This is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.
Luke 21:33
Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away.
Words of Grace For Today
What will you do, or have you done, for Thanksgiving this year?
Will your celebrations reach all in your family?
Will your celebrations reach anyone beyond your family?
Will you pause, reflect and consider why you celebrate as you do?
Will giving thanks be the centre of your celebrations, or just a small piece, or even an aside to all the other activities?
As we celebrate Thanksgiving year after year, it loses it’s meaning for many of us. Instead it takes on as its purpose, the immediate experience of our Thanksgiving foods, football games, and family gatherings. We learn to identify Thanksgiving with the warmth of these traditions, with the results of our own efforts. Giving God thanks has become an obligatory part of our weekend.
Doch, the true warmth of Thanksgiving remains the spirit on fire God gives us humble saints, so that, by our labours, we can share that warmth with those struggling to survive the coming cold, and all evil. (KAS sermon for Thanksgiving 2021)
(‘Doch’ is that wonderful word from German that means ‘but rather’, a word that encapsulates God’s response to our sinful ways.)
God’s Word will endure forever. God’s Covenant with us will survive forever even if heaven and earth come to an end. God will always be our God, and we will be God’s people.
Since God does this for us though we certainly deserve nothing, each day gives us opportunity to give God thanks in thought, word, and deed.
They say to a tree, ‘You are my father’, and to a stone, ‘You gave me birth.’ For they have turned their backs to me, and not their faces. But in the time of their trouble they say, ‘Come and save us!’
Hebrews 11:1
Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.
Words of Grace For Today
Trees as fathers, and stones as mothers. That surely is a mixed up version of perverting reality that I have not run into … often.
There are plenty of other versions of perverting reality that I hear of, read of, and encounter in daily life all too often. It starts with some terrible perversion of reality driven by hubris, thinking oneself is so much more than one really is. After a person allows that to happen, there is no telling what will come next. When one thinks one is no longer a creature of God, no longer anything less than a godlet, the mess one creates is pure … pure evil.
That’s how we get a US president like Trump.
That’s how we get so many Covidiots that secure the continuation of the pandemic in stronger and more destructive ‘waves’.
That’s how we get so much fake news, so much that so many people can believe vaccines are dangerous, that climate change is not real, or that truth is only subjective and can be anything we want it to be.
There is nothing more destructive to all life, in us, around us, and through-out the universe.
Even those of us who have resisted the fake news perversion and return of chaos into our lives are caught up by this evil. There is simply no escape.
When we allow this to consume us, then …
Then … we are in bondage to sin and cannot free ourselves or anyone else.
Faith.
Faith is all we have left.
Faith is what gives us hope.
Hope gives us, with no cause at all other than faith, to cry to God for help.
We cry and pray that God will save us.
As God promises in many and various ways, that by Grace salvation is ours, so God forgives us our sin, claims us as God’s own children, and sends us out to be the people who carry God’s Grace to others.
From ‘Trees’ and ‘Stones’ and all kinds of perversions of reality we pray ‘God save us.’
If you, O Lord, should mark iniquities, Lord, who could stand?
2 Corinthians 5:19
In Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting the message of reconciliation to us.
Words of Grace For Today
God’s Law is not bendable, not amendable, not sort of obeyable. It is strict, more strict than we imagine … and it is impossible to obey it perfectly. Anything less and we condemn ourselves out of God’s approval, out of heaven on earth, and out of eternal life with Christ.
Our failure to uphold God’s commands does not belong to just some of ‘them’ or ‘to us in the past’. It belongs to each and every one of us each day of our lives, without exception.
So who can stand before God on our own merits? None of us.
And that is the definition of a life of hell each and every day.
Thank God, God works to forgive us, not because we deserve it, but because God wishes to be Gracious to us.
It is God’s choice, God’s will, God’s answer and solution to our inescapable bondage to sin.
As God exercises Grace for us, we get to respond, with the Holy Spirit working in us, to share that same grace with others.
Quite the life we get to live, as God’s adopted children, relying on God’s Grace alone, and enabled to be that Grace for others. Quite the life, indeed, word and in thought.
Before I was humbled I went astray, but now I keep your word.
2 Corinthians 7:10
For godly grief produces a repentance that leads to salvation and brings no regret, but worldly grief produces death.
Words of Grace For Today
To be humbled.
To be humbled is to be taken from a place one has unrightly claimed as one’s own (a place of honour, power, wealth, privilege and comfort) and to be brought down to earth.
