This morning the scripture texts were about listening for the Spirit song. David misheard it completely. The message of God sounded a little too unlikely to Zecheriah and he lost his voice. Mary struggled with the message but she is remembered as the one who said yes to God’s gift.
How do you respond to unexpected gifts? Do you act delighted and begin to think of how you can return it for something you really want? Do you drop it on the regift pile? Do you put it on a shelf with plans to wear it when everything else wears out.
The Vatican received a gift this year they could not have expected. 2,000 solar panels. A Germon firm offered these to the Vatican as an Epiphany gift. They began to installl them a few months ago and they’ll be in place by the end of this month.
The CEO of SolarWorld said, “If the three wise men from the East came to Bethlehem today, they would in all probability bring a solar cell in addition to gold, francincense and myrrh.”
This will help the Vatican to meet the EU’s target for 2020 to get 20% of its energy from renewable resources.
Now that’s a gift that keeps on giving!
Peter
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Monday, December 22, 2008
Wednesday, December 17, 2008
It’s one thing to hear the Christmas story. It’s another thing to be the Christmas story. This morning our Sunday School put on a delightful Christmas pageant.
This drama is being acted out this season in great Cathedrals and little country churches around the world this season. Little ones who cannot yet read are watching the big kids, following the older and wiser shepherds and angels when it’s time to stand up or move across the floor. Lines will be slightly mangled at times, cues will be missed, but nobody is upset. It’s all part of the wondrous drama. And the story is communicated.
Some of the best moments are entirely unscripted. This morning the magi made a grand entrance with the stately camel. I have not seen a better camel anywhere. As the drama continued, the camel sat down at the front. One child and then another approached the beast. Almost on tip toe. Cautiously. With wonderment. the congregation were as entranced with the child as the child was with this animal. The camel titled it’s head and gazed on the child. We all got caught up in the wonder of the moment. Those are the moments that happen without a writer or director.
Wonder. What a gift. Watch for it.
Peter
You can also send your comments to assistant.webmaster@emmanuelunited.ca
and I will make sure they are posted.
This drama is being acted out this season in great Cathedrals and little country churches around the world this season. Little ones who cannot yet read are watching the big kids, following the older and wiser shepherds and angels when it’s time to stand up or move across the floor. Lines will be slightly mangled at times, cues will be missed, but nobody is upset. It’s all part of the wondrous drama. And the story is communicated.
Some of the best moments are entirely unscripted. This morning the magi made a grand entrance with the stately camel. I have not seen a better camel anywhere. As the drama continued, the camel sat down at the front. One child and then another approached the beast. Almost on tip toe. Cautiously. With wonderment. the congregation were as entranced with the child as the child was with this animal. The camel titled it’s head and gazed on the child. We all got caught up in the wonder of the moment. Those are the moments that happen without a writer or director.
Wonder. What a gift. Watch for it.
Peter
You can also send your comments to assistant.webmaster@emmanuelunited.ca
and I will make sure they are posted.
Monday, December 8, 2008
“A voice cries out in the wilderness prepare the way of the Lord, make straight in the desert a highway for our God.” Isaiah 40:3
The prophet we know as Second Isaiah lived in the midst of chaos. Plunging stock markets and political unrest had nothing on his time. Israel was about to go home. Decades of exile in the wilderness of a foreign land were about to end.
It was like having someone like Martin Luther King Jr. stand up and say, “I have a dream. But it’s not about the distant future. We are going to live to see this dream come true. We’re finally going home!”
Do you have the sense that we are living in exile? In what ways? What forces press in upon us and dislodge us from our values? Do you feel that at this time of year? Do you feel far from where you would like to be, as a person, family member, church member?
Is there any good news in the chaos of our times? How do we live gospel values in the midst of uncertainty? Is it easier or harder to live the faith in a turbulent time? What roads need to be cleaned up to prepare us to be a more peace-filled community? How do people in our lives need to be comforted?
So many questions....
Peter
You can also send your comments to assistant.webmaster@emmanuelunited.ca
and I will make sure they are posted.
The prophet we know as Second Isaiah lived in the midst of chaos. Plunging stock markets and political unrest had nothing on his time. Israel was about to go home. Decades of exile in the wilderness of a foreign land were about to end.
It was like having someone like Martin Luther King Jr. stand up and say, “I have a dream. But it’s not about the distant future. We are going to live to see this dream come true. We’re finally going home!”
Do you have the sense that we are living in exile? In what ways? What forces press in upon us and dislodge us from our values? Do you feel that at this time of year? Do you feel far from where you would like to be, as a person, family member, church member?
Is there any good news in the chaos of our times? How do we live gospel values in the midst of uncertainty? Is it easier or harder to live the faith in a turbulent time? What roads need to be cleaned up to prepare us to be a more peace-filled community? How do people in our lives need to be comforted?
So many questions....
Peter
You can also send your comments to assistant.webmaster@emmanuelunited.ca
and I will make sure they are posted.
Monday, December 1, 2008
Mark 13
In my earliest memory of a moment of awe, I am standing on my tip toes, looking over a stone wall at a great expanse of green water. I have never seen anything so immense. As far as I can see there is water. Having lived in a dry place without lakes, I have no frame of reference for a scene like this. The feeling of wonder practically lifts me off the ground.
