Salvogesis

Romans 5:3,4 “...but let us also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope.” We have been suffering through the pandemic for quite a while now; but today is a sign of hope. [i]   We are meeting inside again for a church service. Praise the Lord. It seems a little strange. It has been a little while. It reminds me of the story of Noah and the flood a little bit. [ii]  It reminds me of Genesis Chapter 8 – especially the part where Noah and his family send out the birds.   Noah and his family had been in their social bubble, secluded from others for a long time. The earth was covered by a flood. To me this is reminiscent of the many people who have been secluded from others in many ways and some more than others – some completely or almost completely – as the whole earth has been flooded with this pandemic.   Genesis Chapter 8 especially resonated with me this week in the context of chur...

Matthew 18: …the disciples came to Jesus and asked, “Who, then, is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?”    2 He called a little child to him, and placed the child among them. 3 And he said: “Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. 4 Therefore, whoever takes the lowly position of this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. 5 And whoever welcomes one such child in my name welcomes me.    The scene is like this: Jesus’ followers, his congregation, his friends, like you guys here; like us; they ask Jesus which one of them is doing the best? Who is the star? Who is the greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven?    Jesus then looks for a child in the congregation and has her stand with the disciples who are asking the question (the word is gender neutral but there is an argument to be made that the child is a girl)[i] and Jesus tells his disciples – she is the greatest…or one like her....

Today we read about the feeding of the 5000 by Jesus and his disciples. This is a very significant story. The writers of all four of the Gospels included it in their biography of Jesus’ and their record of his ministry. It is actually the only miracle that all four of them noted. The authors John and Matthew were both present when this event occurred, and Luke’s version of this incident is recorded after some significant research. And John Mark was certainly part of the inner circle of Jesus’ followers afterwards and so he undoubtedly heard about this incident quite a bit - as he himself may or may not have been there as well.   John and Matthew were both there when this happened. John has a little bit different of a memory of this event than Matthew but no more of a difference of a recollection than Susan and I have over some of the events of our life and ministry.   This story struck me anew this week for a couple of reasons. One, I was surprised to learn this week that I ha...

I am so thankful that we are allowed to have our worship times outside now (as long as we are blessed with appropriate weather).  There has been a lot of talk about obeying the authorities in recent times. It has after all been illegal for the Church to meet in the churches for church services since Christmas. It is only in the previous few weeks that we have even been allowed to meet outside in the elements again. There have been many discussions about churches gathering. I had an article published in the  Journal of Aggressive Christianity  entitled “What we did when Church was illegal  “ [i] . It has been a serious concern. At a time when rates of suicide and drug use and abuse are at all-time highs to remove these emotional and spiritual supports from the most vulnerable doesn’t seem to make any sense to many people.   According to Matthew, Jesus famously tells us to “render unto Caesar what is Caesar’s”  (M t  22:21)  and  Paul in  ...

 “Hosanna” “My God, My God Why Have You Forsaken Me”, “He is Risen”. Holy Week is filled with up and down crazy emotions.    On Palm Sunday we are ecstatic. It looks like the miserable times are coming to an end; it looks like the light at the end of the tunnel is shining bright and we are about to step out into the daylight. “Hosanna”, “Save us!”, we shout!   On Good Friday it looks like that light of hope is extinguished – and indeed even the sunlight is literally extinguished. There is an eclipse or something: darkness covers the earth (Luke 23:45).   On Easter Sunday that darkness is overcome in a way that it cannot understand and in a way we should have seen coming but didn’t, and it is a time of genuine celebration – even if there is still a great uncertainty (John 1:5).   When Palm Sunday rolled around in the first century the Judeans, Samaritans, Israelites, and more were living in occupied territories. The Romans and their military h...

  Today I have with me my Grandmother’s brother’s Bible that he was issued when he joined the Royal Navy in the Second World War. This week at a prayer meeting one of our members read to us from a Bible his father received in 1918 as a prisoner-of-war in England.   Today things are very different than past Remembrance Day ceremonies. Covid-19 has affected every aspect of our lives – separating us from friends and family. People have not been able to be with loved ones as they passed on from this life to the next one. People are dying. We hear of outbreaks in different cities and other places where our family is and we worry and we wonder. I have a daughter on the mainland working with vulnerable people and so we follow reports closely. 1914-1918 and 1939-44 there was a large sense of worry and loss and grief and fear that gripped our world, our country, and even our valley here more than 100 years ago and more than 75 years ago in the world wars.   Today we are standing o...

This week I watched most of the BC Leaders debate with Susan – I wasn’t going to. I don’t really care so much about what the leaders say on TV; I care more about their performance in the legislative assembly. The cynical side of me thinks that they are just guessing what the most popular positions are and then trying to say how good they are at those things while they belittle their opponents. I must say though that I thought this was the least ‘naggy’ and ‘interupty’ leadership debate I have seen in a while. My wife will disagree with me on that. She didn’t care for this debate at all. Myself, I honestly don’t care as much about who the next premier will be as I do about who our next MLA will be as we will inevitably have to work with them around important issues in our community: housing and homelessness, addiction and mental health, etc., so I definitely plan to listen to the debate between Josie, Helen, Graham, and others here.   As far as leaders debates are concerned I am alw...