“The task ahead of us is never as mighty as the power behind us.” This reminder came near the close of today’s sermon from Barb Summers on Presbyterian World Service and Development Sunday.
I should have paid closer attention to the title of her talk – “The Other Half of the Story” – as she started out with many statistics attesting to the brokenness of our world, I thought, “Oh dear, another depressing newspaper talk.” But no, the other half of the story is the positive news about PWS&D’s work in the world.
Barb spoke eloquently and inspirationally about her work and PWS&D’s successes. She personalised the line item on our donation envelopes with a couple of examples that she has witnessed: a Pakistani woman enabled to feed her children and to participate in the productivity of her village, women in India celebrating their collective potential and influence.
“The task ahead of us is never as mighty as the power behind us.” A thought for us all to reflect upon in our lives, and something that makes me more curious to learn more about PWS&D’s work in the world.
-Geoffrey
UPDATE: Barb Summers' sermon can be heard here: The Other Half of the Story
Sunday, February 13, 2011
Sunday, February 6, 2011
Sunday, February 6
Last Sunday our worship service was especially moving. Psalm 19, and of course Isaiah, are powerful poetry that I wait for, and one of the pleasures of the 9:30 AM service is to hear the readings in Andrew Johnston's trained and intelligent voice. We can listen fearlessly, confident that he will make sense of Paul's most convoluted reasonings, while never, never barking his vocal cards on a nasty bit of protruding syntax.
The sermon began, like many newspaper articles at this time of year, with reference to fitness--spiritual fitness, though, and the daily exercises required for it. One of these is listening, and I thought about the different feeling that I get from the words "listening" and "hearing." "Listening" seems to be about focus and attention consciously directed outside the self. "Hearing" has a sense of allowing words to enter into body and mind, where over time they may be transformative. That, in fact, was the message.
A moderate among the 4th-Century desert fathers (mothers too, Andrew said, but did anyone save the fragments the women left behind?), Abba Poemen spoke about the way hard stone yields over time to yielding drops of water, which wear it away, as the tender Word of God, heard again and again, softens our stony hearts. Andrew reminded us that the Christian Bible is not itself the Word of God, as my Presbyterian grandfather would have it, but a witness to the Word who is Christ.
The desert Christians broke free from the comforts of an official and acknowledged religion. While they came together for worship, they found their own ways to God, hearing his voice in the silence. We need to find spaces in our noisy lives to listen for the whispers of God and courage to be led where perhaps the church has not yet been brave enough to go.
After the service I found a corner where I could drink my coffee in calmness and joy. Now to keep that feeling for the rest of the week!
The sermon began, like many newspaper articles at this time of year, with reference to fitness--spiritual fitness, though, and the daily exercises required for it. One of these is listening, and I thought about the different feeling that I get from the words "listening" and "hearing." "Listening" seems to be about focus and attention consciously directed outside the self. "Hearing" has a sense of allowing words to enter into body and mind, where over time they may be transformative. That, in fact, was the message.
A moderate among the 4th-Century desert fathers (mothers too, Andrew said, but did anyone save the fragments the women left behind?), Abba Poemen spoke about the way hard stone yields over time to yielding drops of water, which wear it away, as the tender Word of God, heard again and again, softens our stony hearts. Andrew reminded us that the Christian Bible is not itself the Word of God, as my Presbyterian grandfather would have it, but a witness to the Word who is Christ.
The desert Christians broke free from the comforts of an official and acknowledged religion. While they came together for worship, they found their own ways to God, hearing his voice in the silence. We need to find spaces in our noisy lives to listen for the whispers of God and courage to be led where perhaps the church has not yet been brave enough to go.
After the service I found a corner where I could drink my coffee in calmness and joy. Now to keep that feeling for the rest of the week!
Sunday, January 30, 2011
Common Ground
This morning we welcomed the Rev. Ann Salmon to the pulpit to celebrate the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity. Rev. Salmon is the minister of the Church of the Good Shepherd in Barrhaven, which is the first joint Anglican/Lutheran church in Canada. These denominations have been in prayerful discussion for a number of years about a new covenant relationship and this new congregation is the fruit of that effort.
Rev. Salmon's 'state of the union' message is one that we need to hear often: the church, in its widest sense, needs to be the common ground on which we worship our Creator, learn of our Redeemer and listen for the Spirit. And yet the church today, as an institution, is a fragmented, imperfect vessel which tends to get bogged down in details and, on occasion, misses the point. Her call to be vigilant against this was not so much a criticism of the past but a call to the present and future to re-direct and re-commission ourselves to serve others. What are your thoughts on the state of the church? What would it take for the church to be more unified? What would be the result?
Rev. Salmon's 'state of the union' message is one that we need to hear often: the church, in its widest sense, needs to be the common ground on which we worship our Creator, learn of our Redeemer and listen for the Spirit. And yet the church today, as an institution, is a fragmented, imperfect vessel which tends to get bogged down in details and, on occasion, misses the point. Her call to be vigilant against this was not so much a criticism of the past but a call to the present and future to re-direct and re-commission ourselves to serve others. What are your thoughts on the state of the church? What would it take for the church to be more unified? What would be the result?
Sunday, January 23, 2011
Sunday, January 16, 2011
Sunday, January 16
Andrew's sermon today about incarnation was particularly interesting since, as he noted, this is an aspect of Biblical doctrine that is often substantively unexplored and, as he noted, addressed in a formalistic way.
