Looking Ahead to January 18, 2025-- 2nd Sunday After Epiphany

 

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The Scripture Reading this week is John 1:29-51

The Sermon title is Come and See

Early Thoughts: It isn't enough to know second hand. Sometimes you need to see/experience for yourself.

There is a story in Matthew's Gospel (Matthew 11:2-6) where disciples of John come and ask Jesus if he is the one who was promised or if another was coming. In answer Jesus tells them to go back and tell John what they have seen. What have they experienced? Actions matter, seeing is more important than descriptions.

In these early verses from John's  Gospel many people are told about Jesus. They all need to go and see for themselves. John (the Baptist, not the Gospel writer) believes because he saw. John then tells others about Jesus and they go to seek him out. Then Jesus invites them to "Come and See". One of them then goes to his brother and says (I think) "you gotta come see this guy!" and another connection is made, another follower joins the crowd.

Then we have Phillip and Nathanael who again are called forth by immediate contact --even through Nathanael's initial skepticism. 

That first hand experience of the presence of God has more power than someone telling you of their own experience. This is not to say that we should not share our stories and tell others of our experiences. We need to do that but we need to do it as a way of inviting others in to seek their own experiences. Think of Andrew going to Simon/Peter after spending hours with Jesus. He invites his brother to come and see for himself. We nee to invite others to come and see what God is doing in the world today.

Seeing for ourselves is the best counter to our doubt and our skepticism. Experiencing for ourselves hits harder, sinks deeper into our psyche than relying on second-hand experiences.

This continues into John's story.  When Jesus stands before Pilate  Jesus asks "Do you ask this on your own or did others tell you about me?" (John 18:34). Do we know Jesus, know who Jesus is only because of what other say or because we have met him ourselves? Do we know about God or do we know God (or probably both)? John is also the Gospel writer who gives us the story of Thomas, the disciple who refuses to believe in the resurrection until he has his own personal encounter with the Risen Christ.

Seeing, experiencing for ourselves is important. Inviting others to "come and see" so they can see and experience for themselves is part of how we spread the Good News of faith.

What would make us offer that invitation? What would we invite others to see, to experience? Who in our story of life and faith has offered the invitation to us?
--Gord

Looking Ahead to January 11, 2026 -- Baptism of Christ Sunday

 

The Scripture Readings this week are:

• Isaiah 42:1-9
• Matthew 3:13-17

The Sermon title is Beloved Servant

Early Thoughts: What does it mean to remember that you are baptised? 

It could be an act of blessing and affirmation. It also could remind us of a deep calling. Both at the same time.

From the earliest days baptism as been the rite of initiation for the Christian church. From the beginning it has been a rite where the newly baptized is joined with Christ -- "dying and rising with Christ" is the traditional language. In baptism, as our baptism liturgy puts it,

we are called, claimed, and commissioned:
we are named as God’s children,
claimed by Christ,
and united with the whole Christian community
of every time and place.
Strengthened by the Holy Spirit,
we live out our commission;
to spread the love we have been given throughout the world.

So what does it meant to remember that you are baptized?

Our readings this week talk about Jesus. One tells of Jesus being baptized by John -- and indeed on of the reasons Christians hold Baptism as a sacrament is because while we have no record of him baptizing anybody Jesus himself was baptized. The other is one of the passages from Isaiah that talks about the Suffering Servant. There is some disagreement about who Isaiah had in mind as the Suffering Servant but Christians have long read these passages as being about Jesus. SO taking the two together we have Jesus as Beloved Servant.

In Baptism we share in the death and resurrection of Christ. In Baptism we are named as God's children, we are claimed by Christ, and we are commissioned to take part in God's action of remaking the world. Maybe in Baptism we too are named as God's Beloved Servant?

This is both blessing and challenge, to me at least.  It is a great blessing to be reminded that we are Beloved by God, tat we are a Beloved child of God. We tend to like that. But there is the commissioning side to it as well. We are to be servants, to serve. 

