Category: Spring

Weeping & Pain

Overcome by God’s Promises

Friday, May 12, 2023

Fire & Smoke

May Colour Our World and Steal Breath From Us,

Doch God Promises Life

Abundant

Jeremiah 31:9

With weeping they shall come, and with consolations I will lead them back, I will let them walk by brooks of water, in a straight path in which they shall not stumble; for I have become a father to Israel, and Ephraim is my firstborn.

John 16:22

So you have pain now; but I will see you again, and your hearts will rejoice, and no one will take your joy from you.

Words of Grace For Today

That life is filled with pain and sorrow, difficulties and failures, enemies and losses is no surprise for anyone with their eyes open.

Often in the midst of the worst that life serves up for us, it is challenging to remember that God intended us to enjoy life by giving help to others. God did not intend for life to be an endless party, ignoring ours’ and others’ needs. God did intend that life should be rewarding, joy-filled, and filled with vitality of mind, body, and spirit.

So God promises that though today we may have pain and sorrow, God has not forgotten us. God has claimed us as God’s own people and become a father & mother to us all.

What God promises no one can take from us.

That is reason enough to give every bit of effort we have into sharing the goodness of life with others.

Crying!

Crying To God

Or Languishing Away …

Wednesday, May 10, 2023

Even The Animals There Were Barely Alive,

Starving Like the People.

Isaiah 50:2

God spoke:Why was no one there when I came? Why did no one answer when I called? Is my hand shortened, that it cannot redeem? Or have I no power to deliver? By my rebuke I dry up the sea, I make the rivers a desert; their fish stink for lack of water, and die of thirst.

Matthew 8:2

… and there was a leper who came to him and knelt before him, saying, ‘Lord, if you choose, you can make me clean.’

Words of Grace For Today

When Julius travelled to the south, climbing the steep cliffs and crossing the miles of barren rock, he found (as he had heard he would) a community of people so poor and poorly prepared for anything that would come their way that it astounded everyone who saw their community that they had survived this long.

Julius stopped at house after house offering to help heal anyone who was sick, to share words of encouragement, to offer advice on how to prepare better for the winter yet to come, and more desperately to increase their food stores if just a bit. Yet at every house he stopped at, he was told that he could not help them, that they would have to make do such as life was for them. He could move on if we knew what was good for him.

So he moved on to the next house, and the next, and the next, and …. After finding almost every house in the community he turned back north for the journey home that would take him through two nights.

He reached the barren rocks and stopped for that first night. As he setup camp and started to prepare for his light meal, such as it was, for he was nearly out of food himself, unwilling to take anything from such a poor community, a voice called out.

He stopped, surprised and then astounded as one of the community he’d just visited cried out to him to help them. He went, met the person, and heard that a house outside the community, a house he had not found was over-filled with people all sick, cast out of the community. The wanted to be healed, if he could take the time to help them.

So he went.

He saw even in the dark of night with the few lights from burning torches.

He diagnosed them with a simple malady of fungus.

He showed them how to grind up the root of a plant that grew nearly everywhere around them, to boil it in a tea. Within a day they would notice a difference as they started to heal. They scoffed at him and told him he must leave to that he did not become sick, too. They insisted.

So he left, camping not far away.

The next day as he was a short ways across the barren rock plateau, he heard a cry again.

He turned to see a young boy of about 11 running towards him. He stopped. The boy who he’d noticed among the sick, already had started to heal. Then the boy danced towards him, knelt in front of him, and begged him to allow him to come with him.

After a long conversation Julius sent the boy back home, instructing him to help the others. He also promised that he would return before the harvest, and then each year at least once, and begin teaching the boy to be a wise healer for his own people, and anyone who was in need.

Fire!

You Want A Fire!

No!!

Say It Ain’t So!

Monday, May 8, 2023

CTV Photo https://edmonton.ctvnews.ca/alberta-to-give-wildfire-update-friday-morning-1.6385732

Forest On Fire Wipes Out Everything In It’s Path,

With Nothing To Stop It!

