Blue Christmas

The time leading up to Christmas and the season of Christmas itself can be a very difficult time for people who have experienced loss in their lives. This loss might be from the death of a loved one or of a pet. It might be the loss of a job or of a dream. It might be the loss of a relationship or a friendship. These losses are real and they affect us in ways that are sometimes difficult to understand, especially at a time of year when there are clear expectations and pressures to be happy and get over it.
Our Blue Christmas service is designed to acknowledge that for many people the Christmas season is far from jolly and gay. It is a season full of memories, pain, anxiousness, frustration, anger, anxiety, and tears.
The liturgy itself is meant to move us through the darkness, whatever that is for you as an individual or as a group, into some time for reflection and then a movement out of darkness and into the light of hope that is grounded in God through Jesus our Christ.
There will be several periods of time when a silence will be kept. Each one is meant to provide the opportunity for reflection and thought. While we’ll join together in some singing, people will be invited to remain seated and join in as they are able. When the time comes people will be invited to come forward to light a candle. There will also be a time when people will be invited to float a flower bud. Each time participation is optional and people are invited to take part as they feel comfortable.
At the end of the service people are welcome to remain in the sanctuary for as long as they need to. If someone would like a special prayer for themselves or someone else, they will be invited to move to the front pew and Rev. Bob will have a personal prayer with you. After the service our Worship Team has prepared refreshments for everyone in Fellowship Hall and everyone is invited to stay and greet one another.
While it is true that the time leading up to and Christmas itself is a very difficult time for many, it is not a time that we need to go through alone. By the grace of God and the hope of faith grounded in Jesus our Christ we are here for you.

Living with Exchange

Well our household is finally slowing down a little. For those who didn't know we've has an exchange student from France staying with us for the better part of three weeks and he was a vegetarian! That last piece might not have been a shock for some, yet when everyone in the family loves meat the way we do and you have someone staying with you that doesn't even eat fish and you have to provide packed lunches for them - it becomes a real issue, yet we survived. Our son goes to France in late February and will be staying with the same person who was here.
Having an exchange student certainly brought to mind all the things we take for granted like peanut butter. Yup, peanut butter. They don't have it in France! Or a freak snow storm in October is nothing to worry about. The 15cm we had that week was the most of guest had ever seen. Or attending a church supper or going trick or treating. Yup, you guessed it, they don't do that in France either! and in the midst of it all the toilet broke and had to be replaced which, with only one bathroom, created quite the concern.
So now we're on the other side of that adventure and oddly enough we miss our quest. It seems that he left a very real impression on us and it was actully quite enjoyable having them around. Of course it meant doing things a little different and paying very close attention to our diet, yet this was a learning experince for all 5 of us and it's one that I think we would do again.
So while the chocolates are now all gone the memories live on. What a thing it is to exchange cultures with someone and to be intrusted with someones child from another country. Vive La France! Aux prochaine.

Why Is It?

We've been working on the idea of holistic stewardship very intentionally for five months. The conversations about starting an annual stewardship campaign actually began almost two years ago, yet have only in the last ten months taken real shape. A leadership team was put together, some of whom attended a workshop on these kinds of campaigns, a resource was purchased, letters and a pledge card designed, 4 sermons preached and the whole idea talked up in a very positive way. So far the result has been dismal to say the least and very frustrating.
We asked people to sign a card that asked them to commit to the ministry of the congregation in 4 ways: our vision, regular worship attendance, involvement, and financial support. At a recent Council meeting we learned that numerous cards were being returned with nothing more than a signature at the bottom. No check marks, no indicators of support and no dedication to financial support. So it is this evening that I find myself sitting here wondering about my future and that of the congregation I am in ministry with.
One the one hand I'm tempted to think that if people did noting more than sign the card that they are stating that, for them, there is no support for anything. They don't support the vision; they won't make an effort to attend worship regularly; they have no interest in being involved; and they won't financially support the congregation. In fact they've simply signed and returned the card as a courtesy, yet could there be another side? Perhaps the signature only is a voice of dissent within the congregation. Perhaps it's a way in which people are saying "I don't support the campaign" or "this is the wrong approach." It could be. Yet in February 2008 we had a discussion about the budget and the need for everyone to increase their financial support of it or there would be serious decisions to be made. Of course there is a third (maybe even a fourth) way of looking at this: people did not understand what they were being asked to do. It is possible. I don't think it likely, yet I'm willing to consed that it is possible.
The hard part for me is that so much of our time and energy is being spent on this financial issue and it's draining. The constant talk about deficit and what we're going to try and do has become stifling rather than life giving. If people would only realize that if they increased their monthly givings by $20 per month - that's $5 a Sunday - we'd have an extra $24000 and our deficit would be almost gone! That's it! $20/month!!! People spend more than $5 on a coffee/latte/cappuccino at Starbucks. If people could only see the damage that's being done and the needlessness of it. If people could only imagine the ministry potential we'd have if all this time and energy wasn't going into deficit talks. $5 a week, that's what's keeping us from being stable and financially viable.
The real rub of the issue is that I can see the potential. I have seen and continue to see the difference our congregational vision is making in people's lives. I can see the impact we're having and I can see where we're headed. Brockville and Elizabethtown need Christ United Church. They need a congregation where people are welcome with open arms regardless of who they are without prejudice. People need a place where the love of God through Christ is shared with all. People need a place where they are invited on a journey into a deeper relationship with God that is open and welcoming. People need a church where a sense of family and bellonging and friendship and support is paramount. I'm still commited to that vision and what it represents. I lose sleep over it. I wrestle with it. I pray about it. I discern its impact in my life. I think about it constantly, however, it's starting to feel very lonely. So why is it that people won't give the financial support required to keep this congreation alive and thriving? Why is it?

Stewardship Sunday October 26 2008

This Sunday, October 26th, 2008, is our first Stewardship Sunday. It is your chance to bring in your pledge card as part of your special offering as we celebrate our 139th anniversary.
Don't forget that it is really important that each person declares their own personal commitment to our congregational vision, to regularly attend worship and to be involved in the ministry of the congregation. We understand that there is really one household budget, so when it comes to the regular financial support section of the pledge card, please feel free to fill that in for the whole household rather than each individual. If you opt to do this, just let us know by indicating it on the pledge card where the financial support is indicated.
It is through generous givers, those people who commit themselves to our vision, attend worship, donate their time and talent and provide regular financial support, that we are able to affect the lives of people in Lyn and Brockville. With your continued stewardship we can truly be an open community that welcomes everyone throuhg the love of God shown to us in Jesus our Christ.

