Article submitted for the Riverview Reflector's spring issue.

This year, the season of LENT in the church begins on Valentine’s Day. It is a long season – 40 days leading up to Easter – to reflect on what needs to change within us so as to bring about a greater expression of love, goodness, reconciliation, peace, in the world. In almost every corner of the earth we can see how life, for much of Earth’s population, is not going well. Violence, oppression, hunger, homelessness, devastation of people’s lives and cultures and the natural world are everywhere.  The Church at large is not exempt from contributing to what is happening. Listening to and watching the news, despair and powerlessness can easily seep in. At the same time, there are many good things that are being done in response to and to address the various issues. Many efforts, across the globe, by people and organizations in all areas of culture and society, on large scale and small, are working toward justice, equality, reparation, wholeness, well-being and enough for all.

In response to the sometimes-overwhelming helplessness that I feel, I focus on practical actions and attitudes that work against fear, mistrust, anxiety, greed. In our small congregation I am regularly encouraged by efforts made by committed folks to work toward connection and compassion with people in the neighborhood.

Our food bank that runs every 2nd Saturday, monthly (almost) Sunday morning breakfasts for the community, generous contributions of winter gear for people in need, and donations that come in from outside our congregation for the foodbank all give me hope.

In the midst of the Covid pandemic I remember hoping that we as a global community would come out of the pandemic kinder, more compassionate toward each other. I can’t say that I’ve seen that happen, at least not on a global scale. I am grateful for the season of LENT that comes every year – an opportunity to intentionally focus, personally and communally on living with greater intentionality and faithfulness to the common good. LENT, which means “spring”, represents a turning from barrenness to fruitfulness – a return to life in all its diverse fullness. May it be so, this year.

I submitted the following article for the Riverview Reflector's Winter issue. I have certain restrictions that I need to maintain when I write for the RR - I cannot use the word God or any other name for God and I cannot come across as teaching or preaching. Other than that, I have a lot of freedom. I am grateful for this opportunity to give voice in our neighborhood.

photo credit - KaLisa Veer on Unsplash

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As we all know, there are gifts that money cannot buy. For me, time spent with my 4 grand-boys is invaluable. So important to me, I use it as a reason to not work full-time. I need time to be with these 4 little people (the oldest of whom is now 10!). They remind me of what is most important in life, they help reset my perspective which can easily get skewed. They keep me focused in the present moment paying attention to what and who is right in front of me. The investment of time spent with these boys has resulted in my profound gratitude for the gifts of hope, peace, joy, love that I experience being part of their young lives. Alongside their mischievous and self-centered behaviors, my grand-boys are at times the embodiment of these virtues.

In the church, the themes of HOPE, PEACE, JOY and LOVE, mark the 4 Sundays of Advent leading up to Christmas. Each Sunday another candle is lit for the particular theme of that day and as a way to symbolize increasing light as we move toward the darkness of winter solstice and the celebration of Christmas.

Over time, moving through the church calendar year after year after year, these Advent themes can take on a somewhat mechanical role, filling their appointed place in the order of things. But this year they have become much more significant to me. Part of that is because the pandemic with all the restrictions has sharpened for me, and for so many others, an attentiveness to what is important and what is not. When there are things and events that we cannot have, those that are most important naturally rise to the top.

Another reason why HOPE, PEACE, JOY, LOVE have become more significant for me this year is because their sad opposites too frequently appear in blatant and hurtful ways.
Despair, division, misery and fear exist in abundance. In some places they have taken center stage. Pushing aside those virtues that bring us together, they continue to wreak havoc and fracture.

HOPE, PEACE, JOY, LOVE in their truest sense offer me a vast and generous spaciousness, and at the same time ground me in what is really real. They offer the capacity to work toward goodness and wholeness; to reach beyond myself for the well-being of others and of Earth on which I live. As I experience and participate in them, together with others, I become part of something larger than what I can experience on my own.

HOPE gives me tenacity; PEACE, steadiness; JOY, vitality; LOVE, awareness of divine compassion and acceptance.

Whether it’s with my 4 grand-boys or with people in my community, city and province, this year, on the top of my wish-list, are HOPE, PEACE, JOY, LOVE, for each one of us and for us all.

The following article was written for the Fall issue of The Riverview Reflector

"Love your neighbor as yourself”. Those are biblical words of wisdom. They are words that we in our congregation have been discussing for quite some time. As a simple sentiment it sounds lovely and inspirational. But when those words become active in real life they take on a whole other level of energy and engagement. That short sentence calls us to action and relationship, it calls us to engagement with people with whom we may not ordinarily choose to engage. I’m quite sure that’s the intent of the Giver of those words; stepping outside of our comfortable place so as to know more of the world we live in and more of who we are in relationship with each other. Such has been our experience at 366 Oakwood during the summer months.

We, in our small church, like to think of ourselves as a welcoming presence in the community. We have a long-standing good relationship with our immediate neighbors for which we are grateful. We are happy to receive any and all who come through our doors. This past year, because of the pandemic, our doors were closed for a long time and our in-person gatherings ceased. And, for whatever reasons, our front steps became the place of gathering for a variety of folks from the neighborhood. Extending our posture of welcome became a little more challenging mostly because we were no longer the ones initiating the interaction.

Extending welcome to people who show up for an event that we initiate, are already engaged in and for the most part control involves far less conflicting emotions and thots than extending welcome to people who show up unannounced in our space, create their own event and don’t invite us. Are we let off the “love your neighbor” hook when the “neighbor” doesn’t fit into the environment that we have carefully crafted to suit our preferences? How do we extend welcome while at the same time ensure safety and respect for everyone?

We are living in strange and fascinating times. During the past months the Church has yet again been exposed for its distasteful qualities and tendencies. People are not knocking on our church doors wanting to come in; they are not showing up because the Church is known for compassion, mercy, generosity and inclusion. People are staying away because the opposite is unfortunately what the Church is known for, at least in some circles.

I am not surprised that the tenets of our faith are literally being tested on our front doorstep. Life has a way of doing this, confronting us, forcing us to articulate in speech, attitude and action, what it is we truly adhere to as our guiding principles. The struggle and working out of our faith is always available for us, if we are willing to take it on.

My hope is that in several months time we can look back on this summer grateful that we have, at least, given some folks positive, respectful interaction with the Church; folks who would never step inside our doors. That will be a step in the right direction.

About the Journey - Acts 14:1-28 - from Kerry Flemington

READING:
The same thing happened in Iconium. Paul and Barnabas went to the Jewish synagogue and preached with such power that a great number of both Jews and Greeks became believers. Some of the Jews, however, spurned God’s message and poisoned the minds of the Gentiles against Paul and Barnabas. But the apostles stayed there a long time, preaching boldly about the grace of the Lord. And the Lord proved their message was true by giving them power to do miraculous signs and wonders. But the people of the town were divided in their opinion about them. Some sided with the Jews, and some with the apostles.
Then a mob of Gentiles and Jews, along with their leaders, decided to attack and stone them. When the apostles learned of it, they fled to the region of Lycaonia—to the towns of Lystra and Derbe and the surrounding area. And there they preached the Good News.
 
While they were at Lystra, Paul and Barnabas came upon a man with crippled feet. He had been that way from birth, so he had never walked. He was sitting  and listening as Paul preached. Looking straight at him, Paul realized he had faith to be healed. So Paul called to him in a loud voice, “Stand up!” And the man jumped to his feet and started walking.
 
When the crowd saw what Paul had done, they shouted in their local dialect, “These men are gods in human form!” They decided that Barnabas was the Greek god Zeus and that Paul was Hermes, since he was the chief speaker. Now the temple of Zeus was located just outside the town. So the priest of the temple and the crowd brought bulls and wreaths of flowers to the town gates, and they prepared to offer sacrifices to the apostles.
 
But when the apostles Barnabas and Paul heard what was happening, they tore their clothing in dismay and ran out among the people, shouting, “Friends, why are you doing this? We are merely human beings—just like you! We have come to bring you the Good News that you should turn from these worthless things and turn to the living God, who made heaven and earth, the sea, and everything in them. In the past he permitted all the nations to go their own ways, but he never left them without evidence of himself and his goodness. For instance, he sends you rain and good crops and gives you food and joyful hearts.” But even with these words, Paul and Barnabas could scarcely restrain the people from sacrificing to them.
 
Then some Jews arrived from Antioch and Iconium and won the crowds to their side. They stoned Paul and dragged him out of town, thinking he was dead. But as the believers gathered around him, he got up and went back into the town. The next day he left with Barnabas for Derbe.
 
After preaching the Good News in Derbe and making many disciples, Paul and Barnabas returned to Lystra, Iconium, and Antioch of Pisidia, where they strengthened the believers. They encouraged them to continue in the faith, reminding them that we must suffer many hardships to enter the Kingdom of God. Paul and Barnabas also appointed elders in every church. With prayer and fasting, they turned the elders over to the care of the Lord, in whom they had put their trust. Then they traveled back through Pisidia to Pamphylia. They preached the word in Perga, then went down to Attalia.
 
Finally, they returned by ship to Antioch of Syria, where their journey had begun. The believers there had entrusted them to the grace of God to do the work they had now completed. Upon arriving in Antioch, they called the church together and reported everything God had done through them and how he had opened the door of faith to the Gentiles, too. And they stayed there with the believers for a long time.
Acts 14:1-28
 
REFLECTION:
How do we know that we’re doing the will of God?
 
What did Paul and Barnabas think when they divided the people in the synagogue with their teaching?  What did they think when they were met with praise and adoration at the Greek temple?  What did they think when Paul was stoned and left for dead on the outskirts of town?
 
We’re an acceptance addicted society.  We don’t want to be left out on the playground, we don’t want our kids to be picked last for the basketball game, we live for the affirmation of social media “Likes” and we can spew venom with the best of them from the anonymity of our computer, far too afraid to ever dialogue  with love and restraint face to face.  We take our cues about success from our bank balance and our positions, the square footage of our homes and our social calendars.  And it’s an easy trap to fall into; we look for belonging and acceptance.  In fact, we’re wired for it; God created us for community, both with him and with those around us.
 
So back to the question at hand.  I don’t have a specific answer, except to say this: you will be both loved and hated whenever you step out in faith.  Do not let that be the metric you use to know if you are doing the will of God.  Imagine if Paul had accepted the sacrifices the Greeks wanted to make to him as a sign that he was on the right track?  And then later that same day, imagine if he’d taken his stoning as a sign that he was on the wrong track?  He would have lost his mind, just as we do when we allow ourselves to be buffeted by the opinions of other people.  God’s purpose for you and me is singular.  It does not look the same for you as it does for me.  And very often, people will think we are just plain nuts, as they did so many of God’s people throughout the Bible.  
 
Take heart and be singular in your response to God’s calling: fix your eyes only on him.  He is the only metric that matters.  And where he is, working in you and through you, for his glory and your good, there too will be the fruit of the spirit.
 
No fruit?  No love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control?  None of these in your daily interactions with friends, family, neighbours, colleagues, strangers (including on the internet)?  Change course.  God won’t be mocked by our good intentions.  When we think we’re doing his will, but we’re angry, anxious, bitter, driven by fear, and causing division as a result of that, I can say decisively that isn’t God’s will, that’s your will.  Paul and Barnabas were not compelled by any of those things and therefore the division and adoration that came as a result mattered not to them or to God.  They were compelled to tell the truth of God’s incredible love for humanity through Christ’s death and resurrection.  They had no personal agenda or they would have gone off course.  Was the truth-telling messy?  You bet.  But the lasting result of those who heard God’s truth and accepted it, and really for Paul and Barnabas throughout their ministry, was the fruit of the spirit.  That’s how we know God’s will at work in our lives.



you can connect directly with Kerry at kerry@arnuthill.com

About the Journey - Acts 13:1-12 - from Kerry Flemington

READING:
Among the prophets and teachers of the church at Antioch of Syria were Barnabas, Simeon (called “the black man”), Lucius (from Cyrene), Manaen (the childhood companion of King Herod Antipas), and Saul. One day as these men were worshiping the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, “Appoint Barnabas and Saul for the special work to which I have called them.” So after more fasting and prayer, the men laid their hands on them and sent them on their way.
 
So Barnabas and Saul were sent out by the Holy Spirit. They went down to the seaport of Seleucia and then sailed for the island of Cyprus. There, in the town of Salamis, they went to the Jewish synagogues and preached the word of God. John Mark went with them as their assistant.
 
Afterward they traveled from town to town across the entire island until finally they reached Paphos, where they met a Jewish sorcerer, a false prophet named Bar-Jesus. He had attached himself to the governor, Sergius Paulus, who was an intelligent man. The governor invited Barnabas and Saul to visit him, for he wanted to hear the word of God. But Elymas, the sorcerer (as his name means in Greek), interfered and urged the governor to pay no attention to what Barnabas and Saul said. He was trying to keep the governor from believing.
 
Saul, also known as Paul, was filled with the Holy Spirit, and he looked the sorcerer in the eye. Then he said, “You son of the devil, full of every sort of deceit and fraud, and enemy of all that is good! Will you never stop perverting the true ways of the Lord? Watch now, for the Lord has laid his hand of punishment upon you, and you will be struck blind. You will not see the sunlight for some time.” Instantly mist and darkness came over the man’s eyes, and he began groping around begging for someone to take his hand and lead him.
When the governor saw what had happened, he became a believer, for he was astonished at the teaching about the Lord.
Acts 13:1-12
 
REFLECTION:
Discomfort.  So much of the Bible is laced with discomfort.  Discomfort at being told what to do, discomfort in believing, discomfort in not believing.  It’s a reality of the human condition that we will find ourselves in discomfort.
 
Somehow, somewhere, we as Christians have believed the lie that our lives are meant to be comfortable.  And if it’s not, we’re doing something wrong.  Perhaps we’ve been led astray by the knowledge of God as our comforter i.e. our sugar-daddy, the guy who will sweep away all hard and difficult situations, will rain down a surplus on us if we just have enough faith.  Maybe this is slightly exaggerated but at the same time, I don’t think it’s too far off from the truth.  We rarely wonder where God is when things are going well in our life.  But when life takes a turn for the worse, we secretly, or maybe even outwardly, believe that God has abandoned us.
 
In order to shore up our wobbly faith, we focus on the god of certainty.  We carve our secure career paths, we focus on being debt free or at the very least, having a surplus amount of cash flow to ensure comfort.  We believe the right theology, surround ourselves with like-minded folks, equally as successful as we are, and build a well meaning legacy of good works, whether in business or personally. We naturally use our talents and abilities to provide stability for ourselves and our families.  And essentially, we tack God on to all of this for good measure, like a good luck charm on our key chains.  Our faith is that God is with us, indeed. But just in case he’s not going to handle things the way I would, I build myself all sorts of safety nets to ensure that my life is disrupted the least amount should unfortunate circumstances arise.  
 
Essentially, this is also the story of Bar-Jesus. He was a Jew, believing in Yahweh.  But he had a few extra resources to fall back on (his sorcery) and he surrounded himself with the right people to maintain a comfortable position of power over himself and his small dominion.  He had God in one hand and Plan B, just in case, in the other.
 
Saul and Barnabas then enter the picture.  Their focus wasn’t on Bar-Jesus and his sorcery; they had come at the request of Sergius, the governor of the region.  I’m not sure why this threatened Bar-Jesus.  What did it matter if his friend became a Christ follower?
 
