Sunday, August 9

Image: Georgie Sharp on Flickr

It can be a bit nerve wracking, hearing how God stepped in to Moses' life. When Karen started her sermon about Moses being called by God, I felt I had a lot in common with early Moses. I have a calm, predictable life. I enjoy my family, my work, and my routine. And then when Moses hears his name called from the bushes, he (like I probably would!) starts with the excuses and all the reasons he shouldn't have to disrupt his comfortable life.

When I picture Moses taking off his shoes and accepting he's on holy ground, I picture him committing to whatever God holds for him in the future. And that's scary!

But our last song was Great is Thy Faithfulness, such a familiar hymn. I was struck by the verses, how it tells of how God is ALWAYS and forever taking care of us. But the last verse moved me the most. Because the words were so familiar, I could feel the congregation looking up from their hymnbooks for the final chorus. It truly felt like God was showing up in the faces of those with me there in the pews. I was so thankful for God's faithfulness in showing himself where needed, and for providing his people to help one another take these scary steps of obedience to God together.

Like Moses in that scrubby desert hearing the voice of God say his name, I don't know the end of the story yet. But I do pray we continue to listen for God's voice, and to accept the signs of the faithfulness of God when they're shown to us.

Maureen R.

Sunday, August 2

This morning's scriptures presented two contrasting themes, the assurance of God's blessing despite the troubles and threats of life, and one of Christ's difficult saying about the end times.  In Romans, Paul re-iterates that for God's sake he and other Christians faced death all day long and were considered as sheep to be slaughtered.  But despite this, he was convinced that nothing could separate them from the love of Christ.  As Rev. Scott said in his sermon, "Even when there is treachery and brokenness, God's will is going on...  All things work together though sometimes it is hard to see."  How many of us have had experiences where complex and unforeseen events yielded a positive result that none of us could have imagined as we experienced the travails of life, seeing in that result the working of God beyond our own understanding?  
In a second reading, we see Christ telling many parables about the Kingdom of Heaven, concluding that in the end the angels will separate the wicked from the righteous and throw the wicked into a blazing furnace where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.  A harsh judgment and punishment of the unfaithful is not what we Christians always accept as consistent with God's love for humanity, preferring instead to focus on the salvation that faith brings.  It is a sobering text, and one if accepted literally should move all of us to more sustained efforts to bring others into the Kingdom of God.

Rob R.

Prayer for the morning

God of light, I praise you

for the gift of this new day.

By the power of your Spirit

enable me to live in your light

and seek the holy fellowship

of Jesus Christ my Lord.     

Amen.

Reduced to a comma

Today’s sermon was preached by the Rev. Fred Demaray who took for his text “Reduced To A Comma”.  Fred spent some time speaking of the Apostle’s Creed and putting it into some historical context for us.  While it seemed to have undergone a number of changes over the course of time, the phrase “born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate” is what is currently read time and again as the Creed is spoken.  And therein lies the dilemma of the comma.  All of Jesus’ life, his teachings and his ministry are contained in that one grammatical mark, says Fred; if we can reduce Him to a comma perhaps we can then be persuaded to overlook him. 

And that got me to thinking about how many of us allow our own lives to be reduced to a comma too, allow ourselves to be marked as a minor diminuendo note in the grand symphony of life.  Allow ourselves and our private efforts to be overlooked and subsumed by the secular.  Jesus calls us to service and to “service to the least of these”.  But as Hymn 722 notes, Still your children wander homeless; still the hungry cry for bread; still the captives long for freedom; still in grief we mourn our dead.  In emulating Jesus and offering food and drink to the helpless and hopeless amongst us, we are offering food and drink to Him.  In spurning these opportunities, we are turning our backs on a life of lasting joy and comfort and consigning ourselves, along with the goats, to hell.    Is this the everlasting life we want? 

The cover picture today also gave me pause as our scriptural reading spoke about being on the right hand of God or on the left.  The picture clearly presents Jesus as all-welcoming and inviting us all to a full and loving life.  It is up to use to choose which hand we ultimately want to end up on.  Fred asked the children how does it make you feel when someone says I love you?  And because Jesus loves us, we have a different view of what life is all about; we are called to live in that comma.  Jesus is Lord!