Stewardship 4 - Thanks-Giving

This is the fourth post in a four post series that are linked to 4 a four sermon stewardship series that were preached between September 21 and October 12 2008. On October 12 we focused on the text Luke 17:11-19. This was thanksgiving Sunday and the worship time that we picked to launch our Annual Stewardship Campaign. The reading from Luke contains a story of Jesus healing 10 people who were suffering from some form of skin disease. After each of them is healed as they walk to visit with the priests, one returns and gives thanks to Jesus for his healing. One in ten, that's not a great return on Jesus' investment and to a certain degree he says so when he asks if there were not ten people healed and where are the other nine. While one could get caught up in why the other nine did not return and give thanks, this Sunday we focused on the one who did. After experiencing the grace of God in his life, the one gave thanks. He actually had to stop what he was doing and return to Jesus to do so. In this action the person demonstrates a level of sincere gratitude that is simply missing in the other nine. The one who returns lives out a call to give thanks and lives a life that embodies that sense of thanksgiving. This Sunday we looked at how God has blessed each and every one of us. There is not one person who has not been blessed by God. We looked at how our lives are to be like the one who returned and gave thanks. And we looked at how we do that in our world today with our financial resources, the fourth part of holistic stewardship. After commi

tting ourselves to a common vision, regular worship attendance and active involvement - w e acknowledge that if we don't financially support the vision and m inistry we have in common, we're like the nine who simply took from Jesus and went on their way. At the end of the day we have that choice, to be like the nine or be like the one. The choice is left up to us. Which will you choose.

Stewardship 3 - Living the Way

This is the third post in a series of four that are linked to a Stewardship Series as part of our Annual Stewardship Campaign. On October 5th, 2008 we focused on Exodus 20:1-4, 7-9, 12-20.This very familiar reading contains the Ten Commandments that were received by Moses on Mount Sinai as an expression of God's care for the people. Within them a way of life is laid out for all of us. A way that is rooted in God and God's mission for the world first and then in our everyday interactions with one another. When it comes to our actions with one another, they are not passive but active. The voice used is one of command - you will not commit murder. One of the interesting observations of some scholars is that while Moses records begin giving a series of "don'ts" the implication of them is that as a community what we are to be about is just the opposite. If murder is taking life then the opposite is giving life. Here is a perfect example of what kind of community God is calling us to be: one that is life giving. As we look at the third facet of holistic stewardship we examine the calling of each of us to a commitment of active involvement in the ministry of our congregation. As the other commandments lay out, we are called to live actively in community. It is not enough to let life pass us bye as we exist on the side lines watching everyone else. Rather as Christians we are called to grab life by the horns and jump in. Ministry is not a spectator sport. Ministry is an active engagement with our faith as we seek to deepen our relationship with God through Jesus our Christ. You and I, each and everyone of us, are called to actively participate in the ministry of Christ United and in doing so actively engage in the ministry of Jesus our Christ. Are you ready to commit?

Pop Goes the World

Is it just me or is the Men Without Hats song “pop goes the world” a potential theme for the last couple of weeks? Every time I turn on the radio or read an e-zine I’m constantly bombarded with the news that the financial markets have gone p p p p POP! and supposedly along with them the whole world. Of course the most preposterous event associated with this so called “melt down” is that George W. Bush is going to be the saviour of the world market by dumping 700 billion USD into the coffers of Wall Street to bail out the very people whose greed and avarice created the problem in the first place. Essentially he’s asking those who bear the burden of an imbalanced financial system to bail out those who profit from that same systemic imbalance. Don’t believe me, think about mortgage rates. Those who need a lower interest rate can’t get one because they’re a risk, while those who don’t need the break pay a much, much lower percentage and its those people who benefit the most from large corporate tax cuts and billion dollar bonus packages that created the current economic fiasco. Its amazing to me the way that we have institutionalized greed in North America while others around the world and in our own back yards pay the price. Just ponder these two comments from a CBC radio program on October 1, 2008: 700 Billion USD the proposed “bailout” – 30 Billion USD the total amount of cash aid sent to all of Africa; and that Canada had pledged 0.7% of its profits to foreign aid only to renege on it because our economy is growing too fast and people’s incomes are rising faster than expected. Perhaps its time to once again take up the call for a Jubilee.

If you look at Leviticus 25 you get an interesting picture of a real solution to the sub-prime bubble that’s burst in the US and that’s affecting global markets. Don’t bail out the rich and powerful elites of Wall Street – forgive the debt. I think 700 Billion USD is a wonderful solution – as long as its used in an appropriate manner and I’d suggest that there is nothing more just and appropriate than the biblical model of Jubilee. Instead of bailing out banks that have been making tens of millions if not hundreds of millions in profits over the last decade use that “bailout” fund to pay off the mortgages that are most at risk. Forgive the debt and give those who are most financially vulnerable some real help. Forgive the debt and create a new paradigm wherein people don’t have to choose between shelter and food. Create a new environment where children don’t have to go to school hungry. Establish a new way of looking at the role of government so that stress is reduced and people’s physical and mental health improves. In essence solve the current financial “crisis” by addressing the real issue instead of applying another Band-Aid and lining the pockets of those who need it least. At one level that’s what Jubilee is all about.

Of course why this might seem logical, its almost counter-intuitive and certainly we don’t hear any talk of this kind of solution, even during our own election campaign…”Pop goes the world.”

Stewardship 2 - Taking a Drink

This is the second post in a series of four on stewardship that reflect 4 sermons leading up to our annual stewardship campaign.
On Sunday September 28 we focused on Exodus 17:1-7. Again it is a follow-up reading that continues the journey of the Israelites on their way to the promised land. Once again we see that folks are complaining about the state of things as they are running short of good fresh drinking water and complain to Moses that they would have been better off remaining in Egypt gathered around the flesh pots. Of course we know that this isn't true and yet we can hear the frustration and concern from the community. The story goes that once again God hears the complaints of the people and direct Moses to strike a rock at a place that gets names massah and meribah. God says to Moses that when he does this water will come forth like a spring. Moses obeys and the people receive life giving water.
The second sermon in our series is focused on worship and our need to commit ourselves to regular attendance in worship as part of our stewardship. It builds from last week that first you have to commit yourself to a vision and then you have to live it out. As a faith community the most basic and fundamental way in which we live out our vision is through worshiping together.
While this might not seem like an obvious link to the Exodus reading, I'll ask you to think about water as a metaphor - as something that gives life; as something that is basic; and as something that every person needs in order to live life abundantly. When you see the image of water in this light it is possible to see worship in the same way.
Worship is a basic element of who we are as Christian people. It defines us, shapes us, nurtures us, challenges us, comforts us and afflicts us. Worship calls us to empty ourselves in order that we might be filled-up by the Spirit. Worship takes us on a journey into a deeper relationship with God through Jesus our Christ. Worship provides us with a space to reflect on our everyday lives and how we are living out our discipleship. Worship renews us and while it calls us in it also sends us out with a vision and a mission into the world. Worship is our water! Without it, as a Christian, we would surely perish.
The second part of our annual stewardship campaign is to ask people to pledge regular worship attendance. It builds on committing to the vision of our congregation for it is in and through worship that we discover how that vision is to be lived out in a manner that is rooted in our tradition and the bible. The vision sets the boarders and worship starts to fill in the empty space. Can you commit to regular worship attendance?

