Are You Ready!

Over the last while you have probably heard the phrase asked of you or heard someone ask another, ‘are you ready’  or ‘I suppose you’re all ready’ and people are referring to being ready for Christmas. Do you have your shopping done, have you got your decorations up, your tree trimmed, and so on? And while that is not so unusual for this time of year, what is unusual about it is, it seems to start earlier and earlier each year. This year some of the stores had Christmas things out before the Halloween things were put away, and people putting decorations up in their homes before mid-november. As I reflected on this, I thought it’s as if there is a real urgency about all this, as if people can’t wait for Christmas to get here, and while that would be a good thing if it were for the right reason, for the most part it probably is not.  So why the urgency, probably for the joy and the excitement that Christmas brings, but we know that is only going to last for a time, so still why the urgency.  I am not so sure, but the real urgency should be in the anticipation, the anticipation of what Christ’s birth now points us to, His second coming. The time we live in now is the time between Christ’s first coming and his return, and so the question we should be asking ourselves at this time of the year as we reflect on our Saviour’s birth, is not have we got our trimmings all done for the holidays, but how ready are we for Christ’s return. What preparation have we made for Christ’s coming again? In the gospels Jesus speaks to the urgency of being ready for his return using the words, ‘keep alert’, ‘stay awake’,  ‘beware’, to indicate that this is something we should all be thinking about.  In the parable of the Ten bridesmaids (Matt 25:1-13), five had come with extra fuel for their lamps while the other five going with only what was in their lamps, when their fuel ran out having to to go look for more, they missed the bridegroom’s coming. The bridegroom, being Christ in this parable, begs us to ask when he returns will we have our lamps lit waiting and ready for his return, or will we be like the five foolish bridesmaids gone of on our own tangents seeking fuel to refill our lamps only to miss his coming, and be left outside the door so to speak.  In the gospel of Mark, Jesus speaking to his disciples about his return and the need to be ready, says, “about that day or hour no one knows, neither the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father. Beware, Keep Alert; for you do not know when the time will come” (Mk 13: 32-33). We are now in the season of Advent, Advent meaning ‘coming’ and while it is wonderful to be ready and waiting for Christmas with all our preparations, let’s not forget to think spiritually as well and set our minds to preparing ourselves for Christ’s coming that lasts not only for the seasons of Advent/Christmas but for all time. “Heaven and Earth will pass away but my words will not pass away” (Luke 21:33).

Blessings,

Rev. Hannah+

"The Hem of His Robe"

Been thinking about this spot lately and thought it was about time I got back to adding another bit of light on the Word. Been away from here way too long, hope you enjoy what I have written and may you discover God in the peace of your surroundings as you do, God Bless.

“The Hem of His Robe filled the temple” (Isaiah 6:1b)

Have you ever been so amazed, so astonished by something that it felt as if your breath had been taken away from you, you stopped breathing in a moment of awe perhaps! In the reading from Isaiah (Is 6:1-7), the prophet in a vision is brought to the temple and there he sees, “the Lord sitting on a throne, high and lofty; and the hem of his robe filled the temple. There are six winged Seraphs in attendance singing, “Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord of Hosts. The pivots of the threshold shakes at their voices and smoke fills the house.” It’s a magnificent passage of scripture that speaks to the magnitude of our God, that all Isaiah can come up with to describe what he sees is that, “the hem of his robe filled the temple.” Now the hem of a garment is a very narrow piece of fabric, and if you let your mind grasp that for a moment, that it was the “hem” of His robe that filled the temple, not his whole robe, not God himself, but “the Hem”. I don’t know about you but that says a lot about the magnitude of our God, our all powerful, all loving God, that takes my breath away.