Exodus 3:14

God said to Moses, ‘I am who I am.’ He said further, ‘Thus you shall say to the Israelites, “I am has sent me to you.” ’

Romans 8:31

What then are we to say about these things? If God is for us, who is against us?

Words of Grace For Today

Tinder dry brown grasses and dead wood in the forest lay bare waiting. The snow had melted quickly in the last week until none was left anywhere. And then the fools would cause havoc, along with lightening strikes that could come at any time, so charged was the atmosphere. And more than a few wildfires had already run through communities less prepared and protected than Julius’, built as it was between two rivers east and west, with bare ground kept bare forming fire-stopping strips on the north side. The sheer rock cliffs up to the plateau of bare stone extending for miles on south completed their protected area. Still, inside their own fields and woods everyone still had to be extra careful. It had been so hot lately thankfully no one thought of even starting fire, not for anything.

In the waking hours Julius smelled smoke from a fire. He knew it started yesterday on the far side of the river, so they were safe. But the smoke had left his nose plugged and his throat dry through the sleeping hours in the dark. So he got up to check the horizon. It was all clear. And it was cool, downright chilly at 7⁰ with a slight breeze. It would warm up. But now Julius was chilled, so he the idea came to him, maybe a fire this morning.

Then all sides and voices in his mind and heart started to through out their various exclamations. What, with these dangerously dry conditions!! Well, it is in a protected stove and a chimney with a top to deflect any sparks downward. But consider everyone! What if it gets away from you! Just one spark and the whole community could be burned to the ground. Houses gone. Crops gone. Trees gone. Food stores gone. The summer and winter storms would level everything! Where would they go? Would anyone survive? Remember the Fisigners! Only one family survived, and that by sheer luck that they ran the right way! But food must be prepared. It’s been three days without proper food. He would invite others to come and cook on his fire if they wished to share the fire. His setup was a bit better than most. That’s for the good of the community! Really! You’re just cold! Yes, I am cold. And I am old! And the cold hurts, for which there is no cure except heat, so there will be a fire. Now quiet all, for I must not make a mistake or it could all go really wrong too quickly to stop. And it was quiet.

Then, having decided, he started a fire to boil water for his breakfast and then to heat up a mix that would be meals for him for the next few days. Today, a bonus, would be a hot meal.

As he prepared his breakfast hot drink, his neighbours started to show up, knowing they were welcome to use Julius’ fire, for the invitation was an open one to all to come and share all he had, especially a ‘safe’ fire in just these kinds of conditions.

As each came, they placed their water or food on the stove, and shared a blessing with Julius: May God who is, be with us always. To which he responded: If God is for us, who is against us?

Orienting

Ourselves

Sunday, April 30, 2023

Through the Thick of Life,

Christ’ Light Orients Us

To Life Abundant,

by giving life to others

Genesis 28:16

Then Jacob woke from his sleep and said, ‘Surely the Lord is in this place—and I did not know it!’

Luke 24:32

They said to each other, ‘Were not our hearts burning within us while he was talking to us on the road, while he was opening the scriptures to us?’

Gospel for Today: John 10:1-10

‘Very truly, I tell you, anyone who does not enter the sheepfold by the gate but climbs in by another way is a thief and a bandit. The one who enters by the gate is the shepherd of the sheep. The gatekeeper opens the gate for him, and the sheep hear his voice. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. When he has brought out all his own, he goes ahead of them, and the sheep follow him because they know his voice. They will not follow a stranger, but they will run from him because they do not know the voice of strangers.’ Jesus used this figure of speech with them, but they did not understand what he was saying to them.

So again Jesus said to them, ‘Very truly, I tell you, I am the gate for the sheep. All who came before me are thieves and bandits; but the sheep did not listen to them. I am the gate. Whoever enters by me will be saved, and will come in and go out and find pasture. The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly.’

Words of Grace For Today

Jacob wakes and is convinced (after his struggle with the angel) that God is in this place, and he did not notice.