Stewardship 1 - Living With a Vision

This is the first post in a 4 post series focusing on Stewardship and the four sermons leading into our annual stewardship campaign.
Our focus text for Sunday September 21, 2008 was Exodus 16: 2-15. In many ways its a familiar story that now sees the Israelites having traveled some distance away from the Rea Sea. Now they are hungry as food stocks are running low and they begin to complain that Moses' plan is flawed and that they were better off in Egypt suffering under the cruel whips of their task masters. The story goes that God hears the complaints and through Moses, supplies both bread (manna) and meat (quail) for the people. One at sunrise and the other at dusk. Yet it isn't the miracle that I want to focus on this week, rather its the doubting of the vision that is contained within this story.
Moses had a vision. It was given to him by God and people had committed to that vision as part of their journey out of Egypt. Yet now that things were getting tough in the wilderness, the people doubted the vision. Its as if they had somehow lost their way as a community and doubted the ability of their leader to set the course aright. You see the vision is the boundary of the map. It sets the limits of what can be done and what will be worked towards. For Moses the vision and the boarders of his map can be summed up in the Kingdom of God, yet what about us? If the destination is directly linked to our ability to develop and agree on a vision, then what is the vision of this congregation?
One year ago we developed a vision statement that we all agreed would serve as the border for our ministry map. It says, "Christ United Church endeavors to be a family oriented, faith community called to share the love of Christ with all, regardless of race, gender, age, sexual orientation, social standing or creed." That is how we have defined our promised land. When we reach it we'll know that we've arrived in the Kingdom of God. When the vision statement was presented as a congregation we agreed that it would inform our actions, who we were trying to be as a faith community and as individuals, that it would shape the initiatives to be started and the direction the Council would take. That was one year ago and like the Israelites some of us have forgotten that vision and some of us remember only parts of it.
Part of any stewardship campaign is being able to clearly state who you are and where you are going - in other words your vision statement. Likewise, while its important to have one, if it only exists on paper and doesn't resonate in the lives of the congregation - then its a dead document, a waste of time - it looses its ability to shape and inform our actions.
Without a vision we have no parameters to our map and no sense of where we are going. Without dedicating ourselves to our vision we're left fumbling around from one idea to the next. Its for this reason that the first thing we're going to ask people to do as part of the stewardship campaign is commit themselves to our vision. That's the first step of being a congregation of good stewards - having a common vision. Are you ready and willing to say yes?

Steardship

Beginning next Sunday, September 21, 2008, I'll be sharing a 4 part sermon series on stewardship and its role in our congregation. Each week I'll post "Sermon Notes" here so that if you miss one of the sermons you'll still be able to follow along as we get ready to launch our Annual Stewardship Campaign for 2008.
Over these four Sundays we'll be exploring together:
1. What it means to be committed to our church's vision.
2. The role of regular worship attendance.
3. The importance of active involvement.
4. A commitment to regular monthly giving.
Each Sunday while addressing a particular piece of what it means to be a "faithful and wise steward" will also link how stewardship informs our daily lives as we seek to live out the call of Jesus our Christ to be the church in the world.

Need More Space

I was travelling up Hwy 29 the other day a noticed a curious sign. It insinuated that empty nesters, people whose children were no longer at home, needed more space. In deed the sign actually gave the impression that this was space that these now childless parents had been doing without for some time and now was the time to reclaim it for themselves! Of course in order to do that you needed to purchase certain items to aid in the transformation of what once were bedrooms into…offices…dens…exercise…computer…sowing…games…(can you think of any other) rooms. My thoughts didn’t turn to whether or not these were appropriate uses for these rooms, but to the idea of space itself. When in our history did we all of a sudden become such consumers of space? That is what we’ve become as we treat space as a commodity that is packaged, wrapped, and valued just like any other commodity. The days of children sharing a bed room (which even I had to do for a little while) and people building and living in modest size homes is long gone. Even the styles of shopping centers we’re constructing are “growing to serve you [us] better.” Why do we need so much space? There once was a time when family members literally tripped over one another and now we live in house where we can’t even hear one another unless we’re yelling at the top of our lungs, let alone actually see one another or cross one another’s paths. And that still isn’t enough space because as soon as the kids are gone – there’s the chance to swoop in and convert now useless “them” space into meaningful “Me” space. In the process I think we’ve lost an understanding that space has power and meaning for us as individuals, as families and as a community. The burning bush story in Exodus 3 bring to mind this sense of space as sacred when Moses approaches the bush and hears a voice telling him that this is sacred ground and that before he could approach any further he was to take off his shoes. For sure this story makes direct reference to ground, that is earth and stone and sand, yet it also makes reference to seeing space as sacred. Space has meaning. I remember growing up hearing stories about different places. Sometimes they still existed, sometimes they had succumbed to the passage of time, yet there were some that would last forever. These were places that defined a people, where they fished, how they made their living, where the safe waters were, and what was passed on to the next generation. Space you see has power. Space informs what we think is important and how we treat our space tells others about what we think is important. SO why do we need so much space? And why are we in such a hurry to strip meaningful space where our children have lived for years as soon as they’re gone out the door? What is it saying about us and what is it saying to them?

