Third Sunday of Easter

Promises

The word “promise” is defined as: “a statement telling someone that you will definitely do something or that something will definitely happen in the future.” Promises are central to our lives. We make them and rely on them every day. For example, when we must travel to a certain place at a certain time we will book a ticket on a plane without thinking much about it. We will travel through the air in a metal tube affixed to wings powered by jet engines. We know that the plane’s equipment could fail during takeoff, landing or any time during the flight and we could die a horrible fiery death. Yet, we book the flight with confidence, and willingly pay for the privilege, because an airline has promised that a plane will depart from a certain place, at a certain time and will fly to an agreed upon destination and will reach that destination at an agreed upon time. They also promise that the airplane you will fly on will be in good condition and the pilot has the necessary skill to fly the plane to the appointed destination. We place our very lives in the hands of that airline because we can rely on their track record, their ability to fulfill promises that they had made before, specifically, that their planes will depart from and arrive at designated airports, the planes are safe and well maintained and the pilots are capable of flying their planes.

It is the lot of humanity, each and every one of us, to take a trip, a final journey by which we leave this life. We will all, without exception, die. Just like airlines, there are many individuals and groups that want you to book that flight with them. Like the airlines, there is a cost for the ticket. The cost is that the passenger must accept the organization’s leadership, its statements of faith, and agree to behave in a certain way for the life left prior to takeoff. In this way you earn your ticket. When you ask whether anyone in the organization, including the President and CEO, has actually reached the destination, this answer is typically: “No, but our CEO has assured us hat we will reach the destination, if we follow the terms for the ticket scrupulously.”

During the Holy Week and the Season of Easter, we hear Jesus make promises about the final journey we must make after he had taken his own final journey. Prior to his final journey, Jesus made this promise to Martha: “I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live, even though they die; and whoever lives by believing in me will never die. Do you believe this?” (John 11:25-26) The resurrected Jesus said: “This is what is written: The Messiah will suffer and rise from the dead on the third day, and repentance for the forgiveness of sins will be preached in his name to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem.” (Luke 24:46-47).

What keeps us from going on this final journey with Jesus, is our sin. When he appeared to the disciples on the first Easter Sunday. He showed them the holes in his hands and feet. By these marks Jesus testified he had fulfilled promises God made in Isaiah 52:13-53:12 and Psalm 22. Speaking for God, Isaiah declared: But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was on him, and by his wounds we are healed. (Isaiah 53:5) The first words Jesus spoke to the disciples in that upper room declared the fulfillment of that promise: “Peace be with you.” (Luke 24:36)

The fare that is required is faith in our CEO, faith that he took a final flight and reached a final destination. The tragedy is that many Christians preach, and some continue to believe, that like other organizations, we have to earn our passage by conforming our lives to what we or someone else declares as God’s will. This belief will lead to despair and even worse. Jesus promises that, if you look at the terms and conditions of the ticket, the Bible, you will learn: that the faith you need is provided by the Holy Spirit working through God’s holy Word; you cannot earn your way to the final destination, Jesus earned it for us by dying for our sin; and Holy Spirit working through God’s Word will transform us and impact the way we our lives before our final journey.

There are many people out there that are thinking of that final journey. Jesus has given you a ticket and the faith you need. His most passionate desire is that you share your travel plans with them.

In Christ,
Pastor Ed Skutshek.

CALC's online educational event scheduled for Saturday  April 10th from 9:00 AM to 12:30 PM (MDT) was cancelled at the request our speaker  Jose (Jojo) Ruba. Those who signed up for the education event were given the option of registering for a webinar on Bill C-6 to be given by the Association for Reformed Political Action (ARPA) on April 12, 2021, at 7:30 PM Mountain Time. ARPA is a Christian organization whose mission is to educate, equip, and encourage Reformed Christians to political action, and to bring a biblical perspective to Canada's civil authorities. The webinar was hosted by Ed Hoogerdyk, ARPA's Alberta Manager. Presenters included ARPA's legal director Andre Schutten and Jojo Ruba. A brief summary of the highlights of the webinar follow.

Mr. Schutten's presentation was entitled: "Caesar is Gnostic ands expects you to be too!" Gnosticism is defined as  the thought and practice especially of various cults of late pre-Christian and early Christian centuries distinguished by the conviction that matter is evil and that emancipation comes through gnosis. To Gnostics, people are defined as a soul trapped inside a corrupted body. The mind strives for perfection and can receive it by adhering to the teachers with this higher knowledge or "gnosis."

He argued that Bill C-6 is a deeply religious piece of legislation. The legislation is based on the idea that the mind is more important than the body. The body is inferior to the mind and the mind's goal is to take control over the body. Like the Gnostics,  the drafters of Bill C-6 take for granted that it is possible for a person's mind to be at odds with that person's body. It is perfectly possible for a female mind to be trapped in a body which is identified by society as male. Like the Gnostic's, Bill C-6's authors want to stop any interference with the superior mind's desire to be a woman and permit the mutilation of the body so that the body conforms more to the mind's orientation. Christians have a very different approach. Christians believe that we are by no means trapped in our bodies. The body and the spirit/soul go together, that is, they are indivisible or inseparable.

Conversion therapy is defined as a practice, treatment or service designed to change a person’s sexual orientation to heterosexual, to change a person’s gender identity or gender expression to cisgender or to repress or reduce non-heterosexual attraction or sexual behavior or non-cisgender gender expression. Cisgender is defined as a persons sex or gender assigned at birth. By including "repressing or reducing non-heterosexual or non-cisgender behavior" in the definition of  conversion therapy, the Canadian government's legislation is unique in the world. These concepts are found only in the proposed Canadian law.  Conversion therapy could include worship and prayers that call upon God to change the hearts, minds and sexual orientation of individuals.

Bill C-6 will make it a crime for anyone to advertise and/or promote services related to conversion therapy. This could extend to preaching which calls LGBTQ people to repent and seek help. The call to repentance and to change could be seen as promoting conversion therapy, thereby, committing a crime.

Parents would be  guilty of a crime under Bill C-6 if they took their minor children to a Christian therapist or pastor, in Canada, or elsewhere, if the goal is to change that child's sexual orientation. If convicted the parents could be imprisoned for up to 5 years. It would be a crime to receive money for any material benefit from the provision of conversion therapy.

Bill C-6 would permit an adult to consent to conversion therapy. However, the services of the therapist cannot be advertised or promoted, nor can the therapist be paid for services rendered.

Bill C-6 is terribly discriminatory. A heterosexual Canadian who has problems with pornography addiction or some other issue around heterosexual sexual expression can seek the help of a pastor or therapist. The therapist can advertise his/her services and can receive payment for services rendered. If Bill C-6 becomes law,  a therapist could not help an LGBTQ person with issues around their sexual expression.

Mr. Ruba called churches to become aware of the perils and pitfalls of Bill C-6 and to prepare for life and ministry following its passage. He called Christians not to be afraid. He called Christians not to censor ourselves.  He called us to continue to preach and teach God's desire for the expression of human sexuality. He called Christians to declare that we find our identity in Jesus Christ. We are members of the Body of Christ first. It is our identity in Christ that shapes us as men,  women, and children, as spouses and as parents. We look forward to Mr. Ruba's presentation to us at our Annual General Convention.

In Christ
Pastor Ed Skutshek, President

Third Sunday of Easter

Promises

Rwandan Appeal.

CALC's Annual General Convention - Saturday June 12th, 2021