Looking Ahead to October 12, 2025 -- Thanksgiving Sunday

The Scripture Readings this week are:

• Psalm 100
• Deuteronomy 26:1-11

The Sermon title is Thankful Remembering, Thankful Giving

Early Thoughts: DO you pause to remember? Do you pause to recall what God has done? What happens when you do that?

This passage from Deuteronomy describes a ritual of presenting a thank-offering. It describes it as one of the first things you do at harvest (I wonder if first fruits means every year or just the first harvest in this context?) You take a portion and offer it to God. As you do that you name those things that God has done for you and for the people and out of thankfulness you give to God as you celebrate the abundance of the land.

So what do we do with this story?  We have not just entered the Promised Land. Many of us do not have fields to harvest and bring in the first fruits. Few of us have a story of how our recent ancestors were delivered from an oppressive empire (at least not as specifically as the Exodus story). The story can't be talking about how we are to act -- can it?

It is my contention that we read these ancient stories because even if our context and lives are very different from the culture that passed them on to us they do have something to teach us about how we are called to live.

In this case the story has much to tell us.  There are three parts to the ritual that is described: offering, remembering/recalling/retelling, and celebrating.

How do we incorporate all three into our lives?

It is my firm belief that the act of remembering with thankfulness how we have benefited for the gifts we have been given changes our hearts and minds. When we intentionally pause to name those gifts, to retell the story, to celebrate the abundance we are more open to do the offering. A thankful heart is most often a generous heart.

AS we move into Thanksgiving weekend this year I encourage us all to remember. As we remember I encourage us to tell stories, talk about the gifts we have received. Then celebrate them. Be glad for the gifts, even sing  if you are so minded. Then open yourself to the next step -- sharing, making an offering. I want us to ask ourselves what 'first fruits' we might have to lay down before God, not just on Thanksgiving or in some sort of ritual but on a day-to-day basis. As I said above, we will be more open to identifying what we can share if our hearts are filled with a sense of abundance and a feeling of thankfulness.

When we forget to remember, when we don't tell ourselves the stories of gifts received we can more easily fall prey to the ongoing claxon telling us there is not enough. We miss the abundance. Worry or jealousy take the place of gratitude. In that place there is little celebrating, little impulse to be generous.

THe choice, in the end, is ours. What will we choose to remember? What will we choose to see? Will we be generous and thankful?
--Gord

Looking Ahead to October 5, 2025 --Worldwide Communion Sunday

As this is the first Sunday of the month it is our monthly day to highlight our Local Outreach Fund, the designated gifts which allow us to support our neighbours here in Grande Prairie.

Also as it is the first Sunday of the month we will be celebrating the sacrament of Communion this week.

Oh and it is the beginning of Thanktober, so our Tree of Thanks will be up and ready for folk to hang some leaves.

For Worldwide Communion Sunday this year we will be reading John 6:5-14, 35, 48-51 which is from the "Bread of Life Discourse".

The Sermon title is Daily Bread, Daily Thanks.

Early Thoughts: It is one of the most basic of foods. Ground grain, water, a little salt, usually some sort of leavening agent.... bread.

Bread has long been a staple food.  It is energy dense. When made with whole grains it provides a variety of nutrients. It is fairly easy to make.  Here is a list of links about bread as a staple food. Many communities would have had large bread ovens either for communal use or the earliest commercial bakeries.  Bread is a big deal!

In the sixth chapter of John's Gospel we hear a lot about bread. First we have the feeding of thousands with five loaves and two fish --staples that turn a hungry crowd into a giant picnic, with leftovers to boot. Then Jesus spends almost 40 verses talking about the bread of heaven. Twice in this discourse Jesus describes himself as the Bread of Life, and then also the living bread that comes from heaven.

Jesus, in this passage, links himself with a daily staple, a basic part of life. Jesus is part of maintaining life, and that in abundance.

Sometimes I think we might take bread for granted. It is a danger for those of us who seldom have to worry about it being there. At most when we think about bread it is more "what kind of bread do I prefer?" (white, whole wheat, sourdough, naan...). But what does it mean when we pray "Give us this day our daily bread"? What does it mean to stop and give thanks for that daily bread?

AS we enter into October, the month when we will celebrate Thanksgiving, I invite us all to reflect on this common staple food.  Why are we thankful for bread? I also invite us to consider what it means to give thanks daily, to look for things that make us thankful on a daily basis. How might that feed our souls?

AS we gather at the table of faith I invite us to consider what it means to hold up a loaf and say "the body of Christ, broken for you. What does it mean to consider Jesus as the bread of life, broken and shared? How are we fed at the table, how are we fed by Jesus' presence in our lives?

--Gord

Looking Ahead to September 28, 2025 -- Truth and Reconciliation Sunday

AS this is the Sunday before Orange Shirt Day (September 30th) we encourage everyone to wear an Orange Shirt to worship.

The Scripture Readings this week are:

• Psalm 24:1-2
• Jeremiah 32:6-15

The Sermon title is This Land is...Whose?

Early Thoughts: Who owns the land? Who benefits from the land? Who is denied benefits from the land?

 This  passage from Jeremiah comes just before Jerusalem is about to fall. As an act of faith and trust in the future Jeremiah is told to buy  a piece of land.  Realistically the timing makes no sense -- why buy land just before everything gets destroyed, what use is a title deed when the whole land is now in the hands of an invader? But the land is bought to remind the people that in the end the land will be theirs again. Some might see it as a claim that when push comes to shove the land will always belong to the people of Israel/Judah.

Several centuries later we can see that this claim of perpetual ownership can lead to a very difficult reality....

For most of human history land has been the basis of wealth and well-being. Only when we have control over the land can we have control over the economy, control over the people, control over our lives. The people who control the land can control how it is used, who gets to live where, and (especially in the last century in Alberta) who profits from the resources that lie under the surface.

But there is another claim in Scripture. Even in the same tradition that talks about a Promised Land and a Chosen People there is another perspective.  There is a perspective that says the earth is God's. If the earth (and all that is in it) is God's then maybe we should change how we talk about ownership and rights to use and rights to make decisions. Maybe.

This Sunday is 2 days before Canada's National Day for Truth and Reconciliation. There are lots of thins we could talk about when it comes to seeking truth about our history. There are lots of things that might go into finding reconciliation. (Personally I think we have much to learn from the Jewish teaching on repentance as laid out in this book by Rabbi Danya Ruttenberg as we do that work.) The question of the land, and the treaties that were made to help us share (or help colonizers steal depending on one's point of view) the land is a big one.

