Every year, approaching Lent, I notice the same question being asked: What are you giving up for Lent? I want to suggest instead that we add something for the season. Three traditional spiritual practices during Lent are prayer, fasting, and almsgiving. I will briefly explore these practices and how we...
What does God expect from us this year? The world is finally recovering from the chaos of the pandemic. There has been a time of adjustment as we’ve started to gather again. Current political and environmental news has been harrowing. There seems to be a growing fear of anything and...
John 3:16 is likely the most famous of all scripture passages. Yet it is juxtaposed in the lectionary this week with the story of Moses lifting up a snake on a cross in the wilderness. In this story from Numbers, we encounter the cranky Hebrew people. The longer they wander...
Jesus was angry when he saw the temple made into a marketplace. He was angry because God forbade idolatry in the Ten Commandments. The people were making worship all about money. Jesus knew his actions in the temple could bring him into conflict with the temple priests and leaders, but...
Just imagine: You’ve been travelling with your teacher for three years. You’ve been present and have watched as the crowds come to him for healing and hope. You are excited by the momentum that is building. You imagine all the wonderful possibilities for the coming years, working with Jesus and...
On the first Sunday in Lent, the scripture texts thrust us into the wilderness. First, we encounter the story of God’s promise to Noah after the flood, after the devastation of the earth that turned the whole known world into a wilderness. In the gospel, we engage the story of...
God designed all creation to raise voices in praise, or as Maltbie Davenport Babcock put it, “All nature sings, and round me rings the music of the spheres” (VU 296 “This is God’s wondrous world”). Scripture gives us the freedom to use every instrument at our disposal for God’s praise...
In recent years, I have been engaged in exploring intercultural worship. The following are some suggestions to make your congregation’s worship interculturally friendly. In 2006, The United Church of Canada committed itself to becoming an intercultural church. Interculturalism means that different cultures can exist side by side without one culture...
In recent years, I have been engaged in exploring intercultural worship. The following are some suggestions to make your congregation’s worship interculturally friendly. WELCOMING It takes courage to enter a church as a stranger, particularly if one is not part of the dominant culture. How we welcome new arrivals sets...
Have you wondered about using the First Nations Version: An Indigenous Translation of the New Testament by Terry M. Wildman and the First Nations Version Translation Council (InterVarsity Press, 2021)? Wildman, with roots in the state of Michigan, is of Ojibwe and Yaqui ancestry and was Lead Translator and Project...