I think perhaps what rattled Bar-Jesus was a suspicion that when Jesus enters the picture, life gets uncomfortable.  Things no longer go as we planned or anticipated.  If we’re really interested in being in a relationship with him, we have to let go of our own agendas.  We have to let go of our well-meaning safeguards and trust in the good-ness of God.  That doesn’t come easily to us when the systems that are already in place serve us so well.  We get displaced from being the centre of our universe.  And I think we would do well to listen carefully to Paul‘s words because they are an arrow straight into the heart of the matter: when we live like this, we are full of deceit and fraud, the enemy of all that is good.  God is slow to anger and abounding in love, but he will not be mocked.  We cannot tack God on to our key chains for our own purposes and pursuits or we will end up like Bar-Jesus - living life veiled in mist and darkness but believing we’re enlightened.



you can connect directly with Kerry at kerry@arnuthill.com

About the Journey - Act 12:1-17 - from Kerry Flemington

READING:
About that time King Herod Agrippa began to persecute some believers in the church. He had the apostle James (John’s brother) killed with a sword. When Herod saw how much this pleased the Jewish people, he also arrested Peter. (This took place during the Passover celebration.) Then he imprisoned him, placing him under the guard of four squads of four soldiers each. Herod intended to bring Peter out for public trial after the Passover. But while Peter was in prison, the church prayed very earnestly for him.
 
The night before Peter was to be placed on trial, he was asleep, fastened with two chains between two soldiers. Others stood guard at the prison gate. Suddenly, there was a bright light in the cell, and an angel of the Lord stood before Peter. The angel struck him on the side to awaken him and said, “Quick! Get up!” And the chains fell off his wrists. Then the angel told him, “Get dressed and put on your sandals.” And he did. “Now put on your coat and follow me,” the angel ordered.
 
So Peter left the cell, following the angel. But all the time he thought it was a vision. He didn’t realize it was actually happening. They passed the first and second guard posts and came to the iron gate leading to the city, and this opened for them all by itself. So they passed through and started walking down the street, and then the angel suddenly left him.
 
Peter finally came to his senses. “It’s really true!” he said. “The Lord has sent his angel and saved me from Herod and from what the Jewish leaders had planned to do to me!”
 
When he realized this, he went to the home of Mary, the mother of John Mark, where many were gathered for prayer. He knocked at the door in the gate, and a servant girl named Rhoda came to open it. When she recognized Peter’s voice, she was so overjoyed that, instead of opening the door, she ran back inside and told everyone, “Peter is standing at the door!”
 
“You’re out of your mind!” they said. When she insisted, they decided, “It must be his angel.”
 
Meanwhile, Peter continued knocking. When they finally opened the door and saw him, they were amazed. He motioned for them to quiet down and told them how the Lord had led him out of prison. “Tell James and the other brothers what happened,” he said. And then he went to another place.
Acts 12:1-17

REFLECTION:
Peter has been arrested and he is being heavily guarded.  Not only is he chained to two guards, he has four squads of 4 guards surrounding him.  Remember, he is not under arrest by the Romans but by the Jewish leaders.  I imagine they are very aware of who they are up against.  This isn’t just about Peter, it’s about that blasphemous traitor Jesus and his voodoo tricks.  They are not going to be outwitted by any of it and so 16 armed guards should do the job well.
 
And then an angel shows up.  This is where the miraculous and the messy meet so beautifully.  Rather than just transpose Peter out of the prison, much like Philip did after the eunuch meet-up, the angel and Peter do a daring escape.  Yes, the chains come off him miraculously but there is still urgency…and there is still the need to get dressed, put on your shoes, and grab your coat.  Why?  Then they still have to make it past the guard posts and the city gate.  Peter, all the while participates but thinks it’s just all a dream.  But when he finds himself on a dark street in the middle of the night, it hits him!  God has set him free.
 
He gets his bearings and finds his way to Mary’s house.  This is where the Jesus people have been gathered ostensibly to pray for Peter.  Rhoda, the servant, answers the door and recognizes Peter’s voice. In her excitement, she forgets to let Peter in and runs to tell the folks gathered that Peter’s at the door.  Rather than recognizing that their prayers have been answered, they tell her she’s nuts!  Peter, left fending for himself outside and probably greatly aware that he is not out of the woods yet, keeps knocking! Finally, he’s let in and everyone is overjoyed.  But lest Peter get everyone else into trouble, he relays the story and then moves on into hiding.
 
Here we all are again.  Getting our coats and doubting God.  It’s so very much us.  We trust God, we understand his character, but when the rubber meets the road, we’re so full of doubt.  Could God really be setting me free? During the process, I don’t recognize him.  It’s only on the other side, standing in an empty street, no chains binding me or guards holding me back, do I see that it was him all along.  But not only am I free, but I have shoes on my feet for walking, clothes on my back to cover my nakedness, and a coat to keep me warm.  Nothing is missed in God’s miracles.  He is in every single detail.
 
How about answered prayer?  “You’re nuts, Rhoda!”  Why do we have such a hard time accepting that he always does answer?  Do we think, because we expected the miracle to look like something else, that he’s not really listening?  Do we think we’re so undeserving that how could he possibly bother with me?  We are undeserving, it’s true.  But then, what’s the point of grace?  He is constantly interacting with us not because of who we are but because of who he is.  Peter listened to that angel and followed, even though he thought he was imagining it all.  The followers finally let Peter in even though they thought Rhoda was crazy.  In spite of their shortcomings and shortsightedness, they kept showing up, fumbling all the way.  In spite of their inability to recognize God, even as he was breaking chains and knocking on doors, God kept showing up, even as they’re fumbling.  We will never get it right on this side of eternity.  It will be full of doubt, full of stops and starts, full of not recognizing God and that he is with us and involved in every detail, every single step of the way.  But that’s the whole point of Grace and the very essence of God’s character and his love for us.  So in humility, keep coming before God, recognizing our patterns of brokenness.  Right in that place of miracles and messiness, we will find ourselves always in God’s presence.



you can connect directly with Kerry at kerry@arnuthill.com

About the Journey - Acts 11:1-18 - from Kerry Flemington

READING:
Soon the news reached the apostles and other believers in Judea that the Gentiles had received the word of God. But when Peter arrived back in Jerusalem, the Jewish believers criticized him. “You entered the home of Gentiles and even ate with them!” they said.
 
Then Peter told them exactly what had happened. “I was in the town of Joppa,” he said, “and while I was praying, I went into a trance and saw a vision. Something like a large sheet was let down by its four corners from the sky. And it came right down to me. When I looked inside the sheet, I saw all sorts of tame and wild animals, reptiles, and birds. And I heard a voice say, ‘Get up, Peter; kill and eat them.’
 
“‘No, Lord,’ I replied. ‘I have never eaten anything that our Jewish laws have declared impure or unclean.’
 
“But the voice from heaven spoke again: ‘Do not call something unclean if God has made it clean.’ This happened three times before the sheet and all it contained was pulled back up to heaven.
 
“Just then three men who had been sent from Caesarea arrived at the house where we were staying. The Holy Spirit told me to go with them and not to worry that they were Gentiles. These six brothers here accompanied me, and we soon entered the home of the man who had sent for us. He told us how an angel had appeared to him in his home and had told him, ‘Send messengers to Joppa, and summon a man named Simon Peter. He will tell you how you and everyone in your household can be saved!’
 
“As I began to speak,” Peter continued, “the Holy Spirit fell on them, just as he fell on us at the beginning. Then I thought of the Lord’s words when he said, ‘John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.’ And since God gave these Gentiles the same gift he gave us when we believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, who was I to stand in God’s way?”
 
When the others heard this, they stopped objecting and began praising God. They said, “We can see that God has also given the Gentiles the privilege of repenting of their sins and receiving eternal life.”
Acts 11:1-18
 
REFLECTION:
“Test it against the Scriptures”.  That’s how we know what is true and what is not true or at least that’s the advice within Christian orthodoxy.  So here is Peter, in a trance, being told to eat what is unclean. “Test it against the Scriptures”.  After that, the Holy Spirit tells him “not to worry” and to go with Gentiles, enter their home, and break bread with them.  Lo and behold, Peter does it all.  “Test it against the Scriptures”.
 
Perhaps if I had been in Peter’s shoes, when I tested the instruction against Scripture, I would have considered eating unclean things as blasphemous, surely a message straight from the devil himself.  Further proof of that would be the next instruction to continue to ignore Jewish law and go into the home of a Gentile.  I don’t think Peter had a momentary lapse in judgement.  Two millennia later, and the completed story at our fingertips as laid out in the Bible, we don’t think twice about what Peter did.  But we also don’t grasp the gravitas of it at all.
 
We look at Jesus and how angry he made the Pharisees, the keepers of the law, and we accept what he did without much thought.  When he picked food and ate on the Sabbath, we have no context for why that would make anyone so angry.  But the Pharisees were the gatekeepers of the Jewish religion.  They were the ones who tested actions and words against Scripture, so to speak, and found Jesus grossly lacking in his obedience to Yahweh.
 
I’m not a Biblical scholar in the least.  But as I read the Bible in the context of how it reflects the reality of life versus God’s original intent, the Law was a compromise.  It points back to the original intent but its existence is proof that God, in his mercy and goodness, came up with yet another way outside of the Garden to still meet with him, worship him, and be in relationship with him.  And as far as I can tell, when Christ came, as the embodiment of God in the flesh, he also came as the fulfillment of the law.  If keeping the law, and making atonements for when we broke it, allowed us to remain in relationship with God, Christ’s coming became the final sacrifice, the final atonement, allowing us fully into God’s presence.  But this only makes sense, if we recognize who Christ is.  And clearly, the Pharisees didn’t.  To them, Christ was a blasphemer, not God embodied and therefore not the fulfillment of the law itself.
 
Peter had walked with Christ.  He had haphazardly, and in fits and starts, slowly understood Christ for who he really was.  And so when he was told to eat unclean food and enter the home of a Gentile, he could recognize that while the law stated this was wrong, it was not obedience to that law that had reconciled him to God, but rather it was Christ alone who had done that.  And so he went and he did.  When all was said and done, the final proof lay in these Gentiles receiving God’s spirit.
 
The world is muddled.  Perhaps it shouldn’t be, but it’s often a struggle for me to make sense of how I am to live my life, bumping up against broken people, broken systems, and the pain and beauty of life this side of eternity.  But at the end of the day, I do go back to the Bible, I do go back to Jesus, God embodied.  I go back to the Bible because it’s the story of who God is and how he meets us in our brokenness.  I go back to Jesus because he is God in the flesh; through him I have direct access to my Creator who loves me more and better than anything human beings can serve up here on planet earth.  And at the end of the day, I look to see the fruit that is being produced.  The home of a Gentile was where the Spirit was working.  Don’t be afraid to go there.



you can connect directly with Kerry at kerry@arnuthill.com

About the Journey  - Acts 10:1-48 - from Kerry Flemington

READING:
In Caesarea there lived a Roman army officer named Cornelius, who was a captain of the Italian Regiment. He was a devout, God-fearing man, as was everyone in his household. He gave generously to the poor and prayed regularly to God. One afternoon about three o'clock, he had a vision in which he saw an angel of God coming toward him. “Cornelius!” the angel said.
 
Cornelius stared at him in terror. “What is it, sir?” he asked the angel.
 
And the angel replied, “Your prayers and gifts to the poor have been received by God as an offering! Now send some men to Joppa, and summon a man named Simon Peter. He is staying with Simon, a tanner who lives near the seashore.”
 
As soon as the angel was gone, Cornelius called two of his household servants and a devout soldier, one of his personal attendants. He told them what had happened and sent them off to Joppa.
 
The next day as Cornelius's messengers were nearing the town, Peter went up on the flat roof to pray. It was about noon, and he was hungry. But while a meal was being prepared, he fell into a trance. He saw the sky open, and something like a large sheet was let down by its four corners. In the sheet were all sorts of animals, reptiles, and birds. Then a voice said to him, “Get up, Peter; kill and eat them.”
 
“No, Lord,” Peter declared. “I have never eaten anything that our Jewish laws have declared impure and unclean.”
 
But the voice spoke again: “Do not call something unclean if God has made it clean.” The same vision was repeated three times. Then the sheet was suddenly pulled up to heaven.
 
Peter was very perplexed. What could the vision mean? Just then the men sent by Cornelius found Simon's house. Standing outside the gate, they asked if a man named Simon Peter was staying there.
 
Meanwhile, as Peter was puzzling over the vision, the Holy Spirit said to him, “Three men have come looking for you. Get up, go downstairs, and go with them without hesitation. Don't worry, for I have sent them.”
 
So Peter went down and said, “I'm the man you are looking for. Why have you come?”
 
They said, “We were sent by Cornelius, a Roman officer. He is a devout and God-fearing man, well respected by all the Jews. A holy angel instructed him to summon you to his house so that he can hear your message.” So Peter invited the men to stay for the night. The next day he went with them, accompanied by some of the brothers from Joppa.
 
They arrived in Caesarea the following day. Cornelius was waiting for them and had called together his relatives and close friends. As Peter entered his home, Cornelius fell at his feet and worshiped him. But Peter pulled him up and said, “Stand up! I'm a human being just like you!” So they talked together and went inside, where many others were assembled.
 
Peter told them, “You know it is against our laws for a Jewish man to enter a Gentile home like this or to associate with you. But God has shown me that I should no longer think of anyone as impure or unclean. So I came without objection as soon as I was sent for. Now tell me why you sent for me.”
 
Cornelius replied, “Four days ago I was praying in my house about this same time, three o'clock in the afternoon. Suddenly, a man in dazzling clothes was standing in front of me. He told me, 'Cornelius, your prayer has been heard, and your gifts to the poor have been noticed by God! Now send messengers to Joppa, and summon a man named Simon Peter. He is staying in the home of Simon, a tanner who lives near the seashore.' So I sent for you at once, and it was good of you to come. Now we are all here, waiting before God to hear the message the Lord has given you.”
 
Then Peter replied, “I see very clearly that God shows no favoritism. In every nation he accepts those who fear him and do what is right. This is the message of Good News for the people of Israel—that there is peace with God through Jesus Christ, who is Lord of all. You know what happened throughout Judea, beginning in Galilee, after John began preaching his message of baptism. And you know that God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power. Then Jesus went around doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with him.
 
“And we apostles are witnesses of all he did throughout Judea and in Jerusalem. They put him to death by hanging him on a cross, but God raised him to life on the third day. Then God allowed him to appear, not to the general public, but to us whom God had chosen in advance to be his witnesses. We were those who ate and drank with him after he rose from the dead. And he ordered us to preach everywhere and to testify that Jesus is the one appointed by God to be the judge of all—the living and the dead. He is the one all the prophets testified about, saying that everyone who believes in him will have their sins forgiven through his name.”
 
Even as Peter was saying these things, the Holy Spirit fell upon all who were listening to the message. The Jewish believers who came with Peter were amazed that the gift of the Holy Spirit had been poured out on the Gentiles, too. For they heard them speaking in other tongues and praising God.
 
Then Peter asked, “Can anyone object to their being baptized, now that they have received the Holy Spirit just as we did?” So he gave orders for them to be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ. Afterward Cornelius asked him to stay with them for several days.
Acts10:1-48

REFLECTION:
Here we are again with our friend Peter.  Peter reminds me over and over again that God never gives up on us.  And as he transforms us, he brings us deeper and farther into his purposes for our lives, building on the past experiences that he has brought us through.  God wastes nothing.
 