End of Week 3

The third week is over and as I write this blog I’m sitting in O’Hare airport, one of the busiest airports in North America. Here languages, races, ethnicities, creeds and colours come together to travel the skies. Perhaps, that is a fitting metaphor for the ACTS DMin in Preaching program. Over the last three weeks people from all over North America and Germany gathered as individuals in Chicago. We arrived knowing only a couple of people or no one at all. We arrived representing the diversity of Christianity with varied theologies. We arrived representing various denominations and for some, no denomination at all. We were young and old, black and white, female and male, yet we came with at least one thing in common: we loved to preach the Gospel of Jesus our Christ.
Over time those differences began to disappear. Over time creed didn’t really seem to matter anymore. Over time gender didn’t seem to matter anymore. Over time race and colour became less and less of an issue. Over time our love of preaching and our support of one another and our dedication to becoming the best possible preachers we could be became the focus. The niceties of newly met colleagues faded away until were able to ask the really tough questions. Why did you use that phrase? Why did you include that theology? Would that really work in your context? Or simply we shared with one another what worked and what didn’t. It was a tough, rigorous, 17 days of classes from 8:30 am to 5 pm, of gathering daily for worship, of breaking bread together and sharing insights about preaching, ministry and life. And I loved it!
While I sit here I have some time to reflect on the year ahead and all the work that remains to be done as part of year one. There is a Parish Project Group to create (I’ll be tapping people on the shoulders in August), there are three incarnational translations to create, the sermons to prepare in special ways, three reflection papers to write and a final integrative paper that pulls it all together. While the residency is completed successfully, there is still much left to be done before I can claim that year 1 is complete.
Yet for now I’ll bask in the reality that I’m one third of the way through my residencies here in Chicago. I’ll bask in the incredible colleagues and friends that I’ve made. I’ll bask in the simply amazing preaching that has challenged me, uplifted me and recharged my soul to come home a different person than when I left. In a strange way it almost brings a tear to my eye.
So to those of you who have been working hard while I’ve been away trying to become a better minister for the ministry we share together – thank-you! It is only because you have watched the fort and been willing to step into the breach that I could be here and no amount of words will ever fully and adequately relay the depth of my appreciation and gratitude. Shalom.

Rejoicing in the Midst of Chaos

My first sermon as part of the program was preached last Friday. Its title was “Rejoicing in the Midst of Chaos” based on Philippians 4:4-9. As I’ve mentioned before preaching on Paul is not something that historically I’ve chosen to do on my own accord and not something that I’ve usually enjoyed, yet this sermon was a wonderful experience of what Paul’s pastoral ministry in the 1st century CE can still say to us in the 21st century CE. It was a great chance to delve into a text and preach it to a community of preachers that contained a very familiar phrase “rejoice in the Lord always.”
Now preaching to that community was a whole other matter. It’s is one thing to preach within a community where you’ve developed a relationship. Where we’ve share communion and baptism; where we’ve mourned together; where we’ve celebrated new covenants together; where we’ve struggled with budgets and vision. Preaching to preachers is a whole other matter and so last Friday, at the end of a very long day and week, I went second to last, and with great humility preached to my classmates a sermon that I wrote while here in Chicago with a style that intentionally would have an African-American flavour.
The end result, a powerful sermon based on Paul and his message to the early church that’s still relevant to us today. It was a sermon that certainly had an African-American flavour; at least as much as a white guy can have one, which received the comment “man I think you’ve been eating some greens and black eyed peas!” I was a wonderful experience to have folks respond during the sermon to what was being preached. It was a powerful collective witness to the power of God in our live through Jesus out Christ who calls us to rejoice and rejoice and rejoice again regardless of what life throws our way. It is something that I will probably try out from time to time at home as another way of sharing our witness of the gospel with one another.
One sermon down, another one this week. Lots of great feedback that is building on the experiences and changes in myself that I’ve noted during the course of the last two weeks.

Paul and Me

So the elective week is over here at the ACTS D.Min. in preaching program. My elective was “Paul and a Macedonian Correspondence” which mean 1&2 Thessalonians and Philippians. It was a wonderful course with Dr. Audrey West. Many people don’t know that I have a hard time coming to terms with some of the words we attribute to Paul and some of his theology. While I respect and find powerful his conversion experience from Saul – who persecuted the early church, to Paul – who spread the gospel at great personal risk, I’ve historically found myself, well, not liking him.
Last week afforded me an opportunity to really get into these three letters of Paul. It was, as I named for the class my first day, mine and Paul’s last chance to get along! Well by the end of the week I think it’s safe to say that Paul and I are still a long way from being great buddies, yet were much closer to being good friends. There is a language and a depth of subversivness to Paul that I’d not know in prior courses. In fact one could claim that Paul was the original communication master mind and that he knew his particular audiences so well that he adapted his letters so that they would break through the barriers of a particular community only to use their own imagery to communicate the gospel to them. It was striking to watch and discover how Paul changed his genre and style to suit his particular audience and I started wondering what if we did the same in preaching? Could this be a way for the church to reach out to people regardless of their generation? Is the secret learning the generational code, so that we can communicate the Christian message to folks with little or no church experience and help them understand why the church is so important to have as part of your life? Could it be that one of the reasons why the mainline church in Canada has been declining in recent years is because we’ve refused to change our language to be inclusive of new generations and people? What would Paul have to say to us, what indeed?
Ultimately I want to look at how digital media can be used to bridge the communication gulf just as Paul used letter so many years ago. From Paul I’ve learned that simply using one form of digital media will not be the answer. In fact the answer isn’t in using 1 or 2 forms, but a multiplicity of genres that have been fine tuned to address particular issues with particular constituent communities. Perhaps, if we can figure this out, there is a way to share the Christian message that is deep in the richness of heritage and vital in the current reality we find ourselves in.

Worship at Trinity, United Church of Christ

This past Sunday I had the most amazing worship experience. Four other students and myself decided that we would make our way deep into the Chicago south side to attend a service at Trinity a congregation in the United Church of Christ tradition. We left at 10am.
Arriving at Trinity is like nothing I’ve ever experienced before. We had a camera with us so it had to be checked in at the desk. As visitors we had to sign in as a group. We were escorted to our seats by one of the ushers, all of whom wore white shirts, gloves and black pants. There were plain clothed security guards all throughout the building with the ear pieces you usually see in movies with F.B.I or Secret Service agents. The church was packed.
This is an African-American congregation. Their vision is Unapologetically Black and Unapologetically Christian. The choir had about 140 members all dressed in traditional African clothing. There was a 9 or 10 piece worship band with multiple pianos, bass guitar, drums, organ and other instruments. The music was loud, not overpowering, yet loud. The energy was high and it never really let up. Did I mention this was at 11am?
We started with opening praise songs and stood on our feet singing and clapping away. It was a tremendously emotional time for everyone. We were welcomed as honoured guests and received lots of hugs during the passing of the piece. Actually their senior pastor said, “if you don’t like hugs you’re in the wrong church and there’s the door!” and I felt oddly at home thinking of folks in my congregation Lyn United. Then we read the lesson for the day together with everyone standing from their bulletin that is 24 pages long and professionally produced in house. Now it was 12noon.
We then had a presentation from the Drill Team that performed a series of pieces akin to stomp dancing. It was simply amazing to watch these young people. Then there was a very serious ceremony marking the transition of 9 girls into adulthood. They had been mentored for some time about how to be a responsible young African-American woman with all the rights and responsibilities of other women. It was quite something. Then it was time for the offering and as we sang and clapped buckets, yes buckets, were passed around and then there was a second offering for the Resurrection Fund. It was now 1pm.
Then we got to the sermon. I’ve only seen black preachers on television. I’ve heard about them. Read about them. I’ve experienced only one other, yet nothing prepared me for this experience. I have never seen a preacher and congregation interact with one another in such a profoundly relational, yet respectful way. He had us standing and clapping our agreement. He had us looking at one another and giving a word of encouragement. He had us finishing his sentences. He had the band playing while he sang some a short piece of his sermon like lyrics to a song. There were people shouting their encouragement “Go Preacher!” there were “Amen!” there were “yeah, yeah I got you!” and people smiling and crying. And through it all, other than during the sermon, there was always music – sometimes just instrumental other times hymns, other times choruses, other times just the choir – yet always music through the prayers and other parts of the service. We received the benediction after an altar call and people were invited to remain at the altar if they wanted to join the church. It was now 2:20pm.
I hope you’ve been paying attention. We started at 11am and finished at 2:20 and it only felt like an hour! We later were told that they have three services a Sunday with three different sermons. The times of the services are 6am 11am and 6pm. In total there are about 6,500 people in worship on an average Sunday. Attendance at the service I attended was around 2,600 people. They have their own book room, live internet ministry, production team, credit union bank, outreach program, 12 pastors and 80 programs that run weekly. Trinity is an experience all to itself. If you’re ever in Chicago you need to go to Trinity, even if you’re not African- American!

