Sunday, Sept 25

I find myself writing another blog post from afar after having reviewed the bulletin online.  This weekend took Matt and several of our kids to Cub camp and the rest of us to Montreal.  I notice that Karen's sermon this week was about "the journey of Faith" - how appropriate that I am reading and writing this using the wifi on a ViaRail train!  I would have expected to feel more spiritual certainty and clarity, and feel like I have "arrived" somewhere by now in my life, but it is interesting that I do not.  I still feel very much like my faith and my life are works in progress. 

Watching the fall colours fly by through the train window, I was heartened to read this Morning Prayer from the bulletin:
God of radiance and glory you give life to all things and call us to life everlasting. Show us the treasure of your grace so that we may take hold of the life that really is life; through Christ Jesus, Lord of lords. Amen.

Best,
Rebecca B
 

Sunday, Sept 11

This is the day that the Lord has made.

That was the thought that bookended the beginning and end of the service this morning. Karen painted us a picture of her beautiful peaceful sunrise yesterday up at Gracefield, then to contrast this morning - the images of the fifteenth anniversary of the tragedy of Sept 11. But both these days were days that the Lord has made.

We are beginning to look at Genesis together and this morning Karen spoke to us about being made by God, and being brought to life with God's spirit. I was especially moved by the reminder that we are fashioned by God, like a potter making a vessel. It's work and you get dirt under your fingernails, but in the end theproduct has a little bit of the maker in its essence.

What really struck a chord with me was when Karen said the potter makes a vessel which is then used to serve others. We are given these beautiful days (and difficult ones too) but we are made in God's image to serve. It is one thing to be grateful for all the beauty and goodness around us, but we also have a responsibility to serve one another.

We ended this morning with the hymn, Joyful, joyful we adore you, and the words and music (and the chimes of the organ!) filled my heart. This is truly a day that the Lord has made, and I rejoice and am glad in it.

Maureen R.

On the road again

The last week before school starts found us in New York. This was the first trip there for Emma and a long overdue return for Christelle and I. We found a great place to stay on the Upper West Side and were blessed with good weather.  As we were only a few blocks away from Redeemer Presbyterian Church I attended both a classical - grand piano and string quartet - service on Sunday morning and a jazz service in the evening with full jazz band, saxophonist and all. I lucked out as Tim Keller returned to preach after his summer vacation. The auditorium was almost full in the morning, circa 700 people, with “only” maybe 500 at the evening service. Mind you there were about eight different services at the three Manhattan locations of Redeemer that day. 

If I was only to hear Tim Keller preach once in my life then Sunday’s theme of “patience” couldn’t have been more apt. The prospect of having to try to balance my interests with the wishes and desires of my two intrepid travelling companions could tempt me to say that on its own however patience is more fundamentally something I haven’t been too well-endowed with during my life. Anyway Tim didn’t disappoint with his message, I thoroughly enjoyed both services and we survived the week. So much so in fact that we certainly will not be waiting another twenty years to take a bite out of the Big Apple.  More info on Redeemer can be found at redeemer.com and on Tim Keller’s work at gospelinlife.com. 

Bruce F.
 

Sunday, August 28

Acorns (Jamie McCaffrey, flickr)

It being summer, we have been travelling a lot, and outside even more.  Our vacation adventures - and most specifically the 50th anniversary of my husband's parents, which coincided with the birthday of one of our daughters - kept us from attending church at St. Andrew's this Sunday, but, as is my habit, I read through the bulletin online.  I was taken, in particular, by the listing of the hymn, "In the bulb there is a flower," when I read through the bulletin today. 

During the anniversary celebration earlier today, I had gone for a walk in the woods with my son and nephew, who were both too restless to sit still in a restaurant.  They got very excited about gathering acorns, which are of course, teensy containers for baby oak trees.  I had, this morning, been marvelling at how the entirety of a giant oak tree, all of its potential and all of its future, is contained in the smooth, small, leathery shell of an acorn. This led me to think about how even the minute electronic exchange of data facilitated by an online read-through of a bulletin can be a way of being connected to church, and of course about how our children are growing into their potential, with each passing day and each birthday.  How marvellous! How miraculous!  

Thinking of you all and hoping you have a wonderful last week of summer,
Rebecca B.

