Suffering and Endurance, Ew Ick!

“We know that affliction produces perseverance; and perseverance, proven character; and character, hope. And such a hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us.” - Romans 5:1–5 

Ew yuck! Who wants to suffer for any reason?  Who wants to have to endure anything? In our quick fix world, pain, physical, emotional or mental pain, is to be avoided at all costs.  Pain should be drowned or denied or ignored or ended.  Endurance? Give me a break!

One man knew how affliction led to hope, not just for himself, but for many.  Despite our society saying otherwise to him, he was determined endure for the sake of his faith, and even the United Church of Canada. The Very Rev. Dr. Wilbur Howard is a name you might not be familiar with, but to many who knew him, he was unforgettable and inspired great hope! Dr. Howard was born on February 29, 1912, in Toronto, a leap year baby. Like many African Canadians, his father and brothers worked as porters on the railroad, for low wages and long hours.  They were often called “George” instead of their real names, and were banned from the union until they founded their own. As a child, Howard was invited to go to the United Church by a neighboring white family and went faithfully for the rest of his life.  He discovered that he was called to be a minister but racism was rampant.  The Canadian Armed Forces were just starting to accept people of African origin as soldiers.  While the rest of his classmates went off to preach in churches during the summer, Howard was sent to a church camp as a counsellor, even though there was a dire shortage of ministers due to conscription. In 1941, when Howard was 29, he became the first Black person to be ordained in The United Church, but for the next 24 years, no one would take him. Instead, he was administrator for a Boy’s organization similar to the YMCA, and edited Sunday school resources, including the controversial New Curriculum of the 1960s. Then, in 1965, at the age of 53, he finally got the call — to team ministry at Ottawa’s Dominion-Chalmers United.

Howard worked hard for the church and for Canada, often focusing on children and youth ministries.  He was also a member of the Refugee Status Committee for the Federal Government. He was President of the John Milton Society for the Blind in Canada, and Chairman of the Ontario Advisory Council on Alcohol and Drug Concerns. In 1974, Howard became the first, and to date only, Black Moderator of The United Church of Canada. In 1991 he was received into the Order of Ontario and in 2001, he  passed away.

The Broadview Magazine article written in 2018 said:

“He … exhibit[ed] a renowned wit. When elected moderator, for example, Howard quipped, “They had to decide when the commissioners vote ‘Black’ on the ballot whether they meant John Black [a fellow nominee] or me.” Some say this sense of humour is what helped Howard cross racial boundaries.

“He had a respected place in the life of the United Church. And if there were some congregations that didn’t choose to give him a chance, he didn’t dwell on that,” says Very Rev. Bruce McLeod, 89, who served as moderator before Howard and knew him well. “He was a private person. He certainly wasn’t a crybaby. He wouldn’t appreciate his story being used to say, ‘Oh, wasn’t that awful about Wilbur Howard.’ He wouldn’t appreciate that because he didn’t think it was that awful.”

But this isn’t the only opinion that exists on Howard’s silence. “I can see that he had been bruised in terms of racial prejudice and that there was a vulnerability there,” Douglas Lapp told the Globe and Mail after Howard’s death. “Maybe that was why he was so private.””

Talk about affliction producing perseverance! It must have been hard to be both a respected leader of a large denomination and also a person who faced racism on a daily basis.  And while Howard didn’t dwell on it, other ministers have been speaking out about how it is still difficult to this day.  That same article said “Rev. Marlene Britton … moved to Canada from Barbados in 2013 and first settled in Alberta. During her search for a ministry position, she sat before a church’s three-member hiring committee and took part in an interview that she felt was normal. She was later told she did not get the job because the committee thought the congregation was not ready for a woman. But a few months later, she learned the same congregation had hired a woman — and the new hire was white”  Rev. Paul Walfall, also from Barbados, who has preached in this very church when he was president of Alberta North West Conference, spoke out at the last General Council three years ago about the racism that he and other ministers were experiencing not just from Canadians but from the United Church.  For this year’s meeting in Calgary, all commissioners had to take rigorous training on equality, diversity and equity, with six facets: Challenge Assumptions, Question Biases, Notice who’s missing, Value All Voices, Aim for Equity, Live Out Our Commitments.  Each of these is thought-provoking and not something we can find quick fixes or easy answers for.  They may even produce some affliction while we wrestle with how to nurture hope for everyone in our communities of faith in the future.

