Looking Ahead to February 9, 2025 -- 5th Sunday After Epiphany

The Scripture Readings this week are:

• Jeremiah 1:4-10 
• Isaiah 6:1-8 
• Luke 5:1-11

The Sermon title is Not ME!!!

Early Thoughts: Annual Meeting season can be dangerous. It is the time of year when Nominating Committees are out and about and recruiting. How will you r4espond when asked to take on a task?

Source

This week we have a set of call stories, where the Divine nominator taps someone and says "I want you". ANd in all three stories the person feels unworthy.

Jeremiah claims to be too young. Isaiah declares himself a man of unclean lips. Peter declares himself unworthy of even being in Jesus' presence even before the invitation is issued. In all three stories the invitee is told that they are indeed the right one for the task, so don't be afraid. God empowers the one God has called.

There is almost always a reason to try and avoid saying yes to an opportunity. We are too busy. We don't know what we are doing. We might mess it up. We don't have the skills/knowledge/ability. What might make us move from "you got the wrong person" to "Yes, I would be happy to do that"?

I think there are several answers to that question. Sometimes organization try to guilt people into "doing their part". That might work, though it is, in the end a very unhelpful approach. Much more helpful and empowering is to share why you think that person is suited for that particular task. Sometimes, maybe even often, we need help to see where our strengths might lie. Many people would not think of putting themselves forward until someone else says "you would be good at...". The other key part in recruiting, especially recruiting those who are unsure, is to remind them that they are not alone, they have support to complete the task.

GOd, it seems, is really good at recruitment and convincing the reluctant. Over and over again in Scripture God taps someone on the shoulder and they are reluctant to respond. Moses insisted he could not talk well enough. Jonah got on a boat headed the exact opposite direction. But over and over again God convinces the person to agree to the task.

When have you been invited to take on a new role and were sure they had the wrong person? What changed your mind? When and how have you coached someone else to move from "no way" to "I'll give it a try"?

I firmly believe that we live in a time when something will be asked of all of us. (Actually this is always true, I just think that given the political and economic climate right now this is a bit more urgent.) God needs more voices sharing a different view of the world, a different understanding of what is truly important, a different vision for how we work together. God needs loud voices reminding us that we are ALL God's beloved children, made in God's image, worthy of life and respect and love.

What might GOd have in mind for you? What risks might God invite you to take so that the Good News of hope and love, renewal and re-creation, can continue to spread around Grande Prairie, Alberta, the whole world that God loves so very much? How will each of us respond?
--Gord

Looking Ahead to February 2, 2025 -- Epiphany 4C

This being the first Sunday of the month we will be celebrating the Sacrament of Communion during worship. Those joining us via YouTube are invited to have brad and juice available so we can all eat and drink together.

The Scripture Reading this week is Luke 4:21-30

The Sermon title is How Dare You?!?

Source

Early Thoughts: Local Boy Makes Good! That is how this story actually starts but then it takes a pretty drastic turn as the crowd moves to toss Jesus off a cliff...

One might honestly ask why. Yes crowds can be fickle, but still what did he do to upset them so much?

In essence Jesus annoys them by reminding them that it is not all about them, not all about their people. Jesus tells them that God cares for people outside the camp.

It seems to me that people still find that message hard to hear and accept. Maybe it is even harder or worse to hear that challenge from someone we were sure was 'one of us'.

We often talk about this scene in the Nazareth synagogue as the launch point of Jesus' public ministry in Luke's Gospel. And in a way, as Luke writes his story, it is, this is the first detailed description that Luke gives us of Jesus' teaching and preaching but at the same time it is not. In verse 14-5 we are told that Jesus returned to Galilee and "began to teach in their synagogues", in verse   we read "When he came to Nazareth..." and in this week reading, verse 23, we have a reference to the things he did in Capernaum. Obviously Jesus has been at work in public ministry before this day in his hometown synagogue. Maybe he had a soft launch and this is the grand opening?

At any rate, by now news has started to spread about this Jesus from Nazareth and what he can do. There is a sense in this reading that the people were excited to see the local boy come home after making a name for himself out in the world. Surely if he did great things in Capernaum he would do great things here...right?  Maybe not. He seems to refuse to do them, though maybe he could not. Maybe the people there wanted to see him perform great deeds of power but the curse of familiarity made it hard for that to happen. Note that when he first finishes his proclamation the people say "Is this not Joseph's son?", sometimes people have trouble seeing you as more than the person they once knew--no matter how much they want to do so.