The disciples on their way to Emmaus walk along with a stranger who opens their eyes to the truth, from the scriptures and all of life. Yet they do not recognize this person, not until he shares bread and wine with them and in the eating the recognize that this is Jesus, risen from the dead.

Many times in life we do not recognize God or God’s works, as we are so engaged in trying to ‘fix’ our own lives, and to compensate for our sins and the sins of so many people around us, and who have gone before us.

On this, the Good Shepherd Sunday, we read that Jesus is the door, a door that is always open to us all, each and every one of us, though we certainly do not deserve such a welcome in the flock of Jesus. We also read that Jesus has the voice that we recognize, sometimes not in our busy minds and hearts, but always in the foundation of our being.

By this voice, by this Word, our lives can be oriented. Orient, the East.

Martin Luther called it the ‘morning land’.

As by the sunrise of each morning we orient ourselves for the day, so by Jesus’ Voice and Word, by Jesus’ Light rising out of every darkness, we can orient ourselves, not by our own strength, but by the power of the Holy Spirit working in us.

Thus oriented for this day, we have plenty of work ahead of us, sharing all Jesus’ openness to us sinners, God’s grace, and the precious gifts of the Holy Spirit to share with so many people.

Offering

Living Sacrifices,

Ourselves! (not others.)

Saturday, April 29, 2023

At Sunrise,

Even When Storms Are a’Brewing,

Nothing Need Deter Us

God Sends Us

To Bring Hope+ to All.

Deuteronomy 26:10-11

So now I bring the first of the fruit of the ground that you, O Lord, have given me.’ You shall set it down before the Lord your God and bow down before the Lord your God. Then you, together with the Levites and the aliens who reside among you, shall celebrate with all the bounty that the Lord your God has given to you and to your house.

1 Timothy 6:17-18

As for those who in the present age are rich, command them not to be haughty, or to set their hopes on the uncertainty of riches, but rather on God who richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment. They are to do good, to be rich in good works, generous, and ready to share,

Words of Grace For Today

Fundamental to life abundant is to give it all away, every last breath we have, and of course every thing, and all the rest.

God always gives us enough.

Not enough to feed our endless covetousness, lusts, greed and thirst to make our own lives at the cost of others.

God does, though, give us enough to satisfy God’s desires for us: to live and live well.

This is how God created us to live.

Today, how else would we try to live, when as God intends brings joy, contentment, trust, and hope to the core of our being?

Getting Changed

Into Saints

Friday, April 28, 2023

Where Will God Send Us Today?

First Kings 20:11

The king of Israel answered, ‘Tell him: One who puts on armour should not brag like one who takes it off.’

Ephesians 4:23

… and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds …

Words of Grace For Today

When warriors go to war, armour is a good thing to put on. When one no longer needs to fight, one can begin the struggle to make peace last. That’s the challenge of God’s holy people.

We don’t start out that way though, or rather we may start out that way but we all get lost early on in life. Instead we work to fight for ourselves and our own. God has other plans for us.

God chooses to transform us from fighters for our own interests into peacemakers, caregivers, life sustain-ers, bearers of words that inspire and give life abundant, actors of forgiveness and grace and mercy, and whatever God gives us to do.

God chooses and we are transformed in our hearts & minds, no longer striving to be good or good enough for God, Accepting who we are, sinners needing rescuing & acknowledging who God is, and then living out for others what God has done for us: loved us, forgiven us, freed us to be now sinner-saints,

We look the same on the outside, but in our hearts & minds, God has transformed us, as God intended at our creations, made us beautiful like colourful butterflies, precious, holy servants, God’s people. God sends us out, volun-tells us to care for God’s precious creation & the creatures in it, including our neighbours, all of them, of all kinds.

Each day there’s the work of love to do, serving others, even if it takes away our very breath, in awe & wonder as God brings us home, to the place Jesus prepares for us.

Abandoned?

Abandoned

To Wonders of Wonders

Thursday, April 27, 2023

The Wonders of Wonders

Surround Us

Each New Day.