To be humbled is to be returned from the lofty reaches of the Devil’s Deceptions to God’s Kingdom where all are equal, equally ‘nothing’s except for the value God gives us by undeserved love and grace.
To be humbled is to be as God created us, fully dependent upon God for our breath and lives.
It is an irreverently proud person who claims, though, to have been humbled and then claims to keep God’s Word. Such an accomplishment is only possible for the Holy Spirit to bring us to participate in. It is never us alone who can do such a great thing.
To repent is not a one time event for Christ’s disciples. It is a daily, even hourly, manner of living. Humbly accepting our own inability to be righteous, and relying totally on God to make of us saints who can carry God’s Word in our thoughts, spread God’s Word with our words and actions, and embody God’s Word with our love for others and our hope for our shared future.
To repent is to acknowledge one’s sins, one’s bondage to sin, and God’s promise to free us from this bondage.
It is like fishing, knowing that one will not likely catch a fish at all, but that it is a day well spent, basking in God’s creation. Should one catch a fish then it will not likely be large enough to keep. So one will return it to the lake to live and grow and reproduce. When the most unlikely occurs and one catches a fish that is large enough to keep, then it is kept, cleaned, filleted, fried, and eaten with wondrous gratitude for such a rare privilege (one to partake in seldom lest one poison’s oneself as the fish are from the fracking used to make oil possible to bring up out of the ground.)
So it is that we live each day, holding God’s Word in our hearts and minds, as the motivator of all our actions, knowing that it will be seldom that we actually become the saints who share God’s unconditional and self-sacrificial love with others. Yet we find ourselves grateful for the readiness we can participate in, and for those rare events when God uses us. We may lose much of our lives in those moments of being God’s saints, but we know that this is exactly what God created us to be and do with our lives.
When we think we stand above others in righteousness
It is only because we’ve lost a sound perspective
on God’s reality.
Proverbs 10:28
The hope of the righteous ends in gladness, but the expectation of the wicked comes to nothing.
Hebrews 6:12
May you not become sluggish, but imitators of those who through faith and patience inherit the promises.
Words of Grace For Today
We would like to think and trust that if we are righteous, all will be well and we will live happily ever after.
It is hardly so.
We would like to think and trust that those other people who are wicked, since they do evil things they will suffer greatly and never find happiness.
It is hardly so.
Job says it succinctly and correctly after losing all his property and his children, and after being inflicted with sores over his entire body: Shall we receive the good at the hand of God, and not receive the bad?
Matthew 5:45 puts it: God makes the sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the righteous and on the unrighteous.
What benefit do we receive from striving to be righteous then? Why not simply succumb to all wickedness and be happy?
The complete passage from Matthew 5 reads: ‘You have heard that it was said, “You shall love your neighbour and hate your enemy.” But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be children of your Father in heaven; for he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the righteous and on the unrighteous. For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax-collectors do the same? And if you greet only your brothers and sisters, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same? Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.
To that many theologians (Paul, Augustine, Luther among them) have added: it is impossible for any human to be perfect!
Where does that leave us?
It leaves us where we’ve always been: entirely at the mercy of God: God’s Grace, Mercy, and steadfast love. Fully dependent upon, and grateful recipients of God’s unconditional love, then we live, not trying to earn our way into or towards righteousness, doch we live imitating Jesus by being God’s unconditional love for others. We strive to love even our enemies, not for our own reward, but as thanks for God’s love first given to us.
Our hope then ends in happiness each day, only because by God’s grace we are promised it to be so. Thus, by God’s grace alone, we breathe and live each day … and pray that wickedness may be far from our hearts and our lives.
When the crowds found out [that, taking his disciples with him, Jesus had withdrawn privately to a city called Bethsaida], they followed him; and he welcomed them, and spoke to them about the kingdom of God, and healed those who needed to be cured.
Words of Grace For Today
There is no shortage of people today who suffer unimaginable pain, hunger, thirst, and torture. Many of the suffer so at the hands of other people.
It has been so through all time.
Many people today suffer diseases, Covid -19 only one of the many that are deadly in horrible ways. Many suffer for lack of care or recklessness of other people. Many in Alberta’s health care sector, overrun and pushed to and over the brink as they are by Covid cases, refer to the fourth wave (the worst of all of them) as the Kenney-wave, since he recklessly pushed his ‘Open for Summer’ program through, which fuelled the fourth wave to be so huge and destructive, and deadly.
Is has been so through all time.
