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Can These Dry Bones Live Again?

Mon, 10 Apr 2023 23:01:13 GMT

Can These Dry Bones Live Again?

Easter Sunday is Resurrection Day in the western Christian calendar. There is another remarkable resurrection story that occurred hundreds of years before the resurrection of Jesus - Ezekiel's vision of the valley of dry bones. ¹ This dramatic vision was a prediction of the resurrection of Jesus and informs us of what occurred on a cosmic scale.

Ezekiel, the prophet, in a time of severe spiritual decline, found himself transported to a valley full of human bones. How traumatizing it would be to find oneself surrounded by the bones of those who were once living, breathing people, fathers, mothers, children, and grandparents, not unlike images from the holocaust of the Second World War or the killing fields of Cambodia, or, closer to home, the continued discoveries of unmarked graves of children who died at the Indian residential schools here in Canada.

"Can these bones live again?"

Ezekiel was informed, "Mortal, these bones are the whole house of Israel. They say, 'Our bones are dried up, and our hope is lost; we are cut off completely.'"

Note that this was a description, not of a single individual, but of a whole community that had died, the "house of Israel," disconnected from God, from each other, and even from themselves! Isn't this a graphic description of the state of the church today? We have bought into the culture of individualism. The resulting polarization has pulled us apart, and we are dying. Rather than being known for our love for each other, the church is more known for divisions, colonialism, racism, patriarchy, and exclusiveness. Doesn't it break your heart that people are actually triggered by religious trauma when they cross the threshold of a church building? We were not made for this, the roots of which are isolation and independence. We were made for authentic community infused with the love of God, but how do we become that?

Can these bones live again?

"Prophesy to these bones..." Ezekiel is told. As one commentator ² wrote, perhaps the biggest surprise was not that God told Ezekiel to do this, or that God could resurrect the driest of bones. The biggest surprise was that Ezekiel did what God instructed him to do. He did what seemed to be completely ludicrous. He didn't say, "Yes but... they're dead, they can't hear me!" He disregarded the voices of despair and cynicism and responded to the voice of hope. He prophesied to the dead bones, and resurrection came. Bones came together; flesh, sinew and skin came upon them; as he continued to prophesy, breath entered into them, and they stood on their feet, a vast multitude.

At the resurrection of Jesus, a whole community, the people of God, came back to life! Ezekiel reminds us that the resurrection was never meant to be about an individual person. It has always been about a community. After his resurrection, Jesus breathed on his little bedraggled and demoralized community and said, "Receive the Holy Spirit." He gave them the "kiss of life," and said, "Peace be unto you, as the Father has sent me, I am sending you." As a resurrection community, we are now in the forgiveness business.

We are a resurrection community, the Body of Christ, a reconstituted "house of Israel," both Jew and Gentile. We "bear this treasure in earthen vessels." Like Ezekiel, we are invited to join with God in the ongoing miracle of resurrection.

Despite all our failures and the stench of death all around us, Christ's resurrection proclaims that the story isn't finished. We can still, in loving obedience, do the foolish thing. We can still declare in deed and in word, "Let there be light." We can still love those with whom we disagree. We can still forgive and bless our enemies. We can still serve one another and our neighbours. We can still give extravagantly, even when we feel we have nothing. The resurrection tells us that there can be no Easter Sunday without Good Friday forgiveness and self-giving love.

Can these bones live again?

A few weeks ago, we, at Vancouver Eastside Vineyard, felt led to do a seemingly foolish thing. We took our regular Sunday worship time, just to come together, to love our space, to rake leaves, to pick up garbage, and to hand out hot chocolate to our neighbours. A Syrian refugee family showed up expecting a regular church service, and once they figured out what was going on, they joined us enthusiastically in raking leaves – a Syrian grandmother did so while still wearing her very stylish white boots! This family is now becoming a much-loved part of our community! Resurrection! Bones coming together!

Doing the foolish thing sometimes means doing so defiantly in the face of what Walter Brueggemann calls the "yes buts..." ³ of our lives. When Jesus told the bystanders to remove the stone of Lazarus' tomb, Martha protested, "Yes but... he's been dead for four days. He stinks!"

What are your "yes buts...?" Where is your stench of death? "Yes but... I've failed too many times." "Yes but... I have an addiction." "Yes, but... I'm over the hill, past my prime..." "Yes but... someone or something has died or is gone, representing hopes and dreams that have died with them."

Death, in whatever form it takes in our lives, always seems so final. The resurrection reminds us that death will never have the last word and everything we do in these physical bodies matters, now and forever.

¹ Ezekiel 37:1-14 ² A Daily Reflection from Salt of the Earth: A Christian Seasons Calendar, University Hill Congregation, 2023. ³ A Way Other than Our Own: Devotions for Lent, Walter Brueggemann, Westminster John Knox, 2017.

Holy Saturday: The Great Sabbath

Sat, 08 Apr 2023 17:29:59 GMT

Holy Saturday: The Great Sabbath

By Erika Kobewka

"Now there was a man named Joseph, from the Jewish town of Arimathea... This man went to Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus. Then he took it down and wrapped it in a linen shroud and laid him in a tomb cut in stone, where no one had ever yet been laid. It was the day of Preparation, and the Sabbath was beginning. The women who had come with him from Galilee followed and saw the tomb and how his body was laid. Then they returned and prepared spices and ointments. On the Sabbath they rested according to the commandment."

