One of the things I occasionally get asked about is prayer. People are concerned that they don’t really know how to do it. That they might do it ‘wrong’ or that they have to have really articulate and well-thought-out prayers.

But Scripture says:

If we don’t know how or what to pray, it doesn’t matter. He does our praying in and for us, making prayer out of our wordless sighs, our aching groans.

Romans 8:26 MSG

I find that so encouraging, because sometimes I don’t know what to pray. Sometimes I don’t have the words, or the presence of mind to put words together. Sometimes in prayer, I just imagine opening my heart to God – I imagine me lifting a valentine’s-day-shaped heart to God, so that God knows what’s in there that I can’t quite put into words. And then I trust that the Holy Spirit makes sense out of that on my behalf.

For me it takes the pressure off having to figure out how to put things into words that I’m still working on processing.

You may feel that way these days – there is so much information that is changing hour by hour, we are living in unprecedented times, how do we even know what to pray at times like this?

So I wanted to share the above scripture, but I also wanted to share with you this resource. These are prayer-colouring pages provided free-of-charge from illustratedministry.com – the same folks that provided the banner that (at Graceview) we coloured each week of Advent this year.

These pages were made with the intention of helping kids who might be having a hard time in these scary days. But since the adult colouring is still a thing, I see no reason for the rest of us to use them as well. Print them off, colour them, and trust that the Holy Spirit is interpreting even the strokes of your marker or colouring pencil as prayer to God! (And post them on your fridge or elsewhere once you are done, as a colourful reminder of God’s faithfulness even in these trying times.

The world has grown quieter. Not silent – there are still cars in the roads, people in the offices, shoppers and cashiers in the stores.

But there are fewer on the roads, more staying home, a slower pace as we try as a community to navigate this crisis and keep distance from each other.

I’ve been spending much of my time at home, but also making the effort to get outside for some time each day. Just me and Koski, out in the fresh air. I’m naturally an introvert – I live inside my own thoughts much of the time. And the call to social distancing has only increased that natural tendency for me.

I’ll admit to you that I’ve spent much of the last several days swinging back and forth between feeling really panicked, and feeling amazingly calm. What starts the panic, for me, is that I begin to ask the questions we don’t (and won’t for several days or even weeks) have answers to yet: what will the fallout be – for me, for my congregants, for my family and friend? Will we be able to observe Holy Week this year? What about the trips I have planned in May and in July, will those go ahead?

I hate not knowing. I really, really hate it.

And when I begin to ask those questions, my heartbeat speeds up, my stomach grows tense, I veer towards some pretty negative emotions.

So what to do when those moments come?

A couple of weeks ago, I preached on the passage where Jesus was tempted in the wilderness by the Devil. And as I studied the passage in preparation, one of the things that struck me was that Jesus continually answered the Devil with scripture. And I made the point that we need to rely on God’s word during trying times. It was one of those things that sometimes happens with preaching: you say something in a sermon and it clings to you in the days afterward. You find yourself returning to that’s lesson or thought over and over. I had no idea then, what an important lesson this would be for me.

I had no idea then, what the next few weeks would bring.

So I want to give you a scripture to hang on to in these trying times – there are lots of them, and I encourage you to find the one (or ones!) that mean the most to you. You could treat it kind of like a scavenger hunt – hunting through the scripture for lines or verses that will strengthen you and calm you in these days. Gather them up like treasures. For they truly are.

In the meantime, here is one of mine:

‘For I know that plans I have for you,’ says the Lord. ‘They are plans for good and not for disaster to give you a future and a hope.’

Jeremiah 29:11

God plans a good future for us, one full of hope. I can’t tell you what that will look like. I can tell you it is in His hands. I can tell you to trust these words. (I can also tell you that part of how you can participate in bringing that future about is by being responsible, following the advice of the medical professionals and being kind to others!)

Let me leave you with some pictures from the outing Koski and I took today – down to the lakeshore for a long walk (during which we smiled at many other walkers and runners from a distance, and truly enjoyed being out for a walk together).

So I’ve been feeling bad about the fact that I didn’t begin blogging at the beginning of Lent, as has been my practice for the past few years. It wasn’t that I didn’t want to – it was weighing heavily on me and as the days passed, I kept promising myself I’d get to it the next day. But then the next day would pass and my best intentions would fall by the wayside.

And then the word lost its mind. I do not mean that derisively – I just feel like we are all in a certain kind of insanity right now. Maybe it’s overreaction, but the only way to know for sure is to not take the measures that are being taken, and have the possibility of the worst happening. And no one wants that.

So we are doing the best we can in the midst of these strange days. My Mother and I keep reminding each other of that ancient Chinese curse: may you live in interesting times. It feels like this pandemic is exactly what that refers to.

On Sunday, the church where I serve, Graceview, made the difficult decision to cancel worship for the next two weeks. We are erring on the side of caution, but since we have an older demographic in the congregation, it seems like the wise thing to do. We have cancelled meetings and events – just about anything we do as a group – for the next two weeks. And it’s strange. It feels so strange to have two weeks when there will  be no worship service…so strange to not be thinking towards what hymns we will be singing, what message I will be preaching, what other preparations need to be made for the service.

