Thursday, January 27, 2011

What in the World?


At first glance this might seem like some movie set for different planet, but this unique geological formation is right here on planet Earth. Specifically this picture is from Staffa Island, near Iona Island just off the coast of Scotland. This geological formation is known as basalt columns. The hexagonal columns are formed by the slow cooling of a volcanic flow. One of the many wondrous displays of nature that help me believe in a God who enjoys variety, beauty and yes, even geometry. Everywhere I go there are reminders of God's creative touch - science perhaps explains the process, but the spirit sees the beauty and senses the presence of the one who enjoys diversity - of animals, plants and rocks. On another trip we saw another fine example of basalt columns, but I will leave that picture and comments for another post. (Photo taken by Dennis - June 14, 2009)

Sunday, January 23, 2011

Sharing Our Faith in a Cynical Culture

Here is my summary conclusion for a series of presentations I gave for EnLightenTime (an adult education time at my church) - the series was called "Sharing Our Faith in a Cynical Culture". These are my six conclusions about what is needed as we strive to be messengers of the good news in our current cultural environment.
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  1. Recognize and acknowledge the faults of Christians, and the church throughout the ages. Be honest about our failings.
  2. Make honest relationships with people, accepting them for who they are (in spite of differences), care for them for no other reason than you extend God's love to them.
  3. Listen, more than talk - but be willing to share your own faith story. When sharing with people of a modern mindset, know why you believe. For postmoderns share your personal experience of faith.
  4. Be passionate about your faith, but not in a dismissive way of others. Find common ground and celebrate that.
  5. Be patient, recognize that we are in this for the long-haul. There are no quick-fix solutions. Meaningful relationships take time to fully form.
  6. Actions speak louder than words, consistent actions are needed to rebuild our damaged reputation. As written in the First Letter of John: Dear children, we must show love through actions that are sincere, not through empty words. (1 John 3:18)

Saturday, January 22, 2011

Three simple points

At the beginning of this Week of Prayer for Christian Unity I offer these three simple points.
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1. Unity not uniformity.

2. Diversity not division.

3. Whom we worship not how we worship.

Tuesday, January 18, 2011

An Invocation

This invocation was written while attending the National Worship Conference called "Gather Us In", held in Camrose, Alberta in the summer of 2000.
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O Ancient and Future Mystery,
O Mystery of the Cross and Empty Tomb,
O Mystery that moves In and Among us;
We worship you for being both
beyond our grasp and
beholding of our being.
Amen and Amen.

Monday, January 17, 2011

Brief Thoughts

Here are two brief items from my notebook.
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Dilemma

I once saw a man who was hurt,
and because of his hurt
he did not see the kids having fun.

I once saw some kids having fun
and because of their fun
they did not see the man who was hurt.



A personal quote:

"The very nature of faith is that it feels incomplete."

Sunday, January 16, 2011

Door to a New World


Since many of you enjoyed the previous photo, here is another one featuring stained glass. This is the door to the church my mother's parents were married in. Shortly after they were married they came to Canada, in this way it truly was a door to a new world when they left that church in Hole, Norway. However I also like the way the stained glass gives the world outside an otherworldly appearance, almost like one was entering Narnia or some such fantastical place. (Photo taken by Dennis - June 30, 2009)

Friday, January 14, 2011

You Are

Here is another poem from my old notebook. I wrote this one summer while staying at the family cabin on Christopher Lake. Perhaps I was attracted to this poem tonight because I'm getting tired of this winter, with its overabundance of snow and cold.
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You are the perfect stillness
of a lake on a windless summer night.

You are a myriad of stars
speckled across the bow of dark sky.

You are the sound of birds
calling forth in the mystery of the dark.

You are the pack of wolves howling
in community of the moonlit moment.

You are the breath within my lungs,
the beating of my heart.

You are the thoughts that seek
the higher, pure and true.

You are all this and more.

How can I ever know you
unless you reach into my very being,
touching again and again
with divine love and grace.

Friday, January 7, 2011

Golden Flame

Today, going through an old notebook, I came across a poem I wrote on December 4, 2000. It seemed appropriate for this post-Epiphany time.
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The light of Christ is a
golden flame
revealed in the burning
of the sun.

Not with silver, but with gold
spilled from the cross
in the form of blood.
And the redness of the ground
gives way to a flame
now red, then gold
upon the heads of gathered disciples
about to be dispersed.

A flame of gold
becomes the crown of glory
worn in the trenches of
human misery,
reminding us of light that
dances in darkness –
dances in eternity –
and that is where
I, too, shall become
one with the
golden flame.

