FIRST LIGHT 
A NEWSLETTER OF FIRST BAPTIST CHURCH
110 SYDENHAM STREET KINGSTON , ON K7L 3H5
(613) 548-7116
fbckgstn@kingston.net
December 2003
DEAR FRIENDS,
In most of our Christmas memories there are carolers outside, gripping candles in the cold darkness, standing like a priestly order, and singing songs of God's promise of peace. William Faulkner once wrote, "The past is never dead. It's not even past" (William Faulkner, Requiem for a Nun [New York: Random House, 1951], p. 92. That truth comes home to us whenever we sing Christmas carols.
In Luke 1, aging Zechariah gets the shock of his life. He and his wife, Elizabeth, were living contradictions. They had been faithful. Yet they had no children! They were blameless but barren. He was an ordinary priest in the twilight of his life fulfilling his priestly duty in the temple. He prays the assigned prayer: "May the God of mercy come into the sanctuary and accept with pleasure the sacrifice of His people!"
"May the God of mercy come!" prays Zechariah and the words of this ancient priest become our words of invocation during this season. "May the God of mercy come!" We pray in the silence of our hearts perhaps, asking God to meet us in our time and place in the sanctuary of our lives. Or perhaps we have forgotten how to find any place for the holy in our lives.
Whoever we are, and wherever we have been, Luke invites us to follow the old priest into a holy secluded spot within this story. There he leads us in prayer: "May the God of mercy come!" And God does come. God comes to show mercy to a priest who thought he was forgotten and to his wife, ashamed of her barrenness. God comes to show mercy to parents who have forgotten how to love their own children and to children who have forgotten that they are loved. God comes to show mercy to all who have forgotten how to show compassion and who no longer know what (or who) they are ready for. The God of mercy does come but never in a way that we fully expect or for which we fully prepare. God always comes in a way that may even confound or inhibit our capacity to speak about it. Look at Zechariah trying to explain what happened in Luke 1:22. Many of our explanations of meeting the Holy One cannot be articulated either. Our worship often ends up pointing to the mystery of God. We get some clues from Elizabeth of how to speak to God. God looks with favour on us even when we feel shamed, abandoned, or forgotten.
This is a God who is worthy of praise. Here is a God who promises to enter the story of our lives, to meet us in the secluded and hidden sanctuaries of our hearts, and to set our lives in motion with the same spirit that spoke through Zechariah. In that spirit we pray again with the old priest: May the God of mercy come "to guide our feet into the path of peace" ( Luke 1:79).
On behalf of Anne-Marie, Madeleine, and Siobhan, may I wish each of you a Christmas where you each have an encounter with the divine in a peculiar way as Zechariah did. Truly we have a God of surprises! We are surprised and overjoyed to be here. At the risk of sounding like a broken record, I want to say how blessed we are to be among you. This is a great church! We won't find the perfect church on this planet. However, in my opinion, one will have to search far and wide to find as wonderful a congregation as this one.
UPCOMING EVENTS
Scholars debate whether Sir John A MacDonald was born on January 10th or 11th. Please mark both days down as special days in the life of First Baptist Church. On Saturday evening at 6:30 pm, the Rev Dr Mark McKim will be speaking on "Being a Christian and Doing Theology in a Secular Context". At the induction service on Sunday at 3:00 pm, his message will be "Covenant at Kingston."Dr McKim is probably no stranger for those who hail from Saint John. He grew up there. For the last 13 years he has been the Senior Pastor of Germaine Street Baptist Church, a congregation the late Rev Dr Ron Noble once pastored. He has a B A with distinction from the University of New Brunswick, a Master of Divinity with honours at Acadia University, and a Th D from Boston University. This was an interdisciplinary degree in theology and church history. His dissertation was on the Swiss theologian, Emil Brunner.
He is currently a governor of Acadia University. He is also the President of the Downtown Ministers' Association in Saint John. He teaches church history in the Convention of Atlantic Baptist Churchs' Lay Pastor's Training Programme. He has also lectured as an instructor at the Chautauqua Institute in upstate New York on C S Lewis. He has published extensively on C S Lewis in various journals. He has also published the authoritative annotated bibliography of the Swiss theologian, Emil Brunner (1996) in the American Theological Library Bibliography Series. Mark has published extensively in the Calvin Theological Journal, Reformed Review, the Atlantic Baptist and various C S Lewis Bulletins.
Mark has also been featured frequently in the media, particularly on CBC. Early in his ministry at Germaine Street they had a Star Trek Reunion service which received national attention on CBC. Several hundred trekkies made their way out to this unique worship service. More recently, Mark was one of the leaders among those opposed to video lottery terminals in the referendum held a few years ago in New Brunswick. As a result, he was often featured in the media.
Nobody ever agrees with each other 100% of the time. Any spouse will tell you that. However, whether you agree with Mark on every point, you will find that he makes you think. More than that, I'm sure that you will find him refreshing. I encourage you to come for one or both of these occasions.
On Tuesday evenings in January we will begin the series entitled Christianity Explored. The video series is here. However, the advertizing posters are somewhere between the UK and here. Initially, I was planning to start on January 13th. However, due to the hold-up in the posters, we will have to postpone it one week to January 20th.
Christianity Explored comes out of All Souls Church, Langham Place where John Stott served for many years. The book Christianity Explored was co-written by Barry Cooper and Rico Tice. Tice is the associate minister at All Souls Church. He read history at Bristol University where he was captain of the rugby team. He then attended theological college at Wycliffe College, Oxford. The back cover of the book Christianity Explored describes Cooper this way: "Barry Cooper read English at St Catherine's College, Oxford. His writing career began in comedy, and since then he has failed to hold down a whole succession of interesting jobs."
The series is based on Mark's gospel. It is much more visually oriented than Alpha. It is also geared to reaching a younger crowd than Alpha. The format for each evening will be similar to the Alpha series. I plan to do Leadership Training for this important series on Tuesday, January 6th and 13th at 7:30 pm. Plan now to attend the Kingston premiere of the series Christianity Explored.
Have a wonderful Christmas and an even better New Year.
In Christian Love,
Kevin