Isaiah’s breath too was likely taken away for Isaiah exclaims, “Woe is Me!” I am lost, for I am a man of unclean lips.... yet my eyes have seen the Lord of hosts.” Woe is me, who am I, what have I done to be so privileged as to stand in the Lord’s presence. Isaiah soon learns that it is not about who he is, but about who God is that has made him worthy to stand before this awesome God. “A Seraph takes a live coal from the altar and touching Isaiah’s lips, with it says, “Now that this has touched your lips, your guilt has departed you and your sin is blotted out.’ (v.7). Now I don’t know if that takes your breath away but it should, for that is exactly what Jesus done when he gave up his life for each of us on the cross. “For God so loved the world that he gave His only Son that everyone who believes in Him may not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16).

What is it that takes your breath away? Recently I attended a celebration of the 100^th anniversary of the church in the community where I grew up, now that takes my breath away to be a part of something with such a rich history, but even more so to be a part of the Christian faith that have lasted over 2000 years now that really takes my breath away. Wow! What is it that takes your breath away? Think about that for a moment and you will probably find many moments when you have been rendered speechless, or saw that breathtaking view that just made you say Wow! Or Awesome! And you will see too, like Isaiah in His vision, the God whose “hem of his garment filled the temple”.

Rev. Hannah+

We Have An Everlasting God

“Those who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength, they shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint” (Isaiah 40:31)

Waiting is not something we do well, we want something we want it now, we don’t want to wait our turn, we want to get there first. We hate waiting for news that is coming to us, whether its good or bad we might be expecting, we worry, we fret, we get frustrated, and impatient in our waiting. Waiting creates anxiety in our lives, that create a whole mess of other problems for us because of our not waiting well. In the passage from Isaiah, the prophet speaks of waiting for the Lord, in the sense that it changes the way we wait, to wait for the Lord is to renew our strength, to mount up with wings of Eagles. An Eagle is a majestic bird, to see an eagle with wings outspread against the expanse of the sky is an image of beauty, it is also an image of power, strength and freedom; an image the prophet no doubt wanted to instill in the minds of the people of Israel that they might persevere in a time of great despair, great struggle.  They were living in a time of exile, captivity, and their longing to return to their homeland of Jerusalem while a long time coming was also compiled by the feeling that God was absent from them, they no longer felt God was with them, and they were losing hope. Isaiah wanted the people to have hope even in the midst of their waiting, that God hadn’t forgotten them, despite what their circumstances may dictate to them, God was there.

Throughout the gospels there are many stories where people’s circumstances may have dictated they give up, but instead they persevered despite what life had brought their way. In John’s Gospel (Jn 5:2-8) a man waited by a pool in Bethzatha for 35 years in hopes that someday he would make it to the pool at a time the water was stirred and believed to have healing properities that he might be made well, and because he waited, he was there when Jesus came along and he was healed. In Mark’s gospel “a woman suffering from hemorrhages for twelve years, it says, after enduring much under many physicans and spending all that she had, she was no better, but rather grew worse; hearing about Jesus she said “if I could only touch his cloak, I will be made well,” and upon touching his garment immediately her hemorrhage stopped(Mark 5:25-29).” In Luke’s gospel (13:10) another woman crippled for eighteen years when she encountered Jesus received healing. These people had waited in hope, persevered despite the odds against them, even despite the weariness of their situations, they kept going, hoping that someday things would change for them and it did. 

Do that mean if we trust in God, wait for the Lord, all that ails us will immediately disappear, our sickness will all go away, our troubles or trials in life will all be over? No, it doesn’t but it does mean that we look with renewed hope, renewed strength to face and deal with the circumstances of our lives in a way that we are not overcome by the crisis that come to us in this life, but that we will overcome despite them, for we know “our Lord is an everlasting God, He does not faint or grow weary; his understanding is unsearchable(Is 40:22)”.  

Blessings,

Rev. Hannah+

“For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, who is the Messiah, the Lord.” (Luke 2:11).