Rev. Walfall also has spearheaded an ambitious project, “Here from the Beginning”, a travelling exhibition that quote “showcases the contributions and experiences of Black people within the United Church, amplifying voices that have long been overshadowed by the dominant narrative. This is a celebration of faith, history, community and The United Church of Canada.” End Quote.  It will be unveiled in Edmonton from July 27 - August 2 at Pilgrim United Church before travelling across Canada as part of the United Church’s commitment to becoming an intercultural church. If you are in Edmonton, please check it out.

The many stories of people like Walfall, Britton and Howard can inspire us and help us also live into a deeper commitment to being intercultural, to being more aware of our assumptions and more curious about those who are missing in our pews. They show us the spirit of Truth and how it really does lead to great change.  Howard did not father any children, but in some ways he fathered a deeper understanding of what it means to persevere in the face of great injustice, and his example can inspire hope for us all in these dark times.  “And such a hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us.” May this be so for us all!

The Spirit of Truth

There’s nothing quite as wonderful as joining together with a bunch of United Church people at a regional event, like we did last weekend in Edmonton.  Our region, Northern Spirit Region, is the largest geographical region in the United Church, covering northeastern British Columbia, the Northwest Territories, and northern Alberta, and the church in Lloydminster has the boundary between Alberta and Saskatchewan running between their front door and back door, so we have a tiny bit of that province as well.  We had about 120 people gather from Jasper, Fort McMurray, Grand Prairie, Athabasca, Barrhead and beyond, all wanting to network and learn about ways to live with deep spirituality, bold discipleship and daring justice.  We sang together, prayed together, worshipped together and conversed together about the challenges and joys of being United Church. There were challenging topics of conversation and joyful, playful chats over coffee or crafts.

On this 100^th anniversary of the United Church of Canada, we also heard some very stark statistics. If nothing changes, in 10 years, there could be less than 2000 people across Canada worshiping in a United Church on an average Sunday morning.  Certainly we have seen and experienced it here in our local congregations.  The increase in suspicion of institutions in general and churches especially has been a growing trend since the 1970’s.

According to a Global News article in 2022, Statistics Canada found only 68 per cent of Canadians 15 or older reported having a religious affiliation. It was the first time that number dipped below 70 per cent since StatsCan began tracking the data in 1985. Even Catholicism, Canada’s largest denomination, was being impacted, reporting 32 per cent of Canadians over 15, down from 46.9 per cent in 1996.  Broadview Magazine reported in 2023 that The United Church of Canada lost a whop­ping 40 percent of affiliates between 2011 and 2021, falling to 1.2 million people from roughly two million. United Church affiliates don’t only skew older — they also skew more white. Among Christian denomina­tions, the United Church has one of the lowest percentages of racialized affili­ates at only 2.5 percent. Compare that to six percent of Anglican or 45 percent of Pentecostal affiliates.

In our Broadview magazine this month, the back page talked about new data. It said that The Pew Research Center Religious Study of 2023-24 points to changes in U.S. religious affiliation. A decline in American religiousness observed since at least 2007 has slowed over the past four to five years. The Pew Research Center noted that the country is heading toward growth among mainline protestants, the group suffering the most during the earlier decline. 'The U.S. is a spiritual place, a religious place, where we've now seen signs of religious stabilization in the midst of longer-term decline,' said a Pew researcher.

The slight but consistent growth in American Christian affiliation beginning in 2022 was limited to mainline protestants, Methodist, Presbyterian, United Church of Christ, Lutheran and Episcopal, the very denominations which led the overall decline since 2007.

In 2025 the only United churches to close so far this year have been Little Britain UC in rural Manitoba, Bluevale UC in rural Ontario, and Rupert, Que., as compared to three per month up to a year ago. Closures are now at least outnumbered by new church plants, new communities of faith, and older traditional churches being rejuvenated by new life.”  That’s quite the article.