Each week in worship we have a Land/Treaty Acknowledgement, Such things are becoming increasingly common (or perhaps even an expectation) at many/most public events in Canada by now. Which is a bit surprising because it really wasn't that long ago that they were a "do we really need to do that?" thing in many minds. Why do we do that?  How does it help us along the road to truth and reconciliation, to building right-relations? Or does it even do that, is it more performative, a meaningless gesture when not backed up by action?

Whose land is this anyway? Does it belong to us, to our ancestors, to our descendants (7 generations on perhaps?) or does it properly belong to God/Creator/Great Spirit?

I have sat with people who are deeply troubled by issues of land and treaty. Sometimes they have been troubled because of a feeling that the colonial negotiators negotiated in bad faith, that it really was a land grab. Sometimes they are troubled because they feel that the Indigenous folk are asking too much or are given too much (one I can remember clearly was about the issue of mineral rights).

I, like many of you reading, have read many stories about land claims and treaty discussions. Sometimes about lands they were not actually released through treaties. Sometimes about reservation lands that were later found to be valuable and so acquired (not always fairly) from the First Nation that had them. Sometimes about who gets to profit/benefit from the minerals (thinking most recently of mining in Northern Ontario) the land holds. Sometimes about pipelines crossing those lands. So many stories, so much heated discussion. Some of them are big stories like the Oka crisis almost 35 years ago or the long saga of the Lubicon Cree here in Alberta. Some of them hardly make the news.

Whose land is this anyway? Who has the 'best' claim on it and its riches?.  Jeremiah makes us think it can be bought and that gives the best claim. Some stories of the treaty making process name that the Indigenous negotiator knew the land was not theirs to give away. Psalm 24 says that whatever rules or agreements we might make in the end all of it belongs to God. Whose is it? Who gets to control it?

As we live seeking reconciliation, as we seek a renewal of the relationships between those who were here, those who came after and those who will come in the future we need to look hard at how we share the land. Control of the land is power and wealth. I am not at all convinced the current model is working. What might be a new one?
--Gord

Looking Forward to September 21, 2025 -- Creation 3

The Scripture Reading this week is Psalm 104:10-28

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The Sermon title is God's Great Web

Early Thoughts: Touch one strand and another vibrates. Tear open one section and the whole structure is weakened. 

This is not only true about the spider web, it is true of a much bigger web, a web of which we are all a part. In the masterful weaving of God's creation we are all attached, all interconnected, What we do impacts every thing else. We forget these links at our own peril.

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As I was typing that paragraph I reminded myself of something called the Butterfly effect. In Chaos theory the Butterfly effect reminds us that seemingly minor things can have massive impacts. The most well known formulation is to suggest that a butterfly flapping its wings in one area can spawn a tornado hundreds or thousands of miles away. That might seem a little outlandish but the fact remains that given the interconnectedness of life, the universe, and everything, we can not be sure what ripples our actions might have. If we take seriously our call to live with respect in creation then we have to think about all the impacts our choices might have.

It is possible to read the Creation stories in Genesis 1 and 2 and decide that creation is there to serve humanity. Form much of human history we appear to have lived with that impression, that human needs/wants are of first importance and the impacts on the world are secondary. Some cultures are more guilty of this than others, with industrialized Western European and North American arguably being the worst of the lot. I am not sure that is a good reading of the Creation accounts, particularly Genesis 1 where humanity is created last and everything created before us is called good in and of its own accord. Then a passage like Psalm 104 comes up and reminds us that is really is not about us.

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These verses from Psalm 104 remind me that God is out there caring for all of creation, the entire web. We humans are, in the grand sweep of billions of years, a tiny point on that web. We have punched above our weight so to speak. We have made an impact that has helped to reshape the earth, the climate, the creation itself. We may have forgotten that it may not actually be all about us.

AS a part of the web, and remembering that when one strand vibrates everything else feels is we may want to ask what vibrations we are creating. Remembering that the stone falling into a lake can, if the ripples are big enough, flood the far shore we might stop to ask what is at risk way over there. Remembering that if part of the web is damaged or destroyed the strength of the whole thing is impacted we might remember we have a duty to help keep the web strong and resilient.

I think it is what we mean when we say that we are called to live with respect in creation...
--Gord

Looking Forward to September 14, 2025 -- Creation 2

The Scripture Readings this week are:

• Genesis 2:4-6, 10-14
• Ezekiel 47:1-12
• Revelation 22:1-2

The Sermon title is Water of Creation, Water of Life

Where the River Goes

Early Thoughts: Where there is water there is life.

Many of the world's cities are established near bodies of fresh water, even coastal cities are often along a river heading out to the sea. If you were establishing a settlement out in a dry area one of the first tasks would be to dig a well or some other reliable source of water. All land animals need to have access to water if they are to survive. And then the bodies of water themselves are teeming with life, from micro-organisms to complex animals and plants. 

Where there is water there is life.

Our faith story knows this to be true. The beginning of creation (according to Genesis 2) is the rising of a stream that would water the ground. In our other creation story (Genesis 1) water is present from the beginning and land is created from it -- interestingly many North American Indigenous stories of creation also have water at the beginning with land coming out of it, often on the back of a giant turtle.

Where there is water there is life.

All three of our passages this week remind us of this basic fact. All three talk about the river of life. So do our hymns for this Sunday. As we consider how humanity is going to share this earth with the rest of God's creation we must give consideration to water.

How do we take water for granted? How do we give it honour? How do we care for the river(s) of life?

Some predict that access to water is going to be (or is already becoming) a key issue in international relations. Remember Donald Trump ranting about the big tap that Canada could turn and send water down to the US instead of 'wastefully' letting it flow into the Pacific?  (Just to be clear there is no such tap and watersheds are complex things). As we move forward into a changing climate, where precipitation patterns are already changing, how do we support the river of life -- or at least get out of the way so it can thrive?

Life, we have long been told, first came out of the water. Both faith and science say this is so. Clean fresh water is mandatory for most plants and animals to exist (some actually live better in brackish water).As part of God's Creation, as people who claim to be called to "live with respect in Creation " (as A New Creed has said for 30 year), what is our duty to the water of life?
--Gord

Looking Forward to September 7, 2025 -- Creation 1

AS this is the first Sunday of a new month we will be celebrating Communion this week. It is also a day when we encourage people to consider making a dedicated donation to our Local Outreach Fund.

For the first 3 Sundays of September this year we will be marking Creation Time, a season where we reflect on the world around us and our place in it.