Called to serve means we advocate for the Reign of God (remembering that Jesus was all about proclaiming the present/coming Kingdom of God). It means that we speak out against those things/persons/policies that work against the Reign of God. It may mean we have to run counter to some powerful or influential voices in the world around us. This can be difficult.

Still we are able to do this, to the best we can, because of the first part. We are able to play a part in God's ongoing mission to repair and remake the world because we are God's Beloved children. Remembering this moves us past our guilt and shame and regret. Remembering that we are Beloved helps us to turn (or to repent) and go a different direction, to go home by another way.

We need to remind ourselves of the blessing and the burden of being Baptized on a regular basis -- maybe even daily. We need to remind ourselves what it means to be baptized and reflect on how that gets lived out. Sometimes we do this to push ourselves (and each other) to live into God's mission. Sometimes we do it to lift ourselves out of depression or shame or guilt. Sometimes we do it to give us hope for the future.

In Baptism we are reborn (or "born again" to use a different turn of phrase). When we remember what it means to be baptized we can be reborn again and again and again. When we remember and recommit ourselves to our identity as Baptized. life wins and we are reborn.  Thanks be to God.
--Gord

Looking Ahead to January 4, 2026 -- Epiphany Sunday

Welcome to a New Year! As this is the first Sunday of a new month we will be celebrating the sacrament of Communion this week.

The Scripture Readings for this Epiphany Sunday are:

• Matthew 2:1-12
• Luke 2:25-38

The Sermon title is Seeing the Child

Early Thoughts: What happens when we encounter God? What happens when we see clearly for an instant?

Both our stories this week are about people seeking or waiting to see the Promised One. In both our stories they end up having their quest fulfilled. In one case they "go home by a different way". In another both people are moved to praise and proclaim how God is at work in this child.

One of many artistic
impressions of the Magi
Source

The Magi are learned people from far away. They read the signs and know that something big is happening so they travel far to find the new king who has been born. Along the way they alert the current king of a possible contender because they are still stuck in a different understanding of where to find the Promised One. They look first among the high and mighty. They find the child in a much humbler space. 

The story tells us why the Magi go home by a different road. They do it because a dream warns them to avoid going back to Herod. Alerted by their earlier visit Herod is now seeking to get rid of any possible competition (which appears very much on brand for what we know of Herod the Great). However there have been many over the centuries who wonder if there is something more to that last line. Aside from the very practical political reason, is Matthew perhaps suggesting that the Magi have been changed by the encounter? It is an interesting question. How were they affected by their long journey and the actual finding of the child? These are people with a different spirituality, a different, non-Jewish, understanding of the Divine. How might the encounter with Emmanuel, God-Made-Flesh (as Christians describe this child) change them?

Rembrandt's interpretation 
of that day in the temple
source

Then we have Simeon and Anna. They are both well advanced in years. They are both in the temple when Mary and Joseph arrive with their newborn son. Both of them, on seeing the child, know who he is. Both of them respond with praise and prophecy. What could easily have been described as a pair of chance encounters takes on a whole new level of meaning because God is revealed.

This Sunday we are marking (two days early) the ancient festival of Epiphany. Capitalized the word epiphany refers specifically to this festival where the visit and adoration of the Magi is remembered. But as a word apart from the festival epiphany is something that happens many ways. Dictionary.com reminds us that the word refers to a revelation, either as a manifestation of Divine presence or as a sudden burst of insight. For the next several weeks the Christian Year has us in the Season After Epiphany (which bridges the time until the beginning of Lent on Ash Wednesday -- February 18 this year). I think that one of the themes of this season is to open ourselves for the possibility that God might be revealed to us. I mean yes, we are supposed to be aware of that all the time but maybe this is a time to be extra aware?

What impact does God being revealed to us have in our lives? Are we really aware of it at the time or only in retrospect?