Luke 23:50, 52-56 (ESV)

Holy Saturday begins where Good Friday ends. On Good Friday, we remember the sufferings, afflictions, and death of our Lord. We remember that Jesus Christ, the Son of God, was stricken with grief and sorrow and by his wounds we are healed. ¹ If you have ever participated in The Stations of the Cross, you might remember that the final station is most often marked by Jesus' burial and it is in this place, a rock sealing the entry of a tomb in brutal finality, that "The Great Silence" or "The Great Sabbath" begins. Holy Saturday lays in the centrefold of the Easter Triduum, the Great Three Days, and occupies the sacred space of reeling loss and disorienting grief. ² Jesus, the Saviour of the world and our longed-for Messiah is dead, and all of our hopes are dashed. On Holy Saturday the horrific realities of the crucifixion sink in and there are no words left, only stunned silence.

There are many scenes from the Easter story that have occupied the imaginations of artists for centuries, but one that has captivated me is the Pietà: Mary, the mother of Christ, holding her deceased son after he is taken down from the cross. One of the most famous depictions of this scene is the marble sculpture by Michelangelo, and as his only signed work, I can't help but wonder what was occupying his mind as he chiselled marble to portray a shattered body, the King of Kings, lifeless and crumpled in the arms of his mother. The gospel of John records that in Jesus' final moments he cried aloud to his mother, "Behold your son!" ³ and while there is no Biblical account of Mary cradling his broken and deceased body, we know that she witnessed his violent crucifixion and was present at the tomb of his burial. ⁴ Would not every mother cradle her child in death, even if only in her heart? From the announcement of the immaculate conception, Mary was promised that her son would save the world. She was promised that Jesus would establish and rule over a new Kingdom that would have no end. Grief is profoundly disorienting, and in the moments following Jesus' death I wonder what Mary experienced. Trauma? Fear? Shock? Wave upon wave of visceral anguish? Where is the promised hope now?

As Christians, we know that the story does not end here , but for those grappling and reeling from the violent death of their promised Saviour, was there even a strand of hope to hold onto? Standing in the grave quiet of a stone-cold tomb there was no flicker of Easter morning, there was not even a whisper of, "It's Friday but Sunday's a-comin'..." To utter such sentiments in the faces of those left side-swept and shattered would feel like a desecration of grief, regardless of its truth. Holy Saturday acknowledges in profound ways, so many of the emotions intrinsic to those who experience loss: abandonment, darkness, despair, and, yes, even the silence of God. Do we do our redemption story a disservice or lessen its formative power by skipping straight from mid-day on Good Friday to the triumph of Easter morning?

Holy Saturday humanizes the holy sacredness in life's greatest loss, death, and even then, we know it is not the end. The followers and family of Jesus kept Sabbath that day, stunned, traumatized, and without an inkling of what would come next. The ancient church has called Holy Saturday, "The Great Sabbath" recognizing this "ceasing" of life. Haven't we all found ourselves staggering and at a loss for words in the face of unthinkable devastation? Make no mistake, "we are the Easter people and hallelujah is our song," ⁵ and yet in the bedrock of our faith, straddling the space between death and glorious resurrection is a day of agonising bewilderment.

For the ancient church, the three days culminated in an all-night Easter service known as the Great Paschal Vigil. In some streams of the church, this night is still observed each year and often begins late on Holy Saturday and ends at sunrise on Easter Sunday. Most services are marked by utter darkness and quiet and a posture of waiting and lament. In the ancient world, the night and day were regulated by the setting and rising of the sun. Similarly, the vigil of Holy Saturday begins in the dark because the light of Christ has been extinguished by death. A grieving and reeling world keeps watch all night long until at last, at long last, a piece of glowing flint is thrown into a stack of wood and the fire catches and grows. The priest proclaims, "The light of Christ." To which the people respond,

"Thanks be to God!"

Even the end, is not the end. Amen.

Contemplative Exercise
As you step into Holy Saturday, take some time to sit in the sacred silence of this day. Are you experiencing hopelessness, despair, loss, bewilderment, or confusion? Take a few moments to notice and name these things before God. How do you sense or imagine God responding to your pain or grief?

If you are able, light a candle and pause in the warmth of its flame: "The light of Christ, thanks be to God." ⁶

Notes

¹ Isaiah 53:5 ² Webber, Robert E. Ancient-Future Time: Forming Spirituality through the Christian Year, 134. ³ John 19:26 ⁴ Mark 15:47 ⁵ Attributed to Pope John Paul II ⁶ Taken from The Great Vigil of Easter, The Book of Common Prayer

Article Source: Vineyard Canada https://www.vineyard.ca/index.php?topic=906.0

Beautiful Friday

Sat, 08 Apr 2023 17:09:57 GMT

Beautiful Friday

By David Ruis

Is this how we feel when we gaze up to the cross on this day?

Over 700 years before Jesus walked the earth, the prophetic sight of Isaiah caught a glimpse of Jesus and what was to be his destiny. What he saw caused him to gasp in bewilderment, and declare that for those who would actually see this coming Messiah, they would not believe it. Could this really be the one they hoped and longed for? "Who believes what we've heard and seen? Who would have thought that God's saving power would look like this?" (Isaiah 1:1 MSG) Later in the text we are told that, at least by the most base of human standards, "he had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him, nothing in his appearance that we should desire him ... like one whom people hide their faces."