A significant phrase for me in what Andrew said this morning was stated not in the sermon itself but in the prayer that preceded it. He talked about "continuous creation." The idea that incarnation continues in our lives is closely related to possibilities of reading the Bible not just as historical narrative but simultaneously also as allegory: the Child is perennial reborn and God incarnate is always with us. Something else that really resonated with me was the notion that spiritual growth, growing more fully into perfect freedom by following God's way is a gradual journey. When I was doing prison Ministry in Ohio's jails, I had an opportunity one Sunday to speak with a quiet, sensitive and intelligent young African American man who had clearly been led by poverty into a life of economic dependence on the drug trade. He was perplexed and saddened because he wanted to have faith but had not had a dramatic spiritual experience or "prison conversion" as he would have hoped for or expected on the basis of the variant on Christianity he had been taught in his upbringing. We had been talking about St. Paul on the road to Damascus, and this man was hoping for the scales to fall from his eyes and to see clearly. We talked about how maybe that doesn't happen all at once for most people, that revelations can be partial, as Andrew said: "surprises", experiences of God in the personal and in mundane places, like a walk in the forest, a garden, or even a prison.
I also really appreciated the suggestion that perhaps those who claim not to believe in God have not had the nature of God explained appropriately. This idea sheds new light on the hyperbolic debates of folks like Christopher Hitchens and those who mirror him in Evangelical circles. Failure to define terms broadly or sensitively enough leads to foolish debate. Or criticism of Christianity by some as patriarchal when the key element of Christ's incarnation rests itself on a moment that disrupts patriliny completely: Joseph embraces Jesus as his son despite the fact that he is not the biological father. Or the debates between creationist and evolutionist "scientists", which rest on a failure of imagination to appreciate that continuous creation can include the processes of science.
... which makes me think of a country song:
"His fingerprints are everywhere
I'd just slow down to stop and stare
opened my eyes and man I swear
I saw God today."
-George Strait
Rebecca B.
A significant phrase for me in what Andrew said this morning was stated not in the sermon itself but in the prayer that preceded it. He talked about "continuous creation." The idea that incarnation continues in our lives is closely related to possibilities of reading the Bible not just as historical narrative but simultaneously also as allegory: the Child is perennial reborn and God incarnate is always with us. Something else that really resonated with me was the notion that spiritual growth, growing more fully into perfect freedom by following God's way is a gradual journey. When I was doing prison Ministry in Ohio's jails, I had an opportunity one Sunday to speak with a quiet, sensitive and intelligent young African American man who had clearly been led by poverty into a life of economic dependence on the drug trade. He was perplexed and saddened because he wanted to have faith but had not had a dramatic spiritual experience or "prison conversion" as he would have hoped for or expected on the basis of the variant on Christianity he had been taught in his upbringing. We had been talking about St. Paul on the road to Damascus, and this man was hoping for the scales to fall from his eyes and to see clearly. We talked about how maybe that doesn't happen all at once for most people, that revelations can be partial, as Andrew said: "surprises", experiences of God in the personal and in mundane places, like a walk in the forest, a garden, or even a prison.
I also really appreciated the suggestion that perhaps those who claim not to believe in God have not had the nature of God explained appropriately. This idea sheds new light on the hyperbolic debates of folks like Christopher Hitchens and those who mirror him in Evangelical circles. Failure to define terms broadly or sensitively enough leads to foolish debate. Or criticism of Christianity by some as patriarchal when the key element of Christ's incarnation rests itself on a moment that disrupts patriliny completely: Joseph embraces Jesus as his son despite the fact that he is not the biological father. Or the debates between creationist and evolutionist "scientists", which rest on a failure of imagination to appreciate that continuous creation can include the processes of science.
... which makes me think of a country song:
"His fingerprints are everywhere
I'd just slow down to stop and stare
opened my eyes and man I swear
I saw God today."
-George Strait
Rebecca B.
Sunday, January 9, 2011
Sunday, January 9
This morning I found myself thinking about kings. Not surprising, since it's Epiphany Sunday. We sang "We Three Kings," and Andrew explained the galette des rois to the children. One of our readings was about King Herod trying to protect his throne by finding the young Messiah. But what especially struck me this morning was how undeserving the child-king Jesus was of those gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh. Perhaps because I've been feeling undeserving lately of all the gifts I've received, but it struck me that young Jesus hadn't done anything to merit the gifts he was brought. They were truly just "gifts."
Andrew's sermon seemed so relevant this morning. The wonder and awe, the mystery of the miraculous, that is what's it's all about. There are so many things that we don't understand with our mind, that we can only feel in our soul. I don't know why I've been blessed with so many good things: a happy home, health, God's great gift of condescension to mankind... But I do know I can accept them, and keep my eyes open to the wonder and awe of it all.
Maureen.
Andrew's sermon seemed so relevant this morning. The wonder and awe, the mystery of the miraculous, that is what's it's all about. There are so many things that we don't understand with our mind, that we can only feel in our soul. I don't know why I've been blessed with so many good things: a happy home, health, God's great gift of condescension to mankind... But I do know I can accept them, and keep my eyes open to the wonder and awe of it all.
Maureen.
Sunday, January 2, 2011
Sunday, January 2
Our own Peter Rombeek was in the pulpit this week, click below to listen to his sermon, "Knock, Knock."
Sunday, January 2nd, 2011
Sunday, January 2nd, 2011
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