Salvogesis

We had a great furlough. Susan and Heather have been gone for about a month; Sarah-Grace and I flew out to meet them about 2 weeks ago in Winnipeg. We then all drove back across Western Canada. Today I am going to chat about a few lessons learned and/or things that were reinforced for me along the way. Lesson 2: Deuteronomy 6:7: Teach your Children    We were able to see many other interesting things while we were in Winnipeg too: the Art Gallery, the Forks, the Museum, the Hockey Sweater the musical, St. Boniface, Booth College… and we even stayed in the same room there we stayed in when we first lived in Winnipeg for a couple of nights before we camped at Birds Hill Park. In between visiting Winnipeg and reminiscing about our time living there 15 years ago we went to pick up Heather from Ukrainian Camp in Gimli – this camp is why we were here. Heather has been learning Ukrainian, as you probably know. Susan’s mom has Ukrainian heritage, and she may have even gone to this cam...

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...

The great salvific task, then, is to evangelize the poor so that out of their material poverty they may attain the awareness and the spirit necessary, first to escape from their indulgence and oppression, second to put an end to oppressive structures, and third 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. - Ignacio Ellacuria The poor unleash solidarity. Solidarity means poor people and nonpoor people mutually bearing one another, giving to each other and receiving from each other. Often what is given and what is received are in quite different orders of reality: material aid and human acceptance, for example. And what the nonpoor receive may be, as a humanizing reality, superior to what they give. This kind of solidarity goes beyond mere unilateral aid, with its intrinsic tendency toward imposition and domination. It goes beyond al...

Plane and Fun Movie  Proverbs 17:22 "A joyful heart is good medicine, but a crushed spirit dries up the bones." Romans 15:13: "May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit." We were on vacation in Europe in March when the COVID-19 pandemic hit the continent full force. I never really had a chance to chat with us as a congregation about our trip. It is August now and today is only my second time speaking with you here since March. I don’t think anyone could have predicted all this. Today, I thought that I would share some thoughts from our time away. On our flight to Europe Sarah-Grace and I were watching movies with sub-titles (we didn't have headphones). One very funny movie we watched was Blended about these two previously married people falling in love and their families coming together. The lady was divorced. The man's wife had died of cancer. Sarah-Grace and...

My family and I were on vacation in Europe when the pandemic hit the continent full force. Our first night in Europe - before we knew how COVID-19 was going to paralyze the world - we were exhausted. My wife and my older daughter were so tired at 4pm that they just couldn’t stay awake. It had been a long day-and-a-half of travel without much sleep for any of us. With my wife and my older daughter asleep I took my youngest to the park, the playground, and the grocery store (before any lock downs or social distancing were in full effect!) so that we wouldn't disturb them. At the playground I made a mistake: I sat down. I sat on a bench while my youngest daughter was playing and I just could not stay awake! No matter what I did, I couldn’t stay awake - so we headed to the apartment. When we got there we noticed that there were not enough beds for us and there were even less blankets. Our older daughter was sleeping on the couch with one blanket and my wife was sleeping on a double...

Forgetting the Lord will result in weeping and more... Deuteronomy 8:19-20: “If you ever forget the LORD your God and follow other gods and worship and bow down to them, I testify against you today that you will surely be destroyed. Like the nations the LORD destroyed before you, so you will be destroyed for not obeying the LORD your God.” Israel was no more immune to destruction and being removed from the Promised Land than were the people God had there before them (Cf. Amos 3:2). [6] There is a very important passage in Genesis to which the author of Deuteronomy is referring: it is the covenant ceremony whereby God ratifies His covenant with Abraham that a) all the nations of the earth will be blessed through him (Genesis 12:1-3); and b) Israel will (for a time anyway) occupy this Promised Land (Genesis 15:17-21) Genesis 15:13-16 records one reason why the land promised to Abraham’s descendants by God is not given to Abraham in his lifetime. This is because God is e...