Wednesday, January 5, 2011

Colours of Mercy


This stained glass window is behind the altar at the historic Bønsnes Kirke in the Ringerike municipality of Norway. My Grandfather grew up on a farm only a few kilometres from this historic church. According to tradition King Olav the Saint was born near the site of the church. The design of the stained glass work suggests a fairly recent creation, contrasted with the ancient thick wall of the church building. This is one of my favourite photos from a trip to Europe with my wife Beth in the summer of 2009. I titled the picture using the name of a song by the Norwegian pianist/composer Tord Gustavsen off his trio recording The Ground. (Photo taken by Dennis - June 30, 2009)

Tuesday, January 4, 2011

Be the Centre of Our Circle

This short song is used at the beginning of each Mysterium worship gathering. In its brief form I tried to capture the relational nature of worship, and indeed of God.
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Be the centre of our circle,
Be the peace that centres us.
We call to you, the Holy mystery,
The Three-in-One, and One-in-Three.
Be the centre of our circle,
Be the peace that centres us.
Be our peace, be our peace.

Monday, January 3, 2011

A Blessing of Light

Here is a benediction that uses the theme of light.
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The light of God surround you;
The light of Christ fill you;
The light of the Spirit lead you.
With peace, hope and love overflowing,
may you live in the light of the Lord.

Sunday, January 2, 2011

Night Watching - a Lament in Sonnet Form

Many years ago I was fortunate to be able to participate in a writers' workshop at Vancouver School of Theology led by the award-winning author Madeleine L'Engle. I was doubly fortunate to be one of the few selected from the larger group to have our work critiqued by Madeleine (this was done by lottery, not by quality of writing or any other criteria lest you get that impression). What a thrill to have one of my favourite authors make comments on my writing. This posting was one of the assignments: to write a poem, in sonnet form, based on something we had read in scripture recently. Madeleine returned the poem to me suggesting one word change (which I agreed with) and with her comment "beautiful ringing tone' written at the top - a cherished memory indeed. As Epiphany draws near it seems an appropriate time to put the poem on this blog.
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Night Watching - a Lament in Sonnet Form

I watch the Holy mystery of night
For signs that love still dwells within our midst.
With darkness 'round my soul, I seek your light,
And long to be embraced and Spirit kissed.

There was a time when love reflected all
The beauty of creation's certainty,
When human ears responded to your call
And joy was theirs, as full and wide the sea.

Yet choices made to turn our backs on you
have led to deep-felt loneliness, and worse,
We fill this world with bitterness and strife,
And struggle with the earth - our ancient curse.
Yet out of dust still comes the gift of life,
And stars still shine in spite of all we've done.
Your light surrounds us, good and gracious one.

Saturday, January 1, 2011

The Sound of Peace

Not often do I write out my sermons word for word, most often I preach from an outline only with limited notes. However I did write out my sermon for Christmas Eve a few days ago, and thus I am able to share it on this blog.
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Listen now!

  • Mary listened - and a child was born.
  • Shepherds listened - and a child was found.
  • Joseph listened - and a child was saved.
  • Jesus listened - and the world was saved.

It is in listening, truly listening, deeply listening, that we are changed.


The Christmas story challenges us to listen more carefully for God,

and to listen more carefully to one another.

What we ask of God, we need to do ourselves:

  • "O Lord, hear our prayer..."
  • "Turn your ear toward me..."
  • "Listen Lord, as I pray..."

And God does listen, and God's asks us to listen in turn:

  • to listen to the promptings of the Spirit...
  • to listen to the voices of those who are oppressed...
  • to listen with love, and without fear...

Listening helps create harmony

In musical groups it is essential to listen to one another in order to make good music together. Choir members must listen so that they match the tone, pitch and articulations of the other singers, this way the sound created can be cohesive and harmonious. Jazz musicians must listen so that they fit in the groove, creating an ensemble sound, supporting each other in mutual improvisation so that new sounds are created while still melding together in a way that makes sense. Listening is the beginning of music.

Listening creates community

Listening is the beginning of relationships, and listening relationships are the beginning of community. Our culture has emphasized the importance of the individual so much that we are now experiencing the erosion of community. Yet people still long for connection, for community as evidenced by the popularity of social networks like Facebook and MySpace.

Internet communities can be useful and may indeed meet some of our need for relationship, but ultimately we need to be with people. It is one thing to end a sentence with a smiley face emoticon :), it is an entirely different thing to smile at someone who then can smile back with gratitude twinkling in their eye. It is one thing to write ((hugs)) in brackets, it is an entirely different thing to embrace another with a sympathetic and healing touch. Jesus calls us into relationship, into intentional community. The Christmas story reminds us that even at his birth people gathered together around the Christ and were transformed. Listening creates community.

How to listen well

The first step in listening well is to be quiet. This is important as we seek to listen to God's (most often) gentle voice. Shepherds in Jesus' time spent a lot of their lives listening - to the instructions of their masters, to the sounds of the herd, to the relative stillness of the pastures. Perhaps this is why they were the first ones to hear the good news - the message of the angels that the Prince of Peace had been born, perhaps they heard first because they were well practiced at listening.

Those who are used to power and privilege are used to telling not listening - telling others what to do, telling others what they want, telling first and listening later, if at all. If we are honest we will recognize that we are those people used to power and privilege, that we spend much of our energy on telling, speaking our mind, placing our orders, making our requests known... and little energy or time on listening. That can change, but we will need to be intentional about it.