The water I am looking out upon is the Indian Ocean. Back then in the late 1950s the place is called Bombay. It is our last day in India, and we are watching the sun go down. As we walk along the sea wall of Marine Drive, the water is on our left. On our right are large hotels including the Taj Mahal Hotel.
As I watched the reports of the terror attack this past week, I thought about that wondrous walk seen through the eyes of an almost five year old. What a terribly sad place it has become for so many. This morning’s apocalyptic reading from Mark 13 does not feel out of place.
In my earliest memory of a moment of awe, I am standing on my tip toes, looking over a stone wall at a great expanse of green water. I have never seen anything so immense. As far as I can see there is water. Having lived in a dry place without lakes, I have no frame of reference for a scene like this. The feeling of wonder practically lifts me off the ground.
The water I am looking out upon is the Indian Ocean. Back then in the late 1950s the place is called Bombay. It is our last day in India, and we are watching the sun go down. As we walk along the sea wall of Marine Drive, the water is on our left. On our right are large hotels including the Taj Mahal Hotel.
As I watched the reports of the terror attack this past week, I thought about that wondrous walk seen through the eyes of an almost five year old. What a terribly sad place it has become for so many. This morning’s apocalyptic reading from Mark 13 does not feel out of place.
Neither does a psalm of lament.
Peter
You can also send your comments to assistant.webmaster@emmanuelunited.ca
and I will make sure they are posted.
Wednesday, November 26, 2008
Stewardship
One definition of stewardship that gets quoted from time to time is that stewardship is everything you do after you say, I believe. That takes in pretty much everything.
Here’s another definition that breaks the “everything” down into more manageable portions. Stewardship is the time, talents and treasures that we offer to God and to others. We’ve heard that more often. The time and talents elements have a softer side to them. It’s the treasures or the money that have an edge.
In Robert Wuthnow’s book, God and Mammon in America, he says that while modern North Americans are quite willing to speak openly about their se lives, bodily ailments, even their own deaths, when it comes to the topic of money, a protective “cloud of secrecy” falls over the conversation. And yet money is a regular topic of conversation for Jesus.
Here’s an enlightening exercise. Read the prophets of Hebrew scripture or the gospels or the letters of the New Testament and underline every passage on the topic of money.
Money is only one part of stewardship but it should be one we can discuss openly and regularly.
Christian Century journalist, Lillian Daniel, says, “Engaging money theologically, should inevitably lead to practicing one’s faith differently.”
Could this be so?
Peter
Monday, November 10, 2008
Typically elections just move the chairs around the room. Those who make the decisions shift a little in one direction or the other, but we don’t get new chairs.
This week’s election in the United States election appears to be a different matter. It’s clear that what was once considered impossible, happened.
Commentator Jim Wallis says this was not only a racial shift, it was also a religious shift. Barak Obama picked up 4.4 million more Protestants and Catholics than John Kerry, the last Democratic candidate. In Florida Christian voters shifted to Obama 485,000 votes. That was the difference. Obama won Florida by 200,000 votes.
There was a time when the religious right could count on these votes. Not this time. Does this mark the end of the religious right leaders’ ability to deliver religious votes to the republicans? It appears that the former religious issues of abortion and denying gay rights are no longer the only issues of concern. A significant number of Christians now are showing support for racial and economic justice, care of creation and peacemaking. If the early analysis is accurate and is sustained, then we have entered a new era.
Peter
This week’s election in the United States election appears to be a different matter. It’s clear that what was once considered impossible, happened.
Commentator Jim Wallis says this was not only a racial shift, it was also a religious shift. Barak Obama picked up 4.4 million more Protestants and Catholics than John Kerry, the last Democratic candidate. In Florida Christian voters shifted to Obama 485,000 votes. That was the difference. Obama won Florida by 200,000 votes.
There was a time when the religious right could count on these votes. Not this time. Does this mark the end of the religious right leaders’ ability to deliver religious votes to the republicans? It appears that the former religious issues of abortion and denying gay rights are no longer the only issues of concern. A significant number of Christians now are showing support for racial and economic justice, care of creation and peacemaking. If the early analysis is accurate and is sustained, then we have entered a new era.
Peter
Monday, November 3, 2008
“Do whatever they (the scribes and the Pharisees) teach you and follow it; but do not do as they do, for they do not practice what they teach.” Matthew 23:3
Once you sift out the name calling and condemnation of this chapter, which sounds more like it was written by Matthew, than spoken by Jesus, you end up with this challenge to practice what you profess.
That is the challenge, regardless of what it is we profess.
If we claim to care for the environment, how do we show it? If we say the arts are important, what do we do to support them? If we feel we should embrace those who are new to our country, have we ever invited a new Canadian to dinner or done something to make a family feel welcome? Our faith tradition calls us to actively and practically practice the faith.
Peter
Once you sift out the name calling and condemnation of this chapter, which sounds more like it was written by Matthew, than spoken by Jesus, you end up with this challenge to practice what you profess.
That is the challenge, regardless of what it is we profess.
If we claim to care for the environment, how do we show it? If we say the arts are important, what do we do to support them? If we feel we should embrace those who are new to our country, have we ever invited a new Canadian to dinner or done something to make a family feel welcome? Our faith tradition calls us to actively and practically practice the faith.
Peter
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