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This is the time in the Christian calendar when we consider the meaning of the incarnation, or, God’s coming to us in the the person of Jesus.  Our current Christmas series intends to look at the meaning of Jesus’ life from the standpoint of his experience of our life, first as a baby, then as boy, and finally as a man.  While at Easter we consider why he died, it is this time in the season where we should consider the meaning of his life.  I was assigned the middle message in the series (the boy).  I began with the one story we have about Jesus’ boyhood and extended it into the 18 long years where he grows into full manhood.

These are what we call the silent years of Jesus, and this topic has fascinated me for some time now.  We call them his silent years because we have nothing written which can illumine that time period.  My interest is in what these years in Jesus’ life might mean to the development of not only his life, but every life.  For years of formation often come about in hiddenness.  You will see that in this message I took a “spiritual formation” track.  Jesus grew (Luke 2:52) is a statement about his humanity and an insight into our own formation before God.

So here is the text of the message I spoke this past weekend at Westside King’s Church.  It is entitled The Boy.

Here is the manuscripted version of a sermon I gave recently at Westside King’s Church.  It is part of a series called The Rumour, which attempts to give a telling of the gospel to contemporary Canadians from the book of Ephesians.  While the series does not attempt to be exactingly exegetical, the intention is to let our thoughts reflect the thoughts which come from this text.  This sermon is call Glimpse, and is based on the ideas which emerge in Ephesians 2.  I would love to hear your comments.

I am adding a sermon I recently shared at Westside King’s Church.  It is entitled A Voice Behind the Written Words, and is part of the Unwritten series at the church.  The idea of the series is to talk about the gaps in our knowledge and experience, and is built on the idea that there are books that have not been written.  I took that idea and stretched it a bit to fit something I believe to be a defining deficiency in our time: the lack of appreciation for the living voice of God.  Perhaps because of the way some have overplayed this idea, making a mockery out of hearing and speaking for God, or because of the shyness we have about being too “mystical”, it seems to me that the sense of God as a living and speaking voice seems to have fallen out of favor.  I certainly do recognize the dangers and pitfalls of this issue, but I also affirm that God is a living voice, and that behind and in the written words there is a presence that speaks.  God is not limited by the errors and follies of our age.  There is a way to understand the enduring truth of God’s living voice and to bring mature and considered judgement to how we can listen better.

But first we need to affirm simply that he does speak.  And so I wrote this piece to “prime the pump”, as it were.  I can never escape Philip Yancey’s penetrating thought, that the thing God hates most is being ignored.

I value your feedback and comments.

Continuing my interest (fascination really) in words and language, I am making available a piece called A Voice to Speak.  This is a call to develop our voices as representative voices of the voice of God.  I assert that Jesus learned his voice through sustained development and that, ultimately, his voice was a pure reflection of the voice of God in Scripture.

I would be interested in your comments on what you think the present issues are in contemporary speech about God.  There are several ways to address this topic: current tastes in our church communications, current tastes in the Oprah-ized world of spiritual talk, and current conversations you are having with friends about God and faith.  The questions for me are these: how do we choose the voices we listen to for guidance in spiritual matters, and what criteria do we use to make such evaluations?