Peter promises to follow Jesus to the ends of the earth, three times.  Peter denies knowing Jesus, three times.  Jesus, on that beach, calls and reassures Peter that he has a purpose for Peter in spite Peter's denial, three times.  After setting a firm foundation for Peter using all of his abilities and blunders, God sends Peter out to do his work.  Peter, emboldened by both the grace he's received and the truth that he finally understands, fully embraces spreading the word unrelentlessly amongst the Jewish people.  
 
And then this odd encounter.  A hungry Peter falls into a trance and has a strange dream about all the things Jews aren't allowed to eat. God uses this to illuminate one more thing about what Christ's death means: having completed one final sacrifice of Christ on the cross, not only is humankind reconciled to their Maker but there is no longer a divide between what is clean and unclean.  All of it is God's domain.  And Peter dreams it not once, not twice, but…three times.`
 
As a side note, I love God's sense of humour and attention to detail.  Peter had been living out his faithfulness already and most likely, one time would have been enough for Peter to recognize what was going on and who was behind it.  But God has a new thing for him to do and so with a wink and a smile, knowing old habits die hard, he gives Peter the vision three times.  Essentially, he meets Peter where he's at, fully acknowledging the human condition and our propensity to mess things up even when we're working from a place of best intentions.  It's as if he's saying to Peter, “It's me, Peter.  And just so you know for sure it's me, I'll do it three times for old times sake”.
 
What happens next shows the profound depth of Peter's faith and is a picture for us on what to do next even when things don't make sense.  I imagine when those guys showed up looking for him, Peter didn't draw a direct correlation between his thrice strange dream and going with these men.  But, he did know God was up to something and that he was utterly trustworthy.  So he goes with them. And there, standing there on the threshold of the Roman officer's doorstep, it struck him - nothing and no one is unclean.  Christ's death was not just for the Jew but for all of humanity.  As such, just as the curtain had been torn allowing us full entry into God's presence, so had the divide between Jew and Gentile.  All people are created in the image of God and therefore God wants to be reconciled with all people.
 
This encounter with God, then illuminated on that threshold, is why you and I, as non-Jews know the story of God's love for us.  And think of who God used to make this known: a stubborn, brash Jew with a history of making some big mistakes and a God-fearing Roman who was part of an awful political system that oppressed Jews.  This knowledge fills me with hope that nothing is wasted, nothing is lost, nothing is impossible with God.  He is at work, constantly and consistently, using us and shaping us to be used by him in his unrelenting desire to reconcile all people back to him.



~ you can connect directly with Kerry at kerry@arnuthill.com

About the Journey - Acts 9:1-31 - from Kerry Flemington

READING:
Meanwhile, Saul was uttering threats with every breath and was eager to kill the Lord's followers. So he went to the high priest. He requested letters addressed to the synagogues in Damascus, asking for their cooperation in the arrest of any followers of the Way he found there. He wanted to bring them—both men and women—back to Jerusalem in chains.
 
As he was approaching Damascus on this mission, a light from heaven suddenly shone down around him. He fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to him, “Saul! Saul! Why are you persecuting me?”
 
“Who are you, lord?” Saul asked.
 
And the voice replied, “I am Jesus, the one you are persecuting! Now get up and go into the city, and you will be told what you must do.”
 
The men with Saul stood speechless, for they heard the sound of someone's voice but saw no one! Saul picked himself up off the ground, but when he opened his eyes he was blind. So his companions led him by the hand to Damascus. He remained there blind for three days and did not eat or drink.
 
Now there was a believer in Damascus named Ananias. The Lord spoke to him in a vision, calling, “Ananias!”
 
“Yes, Lord!” he replied.
 
The Lord said, “Go over to Straight Street, to the house of Judas. When you get there, ask for a man from Tarsus named Saul. He is praying to me right now. I have shown him a vision of a man named Ananias coming in and laying hands on him so he can see again.”
 
“But Lord,” exclaimed Ananias, “I've heard many people talk about the terrible things this man has done to the believers in Jerusalem! And he is authorized by the leading priests to arrest everyone who calls upon your name.”
 
But the Lord said, “Go, for Saul is my chosen instrument to take my message to the Gentiles and to kings, as well as to the people of Israel. And I will show him how much he must suffer for my name's sake.”
 
So Ananias went and found Saul. He laid his hands on him and said, “Brother Saul, the Lord Jesus, who appeared to you on the road, has sent me so that you might regain your sight and be filled with the Holy Spirit.” Instantly something like scales fell from Saul's eyes, and he regained his sight. Then he got up and was baptized. Afterward he ate some food and regained his strength.
 
Saul stayed with the believers in Damascus for a few days. And immediately he began preaching about Jesus in the synagogues, saying, “He is indeed the Son of God!”
 
All who heard him were amazed. “Isn't this the same man who caused such devastation among Jesus" followers in Jerusalem?” they asked. “And didn't he come here to arrest them and take them in chains to the leading priests?”
 
Saul's preaching became more and more powerful, and the Jews in Damascus couldn't refute his proofs that Jesus was indeed the Messiah. After a while some of the Jews plotted together to kill him. They were watching for him day and night at the city gate so they could murder him, but Saul was told about their plot. So during the night, some of the other believers lowered him in a large basket through an opening in the city wall.
 
When Saul arrived in Jerusalem, he tried to meet with the believers, but they were all afraid of him. They did not believe he had truly become a believer! Then Barnabas brought him to the apostles and told them how Saul had seen the Lord on the way to Damascus and how the Lord had spoken to Saul. He also told them that Saul had preached boldly in the name of Jesus in Damascus.
 
So Saul stayed with the apostles and went all around Jerusalem with them, preaching boldly in the name of the Lord. He debated with some Greek-speaking Jews, but they tried to murder him. When the believers heard about this, they took him down to Caesarea and sent him away to Tarsus, his hometown.
 
The church then had peace throughout Judea, Galilee, and Samaria, and it became stronger as the believers lived in the fear of the Lord. And with the encouragement of the Holy Spirit, it also grew in numbers.
Acts 9:1-31

REFLECTION:
As I've been reading and studying through Acts, I am beginning to recognize a pattern emerging of sidebar characters.  I characterize them as such because theirs aren't the names that I readily think of as I go through the New Testament.  Yet their faith and obedience has a profound effect on the trajectory of the more well-known stories and characters.
 
Ananias is one such person.  He is very aware of who Saul is and has heard, along with his fellow believers, that Saul is on his way to Damascus, their hometown, to continue his brutal persecution of Jews that have come to believe that Jesus is the Messiah.  Saul oversaw the vicious stoning of Stephen at the hands of the religious elite.  Imagine a modern day equivalent - a gathering of highly regarded church leaders who become so blind with rage with what they deem as blasphemy that they brutalize another human so badly that he dies from his injuries - “And Saul agreed that the killing was good”.  It boggles my mind as to what that would look like today.
 
And here Ananias is - tasked with going to pray over this person to restore his eyesight.  God doesn't fill him in about why he's blind or what happened on that road.  But he does say this: “[Saul] is at a house on Straight Street and he's praying. He'll be expecting you”.
 
He's praying.  
 
To whom?  Who could my enemy possibly be praying to?  Theologically speaking, he is praying to the God of Abraham, the same God that Ananias is praying to, and at this particular moment, is conversing with.  He's not praying to a pagan god or an idol.  Saul isn't a foreigner within Israel oppressing the Jews like the Romans are. They are both praying to the Living God - Yahweh.
 
I think about this in our highly divided, divisive times, not only in the world around us but within the church.  Here are two people, both praying to a God who they are trying to honour and obey.  For one of them, however, life has been illuminated by the saving grace of Christ's death on the cross.  And so God calls this man, in the shadow of the cross, to go across town and pray for his enemy who is from within the church.
 
I'm not sure many of us would respond.  I think we'd more likely want to stone each other with Bible verses than pray over each other.  There is so little grace in our interactions with people we disagree with, especially fellow believers.  At the core, I think it's because we don't want to do anything that dishonours God.  We don't want to misrepresent his truth.  But in doing so, we don't trust in his Grace or what he is perhaps doing in the life of the other person.
 
God does give Ananias a glimpse into what he's doing in Saul's life, after Ananias protests.  But we're not all guaranteed that.  We often won't ever know the full picture of what God is doing in another person's life and how God might be using us within their story.  But if our focus is on ourselves and the preservation of what we can see and therefore believe, we will only stand in the way of God being able to use us.  We might believe in grace for ourselves but our faith will not be big enough to believe that God's grace is sufficient for the other person.  We may even have enough insight to recognize our own faith struggles, but when other people's faith struggles are different, those, for some reason, don't count and don't deserve grace.  What Ananias knew, and what allowed him to go across town and pray for his brother, was that essentially both he and Saul were the same - both in desperate need of God's grace made available through Jesus" sacrifice on the cross.  Ananias already understood what Saul was still coming to.  And that made all the difference - if God's grace was sufficient, then it was sufficient both for him and for someone as awful as Saul.  Therefore, it was Grace that set him free from his own hesitation and fears, and allowed him to step out in obedience even when he didn't see the full picture.  He trusted that God knew and that was enough.



you can connect directly with Kerry at kerry@arnuthill.com

About the Journey - Acts 8:26-40 - from Kerry Flemington

READING:
“As for Philip, an angel of the Lord said to him, “Go south down the desert road that runs from Jerusalem to Gaza.” So he started out, and he met the treasurer of Ethiopia, a eunuch of great authority under the Kandake, the queen of Ethiopia. The eunuch had gone to Jerusalem to worship, and he was now returning. Seated in his carriage, he was reading aloud from the book of the prophet Isaiah.
 
The Holy Spirit said to Philip, “Go over and walk along beside the carriage.”
 
Philip ran over and heard the man reading from the prophet Isaiah. Philip asked, “Do you understand what you are reading?”
 
The man replied, “How can I, unless someone instructs me?” And he urged Philip to come up into the carriage and sit with him.
 
The passage of Scripture he had been reading was this:
 
“He was led like a sheep to the slaughter.
   And as a lamb is silent before the shearers,
   he did not open his mouth.
He was humiliated and received no justice.
   Who can speak of his descendants?
   For his life was taken from the earth.”
 
The eunuch asked Philip, “Tell me, was the prophet talking about himself or someone else?” So beginning with this same Scripture, Philip told him the Good News about Jesus.
 
As they rode along, they came to some water, and the eunuch said, “Look! There’s some water! Why can’t I be baptized?” He ordered the carriage to stop, and they went down into the water, and Philip baptized him.
 
When they came up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord snatched Philip away. The eunuch never saw him again but went on his way rejoicing. Meanwhile, Philip found himself farther north at the town of Azotus. He preached the Good News there and in every town along the way until he came to Caesarea.
Acts 8:26-40

REFLECTION:
Go south down the desert road…
 
These words provide a strange balm for me in this crazy world that we live in.  Philip was very busy spreading the good news of Jesus throughout Samaria, the area he travelled to when Christ’s followers were scattered by Saul’s persecution.  Through his miracles and preaching, the church continued to grow.  And then this strange instruction comes to Philip: go south down the desert road that runs from Jerusalem to Gaza.
 
The instruction was very simple.  There was no indication of what he was to do while on that road.  There was no indication of what the destination was.  Simply put, the angel essentially said, “Start walking in this direction”.
 
For Philip, no further information was required.  All the information he needed, he had: God himself was calling him to go.  We tend not to follow the vague, possibly cryptic instructions of someone we don’t trust.  Even with someone we do trust, we tend to ask a lot of questions, mostly surrounding our own well-being, before we willingly follow their direction.  And our hesitancy reflects our thoughts on whether we think the person instructing us is safe and whether we think we will be safe.
 
This speaks volumes about who Philip understands God to be and his own well-being while in the care of God.  For him, God is utterly trustworthy because he is good and he loves infinitely.  The proof resides on the cross.  There was nothing to doubt, nothing to question about being told to walk.  What wasn’t obvious would become so, and what wasn’t provided wasn’t needed.  And as it turns out, that exercise in trust between Philip and God is what God uses to spread his story of salvation into the continent of Africa.  But Philip didn’t know that when he received the instructions.  Even afterwards, when suddenly he was transposed elsewhere, would he have known the full effects of his obedience.  He went, he did, he left.  He trusted God with everything else.
 
Go down a road. Follow closely a chariot. What we’re called to is really simple - this story reminds me of that.  In fact, every time I open the Bible, I’m reminded: what God desires more than anything, is for me to enter into the holy of holies and be with him.  He will do the rest.  Salvation wasn’t formulated as a recruitment strategy for God so that he would have an army of workers.  No, the sole desire of God is to be reconciled to his people.  It goes back to the garden, where we were meant to walk with him, uninhibited, unashamed, unabashedly - where he is fully known by us and we are fully known by him.  We are the apple of his eye.



you can connect directly with Kerry at kerry@arnuthill.com

About the Journey - Acts 7:20-60 - from Kerry Flemington

READING:
“At that time Moses was born—a beautiful child in God’s eyes. His parents cared for him at home for three months. When they had to abandon him, Pharaoh’s daughter adopted him and raised him as her own son. Moses was taught all the wisdom of the Egyptians, and he was powerful in both speech and action.
 
“One day when Moses was forty years old, he decided to visit his relatives, the people of Israel. He saw an Egyptian mistreating an Israelite. So Moses came to the man’s defense and avenged him, killing the Egyptian. Moses assumed his fellow Israelites would realize that God had sent him to rescue them, but they didn’t.
 
“The next day he visited them again and saw two men of Israel fighting. He tried to be a peacemaker. ‘Men,’ he said, ‘you are brothers. Why are you fighting each other?’
“But the man in the wrong pushed Moses aside. ‘Who made you a ruler and judge over us?’ he asked. ‘Are you going to kill me as you killed that Egyptian yesterday?’ When Moses heard that, he fled the country and lived as a foreigner in the land of Midian. There his two sons were born.
 
“Forty years later, in the desert near Mount Sinai, an angel appeared to Moses in the flame of a burning bush. When Moses saw it, he was amazed at the sight. As he went to take a closer look, the voice of the Lord called out to him, ‘I am the God of your ancestors—the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.’ Moses shook with terror and did not dare to look.
 
“Then the Lord said to him, ‘Take off your sandals, for you are standing on holy ground. I have certainly seen the oppression of my people in Egypt. I have heard their groans and have come down to rescue them. Now go, for I am sending you back to Egypt.’
 
“So God sent back the same man his people had previously rejected when they demanded, ‘Who made you a ruler and judge over us?’ Through the angel who appeared to him in the burning bush, God sent Moses to be their ruler and savior. And by means of many wonders and miraculous signs, he led them out of Egypt, through the Red Sea, and through the wilderness for forty years.
 
“Moses himself told the people of Israel, ‘God will raise up for you a Prophet like me from among your own people.’ Moses was with our ancestors, the assembly of God’s people in the wilderness, when the angel spoke to him at Mount Sinai. And there Moses received life-giving words to pass on to us. 
 
“But our ancestors refused to listen to Moses. They rejected him and wanted to return to Egypt. They told Aaron, ‘Make us some gods who can lead us, for we don’t know what has become of this Moses, who brought us out of Egypt.’ So they made an idol shaped like a calf, and they sacrificed to it and celebrated over this thing they had made. Then God turned away from them and abandoned them to serve the stars of heaven as their gods! In the book of the prophets it is written,
 
‘Was it to me you were bringing sacrifices and offerings
   during those forty years in the wilderness, Israel?
No, you carried your pagan gods—
   the shrine of Molech,
   the star of your god Rephan,
   and the images you made to worship them.
So I will send you into exile
   as far away as Babylon.’
“Our ancestors carried the Tabernacle with them through the wilderness. It was constructed according to the plan God had shown to Moses. Years later, when Joshua led our ancestors in battle against the nations that God drove out of this land, the Tabernacle was taken with them into their new territory. And it stayed there until the time of King David.
 