Indeed when both Matthew and Mark talk about Jesus being rejected by his homies (though they set it later in his ministry) they say that Jesus was unable to perform many miracles in Nazareth because of their unbelief. In all three accounts Jesus uses a line about prophets not being honored in their hometown. It is hard to go home sometimes.

In Luke however, Jesus goes an extra step. It almost as if he is either trying to irritate these people where he grew up, to ensure his rejection or maybe he knows where they need to be pushed. At any rate he reminds them of two stories from their faith history. Both Elijah and Elisha are special prophets in the faith story. They not only spoke truth to power but they also were miracle workers in their own right (the later prophets would speak God's Word to the people but not perform miracles). Jesus reminds his childhood friends and companions that Elijah and Elisha carried the power of God to outsiders, sometimes instead of healing or aiding the people of Israel who were close at hand. In response the people essentially run him out of town on a rail.

Here is what ChatGPT came up with

Many times we dearly want to think we are special, that we should get special treatment for some reason or another. When we are reminded that we are not as special as we think we are it can be hard to hear. I think this is part of what happens in Nazareth. It is not just that they are too familiar with Jesus (they watched him grow up after all) to accept him in a new role -- thought that may well be part of it. It is also that he dared to talk about the God whose mercy is wider than the lines humans draw between the 'in' and 'out' groups, the division of who is worthy of help and who is not.

I think we need that reminder at times as well. I think of the storm of controversy last week following the prayer service at the National Cathedral in Washington when Bishop Budde asked leaders to be merciful to those who many push to the outside edges of society. I think of the many disparaging, even hateful, comments made about the people who live in the tent cities of Grande Prairie or Edmonton. I think of our tendency to ensure our people get their 'fair share' first and then decide how to divide what is left over.

Maybe we in the church need to be more daring. Maybe we need to be more vocal about challenging our leaders and ourselves to see the unended width and breadth of God's mercy. Maybe we need to take the chance of saying the unpopular things that nevertheless are the truth of the Gospel.

I just hope there is no cliff handy when we do it.
--Gord

Looking Ahead to January 26, 2025 -- 3rd Sunday After Epiphany

The Scripture Reading this week is 1 Corinthians 12:29-14:5.

The Sermon title is The Greatest Gift

Found on FB a while ago

Early Thoughts: Over the weekend a 50 year-old (though I thought it was 40-45 years old) song jumped into my head. The chorus says:

Oh oh, get that buzz

Love is the drug

I’m thinking of

Oh oh, can’t you see?

Love is the drug for me

The song has nothing to do with what Paul is talking about -- it is someone seeking physical encounters under the guise of love -- but the idea of seeing love as a drug, an addictive substance, and needing your next hit does I think speak to the importance of what Paul calls the "greatest of these".

This week we continue in Paul's discussion of gifts given through the Spirit. Last week in Bible study a couple of people looked at the end of chapter 12 and asked about what it meant to strive for the greater gifts. What is this more excellent way Paul speaks of? Time to answer that question.

Standing in the same line as Torah, Jewish Wisdom, and Jesus Paul affirms that the greatest gift is love. No matter how good you are at anything else, no matter what other gifts you might have, without love you are nothing. I suspect there may have been some people over the centuries who have found that a little humbling or off-putting. It means it doesn't matter how popular your, how rich you are, how many accolades you have received, what office(s) you have been elected to, how much power you have, how much you have sacrificed -- without love none of it matters. After all, all those other things will end someday. 

It seems we all need that reminder some days. In a world that has become so deeply divided and acrimonious, a world where 'what's in it for me' seems to be how we are told to make decisions, a world where we can often ask (as many have in the past) What about the love or Where is the love we need to be reminded about the greatest gift.

Paul challenges us to open ourselves to love. Paul challenges us to grow and mature in love. Paul challenges us to live in love, to act in love so that we can embrace who God has formed us to be, so that we can help the community grow in unity, in hope, in faith, and in love.

I am writing this piece on January 20th. As I type I believe that President Trump is giving his inauguration address (I am intentionally not listening). On both sides of the 49th parallel politics is taking an ugly turn. There are many voices demonizing 'others' as the cause of all our problems and sometimes it seems leaders are more interested in tribalism and picking fights than finding solutions where all benefit. Love is, I believe, an antidote to these tendencies. Love, not in a sappy sentimental romanticized version but in a scrappy, standing up for what is right, speaking truth to the world version is what we need in the world today.

