May 10, 2026

One of the things that gets the apostle Paul into trouble is that he is quite arrogant about his faith. That sense of superiority tends to really annoy people of other faith. In this passage, it appears he has learned some lessons of the hard knock variety. What he has learned is to first take time to look at the culture, the art, and religious practices of Athens. If we are to be the most generous of our assessment of Paul at this time, we would say that he wasn’t looking for a weakness in the religion or culture but rather trying to understand some of their baseline metaphors.

May 3, 2026

We had two very powerful readings today. The first from the Act of the Apostles which is referred to as ‘the stoning of Stephen.’ But there is so much more going on in this passage than that horrible death. In it, we are hearing of the last days and death of Jesus directly mirrored in what happens to Stephen. 

In both cases, the actions of the leaders to attack Jesus or Stephen have more to do with jealousy than theology. It has much more to do with the fear of change than faith in God. ……………….

April 26, 2026

I want to thank the young people for their leadership all through the worship service and I’d like us to give them some feedback. I happen to really enjoy using American Sign Language when we are passed the peace with the shaking of hands. The passing of the peace by shaking of hands goes back before Covid. So I want to ask folks and this is not evaluation of one over the other, just, “how did it feel to have the young people begin the passing of the peace that gave you permission to shake the hands of others?

April 19, 2026

Last week I spoke about how those who gathered that first Pentecost morning were pilgrims. Pilgrims are by definition those who take time from the busyness of life to seek answers to the big questions in their lives. In some ways you could say that they are creating an emotional and spiritual crossroads. A dividing point where they aspire to be different. When they hear Peters witness about Jesus and know both in their head and heart that this is life changing truth. This is where they have truly hit that crossroads. We know they hit it because they ask,” what then shall we do?”

April 12, 2026

The reading this morning from Acts of the Apostles, which we will be following throughout the season of Easter is often read on Pentecost Sunday. Pentecost is considered to be the birth of the church. It was the day when the Holy Spirit touched pilgrims that had gathered in Jerusalem from all the various corners of the known world. These were faithful Jews, that had returned to Jerusalem, the centre of their faith for the high holy days. 

Something that we forget, or perhaps like myself had not really thought about before was that these were not followers of Jesus. So let be clear their reason for being in Jerusalem was not Jesus. They were there on pilgrimage so that they might come closer to God.

April 5, 2026

Last week, I said that the last discipline in our Lenten, and now Easter journey was the discipline of learning how to die, so that we might live. It is no accident that the various disciplines that I have talked about in the season of Lent leads us to this day and this ultimate of all disciplines. Learning to die in a spiritual sense involves two things. The first is being open to the voice of God and secondly, in how we see the world after we have heard that voice.

March 29,2026

Through the season of Lent, I have been offering spiritual disciplines that deepens our connection with the Divine and with each other. These disciplines can come to us either on the mountain top or in the wilderness. As we enter, holy week, I offer two more disciplines. Out of our work on Good Friday and Easter is the discipline of preparing to die so that we might live but the discipline for today, that of Palm Sunday, is to learn to live so that we might never die.

Let’s begin with a Psalm lesson for today. In it, we hear a number of famous lines, probably because they are quoted in the New Testament, and that they seem to foreshadow the coming, not just of a king, but a person of such spiritual power or promises that the world is transformed. The psalm begins …

March 22, 2026

The image from the book of Ezekiel’s, that of the Valley of dry bones is a powerful one. A recent Google search returned over 80,000 references to it. While it may start with this valley of dry bones it feels like there is a rush to move on to the restoration and rejuvenation of those bones into living bodies. Could it be that the reason we rush from the valley of dry bones to a valley of resuscitation and rejuvenation is that we fearfully relate much more to the feeling of being dry bones then the rejuvenated bodies, and that scares us.

Archaeologists and other scientists can tell us a lot about a person from the bones that are left behind. Even very dry bones give up their secrets. Was the person a nomad or did they live in the city? We can determine the diet they had and even …

March 8, 2026

………. Moses and the Israelites, who followed him, were in a similar desert wilderness. They were propelled by the vision of the promised land but journeying in a place that offered a little in the ways of water or food. As they were journeying, they saw that their water supplies were dangerously low and they were afraid. It is therefore not strange to think that they were afraid and that they would take those fears to Moses. But this makes Moses afraid as well. So here they are in the desert and thirsty. This physical thirst for water gave them a thirst for reassurance that God was with them. A thirst for reassurance that God still loved them, and a thirst for reassurance that God still cared about them

March 1, 2026

Last week we heard in Genesis the story of creation as God created all the creatures of the earth and names them one by one. And then creates humans and places them together in the centre of that creation. In deliberate parallel to the opening words of Genesis the writer of the Gospel of John speaks of the word that brings light into the darkness.
He wrote: 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 God;... What came into existence was Life, and the Life was Light to live by. The Life-Light blazed out of the darkness: the darkness couldn't be put out. ……

Febrruary 22, 2026

Here we are in the season of Lent. A time traditionally that the church has set aside for adopting and practicing the kind of discipleship that prepares us to endure the pain of watching our beloved brother and Saviour being tortured and crucified on trumped up charges. It is a penitent time because there is an uneasy feeling within us that by actions and inactions, we are part of systems that continue to torture and crucify the innocent today. Now both scripture lessons are well known. The fall in the book of Genesis and the temptation of Jesus in the Gospel of Matthew. I would call these stories valley experiences, specifically the valley of despair. Maybe despair has something to teach us? Surely, these testing times offer us many avenues of spiritual discipleship?  The problem is that is not why they were written. Matthew’s purpose was to introduce us to Jesus and his faith journey, not ours. And the writers of Genesis actually placed the creation, not humanity at the centre of their story. So, to use these scripture stories for part of our journey requires more work on our part than we might have expected.

