Carbon monoxide was a real problem in coal mines in the nineteenth century, and being odourless it could kill without warning. But a canary would show signs of distress well before a human would begin to feel its effects, offering miners the chance to escape before it was too late. 

A regulation was made in 1911, therefore, that miners should “use two small caged birds each time they went down a mine.” And so “a canary in the coal mine” entered the English language as a warning of potential danger.  

And through the centuries waves of anti-semitism have operated the same way, as similar warnings of poison in the air. History has repeatedly shown the connection between Jews being picked on and a society that’s becoming toxic. And many historians have made that connection, openly calling the persecution of Jews the “canary in the coal mine.”  

And history reveals why it happens too. Jews have proven to be useful scapegoats when a society is falling apart, or as an easy way for power hungry thugs with nefarious plans to rile up a mob to distract attention away from what they’re really up to – as did the Nazis leading up to World War 2. 

But why Jews? Because one thing Jews have been known for all through their history, no matter what country they’ve lived in, is their reverence for the God of the Old Testament. For over three thousand years, despite pogroms and holocausts, and even brutal persecutions by other religions, including Christianity, Jews have tenaciously hung on to God and what they believe he called them to do. 

So it’s not surprising it doesn’t go down well in a society like ours that believes the only way we can save ourselves from catastrophe – or create a utopian world – is by human ingenuity. Perish the thought in our progressive society, therefore, that God might be a source of wisdom or, as Jews believe, that it’s only by obeying a supernatural God that the human race has a future at all. 

It was inevitable, then, that another round of anti-semitism would spread like toxic fumes in a coal mine. But this time it’s been rapidly expanding around the world, sucking mobs of people into its vortex of madness. But it’s all very much justified in the minds of those who see the only solution to the Palestine problem being the eradication of the nation of Israel. 

The very existence of Israel today, therefore, is under threat. So, next blog: “Is it our Christian duty to support the nation of Israel?” 

Does Christmas exist today because of a promise made nearly 4,000 years ago?  

That’s the time when God promised Abraham that “all peoples on earth will be blessed through you.” But it’s how Abraham understood that promise that’s remarkable, because according to Jesus, “Abraham looked down the corridors of history and saw my day coming. He saw it and cheered.” 

Abraham, therefore, was given a glimpse into the life and ministry of Jesus 1900 years ahead of Jesus’ arrival. And what Abraham saw caused him to burst out with joy, because he could see how all nations on earth would be blessed through him. It would be through the birth of the human Jesus, a direct descendant of his, 42 generations later.   

Because as angels explained at the time of Jesus’ birth, Jesus would bring peace on earth to all who trusted him. Jesus himself confirmed that later on too, when he said, “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you.” And that’s what Abraham saw coming in Jesus – all nations, worldwide, being blessed with peace.  

And here’s hoping that’s true, because our attempts at peace aren’t working. At the time of writing this article there were 32 countries at war, and no solutions forthcoming. But as Jesus also pointed out, “I give you my peace which is nothing like the peace of this world.” He’s offering a peace, that unlike anything in this world, does work. 

And at Christmas time it sounds like we believe it, because “Joy to the world” gets dusted off and given another round, and songs with lyrics like, “Glory to the newborn king,” and “fill the whole earth with heaven’s peace,” etc., are belted out over the air waves. 

Is our valiant attempt at Christmas time to create “heaven’s peace,” then, reason to believe that Jesus really is in the process of fulfilling that ancient promise to Abraham? Admittedly it’s a fleeting glimpse for now, because the peace Jesus offers “transcends our human understanding.” It’s beyond anything we can create, in other words, but it doesn’t mean it’s impossible, because according to Jesus it’s available to anyone who takes him up on his word.  

And that’s what Abraham saw, that one day the whole world would be at peace – and he knew how too. It would begin in people who looked to Jesus to create his peace in them. Just what we need after Remembrance Day. 

Following the announcement by the Canadian Human Rights Commission that Christmas is “discriminatory against non-Christians, making Canada a religiously intolerant ‘settler colonial state,’” the Parent Council at one school called an emergency meeting to decide what to do about Christmas.

The school couldn’t ditch Christmas all together because it was still a “must-do” part of the school calendar. Somebody had suggested, therefore, that Christmas could be made more inclusive by changing the name of Christmas so it wasn’t just favouring the Christian view. That sounded like a good idea, so the parents put their heads together to come up with a new name for Christmas.

“How about a name that includes the names of all religions in it?” one parent asked. So they wrote the names of all the religions represented in their neighbourhood on the whiteboard. There were five main groups they knew of: Christians, Muslims, Buddhists, Hindus and Jews. Since Christians were probably still the majority, they all agreed that the new name for Christmas should begin with the first three letters of Christianity: CHR.