Also found on FB

Today is also Martin Luther King Jr. Day in the US (And many people have commented that Trump being installed in office on the same day as Dr. King is honoured seems a big disconnect). Dr. King never called his followers to hate the other side. Dr. King was, after all, first a preacher who knew the Scripture story deeply. He knew that love was the prime virtue for life.

Paul challenges the Corinthians, and us, to seek a more excellent way. That more excellent way is the way of love. As John's Gospel reminds us, Jesus calls/commands us to love each other as we have been loved. Jesus tells us that this is how people will know that we are his followers -- that we have love for our neighbour.

The Greatest Gift. Love. It makes a difference in the world.
--Gord

Looking Ahead to January 19, 2025 -- 2nd Sunday After Epiphany

The Scripture Reading this week is 1 Corinthians 12:1-31

The Sermon title is What Is Your Gift?

Early Thoughts: We all have gifts. Sometimes we don't recognize them. Sometimes we don't give them the honour they deserve, and sometimes others do that to us.

The church in Corinth had issues. They were divided in factions, apparently along a variety of fracture lines. Paul spends much of this letter trying to get them to move past these divisions. One of the lines of division seems to be that some members of the community thought they were superior to others because they had the Spiritual Gift of speaking in tongues (or glossolalia to use the technical term). 

In response to that particular issue Paul spends chapters 12-14 talking about Gifts of the Spirit. Chapter 12 talks about the variety of gifts, and the fact that they are ALL needed and important. Chapter 13 is Paul at what I consider his finest with a discourse about the Greatest gift (we will look at that next week). Then the first 2/3 of chapter 14 is Paul specifically dealing with the gifts of speaking in togues and prophecy.

Paul lists a set of roles in the church, a set of gifts if you will. They are important roles in any faith community. I don't think they are the only gifts that God bestows upon people. Just as there are many more body parts than Paul lists in the second section of this chapter, there are many other gifts that go into the building of God's Beloved Community (a term that has been used for the church).

So what gift(s) do you bring into the community? Are we also guilty of seeing some gifts as superior to others?  Do we think some body parts are more important or attractive than others?

A community functions best when there are a variety of members, with a variety of strengths. As such it is incumbent on all of us to help raise up the gifts we see in the community. 

How have people helped you see where your gifts and strengths lie? How have you helped others see that in themselves?

I also think we need to recognize that different gifts/strengths are need in greater or lesser proportions at different times. As I remember hearing during the 'equal pay for work of equal value' debates 40 years ago: "if your plumbing is leaking the work of a plumber is far more valuable than the work of a typist". Over time all gifts are needed, at a specific time one may be needed more than another. That is not a statement of ultimate value.

In the same vein, though a bit of a different branch, I suggest that we as individuals have different gifts or strengths to offer in different seasons of our lives. Part of our task is to discern what season has past and what new season is beginning.

As a community we rely on the shared gifts we all bring to the table. As individuals wee need to claim what we bring (and be humble enough to admit what we don't bring) and we need to help others recognize what they bring. That is how a strong body is built.
--Gord

Looking Ahead to January 12, 2025 -- Baptism of Christ Sunday

One description of the Liturgical Year is that from Advent through to Easter we look at the life of Jesus and then from Easter to Advent we look at the life of the church/life of the faithful. I am not sure I fully agree with that breakdown because I think we do both things all year but in that model we find an explanation for this Sunday. Traditionally the first Sunday after Epiphany is set aside to mark the Baptism of Jesus, which Matthew Mark and Luke use as the launching point for his public ministry.

The Scripture Readings this week are:

• Acts 8:14-17
• Luke 3:21-22

The Sermon title is Spirit-Filled

Early Thoughts: What does it feel like? Being filled with/receiving the Holy Spirit, what does that mean to us?

Both the passages for this week make a clear tie between baptism and the gift of the Holy Spirit. OR at least a complete baptism involves receiving the Holy Spirit as it appears that the people in Samaria had only had half a baptism before Peter and John showed up. For the early church it seems clear that part of becoming a child of God is baptism with water and the Spirit -- which in fact is what John the Baptist told folk to expect.

That, to me, is part of why we give families a baptismal candle. Fire/flame is an ancient symbol of the presence of the Holy Spirit.

But back to the key question --what does it mean? How can we tell if a person or a community is filled with the Spirit?