February 15, 2026

For those who are new to this community, you need to know that Forest Hill United and Trinity United are in a nesting relationship. That means that over the last almost 3 years we have been discerning whether or not we should amalgamate. Last month it was decided by both congregations that we would move forward on serious discussions on amalgamation. This means significant change for both congregations.

Now in the stories of Moses that we heard from Exodus and the story of Jesus that we heard in the gospel lesson there are a lot of commonalities beyond the fact that they both occur in a mountain. We should always take time to appreciate these commonalities because they are trying to teach us something about the nature of God, leadership, and change that is both individual and communal. And this is particularly true when it comes to a people who strive to get closer to God.

February 8, 2026

The gospel lesson today follows last week’s readings around the beatitudes and how blessed are those who frankly by the standards back then or of today don’t seem to be blessed at all. This week, Jesus picks up the theme, but makes it clear that blessing comes to those who don’t feel very blessed through the work of his followers. Jesus says to his disciples, and those who were listening as well that they are to be the salt of the Earth and the light of the world. This is a pretty high bar for anyone listening to Jesus to achieve. Jesus is talking to farmers and fishers and shepherds. People from those professions are often seen as unclean. Their very work made it hard to keep the kosher laws let alone striving to be the saviours of a hurting world. So, let’s break down what it is that Jesus is asking of the disciples.

February 1, 2026

At our Coffee & Conversation Fellowship time each Wednesday mornings here at the church or online Dennis always provides us with some interesting topics for discussion or reflection. Sometimes we do fun trivia games, or name that tune, other times we respond to different questions he provides for us. This past week it was on the timely subject of winter. Do you love it, or would you like to leave it? And what gets you through the winter? Some talked of kind neighbours who shoveled their sidewalks for them, others talked about the beauty of the glistening snow on a sunny day with brilliant blue skies. Others said they were running out of patience. Others liked to read, listen to music, do their exercise indoors or connect with friends and family. Winters can be hard, and for some depressing. And sometimes, we have to be intentional about coping through what sometimes feels like a long season before spring swings around again.

January 25, 2926

This week, the portrait takes a significant change. We have moved from what kind of leader will a servant of God be; to what will a servant of God do; and now to what is the ultimate purpose of that leadership and doing.

In both Isaiah and the gospel of Matthew, the authors, feel the need to ground the purpose in acknowledging from whence that purpose arises. For Isaiah, Israel is under threat by the Assyrian Empire. So, Isaiah who lives among the people of Israel is touched by the fear, anxiety, and uncertainty that oppresses all the people in times of conflict. Assyria has already chipped away at a couple of Israel’s northern provinces, whose names are, Zebulun and Naphtali. Darkness has fallen on them. ………

January 18, 2026

Last week, Isaiah helped us paint a portrait of the servant of God and how that servant would lead. This week the servant song paints a portrait that tells us about how servants of God are to be as disciples. And I use the word disciples intentionally as opposed to followers. Followers are ones who follow without question and often without thought. Whereas disciples are ones who listen, learn, debate, do and then disciple others.

January 11, 2026

If you see any artistic work in this building from before the nesting time, it was probably done by our resident graphic artists Linda and Sara Davis. They have a wonderful ability to take an idea or concept and make it a visual portrait. The prophet Isaiah is also an artist because he wants to paint a portrait for us of God’s holy servant. But instead of pallet of colors, Isaiah uses words. 

He did so in a series of word pictures which have become known as the Suffering Servant Songs. ……

January 4, 2026

We are still in the season of Christmas, so it is still appropriate and essential to ask who is this child born in a manger so long ago? The gospel of Mark doesn’t answer the question at all but only begins in his adulthood. The gospel of Matthew answers the question with a long list of Jesus’s lineage. Making the clear claim that Jesus is descendant from Abraham and Sarah through David and Bathsheba, and on all the way down to Joseph, his father. So, it would appear that Joseph is the father of this child. The gospel of Luke tells us who Jesus is by way of what others like angels and shepherds and magi say about the child.
But the gospel of John, which is the most deeply theological of the gospels goes in a very different direction. ……….

December 28, 2025

I wanted to find a commentary that seriously dealt with what is called “the slaughter of the innocence” which is the main subject of the gospel today. But a commentary that didn’t want to put the brakes on Christmas and carols. One that would acknowledge that the birth of Jesus from his first breath, has never done away with evil. And I found it. I want to read portions of a commentary written by the Rev. Dr. Melinda Quivik with my own commentary added in. 

December 21, 2025

There is a Czech theologian by the name of Jan Lochman. He frequently noted that both the communists of the east and the capitals of the west foster a one-dimensional view of reality. Truth is reduced only to facts that fit into the reigning economic system. So that ideals of production and consumption become the corresponding ways of measuring and controlling reality. We see this play out in Alberta and Ottawa, where the present economics of oil is pushed as having a greater value or the only thing of value even when compared to climate devastation. Anyone who challenges the superiority of the economics of oil is written off as a kookie radical who has lost touch with reality.

One of Christianity’s great gifts is that it can open our eyes and ears to a fuller awareness of reality that is not based on any single system economic, or theological.