Salvogesis

Perfect love drives out fear: People have been filled with so much fear and hate in this country that it is not only driving out love but it is also clouding our reason - at least mine. There is lots I do not understand. Look at our rules still in place right now about Covid-19. I don't understand them. People are now allowed to be in bars dancing and drinking and being in close contact with one another. You can be crammed in a seat in sports game so close to someone else that they can spill their drink on you or spray the food from their mouth all over you.  At the same time, in our province, one must be vaccinated to eat at a restaurant where the server takes your order from the table. The waiter, however, who goes from table-to-table does not need to be vaccinated. If unvaccinated people are more likely to carry the virus, then the legislation is putting all the customers and especially the staff at risk; if not, then what is the point of the passport - to keep unvaccinated patr...

Matthew 26:11 (Mark 14:7, John 12:8) Jesus quotes Deuteronomy 15:11 in saying, “the poor will always be with you”   As this is the case, Ignacio Ellacuria says, in essence, the great salvific task is to evangelize the poor so that out of their poverty they may attain the spirit necessary first to escape their indulgence and oppression, second to put an end to oppressive structures, and third to be used to inaugurate a new heaven and a new earth, where sharing trumps accumulating and where there is time to hear and enjoy God’s voice in the heart of the material world and in the heart of human history. [3]   I think that is very important. We need to evangelize the poor. We know what the word evangelize means, right? It comes from the Greek word ‘euangelion’, which means ‘good message’ or ‘good news’. [4]  We need to share the good news with the poor. Jesus, as recorded in Luke 4:18, in his very early sermon in the synagogue in his very own hometown quoted the prophet Isaia...

When we were stationed in Toronto, we participated in the Santa Shuffle, an annual fun race put on by The Salvation Army. Even Heather when she was very little participated and got a medal. I have been injured since the beginning of covid (hamstring and meniscus) but before then – off and on - since I was in my 30s, I have done a bit of running. When I lived in Vancouver, I faithfully ran every second day. I lived about 5km from my office – I used to run there and back. In Winnipeg I lived almost 10km from the College; a colleague and I did that run more than once. In Toronto I would run past the many Officers’ quarters regularly as we all seemed to live in the same area, and here in Port Alberni I even ran with Rebecca a bit before she moved and then I was later injured. Running can be fun – but when you get out of the habit and have to start again or when you start for the very first time it can be a chore. And sometimes those hills in your first few runs can feel like mountains and ...

Psalm 25 is an acrostic poem which means that every line begins with a different letter in the Hebrew Alphabet. If it was our alphabet, it would run A through Z in sequence. It is a poem written during some very difficult times. We, now, are in some very difficult times: Flooding around the province, fires in the summer, the plague that still ravages the world and seems to mutate almost at will (if that were possible); our economy is in shambles and we are making it worse; our country is more and more involved in many -at best- questionable aggressive international actions; our country is divided over things like vaccine passports and vaccine mandates. People are scared. People are mean. People are uncertain. All of this is coming across on social media and in person. I have heard multiple stories of people ‘losing it’ and I think we have each probably encountered someone ‘losing it’, getting noticeably upset in public when they never would have before. That person ‘losing it’ in some ...

The other week the kids and I were able to join Susan and her parents in the BC Legislature as they honoured her father for all the work he did for the people of BC. It was nice to have everyone’s names mentioned too.   We then got to stay for question period and that was ‘a whole nother matter’. It started off innocuous enough. It actually reminded me of when I was in Grade 6. We each took turns public speaking. Someone would have a timer. You had to be as close to 2 minutes as possible and not go over. The MLAs were doing this very well. I am sure they must have all passed Grade 6 with flying colours... And then it got interesting.  The clock was set for half-an-hour or so but unlike the 2-minute speeches, this time limit meant… absolutely nothing. The time was done and the politicians were not done; so they kept talking. The opposition, all except one lowly Green Party member who obviously didn’t get the memo, were all asking the same question over and over again about...

 The Exodus passage that we read from today references the Passover. The Passover was deliverance that God brought to His people through some terrible times. We have been struggling through the plague of Covid-19 since about March of 2020. The Passover occurred after the people had suffered through, not one plague (like we are struggling to do now) but 9 plagues. Can you imagine? Can you imagine if when we get through our current plague there are 8 more of these things waiting to greet us? …Each arguably worse than its predecessor? The Israelites suffered not one plague of Covid-19 but 9 plagues of various kinds:  1. The Nile River turns to blood (7:14–25) 2. Plague of frogs (7:25–8:11) 3. Plague of gnats (8:12–15) 4. Plague of flies (8:20–32) 5. Plague on the livestalk (9:1–7) 6. Plague of boils (9:8–12) 7. Plague of hail (9:13-35) 8. Plague of locusts (10:1–20) 9. Plague of darkness (10:21–29)  It was after the Ninth plague, when I am sure that everyon...

Today is October 31 st  so I thought that it would be good to start off with an October 31 st  quiz today:   1)       What historic event happened in Wittenburg on this date in 1517? (answer: Luther nailed his 95 theses to the door of the church.) 2)       True or False: Ghosts are mentioned in the Bible. (True, especially The Holy Ghost in the Authorized Version) 3)       True or False: A king of Israel went to a witch to speak with the spirit of a dead person (True, 1 Samuel 28). a.        Bonus Marks name the King (Saul), the dead person (Samuel), and the witch (the Witch of Endor) 4)       How many people can you name who the Bible records God used to raise others from the dead? a.        God used Elijah to raise the son of the widow of Zarephath (1 Kings 17:17-23), b.       God used El...

1 When the Lord restored the people, we were like those who dream. 2 Then our mouth was filled with laughter, and our tongue with shouts of joy; then it was said among the nations, “The Lord has done great things for them.” 3 The Lord has done great things for us, and we rejoiced. 4 Restore our fortunes, O Lord, like the watercourses in the Negeb. 5 May those who sow in tears reap with shouts of joy. 6 Those who go out weeping, bearing the seed for sowing, shall come home with shouts of joy, carrying their sheaves.   Imagine this with me. You get up and get ready for your day. You head out to pick up some groceries before doing whatever else you have planned for the day. You don’t have a mask. You don’t go back to your car to get a mask; you don’t have one there either. You don’t go all the way back home; you have no idea where one might be there even though not long ago you had 2 or 3 readily accessible everywhere. You don’t have a mask. You don’t know where you might find one. Bu...