Friday, January 17, 2014

Friday, January 17, 2014

Psalm 16, 17

These two Psalms complement one another quite nicely. Psalm 16 is largely positive, optimistic. 

“The LORD is my chosen portion and my cup; you hold my lot” (16:5).

As we move on to Psalm 17, however, the mood changes immediately. The psalmist in this context is clearly occupied with some sort of problem, facing fierce opposition. 

“Hear a just cause, O LORD; attend to my cry; give ear to my prayer from lips free of deceit” (17:1).

“Rise up, O LORD, confront them, overthrow them! By your sword deliver my life from the wicked...” (17:13).

In both pieces, though, the psalmist is able to move forward, through the good and the bad, by remembering his rootedness in the ways of God. 

“I bless the LORD who gives me counsel; in the night also my heart instructs me” (16:7).

“My steps have held fast to your paths; my feet have not slipped” (17:5).

What I can take from my reading of these Psalms is that when I am celebrating a victory or bemoaning a difficult time, I should be mindful that I’m never on my own. I am confident that I have a God who walks with me along the twists and turns of life.

-Matthew Kieswetter

WE'RE GLAD YOU'VE FOUND US

Hello!

Many thanks to the Diocese of Huron's Renew-All group for spreading the word about our blog here.

A few words on what this is all about:

This blog is a ministry of St. John the Evangelist Anglican Church in Kitchener, and is facilitated by Matthew Kieswetter, a movie nut and M. Div. student at Trinity College, and Marilyn Malton, Director of the Renison Institute of Ministry and a congregational coach for the Diocese of Huron.

As a way of helping people to grow in the regularity of their Bible reading, and to come to a deeper experience of our life-giving scriptures, we focus on one reading per day. The reading is taken from the Daily Office Lectionary, in case you are curious.

The accompanying reflections are provided by members of the St. John's community. We have both lay and ordained people involved, professors and 'ordinary' folk. Just like any sermon or commentary, you might agree or disagree with the content. Either response, or anything in between (other than complete apathy), is OK. Actually, it's GREAT. The important thing is that you are involved in a dynamic engagement with the text. As Dr. Walter Deller from Trinity College recently remarked in one of my classes, our scriptures are only life-giving if we actually read and reflect on them. They don't do too much good just sitting there.

In a few days we enter the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity. For that week we are happy to welcome some commentators from beyond St. John's (and on a few days, Anglicanism) to reflect on scripture and ecumenism. I am really looking forward to reading and sharing their thoughts.

I hope you find this resource helpful. It is so easy spreading the word about a website. I encourage you to share this blog with your friends and acquaintances.

-Matthew Kieswetter

Thursday, January 16, 2014

Thursday, January 16, 2014

John 1: 43 - 51

            "Follow Me".

            Words that are central to this passage of the Gospel

narrative become central to our own lives as we hear the

invitation of Jesus as an invitation which has personal meaning

and impact.

            There are those for whom the words on the printed page

of their favourite Bibles are clearly meant for someone else.

"Following Jesus",  is the life pattern which is aimed as a message for others.

            As individuals who are trying to make sense of life on a daily basis

the invitation of Jesus gives us guidance and a framework around which

our lives may be built and infused with meaning. The life pattern of Jesus

gives us insight as to what Jesus has as an expectation of us.

            The Gospels provide us with an insight into the regularity of Jesus'

desire to grow in his awareness of the Father's will and purpose for his ministry.

Prayer, prayer offered with an openness to the guidance of God's Holy Spirit,

allows each one of us to have the opportunity to discern how we can best respond

to the invitation of our Lord.

                        " Follow Me."  

-Rev'd Canon Christopher Pratt

Wednesday, January 15, 2014

Wednesday January 15 

Hebrews 2:11-18

I remember a few occasions when one or other of my sisters – one fourteen years older than me, and the other ten years older – telling me, in an exasperated tone, to “grow up”.  I suppose that, because of their age difference, they saw me as always young, always attached to childish ways.  Perhaps you have had that same experience of someone indicating that it was time for you to take a more mature stand, or attitude.