Laura M.

Sunday July 5

This morning, a beautiful, sunny Sunday morning in July, was the Sunday on which our Church commemorated Canada Day this year. I felt very invigorated by this morning's service. I always love singing the second verse of the National Anthem as found in our hymnals, which serves as a reminder of just what our country means and can mean.  A major theme of this morning's service was commissioning, with Aisling being commissioned to go to the Ukraine and Hungary on a mission trip as a youth leader, and with Karen's sermon focused on Jesus sending his disciples out to preach his gospel. 

Karen also spoke powerfully about Jesus coming home to Nazareth and the resistances he faced being a prophet in his own country, which is a story from the bible I find it useful to ponder, especially on Canada Day, when we are thinking about our country: what are the implications of this to speaking and living the gospel within OUR own country?  Lots of questions worth thinking about. 

For me, also, the most moving moment was hearing my little son reading the Psalm aloud in church for the first time.  He is only six, and it was very moving for me to hear his little voice saying "I believe I shall see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living".  This line from Psalm 27 resonated with me in particular this week as I am contemplating in particular the land of Canada, and how to be part of ensuring the goodness of the Lord is manifested here, and it also resonated with me because, when an African American activist, Bree Newsome climbed the flagpole of the South Carolina statehouse last week and removed the Confederate Flag hanging there before being arrested, she said aloud this psalm, and her voice, quite calm, and even small, not unlike that we heard this morning, is captured on video at this link: http://www.patheos.com/blogs/slacktivist/2015/06/28/i-believe-that-i-shall-see-the-goodness-of-the-lord-in-the-land-of-the-living/

Rebecca B.

Things that happen on the way...

This morning's reading in Mark (5:21-43) was action packed.  I'd actually forgotten in the story of bringing Jarius' daughter back to life, that Jesus healed the woman with the bleeding disorder on the way. Karen started her sermon with a story of a flight attendant's simple act of kindness that she still remembers years later as a grown woman. I can imagine that stewardess had no idea that she affected a little child's life so deeply when she picked up her dropped doll and handed it back to her on the plane.

Jesus, on the other hand, seemed to recognize the importance of these acts of kindness. When the woman with the bleeding disorder touched him for healing, he singled her out and he asked "Who touched me?" It wasn't that he affected so many lives that one miracle blended into another - he saw each person as an individual soul. He called the newly healed woman daughter and he brought her into the circle of community, making sure she knew she was a special child of God.

Like Karen's benediction, I pray that we go into the week with eyes wide open to see those in our path, hearts open wide to receive them, and hands open wide to serve them. And I pray that we see the acts of love that are given to us by God through his people as well.

Waters of Baptism - Sunday June 14

The artwork on the front of the Order of Worship depicted a violent storm and I couldn't help but wonder what would be different today about this familiar story of Jesus stilling the storm.  As  we witnessed the baptism of little Victor C. during the first part of the service, instead of the cries of the infant, there was  a beauty and serenity during  the entire Sacrament  of Baptism.  Karen said we should remember our own baptism and the connection with water continued in her prayer as we realized that we started in water in our mothers' wombs and through Baptism,we become members of the community of Christians.

The  text for meditation was familiar, yet our Minister did an amazing job of bringing clarity to the incident in the boat, during the storm on the Sea of Galilee. "A ship is safe when it is in harbour. But ships were not meant to stay in harbour." We could almost feel the rocking of the boat and the fear of the disciples, while Jesus rested comfortably on a cushion. Then He awoke, rebuked the lack of faith in the disciples and stilled the storm.

And yes, we too are constantly buffeted by so many of life's storms --pains, illnesses, loss of employment, loss of loved ones, divorce and so many painful experiences... and we too lack the trust and the faith. Karen said, "Jesus is speaking to us-- Cant we  put our  trust in Him?"
The soothing words "Don't Be Afraid" resonated with me. These words are like a mantra -  "Don't be afraid, Jesus can still the storm. Put your trust in Him.

At the end there was a feeling of tranquility. The scene on the cover was no longer threatening. Yes, ships are at their safest in a harbour but that's not they are built for. We may not know what tomorrow will bring but we sure know who holds tomorrow.

Indeed, it was good to be in the house of the Lord.

Beulah P.