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Saturday 3 February 2024

Dare to be an Ebed-Melech

 This post owes something to two individuals, who should be acknowledged at the outset. The first is the hymn writer Philip Bliss, who wrote the simple song "Dare to be a Daniel." The second is a Rev. John Suk, who preached a sermon 20+ years ago entitled "Dare to be an Epaphroditus," in which he highlighted a lesser known New Testament character with a 5-syllable name.

Jeremiah is a long book of prophecy in the Old Testament. It also contains some narrative parts (storylines), such as chapter 38. Here we read that Jeremiah's prophecies were not appreciated by the king's officials, and they want to put a stop to his words. They approach King Zedekiah with plans to put Jeremiah to death, and the king puts up no resistance.

That is how Jeremiah is lowered into a mucky cistern, a deep well used to collect rain water. Ebed-Melech, a Cushite [1] and official in the royal palace hears what has been done to Jeremiah and plucks up his courage to see King Zedekiah about it. He must know that the king had been indifferent before, but Ebed-Melech advocates for the life of Jeremiah and is ready to get personally involved.

Not only that, Ebed-Melech is an example of kindness. He understands about rope burn and takes the time to gather rags and worn out clothes to cushion the ropes that would be placed under Jeremiah's arms to lift him out of the pit. Along with 30 men the king sent with him, they go to the cistern and perform their rescue. Because of Ebed-Melech's kindness, Jeremiah is safely restored and can continue his ministry.

So, I'd like to add a stanza to Philip Bliss's song written in the 1800's. Because it's a four-syllable name, it may not have the same ring to it:

Dare to be an Ebed-Melech,

Dare to stand alone

Dare to have a purpose kind

And dare to make it known.


[1] Cushite is an ethnic reference. Ebed-Melech or his ancestors were from the "Upper Nile Region", or what is today called Sudan. Hence Ebed-Melech is someone we can celebrate as an African in the Bible. 

Sunday 3 December 2023

Giving on a Tight Budget- retitled from December 2014

  This time of year is associated with giving.  Giving gifts to your friends and family has become an integral part of Christmas celebrations.  Charities appeal to donors to consider the needs of the less fortunate, and rightly so.  But what if a person finds themself in a position of being unable to give?

   This question presupposes that giving is a matter of material things.  We think that if you are poor, you can't give, but this is so wrong.  Giving has so many forms that are accessible to people of all ages and economic situations.  In fact, much can be learned from the way in which people in economically disadvantaged countries give generously.

   This month I am challenging myself to do an intentional act of giving each day.  Most of these do not require having a bi-weekly or monthly salary.  Giving begins in the heart.  When the heart practices giving even when money is tight, that heart will be ready to give to an even greater extent when circumstances turn around.
   Check out some of the ideas I will be working with:
  • Do a chore at home that is not really your job.  Do not draw attention to it.
  • Think about a duplicate of something you own and find a way to give your extra one to someone who has none.  (Inspired by John the Baptist's advice in Luke 3:11.)
  • Find something in your closet that you have not worn or used for 6 months or more and give it to a centre that ministers to newcomers.
  • Re-gift something that you've received but do not use.
  • Gather all the change in your house.  Put it in a pretty box and then leave it on the doorstep of a neighbour that you think could use it.
  • Create a coupon offering to use a talent or ability and give it to someone else.
  • Give a little more than usual to the Sunday offering.  Think about the people who are benefiting from the offering and pray for them.
  • Spend the equivalent of what you spend on milk (or some other thing you always need in the house) on some non-perishable food and donate to a food bank.
  • Give a compliment to someone you meet.
  • Call a family member or friend on the telephone who you have not seen in a while.  Listen to how their day was.  If it is a local call on your land line, it is free.
  • You have probably "stolen" a pen from a public space at least once in your life.  Plan to deliberately leave a pen somewhere that people are likely to need one.
  • Give away an orange.
  • Give a thank you note to someone who does a thankless job.
  • When you prepare a snack today, make a second one to give to a co-worker, classmate or family member.
  • Give part of your lunch break to pray for or with someone.
  • Lend a helping hand by carrying something for someone or opening a door for someone.
  • Write an encouraging Bible verse on a small card and leave it somewhere for a person to find.
  • Offer someone a ride or give someone bus fare.
  • Pick up two pieces of trash you see lying around indoors or outdoors and put them in the right place.
  • Lend a book you've enjoyed to someone else, and don't expect to get it back.
  • Give time to someone by playing a game or listening to a song together.
  • Scrape someone else's windshield or shovel someone else's driveway.
  • Give a music CD you've enjoyed to another person you think might also enjoy it.
  • Drop off a small care package for a person who has to work on Christmas Day (hospital, nursing home, public works)
  • Leave a box of tissues in a place where people outside of your family might need them.
  • Make a hygiene kit or two for someone in need.  Bring it to a local community centre for distribution.
  • Use a partial gift card to bless someone in line behind you.
  • Give a mug with a surprise inside to someone in your neighbourhood.
  • Invite someone over for lunch, dinner or dessert.
  • Make something (a card, baked goods, or a craft) and give it away.
  • Take a picture and send it to someone electronically or in the mail.
  • Make an appointment to donate blood