Epiphanies (not the festival) happen in many ways. God is revealed in many different ways. Sometimes, I think, we totally miss it when it happens. But when we recognize it! When we become aware that something deeply special is happening right her and now! It leaves a mark. Encountering God changes us -- if we let it. 

I have learned that many of us have stories of becoming aware, sometimes suddenly, sometimes surprisingly, that God is really present with us in a situation. Many of us can look back and tell how that experience (or those experiences) has shaped us as people of faith.

The Magi were seeking the child. Simeon was waiting for a promise to come true. Anna might just have happened to be there or maybe she too was waiting. They had their chance. Are you seeking or waiting or jus happen to be at the right place at the right time? What happens when you too see the child for who he really is?
--Gord

To Ponder, PErchance to Dream --Christmas Eve 2025

(Cross posted to Worship Offerings )

And Mary treasured all these words and pondered them in her heart”
In her heart, not just thinking them over, she pondered them in her heart. The place where dreams and hopes live. The core of our being. That is where these things she had heard and experienced rested. Her heart.

What did Mary ponder that night? As she lay there exhausted in that place where animals usually slept, looking at her newborn child in that manger ,what ran through her mind, heart, and soul. As the baby woke and cried out, as she picked him up and began to nurse, what was she seeing, thinking, feeling, hoping?

Did she wonder what the future would be like? Had she, like many parents before and since, spent the last 9 months dreaming about the life her child would live? Now that the child was here did she listen to the story that the shepherds babbled about angels and a message from God about a Saviour and wonder what that meant for her son? Did it make her hopeful or worried?

Or maybe she thought back to that day back in Nazareth. Was it only 9 months ago? That day when suddenly Gabriel appeared and told her she was favoured. He had told her that this would be a special child, one who would regain the throne of her ancestor David. Mary had not known what to do, this couldn’t be right, she questioned Gabriel and then agreed to the offer. But maybe a seed had been planted in her heart. Is that where the dream began?

Maybe she then thought of the hurried trip to see Elizabeth. She had to get away from the rumours and sideways glances, had to find a place of safety. Elizabeth was family, was married to a priest, and lived far away. That would be a safe place. Did her thoughts drift to the day she arrived and Elizabeth told of her child leaping and dancing with joy at the mere approach of Mary and the baby growing in her belly?

Maybe the pondering landed on the song that came to Mary’s lips that day. The song of power and defiance and hope. The dream of a world renewed and reborn. The dream that her child would bring healing, liberation, and freedom. The dream that God was at work in turning the tables, turning the world upside down through this child that she carried. Somehow Mary just knew it to be true. This little being that was turning and swimming in her womb would do all those things. It was more than a dream or a hope, it was a promise. Now that the child was here did her ears ring with that song once again? Did she sing it to him now, just as she had sung it to him so many times before?

Had she been there when Elizabeth’s son was born? Had she been there that day when John was named and Zechariah found his voice again? Had she listened to his song of hope and promise about John and about another, a saviour who would come? Listening to that song may well have deepened the dreams about the child. The dream wasn’t only hers...

Or maybe there was another side to the pondering. Maybe Mary remembered the dream, the hope, the promise and then compared it to what she knew of the world. Would the dream survive in the midst of imperial power? She knew what that power could do. She had seen the legions in action. Would Rome step aside as the dream came true?

What did Mary ponder as she held her newborn son to her chest, listening to his breathing?

I think she saw the hope. I think that she looked back on all that had happened over those last 9 months and remembered every moment. I am sure that like so many other parents-to-be she had spent many a night dreaming about her child. I think that in those sleepless nights when it was so hard to get comfortable she thought about what Gabriel had said, what she had sung, remembering many long talks with Elizabeth about the future, whispering and singing to her belly, sharing the hope and dream with her unborn child, and now she looked at that child and saw all those hopes and promises reflected in his eyes.