So I’d like to invite us to ponder why church matters to us.  I know that it matters to me, because without the church, I would have been a much poorer mother and wife to my family.  An example of the importance of being part of a Christian community happened some twenty years ago on a wintery December morning. I was getting out of the car in the church parking lot when I slammed the door on my thumb in my rush to get to church on time. I screamed and Tim struggled to unlock the door.   Needless to say, my kids were upset and still remember it vividly. We dashed into the church and one of the congregation members helped bandage the thumb. It was the same Sunday that the children's choir was singing an anthem. I remember conducting the choir with one hand while the other was held high in the air to slow down the bleeding. As soon as the song was done, Tim drove me to the hospital. Someone at the church volunteered to take care of my kids, took them home and fed them lunch while we sat in emergency waiting to see if I needed stitches. It seemed to take forever but without the church, it would have been much more traumatizing. They were helpful, kind, and much more resourceful than I would have been on my own. It was quite the lesson in trust! Why does church matter to you?

We are given a spirit of adoption, a spirit of trust. A spirit of truth. It's easy to forget and slip into a spirit of fear, but Pentecost is when the disciples, still traumatized by the loss of their beloved Rabbi, found themselves filled with hope and courage and daring.

Last weekend at the Regional meeting, Michael Blair talked about this very thing, the spirit of Pentecost, and said "If our ministry doesn't give hope, we might as well pack up and go home. We go on like Eeyore and expect people to come. Our ministry needs to be rooted in the spirit. You and I need to stop and pray and listen to what the Spirit is calling us. The Spirit calls us into mischief. Walk around our neighborhood with our eyes open listening for Holy Mystery. Our ministries must center those who are excluded, who are marginalized and oppressed. Not to offer charity but to be transformed through choosing vulnerability over privilege, be open to being taught rather than fixing. When we value others in vulnerability everyone is transformed. Our very presence brings hope. God is calling us to a ministry where we will be empowered by the spirit. We cannot do it on our own, it is too complex. We learn to live in the nuances. We are called to privilege the voices of the marginalized because that is our salvation. That is where our transformation happens. That is where our communities will be restored to life-giving safe places of hope and transformation. May that be our purpose for living into the next 100 years." May it be so for us all!

Courageous Hope

(Photo: Matthew Rosborough 2025, Vancouver Island)
 Sometimes the bravest person I know is the farmer, who after a year where the land has flooded or the crops rotted on the field or withered away from a heat wave or burned down in a grass fire, looks at the seed catalogue and goes to the local UFA or wherever one buys seeds for, and picks out the crop that they think will do best on the land this summer.  And whether it’s a farmer who rents a bunch of properties or the person with a flower pot in the back yard, when we pick up our seeds and plan to stick them in the ground, we are being courageously hopeful.  Whether it’s sunflowers in solidarity with Ukraine, planted with prayers and hopes, or those impossibly tiny carrot seeds or acres and acres of wheat and canola, the seeds go in the ground as a sign of courageous hope.  This Sunday, which is sometimes also called Rogation Sunday, was a time to ponder the mystery at the heart of life where a seemingly lifeless seed can turn into a green thing capable of feeding many people.

Jesus has been planting seeds of faith, fertilizing them with stories, examples and encouragement, but he knows that just by living by example, he being a role model for everyone is not enough to help his disciples get through the rough times ahead.  The words he has planted, to the best of his ability, is to show people a different way of thinking about God and discipleship.  A way of courageous love and daring hope. A way that breaks down fear and leads to flourishing

Last week there was a gathering of ministers on line with the Moderator Carmen Lansdowne. It was the second last gathering of the (Re)Generate program, a pilot project that brought 31 clergy from across Canada together to learn about the nuances of leadership in our current Canadian Culture.  Affectionately known as “The Blazing Walnuts”, they have studied everything from accounting and sustainability to strategic planning and flourishing faith.  This session was focussed on presenting their ‘capstone projects’, the work each person put together with a team of consulting community and congregational members to focus on one particular experiment that could be implemented for the community in which they were involved.  31 experiments designed to help the United Church of Canada be playful, creative, hopeful and adventurous.