Praise In Spite Of

It’s an interesting moment in one’s life when you into contact with a religious tradition that looks like yours on the surface, yet as soon as you delve just a little deeper you begin to realize that while there is much in common, there is also much to learn.
Last week I had that experience when working on an Incarnational Translation. At one point a colleague of mine, who is African-American, commented that in her tradition there are two kinds of praise. There is praise because of and there is praise in spite of. Praise because of is rooted in the events of life for which we’d like to offer God our praise and thanksgiving. A family member recovers from a serious illness; a child does well in school in a troubled subject; a relationship that was broken is healed – all of these would be examples of times when you would praise because of. In essence your giving thanks to God for something that you perceive to be welcomed in your life, good for you, or someone you care about. This, I think, is a kind of praise that is common across religious traditions. Those of us who self-identify as Christians have no problem giving praise to God when things are going as we want them to. We don’t have a problem offering thanksgiving for getting something that we wanted. We have little afterthought for saying thank-you to God when our prayers are answered in the manner we’d hoped for. But what about other times, you know the ones when things don’t go our way or “bad” things happen to us or those we love and care about. What then? Are we as eager to give God our praise during those times? Or are we more likely to withhold our praise as if we can punish God or bring God around to our way of looking at the world if we don’t offer our praise.
In the African-American tradition there is an understanding that in those times you offer your praise in spite of the situation at hand. It goes something like this: even though my child died; my cupboard is bare; I got laid off; my child failed a subject; I’ve discovered I have cancer – in spite of all of that I will praise God and offer my thanksgiving. In other words even when it doesn’t seem to make sense I will offer my praise to God exactly because it doesn’t make any sense! Do you get it? It’s easy to give praise when everything is going your way, but when times are tough and you feel forgotten, ignored, mistreated, and/or harmed by God, that’s when offering praise is tough work. That’s when your praise matters because it would be easier to just walk away and yet, even in the midst of your situation, there is always (and yes I mean always) something to praise God about. It might simply be that your alive another day and yet for some folks that is a miracle in and of itself.
So as I sit here in my room I’m left to wonder about those times in my life when I’ve refused God my praise. I wonder who I really hurt. I wonder what was gained by those actions. I wonder if there isn’t a deep wisdom in the African-American tradition of praise in spite of and I wonder what my life would look like and what my church would look like if we were able to cultivate this kind of deep faith.

Jesus as Parable

Tuesday was our first "full" day of the program. We began with lecture and took time for opening worship that was simply amazing. The gospel reading was recited from memory. The organ music was like that of a recital even though it was contemporary music. During communion we partook to the melody of a classical guitarist. It was moving to be with a group such as this, a group that takes worship and preaching so seriously that it constitutes a fundamental portion of our being, to hear those voices raised in song and praise and prayer was an experience in and of itself.Yet, as wonderful and soul filling as that was, it pales in comparison to what happened in the afternoon. As we neared the end of a long day we were talking about parables. About how Jesus said nothing that wasn't in parables. The he did so in order that the disciples could understand and the others could not. The proverbial shoe fell when Dow said, "Jesus is the ultimate parable." That his whole life is a parable. The ridiculousness of his reception, the teachings, on the Mount, in the garden, in the court, on the cross, wrapped in cloth, in the angels and in the room. Jesus is the parable and when you understand the parables you begin to enter into an understanding of who Jesus really is and the radically subversive nature of what lies at the heart of each parable. It was/is an amazing thing for me to think of Jesus in this way. It is one thing that will change the way I preach and the way I understand the message of the Gospel.

Reflections on Narrative

I've arrived in Chicago and snaked my way through one of the world’s largest airports and a completely foreign city to a campus nestled in south side of the city in Hyde Park, one of the oldest neighbourhoods in Chicago. A historic place that, during the time of black immigration from the south and white flight, decided it would set down a code of principals that would reverse the ongoing trend of segregation in another form. It is here that I have come, along with 26 other preachers from LA to the Bronx of New York to Eastern Ontario to Germany. Here we have gathered to delve deeper into the act of preaching: how we do it; how people experience it; what we're doing; and how we can be better at it.One of our professors, Dow, who was a conscientious objector during the Vietnam war, shared this story with us yesterday."I'd agreed to do a workshop in new models for church leadership and like so many other things in life had put it off and put it off until it was now Saturday and the workshop was one week away and I had to get it done. So I decided that I'd read the Chicago Tribune, go for a short run and then get down to the business at hand. When I opened the paper there was an article that said while there were only 20,000 civilian casualties during the first gulf war, the consequences of the destruction of infrastructure, of schools, hospitals, stores, and roads has meant that an additional 200,000 Iraqis have died. That's a number I can get my head around because I grew up in a city of 100,000. So two times my city had died. With that in mind I went for my run and as I went along I could hear this repetitive thump, thump, thump and a kind of music layered over it. As I continued I came upon a group of young military men out running and it was their feet I could hear and the cadence they were singing. Fist I recognized the tune: put another nickel in the nickelodeon. The words however were nothing I'd ever heard before. A cadence works like a kind of echo sung response where the person running alongside leads and the group responds. The song went: throw another hand grenade. Look at what a mess I've made. bodies, bodies, everywhere. Bodies, bodies, bodies. The second verse went: look at what a mess I've made; bodies piled up to the sky. bodies, bodies everywhere; bodies, bodies, bodies." They we were the two of us running on opposite sides of the streets." Dow went on, yet that is the essential crux of his story.What dawned on me was the irony of the two sides of that road. On the one side a group of young men who probably hadn't ever seen bodies piled up to the sky (or they wouldn't be singing about it) and on the other side an objector to just this kind of mass mindless violence that not only destroys the body - that corrupts the soul.Corrupting the soul - one could imagine that it’s something that only happens to soldiers and the people who send them on these missions with grand plans of solving all the world's problems through more violence. Yet what they are missing is that in the process they are not only destroying their souls, they are destroying the soul of whole nations. They are corrupting the very gift of creation that God has given to us."bodies, bodies pilled to the sky," when will we ever learn that, as a colleagues 8 year old said, "arguing and violence doesn't even work between my brother and me, so why do they [the world's leaders] think it will work between countries?" Why indeed.