The Scripture Readings this week are:

• Jeremiah 18:1-6 
• Psalm 139:13-16 
•  Genesis 2:7-9

The Sermon title is Made of Clay, Shaped by God

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Early Thoughts: Lumps of mud, is that what we are? According to Genesis yes, that is what we are. We are formed from the dust of the ground. Now many people will point out that the only reason life is possible on Earth is because of particles, elements, 'stuff' that fell to the surface from the outer reaches of a forming universe that dust from which we were formed is in fact stardust but the fact remains we are, according to our faith story, bits of mud and dust with the breath of life blown into us.

At the same time the story tells us that we are shaped by God. Psalm 139 echoes this claim, this statement of faith. We are formed from the earth but formed with intention. We are linked to the rest of creation and linked to the one who forms us 

ANd also the one who continually re-forms and re-shapes us.

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The Jeremiah passage is about the nation. There is no doubt about that. In its literary setting, in its words it is talking about the nation being re-shaped and re-formed because it is not what the maker wanted it to be. However I think it works for individuals as well.

I think that we are (possibly) malleable lumps of clay, ready to be re-worked. The God who first formed and shaped us is constantly working on us (I remember t-shirts that used to read "Be Patient with Me---God Ain't Finished With Me Yet") to bring us more into harmony with God's vision for who we and the world in which we live could be.

In this Season of Creation I think there is great value in reminding ourselves that we are formed from the same stuff as the rest of Creation. It helps keep us humble and it reminds us that we are inextricably linked to the world around us. We forget that link at our own peril.

In this Season of Creation, and the rest of the year too, there is great value in remembering that we are formed by the Potter (in God's image as the other Creation story tells us). This brings a sacred aspect to our very existence. It calls us to live into that sacredness.

Living in a world the humanity has not always served well, a creation where humanity has often been a poor steward of what was placed in our care it is good to remember that the Potter continues to reshape the vessel. This can be a great source of hope.

What does it mean to you to be told that you are made of clay? What does it mean to be told you are shaped by God? How do those things change who you see yourself as a part of God's Creation?
--Gord

FAll Newsletter

 What do these things have in common???

• You are in a hurry, running late for an important meeting and somebody is driving really slow in front of you. You run out of patience and want to lean on the horn.

• Your favourite football player announces he is engaged to some singer (or maybe favourite singer engaged to some football player?) and in your excitement you want to scream and dance.

• Scrolling through Facebook one day you see a post from someone in your extended family that seems pretty racist. Do you bother to engage and offer a different point of view?

• With a deep sigh you read the news and discover that yet another government announcement has come out with an idea that you find so aggravating you want to throw your phone against the wall.

• A close friend gives you wonderful news but then says “don’t tell anybody else”. You are so happy for them you can barely keep it in.

• Your young child is insisting “me do!” but it is taking forever and the mess keeps growing...

The common thread? All are opportunities to practice the virtue of self-control. I am sure that given a chance you could think of a multitude of other examples when that opportunity has passed your way.

I am also sure that, like me, you can admit that your record of embracing the chance for self-control is mixed at best.

Paul lists self-control as one of the flavours of the Fruit of the Spirit. In some ways I think this is one of the most challenging, and judging from some of Paul’s letters (looking at you Corinth) I suspect Paul found that many people had issues with self-control as well. In fact when I think of Paul’s lament in Romans 7:19 “For I do not do the good I want but the evil I do not want is what I do” I suspect Paul found himself struggling with self-control from time to time.

Why is self-control an important part of living out our faith? I mean I can see why it is important for keeping us employed, or married, or out of jail but where does faith tie in? In a world where, more and more, we are encouraged to “just be yourself” why not just do that?

I think it is an act of love, the predominant flavour of the Fruit of the Spirit. Practising self-control is about pausing and asking ourselves if our automatic reaction is the most helpful, the most encouraging, the most appropriate, the most loving. We may end up doing that thing anyway, self-control does not automatically mean self-denial, but at least we have stopped to reflect on our actions and made a conscious choice. We may even find that we are moved to a more constructive action than our initial knee-jerk response.

I encourage all of us to think before we act. I encourage all of us to ask if what we are about to do or say will help accomplish the building of a loving community or will it just tick people off. Will we make a difference or just blow off steam (and if the latter will it hurt someone else in the process)? Is this event so important that we have to respond? What might the Jesus we meet in the Gospels encourage us to do in this circumstance?

In everything we do, in every situation we face, we are called to act lovingly, to love our neighbour, enemy, family member and friend. Over and over in life we are challenged to keep what is truly important in view and not be distracted by the shiny or the loud. Self-control helps us to do just that. We won’t always get it right, but we are encouraged, challenged, called to keep trying.

But I have to admit that sometimes those knee-jerk reactions (however unhelpful or immature they may be) do feel really good – in the moment. Sometimes what feels good is not what is right. May God help us all to know which is which.
--Gord

Looking Forward to August 31, 2025 -- Labour Day Weekend

The Scripture Readings this week are:

• Deuteronomy 5:12-1
•  Matthew 20:1-15

The Sermon title is Labour Justice

Early Thoughts: What does justice in the working world look like? How can we raise it up as a real way of being? Does the witness of our faith have a role in discussions about labour and justice and compensation?

FOund on Facebook

The readings this week address two facets of this multi-faceted issue. One reminds us that everyone needs time to rest, that nobody should be required to be "on" all the time. The other raises the question of what is a fair way to pay people.

Let's start with Deuteronomy. There are in fact two versions of what we like to call the 10 Commandments (the Hebrew text does not actually call them that, it is a matter of tradition). One in Exodus and another in Deuteronomy. In Exodus the commandment to keep Sabbath is based on the hymn of Creation in Genesis 1 and we are to rest on the 7th day because God also rested on the 7th day. Here in Deuteronomy we are told that we are to rest to remind ourselves that we are not slaves. In both cases the commandment is clear -- not just select people are to take a day of rest, everybody (even foreigners and slaves) is entitled to a day of rest.

It has been said that this commandment is the one people often seem proud of violating. Certainly there are some people who seem to want to brag (even if they phrase it as complaint) about how long it has been since they took a day off, or how they never use their vacation time. However I think that such complaints/bragging misses the point. It is not healthy to work all the time. It is not a sign of how important we are or how strong we are. It is a sing of an imbalance in our world.

More to the point from a justice perspective though are those people who are not able to take a day off. The ones who have to work multiple jobs just to break even and so they juggle shifts and end up with one every day -- and then there is finding time to do the rest of the labour that goes into maintaining a life (laundry, eating, childcare...). This justice question is specifically raised when we remember that one of the reasons Scripture tells us to take a day of rest (by which it means a day of rest, not just a day when you don't have to go to work so you can spend the whole day doing household labour) is that the people are no longer slaves like their forebears were. Labour justice, according to Scripture, mandates that people have a chance to rest.