Then she would come to the present. The long journey from Nazareth to Bethlehem, the arrival in a town bursting at the seams, the beginnings of the labour pains even as it became obvious that nobody had any room, the grateful acceptance of a space in the lower level of a house because the guest room was full, the pain of childbirth, and the surprise of shepherds bursting in with their story. And she pondered it all, seeing the dream and the hope, a dream and hope that the shepherd’s story seemed to reinforce. I want to think that Mary held the dream high and pondered how the world could be so much better because of this small child gently nursing in her arms.

And now, 2000 years later we sit and listen to the story again. We too are invited to ponder all these things in our hearts. We too are invited to share the dream.

What do we ponder here tonight? What dreams do we bring with us to this Christmas Eve?

I think our Christmas dreams have much in common with Mary’s. I think that after all these years the dream of God re-ordering the world, of God bringing peace and justice to God’s children still resonates among people of faith. The world sometimes seems like a broken place. There is much that could be better. Christmas invites us to dream of the ‘better’.

The Christmas promise carries with it many dreams. The birth of a child always makes us dream about the future, the birth of this child also makes us dream about the present. At Christmas God breaks into the here and now, the promises are for a Jewish peasant family 2000 years ago, for us here and now, for those who will come after us.

The birth of Jesus awakens hope in our lives. Hope that drives out despair. In a world where bad news and violence and division seems to rule the day Christmas wakes us up to possibility. We are people of hope, we dream of a world where hope is stronger than despair.

One of the titles Jesus is given is the Prince of Peace. Our Christmas dream is of the “time foretold when peace shall over all the earth it’s ancient splendours fling”. We dream of a transformed world where weapons of war are turned into tools of peace, where “they shall not hurt or destroy on all God’s holy mountain”.

A traditional Jewish song says “Joy shall come even to the wilderness...deserts like a garden blossom”. The old carol proclaims “Joy to the World, the Lord is come!”. Our Christmas dream involves Joy. In the dry places of our lives, where joy seems distant or impossible Christmas reminds us of the God who shares our lives intimately, the God who is always with us. We sink into deep trust and find Joy in God’s deepest presence. We dream of Joy blossoming in the world like the desert after a rain.

Love came down at Christmas, Christina Rossetti once wrote. Love was born at Christmas. The idea of Emmanuel, God-With-Us taking on human flesh and walking among us sounds like a dream. The idea of Love taking on human form and moving in the world is a dream, a dream of the God who is actively leading us to love each other as we have been loved. Our Christmas Dream includes remembering how deeply we are loved by God.

Mary dreamed that her child would transform the world. Mary dreamed of a time of peace and justice and renewal. All these centuries later we still share her dream. We ponder the promises of the story. We dream a dream, a hopeful dream that leads us to live as renewed people, people of hope, people building peace, people singing for joy, people actively loving our neighbours.

Keep dreaming my friends. As we listen to the angel song ringing through the sky keep dreaming of all that this night promises: Peace on the Earth, Good will to all. Christ is Born, Alleluia! Amen.

Looking Ahead to December 21, 2025 -- Advent 4

 

The Scripture readings this week are:

• 1 John 4:7-12, 16-19
• John 1:1-14

The Sermon title is The Christmas Dream: Embodied Love

Early Thoughts: What was that first word? The one that was with God from the beginning...what was it it? What is it?

Theologically speaking, when John talks about the Word, the Word which becomes flesh and dwells or abides among us, we see the 2nd person of the Trinity, Jesus, the one we call Christ. John is telling us that Jesus (the 2nd person of the Trinity to use an understanding that would be codified in the 4th-5th century) has been co-existent with God (the 1st person of the Trinity) since the beginning. Indeed nothing was created without this Word.

But what if we have to say it was an actual word, a part of speech?

I posit that the creating word which has been with and been part of  God since the beginning is in fact Love. After all the passage from 1 John (likely written by a different person than the Gospel of John but someone who shares a similar theology) names that "Whoever does not love does not know God, for God is love. God’s love was revealed among us in this way: God sent his only Son into the world so that we might live through him." If God is love then it makes sense to me the that Word is also love, love becomes flesh and dwells (or abides) among us. This is the Christmas story, this is the mystery of the Incarnation.

