For from the least to the greatest of them, everyone is greedy for unjust gain; and from prophet to priest, everyone deals falsely. They have treated the wound of my people carelessly, saying, ‘Peace, peace’, when there is no peace.
Romans 12:9
Let love be genuine; hate what is evil, hold fast to what is good;
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Words of Grace For Today
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We’ve all heard again that famous, or infamous, Rant, I am Canadian. With quiet music building to swells of patriotic music Joe states his case:
Hey, I’m not a lumberjack or a fur trader
I don’t live in an igloo or eat blubber or own a dogsled.
and I don’t know Jimmy, Sally or Suzy from Canada, although I’m certain that their really, really nice.
Uh
I have a prime minister, not a president.
I speak English and French not American
and I pronounce it about, not aboot.
I can proudly sew my country’s flag on my backpack.
I believe in peacekeeping not in policing.
I believe in diversity, not assimilation.
And I believe the beaver is a truly proud and noble animal.
A toque is a hat.
And a chesterfield is a couch.
And it’s pronounced Zed, not Zee, Zed.
Canada is the second largest landmass
The first nation of hockey
and the best part of North America.
My name is Joe
and I am Canadian.
Reality
Given Trump and his threats and actual tariffs that will do great damage to our economy, one can understand the call to be patriotic.
At the core of our problems, though, we do not find economics or politics, but good old fashion love, faith, and hope, expressed as empathy and care for all people, especially the poor.
So ours is not a rant but a chant backed by any number of great pieces of music, for example “Canticle of the Turning” (ELW 723) by Rory Cooney, to the lively Irish folk tune used as a rugby match song:
Hey, I am not a crusading knight, nor a desert ascetic.
I don’t hold exorcisms, live in Corinth or Bethlehem or Nazareth.
I have a pastor and a bishop, not a coach or a guru.
I speak many native languages, but not Latin or Sanskritic.
I proudly were a cross on a fine chain around my neck.
I believe in peace not in war or violence.
I believe in respecting and welcoming diversity, not excluding strangers or foreigners.
I believe the fish is a wonderful symbol of faith, as is the boat.
I’m not concerned with how people pronounce words, but that we share the radical Word of God.
God’s favour is not won by what we do or say or believe, but is God’s free gift given to us.
We can refuse it and we do, sinners that we are. But God keeps saving us over and over again, making us saints able to do miraculous things for others, especially the poor, the hungry, the homeless, the outcasts, refugees, strangers, and especially children.
Christianity may be worldwide and messed up in many places, sometimes even here at home, but it is the gift of life,
the gift of life abundant for all people.
We may be getting fewer in number, but being a follower of Jesus is the best part of life.
My name is not important because God knows it and everything about me and still loves me. I’m not ashamed of my name, yet it’s not what I’m proud of.
I’m proud that I bear Jesus’ cross and Jesus’ name,
So I have looked upon you in the sanctuary, beholding your power and glory.
Revelation 22:17
The Spirit and the bride say, ‘Come.’ And let everyone who hears say, ‘Come.’ And let everyone who is thirsty come. Let anyone who wishes take the water of life as a gift.
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Words of Grace For Today
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In today’s world everything has a cost, everyone can be bought, time is money, money speaks … and on it goes… supposedly!
But in God’s world everything has a cost, except, for what is most precious, the cost is covered
by the Creator, All-powerful, All-knowing, Present-in-all-time, righteous Judge, who loves us so much
that Jesus gave his life that we might receive the most precious of all: Life ( our lives with all the details known, good and bad, past, present, future … all our sins forgiven … life restored to us filled with perseverance, empathy, love, joy, hope, and the purpose that makes life so good: to share all that with others.)
Let the barkers cry all they want for us to buy, buy, buy,
My eyes fail with watching for your promise; I ask, ‘When will you comfort me?’
Hebrews 4:16
Let us therefore approach the throne of grace with boldness, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.
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Words of Grace For Today
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The Siblings
Two brothers:
One ate oatmeal for breakfast every morning, sometimes before bed as well. Slim, fit, though he worked little with his hands, arms, legs, and body. His was a labour of the mind, teaching students in high school, mentoring them on how to live in this wide world of challenges unending, as he provided the basics for them to become responsible citizens of Canada.
The other never disclosed his diet though it obviously was always sufficient, for his body was rotund. He also worked with his mind, a farmer of a large operation. And he worked with his hands, arms, legs and feet, labouring hard at various times during the year to raise crops and animals to feed many, many people well.
Two sisters:
One, solid and sturdy on her feet, worked endlessly to secure a safe and secure life for herself and her five children. The costs of raising children was immense, and her securing sufficient income was always on her mind, always dictated her decisions. She drove her husband harder than she drove herself, for he shared her focus, to earn enough money to secure a good life for himself and his family. Until he could not anymore, for the lies he had to tell in order to continue in his job were too much to bear. He switched occupations and started a thriving store, making more money than he ever could have before. But his body and his mind could not keep up with the pressure and after a year of severe sleep deprivation added to the stress of his own and his wife’s demands on him he succumbed to the depression that had haunted him since he was a teenager and he killed himself.