Then we have the parable of the day labourers in the vineyard. To be a day labourer is to be in a very tenuous position. If you don't get work that day how will you eat? That was true in 1st Century Palestine. It is true in 21st Century Canada.

The landowner in this parable has always fascinated me. Why does he keep going out to get more workers rather than hiring more in the morning? And more importantly why does he pay everybody, the ones hired at daybreak and the ones hired just before closing, the same?

What he pays them is the going rate for a day labourer, the amount needed to live that day. This landowner is ensuring that everybody he came into contact with that day got was they needed for basic necessities. Today some would accuse him of being Marxist or communist. Or they might call him an idealistic fool. 

When Jesus tells parables he is teaching a little bit about what the Kingdom/Reign of God is like. In this case Jesus is suggesting that in the Kingdom/Reign of God everybody gets what they need, everybody's basic needs are met. At first glance it seems totally unjust. Surely justice means that the longer/harder you work the more you make. Everybody knows that right? Those people who worked all day were not treated fairly...

Maybe it depends what we mean by justice and fairness. Jesus tends to turn some of our common sense and traditional understandings on their head.

This weekend we in North America mark Labour Day, a day when traditionally we are encouraged to remember the way the Labour Union movement has changed how our economic system works. Of course in Alberta we are also marking Alberta Day since Alberta and Saskatchewan officially became provinces on September 1, 1905. As with many many other things the church has a divided history when it comes to labour unions and the changes they have called for in society. It has not always been clear where the church does (or could or should) stand.

My reading of Scripture and my grounding in the Christian tradition lead me to insist that we in the church need to take a stand on those things that increase justice in the world. That means we have to at least talk about questions around  Labour Justice. We need to talk about how we ensure everybody gets basic needs met (personally I am in favor of the idea of a Guaranteed Annual Income). As it happens this will also help us ensure that everybody has the opportunity for a day of rest each week (along with some vacation time for a longer rest and revitalization). It means we need to speak out when some parts of the workforce appear to be taken advantage of. It means we need to talk about how we define justice and fairness.

HOw do you think we as the church can speak up for a must just and fair world?
--Gord

Looking Forward to August 24, 2025 -- 11th Sunday After Pentecost

The Scripture Reading for this week is Luke 13:10-17

The Sermon title is Stand Up Straight!!

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Early Thoughts: What bends you over? What bends your neighbour over? What keeps all of God's children from being able to stand up straight and tall in freedom and health?

I don't think this is (only) a story about someone's posture....

I mean if you read it in one way it is certainly about posture, about maybe a spinal issue, about a physical malady. But the story itself opens up different possibilities.

When we meet the woman we are told she has "a spirit that had crippled her for eighteen years. She was bent over and was quite unable to stand up straight". That sounds like more than a simple, if chronic, physical ailment. It sounds like something weighing her down. I have never had good posture (despite my father constantly telling me to stand up straight while I was growing up). Over the years I have often wondered why that is, what kept me from standing up straight to the point that my body was trained into a different shape -- was it laziness, weak muscles, or was there something else at play. This woman has something that is weighing her down, bending her over.

Then later, when Jesus confronts the people who are indignant that he has healed her (done work) on the Sabbath he puts it this way: "ought not this woman, a daughter of Abraham whom Satan bound for eighteen long years, be set free from this bondage". Obviously Jesus sees this as more than a highly troubling physical ailment. Jesus, who has come to bring freedom and liberation from bondage and oppression, sees a woman who has been bound and chooses to set her free. This is not just a story about a physical healing

So what binds you up? What bends you over? What weighs you down physically, mentally, emotionally, spiritually? (Remembering that a holistic approach to health would mean that being weighed down in one area impacts all the others). From what do you need Jesus to set you free?

Jesus, the Risen and Living Christ, continues to bring healing, liberation, and freedom to God's beloved people. Sometimes we may not even realize how badly bent over (literally or metaphorically, how strongly we have been bound until we are set free and allowed to stand up straight. Sometimes it is only after being set free that we can name what had been binding us. Sometime we get so used to being bound up and bent over that we think it is simply normal (I wonder if the woman in our story had some of that, I wonder how she saw the world differently before and after meeting Jesus that Sabbath day). Can we let Jesus set us free? Can we take the chance to stand up straight?

That is all wonderful and life-giving. It is great to remember that Jesus offers us freedom and healing. But I think there is a next step we need to take. As a part of the freedom and healing we find in Jesus we are told/encouraged/challenged to worry about the well-being of our neighbours. The Reign/Kingdom of God that Jesus announces is one where all people have what they need for life, abundant life. So when it comes to this story it is not enough to worry about what binds us up. We also have a duty to ask what binds up and bends over our neighbours. We have a duty to look critically and ask if there are choices we make that may bind up our neighbours and keep them from standing up straight.

So how can we help set our neighbours free? How can we help take away the weight that is keeping them bent over? How have we possibly contributed to that weight?

Jesus comes to help us all stand up straight. Jesus challenges us to be part of the forces that bring healing and freedom to the world. May God help up accept healing. May God help us bring freedom to our neighbours (possibly at some cost to ourselves).
--Gord

Looking Ahead to July 13, 2025 -- 5th Sunday After Pentecost, Proper 10C

The Scripture Readings for this week are:

• Amos 7:1-17
• Luke 10:25-37

The Sermon title is How Do You Measure?

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Early Thoughts: Are you plumb and level? Or are you maybe a little bit off-kilter? What is it that has pulled you away from being plumb or 'true'?

It happens. Even the best built building may have had perfectly level walls and floors at first but over time things settle and start to change. (Not that anyone familiar with our church building might know something about buildings shifting and changing). Sometimes the variance is minor, easily covered up. Sometimes it requires major work in a short time to keep the wall from collapsing. And sometimes it starts minor but over time becomes a major flaw.

Amos has a vision where God says that the nation of Israel (the Northern Kingdom) is going to be measured with a plumb line. Has the nation remained true or have they started to fall away (spoiler alert---the next line foretells their destruction so guess how the measuring goes). 

Just like walls can start plumb and true but time can make them start to swerve, so it is with individuals and communities. Sometimes we don't even notice how we have started to swerve, it happens slowly and gradually until suddenly we realize we have lost our way, that we don't feel anchored or stable anymore. Sometimes there is a seismic event and the foundation feels like it has been pulled out from under us and things collapse in a heap.

But what scale do we use to measure? What is the marker of being in or out of plumb?

I think there are a variety of scales used to make that measurement in the world today. And some of those scales say different things, push us to different ways of thinking, lead to very different results. Often to be true to one set of measures means we are seen as out of kilter, a little cock-eyed, or downright out-of-whack by others.