Isaiah 44:21

Remember these things, O Jacob, and Israel, for you are my servant; I formed you, you are my servant; O Israel, you will not be forgotten by me.

Romans 11:1

I ask, then, has God rejected his people? By no means! I myself am an Israelite, a descendant of Abraham, a member of the tribe of Benjamin.

Words of Grace For Today

When Covid, on top of deceptions and lies, on top of deteriorating health, on top of life decaying into old age, leaves one feeling abandoned …

and who cannot identify with that reality when no one is there or here, or anywhere …

the only saving grace is to know and trust that God has not forgotten us, that God has not rejected us.

For the beauty of the world still surrounds us.

The celebration each morning still reflects the light of Christ in the Eucharist.

The provisions for survival are still possible.

And life is still possible, even peaceful, and we have learned to enjoy solitude immensely, knowing God walks with us, is for us, and protects us.

Is this not also the blessing God provides for us all?

The Reason

The Real

Renewed Reason To Celebrate

Wednesday, April 26, 2023

Where Once Fishers Fished for Food,

Now Is Empty,

Dying Ice.

Jeremiah 33:10-11

Thus says the Lord: In this place of which you say, ‘It is a waste without human beings or animals’, in the towns of Judah and the streets of Jerusalem that are desolate, without inhabitants, human or animal, there shall once more be heard the voice of mirth and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride, the voices of those who sing, as they bring thank-offerings to the house of the Lord:
‘Give thanks to the Lord of hosts, for the Lord is good, for his steadfast love endures for ever!’ For I will restore the fortunes of the land as at first, says the Lord.

Titus 2:11

For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all,

Words of Grace For Today

How many desolate places are there these days, where no more are there inhabitants or animals to be found? Where conflict and destruction of wars have chased all living things away? Or climate change storms or earthquakes or floods or droughts or rising oceans or … (you name it) have made places uninhabitable?

How many desolate places are there these days, where inhabitants and animals are to be found? Where Covid isolation, strife among neighbours and within families, or greed for power has pitted some against others, or greed based lies have destroyed the foundations of trust, decimating all that remains of a place of safety where one used to acknowledge, converse, suffering with, mourn with, and celebrate joyfully with others?

Covid is no longer treated as a pandemic, yet long Covid has taken a greater toll than just the number of those who have succumbed to death because of Covid. And such a greater number of people all across the world have suffered irreparable damage because of the mostly sensibly enforced isolation of Covid restrictions. Elderly people in care homes, seniors with age and health issues, those suffering dementia, those already caught in the grips of addictions to alcohol, drugs, or anything else, people of all ages with compromised health, children of all ages, school age children deprived of years of learning opportunities and community with other children, extroverts of all flavours cut off from what energizes them, and even introverts and hermits driven further from others.

So many people suffer and will not recover. Others are slowly recovering, like feet that slowly recover feeling more than two years after a rather simple case of Covid early on before the variants of concern became household things.

But how does one reach out?

How does one welcome others, when welcoming them places everyone at new and unseen risks, even risk of death?

How does one carry on without contact with others, giving and receiving the simplest kinds of care?

This is not the first time we have faced such challenges. Many times in millennia gone by, we cried to God to save us,

and God brought voices of mirth and joy to ring from places so desolate not one human or animal had been found there, where before desolation took hold the hustle and bustle of life and community had been vibrant.

These are exactly the kind of challenges we face as people, for which Jesus came, lived among us, taught, ministered to and cured all that ails us, and demonstrated the power of God, not in acts of taking over worldly powers, but in the weakness of loving humans, all of us, just as we are, and showing us how the power of forgiveness gives new life to us all.

So we too, in slow recovery, will sing this day. We will sing God’s praise and pray that those lost will be found, those sick will recover, those dying will be set free to come home to Jesus.

Let the choruses ring out, and once again mark the land as blessed in all ways.

The Kingdom

For the Fools

Thursday, April 20, 2023

Without the Light of Christ,

We Get Lost In the Fog of Lies

That Are Spewed So Freely.