When we look to the cross what do we see? Who do we see? Can we discover the goodness, beauty and truth that is evident here? Can we see the beauty of Jesus in the ashes of a cruciform life? Can we see that it was here, in this stunning display of upside down glory, that Jesus "disarmed the powers and authorities, (making) a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross?" (Colossians 2:15, parentheses mine). Our liberation is inherent in the crucifixion. The beautiful life is ever in its shadow. All that is good, and pleasant, and right, aligns itself here. At the foot of the cross. "May I never boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world." (Galatians 6:14)

The cross is not a means to an end just as the resurrection is not an end in itself. It is the work - the glory - the beauty - of the cross that gives the power of the resurrection its meaning. Indeed, without the power of the resurrection surging through our faith, our lives and our love, we are of all people, "most miserable" (1 Corinthians 15:19), yet it is this very power that not only sustains us along this cruciform, narrow, eternal pathway, but that allows us to see and embrace goodness along the way. To experience beauty where there should only be sorrow and despair. To know the strength of joy and the sanity of peace that we find in the finished work of Christ. To hold in sweet tension, death and life. Meekness and power. Justice and mercy. The now and the not yet.

"I want to know Christ—yes, to know the power of his resurrection and participation in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, and so, somehow, attaining to the resurrection from the dead." (Philippians 3:10,11 NIV)

As counterintuitive as it may be to our TikTok, commercialized and self absorbed understandings of beauty, the image of the crucifixion, both seen through the physical and spiritual eye, may just be the ultimate reflection of all that is beautiful.

Can we see it?

"Bow before the beauty of God, then to your knees - everyone worship!"

Ah, indeed, this is Good Friday. This is Beautiful Friday!

"Bow before the beauty of God, then to your knees - everyone worship!"

- David Ruis

Three things that Lent invites us into as part of the global church

rodjanz07@gmail.com (Rod Janz) — Tue, 28 Feb 2023 23:46:08 GMT

Three things that Lent invites us into as part of the global church

As we approach the season of Lent, here are three things that Lent invites us into as part of the global church:

1. To join with other Christians around the world

It is easy to get swept up in what is happening in our own lives and even our own individual churches but the Lenten season reminds us we are part of a global and historical movement of Christians and ultimately part of God’s story. Lent has been practised in some form by Christians from as early as the 4th Century and today Christians from all around the world and across many denominations mark this significant time in the Church calendar.

2. To draw closer to God

The disciplines of prayer and fasting that we focus on during Lent are primarily intended to draw us closer to God and build our relationship with him. In Lent, we remember Jesus’ period of 40 days in the wilderness where he prayed and fasted. There’s an opportunity to journey with Jesus by joining in what he did and mark this period by praying intentionally and fasting over 40 days. Fasting provides an opportunity to remove a key distraction in our lives (whether it be food, alcohol, social media etc.) and give that time and attention to God.

Lent is also traditionally a time of penitence; recognising where we have made mistakes, bringing that to God and asking for forgiveness. Especially if this is not a part of your regular prayer life, and even if it is, Lent is a useful reminder to come before God in humble repentance.

The prayer and fasting that takes place during Lent does not need to be a legalistic activity but can be a chance to refocus on Jesus, not simply following a set of rules but taking part in practices which will draw us to God.

3. To Reflect on the Easter Story

Lent gives us the opportunity to reflect on the Easter story, Jesus’ journey to the cross and sacrifice for us all. It’s been noted that fasting or ‘giving something up’ for lent as a small form of sacrifice can give more meaning to Jesus’ sacrifice for us on Good Friday.

Particularly during Holy Week (the week leading up to Easter Sunday), it can be helpful to reflect on the events that took place, focusing on changing mood as we go through the different days of the week. The week begins with the remarkable moment of Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday, then on Maundy Thursday we see Jesus’ poignant last supper with his disciples, followed by Jesus’ crucifixion on Good Friday, then the day of waiting while Jesus is in the tomb and finally his triumphant resurrection on Easter Sunday. Following the story in real time can bring even more significance to arguably the most important week in the Christian year.

Vineyard Canada National Fast 2023

Mon, 09 Jan 2023 01:11:44 GMT

Table Calendar January to June 2023

Vineyard Canada National Fast 2023 Jan 9 & 10

National Focus ‘23: Engaging with the Mission of Jesus

It is hard to believe that another year has flown by and it is time to engage in our annual time of fasting and prayer. Over the next 10 days, starting January on 9th, we want to carve out space and time to lean into a posture of listening and responding to the Spirit of Christ as we worship, wait, listen and pray together.

In order to help us be prepared and ready to engage both in our personal and communal spaces we will be providing “Fast Journey Updates” every couple of days. They will include the following elements: an orientation to the theme and a common liturgy that we will be using in our Zoom Prayer Room ; an anchoring focus and scripture reading; and a common prayer. These gatherings will begin promptly at 7AM PST and end at 7:45AM PST

May Jesus meet us as we set aside this time!

The Journey Begins: Day One and Two

1_ The Invitation

Consecration: Preparation and Surrender

Posturing Liturgy:

Leader: Prepare us O Lord to be set apart in sacred devotion to you.

Response: Make ready our hearts for consecration to your Holy Name.

Leader: Following the example of our Lord, we walk into the river,

Response: Freely submerging, and freely surrendering,

Leader: That we may rise up immersed in your mercy and embraced by our Father.

Response: Show us the pathway. Enable us to receive your love.

All: Prepare us O Lord to be set apart in sacred devotion to you.

2_ Anchoring Reflection / And so we begin. At the beginning.

Entering the mission of Jesus with Him being consecrated at the Temple by his parents. Most of the religious folk were oblivious to the significance of what was happening. Yet here we see Simeon, moved by the Spirit, Anna with a lifestyle of prayer and fasting, both with their eyes open to recognize the infant Messiah.

In that same spirit, at the beginning of this new year and communal fast, we surrender, we pray, we look.

Anna, a prophet, was also there in the Temple. She was the daughter of Phanuel from the tribe of Asher, and she was very old. Her husband died when they had been married only seven years. Then she lived as a widow to the age of eighty-four. She never left the Temple but stayed there day and night, worshiping God with fasting and prayer. She came along just as Simeon was talking with Mary and Joseph, and she began praising God. She talked about the child to everyone who had been waiting expectantly for God to rescue Jerusalem.