Grief and Loss

Last night I watched The Cleaner a movie about a retired police office who cleans up crime scenes. In the film, Samuel L. Jackson does a clean up that unknowingly gets him into lots of trouble. A single parent, his daughter is doing a "research project" for school on her mom, who was murdered during a robbery. That's the background you need. At one pivotal point in the movie, father and daughter are having a particularly heated argument that Jackson believes is rooted in his daughter doing this project. She responds that it isn't the project, it isn't even a real school assignment - she's upset because "I'm starting to forget her [mother]!"
What a powerful scene. It actually brought tears to my eyes, not because it was particularly well acted or the cinematography was particularly good. It brought tears to my eyes because it reminded me of the first time I realized that I was forgetting my own mother.
It's a tough thing when your mother dies at a young age whether its sudden or from a long disease. Either way there is a void in your life the likes of which was previously unknown. I know, I've been there. It's a particularly horrifying moment when you realize that pieces of the memory you have of your mother is slipping away. The moment when you forget the kinds of things she used to say. The moment when you forget the kinds of cloths or jewelry she liked to wear. The moment when you forget the sound of her voice and the moment when even what she looked like seems more like an uncertain dream to be questioned than anything rooted in reality. I remember those moments. They threaten to tear your very soul in two. Questions like, "if I really loved her, how could I forget her?" come creeping into you world and suddenly not only are you questioning your memory of the one who brought you into the world, you're also questioning the validity of the relationship you thought you had. You grasp at straws, desperately searching your memory for any recollection of things that she did, her mannerisms, things she cooked (which the daughter also does in the film), things she'd say in a particular situation and any rituals that she might have had. You punish yourself for forgetting, even though its a human process, even though you knew, deep down in the recesses of your soul, that one day it would happen. And if you're not careful this guilt can and will take over your life.
What the daughter in The Cleaner doesn't realize and what I learned along the way, something they never tell you in bereavement groups or pastoral care classes, is that while your memory of specific minute details fails, what you do remember is the essence of the person.
You see I think that our human brains can't handle all the little details. Over time they get combined together or simply labeled as irrelevant and deleted like junk mail in our inboxes. What takes their place is a holistic memory, one that encapsulates all the little pieces into one seemingly little whole. If I push myself I can still remember what mom looked like, how she dressed, the things she felt were important, the things she would say, the expression on her face at certain moments, what she liked to cook and her mannerisms. Yet what most frequently and earnestly comes to mind when I think of her isn't those little details, but a memory of who she was. It's more of a feeling or an experience that a memory in the sense of a snap shot in time. I experience who she was and who she continues to be for me. I fell her love, understanding, strength, perseverance, and care. I know the strength of her personality and the depth of her compassion. These are far greater "memories" than the last meal she cooked or the last family gathering she could really participate in, or her last days in semi-lucid delirium in hospital. In stark contrast to those kinds of memories, these are the ones that really count. These are the ones that inform my being.
Yes, I forget. Yet the experience that has emerged is far greater than any one memory.

Parenting

Why is it that teenagers seem to think that saying I'm sorry is the great eraser for moral and intellectual errors of judgement? Why is it that the concept of earning forgiveness in order to restore what Why is it that you need to take a course to have a driver's license, be tested, and only receive a whole license after experience, yet there is no such manual or testing period or learning period when you become a parent? It's a strange thing in many ways how a child can enrich your life, even though a recent study on happiness amongst Canadians discovered that having children definitely has negative affect on your happiness factor. Your children can make your heart, head and chest swell with pride and the knowledge that the world is in good hands with the next generation. At least those are the good moments. Then there are the others.
Recently I experienced one of those other times. It's quite something to have your opinion of maturity, understanding, and trust dashed in a moment of reckless stupidity. Why is it that teenagers cannot, no matter how much you talk, plead and beg, grasp the concept of wider repercussions and consequences for themselves and others because of their actions has been taken away from them is the primary modes opperandi for this group? Why can't they understand that forgiveness isn't something that you can earn by accomplishing a certain number of tasks, but is rather something that you demonstrate the ability to receive from the people you have hurt? Why is it that teenagers don't understand that their actions can and do break sacred trusts that have been given and earned over time and not something that can be quickly or easily "fixed" in a non time intensive manner? Once again trust is something that you have to demonstrate being able to handle and receive. It is not deserved or a right in any way. Why is it that I feel hurt, angry, frustrated, and let down - when in all reality no one was physically hurt and the damage done has more to do with character and reputation than anything else?
As you can probably guess there was an incident with my son that is causing this blog and reflection. It was recent and I'm still very raw from the experience and yet even now I find myself wondering will I be able to trust him again in the same way I did before? Will I be able to look at him with the same degree of pride and wonderment at his potentiality? Will I be able to forgive - yes I'm sure with time I will, yet I also equally certain that I will never forget. My relationship with him has been deeply bruised - not broken, after all he's my son and I will love him with all my heart, mind and soul as long as I have breath.