One project developed a very detailed, concrete plan for growth for the next 10 years, to capitalize on what was already working and build the momentum that was already starting to be present. He quoted, “Cities that are growing have no time to plan. Cities that aren’t growing have all the time in the world.  The important point is to use the time to be ready for when the growth happens.” Another minister got a grant to hire a public relations firm and developed a series of tictoc videos and social media ads to share their mission statement and were starting to see the uptake in interest in their congregation. There was a lively video produced for the Maritime region showing the importance of United Church camps and staying connected to the congregations that help sponsor them.  Someone started a dinner church to talk about faith in a casual setting that outsiders might feel welcome to come to.  One growing congregation built clever ‘belonging bags’ that welcomed repeat visitors with a personalized gift and invitation to meet members of the council.  Another congregation has doubled their attendance in the last three years and put in place a detailed plan to be more intentional in their supporting new people to becoming long-time members. Someone else explored the delicate challenges around helping people living in poverty to feel that they were fully contributing members of the congregation without being merely a person who needed charity. Several congregations explored growing intercultural, multilingual churches and the surprising subtle racism that rose up.  As Carmen was told at a World Council of Churches gathering that Christianity is the fastest growing faith in the world at this time, and the norm is a service that is a time of socializing as well as worship, and that it's normal for people to chat with their neighbors while the service is going on. There were lots of projects around children, how to welcome them, how to do all ages worship, and even an app for games and stories!  Sanctuary Star Hunt According to research, retaining children in church as they transition to adults requires them to feel personally connected to a minimum of 5 adults!

One minister in rural Saskatchewan talked about practising hope aggressively and how her little town congregation was expanding since Covid. Another talked about the intersection of faith and the Climate crisis and the need for clergy to learn how to preach about it in biblically faithful ways.

One person even put together a stand up routine that she will be presenting at a comedy festival this summer, which is both hilarious, biblical and evangelical, and promotes the United Church as being very different than the assumptions and steotypes that many Canadians might have.  Another is organizing a trip to Zimbabwe with people 16 and up, which will be an opportunity to build relationships and long-term cultural exchange.  This has brought new youth and new families to the church too.

I presented on the FAB collab and the workshops I had been doing, which was well received.  Much encouragement was given for continuing the project and the workshops despite the cancellations and delays.  There was even some suggestion of making the workshops available to the broader church.  The ministers requested to make art projects like the wooden dice like we made in the “Who is Jesus” workshop when the ministers gather for the last workshop with the Moderator in June!

Jesus said that he would send the spirit to help guide us through our challenging times.  He wanted  us to live with audacious hope, and to live with courage.  “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. I do not give you the kind of peace the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled, and do not let them be afraid.”  Easier said than done, of course.

But when we turn to God for guidance, when we practice deep spirituality and bold discipleship and daring justice, when we lean into living by flourishing practices, we will find the seeds of courage and hope and peace abiding with us as we work together.  Who knows what will grow from those seeds?  We can’t do it alone, we can only do it together.  Thank God for sending the Spirit to be with us so we are not alone, we do live in God’s beautiful world.  In life, in death, in life beyond death, God is with us, we are not alone.  Thanks be to God!  Amen.

Deep, Bold and Brave

Can you imagine being so committed to your faith that you would stand all day to listen to the scriptures?  That’s how the people felt when they committed to listening to the stories of their ancestors, the stories of Abraham, Sarah, Isaac and Rebecca, Jacob and Rachel and Leah, Joseph and his dreams, and Moses bringing the people out of slavery.  They were listening to the story of freedom, and they were remembering their own escape from slavery, in Babylon for a generation or more.  They didn’t remember the Temple of Solomon, or the great city of Jerusalem, but they remembered the stories of their parents and grandparents who talked about the destruction of the city, the fall of their king, and being carted off to a foreign land to serve at the whim of other people who worshiped gods they did not know or respect.  These were the generation who remembered stories of Daniel in the Lion’s den, or Shadrach, Meshack and Abednego in the fiery furnace, graffiti on the wall that predicted the death of King Belshazzar, ruler of Babylon.  And then when they least expected it, they were returning, full of stories, full of hope, to stand in the ruins and destruction of what had been a beautiful city, abandoned for decades and with only a few buildings not in need of repair.  And when they heard the words of their past, the description of the relationship God had with their ancestors, the dreams and hopes the people had while following Moses and then Joshua into the Promised Land, rich with milk and honey, they wept.  Scripture gave them a reminder.  That when things looked at it’s bleakest, God still was with them, God still cared.

