This is my Hebrew teacher...

His name is Keith Ganzer. He is a brilliant teacher!

But his overhead slides can be hard to decipher at times!

Summer of Hebrew

'He-brew' could refer to Nathan's tendency to make a pot of tea every time his cup empties this summer (it runs in the family!), but it really refers to the intensive summer school course Nathan has been taking for the last month and a half. Along with our friends (April, Kristin, Sandy and Joyce), and neighbours (Cam and Marcus), Nathan is taking a 7-week course that covers the Introductory Hebrew content usually taught over the academic year (2 semesters) at Regent.

He and April (a language genius) have been study-buddies, spending most afternoons and evenings with their noses in textbooks, or uttering odd gutteral sounds as they work through their vocabulary cards. Some of their mnemonics are quite amusing. They just couldn't keep straight faces when I took their picture!

The class is now in its final week, with the final exam on Friday. Everyone seems to have "hit the Hebrew wall" physically, mentally and emotionally, so your prayers for energy and focus would be appreciated. We plan to celebrate on Friday with a nice dinner and then head to Vancouver Island for a few days over the weekend (to blob out!) with April.

Even though the schedule has been heavy, we've had a bit out time out together and with friends during the month. We helped Claudia celebrate her birthday with a picnic at Lighthouse Park in West Vancouver.

Nathan's high school friend Stephen and his wife Rosie were travelling through Vancouver so we had a great evening catching up on news and meeting Rosie for the first time.

I have been working on my first ever quilt project (again). I have now made all the blocks, and I'm in the process of sewing them all together now. Here they are, laid out on our floor. (Please excuse Nath's legs in the shot... he was so busy studying I just worked around him!)

Our little friend, Synova, celebrated her first birthday this past week too. The last time you saw her she was only a few days old!

Otherwise, we have been enjoying the summer weather. We have picked blackberries from behind the empty house next door; we've found some yummy fruit at the greengrocer and market (plumcot or yellow tomatoes anyone?); and only had the umbrellas out once!Vancouver hosts a fireworks competition each summer, so we watched a couple of evenings from the beach near our place, and enjoyed the entry from the USA and the finale night.

Sometimes you need to listen to your own sermons...

During the lead-up to Christmas 2005, I spent a bit of time meditating on the opening chapters of Luke’s gospel. This period of meditation resulted in two sermons, which I shared with our congregation in the opening weeks of January 2006, on Mary and Simeon.

I’ve been thinking about these messages today, so I decided to re-read my notes tonight. This post contains extracts from these notes.

Sometimes I’m amazed at the boldness of my own preaching. These words have been a fresh message from the Spirit for me today. Sometimes you need to listen to your own sermons...

Luke 1:26-55
The Example of Mary

• Here was a young woman who knew that she came from a humble background. Here was a young woman who had found her security – not in the fickle praise of others or in her own achievements – but in her relationship with God. Here was a young woman who was free from the need to compare and compete with others.
• What impresses me about Mary is her simple faith in God. When Gabriel tells Mary that she will be with child by the power of the Holy Spirit – she simply responds: "I am the Lord’s servant. May it be to me as you have said." Although Mary probably had many questions about what was going to happen, she took God at his word. She believed what He said. That is why Elizabeth said to Mary: Blessed are [you] who has believed that [which] the Lord said will be accomplished (Luke 1:45)
• Hebrews 11:1 tells us that faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see. Often we equate faith with belief in a set of doctrinal statements. But first and foremost faith is about personally trusting God. You could stand-up each Sunday and say the Apostles’ Creed – you could say yes I believe intellectually in all I have just said, but still not have faith in God on a day-to-day basis.
• Mary personally trusted God. To put it bluntly: Even though she probably found it hard to understand how she was going to become pregnant, she trusted God that He would somehow give her a child. She was certain of what see did not see because she had faith in God. She personally trusted Him.
• I’ve shared this story before, but I want to share it again because it illustrates so well what true faith is all about. The great acrobat Karl Wallenda once had a long wire stretched across the Niagara Falls. In front of a large crowd Wallenda took a wheel barrow, put the wheelbarrow on the wire, and walked the wheel barrow across the Falls. The crowd watched in amazement. Wallenda turned to the crowd and asked whether they believed he could carry someone across the Niagara Falls in a wheelbarrow. Many in the crowd yelled out: “We believe you can do it Wallenda.” So Wallenda asked for someone from the crowd to get into his wheelbarrow so he could take him or her across the Niagara Falls. But there was no one from the crowd who was prepared to do this. There were no takers. The crowd mentally believed that Wallenda could take someone in the wheelbarrow across the Niagara Falls, but they didn’t really have faith in Wallenda. No one trusted Wallenda enough to get into the wheelbarrow.
• C.S Lewis once said: Only a real risk tests the reality of a belief. Mary took a real risk in trusting God that she would become pregnant. She took a risk in accepting God’s will for her life because it could have meant the end of her engagement to Joseph and perhaps even death (because she wasn’t married and had become pregnant). Yet, she simply trusted God. She was prepared to get into the wheelbarrow.
• The people found in the Bible do not doubt God’s existence; but what these people are tempted to do is to doubt whether God is love. To doubt whether God is good. To lose faith that God can be trusted. That’s the temptation that Eve faced in the Garden of Eden. The devil tried to make Eve doubt that God had her best interests at heart. Basically to make her doubt that God was acting in a loving way towards her and Adam. A loss of faith in the fact that God was good was also what Job struggled with. He didn’t struggle with whether or not God existed, but whether he could trust God when encountering a difficult time of poverty, sickness, grief and loss.
• And I daresay that Mary wrestled with this as well. Can I trust God to bring to pass what he promised? Can I have faith in Him to take care of my relationship with Joseph? Can I trust Him to help me take care of this baby? Mary’s simple faith answered “Yes”. She knew that God had been faithful to His people in the past and that He had been faithful to her. So she simply continued to trust Him.
• Likewise God’s revelation contained within these pages – and supremely revealed in Jesus Christ – provides us with the evidence that we can personally trust God; like Mary did. That God’s will is good, pleasing and perfect; and that for us to submit to anything else is to choose something that is second best. God has our best interests at heart, because he loves us.
• Mary was an ordinary person. She chose humility and had a simple faith in Almighty God. Yet God did extraordinary things in her life because she made herself available. And the Christmas story is full of people like her. Humble people. People of faith. Consider Joseph. Consider the shepherds. Consider Simeon and Anna. In the eyes of the world people of little note, but precious people in God’s eyes.
• I’m sure Mary didn’t regret living a life of humility and faith. Making her life available to God. So what about you and me? We’re ordinary people like Mary; like many of those found in the Christmas story. Will we choose to walk in humility? Will we choose to put our faith in God? Will we choose to echo Mary’s words: "I am the Lord’s servant. May it be to me as you have said."

