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March 13, 2023

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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...
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March 17, 2023

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Our readings today are mostly about repentance and our Father’s forgiveness. Our gospel are the two commandments of Christ which complete us after our repentance. How loving and forgiving is our Father of all my mistakes.  I spent so many years depending totally on myself… a perfectionist. I thought I had achieved everything I ever wanted or could have needed. Over the next 18 months, I lost everything… illusions slipping through my fingers. Professional loss, financial losses, my home and even some family. Only after I registered my losses did I realize I was holding it up as my idols. It was shocking to realize that  all the material possessions were actually idols to me… all my time, my money, all my focus led me completely astray. My mother used to say when your hands are full, you can’t receive anything. Wise woman. God has healed my waywardness. There is so much freedom in learning to trust in him. I will never amass all that I once had but it never brought ...
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March 4, 2023

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    for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust. Matthew 5:44-45 Blessed are they that keep his testimonies, and that seek him with the whole heart. Psalm 119:2 Every summer farmers all over the Prairie face the looming prospect of hail. Last year, 2022, was our year. Our situation cannot be compared with Job’s, or those of our brothers and sisters in regions devastated by natural disaster or war, or those living on the streets of our very own Lethbridge. Still, in the days and weeks immediately following the storm, it was tempting to believe we were somehow marked: had we angered God? It can be a struggle to feel whole when things in our lives come apart. But our spirit is always whole, it is our birth right, and more like a storm lantern than a spark. Sometimes it is when we feel stripped down that our inner light becomes more apparent to us and to others. Within weeks of the storm, the mature poplars...
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