So, I f you asked me to sum up the Christian Faith in one word, that word would be love. It’s what Jesus came for, what he taught, what he died for, what he rose again for…it is the mission he passed on to his disciples.

And preachers are great at encouraging their people to be more loving. To ask themselves what Jesus would do. That’s a good thing. People should know us by our love.

But I’ve been thinking a lot recently about how we receive love. This is less-talked-about in sermons. Nadia Bolz-Weber spoke about this in a beautiful sermon she wrote for Maundy Thursday, back in April (that was – what – 10 years ago now?!). She wrote about how Jesus was so good at receiving love. That he did it with grace and strength, not shying away at all. That Jesus models for us how we should receive love.

And then I was watching an Andrew Peterson video clip on YouTube, and he spoke about how easy it is for him to believe God loves others, but how hard it is to believe that God loves HIM.

Both these things resonated with me. I find it hard to receive love (or sometimes even simple compliments!). I find it easy to heap love upon others.

I’m working on that. Trying to be better to gracefully accept love when it is given to me. And I want to encourage you to do the same. I know you’re good at giving love! But how are you at receiving it? How are you at believing you are actually WORTHY of it?

Ultimately, that is how God addresses you: beloved.

Until tomorrow, dear friends, please work at believing that God loves you, that God feels you are worthy of his love.

I’ve had a couple of friends remind me that it’s ok to take a day off from blogging. Usually they say this when I’m complaining over text about trying to come up with something to blog about that day. And I tend to reply that I’m too stubborn to take a day off. I like to create my own problems and then complain about them!

But seriously, even as I struggle to find something to say (it’s getting harder the longer this goes on!) each day, I also find writing a daily blog a meaningful way of helping. It is my gift to my church family, and other loved ones.

I wasn’t sure how to express or fully explain this. But as I was scrolling through my photos on my phone, I found this:

These blog entries are my footprints! They are meant to lead others in faith, to encourage others to keep going, to bless you in the midst of these hard times.

I encourage you to find ways to make your own faithful footprints. It could be as simple as a kind gesture to your quarantine roommates (your spouse, kids or other household members that are sheltering in place with you). It could be making a phone call to someone who will be happy to hear your voice. It could be asking someone to pray for you when you’re having a hard day, and offering to pray for them as well.

Until tomorrow, dear friends, keep making faithful footprints and trust that God will use your faithful footprints to lead others to a growing relationship with Him!

In the midst of quarantine and pandemic, with all the difficult news that has come at us – flooding in Fort Mac; the shooting in Nova Scotia; the loss of military service members in the helicopter crash off the coast of Greece – it has truly been a gift to see the creatives stepping up in amazing ways.

I’ve shared on my blog before about John Krasinski’s “Some Good News” youtube show. (And if you follow me on Facebook, you know I start my Monday mornings with a coffee and an ugly cry while watching that week’s episode.)

But there are seriously so many beautiful things being done to lift spirits and encourage others.

The makers are making things better. And when they are doing their creative thing – whatever that may be – they are reflections of God. God is the ultimate creator and when humans engage in creating beautiful things, they are in the image of God. (That’s not the only way to be in the image of God – I don’t want any non-creative people feeling left out. You might be in the image of God by being kind, or generous, or honest, or by spreading peace and joy and love!)

I want to share with you just a couple of the creative endeavours that have brought me some joy.

First, Dominique Grant – a Toronto-born singer and songwriter, wrote “Till We See the Sun” and sung it to her neighbourhood about a month. It got a lot of attention in our city, as people shared the footage. Today, she released this video of the song, made by people all over the world contributing a bit of footage of themselves.

https://youtu.be/73HSHoB-I9g

And second, Kurt Tocci makes short videos that are incredibly fun and creative. He’s done a couple in which he dressed up as different Disney characters and re-wrote the lyrics of their songs to be quarantine-related. And today he posted an “Avengers in Quarantine” video. So fun and funny!

Until tomorrow, dear friends, find ways to be in the image of God. Be kind, be generous, be honest, be creative. Be BLESSED!

A couple of different people sent me this, recently:

And then this showed up in facebook feed:

I know it’s difficult to be unable to gather together. Until the moment when we truly began to grasp how devastating COVID-19 could be, if left unchecked, love always meant showing up. Worship always meant gathering together. Church always meant God’s people in the same physical space.

But the virus changed all of that. Now love means staying apart. Worship means being on your own, or at most, gathering with the people in your household around a screen. Church hasn’t been in the same physical space for a number of weeks.

I think this is a big part of why we are struggling. The things we could always count on in the past, can’t be counted on right now. And it takes a lot for our psyches and our souls to process that. Our souls just don’t pivot that fast.

