Remembrance

I am sitting in the Calgary airport waiting for a connecting flight home. The return trip from any conference is always longer than the one going it seems. There is also that perplexing feeling that the place you were just visiting is already fading from your recollection. On this particular trip, I enjoyed some time in Victoria, British Columbia. A beautiful spot and I would encourage anyone who has any appreciation of the beauty of nature to visit BC. Before you think you have accidentally linked to Expedia or I’m taking kick-backs from Trip Advisor, I’ll get to the point. Long plane flights afford you the opportunity to read undisturbed (apart from bad coffee service, cookies and the occasional West Jet cabin crew joke) and I just closed the back cover on DeYoung and Kluck’s Why We Love the Church.

I took some pictures on my trip. In about 48 hours or so, the vividness of a BC sunset or the spectacular transient killer whales I saw will be almost gone but I expect as I review the images, some of the memories, sounds, smells and sensations will return.

From Why We Love the Church p225

Life is usually pretty ordinary, just like following Jesus most days. Daily discipleship is not a new revolution every morning or an agent of global transformation every evening; it’s a long obedience in the same direction. Of course we never want to lose our sense of wonder at the gospel. Which, come to think of it may be why the same old hymns and some old liturgies and same old sermons start sounding stale. It’s possible the church needs to change. Certainly in some areas it does. But it’s also possible we have changed - and not for the better. It’s possible we no longer find joy in such a great salvation. It’s possible that our boredom and restlessness has less to do with the church and its doctrines and more to do with a growing coldness toward the love of God displayed in the sacrifice of His Son for our sins. We cannot afford to be fuzzy about the gospel or speak of it with ambiguous euphemisms.

I picked up my bible and read the words of God. It makes me love God more by reminding me what He transacted on my (and your) behalf. I expect we’ll have communion at my local church sometime in the next month. It makes me remember the pain filled substitution that Christ mad on the cross for us. I bet I’ll see someone from my local church in the next few days and be reminded of the eklesia Christ commands us to.

If I don’t look at the pictures of Victoria again for another year, my memories will have all but faded and along with them the memories, sounds, smells and sensations and I might add ‘affection toward’.