However for those of us who seek to live in The Way of Jesus there is one over-arching measurement that we are called to use. The plumb line, chalk line, level that we need to use the measure our lives is summed up in one word. Can you guess what it is?

Love. Jesus sums up his tradition, the Law and the Prophets, by calling his friends to love God with all their being and to love their neighbours as they love themselves. Love is the scale by which we measure ourselves. Love is the foundation that keeps us steady. When we fail to act lovingly we are out of plumb, we are un-level, we are no longer being true to who we are called to be.

How do we measure up? When the plumb line of love is held up to our communities where do we start to move away from the line? Is that variance because we have lost sight of the goal or is it because some other plumb line tells us to act in a way that goes against what is truly loving? Which measurement scale are we giving preference to?

Measurement and judgment are a part of life. We measure and judge each other, ourselves, our governments, our communities -- sometimes intentionally and sometimes unconsciously -- on an almost daily basis. The real question is about what scale we use, what criteria we use. God calls us to use Love as the pre-eminent scale and criterion. WE measure our lives by love.

HOw do we do?
--Gord

Edit to add:
Just after I hit publish I started thinking about how I will do Children's Time this week with a plumb bob and a chalk line as props. It occurred to me that a plumb bob only works properly if nothing catches on the string to keep it from hanging freely. Gravity will pull it straight down unless something pulls it to one side. Same thing with a chalk line. With no obstacles between two points it will make a sharp straight line but if there is an obstacle the line will shift. So maybe one of the questions we might ask is what pulls us out of the true line? What is catching our string to keep us from being level and straight?

Looking Ahead to July 6, 2025 -- 4th Sunday after Pentecost, Proper 9C

This week we will read some challenging words from Jesus as recounted in Luke 9:57-10:11

The Sermon is called Give Up What?!?

Early Thoughts:  What could you not give up? What would be too much to ask?

Jesus sometimes asks hard things. Jesus sometimes pushes us to a difficult place. Jesus pushes us to think about what is the highest priority.

SOurce

How many of us would find the requests made to bury a parent or go and say farewell to be totally reasonable? Most of us I think. But Jesus tells those people that that is not what he is calling people to.

How many of, when being sent out on a mission would think that the reasonable thing to do is plan what the bare necessities that we have to take are? Jesus tells his friends to take nothing, to be totally reliant on the kindness of strangers, to be incredibly vulnerable.

Where in this string of instructions might you choose to tap out?

IS this where Jesus continues to call us?  Does Jesus continue to call us to not do things that seem really important as we choose to follow his path? Does Jesus continue to send us out into the world vulnerable and seemingly unprepared, like lambs in the midst of wolves? (which sounds an awful lot like lambs prepared for the slaughter when I think of it).

From Agnus DAy

What if the answer is yes?

What things might we have to leave behind because they get in the way of our expectation of how the Way of Christ should/could/would look? And of course then the real question becomes the one I asked above -- what is too much to ask/what can you  or we not give up?

• Security? 
• Financial well-being? 
• The comfort of the known and familiar? 
• Assurance of success (however we define that) or even survival?

I truly believe that the church, the community of the faithful, the followers of Christ need to take these questions very seriously as we move forward. As an institution we have not become really good at risk-taking. As a group we have tended to preference the comfortable place. In more than one congregation the response to financial and human resources dwindling has been a call to do what ever is needed to ensure survival (I once had someone honest enough to say "at least until after my funeral"). But Jesus calls us to not worry about survival or even success(again however we might define that). Jesus challenges us to leave behind those things that might bring comfort and live on trust and faith.

THe way forward is to worry about being faithful and proclaiming the Good New. We don't get there by worrying about survival as a first priority. We don't get there by playing it safe. We don't get there without letting go of some things, even some things we REALLY LOVE.

Can we do that?  I'll be honest enough to say that some days it sounds terrifying to me. Then again, Jesus does not ask us to do it alone. We do it with a partner, with a community, as partners in the project. That might make it a little less scary.
--Gord

Looking Ahead to June 29, 2025 -- 3rd Sunday After Pentecost, Proper 8C

The Scripture Reading this week is Galatians 5:1-26

The Sermon title is Freedom!!

Source

Early Thoughts:"...tell our enemies that they may take our lives, but they'll never take our freedom" It has become one of the most well-known scenes in movie lore, the Scottish rebel/hero William Wallace spurring the Scots on to battle by reminding them that the path to freedom lies in defeating the English army of Edward I. Later, as the movie draws to a close, as he is being hanged, drawn, and quartered, the last work that Wallace speaks is "freedom".

Or another image from an earlier show...
In the Star Trek (Original Series) episode The Omega Glory (which I learned this morning was one of the first episodes Gene Roddenberry wrote for the series) Kirk, Spock, and McCoy find themselves on a planet locked in a violent conflict between the Yangs and the Kohms, being held prisoner by the Kohms. Kirk uses the word freedom and one of the Yang prisoners is both surprised and offended because the stranger has used one of their sacred words -- "that is a worship word". Yes the episode goes on to glorify the US ideals and understanding of freedom and independence but that line has always stuck with me --freedom is a worship word.

In the Gospel of Luke the first public act Jesus performs after returning from his time of trial in the wilderness is to read in the synagogue. He reads from the prophet Isaiah saying:

“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,
because he has anointed me
to bring good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives
and recovery of sight to the blind,
to set free those who are oppressed,
to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”

The work of Jesus is to bring freedom, to set people free. Many of the miracles we see Jesus performing, particularly the exorcisms, are about setting people free. One of my favourite healing stories in the Gospels is also found in Luke (chapter 13) where Jesus heals a woman who has been crippled, unable to stand up, for 18 years. As she is healed Jesus tells her she is set free from her ailment. A few verses later Jesus says "..ought not this woman...whom Satan bound for eighteen long years, be set free from this bondage..."

Freedom is a worship word for us too. We are set free from those things that bind us, that keep us from being who God created us to be.

How can we best use that freedom? How might we misuse that freedom?

The answer to the second question is Legion. to try to explicate all of them would take far too long. Let it suffice to say that we just need to look around the world to see the consequences of freedom misused and abused.

The first question is a bit more nuanced. And for that I turn to Paul, who seems to be reminding the Galatians (and us) that freedom doesn't mean everything is good. In his 1st Letter to the Corinthians Paul says (twice) that all things are permitted [in the freedom we have in Christ] but not all things are beneficial. For Paul the question of how we live out our freedom is essential. If we are no longer bound by the Law (in a religious sense that is) then how do we guide our behaviour? In 1st Corinthians Paul raises the ethic of those things that build up the community and the members thereof. Here in Galatians Paul phrases it in terms of the commandment to love your neighbour as you love yourself. Paul repeatedly tells us not to let ourselves be enslaved or dominated by some external yoke but here suggests that we should be enslaved to each other through the commandment to love.