After playing around with letters from each of the other religions, one parent yelled, “I know, let’s call it Chrindubuddlimas – CHR for Christians, INDU for Hindus, BUDD for Buddhists, and LIM for Muslims.”

It had a nice ring to it too, they all thought, until the Jewish parent suddenly sat up and said, “But where is the Jewish religion mentioned?”

Oh dear, she was right. It went quiet for a few minutes, but then another parent shouted out, “How about Chruddhamuslindew? It’s got CHR for Christians, UDDH for Buddhists, MUSL for Muslims, IND for Hindus, and EW for Jews.”

And to her surprise there were nods and murmurs of agreement. So they tried attaching “Happy” and “Merry” to it, and shortening it to “Happy Chruddamas” and “Merry Muslindew.” They liked it. It was fully inclusive, culture sensitive, and nice too, because all the children could join in the school’s traditional Christmas festivities but have their own religious name attached to them, making the entire season their own holiday as well.

So on that happy note, the parents ended the meeting with a resounding cry of “Happy Chruddhamuslindew,” and even though only two of the twenty parents pronounced it correctly, it felt like a new wave of peace and goodwill had passed through them.

“But,” one parent suddenly blurted out, “what about the Scientologist, the Mormon family, the three new Jehovah’s Witnesses and the Wiccan lady who’ve just moved into our neighbourhood? How do we include them too?”

“Well, why don’t we write to the Human Rights Commission,” one parent suggested, “and ask them what they think we should do.” 

In his own words (part 25)

Working backwards through John 17:2, the last part of the verse has the Father “giving” people to his Son (covered in part 23). So it’s on the Father’s initiative that Jesus has disciples. 

Then working backwards through verse 2 again, the Father’s purpose for giving disciples to Jesus was to give them eternal life (covered in part 24) – eternal life being defined in verse 3 as knowing the Father and Jesus Christ. And what Jesus meant by “knowing” he defined in John 14:21 as a relationship of love his disciples could have with both the Father and himself. 

The disciples could experience what Jesus meant by “eternal life,” therefore, in their lifetimes. Jesus’ focus on eternal life wasn’t about going to heaven after they died; eternal life was to be experienced while they were still alive. And obviously so too, because how could they know if eternal life was something to look forward to forever if they hadn’t tasted it already before they died?   

Which takes us to the first part of John 17:2, in which Jesus explains how his disciples would get a taste of this “eternal life” relationship with his Father and himself in their lifetimes: it’s by the Father “granting him power over all flesh.” 

So, whatever hinders our experience of eternal life now – our “fleshly” frailties, fears, doubts, worries, emotions, etc., Jesus has power over all of them, amply demonstrated during his lifetime in the remarkable physical and mental healings he did (John 14:11) – which, as Jesus went on to say in verse 12, would now be available to his disciples too.

Which is an amazing promise, because here we are in a humourless world of hate, bitterness, hopelessness, fear, outright lies by those in office, judging and blaming one another, and crying the blues over the tiniest of offences making life miserable for us all – and yet Jesus has a small group of people to whom he’s giving power over that obnoxious, destructive nonsense, enabling them to experience his lovely promises of love, joy and peace, and a taste of eternal life instead. 

And the Father’s given him a “glorified” position now too (John 17:1), so Jesus has all the power he needs to make his promises come true in the lives of his disciples.   

In his own words (part 24)

The Father sent his Son so that we’d come to know him in his Son. Know the Son, and we’d know the Father too. Or as Jesus put it in John 14:7, “If you really knew me, you would know my Father as well. From now on (therefore) you do know him and have seen him.”And why was that so important? Because as Jesus says in John 17:3, “Now this is eternal life: that they (Jesus’ disciples) may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent.”   

To Jesus, then, the focus of eternal life wasn’t on living forever. Nor was it on going to heaven either. What made life eternally worth living was coming to know the source and creator of life in a personal way. 

And isn’t that what makes for a happy, long lasting (eternally worth living) marriage too? It’s knowing each other personally. It’s not about fourteen steps on how to have a happy marriage, like getting a machine to work by following the instructions.  

That came as quite a shock, however, to a man who told me his wife was leaving him. And he had no inkling why. He’d worked hard to give his wife a nice house, and if he died she’d be fine financially. In his mind, therefore, he’d done what a husband was technically “supposed” to do – be a good provider. But in working hard to provide he was away from home a lot, and when his wife reminded him that she’d married him for him, not for a good life financially, he just didn’t get it. 