But as the weeks pass, one of the things I’m finding increasingly meaningful is the way that even though every thing is different now, people are still gathering around and being comforted and upheld by God’s word. People are praying for each other. People are listening to more than one sermon on Sunday. We are hungry, our souls are hungry.

Times of crisis and uncertainty have this way of revealing what truly matters. I spoke about that in Sunday’s sermon. And for people of faith, what matters is knowing that God is still with us.

The two memes I shared above are absolutely right. We are able to ‘church at home’: to worship, to pray, to read God’s word, and to continue our journey of faith, even when we cannot be with our church family the way we once were.

So be encouraged, friends.

And as I was trying to figure out how to end this post, I was reminded of an Andrew Peterson song (big surprise, right?) so I thought I’d share that with you. This is “All Shall Be Well” from his album, The Far Country:

Until tomorrow, dear friends! Worship at home, today. Know that God is with you, always. Trust that one day – when it is safe to do so – we will see each other again.

(It’s like a wordless post, but with alliteration! Just a few fun and sometimes deep thoughts I’ve come across and wanted to share.)

This follow-up thought to yesterday’s sermon:

This gorgeous image of why the healthcare workers are our heroes (but it also reminds me of how much they need our prayers):

This Canadian take on what it means to physically distance:

This blessing for your day, since I’m a total Star Wars dork:

And this tweet, which shows how creative Star Wars dorks can be during the pandemic:

And finally, just this:

Until tomorrow, dear friends, be blessed and stay safe!

Good morning! (Or afternoon, or evening, or whatever greeting is appropriate for when you are participating in this week’s some-assembly-required service!) It is good to get to worship with you, and I pray that what I’ve provided here is meaningful and is a conduit for God’s presence.

Our prelude piece by Eric Medhurst: Here is a “jazzy” arrangement of “What a Friend We Have in Jesus,” in a short and, I hope, pleasant arrangement by Charles Converse:

Our Scripture this week is: John 10:1-10.

Our first hymn is #699 All the way my Saviour leads me.

A prayer of Thanksgiving and Intercession:

Holy and gracious God, shepherd of our lives, we come to you with thanksgiving for you are our provider and sustainer. You transform our weary souls with your grace, wisdom and love. You bless us each day with glimpses of resurrection and the promise of new life, in signs of spring, in stories of kindness and perseverance during crisis. Touch our hearts in surprising ways with we have in Christ Jesus.

Listening God, shepherd of the world, we bring you now our prayers for others. Hear them in your tender mercy:

We pray for people who are struggling with illness, loneliness, grief or sadness, thinking especially of those whose lives have been redefined by COVID-19. And we pray for those whose working life has been changed drastically by this pandemic, thinking of health care workers, those in the food supply chain, and all those whose jobs have disappeared.May each life be touched by the power of resurrection and new hope.

We pray for countries and communities where it is not safe for people to live out their faith openly.May all people of faith be granted the freedom to praise without fear.

We pray for people in the world who are victims of discrimination and acts of hatred, and remember those unjustly blamed for the outbreak of the pandemic. May your desire for justice be made known and lived out.

We pray for our congregation and all people who make up your Church, forced now to consider how to be faithful in difficult times. May we discover new ways to be your Easter people in the world.

We pray for our families, our friends and for ourselves. May each of us know the power of your compassion and promise.

In the name of the shepherd who laid his life down for his sheep, we pray. Amen.

(slightly adapted from the worship planner posted on the Presbyterian.ca website for Sunday May 3, 2020)

Here is my video sermon:

And our final hymn is #689 Simply Trusting Every Day.

This is the song, All I Need (Did not catch her name) by Caedmon’s Call:

Until tomorrow, dear friends, may you listen for the voice of Jesus, he’s all you need!

Have you noticed that you’ve started to settle into a routine? I have noticed this. It’s far from normal, but I am finding a pattern to my days – for example, on Mondays, I start the day with coffee and the latest episode of Some Good News. On Fridays, I watch whatever musical Andrew Lloyd Webber has released for 48 hrs of free streaming on his youtube channel, The Shows Must Go On.

On Saturdays, I post some ‘extra’ resources for worship. Often these include files from illustratedministry.com, and videos from my friends Shelagh Tyreman and Rob Hennig who have been “singin’ in the kitchen,” recording hymns and anthems.

Today, I share with you a beautiful instrumental version of Glorify Thy Name (lyrics can be found here) by Shelagh and a student of hers from years past, Thomas Dewer.

Here are Shelagh and Rob singing #635 in the Presbyterian Hymn Book, “Brother, sister, let me serve you.” (Lyrics can be found here.) I think this is the perfect hymn to go with yesterday’s blog post. And it’s a joy to hear my friends singing it.