The same can be said about the Luke passage.  Jesus read his scripture passage.  The passage written by another survivor of the Babylon invasion.  Isaiah who could find inspiration even while describing the disasters that the politics of his time was bringing to Isaiah’s world.  Isaiah was like a Jon Stewart or a Stephen Colbert, able to see the trends and the potential problems that might stem from decisions made by egotistical leaders who couldn’t or wouldn’t pay attention to what was happening in the world around them.  And Isaiah was still, despite the craziness of the times, able to find God at work in his life.  And that in turn inspired Jesus, who also could see what the Roman Empire was doing, it’s oppression of common people, its emperor’s whims having devastating impacts on the Sea of Galilea that suffered from overfishing so bad that fishermen had to patch their boats with pieces of other boats.  Where the power struggles between puppet kings like Herod and Roman Generals like Pilot meant a very precarious life for regular folks struggling to pay taxes and put food on the table for their families.  Jesus had grown up in a poor town, with poor people as his friends and neighbors and family.  He saw the despair and fear and hopelessness they struggled with every day.  And he saw a call to be that voice of courage and hope and inspiration, that voice of change and transformation.  That voice which spoke of God’s healing power to turn around those who felt abandoned, betrayed and helpless.  Jesus, the one whom people remembered when he was a kid climbing trees and getting underfoot, would be the one to bring hope to a terrified and discouraged people.  

I spent a week with incredible leaders from the Yukon, BC, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Ontario, the Maritimes and Newfoundland.  Some are in ministry, some are regional staff.  Some of us cried, some of us laughed, some of us did both.  Some of us were dual citizens, and had voted in the American Election.  Some of us were descendants of refugees or soldiers who fought in World War 2 or who had immigrated because of poverty and violence back home.  Some were from Korea, Kenya, or Zimbabwe, some were from indigenous heritage.  Some were French speakers, or Hungarian translators or only spoke English.  But we all were inspired by the same thing.  A love of scriptures and a love of God.  And a horror of what we saw happening on the news.  A maybe or maybe not nazi salute.  Trans friends worried about being targeted again for more violence especially those who have to travel to the states for work related purposes.  A president who says that people who attack police should be locked up but then releases people who were videoed attacking police.  And here at home, we have people who think this is progress, which is why many in the 2sLGTBQIA community are scared of what might come.  And when a bishop preaches about tolerance, respect and ethics, which is the gospel of Jesus, she is told that she has no right to preach, she is a woman and doesn’t belong in the pulpit, and that she should stick to the bible, which makes me wonder what people think is actually in the bible if it’s not mercy, compassion and empathy.  Above all, she reminded us at 5 Oaks about the importance of being brave in our faith.  When Jesus read that scroll to his community, it was his declaration of his ministry.  That this was the time to be a bold preacher of the bible.  That this was his mission, to heal, to reach out, to stand up for the vulnerable and the weak.  The spirit of the Lord was upon him.  

Is the spirit of the Lord upon us?  Are we ready to be bold and brave Christians who use compassion and mercy to test the politics we hear in this province?  Are we ready to delve deeply into what our Moderator calls us to do, practice deep spirituality that has us weep when we hear scripture, to choose to be bold disciples who will stand up for the marginalized, and to dare to call for justice for all?  One way we can do that is to send postcards to Bishop Budde in appreciation of the truth she has spoken to power.  Another is to reach out to our trans friends and family and listen to their fears and concerns and offer our support.  Connecting with those who are in need is so important right now.  Community and solidarity will help us all find the resiliency to be the people God needs in this hurting world.

Locking Horns

Can you imagine Joe Biden coming to Justin Trudeau to get baptized?  That’s an odd image, isn’t it, two leaders coming together and one, the leader of the bigger country, asking for a blessing ritual from the leader of the smaller country.  This is hard to imagine, but I think it’s close to what actually happened in this story.

When we remember the baptism of Jesus, it points to how Jesus leaded in ways that respected and honored the leadership of others.  

Many times when two powerful leaders get together, it becomes a battle over who has the most authority or skills or money or followers.  It can become a fight over who is the best.  Like two big horned sheep fighting over a ewe, they lock horns and butt heads and crash together. Two bulls in a pasture, two stallions in a wild herd of horses.  You just know that fireworks are going to ensue.  Leaders often lock horns.  Jesus and John didn’t lock horns, they didn’t do anything that suggested that a power struggle was going on.  Luke’s version omits John’s question to Jesus, “Why are you coming to me to be baptized?” which is in Matthew and Mark.  