You are now about to enter a time of abundance so give thanks to the Lord. Israel, the next generation here should definitely give thanks to the Lord. It is God who is providing for them in the desert when they have nothing and they are thankful. It is God also who will provide for them in Canaan when they have something. They need to remember this. In their abundance, they need to remember to celebrate their thanksgiving to God. God, through Moses, says that in the Promised Land, Deuteronomy 8:10-14: When you have eaten and are satisfied, praise the LORD your God for the good land he has given you. Be careful that you do not forget the LORD your God, failing to observe his commands, his laws and his decrees that I am giving you this day. Otherwise, when you eat and are satisfied, when you build fine houses and settle down, and when your herds and flocks grow large and your silver and gold increase and all you have is multiplied, then your heart will become proud and you will forg...

Today in Deuteronomy we are dealing with Exodus: the Next Generation ; the children of the children of Israel whom God delivered out of Egypt. In our text today, we are getting close to the point where they have the opportunity to cross into the Promised Land. We read previously how their parents’ generation about 40 years before came passed this same spot in the wilderness and beyond. They were on the precipice of the Promised Land where they could eat, be satisfied and be saved from their desert wanderings but they rejected God’s salvation and so they spent the next 40 years wandering around the wilderness. These were the parents of this generation before us today in Deuteronomy 8 today. They rejected God’s promise and so died outside of God’s promise (Deuteronomy 2:19-46, Numbers 14, Hebrews 4). They have now passed on. Their leader, Moses, himself, has only has a few months left to live. And most of this book of Deuteronomy is a collection of his last words to the Hebrews before he...

Have you read those Which Way or Choose Your Own Adventure books before? [1] They are series of stories and at the bottom of each page you get to decide how the story unfolds. The pages often end with a choice for you, the reader, to make. Something along the lines of: You have reached a fork in the road, if you turn left, go to Page 2; if you go right, turn to Page 3. Let’s try one of these Which Way / Choose Your Own Adventure style of stories here shall we? The objective of this story that we are reading is to get to Grandma’s house. To Get To Grandma’s House: You are walking in a dark forest, all alone, at midnight. You should have been to Grandma’s house an hour ago. You look around you. Instantly it strikes you that you are lost. You no longer know where you are. You have seemingly walked these paths a thousand times before but today you must have been dreaming and missed a turn or something. You are lost. You sit down to take stalk of the situation when all of a sudden ...

The other night my teenage daughters and I went to see Poison and Cheap Trick in concert. I am blessed. We have seen Alice Cooper, Deep Purple, GNR, Live and others in concert together. It is a lot of fun to be able to share these experiences with my daughters. The Poison, Cheap Trick concert was a Father's Day concert and this was a good way to celebrate Father's Day: listening to music from when I was a teenager with my teenagers. My teenagers actually like this old music! I don't know how they developed the same taste in music as I have. I think it flowed from a school (History?) assignment of Sarah-Grace's but I am not sure. I know that even though I don't listen to music a lot, they did have the chance to hear my old tapes. Some of my influence must of rubbed off on them. Rebecca now even has a tape player so she can and does play my old tapes! They have also gotten these older songs in newer formats to listen to. They must of picked up something from my influe...

Moses was about to leave his life and his work behind him. It was very important that his people, the Hebrews, chose to continue to follow the Lord. It was very important for that is the only way that they and their children and their children's children would be able to stay afloat in the ocean of the troubles that would surround them for generations to come. At men's camp this year the men were given cardboard and duct tape and told to build the best craft that they could. These boats would be tested for buoyancy. The one that stayed afloat the best (holding the most weight) would win. There were many decisions to make: how much cardboard to use; how much duct tape; what shape should it be; what size; what style? The decisions people made and followed through on had a significant effect on the end result. If they chose wisely the boast floated and stayed afloat; if they did not, it did not. It is the same in our own life. If we choose to try to build our lives with inco...