June 26, 2022Ruth 3: 1-18Pentecost +3 If you ever want to scandalize someone who’s studying the Bible, just tell them that when a body part is mentioned, it really refers to a different body part. A few years back, I was in an Old Testament course at Conrad Grebel in Waterloo. Click here for service For some reason, the seminary wasn’t offering…

June 19, 2022Ruth 2: 1-23Pentecost +2 When last we were with Naomi and Ruth, they had arrived at Bethlehem just as the city and region were enjoying the first bountiful harvest in years. Click here for service The two widows had left Moab because their prospects for the future seemed dim after the deaths of their husbands.  Naomi had decided to return…

June 12, 2022Ruth 1: 1-22Trinity Sunday It is a chaotic time in Judea. Click here for service It is an in-between time before the rise of kings and judges had been left to handle leadership duties. For the most part, the people were left to their own devices. So, there was a lot of uncertainty in the air. Add to this normal…

Acts 2: 1-21PentecostJune 5, 2022 The apostles and others have gathered in Jerusalem for the harvest festival … Shavuot  … which is also known as the Feast of Weeks. The day wasn’t called Pentecost at the time … that’s a label that came later when the story was told in Greek. Click here for service The festival drew people from distant regions to…

May 29, 2022Philippians 2: 1-13Easter 7  In case you might have missed the news, there is a provincial election in a few days. An election seems like an ideal time when we can put the gospel into action.  It’s when our call to serve the community … to better the lives of people who are at risk of being left behind or…

May 15, 2022Acts 17: 16-31 This week’s passage from Acts has me remembering the cereal aisle at the Safeway in Transcona.  Click here for service When I was a kid, my parents and I would do grocery shopping on Friday nights after dad got home from the flour mill. While they picked up the essentials, I was sent to the cereal aisle…

May 8, 2022Acts 16: 16-34Easter 4 One day, back when I worked at the newspaper, the newsroom was in the lull between putting the day’s edition to bed and starting work on the next day’s paper. Click here for service Three or four of us had gathered in the graphic artists’ work area to chat about something … probably what we were…

May 1, 2022Acts 9: 19-19Easter 3 Saul is sitting on the edge of a bed in a room in Damascus. Click here for service Three days earlier, he and his companions from Jerusalem were on the way to the northern city. He carried a letter from the religious leaders that gave him the authority to arrest followers of Jesus and bring them…

April 17, 2022EasterJohn 20: 1-18 Mary Magdalene arrives at Jesus’ tomb in the early morning light. She wants to pay homage to her teacher.  Perhaps, out of a sense of devotion to Jesus, she has come to offer a prayer borne from the sense of profound grief she carries with her.  Mary Magdalene had been with Jesus through his ministry. She had…

Maundy ThursdayApril 14, 2022John 19: 23-30 One of my memories from my days in Manitoba more than five decades ago, was camping on the shores of Lake Winnipeg. Back then, my parents and their friends pitched tents on the sandy shoreline on the lake’s southern end.  I don’t recall a lot about that trip … we did a lot of camping back…