Jesus didn’t come as someone wanting to take over from John and steal all his followers.  Jesus didn’t come to push John out of the river and start his own baptism show.  Jesus came with respect, honoring the leadership and ministry John had, and recognizing John’s God-given authority to baptize.  And John was clear with his followers, a better spiritual authority was just around the corner.  John didn’t claim to be a messiah, and he didn’t let anyone call him such.  He knew that Jesus was the one people had been waiting for, who would fulfill the promise that no one need live in fear.  Who would share the message that God claims us all and sees us all as precious. God created us for glory and not for locking horns in power struggles.  

Baptism is meant to be a sign that reminds us of this love.  It’s meant to remind us that God is with us, we are not alone.  All too often, baptism has been corrupted and turned into a ‘get out of hell free’ card.  Although that idea was started in medieval times, it has had a long history of being used abusively. The ticket out of hell idea was originally supposed to assure people, and lower their anxiety.  Instead it increased people’s shame and fear. It was abused to show who was an insider and who was not.

United Church Stewardship leaders say that “Baptism is about the affirmation that there is something sacred about life and that a piece of that sacred goodness is found deep within us. Baptism affirms the inherent worth of each of us and is a physical sign of a spiritual reality—that we belong to a loving God and that the goodness that comes from God is deep within us and serves as a communal symbol of God’s unconditional love.”

It’s easy to brush off this idea or pretend it doesn’t mean much in this world of discrimination, political turmoil, horrendous forest fires, and divisive conspiracy theories.  But the reality is that we need to be reminded of the love God has for us just as we are.  Baptism is not what we do for God, anyone looking at a newborn baby knows that they don’t need to be cleansed of any thoughts or deeds, they are too busy learning what the world looks like and what language sounds like and what food smells like.  They are truly innocent.  And we need regular cleansing of our need to be competitive, of our need to put ourselves down before others do, or our need to hide our flaws, or our need to be right.  And this is something we wrestle with, in community as a collection of flawed but beloved human beings.  Like God’s love, baptism isn’t something earned, or something bought or something won, it is a gift bestowed on us and recognized by a loving community as precious in God’s sight.  It helps us remember that we too are gifts of God to the world.  We are enough as we are.

So how do we respond to this astonishing claim that we are gifts of God to the world?  I think that Jesus and John also model a response to that knowledge.  Instead of locking horns, they looked each other in the eye, and treated each other’s gifts with deep respect.  John acknowledged Jesus and his ministry with profound awe.  “One is coming who will baptize you with fire”, he said, anticipating not just Pentecost, but the burning passion his disciples developed for sharing the healing and compassion that Jesus gave them.  The fire of compassion for one another that would send them around the world with their message of hope and healing and love.  And Jesus acknowledged John by coming and asking for baptism.  Jesus didn’t put on any airs, he didn’t say, “Thanks, John, it’s time to tie up my sandals now and be my personal butler,” he said, “baptize me like you have baptized all these other people.”  

What humbleness, what servant leadership that showed!  Instead of us locking horns with those around us, what if we too looked our neighbor in the eye and saw them as also a beloved child of God, one to cherish and support.  Just as if Biden came, looked Trudeau in the eye and said, “I want to become a Canadian citizen”, we can remind ourselves and each other that we are to see each other as a beloved child of God.  Let us honor and respect the leadership of each other the way Jesus and John honored each other, as God loves us, and as we are called to love one another.

Everlasting Light

We had a six hour power outage last Monday. Peanuts compared to what others have had after a bad storm, but it seemed like a looooong time without heat or light.  We couldn't open our fridge door, and we were in the middle of making soup for lunch when it happened. There’s nothing like losing power for a period of time, especially in the winter, to highlight how important light is for Canadians.  The sky starts dimming before 4 pm, and even with candles, it’s hard to read or knit or play cards as the sun quickly sets.  If it’s cloudy or snowy, there’s even less light. And by 5 pm a bunch of candles won’t make much of a dent in the gloom of the evening. We bundled up as the house temperature dropped, and even tried putting a mirror behind the candles to magnify the light.  We were very relieved when everything started up again. It’s easy to take light for granted in this country when we can have as much as we want, whenever we want, at the flick of a switch.  

Light was not taken for granted by ancient people because so much of what they did depends on it.  That dependence explains why people were so aware of what was happening in the night sky. Humans have been fascinated by the stars for a long time. 