Illustratedministry.com provided a resource for the fourth week of Easter. They focussed on the Acts reading that is part of this week’s lectionary. That’s not what I will be preaching tomorrow, but in the resource there are some references to the John reading that I will be focussing on. So I provide it for anyone interested!

I hope you will find ways to worship tomorrow – I appreciate that many of you are going to church a little more these days. You’re watching live streams from friends and acquaintances, and you’re checking in here. That’s a great thing – I think we could all use some extra messages of comfort and hope right now. I also appreciate how my colleagues and friends are different in their approach to “virtual worship.” Some are doing zoom, some are doing live streams, some are writing materials and emailing or even snail-mailing them to their people. We are all in this together, and the different approaches all have their strengths.

Until tomorrow, dear friends, remember that we all belong to each other, that we are in this together and that God is with each of us.

One of the things that really warms my heart right now, is the way that people are pulling together. We’ve seen it in the “we are all team Canada” and “Toronto Together” rhetoric. We’ve seen in in three Conquer COVID-19 PPE drives. We’ve seen it in the excellent (and widely viewed) “Stronger Together/Tous Ensemble” special that aired last Sunday and raised 8 million dollars for food banks in Canada.

And then in countless little stories of people doing kindnesses for each other, finding ways to encourage people they don’t even know, and businesses finding ways to pitch in even while taking a serious economic hit.

It reminds me of this beautiful thought from Mother Theresa (whose life, witness, and writings have always inspired me):

All of these ways of helping each other out are signs of God’s presence and love. I believe that, even if the people doing these good things don’t believe in God themselves. God is good, and any goodness in the world is a witness to and a reflection of God’s inherent goodness.

And while I struggle just as much as anybody right now – I also have to grin a bit to think that there is this conspiracy of goodness (of GOD-ness) happening all around us.

The movement towards “we not me” isn’t perfect, – there will always be some who just don’t get on board – but I hope it will be one of the things we are able to hang on to when all of this is over.

Until tomorrow, dear friends, remember that every good deed praises God, and we are all in this together.

On Sunday, I spoke a little about Sacrament, and shared with it the definition I had learned from on of my favourite singer/songwriters, Andrew Peterson: a sacrament is an outward sign of an inner reality. To put it another way, a sacrament is tangible sign of a spiritual reality. You can touch and taste the bread and wine at communion which speak to eternal life given to us through the laying down of Jesus’ life.

In his song, My One Safe Place, Andrew refers to his wife as a sacrament, he sings: I know that you’re broken too, but you are a sacrament, God has spoken through!

And I’ve been thinking a lot in the last few days about that. About the fact that all of us have people who are sacraments in our lives. For many (I hope!) it is your spouse – the person who you’ve chosen to ‘do life’ with for the rest of our lives.

But as an unmarried person, I can tell you I have friends and family, far and wide, who are sacraments to me. Friends who build me up and encourage me when I’m feeling low or doubtful about my own abilities. A whole congregation that finds spiritual guidance through my efforts (Woah! No pressure!), but who also walk with me on the journey of faith. And then family – both the ones I was born to, and the one who have adopted me along the way. (And now that I’m writing this, I suddenly think of all my colleagues who work alongside of me in our denomination and in other denominations, who share their wisdom, experience, perspective and creativity.)

I know a lot of living sacraments!

But I’ve also been thinking of sacramental moments. How do I explain this well? Many of you (especially if you follow me on Facebook or Instagram) know that I love sunsets. I am blessed to have lived for the better part of three years in a condo that faces West. I get to see some extraordinary sunsets. And in the midst of the pandemic, sitting and watching the sun sink below the horizon, watching the way the light plays and the colours change, has become a moment of sacrament for me. A moment when I feel the closeness and blessing of God. A moment when the light shines so brilliantly and I remember again that the darkness has not overcome it.

So I thought I’d share with you a gallery of some of my favourite sunsets from the past 46 days in quarantine (I’m always home to see them, now!):

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And until tomorrow, dear friends, I encourage you to think about your sacramental moments (maybe it’s a chat with a friend, or listening to music, or simply sitting in silence), and name (and give thanks for!) your sacramental people.

Wednesdays are busy for me – I do sermon prep over the phone with the Rev. Janet Ryu-Chan (aka “The Janet”), I write an email to the congregation, and about every second week, I zoom-meet with the ministerial. Today I added getting a round of groceries to all of that. So, I’m wordless and leaving you with this thought (which The Janet sent to me over email):

And this musical prayer, also sent to me by The Janet:

Until tomorrow, dear friends, keep praying, keep singing and maybe spend some times making your own list of things that you need to lose through a practice of prayer.