Luke 1:36-38

Ponder; Wait; Listen

What might be some disappointments that Anna had to work through to come to this place of devotion and surrender?

What might be some disappointments that we need to surrender to God as we begin these 10 days of prayer together?

“Have I the courage to leave the familiar and journey into the unknown? King of the mysteries, will You set watch over me? Christ of the mysteries, can I trust you on the sea?”

Brendan 6th

3_ Common Prayer

Calm me, O Lord, as You stilled the storm.
Still me, O Lord, keep me from harm.
Let all the tumult within me cease.
Enfold me, Lord, in Your peace.

Father, bless the work that is done,
and the work that is to be.

Father, bless the servant that I am,
and the servant that I will be.

*Taken from The Felgild Compline from Northumbria Community’s Complines published by Collins
Note: Throughout the fast we want to encourage you to send into the VC team what you are hearing/sensing that the Spirit may be speaking to us as a family. Please send your contributions to listeningteam@vineyard.ca

Zoom Link: https://vineyard.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=72a6ed86332977e388490f778&id=4c3ce3456f&e=5f2c3440a5

Fourth Sunday of Advent – LOVE

Mon, 19 Dec 2022 22:40:20 GMT

Fourth Sunday of Advent – LOVE

Fourth Sunday of Advent – LOVE

Make Me the Mother of Love

I'm thankful I was asked to write on the Advent week that celebrates Love. I love Advent in part because my husband Jon and I celebrate it each year with our kids Elena and Atticus. Atticus' birthday is Dec 16 (yes, we celebrated this week! Love you Atticus, you big 13 year old!). Most years we read Advent readings on either sides of Atticus’s birthday and the kids open one more box in their advent calendars.

Advent is a season of waiting, a season of expectation. A time when we remember the spaces of darkness as we wait for the Light of the World to come. In our house, this blends with our Hanukkah celebration as each night of Hanukkah, we light the candles and remember God’s ability to bring light in our darkness.

We sing the ancient Hanukkah prayers:

Baruch atah Adonai Eloheinu Melech ha-olam, asher kid’shanu b-mitzvotav, v-tzivanu l’hadlik ner shel Hanukkah.

Blessed are you, O Lord our God, King of the Universe, who makes us holy through Your commandments, and commands us to light the Hanukkah lights.

Baruch atah Adonai Eloheinu Melech ha-olam, shehecheyanu v-ki’y’manu v-higianu la-z’man ha-zeh.

Blessed are you, O Lord our God, King of the Universe, for giving us life, for sustaining us, and for enabling us to reach this season.

At Hanukkah, we thank God as King of the Universe for sustaining us with his light. One year, when Atticus was little, he said to me that he loved when his birthday was because his birthday is in "God's time." When I asked him to explain what he meant, he talked about waiting for Jesus to come and change everything!

Each Advent, I return to Mary's song. The Gospel of Luke shares with us a series of song-like prayers, including a song from Mary we call the "Magnificat" in Luke 1:46-55. This title comes from the Latin of her first words: "my soul praises." This is a song where Mary praises what God has done and what God will do in her life. I sometimes feel like Mary understands my life in a special way. I used to do musical theatre. Whether I’m sad or angry or when something amazing happens, my first instinct is to sing about it. This was Mary's instinct too!

Something amazing has happened to Mary: she has been chosen to carry Jesus inside her, she has been chosen to be the Mother of Love. The Greek Orthodox Church calls Mary the Theotokos, “the bearer of God,” the one whose body bears the truest love in it. I have started thinking what would that be like to be the bearer of love.

Recently, God posed a unique challenge for me to wait in love. Sure, I can talk about love in the hard spaces, but God asked me to live this when my own life was filled with uncertainty. Last November 2021, Jon, the kids, and I visited the U.S. to see my parents in Texas and for me to speak at a conference. While my husband and kids were Canadian citizens, I was still a permanent resident of Canada. After a series of immigration issues, I was stuck in the U.S., unable to cross the border when my family flew back. I wasn’t sure how to feel. The experience led to incredible tumult and pain in me. I found myself asking: who am I? Can I call myself Canadian when the country won’t let me in, but can I call myself American when that country doesn’t feel like home any more? Where is my home? Am I wanted? Am I enough?

But I could hear the Holy Spirit’s voice say, “Watch in the waiting, I’ve got something for you in this.”

God’s love wanted to meet me in the unexpected, God’s love wanted to meet me in the struggle, God’s love wanted to meet me in the fear.

Mary’s first response to God’s request was fear, but then she responded: “May everything you have said about me come true.” Her prayer was “Let it come.” So in my waiting, I prayed, “Let it come, Lord,” and God surprised me with the amazing time of love with both my parents in Austin, Texas and Jon’s dad, step mom, step brother and step sister in the Niagara area of Ontario. God opened up doors for unexpected healing for our family in surprising ways.

God also reminded me that my little experience of vulnerability in immigration is multiplied many times by others who may not speak English as their first language, who may not know when they can be close to their kids again. God asked me to remember them and pray for them. When my renewed Permanent Residency card and then my other PR letter didn’t come when I needed them, God reminded me of why immigration officers might be so busy. He showed me a mother seeking asylum from a country where she and her children might be abused or die. He reminded me that I’m only a small part of this big system where others around me are vulnerable, afraid, unsafe. God asked me to hold them in my hearts, to bear in my body the weight of love for them through remembering them.