I don't think there is one way, one litmus test that answers that question. I think the in-dwelling of the Spirit in us as individuals and as communities shows up in a variety of ways (coincidentally, the next couple of weeks we will be reading from 1 Corinthians 12-14 where Paul talks about some of the gifts the Spirit gives). In A New Creed we talk about the God "who works in us and others by the Spirit". Being filled with the Holy Spirit helps us grow as disciples, as learners and followers of Jesus. It strengthens and emboldens us. The presence of the Spirit in our lives also serves to comfort us, to remind us we are not alone. Being Spirit-filled would, I think and hope, spread through every part of our lives. It would help us see the world differently. It would guide our actions and choices.

As a Baptized and Baptizing Community we are called to be Spirit-filled as individuals and as a collective. If we allow that to happen (sometimes we might fight against the leadings of the Spirit) it has the potential to change how we live.  Are we willing to take that chance, not knowing where it might lead us?
--Gord

Looking Ahead to January 5, 2025 -- Epiphany Sunday

The Feast of Epiphany falls on January 6th, right after the 12 Days of Christmas. This Feast is when the church marks the visit of the Magi to the Holy Family, as told in Matthew's Gospel). When January 6th is not a Sunday many churches choose to mark Epiphany on the Sunday before.

The Scripture Readings this week are:

• Isaiah 60:1-6 (which is the basis of the Call to Worship) 
• Matthew 2:1-12

The Sermon title is Strange Visitors

Early Thoughts: What did Mary and Joseph think about it? When there was a knock at the door and these strange men from far away came into the house what thoughts might have run through their minds? For that matter what did Herod think when these visitors from afar appeared talking about a new king? (We are given a hint of his thoughts in the verses that follow this week's reading -- suffice to say that joy and praise are not in his heart).

Matthew tells us this story as a way of showing that the coming of the Messiah is both a gift for all nations, not just the Jewish people, and is recognized by those who know what to look for -- no matter where they may be. Strange visitors may have told Mary and Joseph something more about this child (it is unclear if Matthew sees this happening when Jesu was still an infant or moving into toddlerhood) they had in their family. Strange visitors warn the powers that be that change is in the air. Strange visitors proclaim that God is at work.

Even the gifts that Matthew mentions have (or have been given over the years) deeply symbolic meanings, as the carol We Three Kings will tell us. The Magi seem to have chosen these rich gifts to mark the birth of a king (Gold), the birth of one who is deeply connected to the Divine (Frankincense), and foretell his death (Myrrh, a burial spice). Strange gifts for a peasant family.

There is a saying in community development that sometimes you need the outside voice to tell you what you already know. Sometimes the voices from within the system just don't get heard but the outside expert says the same thing and everybody sits up as if it is new information (many clergy will tell you that churches can be really bad for this). Maybe the strange visitors can open our eyes to what God is doing in our midst. Maybe that is part of what the Magi do in Matthew's Gospel -- they help open the eyes of the readers/listeners to see what God is doing in the Jesus story.

What strange visitors have helped you grow in you awareness of God's activity in the world? What strange visitors might we need today to help us see where God is in our midst, to show us a way forward -- even if it is by a different road than before?
--Gord

Looking Ahead to December 22, 2024 -- 4th Sunday of Advent -- Love Candle

 

The Scripture Readings this final Sunday of Advent are:

• Psalm 146 
•  Luke 1:39-55

The Sermon title is Jesus Is Coming, Sing Justice, Dance Love

Early Thoughts: Mary was not, it appears, meek nor mild. Mary had a vision of how was God was at work to transform the world -- ands wasn't shy about sharing it.

I think I like the story of Mary and Elizabeth's meeting as much as the Christmas story itself. Elizabeth, pregnant when it was well past the time that such thing should happen (to quote a play I was in 30 years ago "when a women who shops the Co-Op on Seniors day is about to have a child the world is not out of surprises yet") meets her cousin Mary, pregnant too soon. As Luke tells the story, the child Elizabeth carries will be known as John the Baptizer, he will predict the coming of the Messiah. The child Mary carries will be seen as God living among us, the Word-Made-Flesh, Emmanuel. Two special children and two bold mothers.

When they greet each other Elizabeth feels her child leap for joy (which can't have been too comfortable for mom in her last trimester), some might even say John was dancing in his mother's womb. At that instant one of the women (generally seen to be Mary but some sources say Elizabeth) is moved to song.

But her song is not a lullaby. Her song is not about the worries and wonders of impending parenthood. Her song is a cry for change, a manifesto for a just new world, a proclamation that God ahs something grand in mind. Mary sings of justice, of a world turned upside down by the God who created and loves the world.

I believe that working to create a world where justice reigns is what it means to put "love your neighbour" into action. The Christmas story is not just a sweet story about angels and shepherds and a baby in a manger. The Christmas story is a story of the world being changed. It is a story of God breaking into the world to live among us and start the avalanche of justice called for by the ancient prophets "But let justice roll down like water and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream." (Amos 5:24) Mary sings a song of justice to help us dance the dance of love.

Both the children who are in this story today (albeit in utero) will carry forward the song of justice and the dance of love. John will preach a baptism of repentance and encourage folk to change how they live (se Luke chapter 3 for how he does that), Jesus will call attention to the way the world could be and invite us all to live into a new way of being. It is an old song, an ancient dance -- it's rhythms can be felt from the days of Moses right through to the new heaven and new earth in Revelation and on through wise ones, prophets, and teachers to this very day.

We are invite to sing and dance too. Are we ready to lift up our voices, faltering as they may be at times, and try out the steps, even when he may have two left feet? Can we join Mary, Elizabeth, John and Jesus in hope and joy, working for peace love and justice -- a world reborn and renewed?
--Gord

Looking Ahead to December 24, 2024 -- Christmas Eve Celebration.

 

Nativity Scene at St. Paul's

This year we are going to reflect on the story of the night.  We will in fact hear it 4 times:

1. As set for children in The First Christmas
2. from the King James Version of the Bible
3. form the First Nations Version of the New Testament
4. from the GenZ Bible

Stained Glass from St. Paul's

The Reflection title is The (N)Ever-changing Story

Early Thoughts: In her Advent song Hope is a Candle United Church musician Linnea Good writes: "For we are a people of a Story. Of stars that sing and love that cries". In his book The Truth About Stories Canadian writer Thomas King says "The truth about stories is that that's all we are". Hearing and telling stories is one of the biggest ways we learn about and find meaning in  life.

At Christmas there are lots of stories we tell -- we have a rather heavy (as I remember each year as I haul them up from the basement) collection of Christmas books in our house. Some of them are stories about a jolly old elf who lives at the North Pole and flies around in a sleigh pulled by magical reindeer. Some of them are stories about families gathering together for song and merriment. And then there is the story that lies under the season...

From Riverview United in Atikokan

In the age-old special A Charlie Brown Christmas Charlie spends most of the episode trying to figure out what Christmas is all about. Finally he lets out an anguished cry "Can anyone tell me what Christmas is all about?!?". At this point his friend Linus steps in, calls for the spotlight and shares an ancient story about shepherds and angels and a baby lying in a manger. That is the story we tell tonight.

I have learned that one of the wonderful things about truly great and timeless stories is that they can be told in a variety of ways. We can change the setting (either in time or in geography). We can tell it from the point of view of different characters. We can tell it in song, in poetry, in narrative, in drama, or through pictures -- maybe even interpretive dance. We might find new and innovative ways to tell the story and yet it remains the same story.

Found on Facebook

This is, I have found, true of the Nativity story as well. We may be used to hearing it in one way [Though I have heard and read it in many different ways over the years to this day there is a part of me that always hears it in Linus' voice using King James language.] but it can and has been retold many different ways. This picture recasts it in a more modern setting (and there are lots of references to the Biblical story hidden in the picture.  How many can you find?). 30+ years ago I was in a musical that set the story in rural Saskatchewan during a farm credit crisis.

My daughter loves Nativity scenes.  We have a living room full of them -- when she eventually sets up her own house and takes them all away we might have to find new Christmas decor. We have sets with South American imagery, or Little People, or one called a Canadian Nativity. But despite the wide variety of art and style they all tell the same story. They all tell about a baby born in a less than ideal place. Most of them include angels and shepherd or Magi, unusual visitors for a newborn child.

I happen to think that the story actual gains meaning when we find new ways to tell it. When we use our imagination to re-tell the story in new ways we might notice something we never have before. Or maybe changing it from 2000 years ago in a far off land to be a story about a young homeless family on our downtown streets will bring it home in a new way, make it more relevant to our lives today. Or maybe using language and slang and idiom of a new generation will open it up to that new generation. The story doesn't change -- how we tell it does.

Found on Facebook

On Christmas night we tell a timeless story. We talk about God breaking into the world in a different, unexpected way. We talk about a baby born long ago and far away. At the same time we tell the story of a God who continues to break into the world and live among us. We tell a story that happened long ago and continues to happen today. God's time works in a cyclical fashion, God's time moves forward by pulling us into a story that keeps flowing.