What does it do to see Jesus as Love with flesh on? What does it to our understanding of the world if we say that nothing was created without Love?

I think it makes a world of difference. If we claim to follow the one who is Love Enfleshed, the very embodiment of Love it has to change how we interact with each other. If we claim that all that is created was created through Love then it has to impact how we interact with all of creation.

Part of my Christmas Dream is that, as Christina Rossetti once wrote, Love shall be our token/Love shall be yours and love be mine/Love to God and to all men [sic]/Love for plea and gift and sign. It is my dream that when we meet Love with skin on laying in a manger we will be changed. As we follow the one who commands us to Love each other as we have first been loved (John 13:34) we change the world.

Love is free and wild in the world. Our job is not to try and tame or restrict it. Our calling is to dance with it, joining with wild abandon. Love has been in the world from the beginning, humanity had trouble understanding it so Love took on human form and dwelt/abided among us. Love then defeated the power of death and continues to dwell/abide among us. May we feel free to join in the dance.
--Gord

Looking Ahead to December 14, 2025 -- Advent 3

 

The Scripture Readings this week are:

• Isaiah 35:1-10
• Psalm 146 (We will use the responsive reading from Voices United)
• Luke 1:39-45

The Sermon title is The Christmas Dream: Blossoming Joy

Early Thoughts: Where do you find joy this year? When has joy been absent or difficult?

For that matter what does Joy mean to you?

Just for fun I went to dictionary.com and found this

OR if I clicked on the "American" tab I found:

So there are options. I think many people tend toward the American focus on great happiness or delight. Certainly that seems to be how the word is often used. I tend to lean toward the British usage, particularly when we talk about Joy in a faith sense. The Joy of Christmas comes from that deep feeling of contentment. Joy as great happiness can then, I truly believe, flow and grow out of that sense of contentment. 

In fact I think Christmas Joy is first related to trust and then later to happiness. We trust that, as the New Creed reminds us, we are not alone and the Christmas story reminds us that God not only is with us but chooses to become like us. Out of that trust can come contentment even when happiness would be totally out of place.

What would it take for Joy (either deep contentment or great happiness)  to erupt in your life today?

Isaiah speaks of the wilderness and the dry land bursting into flower and then of the liberation that is to come. The Psalm reminds us that happiness (or maybe even joy) lies in trusting in God (with another reminder of liberation that is to come). Elizabeth's unborn child leaps for joy at the mere presence of Mary and her unborn child (after which Mary sings of the liberation that is to come). Joy breaks into our story over and over, Joy that comes with the active presence of God in the world.

When Joy comes into our lives colour returns. Like the desert after a rain can burst into fresh new growth God pouring into our lives makes us bloom. Sometimes life can be hard and joy, particularly that definition of great happiness, seems like nothing more than a pipe dream. But God is active in the world. God calls us to trust and seek contentment in God's presence. That needs to be the source of our Christmas Joy. 

Joy can come to the wilderness places in our world. The wilderness can break into bloom. It takes faith and trust. It doesn't come, as the Grinch once learned, from the store.  

Let us all look for signs of Joy blossoming in the world around us this Christmas.
--Gord

Looking Ahead to December 7, 2025 -- Advent 2

This is the first Sunday of the month and so we will be celebrating Communion this week.

The Scripture Readings this week are

• Micah 4:1-5
• Isaiah 11:1-10

The Sermon title is The Christmas Dream: Transformative Peace

Early Thoughts: We proclaim that Jesus is the Prince of Peace. The ancient prophets point to a future where people living together in peace will be not just dream and hope and promise but a lived reality. Part of our dream of God breaking into the world is that God will bring a reign of peace.