Being Homeless

Recently I had the opportunity to return "home" for my brother's ordination. I put home in quotations because it was a very strange homecoming for me. I've returned to Newfoundland before since I left its rocky shores 10 years ago. I've returned for family events and visits; to preach and for meetings, yet for some reason this trip was very, very different. It was strange to travel around St. John's, a city I'd lived in for years, taking in all the changes and new buildings. I took note of the places I remembered that were now boarded up and no longer in use and I realized that St. John's, a city of 102,000 people, felt very small. It no longer buzzed with the energy that I remembered from my childhood. In effect it actually felt small. Not in a geographical sense, but small in a philosophical sense. It was akin to coming home and realizing that your family no longer lived there and not only that, the new owners have changed the layout and colour scheme of your room and house. It was truly a humbling and eye opening experience. I discovered that the land of my birth, the very place that I called home that had defined a portion of my personality for so many years, was no longer my home.
This experience is the closest I think I'll ever come to Jesus encounter in his home town when they asked him to read scripture and explicate it. Their response...grab him and throw him off a Cliff...fortunately which didn't happen. Yet the sense of home no longer being home is very much a part of that story and now it is part of mine. I wonder how upset, angry, frustrated, and/or sad Jesus was when these events happened to him. I know I certainly experienced all of them. It is quite something to realize that you no longer have a home. That you no longer have a place that you can retreat to in times of distress and uncertainty. that there is no place for you that serves as a shelter amidst life's storms.
Of course that isn't really the end of my reflection because I do have a home, it's just a new home. While the one of my youth is gone and I can no longer return to it, a new home has emerged from my journey. This new home is mobile. It isn't rooted in geography or rock, rather it's rooted in family. In the midst of my reflection Victoria commented to me, "you know one of the great things about us is that where ever the four of us are we call it home." That was the message I needed to hear. Where ever the four of us are we call it home. Thus a home rooted in family, rooted in people, cannot be lost and I am privileged to have several families. One is my nuclear family; another is my ministry family at Christ United; another is my vocational family within The United Church of Canada; and another family is comprised of friends.
I still have a home...it's just a mobile home! and I am humbled by the number of people who travel life's road with me.

Blogging Towards Sunday

This week there is an interesting series of readings to choose from. I've chosen to focus on Acts 1:6-14 which isn't quite the story of the Ascension, yet overlaps with that pericope.
This week I find myself being struck by two phrases, Jesus' directive that "you will" and the question "why?"
On the surface it makes perfectly good sense for Jesus, as he's about to return to God, to give a pep talk to his disciples by informing them that they will be his disciples in all of Judea, Samaria and to the ends of the earth. How much more encouragement could you need? Here Jesus, the one who conquered death, is telling you, no directing you to be the witness to his gospel of good news to all the world. Yet what's the first reaction of the disciples - to stare up at heaven (the sky). It isn't to run down the mountain side and start witnessing. Why is that? Why is it that Jesus' final pep talk, one that commissions all those present into an active ministry, doesn't immediately result in action? Could it be that perhaps the first response by the disciples was "Oh Crap! I have to be a witness to the whole world - I mean look at what our own people did to Jesus!" I think that's why the disciples were standing there staring up into the sky - not because they were awe struck or humbled by the experience or groping with how to process it - they were dumbfounded, literally frozen in place, because of the enormity of the mission that Jesus had given to them. I mean how do you begin to witness to the whole world and you know, that's the mission that's been handed down to us. You and I are called, directed, commissioned to be Jesus' witnesses to the world and I think when that sinks in most of us respond with "Oh Crap!" and never move beyond that point. I think it's the reason why so many congregation can't articulate a vision and the mission they are trying to live out. I think it's one part of the reason why so many congregations are immobilized by their history. I think it's one of the reasons why so few of us actively live out our faith in a way that shares that faith with others. I think, that like the disciples in Acts, its easier to look to the past and say "there was a time" and justify our current inaction based on the success and laurels of past generations. That approach is comfortable. It's easy. Yet to that approach the two men in white ask us why? Why do you try to bear witness to Christ by looking in the rear view mirror? Why do you try to witness by listing what you and others have already done? Why aren't you doing something now?!? Because it scares us, because its an awesome responsibility, because we think we don't have the talent or the time or the training, because we might mess it up, because we want to be a huge instant success - that's why.
And yet, Jesus didn't say, "you will be my witnesses and meet with instant success the likes of which the world has never seen and then be able to pack it all in an retire." Instead, Jesus calls us into an active engagement with the world wherein each of us bears witness to Christ with the best of our abilities - through prayer - and by the power of the Holy Spirit so that the gospel of Christ spreads around the world as you and I live it out authentically in the everyday moments of our lives.
We will be witnesses! Why? Because that is one aspect of what it means to be disciples, to be followers of Christ and to revel God to others.

Remembering One of Ours

In Memory of Jeanne Gifford

On Friday April 25 family, friends, and members of Christ United joined together at Roselawn Cemetery to celebrate the life of Jeanne Gifford. Jeanne was a wonderful person full of an inquisitive spirit and zest for life that spilled over into all her relationships. An avid singer in younger years and junior choir director in various churches she attended, her love for music and children never left her. Perhaps that is one of the reasons why she "adopted" so many "other" children as her own. A tender hearted person she also possessed the most amazing laugh and the ability to give incredible hugs. While Jeanne journeyed admirably with cancer over these last few months the disease did take its tole on her, yet she never lost her sense of humour nor her faith. Jeanne was quite simply a wonderful human being and her presence will be deeply missed in our faith community at Christ United. To her family and friends our deepest sympathies and prayers.

Blogging Towards Sunday

Our focus text from the lectionary this week is John 11: 1-42. Its a huge piece of scripture to consider in one worship service, let alone one sermon! At its core is the story of the raising of Lazarus - a person whom Jesus loved. A man who was the brother of Martha and Mary - the one who anointed Jesus' feet and wiped them with her hair. (Something that, in John's gospel, doesn't actually happen until the next chapter, even though its mentioned here as a means of identifying her.)
Jesus is called to come to the aid of someone he loves, yet he arrives too late. In fact he actually misses the whole thing. Not only does he miss Lazarus' last few precious breaths, he misses preparing him for burial, he misses the gathering of family and friends for the funeral service, why Jesus even misses what we'd call a service at the grave side. According to the story Jesus doesn't arrive on the scene until everything is over and done with and Lazarus is in his tomb. On the surface one has to question how much Jesus loved this man Lazarus. Or playing on a common colloquial saying "with "love" like this who needs to be hated!"
Yet that's not where John leaves it and it certainly isn't the end of the story. For even though Jesus appears to be searching for life in all the wrong places, what at first glance appears to be pure folly - turns into a moment where the grace of God is revealed to anyone who desires to discover it.
The transition from folly to revelation comes after the shortest verse in the Second Testament: Jesus Wept and it comes after Jesus is deeply trouble by Martha's reaction to his delayed arrival. Here in the depths of emotion Jesus portrays a very human response - grief. The Greek here could be translates as something more akin to Jesus shook with emotion. In other words he literally had a physical reaction beyond tears to his friends that his whole person was affected by this experience.
I've often though that this is true for those of us who know grief and loss. While for many that experience is linked to someone we loved, it doesn't have to be. I've also know people who've had this experience from the loss of a job or promotion or because someone has moved away or a pet dying. Grief - death - loss, these are all part of the human experience and Jesus himself wasn't beyond them. Yet I think John would have us see that even when the night is at its darkest and all hope seems lost. Even when our hopes and dreams have been laid to rest in a grave - that life is peculating just under the surface. That while we, you and I, might perceive it to be dead and gone, it is not the case for God. Life is waiting for us to find it - if we're willing to look for it and risk that others might say of us that we're looking for life in all the wrong places. Personally - that's a risk I'm willing to take.