The greatest suffering by far is not measured by physical ailments or torture. The greatest suffering is what we humans experience in our souls, or spirits, or hearts and minds.
In the midst of all kinds of suffering, God is still present providing comfort, healing, and hope.
God’s unconditional love in action provides the most essential element of life for us: hope.
Hope that our yesterdays will be blessed.
Hope that today will be blessed.
Hope that our tomorrows will be blessed.
Hope that tomorrow will be at least in some small way better than the horrific illnesses, injustice, abuse that is today’s offerings for us.
Comfort, O comfort my people, says your God, and [Jesus] heals those who need to be cured.
The Lord make his face to shine upon you, and be gracious to you.
John 20:21
Jesus said to them again, ‘Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you.’
Words of Grace For Today
Waking to -2⁰, the first freeze of the autumn, was anticipated eagerly … until it followed a day of chilly, blustery wind and rain that tore at everything with a dogged vengeance soaking even the best protections against such moisture.
It’s great to freeze. Part of the great of it is, is that wet disappears as water freezes into snow and ice and frost, all which can be removed with either effort or with preparation to avoid their accumulation where they are not wanted, like covers at night keeping frost off the solar panels.
This morning, the Aaronic blessing that: God will make God’s face shine on me, is more than welcome. It is desperately needed. Bring on the sun. Give me a few more days to get the insulated tarps in place, the ropes to hold them, the tape to seal them, so that (after the yearly repairs are completed) that monster in the insulated tarp shelter can be fed once again all the wood it wants, just as long as it produces HEAT, DRY HEAT!
In the chill of this morning, I am reminded, as seems needed so nearly every morning, that the challenges and pains of each morning are signs of being alive in the world that requires labour of me in order that I survive – all part of engaging as a creature in God’s good creation – and …
that the challenges and pains of each morning are not to be given too much due, for the reality is that this IS God’s good creation, that God walks with me, and that this is a holy hermitage, made so by God’s choice to put me here to see it as the place of beauty, wonder, and majesty that it is (all clear indications that God is here in each moment and through each change of season)
and thus
that the challenges and pains of each morning, in the context of God’s many blessings, are also signs of God’s peace, and Christ’s call; that Christ has sent me also here, circuitous and curious as the weaving way has been to arrive, and knowing this is only another (one of many) blessed waypoint on the path home.
May the Lord bless us and keep us; the Lord make God’s face to shine upon us, and be gracious to us; the Lord lift up God’s countenance upon us, and give us peace.
May the shine of the Son and the sun reach our hearts this day, that we may be saints through whom the light of Christ reaches many, many people, bringing God’s unconditional love, amazing grace and unparalleled peace.
Shower, O heavens, from above, and let the skies rain down righteousness; let the earth open, that salvation may spring up, and let it cause righteousness to sprout up also; I the Lord have created it.
2 Corinthians 9:10
He who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will supply and multiply your seed for sowing and increase the harvest of your righteousness.
Words of Grace For Today
After a cold hard-frozen winter, the thaw of spring arrives giving respite for hearts and bodies. As the cool spring days lengthen melting the snow pack, the ground thaws and seeds await the soft May rains and warm sun to germinate, we anticipate the new growth of wild and cultured seeds into plants to provide food for the many creatures of the earth, including us humans.
We trust that God will provide, in these days, throughout the whole earth, enough warmth, sun, and soft rain to feed the 7.4 billion humans who inhabit the earth. Climate change challenges the growth of enough to feed us all, though even in the many years when there is enough to feed everyone, we fail to distribute the food to all so that no one goes hungry. Indeed millions starve each year!
Food to eat is essential to life.
As we see each day, food is not enough. Food is not even the most essential thing for life. Much more essential is that we live in God’s blessings and respond to God’s Grace with justice based on truth, loving words and actions based on righteousness, and unconditional love for all people (a love that reflects God’s grace for us sinners).
Often our work, on Christ’s behalf in this world, is often described with images of seeds sprouting, growing, and producing a harvest to feed all people.
So it is that, while we give our greatest will and efforts towards fulfilling Christ’s call to reflect God’s love for us in our efforts for all people, we know that we cannot complete this work on our own. In fact, just as the seeds do not exist, nor can they begin to germinate, until God provides warm sun and sufficient moisture (not to mention that in previous years the harvest must have produced enough to provide seeds for the new spring.)