We speak of Mary’s humility and her love, but in Mary’s prayer we see how this humility and this love was not shown in weakness, but as strength and bravery. What would a strong and brave humility look like for each of us this Advent, this Christmas?

First, Mary’s love reminds us of our call to love in 1 Corinthians 13:1-7. While people sometimes treat this section of 1 Corinthians like it is about romantic love (hey, Jon and I used it at our wedding!), it is actually about how all of us love one another:

If I speak in the tongues of mortals and of angels, but do not have love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. If I give away all my possessions, and if I hand over my body so that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing.

Love is patient; love is kind; love is not envious or boastful or arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice in wrongdoing, but rejoices in the truth. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

Mary’s love “bore all things, believed all things, hoped all things, and endured all things.” Mary’s love was humble and didn’t insist on her own way. She found the strength of God’s love in the waiting. We know this from her song.

One of the ways that Mary bears love in her song is by remembering the past of her people. You see, her song does more than rejoice in God’s miraculous love. It also remembers another mother from the distant past who also longed for a son. In her song of praise, Mary remembers the song of Hannah, Samuel's mother in 1 Samuel 2.

Hannah describes herself as God's servant as she prays for a son and dedicates the yet unborn son to God's service for his whole life. After Samuel's birth, Hannah dedicates him again to the Lord and sings a song of praise for what the Lord has done. This song of praise goes beyond a simple "thanks" for her son, but talks about the character of God. She praises this God who is able to undo the powerful, the mighty, the ones with "much" and raise up the ones with little, the poor, the broken, the barren (like herself). This God takes the weak and gives them strength.

Mary's song echoes with Hannah's song. Mary wasn't the one you'd choose as Jesus' mom if motherhood was chosen based on a resume. Mary was young, poor, living in a small town. She wasn't a mom who through her own achievements could give her son wealth, power, or status.

Before we get to Mary's song, let's backtrack a moment to where this song comes in Luke's story: let's set the scene. Mary has recently met an angel who tells her she will be the mother of Jesus. She’s told, "He will be very great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his ancestor David. And he will reign over Israel forever; his Kingdom will never end!” Luke 1:32-33.

Mary responds with a song of praise and like Hannah before her so many years before (hundreds of years before), she speaks not only of what God has done for her, but how this shows the character of God:

Mary responded,
“Oh, how my soul praises the Lord.
How my spirit rejoices in God my Savior!
For he took notice of his lowly servant girl,
and from now on all generations will call me blessed.
For the Mighty One is holy,
and he has done great things for me.
He shows mercy from generation to generation
to all who fear him.
His mighty arm has done tremendous things!
He has scattered the proud and haughty ones.
He has brought down princes from their thrones
and exalted the humble.
He has filled the hungry with good things
and sent the rich away with empty hands.
He has helped his servant Israel
and remembered to be merciful.
For he made this promise to our ancestors,
to Abraham and his children forever.”

This is the God who notices someone like Mary, poor, on the margins, unseen, and raises her up as God's servant to do something great!

The rest of Mary's song continues with this picture of God's great reversal. God overturns the expectations of who should receive the "kingdom of God." Instead of the powerful, God gives his kingdom to the weak and the poor. God fills the hungry and overturns the structures of injustice that caused their hunger.

In Advent, I sit with Mary and with Hannah, waiting for God to come and do his great act of reversal. For God to make me a mother of love like Mary who sees the world through God's vision.

Mary has been an important figure in my life as I work with the Canadian Poverty Institute at Ambrose University, where I teach, and I think about child poverty. Mary's song speaks of God's love for the poor and his longing to undo the powers that have created the darkness in our world such as child poverty. When I look at the faces of children impacted by poverty, do I see Jesus? When I look at their mothers working hard to care for their children in a harsh world, do I see Mary, God's servant?

If I can see Mary and Jesus in the faces of those struggling around me, if I can believe that our God is a God who wants the hungry fed and injustice overturned, how will this reshape my Advent, reshape my Christmas, reshape my New Year?

For me it means buying Christmas presents in ways that benefit the poor and oppressed rather than only thinking about my own family's desires. Each year my family shops at places like More Than a Store, Epic's pop-up fair trade store with a collection of gifts from all over the world, helping those most in need.

What will this call to love the Other mean for your life? What does reversal look like? How will you welcome Jesus into the world this Advent season? How will you be a love-bearer this year? How will you be brave in your humility and your love?

I offer this poem as a way of responding to God by asking him to do this in you:

Make Me the Mother of Love
By: Beth Stovell

Make me the Mother of Love
Humble, handmaiden
Willing vessel

Like trees that bend
To the moving of your wind
Unseen yet felt
In each supple, green leaf
Let me bend to Your Spirit

Forming me into what
I am not and yet am becoming
A New Creation, speak the "Let there be”

Light in my darkness
Order in my chaos
Your Spirit hovering
Over my soul's deep

You, the partner of my loneliness
You, the unspeaking centre of my monologues

With each disclosure, you encompass more
You stretch me beyond my limits

To hold you
And make me new

So we pray, Lord God, for your love in the waiting, for your ability to do the great reversal of your kingdom. Show us how we might love this year as we celebrate your coming. Let your kingdom come this Christmas and New Year through us as your love-bearers!

First Sunday of Advent – PEACE

Mon, 12 Dec 2022 23:12:42 GMT

First Sunday of Advent – PEACE

The theme for the second week of Advent is Peace. Peacemaking and Justice is an enormous—and often ignored—theme in Scripture. In Exodus 3 and 4, where God meets Moses in the burning bush, God presents a call of peace-brokering and justice to Moses:

The Lord said, “I have indeed seen the misery of my people in Egypt. I have heard them crying out because of their slave drivers, and I am concerned about their suffering. So I have come down to rescue them from the hand of the Egyptians…But Moses said to God, “Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the Israelites out of Egypt?” And God said, “I will be with you.”