Blogging Towards Sunday

This Sunday my focus scripture is Matthew 4:1-11. The world is full of things that could be labelled as “evil.” There isn’t a day that goes by when some new form of evil isn't discovered or when we’re reminded of it. Recently there are the two children who were found frozen on the Yellow Quill First Nation. There are the hundreds of thousands who are dying and have died in the Congo. There are children who go to school hungry at our local schools. There are children, women and men who live in abusive relationships. There are racial, economic, gender, religious, social, age and violent rooted evils reported in every news cast - from printed word to podcast. Yes, evil seems to be all around us, yet today’s gospel reading tells us that there is a way to overcome this kind of systemic evil. It is rooted in Jesus reactions to the “tempter” or “devil” – who represents evil personified. It is also rooted in how the angels “minister” (Greek: diakoneo) which informs how we are called to live as disciples.
Every Jewish person in Jesus day grew up deeply rooted in the understanding that each person is called to love God with "all their heart, all their soul and all their might." In his response to the devil - the evil that manifests itself that day in the desert - Jesus responds with quotations rooted in his love of God with heart, soul, and might. The Greek word diakoneo that is translated here as "waited upon" also means to minister or serve at table.
What would happen to the evils of the world if we equally stood rooted in the love of God with all our heart, soul and might? What would happen if we turned the popular ideology of hierarchical entitlement on its head and understood that, like the angels, we are called to minister to one another, to wait on one another, to serve one another at table?
Its an interesting set of questions to ponder as we begin a new season of Lent.

In Memory and Celebrating the life of:

Rev. Dr. Shelley (Sheila) Elsie Grace Finson

B.A., M.R.E., Dip. Ed., M.S.W., D. Min., Honorary Doctorate, Companion of the Centre for Christian Studies

March 2, 1936 – February 3, 2008

These words appeared in Shelley's obituary, "After a six month journey following the diagnosis of pancreatic cancer, in the early morning hours of February 3, Shelley yielded her place in the universe."

Today I have been reminded yet again of the shortness of our earthly journey. Shelley was simply an amazing person whom I had the privilege of getting to know over the last four years. While I'm told I met the "mellower" Shelley, its hard to imagine anyone more full of life, vigor and commitment. She was a courageous woman and a remarkable human being at a time when the church and the world was in desperate need of people like her. Shelley changed lives, for the better. Its amazing really what you remember when you hear about someone returning to the Creator. My initial memory was standing with her inside a tepee on a particular cold Winnipeg day when the thermometer read -52 degrees centigrade. How she delighted at the invitation to be in that holy space. I still marvel at the depths of her humanity and of her faith. There was so much more she had to share.
And so today I am reminded once again that someday I too will be called upon to yield my place in the universe and I'm left to ponder will I have occupied that space well?
To a dear friend and colleague, shalom Shelley - until we meet again.

Shelley was very open about her journey with cancer and you'll find a link to her blog - for as long as it stays active - where you can read about her journey. http://journey-shelley.blogspot.com/2008_02_01_archive.html

Blogging towards Sunday

Sunday February 3rd, has the focus reading of Matthew 17:1-9. Its what's known as the transfiguration story where Moses and Elijah appear with Jesus. It also has God speaking to the disciples from a cloud telling them to "listen to him [Jesus]" and Jesus saying to the disciples "be not afraid." Again this week there are two challenging ways to look at this story. Its possible to focus on the first part - the transformation of Jesus and acknowledge that in each of our lives there is a need for some transformation. In the Greek text of this passage the word metamorphoo is used which means a deep and significant change in a person. One could ask what deep changes did Jesus need to make or ignore this point and see Jesus' metamorphism as a sign to the disciples and to us as current day readers. Either way, the truth remains that in each of us there is a component that needs deep and significant change. It could be in our approach to relationships, or finances, or prayer, or faith, or addiction, or life in general.
A second approach would be to examine what it means to obey/follow the directions of Jesus - to listen to him. Its important to acknowledge that here listening isn't passive nor is there a distinction between listening/hearing and doing. To listen is to do and the two go hand in hand. Its also not a directive to engage in selective hearing and only follow that part of Jesus message that we agree with or find easy to live out. It also means living out the tough and sacrificial aspects of the gospel as well. Yet, even in our following Jesus tells us not to be afraid. Don't hold back could be another way of hearing these words or don't be afraid to commit yourself body, heart and mind with all of your time, talent and treasure.
Either way you and I are called to live out the gospel through both personal and communal metamorphosis while engaging our whole being in our expressions of discipleship. The only question is: are we willing to take that leap of faith?

Blogging towards Sunday

Matthew 4:12-23 if the gospel reading for this Sunday. Its essentially two stories combined into one, the second of which is the calling of Peter, Andrew, James and John. From this second pericope comes the famous quote "follow me and I will teach you to be fishers of people (men)." Its an interesting thing in our society to ponder what it means to be fishers of people. One could ask if this is a call to evangelism - go out and bring people in, to worship and to Christ. It could also be a lesson in how Christ calls each of us, as ordinary as we are, to use the skills that we already have in new ways. Thus a teacher, teaches; a parent cares; a doctor heals; and an accountant balances so that through them the Spirit can work to spread the gospel. It could also imply that, like fishing, the Church needs a plan for how it will engage the gospel vision and the mission of each congregation and believer. Which ever way you look at this is a wonderful story that lays before each of us the challenge to use the skills, talents, and resources that each of us posses to engage in Jesus' calling to fish for people.

Remembering One of Our Own

On Monday, December 31st, 2007 our faith family was called upon to gather once again to bid farewell to one of its elder churchmen. C. Victor J. Hayes - Victor or Mr. Hayes as we knew him passed away a few days before after a long and complicated medical fight that saw him in and out of hospitals for years. Gathering to celebrate were his wife Thelma and the rest of his family. A Nephew Rev. Cannon Dr. Don Hull presided at the service as we celebrated the life that Victor loved to live. Amongst the many memories that were shared were ones of a person who loved his family; worked hard to support them; took pride in his work; and was incredible enamored with his grandchildren. While for health reasons Victor and Thelma haven't been able to frequent the church in the same manner as years gone by, Victor's presence will be missed by all of us who enjoyed his spirit, his faith, and his joi de vivre.