But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God's special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy. (1 Peter 2:9-10)

We are chosen by God the King to be his priests. That's not just a calling for your pastors: it's yours too. I think that's part of what our devotion yesterday was getting at. Israel was set as a city on a hill to be visible to the nations. And not just visible, but to be a nation of priests among the nations that constantly pointed to their God. And, as the statements on judgement that we heard from Deuteronomy suggested: even when Israel was unfaithful, their plight in exile would still stand as a testament to the Lord.

Today in the Christian church, we still stand as a priests among the nations when we are faithful to that calling. But even when we are unfaithful, we still testify to the Lord. How? Well, not primarily by facing judgement anymore, but rather by receiving God's mercy in Christ.

It was mentioned yesterday, but many are disillusioned with the church these days. It's hard to find good stories in the news or on social media. Not because they aren't there, mind you, but because that's not what tends to go viral. All the same, it colours our impression.

But what causes us to be disillusioned, I think, is less about the brokenness of the church and more about our expectations of what the church should be. We expect it should be an approximation of Jesus Himself and His Kingdom come. But, rarely does the church measure up to those high ideals of perfection. Nor can it, actually, on this side of eternity.

The reason is that the church is a gathering of recovering sinners who can gather, not because they've mended all their ways, but because they have received mercy. And the sure promise of the Bible is that we will continue to sin and find ourselves in need of mercy until Christ comes again. Amen: Come Lord Jesus, Come.

But we have received mercy. We do receive it. Every time. Christ forgives us again, and again. That the church should continue to be loved by God anyway when the whole society calls out "Crucify" or "Cancel," well that too is a testament to the overwhelming unconditional love and compassion of our God.

And, having received mercy: the church does respond. We don't do it perfectly, but we do minister as priests to one another when we have compassion on, pray for, or forgive one another. We do minister as priests to our neighbours when we give them the grace of borrowing our tools or help them with a project. We do minister as priests when we seek God's glory in our work through good governance, sound accounting, excellent care, wise interventions, well-built and wired buildings, and faithful service.

Through God's grace and mercy to us in Christ, the church is not in the end a bad news story about sin. It is a story about a people who have received mercy and have been transformed by it to become those priests who transform the communities in which they live and the places where the work, volunteer, and study. So you priests: you are seen, known, loved, and forgiven—let the light of Christ's transforming mercy shine through you today!

All the nations will ask: "Why has the Lord done this to this land? Why this fierce, burning anger?" And they will hear the answer, "It's because the people living there have broken the covenant of the Lord. (Deuteronomy 29:24-25).

"A city set on a hill cannot be hidden." God established Israel as a city on a hill that cannot be hidden. This principle runs from the Old Testament into the New. Like Israel, the church is a city on a hill that cannot be hidden.

In Deuteronomy 4, Moses shows Israel's publicity in a positive light. Israel, obeying the laws and commands of God, will cause the nations to say, "Surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people" (6). In Psalm 67, this publicity becomes a prayer for God's blessing upon Israel. It is not a selfish prayer. His people desire that the nations will sing God's praise and He will rule the nations with justice and shalom. As Jesus taught us to pray, "your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven" (Matthew 6:10).

This is the positive side of God's people being on display. There is also a negative possibility. That is where are text lands. Israel, and the church, can become "an object of scorn and ridicule to all the nations" because of the judgments that befall them (us) in their (our) disobedience. It was easy for the nations to see this because Israel was a nation. In the end, her disobedience caused her to be banished from the land of promise and exiled in Babylon.

Because the church lives as scattered communities, God's judgement may not be as easy to discern. Yet, I wonder if Paul was thinking about texts such as ours when he wrote, "Whoever eats and drinks must recognize the body of Christ. If they don't, judgment will come upon them. That is why many of you are weak and sick. That is why a number of you have fallen asleep. We should think more carefully about what we are doing. Then we would not be found guilty for this. When the Lord judges us in this way, he corrects us" (1 Corinthians 11:29-32).

Deuteronomy is structured around this framework of Israel's publicity. It was her mission, as it is now the church's mission; we are God's priesthood among the nations. The very name of God is invested in our fulfillment of that mission. Success will make God's name known as a matter of admiration; failure will drag his name to the depths of profanity.

Ezekiel saw and felt this keenly, standing amidst the smoldering wreckage after the judgment had fallen. But Ezekiel also sees the seeds of hope, for God will always act for the vindication of his own name (Ezek. 36:16-36); Israel will be rebuilt. This is our hope. After judgement will come restoration. God's name will be vindicated.

Many Christians are discouraged by the church. Lots have left because so many churchgoers act in ungodly ways. We have seen the public disgrace of many church leaders. We may wonder if there is any hope for the church.

If you wonder, remember that God's judgement is not primarily destructive but redemptive, purifying. When the prophets of Israel warned of God's coming judgement, there was always that seed of hope. God would preserve a remnant. Jesus, who took our disobedience onto himself, also said, "I will build my church." That is our hope. Let's hang on to it as the Spirit leads us in the way of obedience.

For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known. And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love. (1 Corinthians 13:12-13)

These verses come at the end of Paul's great chapter on love in 1 Corinthians 13, which means that we hardly read it seriously. We pass it on to our children to memorize or read it at weddings because it talks about love a lot. Because love is mushy and subjective. It makes us uncomfortable. When we want to get down to brass tacks, we crack open Romans or Ephesians. We don't go to the love part.

And, fair enough. Sometimes the word "love" is used rather simplistically, like a slogan. "Choose love, not hate," we say. Which—in this abstract form—means precisely nothing. The people who chant and shout love act a lot like the folks who are supposedly perpetrating the hate. Just as much anger, slander, fear, exclusion, and even violence. Love as an abstract concept gets us nowhere.

But that's not how 1 Corinthians 13 comes to us. It comes to us embedded in a context and among a group of people: the climactic center of the worship wars in Corinth where the church was deeply divided. How do you live out the reconciliation you already have in Christ in worship, around the Lord's Supper Table, and when you're fighting about gifts, abilities, and who controls the direction of the church? You love each other, that's how.

I find these words at the end of 1 Corinthians 13 to be one of the best descriptions of heaven and of our Christian longing. To see Jesus, face to face. To know Him fully even as we are fully known by Him. And to see and know each other in the same way: fully and face to face. What a surprising joy! That we can be seen and known fully for everything we are and aren't: and still be loved fully all the same! But that is the promise: this place of deep belonging and fellowship that lies at the fulfillment of our hopes and at the end of our faith; that deep and lasting place of loving, embodied, relationship in its truest and purest form. Beyond faith and hope: love remains.

For now, we only see a dim reflection, as through a mirror, or a glass in the older translations. I think of the screens of our devices that tell us all the terrible things going on in the world and church and bring us the disembodied fellowship of text on screens or voice alone in Discord or heads in boxes across Zoom and Facetime. What a poor reflection.

Embodied fellowship is what we were created for. It's what we long for. The world of face to face. Of knowing fully even as we are fully known. Sure, we can't get to that depth of fullness on this side of eternity even when we do come together, but it is the direction our entire, embodied-resurrection faith leans. That's why we're called to gather as Christians. Not because the church is great, but because we need the practice.

Learning how to see and know another and love them all the same. Jesus did it for us. Will you come together to love one another in just that same way? It is, to quote Paul, "the most excellent way" through our present difficulties and divisions.

"If you fully obey the Lord your God and carefully follow all his commands I give you today, the Lord your God will set you high above all the nations on earth. All these blessings will come on you and accompany you if you obey the Lord your God…" (Deuteronomy 28:1-2).

Since I made the rules for our journey through Deuteronomy, I also get to break them. We are staying with the same text as my last edition of Wilderness Wanderings. More specifically, these words, "the Lord your God will set you high above all the nations of the earth."

