Posts begin on Ash Wednesday, February 22

 


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

March 8, 2023

Image
  Image: “The Scream” – one of four versions painted by Norwegian artist Edvard Munch. ( https://www.npr.org/2012/05/02/151706441/scream-still-echoes-after-more-than-a-century )    In Worth , a 2020 movie (Netflix) that recounts the story of Kenneth Feinberg, the Special Master of the September 11th Victim Compensation Fund in the USA, there is a compelling movement from a cold compensation formula towards a humane response to the victims of the terror attacks of 9/11, largely due to intense lobbying by Charles Wolf who emerged as a leader amongst the victims’ families. Whilst the Al Qaeda terrorists acted out their misplaced vengeance against everything American and Western, the suffering fell disproportionately on the nearly 3000 who died in the WTC, at the Pentagon and of course the luckless passengers of those murder-suicide flights. The movie delves into the fine weighing of what is just compensation to the families of the many victims, asking the question: What is...
Read more

April 2, 2023

Image
  Psalm 118:1-2, 19-29 I have had a month.   You know, nothing seriously wrong but lots of little curve balls being thrown at me and I just couldn’t seem to connect with a single one of them. My car broke down – three times.   My daughter flew home for reading week and her flight was delayed a day…which meant a long day at the airport and we lost a precious day of being together.   On the way home from Calgary, we got caught in the BIG snowstorm, had to call in to work for the next day and stay in a hotel overnight.   We had an impromptu trip to the vet – which is an experience with our anxiety ridden Lucy - as she had a strange looking something growing on her head, (thought it might have been a tick. It wasn’t – thank you Jesus).   I had a toothache, which meant an impromptu trip to the dentist – which is an experience with an anxiety ridden Wendy.   I could go on, but you get the idea.   I don’t want to seem pessimistic...
Read more

March 13, 2023

Image
Death and Miracles 2 Kings 5:1-15 and Luke 4:24-30 Lent is a time of thinking about death. We contemplate the sin and suffering in the world and our own inescapable mortality; we prepare for the betrayal and death of Jesus Christ. Yet it is also a time of thinking about miracles. We approach Good Friday knowing that Easter Sunday awaits. Contrary to the evidence of science and our own experience, we proclaim that Jesus was dead and yet now is alive forever. This is a pretty great deal. Yet the two passages for today suggest that we humans can become volatile indeed when brought face-to-face with death and miracles. In the Old Testament, the Syrian commander Naaman has what can only be described as a temper tantrum when the prophet Elisha does not perform any dramatic flourishes to heal him from leprosy, but instead commands him to bathe in the Jordan River. Centuries later, Jesus informs his synagogue that he is the fulfillment of Isaiah’s prophecy, but...
Read more