But here’s the thing – we are still the church. We are the church regardless of whether we are able to meet as we usually would. We are the church no matter how strange the days become. We are the church. The church is a people – you and me, and all the other brothers and sisters in Christ across the globe.

So while our worship gathering is cancelled for the next two weeks, we need to remember that doesn’t mean don’t worship. That doesn’t mean don’t study the Bible, pray, reach out to those who might need a kind word. We can continue to do all these things, every single day, whether we are together or whether we are practicing social distancing.

To that end, I’m going to commit to blogging every day during this hiatus. On Sundays I will post a video that will be a little sermonette. It won’t be the same as our worship services, but I will do my best to provide you with some faith material – thoughts, scriptures, prayers and links to some songs that I hope will uplift your spirit in these strange days.

For today, let me leave you with this verse, which my father used as a Call To Worship every Sunday while serving Amberlea Presbyterian in Pickering (and which feels appropriate for these times, and for the fact that I’ve just return from an outdoor run):

Dear friends, do not grow weary, do not grow weak. Trust in the Lord and you will find your strength, even in these strange days. Amen.

¹⁹ So now you Gentiles are no longer strangers and foreigners. You are citizens along with all of God’s holy people. You are members of God’s family. ²⁰ Together, we are his house, built on the foundation of the apostles and the prophets. And the cornerstone is Christ Jesus himself.  Ephesians 2:19-20 NLT

One of the joys for me this Advent Season has been an art project that the congregation has been taking part in each week. It’s a paper banner, filled with Advent images and scriptures, and each week as the people came into worship, they were invited to stop and colour a portion of the banner.

By this past Sunday, there were only a few spots on it that needed to be coloured in. So some of the ladies of the church and I got together and had a colouring party yesterday.

This morning I came into the church with only a rough idea of how I might display the banner. But thankfully, God showed up and gave me a great idea! It came together really easily, and within the first 45 minutes of being in the office, the banner was up for all to see this evening and tomorrow morning.

I am reminded that while in our context there is often only one minister in a church, it takes the whole congregation to make beautiful things happen, to make worship happen.

I am so grateful for the people God has given me throughout my years in ministry. The community of faith is a blessing, and has always made my life richer.

Merry Christmas!

The Lord is in his holy temple;
    let all the earth be silent before him.

One of the things I’m coming to love dearly as I serve Graceview, is the quiet of Christmas morning. We have a Christmas Day service, and when I arrive at the church, no one else is there. It is a quiet drive from my condo to the church, with the streets almost empty.

 

Much of the rush of Christmas is over, and now families are gathering together, inside where it is warm. Exchanging gifts and telling stories. Making food and feasting on it.

 

Here are a few images from this morning. My heart is glad to share them with you! May your Christmas be merry and bright, and may you know the presence of the One we are celebrating.

 

For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. John 3:16

Above all, love each other deeply, because love covers over a multitude of sins. 1 Peter 4:8

⁴ Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. ⁵ It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. ⁶ Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. ⁷ It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. 1 Corinthians 13:4-7

Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. 1 John 4:7

 

One of the things that sometimes bugs us preachers, is how the word “love” is used in our culture. We over-use this word, applying it to whatever we like at the moment – our favourite movie or tv show, a song that is having it’s fifteen minutes of popularity, a certain condiment or a seasonal flavour on a local menu. We “love” at an alarmingly low-rate.

And the media we consume is no help – Facebook allows us to click ‘love’ on any post we are mildly amused by or with which we agree. Characters on the shows we watch fall in and out of love with each other every other episode. And at this time of year, Hallmark movies equate Christmas love with good-looking actors and actresses who have some sort of misadventure together. (And since I’m a hopeless romantic, I will just admit to having watched waaaaay too many of those movies over the past several weeks!)

God defines love differently. God defines love as being willing to sacrifice, being patient and kind and keeping no record of wrongs.

Jesus shows us this love by stepping out of heaven, into our dark, broken, messy world. Living amongst us, healing those who were sick and in need, restoring honour to the shamed, teaching any who would listen about what God is really like, laying down his life to save us from our sin, and inviting us in to the work of blessing the world, in his name.

This advent, may you love extravagantly. May you bless others. May you participate in God’s work of love that brings light to a dark world. May you know that God is with you.

I love listening to Erwin McManus preach. If you don’t know who he is, he’s a pastor, preacher and author, who serves Mosaic, a church in LA. Mosaic has actually expanded to have campuses in a number of different locations – some in California, and some international.

Erwin always has a way of making me see things in a new light. Recently, I was listening to a sermon in which he spoke about how God transforms the ordinary. 

You see, before Jesus was born, a manger was just a box or trough that the livestock fed from. But because Jesus was laid in the manger after his birth, it has become the focal point of nativity scenes. It has become something we look at as holy. Erwin spoke  about the worship space he preaches in as being just an ordinary room, except that because people have had an encounter with God there, it has become holy.

God takes what is ordinary, and transforms it. 