Moses does not define what this looks like. It's a safe assumption that part of the deal is that other nations would look up to Israel; that she would shine in such a way that people will be drawn to her, to her values and to her God.

It seems to me that when Jesus said to his disciples, "You are the salt of the earth…You are the light of the world", he was echoing our text. And like Moses, he is telling us that our capacity to be the light of the world is directly connected to our faithfulness to God.

Paul unpacks this further when he says, "Do everything without grumbling or arguing, so that you may become blameless and pure, "children of God without fault in a warped and crooked generation." Then you will shine among them like stars in the sky as you hold firmly to the word of life" (Philippians 2:14-16).

In these devotions and in our preaching, both Pastor Anthony and I have lamented the current state of the church. There appears to be more darkness that light. It's a fair conclusion if we only read the headlines, whether they be secular or Christian.

But then I went on tour with Renita, visiting several of our church members in their workplaces. We heard stories of what it looks like to live as a Christian in the marketplace, how Christ's kindness and love leak out of us in the most unexpected ways. I saw "the church" being the church outside of the church building. It was good.

Then I remembered that in our long history, the church often initiated schools and hospitals. In Canada today, for every grocery store there are four organizations providing food for the hungry, many of them connected to a church. The light shines.

Soon after Jesus tells his disciples that we are the light of the world, he tells us three times not to show off our piety in front of others (Matthew 6:1-17). God will reveal our good deeds when the time is right. The nature of godly work is to do it quietly where it go unnoticed. Maybe that is why the writer of Hebrews gives us this encouragement, "And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds, not giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching" (10:24-25).

It is difficult to stay the course that is narrow and challenging when we go it alone. We need companions and encouragers along the way. Do we need to put more emphasis on that in our church life?

A special, extended Sunday Sermon edition of Wilderness Wanderings! The text is Revelation 15 from the New International Version of the Bible. Dive In discussion questions are below for further reflection!

To see this sermon in the context of the worship service it comes from, find it here on YouTube. Or, head to our website to connect with the worshiping community of Immanuel CRC: immanuelministries.ca

His purpose was to create in himself one new humanity out of the two, thus making peace, and in one body to reconcile both of them to God through the cross, by which he put to death their hostility. (Ephesians 2:15b-16)

And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the Lord's holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God. (Ephesians 3:17b-19)

Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace. (Ephesians 4:3)

Our devotion yesterday mentioned the letter of Ephesians, grace, and the gift of already being a part of God's people. A gift we have only to receive and live congruently out of to find ourselves in touch with God's blessing. Well: I feel like I have been living in this gift and these texts this past week, and even though it might mean a slightly longer devotion today, I would love to share the story with you so that you too can be encouraged.

Wednesday afternoon, a group of Calvin Seminary students gathered in Hamilton to see what "CRC ministry" looks like here. I was able to serve as one of the organizers and tour guides for their time. And, rather than show them around a church building to see the Sanctuary, Fellowship Hall, and GEMS closet, we took them on a tour of TrueCity to see the gift that it is to be a part of the reconciled family of God.

We started at 541 where they got their food, bought their buttons, and listened in to a young Anglican in roughly the same spot in the ordination track as they are. "What keeps a place like 541 running?" it was asked. "It couldn't happen without the support, community, and patronage of folks and churches in the TrueCity network" came the reply. This place wouldn't be here without the churches working together for the good of the city.

Next we came to New Hope Bikes, a ministry that has expanded and generated a deep and broad community and hub of activity. Tammy greeted us there, talked about how this ministry grew from the prayerful presence of the church and Asset Based Community Development principles incubated at Diaconal Ministries Canada. "Is there a TrueCity thread running through this place?" "Most of our board members, supporters, and funding partners are people from the TrueCity network" was the reply.