How might God get us to that point? How might God create the Peaceable Kingdom described in Isaiah 11? How might God convince people that "they shall beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation; neither shall they learn war any more;" as Micah envisions?

By transforming the world, by transforming the people. Total transformation of ideals and priorities and assumptions are needed to get us to that place.

This is part of the promise. Total transformation. This is part of what we wait for at Christmas, the one who will change the world.

When we meet Jesus as an adult he proclaims that the Kingdom of God is either here already or near at hand. Jesus is all about this new transformed world. For Christians it is easy to read these two passages from the ancient prophets and seeing Jesus in them. The original writers and hearers may well have had a different understanding of how the dream/vision would come to pass but for Christians we see Jesus. 

But there is one question that nibbles at my conscience. Are we ready or willing to be transformed? Are we ready or willing to name that the coming of Jesus, the one we see as the Messiah, means that the world is irrevocably changed? This is not a Jesus who calls us to a personal, individualized faith. This is not a Jesus who calls us to simply put up with the injustice and evil in the world because our true reward will be in heaven. This is a Jesus who says that God's Kingdom is here and now, a Jesus who challenges us to embrace a new way of being in this present world not in some future time after a great cataclysm.

We dream of a peaceful world. We dream of true peace, one that grows out of justice and righteousness not one that it the result of the strong holing down the weak. We dream of a world where swords are turned into plowshares (I wonder what we turn assault rifles into in that image?), where it is true the "they shall not hurt or destroy on all my holy mountain", where people live the commandment to love neighbour and friend, family and enemy. 

I believe God is at work transforming the world. Sometimes I believe that in spite of a lot of evidence to the contrary. Still I hold on to the dream and the promise. Transformation and peace is possible, is indeed coming.

Remember the angel song as Jesus is born: Peace on the Earth, Goodwill to all.
--Gord

Looking Ahead to November 30, 2025 -- Advent 1

The Scripture Readings this week are:

• Isaiah 9:2-7
• Romans 13:8-14
• Luke 1:67-79

The Sermon title is The Christmas Dream: Awakened Hope

Early Thoughts: Once more we enter into Advent, once more we speak of hope. What does it mean to speak of hope being awakened in a world which too often leads us to despair?

Often during Advent I like to find a piece of poetry to go with each week. {Usually I then find pieces that are too long for reading in the service anyway}. As I was looking for something to go with this week I found this one which begins:

War darkens the world

more than the length of days

violence, gun shots, fear and hatred

echo through our streets promising only more of the same

It’s easy to lose hope

when every day the weight of worry

grows heavier and heavier still

What does it take to awaken hope in the world today?

Isaiah talks about people walking in darkness seeing a great light. He talks of a time of renewal and release. Often we read these words on Christmas Eve, I have used them as the basis for a call to worship on that day. The promise Isaiah shares is about the coming of one ho brings hope, peace, justice, and liberation. We begin Advent this year re-hearing the promise of the child who shall be born. That child brings hope.

This week we also hear the song Zechariah sings as his son John is named. Zechariah sings of renewal and transformation. He sings of hope for his people. Like Isaiah, he also uses the image of light shining in the darkness, light that drives away shadows. Maybe part of hope being awakened is that the shadow of despair is being driven away?

Rachael Keefe concludes her poem (I really encourage you to follow the link above and read the whole thing) with these words:

Darkness interrupted by chaotic lights,
disjointed décor from one house to another
boldly proclaims the Light
the Light that shines through all things
in every color, every shape, every rhythm
no matter how chaotic – not
just for December nights,
not just for Christmas this year
or next
 These holiday lights – no matter how old,
or how garish – are pleasant, perhaps joyful,
reminders that Hope shines on and on
even when the days are short
and humans hold their weapons
closer than their neighbors

AS we move into Advent this year there is a lot of horrible things happening around the globe. People are being dehumanized. People are starving. Might seems to make right. Violence breaks out in a myriad of forms and locations. Sometimes it seems like one great big nightmare and despair seems like the only option. But I encourage us to look beyond our nightmares to those things we scarcely dare to dream. There we might find hope just waiting to be awakened in our hearts and souls. Look beyond the big stories and try to see the glimmer of Christmas lights, the flicker of a candle flame, shining in the dark places.

