Reflections of a Canadian Churchman

If our memories failed us and we could only remember one piece of Scripture, one word of comfort from our God to us, that would carry us through our earthly days, through each triumph and tragedy, I have no doubt that for many it would be the twenty-third psalm. This psalm speaks to our deepest fear and to our deepest angst. It is a part of our human condition that we fear that we will be left alone, forgotten, forsaken. And we fear that we will not only be forsaken by those who love us, but also by God. This is a fear to which even Jesus succumbed on the cross in his own cry of dereliction. Thus it is to this psalm that we turn at our darkest hour. It not only comforts us when all seems bleak, but challenges us to believe in the midst of our doubt. It challenges us to claim the reality of the Good Shepherd, our Risen Lord, who neither forsakes us nor forgets us, but walks with us and holds us close, even as our faith wavers and our hope falters. It is a powerful piece of Scriptu...

“For things done and left undone” is part of the confession we make each week as we approach the altar. It is also part of the confession we make annually on Ash Wednesday. For Christians, Ash Wednesday and the Lenten journey is a time for making our “New Year’s resolutions” not because a new year is beginning but because it is that annual time at which we turn again and put our trust in the Lord. Lenten discipline, though, is not about heaping things upon ourselves that we can never, or will never be able to accomplish, rather it is about refocusing our lives in the right direction. Lent is about turning the eyes of our hearts and minds, once again, to Christ, who opens the way for us when the way may seem dark or impossible. Lenten discipline is not about depriving ourselves of good things, but about opening ourselves to the goodness of God. It is about looking around our “spiritual room” and surveying the furniture of this room. This may mean that from time to time we will have ...

Readers of this blog may be interested in learning that the Diocese of Toronto has launched a new "Reflections" section on their website. It currently features Lenten homilies by various clergy of our diocese. I am pleased to say that they accepted my submission of my Ash Wednesday homily from last year (2008). I commend the page to you. It can be found by clicking here .

There are times when we feel that we can do nothing. When a crisis hits we have an impulse to help. However, in many cases it would seem that there is nothing to be done… at least by us. There will be some, either through training or skill, who can immediately jump in, begin their work and be the people they are called to be at such a moment. Thanks be to God for such people. For the rest of us though, it will be difficult to stand by, watch, and feel helpless. It occurs to me that our fear of helplessness comes from being a society of “doers.” Indeed, many of us believe that our value as a person is derived from “what we do” professionally. This is why the loss of a job, a forced change of job, or retirement can be such a traumatic occurrence for so many. Our usefulness and our apparent value is challenged by such a stripping of our presumed identity. When we cannot “do” we wonder if our life has any meaning. For those of us in the so-called caring professions, or helping pro...

In the quiet of the night, in lowly estate, the Lord bared forth his holy arm before the eyes of the slumbering nations. The Word was made flesh and dwelt among us. In the darkness of the darkest night, in poverty, in humility, in the womb of a virgin mother, the Creator of the Cosmos came, and entered into our humanity so that all the ends of the earth might see the salvation of our God. And on this morning, as the shepherds return to the their sheep, and the angels’ glorias fade into the waning night, as a young mother comforts her newborn child, we know that the Lord has indeed comforted his people. Comfort – comfort in our weakness. He came, for those who could not come and kneel at the foot of the manger – he came. Comfort – comfort in our sorrow. He came, for those who had lost hope that God could ever be with them in their despair – he came. Comfort – comfort in our darkness. He came, for those who had turned from the goodness and mercy of God – he came. He came to his own and ...

A reflection for Advent from the fortieth chapter of the Prophet Isaiah The Word of the Lord endures forever. Even though we wither like the grass, God goes ever unchanging on, ruler and Lord of all. And in the unending faithfulness of God, he is ever working to reconcile us to himself and to each other. The season of Advent is about us becoming reconciled to God, it is about waiting on the moment that God himself entered human history and called us back to his heart as a shepherd leads his flock. In the time of the Second Temple, John the Baptist was making this very call, telling people to turn back to God and be made ready for his coming – Make straight a pathway for our God. John’s words evoke another time spoken of by the prophet Isaiah, a time when the Temple had been destroyed and the people of Judah had been taken into captivity by the neo-Babylonian empire. Imagine yourself there. It is very much like the time of the Exodus – it is a time in the wilderness, a time that will ap...

This Generation Will Not Pass Away Until All These Things Have Taken Place It can be frustrating for those of us in mainstream Christianity when we feel as if certain very conservative sectors of Christianity have appropriated the Bible for their sole use, and their own particular stream of interpretation as the only “true” mode of interpreation. Who are we to blame, but ourselves, though? Do we in the Christian mainstream assert ownership over the Bible? Do we openly engage in a public conversation with the text of the Bible? Do we attempt to deal with difficult passages as they present themselves? I fear we do not. As I have said previously, sometimes our lectionary does not help us much. It often excises difficult passages, and in particular, severely edits many of the apocalyptic passages of Scripture. As I see it, this is extremely problematic for mainstream Christians. For most mainstream Christians, the only teaching that they ever get, or sermons that they ever hear about the a...