This Sunday is the Sunday before both Canada Day and Independence Day with Bastille Day just a couple of weeks away. All three are national days that celebrate the coming of a new way of being, sometimes peacefully through law and sometimes through rebellion or riot. It is also 10 days after Juneteenth, as day when the news of the Emancipation Proclamation finally spread through all the Southern States at the end of the Civil War. These are days when freedom is talked about a LOT. What do we mean by freedom on those days? Is it the same as the freedom offered to us by God through Jesus Christ?

We are free. We are free to make choices. We are free to act. We are also subject to the consequences of our actions -- freedom never means that there are not consequences. We can use this freedom to build our own little empires, to do things that benefit us at the cost to our neighbours. OR we can use this freedom to build up the community, to bring hope instead of despair, to seek liberty and Good News for those at the margins, to spread love and justice around. We can use our freedom to, as Paul might put it, live by the flesh. Or we can use our freedom to live by the Spirit, to seek to have the fruit of the Spirit flow through us.

From ChatGPT

Our freedom is limited because while all things are permitted not all things are beneficial. May God help us use our freedom wisely, profitably, lovingly and justly.

--Gord

Looking Ahead to June 22, 2025 -- 2nd Sunday After Pentecost, Proper 7C

The Scripture Reading this week is 1 Kings 19:1-14.

The Sermon title is Eat, Sleep, Listen

Early Thoughts: When the world falls apart, when everyone is out to get you, when you are starting to panic what do you do?

In the pre-story to this week's reading Elijah has made some very powerful enemies. And now the queen wants to kill him (in revenge for Elijah first embarrassing and the slaughtering the prophets of Ba'al) so he is on the run.

Elijah, it seems, has lost hope. He thinks it would be just as well that God takes him from the earth right now. But God, it seems, disagrees. God reminds Elijah to take care of himself, to eat and drink (God provides the food and water)  and allows Elijah to sleep. This combination of sleep and sustenance revives Elijah and he continues on his way. Never underestimate the power of taking care of yourself in the middle of a crisis.

Elijah in the Desert

Then Elijah is ready for the next step. He is ready to talk with God about his situation and is told that God is about to appear.

First a great wind. Then and earthquake. Then Fire. Chaos and calamity abound. But God is not (at this time) in the chaos and calamity). When God comes by as promised He is found in the "sound of sheer silence". So maybe Simon & Garfunkel were right to tell us the the words of the prophets are whispered...in the sounds... of silence?

Elijah could have given up in the wilderness, could have succumbed to his panic and fear and died.

Elijah could have assumed that God was there in the chaos, in the wind or fire or earthquake. After all it would hardly be the first time in our faith story that this is how God is revealed.

But he did neither of those things. He trusted in God in the wilderness and survived the journey. He had the wisdom and discernment to know when God was truly present and then went out to meet Her. And then Elijah is honest with Them about what is happening, laying it all on the table so God can respond.

Then comes the (or another) important part. God hears Elijah's complaint  and in the verses immediately following this reading God sends Elijah back to continue the work. When we deal with the chaos and tumult of life healthily we are then able to go back out and continue the work. It is not always about escaping the chaos, it may not even usually be about escaping the chaos (sometimes it is though).

What do we do when our world falls apart? What is our response to crisis? Do we give up? Do we panic and make hasty decisions? Do we remember to take care of the basics? Do we embrace the chaos? Or do we respond with trust and wait for God to arrive so we can voice our laments, our fears, our worries? What prepares us to keep up the good fight, to make good trouble, to join in the mending of the world?

I know what I do. It leads to sleepless nights and a lot of stress -- and an overly large consumption of chocolate.. Maybe I need to find a better answer.

What about you?
--Gord

Looking Ahead to June 15, 2025 -- Affirmaversary

 

The Scripture Readings this week are:

• Romans 5:1-5 
• John 16:12-15 
•  Acts 11:1-12

The Sermon title is D.E.I. is Missio Dei

Early Thoughts: As I sit here trying to start this week I don't even know where to begin. The deluge of news from south of the 49th Parallel is so unaffirming, so uninclusive, so unwelcoming. Where is the vision of strength in diversity?

This week we mark the 2nd Anniversary of St. Paul's officially becoming and Affirming Ministry. The Affirming process is started around and really is aimed at questions around sexuality and gender but to really be a "Come As You Are" church, to really be welcoming and affirming of all we have to go farther than gender and sexuality. God has created a world with incredible diversity. God wants us to embrace that reality -- not live in our own silos where "like will to like".

Since the beginning of the current Trump Administration we have heard a lot about the 'evils' of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (D.E.I.) as a somethin that shapes policy [arguably we have heard a lot about the supposed evils of D.E.I and early things like Affirmative Action for many many years but those voices were given amplification and power since January this year]. There is a lot of rhetoric about how D.E.I. is supposedly harmful or weakens the society. Many of us find it a poor cover for racism, sexism, ableism and so on.

But there is a deeper theological issue for me. As I said above God created a world with great diversity. When we want to limit that diversity, when we want to ensure only the 'right' parts of that diversity get power and wealth and privilege are we not acting against God's dream, God's vision for the world?

At the end of May I attended the Northern Spirit Regional Council Annual Meeting. At that meeting I was re-introduced to a couple of concepts. One was the idea of Ubuntu. Ubuntu comes from the Bantu languages and translates to Humanity. As a philosophy it reminds us that we need to care each other because our individual well-being is tied to the well-being of those around us. The other was a traditional Masai greeting: "And How Are the Children?". This greeting reminds us to care for the future, to worry about the well-being of the weaker among us. It, as the article I just linked puts it, makes us check its ethical compass. The traditional response is "All the Children are Well", meaning that things are stable.

In a world where lifting up diversity is seen as a problem, a world where striving for equity is bad, a world where only those who fit in get included could we honestly answer "all the children are well"?

D.E.I. is an acronym. Dei is a word, a Latin word. It means God. More than a few of my colleagues pointed that out as the President and DOGE were maligning, attacking and dismantling D.E.I. earlier this year. In both Jewish and Christian Scripture God makes it clear that God's hope for the world is a place where we can wholehearted share the Masai greeting--both parts. The Reign of God, that thing Jesus proclaimed over and over, is (I believe) a place where Ubuntu is a guiding principle. We might refer to it with words like "love your neighbour as you love yourself" or "by this shall all others know that you are my disciples, that you love on another" or "love your enemies". It expresses the same sort of commitment to care for the well-being of everyone.