But wouldn’t the same apply to a person who thinks Christianity is all about obeying a system of rules and regulations to get to heaven? True, Jesus told his disciples to obey him – but for what purpose? Was it a rather cold contract, that if they did what they were technically supposed to do, like that husband providing financially for his wife, that’s what would get them to heaven? But according to Jesus in John 14:21, “Whoever has my commands and obeys them, he is the one who loves me. And he who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I too will love him and show myself to him.” 

Obedience, therefore, isn’t the means by which we get eternal life in the future, it’s the means by which we experience eternal life now, in the love relationship we have with the Father and Jesus. 

In his own words (part 23)

In John 17:2, Jesus says the Father “has given him power over all flesh” (or ‘authority over all people’) in order that he “might give eternal life to all those the Father has given him.” 

Working backwards through that verse we have the Father “giving” people to his Son. It’s on the Father’s initiative, then, that Jesus has disciples. Which ties in nicely with John 6:44, when Jesus says, “No one can come to me unless the Father draws him.” And in verse 45, “They will all be taught by God. Everyone who listens to the Father and learns from him comes to me.”

So the Father puts out a call that can be heard or “listened” to, and it means enough to a person hearing it to want to “learn” and find out more, the result of which is “coming to Jesus,” or coming to understand who Jesus is. And there’s an example of just that happening in Matthew 16:15, when Jesus asks his disciples, “Who do you say I am?” – and Peter replies, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” 

But how did Peter come to believe that, when most people at the time didn’t believe it? Jesus answers that in verse 17, when he tells Peter, “Blessed are you, for this was not revealed to you by man, but by my Father in heaven.” 

Two points here: first of all, that it was the Father who gave Peter the understanding of who Jesus was. But secondly, it was what Peter understood about Jesus that was important too, because Peter called Jesus “the Son of the living God.” 

But why did the Father want Peter to understand that about Jesus? For two reasons; first of all, that anything Jesus said and did was as good as coming from God himself. So that, secondly, it would focus the disciples’ attention on what it was that God was revealing through Jesus. 

The Father, then, was drawing people to belief in who his Son was, so that they would listen to what he’d sent his Son for. And what had he sent his Son for? Jesus answers that in John 17:6, when he says to his Father, “I have revealed you to those whom you gave me out of the world.” It was through the human Jesus, therefore, that we’d know what the Father’s up to…(continues Friday) 

In his own words (part 22)

In John 17, in Jesus’ own words, we see what Jesus lived for, starting in verse 1 when Jesus opens his prayer with: “Father, the time has come.” Meaning, “Father, this is what I’ve been looking forward to, this very time coming up right now.”  

Because up to this point what he’d looked forward to hadn’t happened. All those miracles he’d performed, all those people he’d healed, all those lessons he’d taught, all those crowds who’d followed him around, all the dawning of understanding in his disciples’ heads – all of them meant nothing because the “time” he was talking about hadn’t happened yet.

He made that clear in the first miracle he did in John 2, when his mother told him the wine at the wedding had nearly run out already. His reply to her was rather abrupt: “But what’s that got to do with me? My time has not yet come,” verse 4.

He solved the wine problem anyway, but in his mind it accomplished nothing. Nothing he did, no matter how startling or helpful it was, would have the result he longed for until this crucial time coming up at the end of his life. It didn’t matter what happened to him personally up to that time either. People could try to shut him down, but John 7:30, “no one laid a hand on him, because his time had not yet come.”  

His “time had not yet come” for what, though? Jesus explains in John 12:23, when he tells his disciples, “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified.” He anticipates the time coming when the grand purpose of his life would at last be fulfilled. And we find out what that purpose was in the analogy Jesus gives in verse 24, of a “kernel of wheat that in itself is just a single seed, but if it falls to the ground and dies it can sprout and produce many seeds.” The purpose of all that Jesus accomplished and did in his lifetime, then, would only bear fruit if he died. And his reaction to that? Was it, “Father, save me from this hour,” verse 27? “No,” he says, “it was for this very reason I came to this hour.”  

Because in his death, not his miracles, would what he longed for be made possible for us humans…(continues Wednesday)  

In his own words (part 21)

Just as the Father sent Jesus into the world, Jesus sends his disciples into the world, John 17:18. And just as Jesus brought glory to his Father by fulfilling what the Father sent him to do, verse 4, Jesus’ disciples bring glory to him by fulfilling what he sends them to do – or as Jesus put it in verse 10, “glory has come to me through them.”

But how do Jesus’ disciples bring glory to him? The first clue Jesus gives is in the first part of verse 8, when he prays to his Father: “I gave them the words you gave me and they accepted them.” It’s our acceptance of what Jesus taught that brings glory to him, because what he taught was what the Father wanted him to teach, verse 6. When we obey what Jesus taught, then, we’re fulfilling what his Father sent him to have us do. And that gets Jesus a glorious “Well done, my Son” from the Father.