“David found favor with God and asked for the privilege of building a permanent Temple for the God of Jacob. But it was Solomon who actually built it. However, the Most High doesn’t live in temples made by human hands. As the prophet says,
 
‘Heaven is my throne,
   and the earth is my footstool.
Could you build me a temple as good as that?’
   asks the Lord.
‘Could you build me such a resting place?
   Didn’t my hands make both heaven and earth?’
“You stubborn people! You are heathen at heart and deaf to the truth. Must you forever resist the Holy Spirit? That’s what your ancestors did, and so do you! Name one prophet your ancestors didn’t persecute! They even killed the ones who predicted the coming of the Righteous One—the Messiah whom you betrayed and murdered. You deliberately disobeyed God’s law, even though you received it from the hands of angels.”
 
The Jewish leaders were infuriated by Stephen’s accusation, and they shook their fists at him in rage. But Stephen, full of the Holy Spirit, gazed steadily into heaven and saw the glory of God, and he saw Jesus standing in the place of honor at God’s right hand. And he told them, “Look, I see the heavens opened and the Son of Man standing in the place of honor at God’s right hand!”
 
Then they put their hands over their ears and began shouting. They rushed at him and dragged him out of the city and began to stone him. His accusers took off their coats and laid them at the feet of a young man named Saul.
 
As they stoned him, Stephen prayed, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.” He fell to his knees, shouting, “Lord, don’t charge them with this sin!” And with that, he died.
Acts 7:20-60

REFLECTION:
Who are we in this story? Are we Stephen - truth-tellers at all cost?  Or are we the Pharisees - self-preservers at all cost?
 
Stephen was one of the seven people selected to oversee the food distribution.  As he fulfilled this task, he continued to speak openly and passionately about Jesus in spite of the many warnings Christ’s followers had been given to stop spreading so-called blasphemous testimony.  Those who opposed him conspired against him, telling the religious leaders that Stephen was not only spreading Jesus’ blasphemous message but that he was speaking against Moses, one of the great patriarchs of Judaism, and the temple.
 
As Stephen stands before the religious leaders in yet another sham trial, he lays out the history of the Jewish people, starting with Abraham, then Moses, all the way through to David and finally the building of the temple.  He disproves the lies that have been spoken about him.  But he goes a step further.
 
Interspersed throughout Stephen’s history lesson are insights into the reality of that history that make the coming of Christ so very necessary: the repeated hard heartedness of God’s people toward their God. He not only shows his knowledge of the patriarchs and prophets, but also of his understanding of the human heart left to its own devices.  And as they point their righteous fingers at him, he points right back at them and pierces them with the truth: You! You are the ones who deliberately break God’s laws even though you have received them directly from God’s messengers.  They are so angry, so outraged, that they kill him right then and there.
 
What are we so fiercely guarding, having wrapped it in a righteous message so as to justify our actions, our way of living, our view of the world?  Stephen’s message is really simple: we were sinners back then, rejecting God, and we’re still sinners now, rejecting God.  Couching it all in Christian activity doesn’t change any of it - we are still fundamentally rejecting Christ even if it doesn’t appear that way.
 
I think the only way to ensure that we don’t become like the Pharisees, blind to our own fallenness, is through humility.  Daily, we need to check our certainties at the door and come before God, asking him for his perspective, his knowledge and understanding, asking him to illuminate his Word, and asking for his love and grace to flow through us.  On our own, we are not capable of any of this.  We will revert back to self-preservation and rightness at the first opportunity, all the while using God as our justification.  But the goal of Christianity isn’t us and what we want.  We keep putting ourselves in the God position, certain that we know how things are and how they should turn out, quick to correct others when we deem them to be going off-course.  There is nothing of God’s love, God’s grace, God’s goodness in this.  You and I don’t even know what’s going to happen to us in the next moment, let alone understanding the complex interactions that are happening all around us.  We need to stop.  We think Stephen’s fate is awful, and it is.  But the fate of those who stoned him is far worse.  And unfortunately, I think most of us are closer in likeness to them then we are to Stephen.



you can connect directly with Kerry at kerry@arnuthill.com

About the Journey 6 - Acts 6:1-15 - from Kerry Flemington

READING:
But as the believers rapidly multiplied, there were rumblings of discontent. The Greek-speaking believers complained about the Hebrew-speaking believers, saying that their widows were being discriminated against in the daily distribution of food.
 
So the Twelve called a meeting of all the believers. They said, “We apostles should spend our time teaching the word of God, not running a food program. And so, brothers, select seven men who are well respected and are full of the Spirit and wisdom. We will give them this responsibility. Then we apostles can spend our time in prayer and teaching the word.”
 
Everyone liked this idea, and they chose the following: Stephen (a man full of faith and the Holy Spirit), Philip, Procorus, Nicanor, Timon, Parmenas, and Nicolas of Antioch (an earlier convert to the Jewish faith). These seven were presented to the apostles, who prayed for them as they laid their hands on them.
 
So God’s message continued to spread. The number of believers greatly increased in Jerusalem, and many of the Jewish priests were converted, too.
 
Stephen, a man full of God’s grace and power, performed amazing miracles and signs among the people. But one day some men from the Synagogue of Freed Slaves, as it was called, started to debate with him. They were Jews from Cyrene, Alexandria, Cilicia, and the province of Asia. None of them could stand against the wisdom and the Spirit with which Stephen spoke.
 
So they persuaded some men to lie about Stephen, saying, “We heard him blaspheme Moses, and even God.” This roused the people, the elders, and the teachers of religious law. So they arrested Stephen and brought him before the high council.
 
The lying witnesses said, “This man is always speaking against the holy Temple and against the law of Moses. We have heard him say that this Jesus of Nazareth will destroy the Temple and change the customs Moses handed down to us.”
 
At this point everyone in the high council stared at Stephen, because his face became as bright as an angel’s.
Acts 6:1-15

REFLECTION:
As I was studying this chapter, I gave myself a one question quiz: name all 12 apostles. I could easily name five: Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, and Judas. Turns out, I know even less than I thought...apparently Mark and Luke aren’t even apostles.  So where do they come from?  
 
As a church lifer, I know I take a lot of things for granted about the Bible and what I think it says. The truth is, that bleeds into how we do church and what it looks like.  I’ve attended all my life and for the most part, including the house church we went to when I was a kid, it follows the same pattern: Sunday morning service, Bible study during the week, Pioneer girls on Wednesday nights, youth group on Friday nights, etc.  We all could have a list like this and although there may be different events listed on different days, they would probably be more similar than not.  Even for those who didn’t grow up in the church, that is probably the pattern that has now become familiar to you as well.
 
As I read chapter 6 of Acts, it wasn’t immediately apparent to me what I should take from it.  There are the obvious dynamics of how to make an organization more efficient in the first part of the chapter.  The second part of the chapter suddenly shifts and introduces us to Stephen.  But as I read it through and asked myself questions, an unlikely thought came to me: this is perhaps what the pattern of the church should look like and it’s not the pattern I’m used to.
 
First, not unlike modern day churches, the group of believers are faced with problems and in this particular chapter, they are not theologically related, they are practical in nature.  The non-Jewish widows are not being treated the same as the Jewish widows.  People are being mistreated and it needs to be addressed.
 
Second, the 12 apostles are busy doing other work; they can’t oversee the food bank to make sure that people are behaving themselves i.e. distributing the food equally.  What work are they busy with?  Prayer and teaching.  So they gather everyone together, they choose seven people to take this on so that it’s done properly, and they pray for them.  The criteria for the job was that they are well respected, wise, and spirit filled.  All of this is efficient and God ordained, problems are being addressed as they arise, and therefore this is an excellent example of how we should run our churches.
 
If this is where I had stopped, I would have missed the point completely.  Those twelve apostles were busy.  They had walked with Jesus, and learned from him themselves, directly.  And they felt an urgent need to carry on with his work.  Because of their unique experience, it makes sense that they wouldn’t want to take on food distribution.  There are three things that struck me and this is the first: I thought, because of the central importance of the gospel books, that those four people had to be apostles.  Only two were.  Peter and James, who are also apostles, end up writing their own books too.  But that leaves seven others whose names I have never bothered to remember.  And I catch myself thinking about who’s important and why, and really, who’s not important.  We tend to watch for leadership and legacy and we gravitate towards that.  If we aren’t creating legacy, aren’t a part of leadership, then at the very least, we attach ourselves to people who are, both in church and in life in general.  Getting stuff done in obscurity is less appealing though.  And perhaps because it’s happening in obscurity, we perceive it as less important.  But that’s the majority of the apostles.  There was no less vigour or importance to how those seven did their work than those of their counterparts whose names are easy for us to recall.  They saw a need, they saw how they could meet it, and they just got on with it.
 
This is the second thing that struck me: nobody thought the work of food distribution to be any less important than the work of the apostles.  The apostles were too busy to oversee it themselves but they took care in choosing seven people who could do the work.  The character of those seven people mattered because the work they were doing mattered.  My own self-absorption and insecurities would have compelled me to want what I perceive to be a more important job.  But there-in lies my preconceived notions about what is church work and what is important church work.
 
The last thing that struck me was this: while the seven were chosen to do the food distribution, that wasn’t now their singular focus.  They didn’t just leave the teaching and prayer to the apostles - they all did it. It wasn’t ensuring equal portion sizes that got Stephen into trouble with the religious elite.  He got into the same trouble that Peter and John kept getting into - none of them would stop talking about the risen Christ.  In the end, it’s what they all got into trouble for, apostles whose names we know and don’t know, the food distributors, and recent converts, and everyone in between.  While they might have had specific tasks to take care of, they didn’t compartmentalize their lives into church work and non-church work.  Everything within and about their lives was about amplifying the truth of who Christ was and what he did to reconcile humanity to God through the cross.
 
When I take an honest look at church today, I see nothing of this short, little, seemingly inconsequential chapter in Acts.  While they tasked people with different things to look after, they didn’t see some as more important than others, it was all worthwhile.  But just as critical was that they were all involved in the work of telling the world around them the most important and urgent thing they knew - that Christ wants all of us, not just some of us.  Not only does he want all of us to be reconciled into a relationship with him, but he wants to use all of us (not just some of us) to continue to spread that important and urgent message.  It’s not just the work of the pastor or the preacher or the worship leader or the food bank organizers or the inner city missions or the overseas missions.  It’s not just Sunday morning or Wednesday evenings, or Friday nights. It’s for you and for me, wherever we are, whatever we’ve been tasked with, all the time.  
 
But most importantly, it’s not meant to remain among us.  Many of us live in a Christian echo chamber, surrounded by Christians and Christian activity.  Indeed, there is something wonderful and life giving about the fellowship of believers and that is an important aspect of our lives.  But I think that fellowship is meant to be where we rest, refuel spiritually, and feed one another IN BETWEEN going back out to engage fully with the rest of the world to relentlessly bring them the message of God’s love and his desire to be reconciled with them through Christ’s death and resurrection.  Otherwise, what’s the point?  Nobody would’ve been imprisoned or martyred in the Bible if they had just looked after one another, worshipped together, and preached to each other.  Yes, they did all those things but that’s not what got them into trouble.  They insisted on taking their message to a hostile world, which included non-believers (Gentiles) and the established church structure (Jews) that was woefully ignorant of the truth that had come from within its walls.  And I believe that’s where we are called to go too.  The people gathered at our tables, sharing our food, sharing our lives, sharing our pews need to be more diverse than currently are.  How do non-believers come to Christ if Christians are too busy taking care of themselves and each other?  That is not what Stephen was doing when he got hauled in front of the religious elite.  That’s not what made his face shine so strangely that everyone stopped and stared.  Yes, feed one another.  But feed one another so that we are fueled to go out and feed a spiritually and physically starved world.




you can connect directly with Kerry at kerry@arnuthill.com

About the Journey - Acts 4:32-5:11 - from Kerry Flemington

READING:
All the believers were united in heart and mind. And they felt that what they owned was not their own, so they shared everything they had. The apostles testified powerfully to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and God’s great blessing was upon them all. There were no needy people among them, because those who owned land or houses would sell them and bring the money to the apostles to give to those in need.
 
For instance, there was Joseph, the one the apostles nicknamed Barnabas (which means “Son of Encouragement”). He was from the tribe of Levi and came from the island of Cyprus. He sold a field he owned and brought the money to the apostles.
 
But there was a certain man named Ananias who, with his wife, Sapphira, sold some property. He brought part of the money to the apostles, claiming it was the full amount. With his wife’s consent, he kept the rest.
 
Then Peter said, “Ananias, why have you let Satan fill your heart? You lied to the Holy Spirit, and you kept some of the money for yourself. The property was yours to sell or not sell, as you wished. And after selling it, the money was also yours to give away. How could you do a thing like this? You weren’t lying to us but to God!”
 
As soon as Ananias heard these words, he fell to the floor and died. Everyone who heard about it was terrified. Then some young men got up, wrapped him in a sheet, and took him out and buried him.
 
About three hours later his wife came in, not knowing what had happened. Peter asked her, “Was this the price you and your husband received for your land?”
 
“Yes,” she replied, “that was the price.”
 
And Peter said, “How could the two of you even think of conspiring to test the Spirit of the Lord like this? The young men who buried your husband are just outside the door, and they will carry you out, too.”
 
Instantly, she fell to the floor and died. When the young men came in and saw that she was dead, they carried her out and buried her beside her husband. Great fear gripped the entire church and everyone else who heard what had happened.
Acts 4:32-5:11

REFLECTION:
The story of Ananias and Sapphira was one that filled me with terror when I was a child. In my mind, if I didn’t give everything to God - including the full fifteen cents in my hand rather than the ten I was willing to part with, there was a strong possibility that I might fall down dead right then and there.  I’m not sure that understanding context would have helped matters much - everyone else was willingly, gleefully, happily giving away everything they owned.  That seemed like a really unrealistic alternative.
 
There is not much background info on this couple; my assumption is that they are more recent converts simply because this is our first introduction to them. Perhaps they are two of the many thousands that converted since the disciples took on Christ’s ministry.  Regardless, they were obviously willing converts, excited to be involved in this new movement that offered a profoundly different Jewish experience than the one they were probably most familiar with.  People were caring for one another, living in community, folks were being healed, and there must have been a profound relief from the rigid Jewish laws that came with the mantle of grace.  Immersed in this context of church, it becomes easier to understand the giving freely of whatever one owned to serve the needs of the group and those around them.  
 
Here comes Barnabas now; having left his home in Cyprus at some point and who’s decided to remain with this growing community of Christ followers.  I imagine that as he sees his future unfold before him, he realizes that piece of property that he’s been hanging on to will no longer be needed.  And so he sells it and brings the proceeds of the sale to the apostles for them to use for the care and growth of the ministry and the followers.
 
Ananias and Sapphira are also people of means - they too own some land that they’ve invested in.  But as those around them part with their investments and savings, they feel compelled to do the same.  So, they put it on the market, a buyer comes along, and low and behold, they have a wonderful bundle of money in their hands.  To be certain, it is their money - they haven’t won it or been gifted it.  They somehow had the money to buy the land in the first place and so they absolutely are entitled to the money that has now come from the sale of that land.
 