The twelve signs of the zodiac were first developed by Babylonian star watchers about 600 years before Jesus.   Outsiders following a star to Bethlehem might not have been that unusual back then.  It may have been their way of doing scientific research.  Did this particular star or planet arrangement mean something significant?  Let’s go test our idea, check out the hypothesis and report back to the others at home. That might have been what the Magi were doing.  There are reports of Magi visiting Nero in 66 AD, and other historic records of similar visits to prominent people, but no records of who the Magi were or where they lived. We still speculate about where the Magi came from and how long they traveled to find Jesus.  One of the reasons for the twelve days of Christmas is that the early church guessed that it took 12 days, a biblically significant number, from the birth of Jesus to the arrival of the visitors in Bethlehem.

This visit by the Magi would have been quite scandalous to Matthew’s listeners.  Matthew and his congregation were steeped in the Jewish scriptures, they would have known the Isaiah passage from frequent readings, they would know the stories of refugees like Joseph’s family going to Egypt to avoid danger, and babies like Moses being targeted for execution by ruthless leaders like Pharaoh.  They would have appreciated Matthew’s family tree for Jesus, connecting him to Abraham and David and Ruth and Bathsheba.  But then Matthew threw his people a shocking thought.  The first people to recognize the royalty of Jesus were not Jewish! Jewish royalty, Jewish spiritual leaders, they were just as surprised as anyone when the Magi showed up on their doorstep looking for a baby and an heir to the throne.

And Matthew doesn’t specify what country they were from, what ethnicity they were, how many they were, or what their names are.  Balthazar, Melchior and Gaspar are first mentioned some 700 years later, not before.  It’s a nice piece of theology to think that they were from three different parts of the world, showing the divergence of the people who were hearing the message of Christ and responding to it so warmly.  The first churches that were established were in places like Ethiopia, Samaria, Egypt, Rome, and India, and that’s a surprisingly broad reach.  The Ethiopian Church prides itself in being the oldest outside of Jerusalem, dating back to the time of Acts.  

So it was foreigners from a different faith tradition who followed a sign, a hunch, a conjunction of planets, or maybe a comet.  Foreigners who came to a palace and went away without meeting the new heir to the throne. The chief priests and religious scholars gave their advice but showed no inclination to check out what may be happening in their own back yard.  Herod didn’t go either, content to stay in his warm palace full of soldiers to keep him safe.  These foreigners found Bethlehem without a tour guide or escort, and found Jesus, their expectations turned upside down, and their assumptions of what made a king was also reversed.  

Many people still go looking for answers even today.  They look for security and safety by travelling far from home when what they look for might be in their own back yards. They go to experts and gurus who are so sure they know all the answers that they won’t try looking with an open mind.  Foreigners and visitors seeking something so astonishing that they will fall to their knees in humble awe in front of something as simple and common place as a baby.

It's easy to be more like the chief priests and scribes, listening to news but not letting it shift our thinking.  Like taking light for granted until we lose electricity. But it’s more life-transforming to hear newcomers with curiosity, to join in their quest, to listen to their surprise and to share in their journey of faith.

What does it take to welcome foreign travelers looking for spiritual meaning?  It takes what the magi had.  Curiosity to ask questions about what they are experiencing.  It takes patience to listen and ask questions, like the Magi did when they went to Herod’s palace.  It takes humbleness; the magi knelt to a baby in a poor household with a dirt floor instead of a palace with marble tiles.  And it takes intuition, recognizing when we are talking to a dangerous Herod and taking the long way home for safety’s sake.

Curiosity, humbleness, patience and intuition are as valuable today for modern seekers as they were for the Magi.  They are tools for a healthy spiritual life and part of the signposts of a healthy congregation.  Curiosity, humbleness, patience and intuition help us grow our own faith.  They also help us make room for both newcomers wanting to find Jesus, and old-timers welcoming others to our community of faith.  They help us invite others to seek the light. May we all seek the light like the Magi did for a more Christ-filled 2025. Amen. 

Great Fear to Great Joy?