Second Kings 19:34

For I will defend this city to save it, for my own sake and for the sake of my servant David.

Luke 12:32

Do not be afraid, little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom.

Words of Grace For Today

A city or a kingdom. We could dream of having one or the other, someday. In today’s world where fear is fuelled with lies, fuelling hate and rage, and denunciations of others that are senseless.

One of many lately is the ‘charge’ against the Trudeaus for taking a warm, post-Christmas vacation to a luxurious location in Jamaica – owned by a friend – at their own expense, while the government paid for what is required for the prime ministers’ security. The trip was pre-cleared to be free of conflict of interest. There were no Covid restrictions or other kinds of restrictions in place that were ignored. The only ‘charge’ is that Trudeau is out of touch with the financial struggles of ordinary Canadians.

The people making and repeating those charges all have it luxuriously good. In the context of all human history they all enjoy a standard of living better than 99% of the people who ever lived! And the ones creating and feeding such bogus charges probably went on similar vacations to warm climates or somewhat luxurious locations. And I can guarantee you that 100% of those people making such charges enjoy a standard of living better than I do. Vacation!? Trips!? – As one who can barely afford one trip each week to town to get food, water, and supplies the people throwing out such accusations are simply off their rockers.

The problem is these are not isolated or innocent ‘charges’. Yes, they have become part and parcel of politics. And that is exactly how dire and dangerous such ‘charges’ are! Out of such lies thrown about to create fear, so that from fear grows hate, and from that hate grows rage, and from that rage stem all sorts of violent actions are undertaken and justified (like occupying the streets of Ottawa and the borders here in Alberta to the US), and from that chaos … well chaos is a smoke screen for greater and greater evils, and we stand on the precipice of a fascist ruler rising out of the chaos … and then the ‘freedom’ that so many rage-filled suckers claim they pursue will be totally lost for all … well all except those favoured by the despot ruler. There are all too many examples of how that is done and what people suffer because of it.

Even people favoured by the ruler suffer, for their comfort is bought at the price of living a lie, and turning a blind eye to those unjustly exploited, jailed, and killed to feed the rulers’ whims.

And there goes the neighbourhood, to hell in a hand basket.

There is a reason the people were warned against seeking and elevating a king to lead them. Corruption always follows. The question is of what kind and how much.

Well, perhaps we then can already begin to dream of a city or a kingdom that we can share with other righteous people, capable of compassion, listening, and dialogue.

Yet God provides the ‘kingdom’ and ‘the city’ already to us, baptized saints.

We may not live in any city at all.

We may not live in any kingdom, but rather a federation of provinces and territories.

But we live blessed,

fools for Christ, and

members of God’s city and God’s kingdom, which is all creation.

At Home

Looking To God’s Glory

Giving God ‘Omage

Monday, April 17, 2023

All Creation Turns Towards …

Jeremiah 51:50

You survivors of the sword, go, do not linger! Remember the Lord in a distant land, `and let Jerusalem come into your mind.

Ephesians 2:19

So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are citizens with the saints and also members of the household of God,

Words of Grace For Today

There are more times in human history for more people than not, who have been robbed of their homes and sent out looking for … a life.

Yet, no matter how many times we lose our homes, and even our sense of home, though we may still have sticks and stones, plastics and metal, fibres and wires around us constituting some kind of shelter against the elements and the danger of intruders into our lives, God does not lose track of us.

God calls to us, not to lose track of God’s home for us, that provides shelter from the greatest dangers of all, the evils of fear, hate, and revenge. For God has not only promised and continually demonstrated that God keeps this promise (to be with us always), God also transformed us from the heart and soul to the outer cells of our skins. God has transformed us from sinners into sinner-saints, the ones who carry God’s Word of Grace to all the creation.

Now how are we going to do that today, anyway?

Same old, same old,

or

are we ready always to step out on the new path God sets before us?

The sun rises.

All creation turns it’s face to God’s glory.

And we sinner-saints are turned as well,

to bask in God’s Grace, in the homes God gives us (some with, some without a structure on this earth.)