As a widow this sister continued working the store and her own job, letting the children raise themselves. As she approached 55 years old she looked back on her life, and forward to her future and she succumbed to deep depression. Her oldest daughter had murdered at least two people, and gotten away with it. Her to older sons had left home as soon as they could and never talked to her. Her younger daughter in her late 20s, still fully dependent on her, had followed her father’s exit from life. Her youngest son stayed in touch. Everything he did was about earning more money, and he was fundamentally unhappy, trying anything from travel, to drugs, to sex, to danger to try to find some meaning to life.
This widow’s sister was in comparison frail of body, though she had been graceful in her youth. Most certainly beauty had passed her by and she made little attempt to cover the awkward mismatched features she’d been born with. She had excelled at school, for it was the only thing she could do well. Music and math, history and languages, hard sciences and psychology, and even religion engrossed her. She had earned multiple Ph.ds. Her classes at a small university were always overfilled. She engaged her students, pushing them to not only master the subject before them, but the questions of life that lay beneath it all, and their place in the whole project of life.
She was still happily married to her first love, also a professor, he in philosophy. They had two children who had families of their own. Each made their way around the world on projects, one as a medical volunteer with various NGOs, the other as an organizer, speaker, and counsellor to leaders and vulnerable children alike.
The focus of this sister’s life, and her families’ lives, was to share God’s gracious generosity in any and every way they could with the people most in need. No one was wealthy in the family. More than a few times the children had come to their parents for help, sometimes for money. Lately the parents had gone to each of their children for help, organizing a project to educate and inspire people of all backgrounds to reach out with compassion to people in the greatest need around the world, starting in their backyards, with the homeless people in their city.
This year for Thanksgiving the second sister and her husband, with both children and their whole families, travelled to Tanzania to help start building a new medical clinic that would eventually become a full fledged teaching hospital outside the capital, Dodoma.
The first sister, with more than 8 million dollars in investments and assets, worked at her store, and exhausted spent the evening at home, taking a phone call from her youngest, asking for more money, this time to buy a new motorcycle to travel with some friends somewhere to the south. She transferred $80k into his account, sat on the couch in her fancy living room and a huge emptiness engulfed her, and she wept for hours like she had never wept before. The next morning she woke up feeling worse than if she’d had a hangover, which she’d had plenty of in her life.
Fraternal Twins, a boy and a girl
Fraternal Twins, a boy and a girl, were born yesterday to a distant cousin of the brothers and the sisters, in a small town near the SK border. Their parents attend church irregularly, aren’t really driven to do anything they do not need to, but they get by on their income living a rather simple if not poverty consumed lifestyle.
Where will each of these twins find themselves in 20 years? In 30 years? In 55 years? Will they find meaning and joy in life? Or will they pursue life selfishly only to find life meaninglessness easily engulfs them?
Could we make a difference if we knew these twins, these sisters, these brothers? Does God equip us to share humility, purpose, joy, reasons to give thanks, and grace with those most in need?
Light dawns for the righteous, and joy for the upright in heart.
Matthew 25:1-2
Then the kingdom of heaven will be like this. Ten bridesmaids took their lamps and went to meet the bridegroom. Five of them were foolish, and five were wise. …
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Words of Grace For Today
I’ve never been sure about the bridesmaids.
Not in Jesus’ parable, nor in real life for that matter.
What are they up to, anyway?
Meeting the Bridegroom in the dark, needing lanterns, not being admitted if their lanterns have run out of oil.
I understand not wanting to wait in the darkness.
But waiting?
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Though it is what life is like for us always, waiting, waiting, waiting for salvation,
for God to save us since we’ve left ourselves no avenue for hope, other than God. (Not that there ever was any other avenue. We just like to think at first that we can find our own way out of trouble.)
So we wait for Light and Joy to dawn,
from the darkness,
not unlike the days growing shorter ever more
and more
and more
until we barely see the sun all day.
Waiting
waiting
waiting
for rescue.
Do we really need to bring extra ‘oil’ with us for our ‘lanterns’?
Sing praises to the Lord, O you his faithful ones, and give thanks to his holy name.
John 5:25
Very truly, I tell you, the hour is coming, and is now here, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live.
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Words of Grace For Today
‘Dead man walking’ refers to those on death row in particular as they walk their last few steps from their cell to the execution room. It also is used by extension to describe those who are targeted to die soon for their ‘misdeeds’.
It is a hell of a term,
not least of all because every human alive is walking their last steps alive on earth. Some have a few decades of walking, some a few years, some a few weeks, some a few days, some a few hours, but we are walking towards our deaths.
Jesus turns the meaning of that hellish phrase around. Those who are dead will be called some day to walk again. Properly we should say it’s dead people not only walking again but living again,
and living most fully,
in the grace and light of God.