The reading from the Letter to the Hebrews calls us to grow up, to grow into a more mature understanding of Jesus as he relates to us.  We have come through the Christmas season, where many people still sentimentalize the baby in a manger. But Jesus can be so much more significant than that.  And so we read that Jesus came not to help angels, but the descendants of Abraham.  That is, Jesus’ ministry was to humanity – to you and to me.  “Therefore he had to become like his brothers and sisters in every respect . . . Because he himself was tested by what he suffered, he is able to help those who are being tested.”

In this Epiphany season, when we recall the many way in which Jesus became known to those around him, we might do well to reflect on how we see him.  Is our understanding a rudimentary “gentle Jesus, meek and mild”?  Or will we know him as one we can know as brother, an intimate and caring part of our everyday lives?

-Rev'd Paul Kett

Tuesday, January 14, 2014

January 14, 2014

The Testimony of John the Baptist

John 1:19-28

In this reading we are presented with the cousin of John , known as the Baptizer, being challenged by the religious authorities of the day as to who he was and whether he was the Messiah, the anointed one, who possibly might be a threat to the establishment.

John to his credit clearly replies that "No, he's the Messiah, but he knew that the unknown one coming among them would be among them as one of worth!

How often do we miss the opportunity of takening a courageous stand like John, to affirm in the face of those fearful of a change to the established order of things, that the spiritual anchor in our lives, a living sense of a loving God, allows us to transcend and to grasp and to make all things new and better.

It seems to me that we need to face each day with a sense of grace : to discern that the Time, the Moment in which we find ourselves, can be a personal time of renewal and growth, and that such time, such good news, is deserving to be shared. 

- Ken Cardwell

Monday, January 13, 2014

Monday, January 13, 2014

Hebrews 1:1-14

The opening of the Letter (or Sermon) to the Hebrews opens with a beautiful beautiful meditation on the person of Christ. It reads a bit like our reading from Philippians 2 a couple weeks ago, so I wonder if it too may have been used in a liturgical context by the early church. 

The high christology brings to mind the writings about wisdom personified, as found in Proverbs and the Wisdom of Solomon. Take a moment to read Wisdom of Solomon chapters 7 and 8. If you don’t have a Bible with the Apocrypha, you can find it online on a website like Oremus Bible Browser. It is beautiful writing (and featured at my wedding!). You will note how the writing about wisdom is consistent with today’s reading, and the prologue to the Gospel of John. Powerful stuff, indeed!

-Matthew Kieswetter

O blessed, silent one, who speaks everywhere! 

We do not see the Blinding One in black emptiness. He speaks to us gently in ten thousand things, in which His light is one fulness and one Wisdom. 

Thus he shines not on them, but from within them. Such is the loving- kindness of wisdom. 

The feminine principal in the world is the inexhaustible source of creative realizations of the Fatherʼs glory. She is His manifestation in

radiant splendor! But she remains unseen, glimpsed only by a few. Sometimes there are none who know her at all.

-Thomas Merton, from the poem Hagia Sophia

Sunday January 12, 2014

“Baptism of the Christ” by Daniel Bonnell

(St. George’s Cathedral, Jerusalem)

The Feast of the Baptism of the Lord - Ephesians 1:3-14

On the Feast of the Baptism of the Lord we tell the story of Jesus' baptism.  In our church calendar this feast often falls near, or as in this year, on January 12th.

This is a day when I think about birth and new birth.  My daughter was born on January 12th.  One of her friends was baptized on January 12th for the Feast of the Baptism of the Lord is one of the great feast days for baptisms.

In our reading from Ephesians we hear the language of baptism:  God blesses us with every spiritual blessing, adopts us as children through Jesus Christ, redeems us, lavishes the riches of God's grace upon us, marks us with the seal of the promised Holy Spirit.

But baptism also speaks to us of death.  Birth and new birth are intertwined with something else being put to death.  My friends at the Associated Parishes for Liturgy and Ministry posted Daniel Bonnell's painting of the "Baptism of the Christ" this week in which, at the moment of baptism, we are pointed toward Christ's sacrifice on the cross.

On this day of the celebration, take some time to contemplate Jesus', and your own, baptism.

- Marilyn Malton