IN a world where some of these philosophies are seen as problematic, or dangerous, or misguided we have a duty. We have a duty to proclaim the importance on D.E.I even when it is unpopular. We have a duty to speak out in protection of those at the margins. We have a duty to lift up a different way of being together. God calls us to do just that. May God help us to have the courage to do just that.
--Gord

Looking Ahead to June 8, 2025 -- Pentecost Sunday

This Sunday we will be doing something different. Worship will not be in the Sanctuary  but will be out at the Amphitheatre at Saskatoon Island Park. To allow for travel time the service will start at 10:30.  We will be celebrating Communion (once I figure out the logistics of how exactly we will do that).  As you can see in the picture, the Amphitheatre has benches. However if you prefer some back support while seated you might want to bring a lawnchair to use.

The Scripture Readings that will be used during the service are:

• Acts 2:14-18
• 1 Peter 2:4-7
• John 15:1-12

There will be two reflection times (and two Times for the Young at Heart) during our gathering. One will look at Rocks and one will reflect on Bubbles, the Northern Lights and the Holy Spirit.

#1 Living Stones and Cornerstones:

Pentecost is a day when we remember the Holy Spirit moving us forward. However we can only move forward when we know who we are and have a vision of who we are becoming. Often we can only lift the sail and allow the wind to blow us around when we are secure in where we have come from. So that leads me to rocks. Peter talks about living stones and the cornerstone. The cornerstone is that thing on which the rest is built. The living stones are the structure which carries forward.

For the church the cornerstone is the God we meet in Jesus Christ, the God who has been part of the world since the beginning, the God who pushes the world to act in new ways even when 'the world' rejects that path.

Jesus told a story about two builders. One built on sand and the other on stone. What is the stone, what are the rocks on which our church is built (and I don't mean the building)? 

#2 Lead, Spirit, Lead -- Into a New Future

This year the United Church of Canada turns 100. One of the tasks that comes with a significant anniversary is to remember, to look back at how we got here. One of the tasks is to look forward, to wonder where we might go next. The irony for the church is that we don't get to decide the answer to that question.

As we look into the future we can make intentional choices about how we will respond to current realities and trends. However the future of the church also relies on letting the untamed Spirit blow and lead us where God calls us to go. 

In the Narnia books by C.S. Lewis we are often reminded that Aslan is not a tame lion. Aslan does not respond to the wishes/demands of Aslan's people -- the people need to listen for Aslan's wisdom and follow where he leads. So it is with God, especially the God we meet in the Holy Spirit. Like bubbles bouncing on the wind or Northern Lights dancing across the sky the Holy Spirit blows where she wishes, sometimes really visible and sometimes hard to see.

How do we grow into this untamed wind? How do we set sail and let the Spirit carry us into the uncertain future?

To me part of the answer lies in the teaching of the vine and branches. The branches reach out, spreading where they can. Sometimes they get pruned to redirect their energy, sometimes they are allowed to run wild. But they grow and remain strong because of their attachment to the root. We need to be grounded in Christ, grounded in God in order to have the freedom to blow with the wind. We need to both have an anchor that holds in the storms of life and to feel the winds of God and lift our sails.

That is how we will continue to be the church into the future -- God being our helper.
--Gord

Looking Ahead to May 25, 2025 -- Marking a Century of the United Church

 The Scripture Readings this week are:

• Joshua 4:1-8
•  Psalm 127
• 1 Peter 2:4-7

The Sermon title is 100 Years of Faith, A National Dream

Early Thoughts: Something started early in the 20th century. A dream that had been nibbling at some hearts and minds since the last part of the 19th century started to grow legs. Serious talks began to happen about church union. Eventually (delayed by a number of things, including World War I) those talks coalesced into a new denomination, The United Church of Canada.

The Inaugural Service

After over 2 decades of labour the new church was born in a hockey arena -- the Mutual Street Arena in Toronto, precursor to Maple Leaf Gardens to be precise. Over the years many have commented that a hockey arena seems like an oddly appropriate place for a uniquely Canadian denomination to be born. Hopes were high for what this new creation might become as representatives of the Methodist church, the Presbyterians (well 2/3 of them, more on that in a bit), the Congregationalist church, and the Local Union churches came together in a worship service to solemnize the marriage [okay I may be mixing my metaphors here] and sign the documents to mark the Union.

One of the dreams of our founders was that this new national United Church (formed in part by an Act of Parliament) would become the "church with the soul of a nation". It was never imagined that it would be an official established church in the same way that church in Europe have been (and some still are). But it was envisioned that we would be a force helping to shape the course of national events, that it would hold a key role in Canadian society. For a while perhaps we were. That may or may not have been a good thing.

Over the last century the United Church has had many highpoints -- and many disruptive discussions. We have never been a denomination that has gotten along all the time. In fact the disruption began even before 1925. 1/3 of the congregations of the Presbyterian Church (mainly in Eastern Canada) chose to remain Presbyterian and opt out of this new thing that was being formed. All reports I have seen are that the discussions within Presbyterian circles were very heated. Even after that day in Toronto the new church and the continuing Presbyterians argued in court (largely over property matters) for many years before an agreement was reached. {Side note, we see some of that legacy here in Grande Prairie where  McQueen's Presbyterian voted to join the new Church (Alexander Forbes disagreed) but within a year or two a new Presbyterian congregation had formed. In discussion with George Malcolm I got the sense that the corporate memory of those years varies between the two congregations.}

• As a denomination we decided, after a long debate to ordain women. Though it took several decades after that to agree that women could serve in ordained ministry and be married.
• WE changed our understanding of divorce and remarriage --which actually led a number of divorced people in the 50's and 60's to get married in a United Church because their home denominations would not do that as we saw the world around us changing.
• We advocated for the Social Welfare state and have talked about social issues
• At a national level we launched a Sunday School Curriculum based on modern Biblical scholarship, one that challenged and/or denied things that many had taken as gospel truth about the Bible for their entire lifetimes.
• Starting in the 1970's we engaged in a LOOONG discussion/debate/argument about human sexuality. This eventually led to the 1988 General Council and the decision that sexual orientation, in and of itself, was not relevant to a call to ministry.
• We have created Hymn Books, and that means choosing what pieces get included and what gets excluded.

Every one of those things (and probably more than a few others) caused debate and angry words and (sometimes) fractured relationships. In Maybe One?, the play he wrote for the 75th Anniversary Scott Douglas has a character named Ms. Ernestine Curmudgeon who shows up repeatedly to rant and rave about the horrible decisions being made.

It has not always been a smooth century.

SO where are we now?

