. On the one hand how awesome for Energizer that they can produce a long-lasting battery—that’s pretty cool. On the other hand, I found myself annoyed by the bunny’s noise and incessant banging that just keeps going and going. And then I thought, gosh… how many times have I heard this annoying bunny become a positive image for resilience and a congratulatory phrase for how someone we know just keeps going and going. Why, she’s just like the energizer bunny. And we all nod with awareness and wonder. Assuming that’s a good thing. As I thought more about the energizer bunny, I literally went down a rabbit hole. We live in a world that doesn’t stop. We work shifts around the clock. We have access to light 24 hours a day. We receive market and business news from around the world at all hours of the day. We have fast food so we can eat and move to our next appointment at the same time. Productivity keeps going and going. This year’s bottom line has to out pace last year’s. We are addicted to work. We can even throw back a shot of espresso, get all the benefits of aroma, taste and caffeine—in, out, gone, next. This is especially useful for morning commuters it’s all about keeping ourselves going and going. This is the normal human pattern of activity in most parts of the industrialized world. We’re all expected to operate like the energizer bunny that just keeps going and going, banging away at our work. And for the most part we are rewarded for it. But a what cost? The pharmaceutical industry loves the energizer bunny because it busies itself by creating anti-depressants, sleep aids, pain suppressors, cold remedies so, we can all get back to work, be our normal productive self and keep going and going. But what about the breakdown of marriages, turn key kids, coronaries, high blood pressure, panic attacks, strokes, burnout, and chronic fatigue… pharmaceuticals merely numb the symptoms, they don’t make them go away. Fact is, humans need rest. There’s no denying it… rest serves our immune systems, restores our body, and provides us with over all well-being. When I read the words from today’s gospel, I feel myself melt. I need that kind of rest. I need to lean into God, into my spiritual practice, into the wisdom of my Judeo-Christian tradition, into the awareness that even Jesus rested and so did God.

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