We too can practice listening, even in the midst of a noisy world. The world around us can be cacophonous, but we can be still, and quiet within. And there is something special about that intentional stillness, that quietness that speaks a gentle peace into our lives. Some of the most profound spiritual experiences I have had in my life came at times of stillness, quietness and reflection. When we experience those moments of peace, of serenity, of stillness we realize how much we miss that quiet, how satisfying it can be to simply be, without being busy.

Stillness and Holiness

Perhaps this is why we equate stillness and quietness, with holiness. At Christmastime we sing "Silent Night, Holy Night" picturing in our minds the gentle hush of a stable overcome with awe and wonder. In another carol we repeat this image: "O little town of Bethlehem, how still we see thee lie.... how silently, how silently the wondrous gift is given..." Stillness and quietness are signs pointing us to the holiness of the scene - this centre point in time, this birth of the Saviour.

Deep in our hearts we know that it is good to be still, good to be quiet...

Deep in our spirits we know that God speaks in a quiet, gentle whisper of a voice...

Deep down we sense that we must still our voices and calm our minds in order to hear God's words - for as Mark Rutherford says in his book "More Pages from a Journal:

Before we can hear the Divine Voice we must shut out all other voices, so that we may be able to listen, to discern its faintest whisper. The most precious messages are those which are whispered.

Peace in the midst of Noise

When the writers of some of our most familiar Christmas carols used quiet and stillness to indicate a holy happening they got it right in one sense, but there is part of the picture missing. Bethlehem must have been anything but quiet - overcrowded because of the Roman census, so packed that there was no room in the inn. When Jesus was born Bethlehem was a place full of people and animals pushing up against one another - yes, there was probably quite a din - even in the middle of the night.

Yet in that stable I can imagine serenity even in the midst of commotion. Those who gazed at the newborn saviour were no doubt able to focus on this miracle even while the busy world swirled around them. The Christ child captivated their attention. There may have been other noises and distractions around, but to Mary, Joseph, and a group of shepherds - nothing else mattered at that moment. When we are able to focus on the Christ child, we to will be able to be less affected by the tumult around us, we will be able to find peace within the storm.

Finding our own quiet space

Thus we are reminded that sometimes we need to remove ourselves from the hustle and bustle of life, to go to a quiet place, even if that quiet place is only within us - we need to find that quiet in order to become better listeners. We need to regularly tune out the world in order that we might tune in to God. This does not mean that we abandon the world, or turn our backs on it, shutting ourselves off from it.

Rather we listen first, and after we listen then we will have heard the good news that we are to take into the confusing and consuming culture that surrounds us - we listen, then we act. Like the shepherds who listened first to the angels, then sought out the Christ child, and then were the first to take the good news of Christ's birth into streets and markets of Bethlehem, they listened, then they acted. The Gospel of Luke tells us there was jubilant proclaiming... but listening came first - listening must always come first.

Peace on earth

If we, each of us gathered here, learn how to listen better, this will further the peace of Christ in our world. At Christmas we proclaim the birth of the Prince of Peace. But true peace does not come from simply proclaiming it, peace comes first from listening, followed by acting in love. I believe that if we slow down and take the time to listen to God, we will discover the pathway to peace - both personal peace and peace between people. By listening, truly listening, deeply listening, we move toward the fullness of "Peace on Earth".

Think for a moment of the opposite of listening, think of angry shouting. Shouting can lead to confrontation, and confrontation can lead to conflict, and conflict can take on a life of its own until no one is sure what we were fighting about in the first place. Listening breaks down the barriers we build between each other, for it is in listening that we learn how others feel, how others think, how others are similar to ourselves in more ways than they are different. Jesus was born to break down the barriers between all people, Jesus brought healing and forgiveness to all people, Jesus shows God's love to all people, and in this way he is truly the Prince of Peace. Listen to Jesus, listen to God.

Listening to God

We can listen to God by quieting our minds and leaving space in our prayers for God to speak. Too often our praying is simply listing off all our requests for God, and there is no sense of listening for God's guidance. We need to make space in our prayers for listening. We can also listen to God by making time to hear or read the words of Jesus regularly - through weekly worship and daily Bible reading. We celebrate the birth of Jesus because we believe that Jesus brings God's word to us directly, that Jesus is the Word made flesh, the Son of God in our midst. But to do these things we must make time, make space in our busy lives, otherwise it simply won't happen.

Listening to Others

In listening to God we will discover that God is calling us to listen to one another. We can do this act of love by taking the time to listen without interruption, without feeling the necessity of making our own thoughts known, without the needing to prove our point. We can listen to others by striving to understand, not just hear, but truly understand what they are saying, and what they are feeling. This requires patience and practice, but God has given us plenty of opportunity for practice all around us, all the time.

The Gift of Listening

I end this Christmas sermon with a suggestion, or if I may be so bold, a request:

Add to your gift giving this Christmas the gift of listening to each other.

Make one of your New Year's resolutions to listen more intentionally, and more often.

  • May you seek to listen more...
  • May you be less concerned about being heard,
  • And more about hearing.

Disciples of the child born in Bethlehem listen, listen now...

  • angels bring good news...
  • listen quietly...
  • listen faithfully...
  • listen...