The second clue Jesus gives us is in the second part of verse 8: “They knew with certainty that I came from you, and they believed that you sent me.” And believing Jesus came from the Father was important, because it was through Jesus that the Father was revealing himself, verse 6. 

The Father was revealing one very important thing about himself through Jesus too. Because by Jesus “speaking the words of God,” John 3:34, and “testifying to what he’d personally seen and heard (of God),” verse 32, that would “certify that God is truthful” in the minds of his disciples. verse 33.  

And that would bring another glorious “Well done, my Son” from the Father, because if the disciples believed that God is truthful, they would then believe what the Father said about his Son in verse 35 – that he “loves the Son and has placed everything in his hands.”  

And why was it important for the disciples to believe that? Because “whoever believes in the Son has eternal life,” verse 36. This is the great truth the Father wants Jesus’ disciples to know and believe, that his Son is the source of eternal life. The Father wants that glory given to his Son, and it’s in Jesus’ disciples believing it that it happens. 

So that, then, is how “glory comes to Jesus through us” (John 17:10)…(continues Monday) 

In his own words (part 20)

In everything Jesus said and did he modelled the kingdom of heaven. It’s what his Father sent him to this planet for, to “testify to what he has seen and heard” in heaven, John 3:32. 

In sending Jesus, then, the Father was bringing heaven to this earth, setting up his kingdom, his world, and even his home here too (14:23). To which Jesus then said in John 17:18, “As you, Father, sent me into the world, I have sent them into the world.”

Well, that nicely explains why we are Jesus’ disciples – because it’s through us now that Jesus is continuing what his Father started in him. We are now the ones through whom the kingdom of heaven is being set up on the earth. It’s through what we now say and do, therefore, that we, just like Jesus, are modelling what heaven is like.

Which is why Jesus sent the Holy Spirit to us, as he explains in John 15:26 – “When the Counsellor comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who goes out from the Father, he will testify about me.” So the Spirit’s job is to “testify” about Jesus, by making it clear what he’d come to this planet for, that he’d been sent by the Father to model what he’d seen and heard in heaven. 

But that’s just the first part, because Jesus goes on to say in verse 27, “but you also must testify, for you have been with me from the beginning.” So it would now become the disciples’ job to make it clear what Jesus came to this planet for, which they could – having watched him in action, and seen and heard what heaven was like in him.  

And they’d have the help to do it too, because – as Jesus put it in John 16:14 -“theSpirit will bring glory to me by taking from what is mine and making it known to you.” So the Spirit’s purpose is to bring glory to Jesus, by first of all enabling Jesus to do what his Father sent him for, but now continuing to bring glory to Jesus by taking what Jesus did in his lifetime and “making it known” to his disciples so that Jesus’ life can now be modelled in our lives too. 

So the Father sent Jesus, and Jesus now sends us, to set up the kingdom of heaven on earth, by us now modelling it in what we say and do, just like Jesus did…(continues Friday)

In his own words (part 19)

The fourth peace I seek from Jesus is being able to contribute in some real way to world peace. But will he do that for us too? 

Well, according to John 14:13, Jesus said, “I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Son may bring glory to the Father.” So does it bring glory to his Father answering our request for the chance to contribute to world peace?

Well, of course it does, because world peace is what the Father sent Jesus to this planet for. And in two steps: first of all, by Jesus modelling peace in his own life, and secondly, by living his peace in his disciples. And that way the great promise in Isaiah 9:7 – “Of the increase of his government and peace there will be no end” – has been set in motion. 

Jesus also said, “God blesses those who work for peace, for they are truly his children,” Matthew 5:9. So the Father is jolly pleased with those – like Jesus his Son – who’ve joined the family business and want to model peace too. And the Father shows how pleased he is with us wanting to do that, by also answering our requests (John 15:16).  

So we’ve got all the help we need from both Father and Son to model their world in our world. And in our world modelling peace really stands out “because,” John 16:3, “people have not known the Father or me.” 

How unfortunate for people, then, that they have no idea what it’s like to be at peace with God. Instead, they’re stuck with conscience and the ever-present tension of not quite knowing if God exists, or what to expect from him if he does. And fear-based religion has only added to that tension too, by presenting God as threatening and punishing, rather than “reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting men’s sins against them,” 2 Corinthians 5:19.   

What can be seen in Jesus’ disciples, then, is that instead of fearing what a dreadful God might do, they “approach God with freedom and confidence,” Ephesians 3:12. And what a contribution to world peace that is, because isn’t that where peace begins? It’s knowing God loves us, and that he’s more than willing to help us…(continues Wednesday)