on the Pilgrimage

Be Joyful! Gaudete! Rejoice!  Am I the only one who sometimes feels those words are empty? That they mean nothing? Disingenuous, ridiculous, and foolish? This is a VERYY hard year to be joyful!  The last three weeks I've wrestled with and through a lot of things. These words, grounded in these four weeks, have more weight this year. And are more difficult this year, too. Here's another thing, too. I feel disillusioned by not only the world around me that seems to be going crazy, but also, within Christian walls, things are off the rails, too. I know many people within church circles are convinced that we are in the End Times. And, at the risk of treading on feet, I'm not so sure. There have been countless times throughout history that they thought the same thing. And, I'm not going to go into my thoughts on the Second Coming here. I'll save that for another time. (The church I occasionally attend - Village Green in London, Ontario, my brother's church - the past...

What a year to contemplate peace! What a time to reflect on this word! I heard somewhere that at this moment, there are 185 conflicts in our world. More than the last three decades. These are in addition to the two horrible ones that fill the news and media - the Ukraine/Russia war and the Israel/Hamas (Palestine) war. War, I believe, regardless of the reason, is wrong. And yet our world is full of hatred and animosity. How do we seek peace in the middle of this? If peace was ever needed, it's now. But with our world, our culture, our society today, it gets harder and harder to imagine peace at all, much less for all.  Let me also say that at the time we are looking at in Jewish history, this very same land was under much duress. Palestine (present-day Israel) was a poorly run, repressive Roman colony that had been conquered by Pompey. At this time, it as run by a Roman-Jewish government under Herod the Great. (The same guy who was threatened by Jesus' birth and slaughtered all...

The season of Preparation for the Coming has begun. The First Sunday in Advent. Hope. Immanuel. God, with us. I begin my tradition of reflection on each of these Sundays. Join me if you wish.  I love how Eugene Patterson paraphrases the beginning of John in The Message: The Word was first, the Word present to God, God present to the Word. The Word was God, in readiness for God from day one. Everything was created through him; nothing - not one thing! - came into being without him. What came into existence was Life, and the Life was Light to live by. The Light-Life blazed out of the darkness; the darkness could not put it out. ... The Light-Life was the real thing: Every person entering Life he brings into Light. He was in the world, the world was there through him, and yet the world didn't even notice. He came to his own people, but they didn't want him. But whoever did want him, who believed he was who he claimed and would do what he said, He made to be their True Selves, thei...

This is a placeholder. I am composing a personal reflection on what 'redemption' means. I will share when completed. Obviously, for me, it's more than 'forgiveness of sin'.  Still coming .... 

The start of Holy Week, the most important part of the Jesus story. I think many think it’s Christmas – and that is a good part, for sure. But there is something about this week and this time that is … not particularly happy … but definitely good. It is also called Passion Week. What’s that about? Let’s start with the last part first – Passion Week. Many often think about this as in ‘what was Jesus passionate about?’ or ‘what is the passion in this week?’. I think to get to this a bit more, it’s important to look at what does passion mean? People often equate it with a strong feeling towards something. And that is part of it. But it seems there’s something more going on here. In this case, specifically historically speaking, ‘passion’ as in the Passion of Christ, referred to Christ’s suffering. But, it doesn’t stop there; nor does it start there – it’s not just his arrest, trial, and execution. It is part of a larger story that cannot be understood without understanding the whole st...

The beginning of Lent, 2023. This has been a year like few others! And, I have to say, almost as if my life has been deliberately leading me here ... to this point, this climax, from which the rest of my life will play out. It seems this year, the time of Lent has slashed its way into my reality, and it would be easy to dismiss it, ignore it, like I've done so often in the past, but maybe I should re-think that. Maybe I should use this to ... to create intent and change and focus.  The time of Lent, 40 days before the Thursday before Good Friday, is a common Christian practice. It starts with Ash Wednesday and ends on Maudy Thursday. The purpose was to bring a form of solidarity among Christians and Christ, to join him in his preparation for the crucifixion and subsequent resurrection. The 40 days are to align us with Christ's time in the desert, where he was tempted by Satan, and where we remove that in our lives that tempt us as well.  There are three points to Lent - fastin...