Moses answered, “What if they do not believe me or listen to me and say, ‘The Lord did not appear to you’?” Then the Lord said to him, “What is that in your hand?” “A staff,” he replied. The Lord said, “Throw it on the ground.” Moses threw it on the ground, and it became a snake, and he ran from it. Then the Lord said to him, “Reach out your hand and take it by the tail.” So, Moses reached out and took hold of the snake and it turned back into a staff in his hand. “This,” said the Lord, “is so that they may believe that the Lord, the God of their fathers—the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob—has appeared to you.” Then the Lord said, “Put your hand inside your cloak.” So, Moses put his hand into his cloak, and when he took it out, the skin was leprous—it had become as white as snow. “Now put it back into your cloak,” he said. So, Moses put his hand back into his cloak, and when he took it out, it was restored, like the rest of his flesh.

- Exodus 3:7 - 8, 11-12, 4:1-7

The liberated preacher sits at the junction between preaching and peacemaking. The liberated prophet has a heightened sense of justice—it comes with the territory. The people of God in Scripture are so seldom—almost never, really—the privileged, the well-fed and the well-satisfied. They are usually the exiled, the marginalized, the disempowered, the helpless, the hapless, the hopeless, the poor, the leprous and the disenfranchised. One of the most consistent and most ignored signs of the Kingdom, both Old and New Testament is…the suffering of God’s people.

In our Exodus text, where God presents this peacemaking call to Moses, Moses must wrestle through the need to speak to two audiences: pharaoh and the people (Israel) who are in desperate need of deliverance from oppression—the people in need of deliverance, justice and brokered peace.

If you are going to preach or live liberation, peace, and justice, you will always have two audiences: the oppressive and powerful (here Pharaoh) and the oppressed or those in pain (here Israel). Power versus pain.

And Moses is, of course, somewhat related to both these groups. He is a Jew, but he grew up in Pharaoh’s palace. As those who are liberated and bring peace, we must stand always in the juncture between power and pain. We gravitate toward those in pain.

If we are to bring liberation in one form or another, we will always have two audiences in mind. Sometimes our call might be as basic as standing between the marginalized group (whomever they might be) and the would-be “stone throwers.” That is where Jesus finds himself in the pericope adulterae with the woman caught in adultery in John 7. In this place our opinions are irrelevant. We occupy the space between the oppressor and the oppressed regardless of our opinions.

And Moses starts this journey like most of us who have submitted to Jesus. “Who am, I LORD?” Essentially, he wants to give God “ten reasons why I am not qualified to lead an enslaved people to the promised land and why I am unqualified to confront power when and as I need to in that process.” I have a stutter…I have a limp…I have an impediment. Welcome to the Kingdom and thank you for recognizing your limp.

Do not trust anyone, ever, who appears to walk without a limp…

Some points from our text for all who would be shapers and liberators of people’s reality:

1) Preaching and prophesying peace, liberation, freedom, and healing from oppression demands that I have my own story of peace, liberation, healing, and freedom. That is the empowering we need in our own story and in our own moral imaginations. The snake on the ground for Moses is a representation of the serpent in the garden. The snake hisses that Moses is presumptuous and unqualified. He is a murderer, a spoiled kid raised in Pharaoh’s palace, a fugitive with a speech impediment. Moses has an identity crisis and so do we. The only responses to our limps, our snakes on the ground, are humility and strength. They are not contradictory.

2) The point above relates to preaching or prophesying peace. But we also need that peace for ourselves, not just as it relates to proclamation. We need to possess it; that is, to bring peace we need to liberate ourselves from anything that does not bring us peace. We ourselves need to be at peace if we are to live by peace and to be able to broker peace. Put your hand under your shirt, or into your robe, or into your chest; pull it out and you will see it is leprous. Now put it back and invoke his name. Pull it out again and you will see that it is clean. You are healed, your soul (self) is liberated and at peace. Your hand looked leprous because your soul was busted. When your story and your self is in alignment, your hand will be clean. Your proclamation and your soul care (cura animarum) must align. Proclamation costs.

Proclamation in divisive times such as our own, costs even more. It tears at the fabric of your soul. Our public lives and private spaces must align. Proclaiming liberation from whatever holds people captive, proclaiming peace, is not sustainable from a damaged soul.

3) Proclaiming freedom and peace demands a liberated voice. Moses was slow of speech and tongue. Find your voice.

In these times, liberate your proclamation by liberating your soul and liberating your voice. Only then will we be able to liberate others.

Prayer

Holy Spirit, liberate us from everything that keeps us from loving and receiving love. O God, by adopting the grace of Jesus, we became your children. Liberate our souls from darkness and evil. Let us live in the glory and the splendour of the freedom, peace and liberation you have won us. Through Jesus Christ, Our Lord.

Amen

Third Sunday of Advent – JOY

Mon, 12 Dec 2022 23:08:13 GMT

Third Sunday of Advent – JOY

The theme for the third Sunday of Advent is Joy. One of the assigned biblical texts from the Revised Common Lectionary for the third Sunday of Advent in 2022 is Psalm 146:5-10, which in the NRSV reads:

“Happy are those whose help is the God of Jacob, whose hope is in the LORD their God, who made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them; who keeps faith forever; who executes justice for the oppressed; who gives food to the hungry. The LORD sets the prisoners free; the LORD opens the eyes of the blind. The LORD lifts up those who are bowed down; the LORD loves the righteous. The LORD watches over the strangers; he upholds the orphan and the widow, but the way of the wicked he brings to ruin. The LORD will reign forever, your God, O Zion, for all generations. Praise the LORD!”