Now what?  This couple had every right to keep the money.  They also had every right to keep a portion of the money, large or small, and give away whatever amount they felt like giving.  But they wanted something more: they wanted the appearance of being generous and self-giving without being willing to do the hard thing of letting go.  The issue isn’t the difficulty of letting go - even Jesus asked for some other alternative to dying on the cross.  It’s the dishonesty - with themselves and therefore ultimately with God - that is the problem.
 
Lots of us wrestle with lots of things including what we feel like we should be doing and what we actually have the energy and/or the desire to do.  That is the human condition.  But when we deny we’re even wrestling, we no longer have any need for God.  On the outside, we can continue to engage in all the things of the Christian life, just like Ananias and Sapphira.  But if we go through all the motions, while trying to cover-up our struggle to trust God as we come up with yet another contingency plan, we are holding back some cash while insisting we’ve given it all.  That is dangerous.
 
At its core, this belies an error in our thinking about who God is and what he wants from us.  We think he’s interested in the money - how efficient we are, how productive we are, how helpful we are, how good we are, how sorted out we are.  We can’t imagine entering into the holy of holies as our messed up, wrestling with confusion and self-absorption, tired of trying to figure it out, faith less than a mustard seed, selves.  Ananias and Sapphira’s fatal error wasn’t that they didn’t trust God; it was that they dishonest about who they actually were before God.
 
I know I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again for the people in the back (and the keeners in the front) - God is really just interested in YOU.  He is not interested in the cleaned up version of you.  He can see the interior landscape of your life anyway.  But he doesn’t force his way in.  He waits for an invitation.  And when you ask him to come in, he’ll be okay to sit with you in your cleaned up living room.  But as you get to know him and trust him, he will make his way into all the other rooms with you, to see where you’ve hidden all that other crap that you’re so very ashamed or afraid of.  Slowly but surely, you and him will sort through it all, getting rid of all the things that keep you from fully engaging in a relationship with him. For some of us, we’d rather just give the money and stay in the tidy living room for the rest of our lives - the cost of opening all those doors is too great.  Tea and small talk will do.  But that’s the baby food that Paul later refers to - why settle there?  We are made for full engagement with our God.  Go scared into those rooms, but at the very least go. That’s where we come to know God and come understand that we are already fully known by God - and we are fully accepted and loved anyway.  And his goodness will cover you as you do all that painful sorting.  But you will emerge more yourself than you’ve ever been - willing, able, and desiring to do all that God has called you to do.



you can connect directly with Kerry at kerry@arnuthill.com

About the Journey - Acts 4:1-22 - from Kerry Flemington

READING:
While Peter and John were speaking to the people, they were confronted by the priests, the captain of the Temple guard, and some of the Sadducees. These leaders were very disturbed that Peter and John were teaching the people that through Jesus there is a resurrection of the dead. They arrested them and, since it was already evening, put them in jail until morning. But many of the people who heard their message believed it, so the number of men who believed now totaled about 5,000.

The next day the council of all the rulers and elders and teachers of religious law met in Jerusalem. Annas the high priest was there, along with Caiaphas, John, Alexander, and other relatives of the high priest. They brought in the two disciples and demanded, “By what power, or in whose name, have you done this?”

Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, said to them, “Rulers and elders of our people, are we being questioned today because we’ve done a good deed for a crippled man? Do you want to know how he was healed? Let me clearly state to all of you and to all the people of Israel that he was healed by the powerful name of Jesus Christ the Nazarene,[a] the man you crucified but whom God raised from the dead. For Jesus is the one referred to in the Scriptures, where it says,
‘
The stone that you builders rejected
has now become the cornerstone.’

There is salvation in no one else! God has given no other name under heaven by which we must be saved.”

The members of the council were amazed when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, for they could see that they were ordinary men with no special training in the Scriptures. They also recognized them as men who had been with Jesus. But since they could see the man who had been healed standing right there among them, there was nothing the council could say. So they ordered Peter and John out of the council chamber and conferred among themselves.

“What should we do with these men?” they asked each other. “We can’t deny that they have performed a miraculous sign, and everybody in Jerusalem knows about it. But to keep them from spreading their propaganda any further, we must warn them not to speak to anyone in Jesus’ name again.” So they called the apostles back in and commanded them never again to speak or teach in the name of Jesus.

But Peter and John replied, “Do you think God wants us to obey you rather than him? We cannot stop telling about everything we have seen and heard.”

The council then threatened them further, but they finally let them go because they didn’t know how to punish them without starting a riot. For everyone was praising God for this miraculous sign—the healing of a man who had been lame for more than forty years.
Acts 4:1-22

REFLECTION:
In the course of my reading the Bible, I have been able to sympathize with and recognize modern day versions of various characters. Their impact on me has come when I’ve been able to see myself in their brokeness and their sinfulness. One example is David: the adulterer, the murderer, the lousy father. But he was also David the humble, the obedient, the man after God’s own heart. This is God’s magnificent grace manifested in the life of an ordinary, fickle, self-absorbed human being just like me.

The Pharisees and the Sadducees are a bit more complicated. They are the Bible studiers who know all the verses off by heart. The Sadducees believed the written Torah as having the final say over all Jewish life. The Pharisees were a bit more liberal in their interpretation. They believed that the oral tradition of the Jewish people was just as important. They were open to worship outside of the temple (synagogues) and to understanding the spirit of the law, hence the rise of the oral laws. But they were still very rigid in their implementation of Jewish law, both written and oral. In spite of their differences, they are united in their zeal for obedience and power. These are the lifers; the ones who grew up steeped in the Jewish religion and practices. And maybe for this reason, it is uncomfortable for me to recognize a modern day equivalent because it just hits too close to home. So many of us have grown up in Christian homes or within the Christian tradition. I’m okay with recognizing my sinfulness, my brokeness, and my need for grace. But Jesus was harsh with the religious elite; he gave scathing rebukes to them and consistently called out their hypocrisy. I like meek Jesus, not mad Jesus. I don’t want to be rebuked and called out for my hypocrisy. And it all seems a little backwards anyway: yell at the drug addict and the prostitute or the people with messed up lives but don’t yell at the cleaned up church goers who have sacrificed in their own way to dress the part and be good.

Acts 4 opens up with a continuation of the conflict that put Christ on the cross in the first place. Jesus, in their eyes, did not fit the bill of the Messiah. And his followers were nothing like the religious elite. Therefore, he was a heretic, a rogue who threatened to destabilize their power, control, and their religious system with which they were all very comfortable with. At no point in their interactions with Jesus did they ever give pause and ask themselves, “Could I be wrong about this? Have we perhaps misunderstood?” It takes great humility to ask those questions and great faith in God’s character and his Word to search for an answer that we aren’t comfortable with. Here now, are his followers, continuing on Christ’s work, emboldened by the illumination that’s occured in their lives as they’ve walked with Christ and listened to him break down the Scriptures to their original intent: who is God, who are we, and how he wants to interact with us.

At the center of the controversy is a lifelong crippled man, healed by the power of the risen Christ. But a risen Christ is a big problem for the religious elite. Death on the cross was supposed to put an end to Christ’s shenanigans and be a lesson to all his followers. So this healing that takes place is a big deal. At this crossroads, where once again they are given the opportunity to question their own understanding of who Jesus was, the cost is too great and their need for self-preservation wins the day.

I think it’s important for us to see the religious elite in ourselves. It holds us to the fire and is deeply uncomfortable. But self-preservation and pride will veer us off course in a more subtle, dangerous way than any addiction or overt sin ever could. It will be us to whom Jesus will say, “I do not know you” when we stand before him, absolutely certain that the cleanliness of our lives guarantees our place beside him. And we will be shocked that the faith of a mustard seed was actually enough instead.

But besides what will happen for us in eternity, it’s the missed opportunity to live life in Christ here on earth that is equally concerning. The religious elite were not being used by Christ to transform lives; they were too busy being right about everything. They were too busy arguing, admonishing, and catching people in their sin. They were so busy and so self-involved, they couldn’t recognize Christ in their midst the first time round and they certainly couldn’t see him now within Christ’s followers. A healed man who's been given a new life through Jesus Christ? Who cares about him! just stop using Jesus’ name and perpetuating a dangerous narrative about new life, resurrection through Christ, etc. The truth of the matter: their emptiness, while covered over by the business of being good, is still emptiness; it’s still void of the life-giving presence of the risen Christ. It’s really just the same as a meth addict using drugs to fill the emptiness; it’s just a cleaner version of that drug.




you can connect with Kerry directly at kerry@arnuthill.com

About the Journey Acts 3:1-20 - from Kerry Flemington

READING:
Peter and John went to the Temple one afternoon to take part in the three o’clock prayer service. As they approached the Temple, a man lame from birth was being carried in. Each day he was put beside the Temple gate, the one called the Beautiful Gate, so he could beg from the people going into the Temple. When he saw Peter and John about to enter, he asked them for some money.

Peter and John looked at him intently, and Peter said, “Look at us!” The lame man looked at them eagerly, expecting some money. But Peter said, “I don’t have any silver or gold for you. But I’ll give you what I have. In the name of Jesus Christ the Nazarene, get up and walk!”

Then Peter took the lame man by the right hand and helped him up. And as he did, the man’s feet and ankles were instantly healed and strengthened. He jumped up, stood on his feet, and began to walk! Then, walking, leaping, and praising God, he went into the Temple with them.

All the people saw him walking and heard him praising God. When they realized he was the lame beggar they had seen so often at the Beautiful Gate, they were absolutely astounded! They all rushed out in amazement to Solomon’s Colonnade, where the man was holding tightly to Peter and John.

Peter saw his opportunity and addressed the crowd. “People of Israel,” he said, “what is so surprising about this? And why stare at us as though we had made this man walk by our own power or godliness? For it is the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob—the God of all our ancestors—who has brought glory to his servant Jesus by doing this. This is the same Jesus whom you handed over and rejected before Pilate, despite Pilate’s decision to release him. You rejected this holy, righteous one and instead demanded the release of a murderer. You killed the author of life, but God raised him from the dead. And we are witnesses of this fact!

“Through faith in the name of Jesus, this man was healed—and you know how crippled he was before. Faith in Jesus’ name has healed him before your very eyes.

“Friends, I realize that what you and your leaders did to Jesus was done in ignorance. But God was fulfilling what all the prophets had foretold about the Messiah—that he must suffer these things. Now repent of your sins and turn to God, so that your sins may be wiped away. Then times of refreshment will come from the presence of the Lord, and he will again send you Jesus, your appointed Messiah.
Acts 3:1-20

REFLECTION:
Peter and John are on their way to 3 o’clock prayers at the temple. Days prior, they had helped in the conversion of about 3,000 people. As they are entering, they pass a man whom they have probably passed by hundreds of times before: a beggar who is brought there each day by his friends. This is a man who has been unable to walk his entire life and who scratches together an existence by begging for money from the people going into the temple to worship Jaweh. Like every other person who passes by him to get inside to do the important work of sacrifice, prayer, and worship, he asks Peter and John for some money as they are walking past him.

They stop. They look at him intently. And then Peter says to him, “Look at us.”

This is a break from the norm. Usually, there is an understood transactional interaction that takes place. The beggar asks for money, the worshipper drops in some coins and carries on, and both are satisfied with the outcome. There is no need for anything more to happen and nothing more is expected.

But today is different. For the beggar, I imagine he is thinking that with an actual acknowledgment by a passer-bye means that there will be some extra coins going into his cup. So he looks up at them in anticipation and Peter responds, “I don’t have any money to give you. But I have something else - life in Jesus Christ. Get up and walk.” And he does. He is euphoric! In an instant, his life has completely changed.

The people inside the temple get word and come running to see what is going on. And much like the day of Pentecost, Peter uses this opportunity to speak about Jesus as the Messiah, the promised one, whose death and resurrection won’t save them from the Romans, as they had hoped, but will save them from themselves so that they can be reconciled to their Maker.

What made Peter and John stop? Why this particular day? That man had probably been there every single time they had ever come to the temple. They may have even given him some money at some point. So why not just carry on and go inside? I’m sure there were people to interact with, prayers to be said, opportunities to build upon the wave of a 3,000 person conversion.

They stopped because this is probably the first time Peter and John actually ever saw this man, in the truest sense. Here was someone in the lowest standing of society. There is little to be gained from paying any attention to him. There are other, more pressing things to be gained by quickly passing him by and getting to the [temple]. But on that day, Peter and John SEE him...and on that day, the beggar is, probably for the first time in his life, SEEN.

It is this part of the miracle that stops me in my tracks. When we get to the end of ourselves, our agendas, and our works on behalf of God, our blinders come off and the world around us changes completely. What mattered once no longer matters. What didn’t matter once becomes of central importance. What is of central importance? I think the answer to that is uniquely personal, between us and God. But what is no longer of central importance is us. We are no longer at the center of the narrative; God is. And when he is, we will see the world completely differently. That’s when lives get completely transformed. That’s when the blind can see, the lame can walk, the broken are healed, the empty are filled. That’s when God can use us most magnificently.

But what of my healing, my brokenness? God doesn’t use us the way we use people. We use people to our own ends with little to no regard for them; but God’s use of us is entirely different. It is uniquely miraculous and so unlike anything we can come up with: God is glorified, we are transformed, and others are healed. Peter, John, and the beggar embody this on that particular afternoon at the temple. Peter and John stopping is proof of God’s transformative power in our lives. The beggar walking is proof of God’s healing in our lives. As Peter so rightly says to the gathered crowd, “Jesus, the one you crucified and who yet lives and reigns, healed this man, not us!” - God is glorified. And you know who rejoiced? The beggar certainly. But so did Peter, John, Jesus, God, and the heavenly realms! That’s what happens when God breaks through and becomes of central importance to our lives. I believe this is what Peter is referencing, in part, when he talks about times of refreshment. Somehow, God heals us as he uses us to heal those around us, all the while bringing glory to himself. Refreshing indeed - that is life giving!



you can connect with Kerry directly at kerry@arnuthill.com

About the Journey - Acts 2:1-41 - from Kerry Flemington

READING:
On the day of Pentecost all the believers were meeting together in one place. Suddenly, there was a sound from heaven like the roaring of a mighty windstorm, and it filled the house where they were sitting. Then, what looked like flames or tongues of fire appeared and settled on each of them. And everyone present was filled with the Holy Spirit and began speaking in other languages, as the Holy Spirit gave them this ability.

At that time there were devout Jews from every nation living in Jerusalem. When they heard the loud noise, everyone came running, and they were bewildered to hear their own languages being spoken by the believers.

They were completely amazed. “How can this be?” they exclaimed. “These people are all from Galilee, and yet we hear them speaking in our own native languages! Here we are—Parthians, Medes, Elamites, people from Mesopotamia, Judea, Cappadocia, Pontus, the province of Asia, Phrygia, Pamphylia, Egypt, and the areas of Libya around Cyrene, visitors from Rome(both Jews and converts to Judaism), Cretans, and Arabs. And we all hear these people speaking in our own languages about the wonderful things God has done!” They stood there amazed and perplexed. “What can this mean?” they asked each other. But others in the crowd ridiculed them, saying, “They’re just drunk, that’s all!”

Then Peter stepped forward with the eleven other apostles and shouted to the crowd, “Listen carefully, all of you, fellow Jews and residents of Jerusalem! Make no mistake about this. These people are not drunk, as some of you are assuming. Nine o’clock in the morning is much too early for that. No, what you see was predicted long ago by the prophet Joel:

‘In the last days,’ God says,
‘I will pour out my Spirit upon all people.
Your sons and daughters will prophesy.
Your young men will see visions,
and your old men will dream dreams.
In those days I will pour out my Spirit
even on my servants—men and women alike—
and they will prophesy.
And I will cause wonders in the heavens above
and signs on the earth below—
blood and fire and clouds of smoke.
The sun will become dark,
and the moon will turn blood red
before that great and glorious day of the Lord arrives.
But everyone who calls on the name of the Lord
will be saved.’