Then may we let the hope change us.

The Romans passage calls us to love our neighbours. It also calls up to wake up, to become woke one might say. When hope wakens in our hearts and guides our lives we can be different people. In Advent we light candles every week, we brighten the world one tiny flame at a time. We proclaim that the dawn is near. May the hope that awakens in Advent, the hope for a baby who will call us to live as different people, wake us up. May that hope lead us to be people of hope in a world that too often leads us to despair.
--Gord

Advent Pastoral Letter

We wait for God, creation longs to see a new day dawn.

And though the night is dark and deep, we dare to sing our song...
We watch for God, the earth cries out, “Will violence ever cease?”
he one who saw the signs is seen in ways that make for peace.
(from “We Wait for God” by William Kervin, #57 in Then Let Us Sing)

Friends in Christ,
Grace, peace, hope and love be with you as we move into another Advent Season.

Every year I am struck by the circular nature of the church year. We move from the last Sunday of the year where we name that the Reign of God is a reality growing in our midst directly into the Advent time of preparation and waiting for God to break into the world as a newborn baby.

There is a passage in Isaiah that is sometimes used on the first Sunday of Advent (we often hear from Isaiah in our Advent waiting and preparing). It begins “O that you would tear open the heavens and come down, so that the mountains would quake at your presence” (Isaiah 64:1). Some years I feel that prayer more acutely than others. This is one of those years. From Alberta to Chicago to Ukraine to Gaza and so many other places there is much that needs to be set right with the world. It would be nice if God were to break into the world and cause some speedy transformation in how the world works.

We are promised that in the birth of Jesus God is doing just that. When we wait and prepare in Advent it is not just to remember a birth long ago and far away it is also to remember that Christ continues to be born, that God continues to come to us bringing hope and peace, joy and love. Advent means that God is coming, coming to transform us, to change the world, Glory to God in the Highest! And on Earth Peace.

For now we watch and we wait. We light candles and we sing songs and we pray. But primarily we watch and wait. We open our hearts and souls so that we might recognize what God is up to around us. We name the troubles we see near and far and we join creation in longing for a new day, we cry out with the rest of the earth, we dare to sing our songs.

There are traditions that go with this annual time of watching and waiting and preparing. For many many years one of our traditions has been to gather with the CGIT for their Vespers Service. Though CGIT has come to its end the Vespers Service continues as a group of Alumnae have gotten together to welcome us to worship with them at 7:30 on November 30^th. The theme for the service this year is Faces of Joy. All are welcome.

Another tradition of the Christmas season is that we stretch out and think of the community around us. This year the Social Justice and Affirming Ministry Team (SJAM) is encouraging us to make extra donations to our Local Outreach Fund. This fund allows us to support our neighbours in times of need. It allows that when one of our partner agencies phones the office and says “we have a client who needs some help” we can respond with a voucher for groceries. Every day I drive past the Salvation Army building and see a line of people waiting for the Food Bank to open. There are so many of our neighbours who are struggling, let us do what we can to be the hands and face of Christ in Grande Prairie. SJAM is also reminding us all that the Salvation Army Christmas Kettle campaign is in need of volunteers to staff the kettles.

