Friday, May 27, 2011

Great Save!

"Great save Luongo!" Jim Hughson is the play-by-play announcer for the CBC broadcasts of the Vancouver Canucks' games this year. In previous years he was the radio announcer for the Canucks... and years before that, he started in radio in my home town of Fort St John, BC on CKNL radio (CFNL in Fort Nelson). Now, to be honest, I actually don't remember him on the radio...although I'm pretty sure I listened to him call a few Flyers' games (that's the Fort St John Flyers) that I wasn't able to attend. (Most of the time, at least one of my older brothers would be going to the game, and I'd beg my brothers to take me with me with them. Usually, that didn't work. So I'd go and cry to my mother, who would call the siblings on the carpet and force them to take me. That still didn't always work though, and I'd take the radio into my bedroom and listen on the radio.)

Hughson went from Fort St John to Kelowna and then to Vancouver, where he became the understudy of my all-time favourite hockey announcer, and Saskatchewan native, Jim Robson. He eventually replaced Robson as the official CKNW Canucks' announcer 1994, and then went on to work TV games for Sportsnet and now for CBC.

Hughson's "calling card" call is saying "great save (insert goalie's name here)", and he does so with great vigour. And, as a Canucks' fan, it gives great comfort to hear those three words "great save, Luongo" time after time as they now head to the Stanley Cup finals against either Boston or Tampa Bay.

Now, as comforting as it is to hear those three words... I have to admit that inserting another name into that catch phrase actually makes a world of difference. "Great save, Jesus", while sounding a little sacrilegious, actually provides comfort to anyone on the planet who simply decides to join "God's team". Of course, Jesus doesn't stop pucks for us, but rather stops the wages of sin... and saves all of us players on the team...not for just one season, but for eternity.

Oh, and by the way, He'd love to have you join his team. Where else can you join a team that is guaranteed to win?

Joell
PS Go Canucks. :)

Thursday, May 19, 2011

Jesus is not coming back on Saturday - I promise.

According to a radio preacher in the US (http://www.familyradio.com/), the rapture is going to happen on Saturday. Yes, this Saturday. Let me go out on the limb here and unequivocally predict that it won't happen on that day. I'll be here next week writing another ComBap Update, Lord willing. Yes, I think Jesus will come back again... but, as you've heard in my sermons, we really don't know what that will look like, if there is a "rapture" at the beginning of a "tribulation" or in the middle..or at the end... or even at all. Theologians have been arguing about this for centuries, and they can't come to consensus so how's a lowly preacher like me supposed to come to an infallible conclusion about it?

And then there's this little verse in the Bible that says "But about that day or hour no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father" (Matthew 24:36). It's not every day that you can drag out one little verse to win a slam dunk on a big theological debate... but this is one of them! Jesus is speaking here, and he unequivocally states that nobody will know the moment of his return... not even himself! Now, does any preacher think he knows more than Jesus? Well, apparently this one does. He has bad theology and he's a bad testimony!

Biblical prophecy is amazingly accurate. The most startling example of recent prophetic predictions coming true was the reformation of Israel as a nation-state. The Bible clearly identified Israel being a nation again in the "end times", which was the source of much mocking and derision prior to 1947. As far as I know... not a single preacher/theologian predicted the way Israel would return (after a 1900 year absence). An amazing resurrection of the nation-state of Israel through the power of the United Nations... and on the heels of the holocaust. Nobody predicted it would happen that way and, yet, it happened....just as the Bible said it would. It's just way easier on the other side of the event. That's the way God designed it.

Today, yes, we can anticipate Christ's return...in whatever form or timeline it takes. I'm still looking for a few more prophesies to become reality (like the temple rebuilt) but I won't be making any predictions...except for that it won't be on Saturday...mostly because I know that God has a sense of humour and keen sense of irony.

I wonder it that guy wouldn't mind donating some of his "soon to be unneeded" cash to our building fund. Hmmm.

Friday, May 06, 2011

To celebrate or not to celebrate...that is the question.

What a week it has been already...and it's only Tuesday! We've got a new majority government. The Canucks are still playing in the NHL playoffs. And, Osama is dead.

Don't get me wrong. I'm very pleased that Osama Bin Laden has been found and killed. I am, however, uneasy with celebrating it. For the most part, the various gatherings around the world have been fairly muted. Thankful people displaying their gratitude that justice has prevailed. Some of the celebrating has been a tad too celebratory, in my humble opinion. We often watch the news of people jumping up and down, chanting slogans, and praising the death of an enemy (or calling for the death of an enemy...often the President of the US). We think to ourselves, "those people are nuts", as we watch them celebrate violence.

For the followers of Jesus, we have two very clear instructions that pertain to this situation. One is to love our enemies. The other is to love justice. There is no denying that OBL was directly involved in terrorist acts that murdered many people around the globe. To state that a just judgment on him would have been the death penalty is accurate. (Some who are not in favour of the death penalty, myself included, may wince at this...but the statement still holds.) In this case, due process and a trial would have been expensive but worth the effort. Nevertheless, we can take comfort in the fact that he has met the end that his lifelong violence deserved. However, it's sad. Very sad. How much better it would have been had he come to his senses and renounced his actions and accepted his due discipline. He would have been better off for it.

We are better off for it when we come to our senses. We also remember that it any of us could have become depraved and murderous. We all have it in us. So, we remember the oft quoted phrase "but for the grace of God, go I", which reminds us to love everyone, even our enemies, because we could, very easily, be them if the table were turned.

God loves it when people come to their senses. We should too.

Joell