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...