It is common in Christian circles to make a hard and fast distinction between joy and happiness. I know many a pastor who finds himself or herself continually wrestling with their congregants, reminding them that, for a follower of Christ, life is not about finding ‘happiness’ as we typically conceive of happiness in modern Western culture. I also have journeyed with many fellow believers over the years who, though they may not claim to be ‘happy’ in their current season of life, do have a deep-seated joy in Christ that transcends circumstances and is rooted not in frail, changeable emotional or circumstantial highs but in the conviction that Christ is their helper.

So, what are we to make of this supposed distinction between joy and happiness? Notice that the above text, when read in context, claims that those who look for help ultimately in YHWH rather than in powerful and influential human beings are “Happy” (according to the NRSV). This is contrasted with the “wicked” whose way the Lord “brings to ruin.” Other translations, such as the ESV, use the word “Blessed” rather than “Happy.” In reality, within the biblical languages, there is no inherent distinction between joy and happiness; they are used interchangeably. And in both Hebrew and Greek the same keyword can be rightly translated “Happy” or “Blessed.”

Despite all this however, I do believe that the overall biblical witness calls us continually to joy, particularly finding joy in God as our saviour in a way that is rooted in who God is and what he has done, is doing, and will do for us, rather than in our current circumstances or emotional state. This is a prominent theme throughout the whole canon of Scripture, both the Hebrew Bible and the New Testament. Consider the ending of the book of Habakkuk, wherein the prophet has been wrestling with God, questioning whether YHWH is truly a just God in the midst of a world knee-deep in injustice and godlessness. Habakkuk 3:17-19 in the NRSV reads:

“Though the fig tree does not blossom, and no fruit is on the vines; though the produce of the olive fails and the fields yield no food; though the flock is cut off from the fold and there is no herd in the stalls, yet I will rejoice in the LORD; I will exult in the God of my salvation. GOD, the Lord, is my strength; he makes my feet like the feet of a deer, and makes me tread upon the heights.”

Clearly, the prophet is not deriving his joy from his or his people’s current circumstances, but in who YHWH is, “the God of my salvation,” or we could say, ‘the one who helps me.’

And consider Paul’s letter to the Philippians. He uses the terms translated “joy” or “rejoice” sixteen times in this very short letter! In 4:4 Paul emphatically commands the Philippian believers to “Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, Rejoice.” From what kind of circumstance does Paul both personally model and then command this way of life? From prison, possibly awaiting execution.

Let us now return briefly to the above designated Advent reading. What are the circumstances of those who are dubbed “Happy” in Psalm 146:5-10? Here is a short list just from this Psalm:

The oppressed
The hungry
The prisoners
Those who are “bowed down” i.e. suffering and struggling
The strangers i.e. marginalized and vulnerable foreign immigrants
The orphan
The widow.

Here is an important observation, and some food for thought: The only condition named by the Psalmist for one to be designated “Happy” is that the person has chosen, by the empowering grace of God, to look to God their saviour for help in the midst of their sufferings and pain and in the midst of a broken and fallen world, as opposed to powerful and influential human beings, those who promise great deliverance but cannot themselves be relied upon.

In the season of Advent, the Christian Church worldwide endeavours to place ourselves in the shoes of the nation of Israel prior to Christ’s first Advent. To enter into the deeply-rooted posture of waiting, longing, hoping, groaning for the long-awaited and promised divine deliverance. In the Advent season, we also orientate ourselves to Christ’s second, still-to-come Advent, when YHWH will wipe every tear away from our eyes and make all things new. On that day there will be no more oppressed, hungry, imprisoned or marginalized and suffering people. On that day, our joy will be boundless, unassailable and perfect as we exist eternally, having been finally and decisively helped by God our saviour. But for now, we continue our pilgrimage in the in-between time. Christ has already inaugurated his Kingdom, and so we have already been helped by our saviour in profound and wonderful ways. And yet the keen sense that things are not all as they should be remains. How do we respond then? I suggest that we pray, and ask the Lord to teach us to live in a joy which can survive both the lofty heights of success and bounty, as well as the disorientating depths of depression and lack, because it is ultimately based on the fact that we have chosen to be the people “whose help is the God of Jacob, whose hope is in the LORD their God, who made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them; who keeps faith forever; who executes justice for the oppressed; who gives food to the hungry.”

Amen.

First Sunday of Advent – HOPE

Mon, 28 Nov 2022 22:59:20 GMT

First Sunday of Advent – HOPE

There is a good reason why the Advent season begins with the theme of hope. Deep at the beating heart of the Christian faith stands an undeniable, enduring, everlasting hope. It is a hope based on God’s promises and God’s actions. It is a hope that encompasses all our lives and all our world. It is a hope at once answered and spurred forward, incongruously, by the birth of a small peasant child.

As the hymn O Come, O Come, Emanuel eloquently describes, the people of Israel were oppressed and hoping for liberation. They looked for the advent (which means arrival) of the Messiah to rescue them from this oppression. Their hopes were not based on idle wishfulness, either. They were based upon the past promises of God to deliver his people from such oppression, and the past actions of God to fulfill those promises. These were promises like the one God gave to King Ahaz through the prophet Isaiah, in which the birth of a young child named Immanuel was an assurance that God would deliver his people from the threats that faced them in those days, and about which Matthew tells us that Jesus was the greater fulfillment in his own day—and ours. The advent of Jesus, the Messiah, was, is, and will be the grounds for hope that all such oppressions, struggles, and strife in our lives will give way to peace, love, and joy.