“People of Israel, listen! God publicly endorsed Jesus the Nazarene by doing powerful miracles, wonders, and signs through him, as you well know. But God knew what would happen, and his prearranged plan was carried out when Jesus was betrayed. With the help of lawless Gentiles, you nailed him to a cross and killed him. But God released him from the horrors of death and raised him back to life, for death could not keep him in its grip. King David said this about him:

‘I see that the Lord is always with me.
I will not be shaken, for he is right beside me.
No wonder my heart is glad,
and my tongue shouts his praises!
My body rests in hope.
For you will not leave my soul among the dead
or allow your Holy One to rot in the grave.
You have shown me the way of life,
and you will fill me with the joy of your presence.’

“Dear brothers, think about this! You can be sure that the patriarch David wasn’t referring to himself, for he died and was buried, and his tomb is still here among us. But he was a prophet, and he knew God had promised with an oath that one of David’s own descendants would sit on his throne. David was looking into the future and speaking of the Messiah’s resurrection. He was saying that God would not leave him among the dead or allow his body to rot in the grave.

“God raised Jesus from the dead, and we are all witnesses of this. Now he is exalted to the place of highest honor in heaven, at God’s right hand. And the Father, as he had promised, gave him the Holy Spirit to pour out upon us, just as you see and hear today. For David himself never ascended into heaven, yet he said,

‘The Lord said to my Lord,
“Sit in the place of honor at my right hand
until I humble your enemies,
making them a footstool under your feet.”’

“So let everyone in Israel know for certain that God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, to be both Lord and Messiah!”

Peter’s words pierced their hearts, and they said to him and to the other apostles, “Brothers, what should we do?”

Peter replied, “Each of you must repent of your sins and turn to God, and be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. Then you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. This promise is to you, to your children, and to those far away—all who have been called by the Lord our God.” Then Peter continued preaching for a long time, strongly urging all his listeners, “Save yourselves from this crooked generation!”

Those who believed what Peter said were baptized and added to the church that day—about 3,000 in all.
Acts 2:1-41

REFLECTION:
The disciples and Jesus’ followers are gathered in Jerusalem, as Jesus had told them to do. He asked them to wait there until they had “received that power from heaven.” Waiting; this is not something that they had been particularly good at. Their discipleship, in many ways, had been marked by impatience. But here they are. And not only are they waiting, but they aren’t even sure what they are waiting for. This speaks to the transformative power of trusting in Jesus. And when I say Jesus, I don’t mean the flowery hippy-nice guy who we seem to somehow make him out to be. I mean Jesus as in fully man and fully God as his disciples and followers finally came to understand him to be. As such, they knew that he was utterly reliable, utterly trustworthy. “You tell me to wait but won’t tell me for how long and what I’m waiting for? Done!”

The thing that they’ve been waiting for comes in the form of God’s Spirit, dwelling in them, and giving them the supernatural ability to speak in foreign languages. Jerusalem is full of Jews gathered from all corners of the earth for Pentecost. God wants them to hear, know, and understand the truth about this controversial character that was crucified during the Passover. I’m sure it’s still being discussed throughout Jerusalem as people gather again for the first major festival since then. The religious leaders are on high alert to keep this rebellion quelled. They don’t want momentum to build around this idea that maybe the Nazarene, Jesus, was the Messiah. So, God with his sense of humour and in his omnipotence, gives this transformed band of stragglers the ability to speak in the languages of all those foreigners gathered; foreigners who, upon finally understanding the truth of Jesus for themselves, will carry it home with them to foreign lands. God’s words never return empty.

But for me, it’s another miracle that is happening simultaneously that gives me pause. God certainly uses the supernatural as he sees fit; of that, I am certain. I also know I see through a mirror partially dim and so I really have no real sense of how it manifested itself in the early church or how it manifests itself now. I’m also not particularly concerned either, because what jumps out at me, and the miracle that I can really relate to as I read through these passages, is the miracle of Peter.

Throughout Jesus’ ministry, Peter has been possibly the most brash and impatient. He’s been the most zealous and outspoken. He’s been so certain of his allegiance to Jesus only to abandon him in spectacular form at the first opportunity. As much as he loves Jesus, his need for self-preservation at all costs is laid bare that cold night of Jesus’ trial. Is Jesus utterly reliable, utterly trustworthy when we find ourselves in grave and overwhelming situations that seem impossible to navigate through? Peter doesn’t think so on that particular night.

I’ve written previously about what Jesus does to restore him, to reassure him that he is capable of carrying on with the work that Jesus has for him. This is all good and well though until we’re met with another opportunity that puts our faith to the test - faith in who Jesus is and who Jesus is, in us.

The gathered crowd who heard the disciples speaking were amazed and confused. Not unjustifiably, some of them assumed that the disciples were simply drunk, even though it was only 9 in the morning. Who steps in to respond? Peter. Peter the passionate; Peter the brave. He is no longer phased by the possible opposition or persecution he might face. He is singular in his focus of taking this rare, supernatural phenomenon and leveraging it to the fullest, whatever the cost, so that these people gathered can finally understand, in their own language, the fullness of God’s story and theirs, and how it is fulfilled in and through Christ’s death and resurrection.

This transformation has not turned Peter into a Christian clone as some of us fear we might become - boring and lifeless. He hasn’t lost any of who he was created to be. But that energy and character is no longer focused on self-preservation and being number 1. Instead, his eyes are firmly set on Christ and doing whatever it is God is calling him to do. And on this particular day, rather than argue about whether they’re drunk or not, or proclaim their special dispensation, Peter just gets on with it, forgetting himself and pointing and arguing with passion and joy, why Jesus was the Messiah, and why they should bother about him.

When Jesus first called Peter, he knew this is who he would become. He saw beyond Peter’s self-absorption, beyond every fickle word, every broken promise, every arrogant statement. His patience and compassion for Peter never waivered. And that is how he sees us. None of us is beyond hope. Neither the worst among us or the worst within us is too much for God. In fact, it’s what he’s after. Remember, he came for the sick; those in good health don’t need him. But it may take us hitting the bottom, like Peter, before we’re willing to let go of ourselves and our control over our own lives. For Jesus, though, the bottom is just the glorious beginning.



you can contact Kerry directly at kerry@arnuthill.com

About the Journey - Acts 1:1-12 - from Kerry Flemington

READING:
In my first book I told you, Theophilus, about everything Jesus began to do and teach until the day he was taken up to heaven after giving his chosen apostles further instructions through the Holy Spirit. During the forty days after he suffered and died, he appeared to the apostles from time to time, and he proved to them in many ways that he was actually alive. And he talked to them about the Kingdom of God.

Once when he was eating with them, he commanded them, “Do not leave Jerusalem until the Father sends you the gift he promised, as I told you before. John baptized with water, but in just a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.”

So when the apostles were with Jesus, they kept asking him, “Lord, has the time come for you to free Israel and restore our kingdom?”

He replied, “The Father alone has the authority to set those dates and times, and they are not for you to know. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you. And you will be my witnesses, telling people about me everywhere—in Jerusalem, throughout Judea, in Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”

After saying this, he was taken up into a cloud while they were watching, and they could no longer see him. As they strained to see him rising into heaven, two white-robed men suddenly stood among them. “Men of Galilee,” they said, “why are you standing here staring into heaven? Jesus has been taken from you into heaven, but someday he will return from heaven in the same way you saw him go!”

Then the apostles returned to Jerusalem from the Mount of Olives, a distance of half a mile.
Acts 1:1-12

REFLECTION:
I was tempted, as I typed the above verses, to add in my own response to the disciples’ question, “Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel?” After all that had just happened, they were still waiting for Rome to be overthrown.  It leads me to wonder, what happened in those forty days between Christ’s resurrection and his ascension?  I imagine that the conversations Jesus had with his followers during this time were actually all the same conversations he had with them that are recorded in the gospels.  I am guessing that there was a lot of Jesus saying, “Remember when I said this…” or “remember when I told that story? Do you understand now?” And then he would go on to illuminate for them again, what that actually meant in light of his death and his resurrection; in light of the ultimate proof that not only was he who he said he was but that he also fulfilled all those old prophesies/hopes that they had been hanging on to.

And yet, just one last time, they squeak in a doozy of a question, “So now, Jesus, are you finally going to get rid of the Romans?” Jesus, in his tireless patience with them, gives them a gracious answer of “don’t worry about that right now, you’ve got other work to concentrate on.”

We know that, in deed, they did finally drop the question and get on with it.  We have the rest of the New Testament that documents that for us.  The fact that they did gives me hope.  When Jesus died, they were inconsolable.  Their hopes and dreams for redemption, for a purpose filled life, died on the cross with Jesus.  They were devestated and in complete disarray.  But then Jesus rises from the dead.  Not only does he rise, he sticks around for a bit.  Had he ascended right away, I think they would have remained in disarray, unable to move beyond their grief.  And who would blame them?  But God, in his mercy, in his all encompassing desire to be with us, among us, stays on to help them make sense of it all.  He stays on because he knows that’s exactly what they need to make it stick enough so that they will be so firmly grounded in the truth of who he is, that they can face whatever might come their way.

So yes, they ask one last, dumb question.  I’m not sure we’d do any differently.  But this time, when he leaves them for good, they get on with it.  They figure out who will replace Judas, and they go to Jerusalem and wait, just as they were told.  They pray, they gather together, and then day after day, they put one foot in front of the other, relying completely on God to guide their steps, their words, their actions.  They realize their finiteness and surrender completely because they are not only in the hands of the Living God, but that those are the hands of a good God.

They finally understand that God completed what he had always intended to do after the Garden of Eden: reconcile his creation to him, through the ultimate sacrifice of his son.
What changed?  Forty days where once again, God proved to them how much he loved them, proved to them that he was on their side, championing them, prepping them, leading them, guiding them.  He was deeply invested in their character.  Could the Gospel have spread anyway?  Well, God is God after all.  I can’t say it wouldn’t have.  But you and I, every day, ordinary people just like those fickle first followers, are the folks he’s interested in using, shaping, molding.  Not just for his glory, but also for our good.  He is so unlike us; we are interested in the metrics of success and use people and methods to that end.  However, his success IS the people.  His interest IS us.  When we recognize who our maker is and posture ourselves to follow him and worship him, we become the people we were created to be, and that’s when he truly rejoices.  That is both his victory and our victory.  How good a God is he that not only does he bother with us, but we aren’t just a means to an end - we are the end!  All of this was so that could be reconciled to him.  The Biblical narrative is our narrative. That’s how much he loves us.




you can contact Kerry directly at kerry@arnuthill.com

Reflections on GRACE by saints in the GBC family and in the larger church community

Written by Graeme Davidson
In January, 2002, Michelle came up with the idea of having a concert of songs that her mother composed. The projected date of the concert was Sunday, April 14,2002. Planning was well underway when the results of Bev's scan in February revealed terminal cancer, with an estimated 3-5 months left to live. We decided to go ahead with the concert, adding the element of making it a fundraiser for cancer research.
I have a video, a CD, and a scrapbook that enable me to remember with great gratitude the choir director, 36 choir members, eight soloists, and nine instrumentalists who performed 16 original sacred songs and one hymn arrangement. After the wonderful professional-level performances of the music, the most gratifying aspect of that concert was the bringing together that Sunday afternoon of several groups of people. There were the people of GBCl- musicians and congregants. There was the staff of Shaftesbury High School where Graeme taught for 32 years. (The staff bought food, prepared and served it to over forty musicians after church so the choir had time to rehearse before the 2:00 p.m. concert. A third group were Bev's piano and voice students and their families. A fourth group in the audience were Graeme and Michelle's friends and family.

Bev was not able to attend the concert, but the response to her work was sent in 37 cards and letters which arrived in our mailbox for two weeks after the concert. Here are some excerpts from those card and letters that reveal the impact of the concert:

"Every note, every word was God-honoring. Your music is exquisitely beautiful and touches the soul with its haunting melodies... I only wish a CD or video could convey the intensity of what we all experienced that afternoon." (from a GBC musician)
"... my heart was so full that at many times I fought back tears- tears that come from being overwhelmed with beauty. Michelle remained strong during her solos. What a wonderful tribute this was from daughter to mother..."  ( from a GBC musician)
" Your songs were beautiful and expressed your love for God. I can only hope that someday I will feel the presence of God as much as you did when you wrote those songs.  ( from a teen-age voice student)
"I have sung in church and community choirs for many years, but, Bev, I cannot remember being so reminded of the love of God as I was when I heard your music." ( from the parent of a young adult voice student)
"Your concert was so uplifting and impressive...the people I was with were all exclaiming about the beauty of the music.... Your compositions show such reliance on God.”  ( from a Shaftesbury staff member)
"These were powerful pieces for me because of the strength and beauty in the words of the songs and in the voices of the singers… (from a Shaftesbury staff member)
"Could you see and hear the standing ovation in the video? I hope so.  ( from a family friend)

The word "grace" occurs 122 times in the NRSV Bible and the word "remember"159 times. The Dictionary of Old Testament Theology  Volume 1 p.11-2 contains these words: " Remembering God is often a dynamic phenomenon that [can help] to transform the believer or the believing community." That transformation is brought about in part by gratitude. I remember April 14, 2002 with gratitude to God for bringing me to GBC.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Quote by Rachel Held Evans (1981-2019)
The Holy Trinity doesn’t need our permission to carry on in their endlessly resourceful work of making all things new. That we are invited to catch even a glimpse of the splendor is grace. All of it, every breath and every second is grace.
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Written by Gineke – submitted by Els Penner 
A fountain of pure joy,
Springs in the depth of my heart.
I dance and I sing,
love songs on joyful melodies.
I fly without wings,
With my feet firm on the ground.
Floating on the wind,
I spread my arms,
And embrace the spring.
I am drunk with joy,
Yet alcohol has not touched my lips.
Looking into Your eyes,
I can see You smile –
Your heart falls in love.
In this fountain of pure joy,
I can see Heaven opening up,
And the rain of Your love,
pours down on my lifted heart.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Quote by Philip Yancey
One who has been touched by grace will no longer look on those who stray as “those evil people” or “those poor people who need our help”. Nor must we search for “loveworthiness”. Grace teaches us that God loves because of who God is, not because of who we are.
Grace is a free gift of God, but to receive a gift you must have open hands.
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Written by Don Kroeker
Gratefulness for Grace
A pastor at Pass-a- Grille, Florida, eloquently explained that gratefulness was only real if expressed in thanksgivng. That struck me and made sense to me.
Grace
Acts 11:5 - defines grace – God’s undeserved kindness
Acts 14:3 - But the apostles stayed there a long time, preaching broadly about the grace of the Lord.
Acts 5:17(b ) - But even greater is God’s wonderful grace and his gift of righteousness, for all who receive it will live in triumph over sin and death through this one man, Jesus Christ.
1 Cor. 16:23 - May the grace of the Lord Jesus be with you.
Eph 1:7 - He is so rich in kindness and grace that he purchased our freedom with the blood of his son and forgive us our sins.
Eph 2:8 - God saved you by his grace when you believed.
1 Tim. 1:2b - May God the father and Christ Jesus our Lord give you grace, mercy, and peace.
Heb 4:16 - so let us come boldly to the throne of our gracious God. There we will receive his mercy, and we will find grace to help us when we need it most.