Dream a dream, a hopeful dream, as children do on Christmas Eve,

imaginings, surprising things to hold and to believe
Dream a gift, the Christmas gift that changes every thing we see:
the shimmering of angel wing, the Child, the Mystery.
(from “Dream a Dream” by Sheila Erena Murray, #158 in More Voices)

In a world where the news is so often nightmarish it is good to dream. I think that dreaming is a big part of how we, as Christians watch and wait for God. Dreaming can be, I believe, a big part of how God shares their vision for what the world could be. With that in mind the theme for my Advent sermons this year is The Christmas Dream. What dreams has God planted in Scripture as we prepare for Christ to be born? What dreams spring up in your heart and soul as you think of Christmas? Sometimes it feels like Hope, Peace, Joy, and Love are just dreams for the world. What might it look like if those dreams came true? I invite you to dream along with me this season. Our Christmas Eve celebration will be at 8:00 and we will probably talk some more about dreams that night.

I close this year’s letter with a piece of news. United Church ministry personnel are encouraged to take time for rest and renewal. After a few years of encouragement from the St. Paul’s Ministry and Personnel Team I have decided, with their agreement, that is it time to take a Sabbatical Leave. I last did this in 2016 to mark 15 years since I was ordained, so in 2026 I will do the same to mark a quarter century in ministry. Between three months of leave and the normal month of vacation I will be off from May 8-September 8. Look for more details in the New Year.

I look forward to you joining us during the Advent and Christmas season. If it is a challenge to join us in person, all our worship events are also streamed on our YouTube channel (https://www.youtube.com/@st.paulsunitedgrandeprairie).

Have a Blessed Advent and Christmas Season!

Looking Ahead to November 23, 2025

The Scripture Readings this week are:

• Isaiah 65:17-25 
• Luke 1:68-79

Taken from FB,
Click to enlarge

The Sermon title is MWGA (Make the World Great Again)

Early Thoughts: What does it mean to make something great again? When was the greatness and what has changed?

In the last few years, thanks to a certain 2016 Presidential campaign, we have heard a lot about making something great again. It started of course with MAGA (America) but has also been used by people to talk about Canada or Alberta. In last month's municipal election one candidate's signs said "Make GP Great Again".

So many questions come up. Great for who? Why is _____ not great now? Who wins and loses in your vision of greatness?

Some have tried to bring the church into this Make ___ Great Again discussion. Often under the auspices of Christian Nationalism, with the assumption that somehow greatness and Christianity are intrinsically related. As Brian Zhand points out in the quote pictured above, the church is not in the business of making America, or Canada, or Alberta, or Grande Prairie great again. The church is in the business of lifting up a different way of being.

This Sunday marks the end of the liturgical year, the Reign of Christ Sunday. It is a day when we are asked/encouraged to take seriously Jesus claim that in his ministry the Reign of God has broken into the world. It is a day when we are encouraged to ask where our loyalty is meant to lie. Is it to a nation state or is it to the world that God envisions? Here is a quote from C.S. Lewis about loyalty and sabotage...

I think we can all agree that the vision we find for a renewed world in passages like this week's reading from Isaiah is not what we see in our news feeds and TV screens. But here is the Good News. God is actively at work.

God is actively and continuously at work renewing the world. It might be a more gradual process than we would wish but God is actively at work making the world better, maybe even great.

Click to enlarge

Here is another meme I screenshotted from Facebook earlier this fall. It helps describe what I think it means to say the God is making the world great/ Not again, again suggests that there was some sort of idyllic past we are trying to get back to. God calls us to look forward, to how things are being renewed. The Reign of Christ/Kingdom of God is not found in the past, it is found in the present and growing into the future. 

We are invited to catch the vision, to share in the dream of a world renewed and reformed. We are invited to join in the task that has been ongoing for millennia. In Christian terms, we see Jesus as announcing the inauguration and beginning of the Reign of God. This reading from Luke (which we we read again on Advent 1 as we move into another year of hope) is the song Zechariah sings at the naming of John the Baptist. In the final verses he sings about John but the early verses sing of the promised Messiah or Saviour -- the one we call Jesus. The one who will renew the people  as God has promised of old.

How do we see God making the world great? How have you been asked or invited or challenged to take part in God's great renewal? How do the promises and actions of the world around us help or get in the way of God's project of MWGA?
--Gord