Luke 2:22-40
The Example of Simeon

• What strikes me about Simeon is his expectancy. Simeon was expectant that God would fulfil the promise he had made. So what about us? Are we expectantly awaiting the fulfilment of God’s promises? Are we expectant like Simeon.
• My challenge and my prayer is that we would be expectant as God fulfils his promise to be Immanuel – God with us! That moment by moment we would expect the Holy Spirit to lead us, to teach us, to refresh us, to challenge us, to transform us - as God with us! To live knowing that God is with us in the present and to walk expectantly into the future. Yes… I’m thankful for all that God has done in the past. I’m thankful that I know Christ and that I’m in Him. I praise God for the fullness of his Spirit. BUT (and it’s a big but)… I want to move forward… because I’m in a dynamic, not a static relationship with God. (Some Christians are in time warp like Bill Murray in Ground Hog Day). Each day my aspiration should be to live expectantly, in anticipation that God will fulfil His promise to be with me.
• Another thing that impresses me about Simeon is his openness. His openness to the things of God. Simeon displays great openness to the ways of God. It’s possible that Simeon could have rejected what God was revealing to him because it didn’t fit in with his preconceived ideas of what he expected the Messiah to be. But because of his openness he experiences the blessing of God; he participates in the divine nature; in the unfolding of God’s story. You see God’s plan is higher than overthrowing the Roman rulers and restoring Israel. God’s purpose is more wonderful than just establishing a temporary earthly kingdom in Israel! The Messiah’s agenda is way more radical than bringing mercy and peace to one people. God is going to exceed everyone’s expectations! Rather than just overthrowing the Romans, God is going to overthrow the whole world order. God is going to establish more than just an earthly kingdom – but an earthly and heavenly Kingdom – the Kingdom of God – the rule and reign of Almighty God – a Kingdom that will open its doors to all people and will stretch through time and into eternity. And the Messiah’s agenda will map out a new way to live, leading to the expansion of this Kingdom. And the one who is going to set all of this into motion is... the baby in Simeon’s arms – the baby Jesus. (Does it blow your mind? It should).
• We see in Simeon’s story a tension. A tension between being expectant on the one hand, and open on the other. There’s always the danger that we allow our expectations to stifle our openness towards God. To let our expectations dictate the ways in which God is allowed to operate. But guess what? God is God! And he will not be boxed in: whether that box be our systematic theologies, what our society or culture deems as acceptable/unacceptable, or our limited understandings and experiences. We need to cultivate an openness to God, otherwise we run the risk of missing out on what God offers us.
• Expectancy and openness; that is what we see in Simeon. Simeon is expectant that God will fulfil his promises, yet he remains open as to the precise way in which God will do this. He is an example for each of us to emulate. And so it is my prayer that we would come to God in expectancy and openness.