The Christmas story while we have been telling it from generation to generation for over 2000 years, in all its beauty and wonder with the angel chorus, the babe in the manger, the shepherds in the fields, wise men coming from afar…. It never ceases to amaze and capture the hearts not only of the faithful, but those who hear it for the first time the world over. God in Christ Jesus, had come down from heaven to be with us, that is the amazing thing about all of this, not that a baby was born, not that his mother Mary wrapped him in a swaddling cloth, not even that he was laid in a manger for his bed, for babies are born every day and taken care of by their mothers, and the world over many children have far worst places to lay their heads then the animals feeding trough Jesus was laid in. The wonderful news of Christmas is that this baby, born of a human mother,  was God incarnate, “Emmanuel, God with us”. God in the humblest estate of human life and the most ordinary of circumstances made his way into our world, not that we might have a holiday to celebrate as so many in the world are claiming it for themselves, “leave Christ out of Christmas” they say, we just want the Merry making and gift exchange. We can give all the material gifts we want, and host all the festivities, but nothing can do for us what only God could do through the gift of his son, as in the words of a Carol we sing from the old hymnal, “ Jesus came – the heavens adoring- Came with peace from realms on high; Jesus came for our redemption, Lowly came on earth to die: Alleluia! Alleluia! Came in deep humility.”

May you and yours have a most blessed and Holy Christmas,

Rev. Hannah+

The Confident Hope of Mary...

“you will conceive and bear a son, you will name him Jesus. He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Most High.” (Luke 1: 31)

In this passage from Luke’s gospel we hear the story of Mary, and the angels visitation announcing she would have a child, not just any child, but the Son of the Most High, God’s own son was to be born to her.  Perhaps we can’t imagine the magnitude of what that announcement must have been to Mary.  A young unwed Jewish girl at that time to be found with child would have been trouble enough for her; Not only would it have meant great shame and disgrace for her family, but to claim that she was carrying the Son of God, would have been sure disaster for Mary, with the likely charges of heresy brought against her and probably a sentence of death by stoning. However when we read this passage in Luke’s gospel we don’t hear anything about the fear that Mary must have felt or the predicament she could possibly find herself in, only the pondering question of Mary asking “how can this be?” and then when the angel replies with  “nothing is impossible with God”, Mary’s response is “Here I am, the servant of the Lord; let it be with me according to your word.” Mary’s response while it may astonish us when we think of her being so young and the possible outcomes from what was being asked of her, we know however Mary’s response was not one taken lightly it was one made with a sure confidence and hope in a God she trusted. Mary’s story invites us to be more attentive to the message of Christmas, to listen for the angel voices, and hear what it is God is seeking to do among us not only at Christmas but all through the year.  Mary’s yes, changed the world for ever. In this final week of Advent, leading us  into Christmas, if we were to prepare for Christ’s coming as Mary did, with that same confident hope and trust that God still acts among his people, might we perhaps be a little more attentive to what God might be speaking to us and our response be a more confident 'yes' to making a way for it to happen in our world. Might we perhaps be a bit more attentive to the needs of the world around us, instead of being so involved with the consumerism of the day. And might we perhaps be a bit more effective in our efforts to spread the Christmas message of ‘peace and good will to all’, as the line from the Christmas Carol goes, “Let there be Peace on earth, and let it begin with me.”

Blessings and Peace, 

Rev. Hannah+

"Well done, good and trustworthy servant.....enter into the joy of your master"(Matt 25:23)