Tuesday 14 November 2023

A Learning Journey: Science

    A book entitled Flourishing Together: A Christian Vision for Students, Educators and Schools contains questions for reflection at the close of each short section or chapter. One of these questions caught my imagination when I read it during the summer months: 

"Have you ever shared your learning journey with your students? What effect might that have?"

   I decided to share my learning journey of science with my students on the first day of classes this past September. To simplify it a little and provide a framework for the students to reflect on their own learning journey of science, I told of my journey in four parts.

  1. My dad attentive to a creature
    A person who sparked my interest in science.  For me, that was my father. As a farmer, he cared about living things in the fields and barns. He also took me on many walks in the woods where he pointed out different trees and plants. Although he did not have much formal education, he had interesting facts to share about the past and present uses of each plant or tree.

 

2. An early experience with science. When I was in elementary school, we sometimes had special elective classes in the winter time. The elective that captured my attention was not my own, but my sister's. She was part of a small group led by an embryologist who taught at the University of Toronto. He led the students in creating individual science fair projects. My sister worked on hers at home. Her topic was "blue babies" and a life saving operation developed to make their hearts work properly. She made models of the heart out of blue and pink playdough, and I can still picture her display board.

3. A more recent experience with science. During the second COVID school lockdown I was also teaching science. One of the remote lessons I developed was for students to spend an hour outdoors and record all their observations of living and non-living things and their interactions. To provide a "sample" observation record, I spent time beside a storm pond close to my home. This experience stands out to me as a peaceful time of connection with nature and with God, during a turbulent period in history.

4. Recent interest. I shared with my students some things I had recently learned about the Great Lakes from an audiobook I had finished a couple of weeks earlier. The Death and Life of the Great Lakes by Dan Egan further developed my understanding of the effects of human innovations like industrialization, canals, waterways, sewage systems, and international trade on the five freshwater lakes at the border of Canada and the United States. The plants, fish and other living things in these lakes have been affected by pollution and invasive species. Living near the Great Lakes gives me a responsibility to know and care about their well being as a habitat.

Even if you are not a student, this post may give you time to reflect on your learning journey in science or some other area of study. People, events and experiences all contribute to our learning, and I am grateful for them.


Friday 7 July 2023

Prayer for Those Who Sleep in Tents--not by choice


In the book Every Moment Holy, volume I, by Douglas McKelvey, there is a liturgy (or prayer) "For Those Who Sleep in Tents" in the section titled "Creation and Recreation." I used that prayer when I was camping recently and it reminded me that sleeping in tents has a long biblical history.

That being said, I chose to sleep in a tent as a kind of vacation. We need a different kind of prayer for those who didn't have a choice about this place to lay their heads.


Lord, in North America camping is something fun and voluntary when camp is temporary in a National Park or a self-selected wild place, but today I pray for those who sleep in tents to survive. They are all human beings created in your image. I pray for~

~those just outside of war zones

~those in makeshift hospitals and shelters after an earthquake

~those who have nowhere else to call home

~those who can barely keep warm when the temperature plummets at night

            I pray for peace~ 

~where there is trauma of many forms

~where there is fear.