Gratefulness for grace is expressed in thanksgiving and generosity
2 Cor 9:6 - Remember this a farmer who plants only a few seeds will get a small crop. But the one who PLANTS GENEROUSLY will get a generous crop. You must decide in your heart how much to give, and don’t give reluctantly or in response to pressure “for God loves a person who GIVES CHEERFULLY” and God will generously provide all you need. Then you’ll always have everything you need and plenty left over to SHARE WITH OTHERS for God is the one who provides seed for the farmer and then bread to eat, the same way he will provide and increase your resources and then PRODUCE A GREAT HARVEST OF GENEROSTIY IN YOU. Yes, you will be in enriched in every way so that you can always be generous. And when we take your gifts to those who need them, they will thank God. So two good things will result from this ministry of giving - the needs of the believers in Jerusalem will be met, and they will joyfully express their thanks to God.
2 Cor 9:13 - As a result of your ministry, they will GIVE GLORY TO GOD. For your generosity to them and to all believers will prove that you are obedient to the Good News of Christ.

If we are grateful for God’s grace, we will follow Christ’s teaching and be generous.
Needs will be met and God will be glorified.
That is my goal; God has been, and still is, very gracious to me.

How to live
Matth 6:33 - Seek the kingdom of God above all else, and live righteously, and he will give you everything you need.
Matt. 7:12 - “The Golden Rule”    Do to others whatever you would like them to do to you. This is the essence of all that is talked in the law and the prophets.
Matt. 5:13,14, 16 - You are the salt of the earth. You are the light of the world. Let your good deeds shine out for all to see so that everyone will praise your heavenly father.
Matt. 5:48 - You are to be perfect even as your father in heaven is perfect!
Matt 5 - The beatitudes summarized.  - We are poor and need God. We are to be humble, and are to hunger and thirst for justice. We should be merciful and our hearts pure. We should work for peace and do right. Then the Kingdom of Heaven is ours.
Matt. 6:19 - …Don’t store up treasures here on earth; store your treasures in heaven. Wherever your treasure is, there the desires of your heart will also be.  NB: Sell and give!
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 Written by Bonnie Ireton
                                                                            GRACE 
                                                        A compass that shows The Way
                                              Healing arms that hold the pieces together
                                                     A light shining amidst twisted paths
                                                                  and broken branches
                                                         It is what lifts you, carries you
                                                   And it is what forgives and helps you
                                                                        begin again
  
                                                                GRACE - GOD’S GRACE
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
 Written by John of the Cross, “The Spiritual Canticle”, stanzas 32, 36
 When you looked at me
 your eyes imprinted your grace in me;
 for this you loved me ardently;
 and thus my eyes deserved
 to adore what they beheld in you. . . .
 Let us go forth to behold ourselves in your beauty.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Written by Edith Fast (1943-2015) in 2002
 In the calm
 Miracle of twilight
 I have heard you whisper
 The language of my heart.
 LOVE, the deliverer,
 Has laid its hand on me,
 I have been enticed by the mystery of God,
 And I am utterly content.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Written by Frederick Buechner in Wishful Thinking: A Seeker’s ABC
Grace is something you can never get but can only be given. There’s no way to earn it or deserve it or bring it about any more than you can deserve the taste of raspberries and cream or earn good looks or bring about your own birth. . .

A crucial eccentricity of the Christian faith is the assertion that people are saved by grace.
There’s nothing you have to do.
There’s nothing you have to do.
There’s nothing you have to do.

The grace of God means something like: Here is your life. You might never have been, but you are because the party wouldn’t have been complete without you. Her is the world. Beautiful and terrible things will happen. Don’t be afraid. I am with you. Nothing can ever separate us. It’s for you I created the universe. I love you.

There’s only one catch. Like any other gift, the gift of grace can be yours only if you’ll reach out and take it. Maybe being able to reach out and take it is a gift too.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Written by Wilma Wiens
A friend of mind struggles with alcohol. Normally, and after lengthy communication with God about this, she lives with freedom around it and can enjoy a glass of wine or not, no worries one way or the other. But sometimes, in times of rage or rebellion she HAS to drink. On one such night when the need for wine was greater than the freedom she normally knows she set out to the local Liquor Mart. On her way there she decided to stop at the Tim Horton’s drive-thru for a tea. Driving up to the window to get her tea and pay, the fellow inside told her, “It’s already been paid for by the guy ahead of you. This cup of tea is free!” My friend was overwhelmed with the surprising act of generosity.  So overwhelmed by the generosity that her hardened rebellious heart softened, she found herself back in the embrace of freedom, she felt no need for wine and she headed home enjoying her free cup of tea. “It’s already been paid for”. That was grace. I suppose she could have refused the free tea and insisted on paying for it, but grace doesn’t usually work that way. Grace overwhelms us with its surprising, sometimes shocking generosity. I mean, really, who would refuse a free cup of tea?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Written by Wilma Wiens
While my mom was dying this past July, my sisters and I were given 2 1-hour,1-person visits with her a day, one in the afternoon and one in the evening. For the other 22 hours of the day she was alone. She died while my sister was with her in an evening visit. Ingrid was able to bless her, release her and be present while she passed. That was grace – an undeserved gift from God to all of us, my sisters, me and our mom.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Written by Laura Murphy, Dedicated to the “Exploring our Landscape at the Confluence of Spirituality and Aging” class at CMU, Oct-Nov 2014
Dear God,
We are subject to death.
We are the clay you molded,
breathed in to.
We are the ancient of days.
Our landscape is silent, tranquil, awaiting.
Keep us in your grace
until that time when our aged voice is stilled in death…
and mortality has taken on immortality
and we will view the “landscape” of heaven, our eternal home.
To the triune God
be praise forever more.
AMEN
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Written by Carolee Neufeld
 Gratitude for Grace Bible Church
 The joy of God’s presence on a Sunday morning
                          warm smiles and caring people
 
Front steps and solid front doors
                           that welcome us as we arrive for worship

The rich, resonant music –
             singing of the congregation
             powerful organ
                          piano, trumpet and tambourine
                          string ensembles     
                          songs by the choir        
                                       solos, duets and quartets    
                          inspiring preludes and postludes            

All who practice and prepare
            to make a joyful sound to the Lord

The Word of God, read each Sunday by different voices
               preached and taught by leaders and teaching pastors

Good food, spread out abundantly
               at concerts, breakfasts, funerals, celebrations

Gathering in homes
               to study God’s Word
                             to shower a new bride or a new mother
                                           to enjoy coffee or a meal together

The old brick church with a rooster on top
               sunlight through stained glass
               communion table
               richness of oak in pews and pulpit
                            a cross, reminding us of Jesus love for us

The pastors’ office a place of serenity and warmth
                           the fellowship hall and the kitchen
                                         the youth room and the choir room
                                                        each space reminding us of being with each other

Many nooks and crannies and rooms throughout the building
                          that hold memories and treasures and useful items

Bound together in Christ
                          as we receive the bread and the wine
                                        as membership commitments are made
                                                    as babies and young children are dedicated to God

Caring for each other
             and praying for each other
             through life’s ups and downs

Memorable events
                            the choir concerts, kids and youth Christmas program
                                      the church picnic, Songs and Sweets, VBS
                                                  the annual church retreat in fall, monthly breakfasts

A church website that tells who we are and what we are doing        
             the weekly bulletin and emails that connect us to each other

Caring leaders with patience, love and creativity
                            who give much thought and time
                                        to serving God and the people of GBC

Prayers spoken from the pulpit each Sunday,
                            and poured out by congregants for each other
                                        prayer gathering in homes and in the church
                                                     prayer requests in the pastor’s weekly email

Baptisms and testimonies
                            a public declaration of faith in Jesus Christ
                            the water symbolic of sins washed away

The minister of music
                            prayerfully and thoughtfully choosing songs
                                         inspiring singers and musicians
                            melding the choir into a caring family
                                         concluding the service with praise on the organ

Missionaries and Christian organizations
              supported by the church, reaching out into the world
                            telling us stories of how God is at work

The neighbourhood around the church
                            with its tree-lined streets and old homes

The front yard where we pause in summer after the service
                            to have cookies and iced tea and to visit with friends

Youth gatherings
             young people and their leaders
                            having fun, building wholesome friendships, growing in faith

All who have been part of GBC and left their imprint
                            but have felt called elsewhere
                                          or have been promoted to glory

The outreach of the church into the community
                            through the love and the provisions of Oakwood Table  
                                          people of the church caring for refugees

The children who are so loved and appreciated
                            running up the aisle for Kid’s Korner
                                         eagerly heading off to Sunday School
                                                       joyfully participating in the life of the church
                                                                     playing in the Veggie Tales room and the gym

Ushers who greet us warmly
              and make us feel at home as they give us the bulletin

The generous giving – cheques, bills, loonies and quarters
                            as the offering baskets are passed along each Sunday

The balcony, with its expansive view of the sanctuary
                            lit up by a beautiful round stained glass window
                                          people faithfully managing the sound system
                                                        a place where children love to run and hide

People at work
              preparing refreshments, helping in the nursery
                            taking care of the church library
                                         mowing the grass, cleaning, painting and repairing
                                                       office work and accounting, managing the heating system
                                                                     committees meeting to plan
                                                                                     much more that makes GBC a special place

Sunday School, with Bible stories, memory verses, singing
                        crafts and colouring, eager children, faithful teachers
                                         youth discussions and learning
                                                       adults gathering to study and be inspired by God’s Word

Pastors over the years
                        leading, praying, preaching, visiting congregants
                                        planning, encouraging and wisely supporting

Banners and flowers and candles
                        that bring beauty and meaning as we gather

A foundational truth from the Bible
                        displayed on a banner at the front of the sanctuary
                        and outside on the church sign
                                       “By grace we are saved, it is a gift of God”

All this and more, is the rich tapestry of Grace Bible Church
All this and more, is God’s people 
                         worshipping, loving and serving.

Thank you God for Grace Bible Church!
1991-2021

Grace Bible Church on Oakwood
is a community of followers of Jesus Christ
who seek to know and reflect God’s love and grace.
We are Bible-centered in our teaching, letting scripture shape our lives.
We strive to be a community in which all are loved,
              cared for, encouraged, forgiven, prayed for, taught,
              nurtured, listened to, and equipped for service.
We are committed to worshiping and working together
               with integrity, compassion, and humility,
               to responding to needs of others outside of our community,
               and to encouraging all to know and follow Jesus Christ.

I submitted the following article for the Riverview Reflector's Spring Issue:

In the church we are currently in the season of Lent, the 40-day period leading up to Easter during which we are encouraged to either fast from something or take on something for the purpose of spiritual renewal. Fasting (giving up something that we enjoy), giving of alms (contributions to help people who are in need), and times of focused prayer are all common practices that are encouraged during Lent. Most years.

This year, as we continue to navigate the pandemic, I have to wonder if those same practices are the best practices to bring about the intended result of spiritual renewal. Certainly alms giving is always a good practice, both for the giver and the one who receives. And this year the needs are many and everywhere. In our congregation we continue to explore what the needs are (globally and locally) and how best we can respond to them. Likewise, focused prayer is always a good practice.

At the same time, the pandemic has forced all of us to give up so much during the past year. I have a hard time endorsing “giving up” in a year when we are already living with such great loss. Perhaps this is the year to give up “giving up” during Lent. Perhaps our spirits will be better renewed in extending generosity and compassion to ourselves and to each other than in giving up our favorite comfort food or beverage.

I’ve come across a resource that seems more fitting for Lent in a pandemic. It was written by William Arthur Ward (1921-1994) an American motivational writer, teacher and pastor. It is titled Lenten Litany on Fasting and Feasting*. He suggests, among other things, fasting from complaining and feasting on appreciation and fasting from suspicion and feasting on truth.

Ward’s suggested fasts and feasts are ones we could not only practice for 40 days but take on as life-long habits. They are habits of the heart, mind and soul that will bring about not only spiritual renewal, they will, if committed to, have the potential to bring about societal and global renewal.

Ward’s practices of fasting and feasting are ones I can heartily endorse to my congregation in time of pandemic and always.

Wilma Wiens is Minister of Pastoral & Spiritual Care at Grace Bible Church, 366 Oakwood Ave.

* Lenten Litany on Fasting and Feasting
http://gloriadeihudson.org/documents/Fasting_and_Feasting.pdf





Photo credit - Kyle Head https://unsplash.com/@kyleunderscorehead

“The Lament Psalms teach us to pray our inner conflicts and contradictions. They allow us to shout out our forsakenness in the dark caverns of abandonment and then hear the echo return to us over and over until we bitterly recant of them, only to shout them out again. They give us permission to shake our fist at God one moment and break into doxology the next”
~ Richard Foster, Prayer: Finding the Heart’s True Home*

The Psalms of lament are not frequently highlighted in the Lectionary or in Sunday morning worship services. And yet, almost one third of the Psalms are laments. As you will hear from Walter Brueggemann in the included link, there is a cost to us personally and communally by excluding these lament Psalms from our communal hearing of Scripture.
In bypassing these sacred words of complaint to God we nurture a false sense of “everything-will-be-alright” or “everything-should-be-alright” when in fact reality teaches us that this is not so. If we don’t learn how to complain and despair together as church we will be ill equipped to  accept and navigate unfortunate circumstances when they come and, more so, we will be unable to thank and praise God amidst them.

Walter Brueggemann and the need for Lament
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oxqmtft4WYM
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

How long, oh Lord, will You allow humans to speak on Your behalf?
Why must fools slander Your Name, claiming that human works are the acts of God?

People grieve for their loved ones
The silence echoes through the ages, for the Lord has not changed.
From generation to generation, creation cries out against humankind’s plough,
While mothers weep and the oppressed are dragged to the grave
Caught in the cycles of life that are intertwined with the Lord’s plagues

I have grown weary of the love I bear,
once so easy to give, once flowing, now dashing me against the rocks
I want to let go, flee, cut myself off from the people, and be at rest.
I want to push forward, embrace, rejoin my disassembled community, and be at rest.

The Lord is just; the Earth is His, and everything in it.
He has not changed; blessings and curses fall alike
on the righteous and the wicked.
This I know, but why, O Lord, have You allowed the foolish to speak for you?

Why is your Name invoked to oppress the needy, the sick, and the majority?
Why do fools run freely across Your Earth, proclaiming that the Lord
has healed, protected, and blessed them;
they rob the righteous and consume their food and medicine,
seize babies from their mothers’ breasts,
profit from the murder of the distant innocent,
expose their communities to plague while they revel in their churches,
and proclaim, “I am blessed, I am blessed, the Lord has made it so!”

Arise, O Lord
Dash them to the ground and humble them,
Trample our leaders under Your heel and expose our institutions
Feed the hungry, defend the innocent, provide for the oppressed
Be unjust, O Lord, and intervene!
Balance the scales, silence Your followers who feed on the fat of the world
and have set the Earth on fire.
I hate them, I hate them
I hate us

But the Lord loves us
He harkens to the cries of every generation
From the time of Abel, He has listened to the Earth’s screams
as innocent blood soaks its soils.
The Lord listens, the Lord hears, the Lord knows.
Hear, O Lord, and answer me, in Your silence and Your abiding love.

Every generation, the Lord is present
He overturns the oppressor, and crushes the hands of the mighty
He consumes our cities
and exposes our lies to the next generation
The Lord does not stand idly by and leave us to our own destruction
In His abiding love, He stands with the righteous,
Instructs the foolish, reforms the wicked, and walks beside the lost.

