Salvogesis

On this day in 2014 there were 888 246 ceramic poppies encircling the famous Tower of London in England; they create a powerful visual image to commemorate the centennial of the commencement of the First World War. The 888 246 poppies filled the Tower’s moat. Each poppy represents a military fatality during the war. We Canadians fought as part of the empire; our family members and our countrymen lived, served, and died in the ‘Great War’, the ‘war to end all wars’, the First World War. . When World War One broke out Canada was a very small and sparsely populated country of just over 7 million people. Most were farmers or involved in other primary industries. Many boys and young men left their family farms and businesses here to serve in the war there. I have read stories of bankers and teachers and minors and scientists and athletes and farmers and very young men from across this country and Newfoundland who put their jobs, their careers, their parents, their girlfriends, their ne...

Today’s passage is very much about the reality and the authority of God but it is also about who we trust and how we make our decisions. As such I have a little quiz for us about the logical way we tend to make decisions in our society: 1) How do we choose an important employee, manager, CEO, etc.? (resume, ability) 2) How do we choose the Head of State? (heredity: intense job-training programme from the moment they are born) 3) How do we choose the Canadian Idol talent show winners or politicians in this country? (a popularity contest, an election) 4) What is the traditional way that one decides whether the one they fancy truly loves them or not: ‘she loves me, she loves me not’? (with a flower) 5) How does one decide which team is going to start with the ball in Canadian football or in a soccer game? (with a coin toss) King Ahaziah, in our text today (1 Kings 22:41- 2 Kings 1:18), has an important decision to make. I guess it isn’t actually so much of a decision that...

Today’s story is a very interesting story. It is a very famous story that involves some very famous people - General Naaman, the Commander of the Aramean army ( 2 Kings 5:1 ); Elisha, the prophet of God ( 2 Kings 1:3,8 ) and a couple of less famous characters: Naaman’s wife’s servant girl and Gehazi, Elisha’s servant. I invite you to read the whole story of Naaman as it is recorded in  2 Kings 5 . Today, however, we are just going to look at the story as it relates to person of Naaman and the effect that the events recorded in the first few verses of  Chapter 5  had on Joram, the King of Israel. The story today opens up by introducing us to General Naaman: Verse 1, “Now Naaman was commander of the army of the king of Aram. He was a great man in the sight of his master and highly regarded, because through him the LORD had given victory to Aram….” Aram (Syria) There are a few interesting things in this first verse that we have just read. One is that Naaman is a genera...