Then we visited Indwell at the Perkins Centre where New Hope meets. Again, CRC incubation (by Immanuelites especially early on) of a ministry that's now deeply supported, staffed, and integrated in Hamilton within the TrueCity Network. An example of which is the three or four TrueCity churches that have Indwell projects integrated into their buildings or will soon.

Then we visited GOHOP, the new monastic prayer movement in Hamilton where not a few of our Young Adults and Redeemer Students have done internships or taken shifts with the prayer teams and where I myself get spiritual direction. They were the ones who began praying for the churches and pastors in Hamilton a few years before TrueCity sprang up, and they have been the prayerful anchor for the movement ever since. Never does a TrueCity Conference happen without the churches coming together in GOHOP facilitated 24/7 prayer stretching for a week or two after.

I had to leave before Katie shared about Open Homes Hamilton and all the newcomer support that happens here, also through places like the Micah House, but that too is a TrueCity network story through and through. A thing that may never have existed if the churches weren't together for the good of the city.

The hostility between our churches and denominations has been put to death in the cross of Christ here in Hamilton as we live together in this one new humanity of the church. And together with all these TrueCity saints, I have begun to grasp a little more fully how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ. I think by the end of our tour, our visiting seminarians did too.

When the church lives in the "unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace" that was forged between us through the cross of Christ—a whole city can be transformed. Structurally, physically, relationally.

It's happened, friends. It is happening. And whether you knew it or not: you're already a part of it! In these ways and so many more.

"If you fully obey the Lord your God and carefully follow all his commands I give you today, the Lord your God will set you high above all the nations on earth. All these blessings will come on you and accompany you if you obey the Lord your God…" (Deuteronomy 28:1-2).

Today is Remembrance Day in Canada. I hope you will all take time to thank God for the freedom we have in this country and to ponder the cost of this freedom. I would encourage you to wonder if there is an erosion of freedoms in the so-called free world. Since this is not a cultural or political reflection, that is all I will say on that topic.

Let us turn to Deuteronomy 28 which the New International Version has divided into two sections: "Blessings for Obedience" and "Curses for Disobedience." These subtitles make it appear as if blessings and curses are simply opposites. Such a division also suggests that our relationship with God is basically 'quid pro quo'. If we obey God, we get all the blessings we can imagine.

Some versions of the "Prosperity Gospel" give the impression that the material blessings in this chapter will come pouring out of the heavenly slot machine if we press the right behavior buttons. Has that worked out for you? Real life tells us that this is not the way it works. And the Bible does not lay things out that neatly.

Clearly, if the curses happen, they will come as deserved punishment for Israel's disobedience. But there is no corresponding sense in which the blessings can be earned as a reward for obedience. The whole thrust of Deuteronomy protests this idea. Israel is bluntly warned to make no equations between military or material success and her own merits (8:17; 9:4-6).

Rather, God's blessing on God's people is already there in the very fact that they are God's people. It is intrinsic to the promise made to Abraham and to the covenant relationship. The blessing of God always initiates His relationship with the world. It is the way grace works. God's blessing is here to be enjoyed.

But here is the caveat: this grace and blessing can only be enjoyed by living in God's way in the land God is giving them. Obedience, therefore, like faith, is the road we travel to experience God's grace and blessing, not how we come to deserve them. Its like a gift. To enjoy it, one must unwrap it and use it in the way it is designed. If you leave it wrapped, you cannot enjoy it. Also, if you try to make a model car fly, you will crash and destroy it.

In Christ, the church's relationship with God is essentially the same as Israel's. We find it all over the book of Ephesians. It begins, "Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ. For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight" (1:3-4). And later, "Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you" (4:32).

We do not need to earn God's grace. Its already ours. We get to unpack it and explore all its dimensions. So, are you living within the grace God has given you? Are you using it well? Are you loving as you have been loved? What is one thing can you do today to live more fully in the grace God has given you?