"How is everyone doing?"   So often when we are home for the holidays, that’s the question we want to ask and sometimes that’s the question we dread answering.  Sometimes our answer is great, we have lots to celebrate, new job, new home, new friends, new opportunities.  Sometimes the answer is “busy,” lots of tasks and plans and events to check off our schedules.  And sometimes the answer is “doing okay”, and sometimes the answer is “I’m fine”.  Which can often be  shorthand for, “If I didn’t need to be polite and if you were a friend of mine, I’d tell you the real truth which is that I’m freaked out, insecure, neurotic and exhausted.” 

No one likes to admit that they are freaked out, insecure, neurotic and exhausted, and who could blame them?  We live in a society that looks down on people who don’t have their act together.  Obviously, they haven’t worked hard enough, had their priorities straight, or taken responsibility for their mistakes.  And some folks for sure are the makers of their own drama, the creators of their own chaos.

Others, however, find themselves dealing with things they didn’t plan for, or ask for or anticipate.  They never expected the twists and turns life would throw at them, and for many in Canada and around the world, they are one paycheck from bankruptcy, one visit to the foodbank away from starving at Christmas, one pair of socks away from frostbitten toes that will end them up, if they are lucky, in hospital. 

Palestinian Christians, the ones whose ancestors were the first to follow Jesus, are asking for the support of fellow Christians to pressure governments of Middle East countries to put the needs of children first.  Especially the children in Gaza who are being targeted by military from both sides.

It’s not just children in Gaza that we are worried about. At the end of 2023, the United Nations estimated that there were 117 million forcibly displaced people in the world and that 47 million of them—40 percent—were children! In Canada, 1.8 million children go to school hungry because their families can’t make ends meet. Moreover, StatsCan reports that seven in ten children reported being bullied in the past year because of who they are or what they believe.

Far from Canada, a, tradition of the Masai people of Africa. They don’t ask, “how are you” like we do, they ask “Kasserian Ingera,” which means, “And how are the children?” 

The reply is “All the children are well.” Even those without children of their own answer with this assurance, because the well-being of the children is understood as a collective responsibility. If the children are safe, nourished, and thriving, it means that the community is healthy.”

Children don’t care where they are born, what has been planned, what is expected, whether it is an opportune time or not.  Mary and Joseph probably would have wished that the baby would have come in a time and place of their own choosing, but they lived in an occupied country with an army that patrolled the streets looking for troublemakers.  Mary and Joseph may not have had to fear drones overhead or contrails or conspiracy theories or antivaxxers, but they had their own worries.  They had no say in where they had to go for the census, they had no way of knowing if their journey would be interrupted by bandits, and they certainly couldn’t phone ahead to make a reservation.  The extended family in Bethlehem was supposed to take care of them, according to tradition, but for whatever reason, the in-laws and second cousins and great aunts couldn’t make space for a pregnant young mom. How could they neglect her so?

Neglect is easy when we are struggling with bills and taxes.  There’s a lot happening and things get forgotten.  Maybe the letter Joseph sent to his relatives got lost.  Maybe It was his great grandfather’s home, and he hadn’t been there before. Suddenly a baby comes into the world and the only place for it is in the feeding trough.  Poor Mary must have been beside herself in fear and Joseph may have felt embarrassed that this was the best his family could provide.

And yet, despite feeling freaked out, insecure, neurotic and exhausted, there was something special that night.  Maybe it was that first precious meeting between parent and baby. Maybe it was the unexpected visitors, shift workers doing the grubby jobs that were so essential that they were exempt from the census, those smelly shepherds who came to see what the neighbors and family missed.  Maybe it was the sense that there would be a time when corrupt politicians would no longer be able to hide their greed and selfishness from the world.  Maybe it was the idea that even though the worst could happen, a refugee couple with no hope of finding a roof over their heads could still have a warm place to be in their time of trial.

When we are feeling exhausted or lonely or run off our feet, when we feel hopeless or helpless, when we are worried about the children, it’s easy to lose sight of the good news that came to us so many years ago in Bethlehem.  Every year, we remember that what we do matters, how we act matters, and especially how we care for children matters.  Jesus reminds us that all children are gifts, and to be taken care of.  And that even when things seem dark and hopeless, hope comes in the midst of chaos, hope comes when we least expect it, hope comes even when we are freaked out and fearful. The good news is that however we greet each other, whatever language we speak, whether we are fine or good, whether the children are well, God is with us, and keeps gifting us peace, hope joy and love when we least expect it.  Thanks be to God for this wonderful gift!