These words come to us from St. Matthew's gospel in the passage we refer to as 'the parable of the talents (Matt 25:14-30).."And while we often take talents to mean here our gifts, what God has entrusted to us, I think here it is meant to mean something more. As the parable goes, the master leaving to go on a journey entrusted to his slaves  his property, to one he gave five talents, to the other two and to the third one, according to their ability. This tells us the master knew something about those to whom he had entrusted his property, perhaps more then they realized. The first two slaves immediately went and traded their talents and they not only increased their value but they doubled it. When the master returned some time later to collect what was his, he was overly delighted they had done so well, saying, "well done good and trustworthy slaves; you have been trustworthy in a few things I will put you in charge of many things, enter into the joy of your master." The third slave however, didn't fare out so well, instead of investing the talent entrusted to him as the other two, he had hidden, or buried the talent in the ground. The master of course when he returned to collect from this slave what was owed him, he was you might say a bit perturbed, saying, "you wicked and lazy slave you knew did you that I reaped where I did not sow and gathered where I did not scatter, then you ought to have invested my money with the bankers." Well if the parable were to end there we could interpret it as God wanting us to use our God given gifts, all that we have been entrusted with more efficiently, or wisely. The parable doesn't end here however, it goes on with the master saying, "take the talent from this slave and give it to the one with the ten talents, for to all those who have, more will be given and from those who have nothing even what they have will be taken away." Now perhaps we are a little perturbed, for that doesn't sound like the message Jesus normally speaks through the gospel, now does it!..In fact it seems quite opposite to what Jesus might say, "the first shall be last, and the last shall be"(matt 20:16). And we know this gospel is really not about money, finances or material wealth or even our talents, but rather it is about  God and what He was doing through Christ Jesus. Through out His life, death and resurrection, Jesus had proclaimed the truth of the kingdom. A truth, as the invitation speaks, invites us to "enter into the joy of your master." If we receive it as the free and life-giving gift it is,  like the two slaves who invested the talents entrusted to them, we too can have life and have it abundantly; or if we so choose, we can like the third slave, reluctant to take a chance, out of fear of what might or might not be, dismiss God's invitation, or bury it in some back closet for some future day, and miss out on God's gracious offer to new life now.


Will this is just my effort to add some "Light on the Word" and perhaps shed a little light into the world. A little longer getting back here then I had hoped. I do love to reflect and share my thoughts on the 'Word' so hopefully it won't be so long next time, before I get back. Blessings to you as you sojourn here and may God's peace be with you always.  Rev. Hannah+

Love of God, Love of Neighbour

“You shall Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind, this is the greatest and first commandment and the second is like it Love your neighbor as yourself.” (Matt 22:37-39 )

Jesus in the gospel of Matthew gives us the greatest commandment, and while that commandment seemingly has two parts to it, Love God and Love Neighbour. Jesus institutes it as one and the same, the second is like it, or like the first. In saying this Jesus is telling us that our love for God is revealed in our love for neighbor, to say we love God and to show no love toward neighbor is in essence a love with little or no merit, or no breadth you might say, an unrequited love.  The love Jesus speaks about in the great commandment, is more than the emotion or feeling we think about when we say we love someone, or something. It is more than the immediate gratification we feel in our need to respond in a time of crisis, while all that do elicit the feeling of love,  the biblical love Jesus is referring to is something more, it is internal or spiritual. It is a love that calls us to respond, to act out of commitment toward the God we are to love with all our heart, soul, and mind. That response is revealed in our love toward neighbor, mainly in our action to create change in the life, the circumstances of another. It is revealed in our own willingness to give up something, to deny self that another may benefit from our generosity,  our kindness, our compassion, our care whatever it might be to make a situation better for the other. This love, while it is more often revealed in our response at a time of crisis, or when a need presents itself, this love, the love for God and neighbour that Jesus speaks about however, is ungoing, it never ends. It persists in doing good even when we feel that our efforts may sometimes go unrequited or unrecognized, or even when we feel it may be undeserved, we keep giving, doing good, knowing that what we do, we do not for our own benefit,  but for the benefit of all that God created and said was good (Genesis 1) and so in response we make effort to love all that God loves, loving neighbour as ourselves.  May you have a blessed week and in it find or make room to share the Love of God through the action you take in your Love toward neighbour in what you say, do, or give that makes life not only better for the other, but for yourselves as well,  “for God loves a cheerful giver (2 Corinthians 9:8). "  

Blessings and Peace,

Rev. Hannah