For this God promises also us all, even those who still walk our few remaining steps, so that we need not fear death.
For death will not have the final say. Neither will the devil nor those who seek our deaths.
Already today then we sing and dance and praise God for the life abundant God has given us for this day, as yesterday, as every tomorrow.
God Guides Us On Our Challenging Path to the Light of Christ,
and Calls Us to Share It and Everything
With Everyone.
Psalm 65:4
Happy are those whom you choose and bring near to live in your courts. We shall be satisfied with the goodness of your house, your holy temple.
Galatians 4:4-5
But when the fullness of time had come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, in order to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as children.
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Words of Grace For Today
Happy are those.
Happy are we, as some of those, as we are, who are adopted by God as children. God has chosen us and taken us in when we least deserve anything good. God has given us bounty beyond bounty of things good. Nothing can take that from us.
God calls us to share all this with everyone we encounter, the promise, the reality, the reception of gifts, the challenges, the call to share it all.
God help us, for the tasks are as impossible as the gifts are astounding.
How can we but dance and sing our thanks and praise for all God has given us, including the answer to the age-old question: what is the meaning of life?
Which is none other than to share all we have with those in need.
God help us if we don’t. God help us to do this, each day.
Whom did you dread and fear so that you lied, and did not remember me or give me a thought? Have I not kept silent and closed my eyes, and so you do not fear me?
Romans 8:15
For you did not receive a spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received a spirit of adoption. When we cry, ‘Abba! Father!’
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Words of Grace For Today
Fear grows out of many different kinds of circumstances. Perhaps the worst is real fear from people and circumstances that will kill or maim one’s loved ones.
In slavery everything about one’s life circumstance is determined by an other. Today things may be quite tolerable. That holds no promise for tomorrow.
That can drive one to real fear.
Being a slave to sin, a slave to the Evil One, is as high as the stakes can get, for not only is life here on earth at risk, but all life, after death and eternally, as well as life of one’s spirit, which normally can thrive even as one’s body does not.
This slavery is a valid, urgent, and critical reason to run through life in fear.
Caught in that slavery, as we all are born into it, leads to to no end of absolutely terrible things we do to try to deny that slavery, or to counter it’s effects on us and our loved ones. All our efforts are in vain, but the Devil has many ways of getting us to hide that truth from ourselves.
This is not that for which God created us to live, that we would run ourselves and others ragged out of fear, lying and deceiving even ourselves about the reality of life in God’s creation.
Hard to get that message across to us thick-headed humans, God sent Jesus, God’s own Son, to teach, heal, and guide us, and to be an example of love, even love so profound that one sacrifices oneself so that others can live, and live well.
Adopted into Jesus’ disciples we are at baptism, and then …
well life goes on and unfortunately so many of us forget all God has done for us, and we allow the Devil to consume us with fear,
and we lie
to ourselves and others
and destroy others and ourselves and those we love
and
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it seems that nothing is better than before God adopted us in baptism as God’s own children.
Thank God, God knew we’d do that, and planned for that, so that Jesus’ forgiveness applies to us anew each day, each hour, each minute, freeing us once again from that fear and all fear that would drive us back into the Devil’s devious and destructive hands.
So we are free.
Free to follow Jesus’ example of
being slaves to God’s Will for us,
that we would love one another as God loves us,
even to sacrifice ourselves so that others will live, and live well,
live abundantly,
and joyfully.
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Many have done this for us, so we live abundantly,
and can joyfully give all God has given us so others may live abundantly and joyfully.
A drab morning, snow falling, making wood collecting more difficult.
Or delight in the cool that makes working outside a bit easier
than with countless bugs looking for a meal from your skin?
Psalm 27:1
The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? The Lord is the stronghold of my life; of whom shall I be afraid?
Philippians 4:13
I can do all things through him who strengthens me.
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Words of Grace For Today
Courage is hard to come by when one is down and out, beaten again and again by enemies, lies, deceptions, and others’ greed.
At times one has to agree with Thomas Hobbes when he said about life being ‘solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short’.
God answers that and all our other despairing with a simple reassurance: God is with us through it all.
Like walking in a sunset alone, still unable to do anything but despair how tough life is, ‘going it alone’ is always a recipe for struggles without end.
Like walking in a sunset with a loved one, the experience grows beyond itself to convince you two that life is a wonderful, marvellous adventure, with promise unending of things good and better.
So God walking with us through it all, turns life inside out with joy, delights, and hope.
And when God walks with us, we need not be overcome with fear of yet another enemy taking more of life from us, for even if that does happen, God will show us how to find joy and delight in all that life is for us.
Today, as the snow falls again, and then hard cold of winter is coming, the joy is in the warmth provided by a hot fire in the wood stove, held close by many insulated tarps. It may not be much, but it is as much a home as I have, and in it I find endless delight even as the challenges never cease to more than fully occupy my days.
So what will we see today? The enemies efforts or God’s Grace and delights for us?
