The Lesser known...

I remember, when I was a very young Christian, a member of my family saying, “You know what I can’t stand about Christians? They are all hypocrites! They act all goody, goody on Sunday and then the rest of the week they act completely different”.

Those words have never left me.  

Have you ever felt like you like you wear a mask in certain areas of your life?  I don’t mean a literal mask, because we all know we need to do that.  I am talking about how we live our lives. How, perhaps sometimes we carve out a portion of our lives and choose to live it differently than the rest.  For instance behaving a certain way with certain people or certain circumstances.

We are called to live honestly in every part of our lives.

“Since we are living by the Spirit, let us follow the Spirit’s leading in every part of our lives.”  Galatians 5:25

After Jesus’ death, Joseph of Arimathea , the lesser known Joseph, went public with his faith. He is remembered for stepping out in faith to claim the body of Jesus. For three years of Jesus ministry, Joseph was a secret disciple. As one of Israel’s wealthy religious elite, it was dangerous for Joseph to associate with Jesus. It was not until Jesus’ crucifixion that Joseph was willing to risk a public association. 

And I wonder what he might have missed out on had fear and hesitation not taken over? What opportunities had he missed? What miracles and life change did he not experience out of fear of being found out that he was in fact a follower of Jesus?

I suppose the same question could be asked of each of us. What might we be missing out on?

What opportunities are we missing out on because we are afraid to commit fully to our faith?

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“My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me.”  (John 10:27)

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Don’t be afraid, for I am with you. Don’t be discouraged, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you. I will hold you up with my victorious right hand. (Isaiah 41:10)

Join us this Sunday, March 28th (Palm Sunday) for a very special service with our children!

In the Middle

Remember those days when we  could travel? I wouldn’t say that I love the flying part, particularly if I was assigned the middle seat. For me the middle seat is the worst.

And generally the middle seat is not a hot commodity.

There are window seat people on airplanes, and there are aisle seat people on airplanes.

I am a window person - Brian prefers the aisle but it is essential that he have the ability to lean over and describe all the geographical features below. That works well if we are in a two-by-two configuration, otherwise someone is not happy.

I dread the middle seat.  I was once travelling myself and I was sitting between two people who were clearly a couple. So I offered for them to sit together and they politely said in unison, “no thanks”. She wanted the window, he wanted the aisle and I spent the next several hours between them as they passed snacks and pens and glances to one another. I hate the middle seat. 

Isn’t it true that it is in the middle where we feel stuck?

Whether it is the middle seat of a plane or the middle of a situation.

When I began my doctorate the beginning was exciting, and the ending was a celebration. Oh but the middle —- right?

It’s in the middle, where it is equally as far from where we started as it is to the ending. It’s in the middle is when we’re most tempted to give up. It's in the middle that our fears can also overtake us.

But Jesus shows up in the middle.

Jesus showed up in the middle to calm the raging storm. Jesus showed up in the middle when the disciples were afraid for their lives, huddled in the upper room, after he was crucified.

Jesus showed up in the middle.  

And John 19:18 says,  Jesus is in the middle:

There they crucified him, and with him two others—one on each side and Jesus in the middle.

The picture at Golgotha is quite striking. There were three crosses, and yes, Jesus is in the middle. Of course, our salvation could have been accomplished if Jesus had died alone. But that’s not how God designed it.

Jesus died between two criminals. They died as punishment for their crimes. And these two criminals really represent our condition, don’t they? They had sinned against God, like each of us — separated from God because of our thoughts, words or deeds. They picture what all of us deserve apart from faith in Jesus. Then there’s Jesus. 

Innocent.

It’s important that Jesus’ cross was in the middle. Why? Because Jesus’ cross proclaims salvation. It shows us the one who carried our sins. The cross is at the centre of God’s work of salvation. 

Throughout the bible that is exactly where Jesus is.  Jesus is always in the midst. Jesus is always in the middle.

And as you read this, my prayer for you is that you are reminded today that right in the middle of what you are facing; right in the middle of what we are all going through; right in the middle, is where Jesus wants to show up.  

As we approach the cross this Easter “What will you do with Jesus?”

Volunteering and Exceptional Kids (by Shelly Wedge)

I would like to talk about volunteering at Amberlea Church.  There are still ways to volunteer, even in COVID times. Firstly, at Amberlea we believe in inclusion, even in our volunteer opportunities. You may ask yourself, how is this possible? How can my exceptional child or youth possibly participate?

Well, I am here to tell you that you can no matter your ability, everyone has something to offer. We want to build on your child’s abilities and give them confidence to be a part of a community that cares about them and that will help them achieve their goals, no matter how big or small that may be.

 At Christmas time, our church did a Drive-Thru Live Nativity event. There were different stations with magi, shepherds and even live animals. It was a great community experience and we had so many volunteers for this outreach.

You may ask yourself, how could my child possibly be a part of this? Let me tell you that they can. As I mentioned to you in a previous blog, I have two teenagers on the autism spectrum. My son definitely has more outward challenges, than my daughter. So for this experience, we decided to volunteer as actors at one of the stations. We had to be outdoors, dress up like magi and then we just had to point and pick up a few items off the table and pretend we were doing things with them.

This turned out to be just up my son’s alley as he struggles with conversation, so he didn’t have to read or memorize any lines for this. We had a lot of fun dressing up and just being together with all the other volunteers.  We got to wave at people in cars as they drove by, so it was very exciting for us! We also have another little boy in the church on the spectrum as well and he and his mom dressed up with us. He stayed for as long as his attention span would allow him and we all had lots of laughs and fun doing this together. We took pictures together and had such a great time re-living our experience later.

We as a church also had all the kids and youth create a Christmas pageant video that was uploaded to our Amberlea Church YouTube channel. Each family that wanted to be involved did so and was provided words to say and costumes to wear. You had to video tape your part and then send it to the church and they were all put together to create the Christmas story.  It was a blast watching this at Christmas and everyone who participated did such a great job!  Again, our son was able to do this and when he had lines, I wrote them out on a wipe board so that he could read them while I was doing the videotaping. Sometimes we had to do more than one take, but we had fun doing it.

 What I have found is that I have to think creatively. I have to think of the strength of my kids and how I can use their talents in the activities that the church is doing. I find that kids with different needs can do anything, it just has to be approached sometimes in a different way.

There are many other examples that I can give you at Amberlea where exceptional children can not only participate but thrive. (We are looking forward to being part of the Easter Drive-Thru and virtual Easter play coming soon.) That is what we hope and wish for all of our children, no matter what. We want them to be included. We want them to smile and most of all we want them to know that they are loved, not only by the community but by God.

 Matthew 19:14 – “Jesus said, ‘Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these.’”

 God gives us the strength and ability to be the best parents we can be. We need to trust Him completely and we need to find love and support in God’s people. God has never ever let me down and I feel so lucky to be part of such an amazing congregation of people who care so much about our entire family.

 By Shelly Wedge

Exceptional Family Ministry Coordinator, Amberlea Presbyterian Church