Who is my neighbour? a young lawyer asked Jesus.  What the lawyer wanted was a definitive definition.  Give me the exact description of who a neighbour is and then I’ll know who I have to love, since you tell me, Jesus, that I am to love my neighbour as I love myself.  Give me the specifics, Jesus, and then I’ll know who I have to love, and I can avoid spending energy on those I don’t have to love.  The young lawyer (a student in Jewish law) thought he had it all figured out.    That is until Jesus told the...

Waiting. Watching. Praying.  That is what Holy Week is about.  I just can’t bring myself to do anything that is celebratory or fun on these days, especially on Good Friday.  Even if the sun is shining, Good Friday always seems a sombre day to me.   It may be called “Good” – which is actually derived from “God’s” Friday, in the same way that “God be with you” became “good-bye.”  But though it is called “good,” God’s Friday always feels just like that – a day that I need to give to God, in worship, in prayer, in waiting.   But then...

It is natural for us as parents to want to protect our children from the sadness, tragedy and grief of life.  We’d rather they not know about the harsh realities that humans face, until they are just a bit older.  The knowledge of death is one of those things that we’d rather protect them from knowing about.   But then it happens – a pet dies, a grandparent dies, a friend’s parent or tragically a student in the school.  Suddenly we are faced with their questions about death and existence, questions that we are still trying to figure out ourselves as adults....

What will my children’s future be like?  It is a question that we all ponder as parents/grandparents, sometimes with hope, sometimes with fear.  Yet, I believe that we have much more to do with shaping that future than we might sometimes feel we have.  This week, to wrap up this series, I’m thinking about inspiration for our young people.   Our youngest has been busy applying to and then auditioning for Bachelor of Music piano performance programs.  He is blessed to be sitting with two offers from universities – and he has to decide by the end of this week which...

by Alan D. Wolfelt  (Companion Press, 2013)   What do I say to a child whose pet has just died?  How do I talk to a teen whose friend was killed in a car collision? What words are there to answer the questions of a toddler whose mother won’t be coming home?  This book by Dr. Alan Wolfelt, who has studied and taught about grief for decades, is an amazing collection of questions and answers about how to talk with children and teens about death, suicide, funerals, homicide, cremation and other end-of-life matters.   It is divided up according to age group...

What will my children’s future be like?  It is a question that we all ponder as parents, sometimes with hope, sometimes with fear.  Yet, I believe that we have much more to do with shaping that future than we might sometimes feel we have.  This week, I want to talk about Civil Discourse….. how we speak and discuss with each other.  And I want to start with this story:   I was walking my oldest into school (many years ago now – but not that long). My youngest was with me – a 4 year old and a 6 year old. ...

What will my children’s future be like?  It is a question that we all ponder as parents, sometimes with hope, sometimes with fear.  Yet, I believe that we have much more to do with shaping that future than we might sometimes feel we have.  This week, I want to talk about the multi-cultural, multi-faith world in which our children are growing up, and what a gift that is for them.   I can only breathe a sigh of relief that yesterday the Dutch election went the way it did, with the far-right anti-Muslim candidate, who was going to get rid of...

What will my children’s future be like?  It is a question that we all ponder as parents, sometimes with hope, sometimes with fear.  Last week, I asked the question: Will my children have meaningful employment in the future?  I explored the rapid technological changes and pondered the choices we have to shape our society and communities into the kind of places we want for our children.  We are not helplessly along for the ride on the societal, technological train.  We can choose to live in a way that creates sustainable and meaningful work for everyone.  My motto is “Live simply so...

What will my children’s future be like?  It is a question that we all ponder as parents, sometimes with hope, sometimes with fear. Today I want to explore what it means for my child to have meaningful employment in the future.  We are in a time of such continuing rapid technological change that we may start to wonder if humans will be needed for work at all.  Just this week there have been reports about increasing automation or increasing use of computers in jobs that we once thought would never be touched, that could only ever be done by humans.  We’ve...

There are many words we use in the church which aren't used in daily culture or which mean something a bit different in church than they do outside of the church.  Here is a list, with definitions of some of the Vocabulary of Faith, defined from a United Church perspective: PDF to print Vocabulary_of_Faith.pdf           The Vocabulary of Faith                                   You are invited to ponder these words and to pray them.   Amen – so be it, let it be, Yes!!!   Belief -something or someone...