"Be very strong; be careful to obey all that is written in the Book of the Law of Moses, without turning aside to the right or to the left." (Joshua 23:6)

As I listened in to our devotion from yesterday, two things came to mind. The invitation to remember, and the invitation keep the balance between work and grace. Both of these are themes that flow throughout the biblical narrative.

The word remember shows up over 200 times in our bibles, and the allusion to memories, stories, and the ancient paths occur many times more. Our verse from today comes at the end of Joshua's life and ministry where he calls the Israelites together to remember everything that the Lord has done for them and to remember also the law and covenant they have promised to keep.

And as we enter into the New Testament, we find Jesus calling the church to the same. Whenever you eat the bread or drink the cup, he says, "do this in remembrance of me." And again: "the Holy Spirit… will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you."

So, remembering is necessary. But at the same time, memory alone is not sufficient. We also have to live this law, this story, and this identity that God has both given and reminded us of. For that, we need to walk with balance. We must "turn neither to the right nor to the left," but rather keep to the wise middle of covenantal obedience. This theme also runs throughout the Bible.

In the wisdom book of Ecclesiastes we find these words:

Do not be overrighteous, neither be overwise—why destroy yourself? Do not be overwicked, and do not be a fool—why die before your time? It is good to grasp the one and not let go of the other. Whoever fears God will avoid all extremes. (Ecclesiastes 7:16-18)

In the New Testament we find this same tension held in balance with word pairs like "law and grace," "grace and truth," "faith and works." Jesus' own incarnation keeps this balance perfectly between divine perfection and human limitation. It is his example we are called to imitate, his way in which we are called to walk. As we find male and female, Jew and Gentile, slave and free all reconciled together in Him.

In days of much polarization in society between those on the right and on the left: perhaps the church, remembering and following its Lord, is called neither to the right, nor to the left, but simply to hold the tension-laden space of the middle. This middle space is a place where all the extremes still exist in all their colour and vitality, but rather than tearing each other apart in a zero-sum game: in the Christian middle, these extremes are reconciled together in Christ.

I think of this particularly in light of the human sexuality conversation happening in the churches across the Western world, including our own. In a recent Banner article online, a CRC pastor who sits on one of the extremes in this conversation was quoted as saying: "Synod needs to make a decision, 'all in' on one side or the other. Trying to make everyone happy has not worked. One side is in serious error. If we try to make everyone happy, no one will be happy."

It makes me wonder: is holding the tension in the messy middle where no one is happy really such a bad thing? That seems to me to be exactly the place where God is doing his best work of reconciling all the extremes together in Christ as we remember and believe, walking out the meaning of His cross in confession, forgiveness, and loving one another well when it really counts.

This middle place is the place where grace and truth walk together. Where justice and peace kiss. Where we find the Jesus life by walking out the Jesus truth through the narrow middle of the Jesus way. It is indeed good to grasp the one without letting go of the other as we seek to walk faithfully, turning neither to the right nor to the left.

Moses and the elders of Israel commanded the people: "Keep all these commands that I give you today. When you have crossed the Jordan into the land the Lord your God is giving you, set up some large stones and coat them with plaster. Write on them all the words of this law when you have crossed over to enter the land the Lord your God is giving you, a land flowing with milk and honey, just as the Lord, the God of your ancestors, promised you (Deuteronomy 27:1-3).

As Moses prepares to take his leave of Israel (he will soon die), he stresses the covenant relationship between God and his people. He continually emphasizes that Israel must keep her side of the covenant: faithful living, obedience to Lord's law. Because we live post-resurrection and post-protestant reformation, I think it is valuable for us to pay particular attention to the end of the Book of Deuteronomy.

The resurrection of Jesus changed the dynamics of God's relationship with his people. Paul sums it up in Ephesians 2: "For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—not by works, so that no one can boast" (8-9). There is ample evidence of God's grace and capacity to forgive in the Old Testament, but in Christ God removed the barrier of sin that can stand between us and God. Paul writes, "He was delivered over to death for our sins and was raised to life for our justification" (Romans 4:25).