 So here’s what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him. Don’t become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You’ll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you. Romans 12:1,2 MSG

 

Do you see – whatever you are doing, you can be holy in doing it. God can transform your ordinary life, into a holy life. And he wants to! Because this will draw you ever closer to God himself, your faith will grow stronger and deeper. And all the ordinary things in your day, will suddenly shine with God-light.

This Advent, may you see God at work – transforming the ordinary into the holy and the extraordinary. 

 

 

One of my traditions at this time of year is to watch the movie “Love Actually.” I adore the opening quote:

Whenever I get gloomy with the state of the world, I think about the arrivals gate at Heathrow Airport. General opinion’s starting to make out that we live in a world of hatred and greed, but I don’t see that. It seems to me that love is everywhere. Often it’s not particularly dignified or newsworthy, but it’s always there – fathers and sons, mothers and daughters, husbands and wives, boyfriends, girlfriends, old friends. When the planes hit the Twin Towers, as far as I know none of the phone calls from the people on board were messages of hate or revenge – they were all messages of love. If you look for it, I’ve got a sneaky feeling you’ll find that love actually is all around. (Opening scene, Love Actually.)

It is far too easy these days to get gloomy about the state of the world, these days. There are too many ‘bad news’ stories that are going around.

Jesus came to break into our bad news world, with very, very good news. News of salvation for anyone who would put their trust in him. News of eternal life. News of reconciliation with God.

That’s what this season is all about. The good news breaking into our reality, changing us, changing our destiny, changing our status with God, changing our hearts. And through all of that, hopefully, changing the way that we live and the things that we do so that the world becomes a better place.

¹⁰ But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid. I bring you good news that will cause great joy for all the people.¹¹ Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is the Messiah, the Lord.” Luke2:10-11 (NIV)

 

That was the message of the angels, the message of the Messiah. Good news. Great joy.

So if  you’re feeling a little gloomy about the state of the world these days, I want to share with you this site, which shares good news stories from around the world. They are short and to the point – though, in many cases may be more complicated than the sentence or two they are given here, they brought a warm glow to my heart. And I hope they will do the same for you:

36 Good News Stories 2019

This Advent, may you not only know the Good News, may you become part of the Good News, by taking action to bring peace and joy to others in need.

Yesterday was the Advent Sunday of Joy, and at Graceview, we read a difficult passage in Malachi. As often happens with difficult passages, I had so much to say that I didn’t get to comment on the last few verses of the reading.

They go like this:

⁴Remember the law of my servant Moses, the decrees and laws I gave him at Horeb for all Israel. ⁵See, I will send you the prophet Elijah before that great and dreadful day of the Lord comes. ⁶He will turn the hearts of the fathers to their children, and the hearts of the children to their fathers; or else I will come and strike the land with a curse. Malachi 4:4-6 

I was so wrapped up in the earliest verses of the reading, and there was so much to cover in those verses, that I had to make the decision not to comment on these verses (or I might have kept my congregation there all day – and that would have been a worse decision).

But as sometimes happens when I preach, I found the message of what I would have said if time had allowed, in the midst of preaching what I had written.

I want to focus on those two little words “or else” in verse 6. This is a difficult reading – a difficult passage. It sounds condemning and like God is being mean, to modern ears. “Or else,” is a threat in our modern language. If your Mom said “or else” to you as a kid, she didn’t have to finish what she was saying…you understood what it implied, and what it implied was punishment. Punishment and trouble and not something that you wanted to have to face.

But I don’t think this phrase is scripture is meant as a threat. I think it is simply a description of what life is like without Jesus. I think it tells us that we desperately need Jesus, that if Jesus had never come into the world, the world would be a worse mess than it is now. We would be without hope, in despair.

But the good news is – Jesus HAS come into our world. And when Jesus comes into our world, the fundament fabric of reality is changed. Malachi says the hearts of fathers will be turned back to their children, and children to their fathers. This is a way of saying that with Jesus in the world, relationships are restored. We know our world is still a mess – but we also know it could be so much worse.

And we know, that we are called to be those who work to make it better. As we try to follow Jesus, as we try to live in hope and peace and joy, we are called to look for every opportunity to bless others – to bring hope, peace and joy into their lives and into the world around us.

Jesus has come and is coming into our world – to make his blessings flow, far as the curse is found!

This Advent, may you know the know the joy set before us in Jesus. May you find ways to bring blessing, wherever the curse has been found. May you be part of the light that shines in the darkness.

So, all Advent, things have felt a little weird to me. A little off. And a big part of that was that I caught a cold and couldn’t get the decorations up when I normally would. For weeks, my place has felt a little sadder because it wasn’t decked out, the way I wanted it to be.

Well, today was the day.

I cleaned for a ridiculous amount of time, and in the midst of it, I also took time to get the rest of the decorations up. My place is clean, and looks a little like Christmas threw up on it. Yay!

The thing is – celebration is important. And this is the celebration of the birth of our Saviour; of God stepping out of eternity into our humanity; of the defeat of sin and death, forever. Arise and shine! Your light has come!!

So celebrating should be big.

It may have taken some time, but finally, the celebration has begun for real!

This Advent, may you celebrate big. May you know the reason for your celebration holds eternity in the palm of his hand. May you know the eternal joy that salvation brings.

Here a few of my decorations: