A group of us, back in 1989, when we started at seminary, were told that should we be ordained, someday, we will discover that 95% of all the problems that come our way will either have to do with peoples’ false image of God or false image of self. Based on my informal information gathering after 25 years of ministry, I think the number is actually closer to 99%. So, let’s look at this classic scripture story of forgiveness to ...
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Today’s gospel is one of the best-known stories in the New Testament, and at the same time it is one that most of us don’t really “know.” That is to say, we don’t really take one of its key messages to heart – love and belonging have nothing to do with deserving.
When the younger son asked for his inheritance while his father was still living, he did something that wasn’t considered good, but was allowed. A son who truly honoured ...
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If you don’t remember, I’ll recall it for you. Last Sunday’s first reading was about God promising Abraham that he would be the father of a great nation. Believe it or not there would be more inhabitants, in this great nation, than there are stars in the heavens. It seems, today’s first reading tells us that the party is over. Abraham is long dead, and his descendants are slaves in Egypt. So much for a great nation…or is it?
What they ...
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My understanding on today’s second reading is that our ancestors lived on the land and the sea with the same needs like everybody else. The second reading also noted that they were all baptized into Moses, as we are all baptized. It also mentions that there were still some evil doers who, at the same time, depended on the same spiritual rock that followed them. God was not pleased with their way of accepting or desiring evil. They were destroyed ...
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Intending to speak only for myself, but I might also be speaking for others, I can say that I rarely give spiritual experiences the due they are owed. I rarely pay attention to them in the ways I should. It’s much easier for me to go up into my head and find the correct theology or repeat the words of a saint or a theologian rather than exploring where God might be leading me through the experiences of my own ...
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“Wait for the Lord; be strong, and let your heart take courage; wait for the Lord.” Ps 27:14
It was difficult to focus on my work this week, as my attention was constantly being drawn to the horrific images of war that were once again inundating every news outlet. I was grateful that my mother had not lived to see this latest assault in Europe. Even in her final years with Alzheimer’s, she retained disturbing memories of Hitler’s tanks and soldiers ...
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Well, that time of year again. Lent is upon us. And if you didn’t know that before you came here today, and you didn’t notice the change from green to purple in the environment of the church and in Fr. Phil’s ensemble. Then the ultimate tip off would be the Gospel we just heard. In the three-year cycle of the Lectionary, this is the only Sunday in the liturgical year that no matter what cycle we are in, Year A, B or C we ...
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On January 19th, a family of four were found frozen to death on the Canada-US border in Manitoba. It was a shocking and startling headline I spotted when perusing the CBC app on my cell phone. I felt sick. How could such a thing possibly happen in this land of opportunity? A land which had called the Patel family to immigrate, just as it had called my ancestors and the ancestors of any of us not of Indigenous descent in this country. Since then, I ...
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There is an urgency in the Ash Wednesday readings and an urgency in the readings we have throughout the entire 40 days of Lent. They seem to be saying, “Act now and don’t put off till tomorrow what needs to be done today!” That urgency is connected to Jesus’ own journey to Jerusalem. It is crunch time for Jesus. With each Sunday’s readings, you will notice he is getting closer and closer to Jerusalem, and things are getting darker and ...
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We are all familiar with Jesus’ expression about taking the log out of your own eye before you proceed with trying to take the speck out of your neighbour’s eye. We all know exactly what that means. But it is one of those sayings of Jesus that we would rather apply to others than to ourselves. At least that’s the way I would like to see it applied. I would rather attempt to straighten out everyone else before considering what ...
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