Please bring a better day for such inhabitants. May they indeed find peace and rest in these unlikely dwellings. Stir the hearts of your people to seek better shelters and to work for the flourishing of all people.

Amen


If you're interested in other prayers/liturgies: for a "project", for a Zoom meeting, or for something lost, see an earlier post entitled "Three Liturgies." 

 

Friday 31 March 2023

Part of God's Story

I had a room mate in university who once asked me, “If the Bible were being written today, do you think we’d be in it?” I’ve thought about her question from time to time. I’m not sure if she was wondering about her or our level of faithfulness and whether or not it would be noticed. She may also have been seeking a tangible way to be part of God’s story.

So, are we in God’s story? As a child, I saw myself in the stories of the Israelites from Genesis to the rule of David. In fact, I remember the shock around Grade 10 when it was made clear that I was not in fact a Jew but a Gentile. Despite not being a biological Jew, the stories of the Hebrew people are so relatable—human nature spans one’s ethnicity. The life of Jesus is also sprinkled with characters we can relate to.

We live in a culture where people look to celebrities and “follow” them. Not even the Christian church is immune with singers, teachers, pastors and congregations building brands and empires. We are tempted to read the Bible as the stories of heroes to emulate and villains to scorn. But when we do that, we miss the truth that God is the main character and that God can use anyone—adult, child, powerful, weak, named, unnamed, Middle Eastern, African, European, Asian-- to help bring about his purposes. The apostle Paul reminds the Corinthians of their beginnings, which were nothing to boast about:

“Brothers and sisters, think of what you were when you were called. Not many of you were wise by human standards; not many were influential; not many were of noble birth. 27 But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. 28 God chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things—and the things that are not—to nullify the things that are, 29 so that no one may boast before him.”

Ten examples that shine a spotlight on hidden figures.

1.       The little boy who gave up the five loaves and two fish to Jesus, resulting in the feeding of the 5,000.

2.       The servant girls who urged Naaman the Syrian to go to Israel’s prophet to be cured of leprosy.

3.       Shepherds were a disreputable class of people who nonetheless were the angels’ audience as they  shared the news of the Messiah’s birth.

4.       Jehoida the priest, who lived to be 130 years of age, faithfully advised the seven-year-old King Joash and kept him on a good path.

5.       Eliezer, Abraham’s servant, found a wife for Isaac so that Abraham’s line could continue at a critical time in Canaan.

6.       Who does Jesus take the time to talk to as he’s being rushed to the synagogue ruler’s house to heal his 12 year old daughter? A woman who’s been bleeding for 12 years.

7.       An ill Egyptian servant of the enemy Amalekites left for dead enabled David to reclaim all the people and goods raided from the town of Ziklag.

8.       It’s not known which of these was the first African to receive Jesus as Lord: maybe Simon of Cyrene, who carried Jesus’ cross or his sons Alexander and Rufus or the Ethiopian eunuch or Simeon called Niger or Lucius of Cyrene.

9.       Who rescued the prophet Jeremiah from the mucky cistern? Ebed-Melech, a Sudanese man who was a government official.

10.    The Apostle Paul’s nephew overheard a plot to ambush Paul on the way to Caesarea and spoke up so that it could to be carried out.

Something my room mate and children and we ourselves want to know is, are we part of God’s story? Does God’s story include people like me? Fortunately, for all of us the answer is “yes.” For some of us, who might feel like we don’t fit, it may take a careful search to demonstrate this truth: “How great is the love the Father has lavished on US that WE should be called children of God! And that is what we are!”

Sunday 13 November 2022

Things I learned at church, Part 4: There is no perfect church

    Consumer North American society has made its way to churches for many decades now. If something displeases a person at the church they attend, there are many other options. Perhaps more so during the era of online church, accelerated by the Covid-19 pandemic, people have a plethora of choices. Those choices include worship times streamed from other cities and other parts of the world. Of course, for more and more people the concept of church or church membership has become completely irrelevant.