So we pray, God, creator of all that is, plant in us the seeds of righteousness, that with the warmth of Christ’s Light and the moisture in the Holy Spirit’s breathing into us, your Word may grow in us, and that our lives (our thoughts, words and actions) may reflect what we cannot even see on our own, namely your love and grace for all people.
But you do see! Indeed you note trouble and grief, that you may take it into your hands; the helpless commit themselves to you; you have been the helper of the orphan.
Mark 9:22
It has often cast him into the fire and into the water, to destroy him; but if you are able to do anything, have pity on us and help us.
Words of Grace For Today
When I hear this ‘cast him into the fire and into the water [that place where uncreation bubbles up to border on and at times consume creation], to destroy him’ I think of the guy yesterday who jumped in front of me. The corner of No Frills where the milk coolers are was congested with at least 6 different people. So I stood a good 2 metres short of the pack, waiting patiently for them to move on. A few were visiting so it took a while. That’s when the guy came up from behind me and wedged his way less than a foot from me past me and another customer waiting to get at the cooler. The guy was an obese bear of a middle aged man. He quickly worked his way to the coolers, but then dwaddled getting his milk jug as if they had been moved since the last time, as if he could not find the right shelf of 2% which is always all the shelves behind door 2. Then he peered into the coolers dwiddling in the corner a few extra minutes before finally leaving.
I paused a bit, not too long, considering the other customers waiting politely behind me. When I stepped into the corner to door 1 to get skim milk it was clear the jerk had dwiddled to leave the air filled with flatus expelled through the anus, an aerosol that could be full of Covid virus.
The news is all full of Covid 19 fourth wave in Canada, fuelled by the Delta variant and 39 times more infecting the unvaccinated, though vulnerable (otherwise health compromised – read old or ill or young) vaccinated are still among those in hospital, ICU, and the morgue.
This jerk’s antics are a clear demonstration how aerosols hang in the air, filled with Covid virus, waiting to be breathed in, and how impossible it is to avoid doing so, except by staying in total seclusion … without milk.
The passage from Mark is not about this at all, of course. Covid 19 did not exist when Mark wrote his account of Jesus’ ministry. This passage is about the ‘demon’ who inhabits a young boy, which casts him into fire and water to destroy him.
Taken with the Psalm one could point to our work done to help alleviate the trouble and grief of the helpless and of the orphan. This is the work of the saints. Our courts commit themselves to taking the ‘best interests of the children’ as the first priority in family court … though they certainly do not! Quite the opposite. The courts commonly sacrifice children to be raised by the most dangerous of possible parents (most favoured are birth mothers, no matter the indications that the birth mother is a clear and present danger to the children!) Apparently the courts want more clients (criminals) in the next generations, which is the result of these dangerous parents’ parenting.
So with our prayers and our work as God’s voice, hands, and feet we say, “have pity on us and help us” You are the one who can take our trouble and grief into your hands. Do so now, for among the most vulnerable are the children (who cannot be vaccinated yet at all!)
Our future is at risk. There are so many idiots, jerks, antiscience idiots, anti-vac idiots and covidiots abundant enough to put us all at risk, to put the vulnerable at risk, to put our children and our future at risk.
You, Oh Lord, are the only one who can take our trouble and our grief into your hands, and heal us of these idiots and their destruction of life and future.
Here is my servant, whom I uphold, my chosen, in whom my soul delights; I have put my spirit upon him; he will bring forth justice to the nations.
Luke 4:22
All spoke well of him and were amazed at the gracious words that came from his mouth. They said, ‘Is not this Joseph’s son?’
Words of Grace For Today
Is this not George’s son?
Is this not Katie’s daughter?
Is this not your Granddaughter?
Just ordinary people George, Katie, and you, right!? So …
So how can any real person so ordinary give rise (or rather birth) to a young person so spectacular as God’s chosen servant, one to bring justice to the nations, one who can speak so well that all are amazed at this person’s gracious words.
Wow, how can it be? First that there is such a person who can change the course of history, and second that this peculiar person, this spectacular person, comes from an ordinary family?
Which is that the best things about life, and the best possibilities in history, grow from a healthy family. Or at least we hope they do.
…
But …
in reality the best things (or people) in life grow from families that are … well … the most screwed up and dysfunctional families ever. And then in reality sometimes the best things (and people) in life grow from the healthiest families ever … and all the kinds of families between the worst and the best.
Thank God, then, that we get to celebrate all that God gives us … including a chosen person who brings justice to all the nations, and more importantly, that God gives us the gifts and people who love us so much that all the world seems right … and is just right.
