Regional Synod of Canada - Reformed Church in America

Pioneer Christian Monthly

Date - June/74

Contributor - Peter J. Yff

Title - Where Do We Go From Here?

Topic - Church In Canada

Message given at first full Council meeting at Winnipeg, Manitoba on May 26th,

"OH SEND OUT THY LIGHT AND THY TRUTH, LET THEM LEAD ME, LET THEM BRING ME TO THY HOLY HILL AND TO THY DWELLING." Psalm 43:3

Picture for a moment a young boy who has gone on a series of errands with his father. He was rather thrilled at being asked to go along - after all the adult world is fascinating to a child. The two arrive at a store, and the father places an order. They come out, and go on down the street. The child watches as his father pays a bill. On they go again, and a purchase is made. After a bit, little feet grow tired, and curiosity not so demanding. "Well, Dad, where do we go from here?" What the lad really wants to ask is, "Aren't we nearly finished? What's next?"

If we carry this thought over to our own situation, for a moment, we will find a number of parallels. The Reformed Church has been in Canada for some time now. Some of its congregations go back for quite a number of years. Most of her people have come since the end of the second world war. Some came much more recently. All along the way there have been people who have taken us by the hand, and led us. There have been committees from one or another particular synod or classis. There have been experts, and finances, as well as help from denominational headquarters, in New York. There have been committee meetings, and consultations and agreements. All along we have been helped, and for it all we are most grateful.

But now, what is next? Where do we go from here? What is it that we want out of life as a church? We want to make our contribution, and in so doing want to avoid the "Made in Holland" label. At least, so say many. It would be helpful for us to recall two words at this point, and the difference between them. The first word is tradition, the second heritage. We ought not to be bound by tradition - the last words of the church need not be "It has not b--en done thus before". Nor ought we to apologize for our existence. We have a heritage of which we may be justly proud - the Reformed heritage, the Church of Jesus Christ reformed according to the word of God. This outlook and faith, we may well share, after we have understood it and accepted it for ourselves.

The psalmist cried out, "Oh send out thy light and thy truth, let them lead me". In his prayer to God we find our answer to the question in the title. The psalm writer realized that he needed a guide still. He looked beyond himself to the God who had created him and had redeemed him. Therein, obviously, lies our lesson, for us as a church, as a Council of Reformed Churches in Canada, and for us as individuals and families within the church. We say, often glibly, that we have no other rule save scripture for life and conduct. Well then, where does it tell us to go?

God in his word provides resources for our answer. He does not provide a blue print. The answer is one of faith, and commitment, which we will have to find for ourselves. We have been promised a Guide, a Companion, in the Risen Lord, and through the Spirit which he sends. There are many who tell us: "Christ is the answer!" Indeed, but first, what is the question? Is it, "Who am I? Where am I going? What is to become of me? Why do I have to work so hard? How can I be happy?" In Christ we find the resources for the answer. He is the Way, and the Truth.

Few things characterize our age quite so much as haste, yet with it a sense -of futility, of never quite arriving. We are a bit like the man who stumbles all over himself in rushing to catch a plane, and as he collapses into his seat wonders why he wants to go. We cannot understand anyone who is not in a hurry. We might well learn from other cultures. The North American Indian, for example (often not the "city" Indian, who has been confused in trying to copy the white man's ways, but the Indian of reservation or small settlement) has a radically different approach. He thinks of the flow of time, the course of seasons n nature. The axiom: "time is money" would mean little to him, for he is not so much a slave to the clock as he is a servant to life. Native people value the human tar above the material. Today in our world millions get lost in the race to acquire things. The Indian feels that people matter more the richness of friendship and fellowship and belonging mean far more than the richness of material possessions. He will give, or share whatever he has, so much so that some call him a squanderer and irresponsible. Until recently, at least, we ravaged the earth with technological skill and well developed greed, while the Indian has felt always that all of creation shares in the divine, and he respects it all: wildlife, tree, field and flower. In this day, when many have begun to question the values of our society, we could well learn from the Indian's culture. One writer put it: "Maybe civilization has more to do with the way one approaches life and the world, and fellow men, and God, than it has to do with electronic technology."

How do we find the way? Where do we want to go? Most of us have come from another country. We left one way and turned to another. We do not want to go back, unless it be for a visit. The psalmist wanted to return from a land of exile, to return to what he had lost, and remembered with sorrow. He wanted to return to what he felt was the place of his God. We need a similar direction. Before we can find our way in life we need to find, and to follow, Him who is the Way.

We call our magazine, PIONEER. and the name is apt, for it identifies a spirit of going forward. Ali, but how? And where? For this in the past we recognized a need for the leading of God. For this, in the past we confessed freely that by ourselves we were not strong enough, nor wise enough, to make our own way. We helped each other. Many of you can remember this, that when he had something he shared it, when what one lacked another provided. Housing wasn't always very good, work of any kind was welcomed, transportation came by whatever could move and carry yet one more. Somehow we got through, but much more. In it all we shared in a love for each other, in a love for God. Times have changed now, many have better homes and more comfortable possessions. We don't need each other as much. Or do we? The earlier values and needs are still there. We have so much taken on the value of our world that we have lost much of our appreciation for the spiritual. We have followed so much in the way of tradition that the power has gone out of worship and prayer. We are disturbed by the bizarre and ecstatic patterns that filter in from the fringes of the church. These things alarm us. We forget, perhaps, that our own powerlessness, and our lack of communication with each other and the Lord, brought many of these problems into being. Folk turned to other patterns because they needed something more than our "tradition" seemed to provide.