The story never changes and the story always changes. Join us on Christmas Eve to reflect on the ongoing story.
--Gord

Looking Ahead to December 15, 2024 -- 3rd Sunday of Advent, Year C -- Joy

The Scripture Readings this week are:

• Zephaniah 3:14-20
• Isaiah 12:2-6
• Philippians 4:4-7

The Sermon title is Jesus is Coming, Relax Into Joy

Early Thoughts: What does Joy mean to you this year? Where does joy fit into the chaotic world in which we live?

I think that when defined in a faith sense joy is not about being happy. I think it is about trust.  Earlier this fall I saved this quote with the thought it might come in handy this week:

We are called to be joyful not by ignoring the chaos of the world but despite the chaos of the world.

Our Joy rests in the knowledge that we are not alone. Joy comes with the promise that God is at work transforming us and transforming the world. Joy comes with the reassurance that the powers of death and destruction will not have the final victory. Joy, as one of our Easter hymns tells us, comes with the dawn, with the morning sun, with the empty tomb.

All three of our passages this week talk about rejoicing, about being joy-filled. And in each of the presence and work of God is a key part of the call to rejoice.

As we go through Advent, as we move closer to the day when we will listen for angel song and eavesdrop and the angel says to the shepherd "I bring you Good News which shall be for all people" we await God breaking into the world yet again. When God breaks into the world, when God acts decisively in our lives we are called into joy.

Can we trust in God's presence and action enough to allow us to relax into Joy in the midst of a broken world?
--Gord

Looking Ahead to December 8, 2024 -- 2nd Sunday of Advent, Peace Candle

The Scripture readings this week are:

• Malachi 3:1-4 
• Luke 3:1-18

The Sermon title is Jesus Is Coming, Be Refined for Peace

Early Thoughts: We all Jesus the Prince of Peace. We share the promise of a transformed world where peace will be the norm. How will we get there?

I think this weeks passages hold a clue, or at least part of the answer. But first a song. Whenever I read this passage from Malachi I am reminded of a song that I learned many years ago in my late teens.

Now back to the idea of peace. Certainly peace comes from structural, systemic change. We can not have a reign of peace unless the rules of how we live together (as individuals, communities and nations) are changed. But it also means that we ourselves have to be changed. We need to be refined.

This week we hear from John the Baptist, who Luke tells us is a cousin of Jesus. John is an interesting character in our story. From what Matthew, Mark, and Luke tell us it seems he was wildly popular. People flocked out into the wilderness to hear him and be baptized by him in the Jordan (Jesus himself will be baptized by John a bit later in the story). But John's message is not warm and fuzzy. He is not in this business to make friends. John is in the business of calling people to repentance -- his is described as a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins (which makes for some interesting questions when Jesus gets dunked) -- and he is not shy about telling them how they have fallen short of the target.

Source

John's vision of what the promised Messiah will do is not different. He envisions a Messiah who will be big on judgment, on separating out the wheat from the chaff, of getting rid of the dead weight. Such a nice message to hear as we prepare for Christmas. "Joy to the World! You are all terrible people"

Then again, maybe some self-reflection is in order as we prepare for God to break into the world yet again. If we are honest with ourselves we know that we could probably do better, live better, love better. Using imagery like brood of vipers, chaff fit to be burned, or a tree that needs to be cut down might be a bit over the top but it does not hurt to be reminded that personal change is needed.

Historically Advent, like Lent, has been described as a penitential season. To repent means more than admitting where we have made wrong turns, it means to change directions. In Lent we are called to change directions in preparation for the story of cross and tomb, when God will break into the world and change the world through the Resurrection. In Advent we are called to change direction so that we are ready for God to break into the world through a baby in a manger. And our lives will never be the same again.

I actually like the imagery used by Malachi, of refining and purifying. It reminds me that each of us has the final product (gold or silver) inside us already. Refining ore removes the overburden and dross so that the pure  (or purer) product gets released. Each one of us is a diamond in the rough, a chunk of ore being refined to draw out our true essence.

As the years have passed some folk have felt uncomfortable seeing Advent as a penitential  season. Repentance language is not always comforting or joyful. There has been a desire to spend Advent in a mode of joy and celebration, to focus on Good News, to keep it all light and cheery. I get that. I understand the need to counter the dark news that fills our world. But I also don't think it is being honest.

If we are to be peacemakers in a troubled world we need to be prepared for the job. If we are going to be labourers for the Reign of God we need to be prepared for the task. Jesus is coming. God is going to break into the world yet again. It is time to let the dross get melted away, to toss the chaff into the air to blow away, to be refined and cleansed and purified. Thanks to God who continues to refine us to be who we are meant to be.
--Gord