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.

December 14, 2025

In a recent gathering of local clergy with Regional Pastoral Support minister Laurie Stevenson we were guided through some Advent reflections including Joy that she symbolized as a candle in the window. Joy at Christmas, she said, is often misunderstood as constant cheerfulness yet Scripture tells a quieter truth: joy is something that comes in the morning, something that returns even after sorrow has had its time. 

That idea is based on Psalm 30:5 which says, “Weeping may endure for a night, but joy comes in the morning.“ In this verse we are reminded that seasons of sorrow and hardship are temporary, and God promises that hope, light, and lasting joy will eventually break through the darkness. It is fitting for our ongoing journey of waiting and preparing of advent toward the wonder and mystery of Christ’s birth and Christmas.