Where do we-go? The first part of the answer is found in the psalmist's cry, or prayer. He was probably an exile, this an who composed these psalms, for 42 and 43 belong together as one poem. He longed to return to his homeland; he longed again to see the gleaming towers and pinnacle of the temple. He has been jeered at in the land of exile, he was asked to sing some Hebrew songs to amuse his captors, but no song is found in his heart now. He looks about him, and seeks an escape. He compares his lot to that of the hart - the wild deer who has just barely escaped the hunter, and now with heaving flanks and wildly beating heart stands in the cool forest, longing for the refreshing stream. So desperately does his soul long for God, for a return to a sense of his presence and his help. When one has this longing, God answers the prayer. A direction finder, if you will ' brings us to God. We find again his leading. He provides what we lack, and we will not lose our way.

How do we find the way? Through God's word, through his spirit in our hearts, through his people assembled in worship and prayer, through his people dispersed in the work-a-day world.

Jesus would say, much later than the time of the psalm, "Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these other things (the necessities of daily, material life) will be yours as well." Or again, to all this the prophet addressed himself, "Why do you spend your money for that which is not bread, and your labour for that which does not satisfy?" (Isaiah 55 : 2)

Along the way the psalmist has identified his enemy. He thought first perhaps of the foreign power that had brought him into exile, but he realized also that a lack in his own life had brought on conditions leading to exile. So we also need to know our enemies: the unfaith of our day, or an earlier day, the jeering of people who will not believe, the indifference of the world to all that is not fun, the temptations to evil which come. From all of these we need to be kept. From spiritual pride we need to be delivered. From a stubborn insistence on going our way, like a sheep determined to get lost, we need to be kept as well. Jesus would teach his disciples to pray: "Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil." We need to be led in the right way and will not find that way apart from God, apart from a realized dependence on him.

How do we find our way? We find it through God's word, his word written and his word incarnate in Jesus Christ. We find it together - that's why we need each other. We strengthen each other in him. For this reason we have formed a Council, an association. We are not at all interested in cutting ties with any segment of the church, but rather in strengthening them. Ties which were precious in the past bind us still - to all parts of the R.C.A., in the United States and in Canada.

Without a goal, any direction is meaningless. What is our goal? To increase our membership? To fit more closely into the national scenes To be more readily accepted in our communities? More than any of these, our goal needs to involve our churches more closely with the Reformed way, in the pattern of the Church of Jesus Christ reformed (small "r"?) according to the word of God. For this we will need to know the goal of truth. There is no comfort in pursuing what turns out to be a will o' the wisp. There is little comfort in striving for something that will be obsolete -tomorrow. There is little value in amassing things, only to leave them. In the midst of things, we need to discover the chief thing, to find him, and follow him, who said, "I am the Way, and the truth, and the life." We will need the goal of growth. "If you had faith as a mustard seed," said Jesus. In a meeting in Hamilton some months ago Harri Zegerius recalled our small beginnings in Canada, and contrasted them with present achievement. We are not finished, but we ought to have discovered that the struggle, the search, the effort, were every much worth while. We need a growth in faith, and in the application of faith. The small mustard seed became a tree, sheltering beast and bird. So our faith, and our beginnings, were perhaps small. We need to grow in stature, in wisdom, in favour with God and man.

In it all we need the, goal of joy. "The chief end of man is to know God and to enjoy Him forever." How much of this joy is visible to your neighbour looking over the back fence? If we wish to penetrate our communities we will need to possess, and to radiate, a joy in God. We will need to demonstrate a life both attractive and vital.

The psalm writer realized that such a life comes not from man himself; that such satisfaction is not based on what man could, or would do, but on what God has done, and promises to do. Such a life has as its direction God, and as its power God's spirit working within. The New Testament disciple will share such light, challenged by the words of Jesus: "You are the light of the world A city set on a hill cannot be hid . . . nor do men light a lamp and put it under a bushel, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house. (Matt. 5 : 14, 15).

The psalmist recalled the past joy of fellowship, in company with others of like mind and heart: "How I went with the throng, and led them in procession to the house of God, with glad shouts and songs of thanksgiving, a multitude keeping festival." That's over now ... but once it was true, and will be true again. "Hope in God, for I and my God!"

Now this should speak to us when we become discouraged, as individuals, or as groups. Perhaps a wife will wonder whether the daily grind is worth it, or husband will be concerned about a job that is not as productive or satisfying as he would like, a youth will have questions as he faces a world filled with doubts, and uncertainties. There may be doubts in his own, heart, too. Sometimes families live together still, but without the spontaneous joy and caring that once held sway. A church may enter a period of tension, or even decline. "Hope in God for I will again praise Him, my help and my God.

In spite of problems we come together with God's people, and experience a renewed surge of for faith. We are encouraged to go on. Faith in God: believed, applied practiced. We go forth from worship to live worshipfully. We have a life for Monday and Tuesday, as well as a word for Sunday. , Join in the psalmist's prayer,, 'Send out thy light and thy truth,."let them lead me". When we do this as individuals, as churches, as a council, we will not live by our own standards, or insights. Where do we go from here? Onward, ward, upward. We do not know the, future, but we know, and trust,!- Him who holds the future in his hand.

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