The Lord is present in His silence
The Lord is sovereign in his creation
The Earth is balanced by His will
for He is merciful and abundant in love.
~ Kayla Quiring

* Foster, Richard J. Prayer: Finding the Heart’s True Home. New York: HarperSanFrancisco. 1992.

I am grateful for the contributions of Lament that have been written.
Putting words to our deep emotions is difficult; sharing those words with others is equally daunting. The surprising reality though, is that in our shared vulnerability we find not only solidarity, we also experience Christ’s very presence within and among us strengthening, comforting, leading us.

Evening and morning and at noon I utter my complaint and moan, and he will hear my voice.
~ Psalm 55:17

“...human beings need the strength that comes through shared sorrow. Self-sufficiency melts away in the face of catastrophe and loss. . . The church may be one of the few places left where norms of community life are still valued. When the church joins in the prayer of lament, each member is upheld, and each person’s sorrow matters to all.”*
~ Deborah van Deusen Hunsinger, Pray Without Ceasing: Revitalizing Pastoral Care

“When the community joins in the lament, sanction is given for the expression of loss – the outpouring of emotion is legitimized in such a way as to provide for catharsis and then renewal.”**
~ Eugene Peterson, Five Smooth Stones for Pastoral Work
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Hugs before Masks
Placard poster
Vitriol shouted at a rally

Slogans mask a blinded mind
Blind to lies that distort reality

The truth is hugs can kill
The truth is hugs can create long haulers

A mask is a hug in a pandemic
A holy kiss of caring
not a servile submission
to the state

A mask signals the freedom
to love one's neighbor and oneself.
~ Graeme Davidson
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
O God, my pain is too big, my truth too shameful, my rage too blinding.
I awake every morning, despairing that I must arise.
I’ve cried for relief that has never arrived.
I’ve sought other ways, far from the hope of the Kingdom of God.
I long to be set free.
I do not fear the shadow of death. The shadow of existence is what has smothered me with despair.
I grieve the loss of who I was. I mourn that innocent soul, not yet struck down with sorrow.
Yet, if I must live, I must believe You are there.
I must believe I am Your Beloved surrounded by Your care.
I must believe this tattered soul is worth fighting for. For have You not died for it?
- Kim Kakegamic
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
LAMENT for the Loss of Normal

God of my life – the normalcy of life has disappeared
What I once counted on doing and having is gone
The only thing I can count on now is adaptation and change
I used to be able to plan and do
I used to be in control of my own schedule
Now that has all been upended
And I live each day not knowing how it will turn out

Give me back some sense of normalcy
Take me back to the way things used to be
Give me back my life as I knew it and loved it
Help me gain control of my life
Let life be familiar and normal once again

You are God who calls me to trust you
You are God who meets me in the wilderness
I remember when you called me to leave home
and invited me to new adventures, new ways of seeing
You are God who makes all things new, even me
You are God who is with me and for me
In the wilderness of my life you are forging a new path
I will give you thanks for each new day of possibility
~ Wilma Wiens

* Van Deusen Hunsinger, Deborah. Pray Without Ceasing: Revitalizing Pastoral Care. Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company. 2006.
** Peterson, Eugene. Five Smooth Stones for Pastoral Work. Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company. 1980.

Photo – photo of painting by Tim Steward, “Enveloped in Gold” 2017, Mixed Media on Paper; artwork was featured in Salt of the Earth: A Christian Seasons Calendar 2018-2019

In their book Reconciling All Things: A Christian Vision for Justice, Peace and Healing, Emmanuel Katongole and Chris Rice endorse and give directions for the practice of lament. They write,
“Lament is not despair. It is not whining. It is not a cry into a void. Lament is a cry directed to God. It is the cry of those who see the truth of the world’s deep wounds and the cost of seeking peace. It is the prayer of those who are deeply disturbed by the way things are. We are enjoined to learn to see and feel what the psalmists see and feel and to join our prayers with theirs.” *

Thank you to all who accepted my invitation to write a prayer of Lament. Those laments will appear in 3 posts on this blog. If you would like to join the voices of lament please send me your contribution and I will include it.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Reflecting on Ephesians 5:20 Always giving thanks for all things in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ to God even the Father.
 
Lord it’s hard to give thanks in times like these when life has been turned upside down- people are sick and dying and we live with restrictions on who we can see and where we can go or what we can buy. I know other generations have lived through World Wars and dealt with so much worse. We are just asked to stay home to prevent the spread of COVID.  Such a simple thing and yet such a hardship for so many. Thank you, that despite our human frailty, You love us with an unconditional, overwhelming love. Thank you for Your love and all the wonderful blessings in our lives- open our eyes to see them and to see You at work in our lives.
~ Nettie Strople

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
A LAMENT for our Elderly Saints

God, our elderly saints are living in isolation.
They are separated from their families, from the people who remind them that they are loved.
The very measures put in place to keep them safe from the virus
Are causing suffering and sadness, loneliness and despair
Those who when they were younger gave much to their families and to their community,
Are now living alienated from all that reminds them of normal and stable and lovely.
You command us to honor our elders – yet when will you answer their cries of loneliness?
How long must they suffer?
How many must die alone?

Hear their cries and answer them!
Content them in the desolation of their loneliness.
Bring speedy, safe and efficient relief from the virus.
Give wisdom and knowledge and compassion to care-givers and administrators
Remind those who are ill yet continue to go out to stay home!
And those who don’t care – strike them with the virus so that they will learn!

Yet, I will remind myself of your compassion for the just and the unjust.
I will remember that you know these elderly saints from before they were born.
You know the number of hairs of their heads and you hold them in the palm of your hand.
I will trust you with their living and their dying.
You have promised to never leave us.
I trust that your promises are true.
~ Wilma Wiens


* Katongole, Emmanuel and Chris Rice. Reconciling All Things: A Christian Vision for Justice, Peace and Healing. Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press, 2008.

In his book, Reading for the Common Good: How Books Help Our Churches and Neighborhoods Flourish, C. Christopher Smith writes,
 "Reading is a crucial part of the process of discerning the shape of our life together. We read the Bible together, as well as other books that guide us to a deeper understanding of Scripture, books that help us better understand the times and places in which we live, and books that help us mature in our personal vocations within the church community."

Be it recipes, news reports, books to our children, work reports, blogs, twitter feeds, weather forecasts, fiction, non-fiction, science-fiction, biographies, Scripture, devotionals, song lyrics, we are all reading something these days.
When we cannot gather for conversation we can still engage with writers in the act of reading or listening (some of us love audio books!) and we can share with each other what we are reading and learning. In perusing someone’s bookshelf we learn something about to whom the bookshelf belongs. Let this be a way for us to share our bookshelves and our books with each other.

Welcome – let us know what you are reading these days!
Here are a couple responses (you can join in by responding below):

In response to your invitation to share what we've been reading -- this book is so special that I'm motivated to write. Knowing I'm a big John Ortberg fan, Sara bought me one of his books for Christmas. The book is Know Doubt, and it is fantastic.
I've loved all his books -- so much depth, couched in humility, a disarmingly unpretentious style, and a terrific sense of humour -- but this is my favourite yet. I no longer seem to have the wits of my fabled days as an English major to be able to provide an incisive summary, so I'll just quote off the back cover:
"This book is based on my own struggle with faith-shaking doubt, tracing the line between belief and unbelief and finding that it's less a dividing line between hostile camps thana razor's edge that runs through every soul. Mine. Yours. Even those known for their deep faith. . . . I will show you how doubt -- real, palpable, painful doubt -- leads to Truth. And that is a cause for celebration."
I intend to re-read this moving, courageous, candid, and powerful book very shortly (a distinction I've reserved for few and distinguished books!), and predict I will turn to it many times.
Love to all – Reena
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I'm currently reading New Testament Apocrypha: More Noncanonical Scriptures by Tony Burke & Brent Landau. I loved your observation that the process of discernment is largely conversational, since I have always been drawn to historical documents as a way of one-way communication with ancient peoples. This book includes entire, annotated English translations of the original manuscripts, alongside essays that provide context and commentary. I'm really enjoying reading these stories about Jesus and apostles that were written in the earliest centuries of Christianity, and reading about how these books influenced the way that Christians behave, think, and imagine in different times and places. For example, the collection includes a narrative that specifically refers to Mary riding a donkey to Bethlehem and to Egypt after the Magi's visit, which the editors point out as the origins of the donkey in nativity imagery.

Growing up, I was taught to be wary of apocrypha, and any sort of early Christian writing that isn't in the canonical Scriptures (and anything written by a Catholic, to be honest). I now think that this is a bad approach to take towards these ancient authors, who are our long-gone brothers and sisters in Christ. When we censor the voices of those who did not make the cut into the final canon, and those who think differently from who we became later on, we are choosing to forget and ignore any evidence that goes against our modern Christian culture. When we choose to forget that our traditions are not immemorial, we choose to forget that there are other ways of understanding and interpreting Biblical passages and other ways of living a Godly life. We risk forgetting to serve Christ in favour of preserving our own mythology about who we think we are, and what we want God to be. For me, reading old books--ancient Christian manuscripts, medieval Christian and Jewish writings, etc., is a wonderful way of forcing myself to look at the Bible with fresh eyes, and to try to genuinely imagine reading the same Scriptures from a different perspective. I know that it's not for everyone; most people don't really like reading dusty old books! But for me, it is extremely special, especially whenever I'm having a hard time getting along with fellow Christians. Sometimes I need to go hang out with really old dead Christians before I feel like conversing with the living ones.
Big hugs, Kayla
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

This article was written for the Christmas edition of the Riverview Reflector, December 2020

Like congregations throughout the city our Sunday morning worship service has moved onto Zoom. We were grateful to open the building for 3 months, August – November while restrictions allowed it. Now we’re all safely back at home.

The one thing that has not been shut down is our food-bank, the Oakwood Community Table. Considered an essential service, we have been operating our food-bank consistently every 2nd Saturday under the umbrella of Winnipeg Harvest. Initially we put a stop to the additional coffee and snacks because we couldn’t invite people inside to visit. Something we discovered pretty quickly was that the gathering for coffee and visiting is just as important as obtaining food for the week. Our food-bank friends really missed the sitting around and visiting over a cup of coffee. Food and community are both vital for our survival. That really isn’t new news.

All summer long we were able to visit outside, coffee and doughnuts along with it.
Now with the colder temperatures our building is taking on a somewhat newer look with green tape marking arrows of direction as people come inside, receive coffee and a snack and find a socially-distanced chair in the gym. Like everyone else, we are adapting to the needed restrictions.

With the virus stretching further and restrictions steady food insecurity continues to rise, globally and here in our city. Sheltering at home is far more challenging this time around with increased darkness and colder temperatures.  Mental and emotional strain are also on the rise.

While we in GBC grieve the loss of our choral concerts, children’s pageant and in-person gatherings for worship, we are deeply grateful that we can continue to be church – feeding and supporting people who are in need. That is, after all, what we are called to do. As our food-bank operates every second Saturday, as we provide food and winter wear and support,  we find the One of Christmas right there among us. That is reason enough to celebrate.

A big shout out to Black Market Provisions, Little Sister Coffeemaker and Tony Chestnut for your support of our food-bank either in food donations or collecting items for our clothes closet.

If you would like to donate non-perishable food items to our food-bank check out our website at gracebiblechurch.ca and follow the link “Connect” to Oakwood Community Table.

Wilma Wiens is Minister of Pastoral & Spiritual Care at Grace Bible Church, 366 Oakwood Ave

An Invitation to Write!

With the increased restrictions due to covid-19 we will be spending more time at home.
For some of us this is okay – we enjoy solitude; we enjoy being at home.
For others of us we need to be with people and we need to get out; we find ourselves withering when we can’t be together with others.
For all of us, hopefully we will have more time to reflect on how these restrictions are impacting us personally and communally.

Because of this I am extending an invitation to any and all who find it cathartic to express yourself through writing, and to those who need encouragement to do more writing.
Writing offers us opportunity to give voice to our thoughts and emotions, naming what is going on inside us.
Writing allows us to validate what we are experiencing and helps us move through it.
Writing let’s us share our experiences with other people.

Invitation to Write for 2 Very Different Themes ~ LAMENT and GRACE ~
1 – Prayer of Lament
Lament is a prayer that freely expresses frustration with the way things are. The most common Biblical Psalms are laments. Many of us develop a particular “prayer voice” characterized by a sense of decorum. For some reason we feel our prayer language must be neat and tidy. The psalmists, however, teach us that we can bring our whole selves into prayer. Diana Grover writes in her blog post Praying Lament Psalms (And How to Write Your Own), “Thankfully, the Psalms give us permission to bring our fiercest, untamed thoughts and emotions to God. . .Lament psalms teach us to bring our raw emotion and desires to God – with no filter or polishing – and how to release those emotions and desires to His care. Even before our situation is resolved, we can find comfort.” *
We can freely tell God that we don’t like the way things are and we can tell God to do something about it.

There are 2 kinds of lament psalms, individual and communal. Psalm 86 is an individual lament in which David lays out his need to God. Psalm 12 is an example of communal lament voicing sadness over widespread evil.

There is a lot that we are lamenting these days. We grieve Covid-19, restrictions, political conflict, racism, uncertainty, unemployment, isolation – our own and that of loved ones, loved ones who have died, environmental degradation, insecurity and more.

Lament can help us move from our place of frustration and despair to a more hopeful place.
Prayers of lament form us and transform us. As we bring our pain and frustration to God our prayers of lament bear fruit as we are slowly changed even while circumstances are not.

Prayers of lament typically follow a 3-step pattern:
1 – Protest – name the truth of what is, tell God what the problem is
2 – Petition – tell God what you want God to do about the problem
3 – Praise – name truth about who God is based on God’s character and how you have known God in the past, express trust in God, name God’s goodness, even though you cannot see that now.

These 3 movements closely follow the 3 acts of HOPE that Randy Holm taught us in October:
1 – naming the truth – be real about our current situation
2 – grieving the truth – lament and grieve our wounds, our losses
3 – reorienting the truth – a courageous act of imagination as we stay rooted in God’s fidelity, choosing the truth of God,

Take a look at these psalms to get an idea of how to write your own lament:
Psalm 6, 10, 13, 17, 22, 25,30, 31, 69, 73, 86, 88, 102.

You can pattern your lament prayer after a psalm of lament that you find in scripture or be creative and make your own. Be sure to write in a way that authentically reflects your situation. It can be 3 sentences long or 30. Whatever allows you to express yourself.

*To read more of Diana Gruver’s blog post on writing a prayer of lament go to
https://www.dianagruver.com/blog/praying-and-writing-lament-psalms

2 – Gratitude for GRACE
This theme comes with 2 approaches:
1 – Spend time reflecting on how you have known and/or how you currently know God’s grace at work in your life or in the life of someone else. Write about that.

2 – Spend time reflecting on why you are grateful for Grace Bible Church. This might be something stretching back during the past almost 30 years since GBC began or it might be something more recent. Write about that.

Join Me in Writing During the Months Ahead!

Write as many pieces as you like and as you finish them please send them to me at pastors@gracebiblechurch.ca

I will collect whatever is sent and put the writings together to share with the rest of us.
The prayers of lament will be compiled in a booklet of readings for LENT in February.
The words of gratitude for GRACE will form a booklet to celebrate GBC’s 30th anniversary in May 2021!

And, if you would rather draw or paint or take a picture of something that expresses your spiritual journing instead of writing – please do that and send it to me!

Many blessings as you create!