The Sower of Seeds

Mathew 13 1-9

The parable of the sower was at the heart of the service. As it is at the heart of what we do as Christians in bringing the word to others. Our joy, our honour and our duties is to bring the good word to the world. Many do this with great joy, many with great sincerity and many with great diligence. It is the single best duty we can have. The smiles it brings, the joy it begins and the hope that it brings make the sowing of the word the most rewarding privilege we have.

Yet in the parable is a warning and an instruction. For that seed that is sown along the hard path found no purchase and was eaten by crows. That which is sown on rocky grown grew but failed and burnt as the soil was too shallow to allow root and succour from the water that found no hold. That which is sown among weeds is choked and dies.

The lesson for many is to find only the good soil, to nurture the good and let it gown and multiply 30, 60 or 100 times. It is good and this bounty will fill the heart, body and soul. This sowing brings great joy to the sower and the seed and it is good.

Yet my Grandfather was a farmer and my father upon that farm grew. Their faith holds true the salt, the water and the grain. The necessities of life.  Now the soil where our family farm is good soil, but it was not always that way and it was not all so. I spent summers upon that farm and many lessons did I learn. For my Grandfather and Father were sowers of seeds.

Oft times a path would grow with use hardening the ground, the plow and the till softened and turned the soil until it was ready for the seed again. Persistence turned the unyielding ground back to fertile ground.

Some fields had many stones and rocks, the plowing was hard and the stones by hand needed to be picked and removed, this my father and grandfather did over many years clear resulting in stone edges and hills, yet that soil became a productive field. Patience had meted its reward and that once hard and rocky soil was now an abundant field

Other fields grew filled with weeds and wild oats the harvest being spoiled and the grade reduced. Yet with the fallowing of the ground and retilling, then application of the good fertilizer the weeds gave their nutrients back to the soil. Planning turned weed to wheat and the harvest became good.

The good soil is easy and productive. The bad soil is often the hard and unrewarding. Yet the as my Family Farm taught me, it is this ground unloved and unwanted that can provide the greatest yield if given the love and care. Maybe Jesus is teaching us it is not the joy of good ground only we should seek but that hard work and struggles to bring the bad soil to good.

Maybe the lesson is in preparing the soil as much as the sowing of the seed.

Noral R.

What do you do when you're away from St. Andrew’s travelling?

I find myself travelling for both work and pleasure. On those thankfully rare occasions that I find myself away from Ottawa on a Sunday I try to make an effort to find a service to attend. The search is not always successful to be honest. However, I have attended a few services at the Church of Scotland in Brussels where I often travel for work and even found an Evangelical Church recently in Ljubljana.

Last week we found ourselves in Boston visiting friends. A bit of internet research resulted in me driving over the Charles River to Cambridge, home of Harvard for a service at Christ The King Presbyterian Church. A relatively recent Church plant (1995), CTK Cambridge meets in a historic Congregational Church. The service was fairly traditional but the workshop band did sport some nice Bluegrass banjo. I reckon some 250 faithful attended the service.

To my great surprise and pleasure I, at a “youthful” 52 years old, was probably the oldest person there - and the only one wearing a suit and tie, although it was hot and humid.  The congregation were very welcoming and I spoke with students from around the world. As I dodged the rain on my way back to the car I counted another four Churches in two blocks. I was very happy to have found this little corner of God’s Kingdom on a wet Sunday morning. The sermon and bulletin can be found online at http://www.ctkcambridge.org/sermons/ under the 31st of July.

Bruce F.
 

Reading matthew's Gospel

Reading Matthew’s Gospel, an online discussion: Please join us!
 

We are trying something new! An online reading plan for Personal Bible Study coupled with a private forum for sharing our thoughts and ideas, our questions and our discoveries as we read.

Beginning August 2nd through Labour Day weekend we invite you to read through the Gospel of Matthew and then log in and join the discussion.

A reading plan will be provided by Reverend Karen as we begin,  and each week on Tuesdays, she will post a new set of questions for thought and discussion. As we read along you are invited to participate by posting in your own turn.

We haven’t done this before!  It is something of an experiment but our hope is that it will become a forum for community and sharing. A chance to further the opportunities for Group Bible Study, Discussion and growth in faith. To join you do have to sign up and the posts will only be available to those who are part of the group. As there are most certainly differences between a discussion online and discussion in a room together, we will post some guidelines for online participation and will be glad of any feedback and comments you have as the discussion unfolds.