   As stated in the earlier posts in this series, my weekends have always been punctuated with church attendance once or twice on a Sunday. For me, church is still relevant. Perhaps a definition of church would be helpful. Church for me is much more than a physical space but the experience of connection with other people who also love Jesus as we meet together to worship, learn together, pray and encourage one another. The very first churches or ecclesia met in homes, beside rivers, or in rented space. They were not visible landmarks, but they were instrumental in bringing hope and wholeness to the community in which they were planted.

   When my husband and I met, we each belonged to a different church. Since they were both in the same town, we alternated attending each church together. Eventually, as we became engaged and married, we felt it important to choose one and become more fully invested in its ministry. Did I neglect to mention that all the people in these two churches had once been members of the same larger group? A heated issue had led them to split. How would we decide? My husband framed the question in this way: "Which group of sinners will we decide to worship with?" This was not about finding the best or the perfect church. In the end we opted for my husband's church, as he had the deepest roots in that community of faith. 

   About eight years later, we did move away from the town where we first met. Our first Sunday we landed in a church of the same denomination we were affiliated with, with the intention of just "trying it out." On that Sunday morning, there was a guest pastor. I don't remember what the theme of his message was, but I know it was based on the Bible. I don't remember if it was organ or piano music, but I know we sang hymns and spiritual songs. I don't remember if we were greeted at the door, but I remember two distinct conversations after the service. When we got home, we agreed: "The Holy Spirit is in this church. We don't have to look any further."

   That was eighteen years ago. Did we find the perfect church? No, we found a group of sinners to worship with. They put up with our shortcomings, as we try to contribute the gifts and talents God has given us. We work together to make things happen that none of us could do on our own, like helping to resettle individuals and families who were once refugees. We forgive those who have said something hurtful to or about us, even when it's hard. We listen to the Word of God together and seek to live it out. We ask about each other's needs. We bring meals to each other when we're going through a rough patch. We know we're not alone.

  Another heated issue has arisen at church. Members might look at each other and wonder, "Which side are you on?" I remind myself that this church is a group of people I've been connected to for more than a decade. We all have a story that has intersected with the grace of Jesus Christ. I'm committed to keep listening to those stories and to an ongoing journey with these folks. It won't be easy. It won't be perfect. But I'm counting on the Holy Spirit to guide us all.  

Monday 11 July 2022

Getting to Know the Trees

 

One of the legacies my father has left me is a knowledge of trees. He was neither an arborist nor a lumberjack nor a craftsman who worked extensively with wood. Rather, he was a farmer alert to the beauty around him in the natural world. When I was a young child, he started to teach me the unique traits of different trees as we walked along roads and trails, wherever we might be. I marvel at the diversity within the "mixed forest" ecosystem in which I live, where evergreens and deciduous trees live side by side.

I no longer live in a rural area, and I notice that students raised in the city have very limited vocabularies when it comes to trees. They know "bark" and "tree" and "pine cone" and "Christmas tree." Why might it be valuable to know the trees by name? 

When we see human beings just as "people" in general, we don't feel related to them much. Yet, those we've met and gotten to know by name are the ones we begin to care about and pay attention to. In the same way, knowing a birch, a spruce, a mulberry bush, and an oak focuses our attention on a particular tree as a thing of beauty. Each one brings something glorious into our lives--the story of Indigenous people and the ways they turned birches into canoes, the awareness that spruce wood is used in pianos and violins, the mulberries we can pick and sample in July, and the vast oak that provides shade from a blazing sun.

Some new trees I've gotten to know this summer are known either as the service berry or the Saskatoon berry or the June berry. They can be found as bushes or trees that grow to about three times the height of a human. They have a special place in Indigenous culture, as highlighted in this article by Robin Wall Kimmerer.  I noticed the berries on one of my neighbourhood walks; these trees had been planted by the city on the boulevards of a subdivision built perhaps 30 years ago. 


Other than the birds, nobody else seems to be interested in them. Now that I know the service berry, I pay attention to it and am grateful for it in a more specific way than just "Thank you, God, for making the trees." In my suburban setting, my walks and bike rides are enriched by knowing the trees I pass by, one at a time.