The clarion call of the Protestant Reformation was that grace sustains and nourishes our relationship with God, removing all barriers between covenant partners. As we love to sing, "we stand forgiven at the cross." This is, of course, the great teaching of the New Testament which reverberated throughout Christendom during and after the reformation.

Yet, it is possible that the way in which we (preachers mostly) have communicated this wondrous truth has made Christians indifferent to faithful covenant partnership with God. It is possible that in rightly decrying 'works righteousness' Christians have developed a 'laissez faire' attitude towards God. Since God does all the work, why should we care about the way that we live? Why should we make an effort to respond to him?

Rarely, does anyone put it this bluntly, but the privilege of the devotion writer is to embellish. As we finish with Deuteronomy, we will encounter significant material dealing with blessings and curses. Moses is very concerned that Israel keeps the law. Under the guidance of the Spirit, he instructs Israel to create this stone monument to the law.

For us, such monuments are simply historical markers. But for Israel, it was meant to continually call her to keep covenant with God. Yet, here is the interesting thing. Moses instructs them to cover the stones in plaster and inscribe the law on the plaster. This was much easier that chiselling the law into the rocks and was easier to read. But the plaster would not last, it would fall off the rock. None of the writers I consulted knew why Israel was to inscribe the law on a surface that would disintegrate.

I wonder if it was so that Israel would need to re-establish the monument every few years. Was it in the hope that doing this would cause Israel to regularly renew her covenant with God? Joshua 8 records Israel setting up these stones and the writing of the law on them. After that, there is no record of Mount Ebal in the scriptures. There is no record that Israel ever put-up new plaster and rewrote the law. I wonder if we would have.

The Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and take care of it. (Genesis 2:15)

You may have heard in the news about COP26 these past few weeks. It's a United Nations climate change summit that happens every year for the past 26 years. As many nations in the world as can come together do come together to talk about climate change and the ways that they each, and together, can address these challenges.

Many of you will remember the Paris climate change conference called COP21, where a number of countries came together to sign the Paris Climate Change Agreement. And now at COP26, those same countries come back to update their commitments to keeping climate change and the warming of the globe at or below the target of 1.5 degrees of warming.

It's a tall order and one that seems well beyond our little daily lives. This is the world that's coming together to talk about these things and countries are the only ones who can come and participate in this "Conference Of the Parties" called COP26. So what role do we have?

Well, from the very beginning of the book of Genesis, it makes clear that our work is as stewards of God's creation. We hear that in the first chapter of Genesis as we are we are told that we are made in the image of God and are commanded to rule, to steward the land. But, we hear it, I think, more particularly in these words from Genesis 2:15.

First, we find that the Lord God took the man and put him in a particular place: the Garden of Eden. So, we're not just those who wander the world and make these high flying, abstract commitments, but we are people who live in a particular place in a particular time with particular work that we do. We are to understand this place where we are put as God's gift to us. It is the garden within which we carry out our ruling and stewarding work for God's creation. God has placed me right here in Hamilton, and perhaps he's taken you and put you in Caledonia, or Brantford, or somewhere else in Hamilton. But that is our garden: the place we work out our stewardship of the earth.

The person was put in the garden in order to do two things. To work it and take care of it. The word for work and take care of are words that are pictures, pictures with deep resonance throughout the Old Testament. One of these words is the word for observe, or keep, like we're commanded to keep and observe the Torah: the commands of God. The other word is a word that's often used for worship in the Bible.

And so these words give the sense that we have an almost priestly duty here, not just to work the ground and take care of it, but really to serve it as an act of worship. We are to serve as priests for the ground and for the earth.

So the question: how are you serving as a priest in the place--your garden--where God has put you? Not just serving as a priest before God and among your neighbors, but also to and for the creation? Do you actions bring healing and redemption to the ground you walk?