I don't think we still see ourselves as the 'church with the soul of a nation'. I think we know that we no longer have as central a role in Canadian society as we once dreamed we would. We know that we are smaller. We know that we are different. I am 3rd generation United Church. My Paternal grandparents became part of this new thing when the Presbyterian church in Simpson joined the Union. My parents were raised in this denomination. My sister and I grew up in Sunday School and Junior Choir. The church I grew up in was already different from the church my parents grew up in. The church in which I was ordained was different again. The church today is different again. We have changed in many ways (positive and negative many be a matter of perspective) and will continue to change and evolve and grow as the future marches on. But I believe that one of the threads of continuity that links all of the changes is that as a denomination we have consistently sought to be faithful to who we understand God is calling us to be.

Sometimes we got it right. Sometimes we got it terribly wrong. We have also had the courage to admit (in hindsight, and not always) when we got it wrong and offer words of apology as part of our growth and evolution.

We have grown in our understanding of how humanity is created in God's image. WE have (hopefully) grown in our ability to talk with people who are different than us.  We have gotten a bit more humble. Still we do our best to live in to the words of the New Creed: "We are called to be the church".

A century of faith. A century of experiment. A century of leaping ahead and falling back. A century of faith. WE remember and we are thankful (most of the time).
--Gord

More SUmmer Newsletter -- Centennial Thoughts

 A church with the soul of a nation. That was the dream of the founders, or at least one of the dreams of the founders of this thing we call the United Church of Canada.

100 years ago the hard work of negotiating, cajoling, debating and voting of many years came to fruition. A project that had been started before the Great War was finally seeing a product. Not a final product, that still is yet to be, but a product – a new denomination, a truly Canadian experiment, a church that would help guide the nation as it grew and developed. There was, in the hearts of its supporters and advocates, great joy and hope as they gathered at the Mutual Street Arena for the inaugural service.

There are many books and articles about our history as a denomination. There are many other stories that have been shared but not yet made it into a book. There are stories of times when we did seem to help shape the soul of the nation. There are stories about times when we became too much a part of the standard operating policies of the nation (Indian Residential Schools for example) when in hindsight we maybe should have stood stronger to shape that soul in a different way. There are stories of times we heard the Holy Spirit lead us into more inclusion and widening the circle and there are stories of times when we were afraid of the circle widening and fought against it – often on the same issues.

We have not been a perfect church. But I believe that we have grown and changed over the years.

The United Church that turns 100 this year is a wholly different church than the one that was birthed (after many years of gestation and hard labour) in the arena in Toronto in 1925. Then the hope was that we would be the mainstay of Protestantism in the nation, that we would be a national church helping to shape the nation. We would be at or near the center. Now we are much more out at the margins. We see our role of shaping the soul of the nation in different ways than assuming the Prime Minister would take a phone call from the Moderator and listen to his advice. But we are still here. We are still a voice (even if sometimes it feels like a voice in the wilderness) calling our neighbours to share the vision revealed in Scripture, the vision of a new heaven and a new earth.

Many months ago I sent out an e-mail asking if we wanted to host something big to mark the centennial. One response I got back was that people might find it depressing to remember the church that was once so vibrant shrinking so much. I have heard similar things expressed many times over the course of my ministry. We have had our ups and downs (though as a percentage of the Canadian population we have in fact been shrinking since the 1930’s) but we are still here. A prayer I wrote for the 85^th anniversary named that there were people wondering might be left for the 100^th. We are still here. Different, smaller, less powerful but still here. How will we continue to help shape our society going forward?

This morning (well this morning on the day I am writing this – not on the day the newsletter comes out) I was starting to create an image of how we would mark the centennial in worship. On May 25^th I am inviting us to look back at who we have been thus far, the good and the bad, the triumphs and the disasters, the celebrations and the divides. On June 8^th, Pentecost Sunday, as we gather at the amphitheater at Lake Saskatoon I am inviting us to listen for where the Holy Spirit might be leading us next.

How would you tell the story of the United Church in your life? What will we pass to the generations who follow us?

--Gord

Summer Newsletter Submission

 Faithfulness. What does that mean? How does one measure it?

I think faithfulness is one of those words where we just “know what it means” without giving it a lot of pause. We know it when we see it. We know when it has been violated.

For me faithfulness is closely linked with trust and trustworthiness. To be faithful is to show trust and also to keep trust. In fact I am sure that with out trust faithfulness becomes almost impossible. Without trust we are always hedging our bets, always making back-up plans, expecting to be disappointed, Nothing about that is faithfulness – unless the faith you have is that the other will disappoint/fail you.

In his book The Heart of Christianity the late Marcus Borg talks about faith as the way of the heart. He suggests that in the life of church people we sometimes think faith (as in making a faith statement) means giving intellectual assent to a statement or doctrine or dogma. This makes faith, and faithfulness, about how we think. Borg suggests, and I tend to agree, that this takes us in the wrong direction. At its heart, Christianity is an invitation to follow a way of living, not an invitation to subscribe to a particular set of philosophical statements. It is a matter of the heart more than a matter of the head.

When we trust in God we can be faithful. When we trust that God is with us faithfulness follows. It allows us to relax into the arms of God, not because we think God will make everything right but simply because we know those arms will always be there. We trust in God who is trustworthy so we can have faith.

Faithfulness as a matter of the heart also links, in my mind, with words like commitment, loyalty, and allegiance. Where we are faithful, where we put our faith and trust, shows where our true center is, it shows what pole we use to ground ourselves, what we orbit around. To be faithful to the God we meet in Jesus is to center ourselves on the teachings of Jesus, to ground ourselves in the promise of Resurrection life (and that in abundance). We are most faithful to those things and people that are most important to us. To be faithful is to be loyal and committed. When God, known as Parent, Son and Spirit, holds our primary allegiance then we can not help but remain faithful to The Way Jesus lays out, the path that he invites us to follow. When something or someone else claims our primary allegiance we fall prey to idolatry, we wander from the path. We have trouble being faithful.

So why is faithfulness one of the overtones of the fruit of the spirit whose main flavour is love? I can think of a couple of reasons. One is that it sustains us, the trusting in God sustains, comforts, and emboldens us. Maybe when we sink into faithfulness we sink into a more healthy place, a place where we can feel the abundant life promised by Jesus. The other reason is that it keeps us grounded. Being faithful reminds us what we orbit around, what the center of our circle is, what is most important. Both of these flow out of the knowledge (or trust or even faith) that we are Beloved children of God. And then they help us to be loving children of God to everyone we meet.

WE are people of Faith, Hope, and Love. We are challenged to be faithful in all things. May God help us live into that reality.

--Gord