But the hope that God’s people held wasn’t simply a hope for political change, although that most definitely was an important part. It was a hope for “The Day of the Lord” to come, when God would make all things right in creation. This was the day when all evil would be brought to an end and all things would be made right and new again. It was a hope for the transformation and renewal of all creation, when God would come and dwell among his people and bring all things into full communion with him. This great hope is all encompassing, and holds all our smaller hopes within it.

And so it is that we begin the season of Advent with hope, for Jesus’ advent to us addresses both our smaller hopes in this world and the great hope of God’s people for the transformation of the world. He is, indeed, the answer to all our hopes, because Jesus is our Immanuel, “God with us,” in the fullest sense imaginable. His presence with us, first in Bethlehem and Nazareth, now via his Holy Spirit, and one day at his Second Advent, makes possible the fulfillment of our great hope for the world’s salvation and transformation, and therefore of all our smaller hopes within it. We hope for and seek out justice for our neighbours here and now because Jesus with us makes that great hope possible. We can hope for peace in a war-torn world today because Jesus with us makes that great hope possible. We hope and wait and pray for blessing and abundance and joy now because Jesus with us makes that great hope possible.

This is why we celebrate Jesus’ birth, and not only his death and resurrection, and why we prepare ourselves for a month in the season of Advent, and why we commemorate him by celebrating Communion together. Jesus really is our Immanuel. He is God with us. He is the foundation and pinnacle of all our hopes. He is the promise of help and salvation to us in our troubled, sin-stricken world. He is the fulfillment, and the fulfiller, of every promise of God’s help. He is the reason why king Ahaz could look at a little boy and be reminded that God would save him from peril. He is the reason why we can look at our perils and trials today and hold on to confident hope that our help and salvation is at hand.

Save the dates/ VC National Prayer & Fast 2023

Wed, 23 Nov 2022 00:27:56 GMT

Save the dates/ VC National Prayer & Fast 2023

From Vineyard Canada

For the past 8 years, we have stepped into each new year as a Canadian Vineyard family by engaging in a National Fast. These have been rich times of prayer and connection as we carve out space to wait and listen to the Spirit in preparation for all that is before us.

We love the imagery that came a few years back that as we collectively turn our hearts and minds toward God and His spirit, it is like a vast array of solar panels moving in unison as the sun arcs across the sky. We soak up His light, His warmth and in turn receive the power to keep moving forward during uncertain and fearful times.

Our fast will begin on January 9th and will end on January 18th. Mark your calendars as we look forward to collectively setting our compass for 2023 .

Photos of the Serpentine River with James and Rod

rodjanz07@gmail.com (Rod Janz) — Tue, 25 Oct 2022 04:30:33 GMT

Photos of the Serpentine River with James and Rod

At one of our recent gatherings I asked James, a professional photographer, if he would like to go for a walk and teach me a few things about using my Canon E70 because I barely know how to use it. He agreed! Thanks James! Here are some of the photos we captured ~ Rod

2022 National Prayer & Fast Update Day 9-10: Co-operation

Fri, 21 Jan 2022 22:09:20 GMT

2022 National Prayer & Fast Update
Day 9-10: Co-operation

Find where God is and get behind whatever He is doing, He always wins.”
John Wimber

During this time of fasting and prayer there has been a percolating and tangible sense of hope and anticipation that is at work in us as a movement.

Hope in our heritage. There has been a keen sense of a reawakening to who we are as a Vineyard, particularly in regards to healing. A clear call to be those who are to carry the Spirit’s ministry of the healing of mind, soul, body and spirit walked out in compassion, mercy and justice.

Hope in the midst of mess. God is at work dispelling fear and filling us with a sense of his presence. A prophetic picture came of us under an umbrella, but water was pouring down underneath the umbrella. A paradox, but a beautiful way to capture the beauty of being sheltered and sustained by the Lord.

Hope in creativity and a sense of newness. As challenging as the times are that we find ourselves in, the Spirit will grace us with fresh ideas, strategies and wisdom to take our next step.

Guiding Text: Acts 13:2

While they were worshiping the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said,
“Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.”

What a remarkable moment captured in the biblical narrative. Our expectation is that this will parallel our experience. As we lean into this space of worshiping and fasting these last two days, we are anticipating the Spirit’s direction, guidance and empowering. It is the Spirit who sets us apart for service. It is the Spirit who enables us to carry out the work we are called to. Partnering with Him. Partnering with each other. Step by step.

Common Prayer:

Franciscan Benediction

May God bless you with discomfort
At easy answers, half truths, and superficial relationships,
So that you may live deep within your heart.

May God bless you with anger
At injustice, oppression, and exploitation of people,
So that you may work for justice, freedom, and peace.

May God bless you with tears
To shed for those who suffer pain, rejection, hunger, and war,
So that you may reach out your hand to comfort them and to turn their pain to joy.

And may God bless you with enough foolishness
To believe that you can make a difference in the world,
So that you can do what others claim cannot be done,
To bring justice and kindness to all our children and the poor.

Amen

The Foundations Team

*Each morning David and Anita have been hosting a zoom space that has been contemplative in nature providing a time of worship, reflection and prayer. Our last one will be Saturday, January 22nd at 7 am PST . We would love to see you join the room. Link HERE

2022 National Prayer & Fast Update Day 7-8 : Impartation

Tue, 18 Jan 2022 22:16:15 GMT

2022 National Prayer & Fast Update
Day 7-8 : Impartation

“Our passion is to imitate the ministry of Jesus in the power of the Spirit”
John Wimber

Guiding Text: Ephesians 1:17-20a

I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father,may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better. I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in his holy people, and his incomparably great power for us who believe. That power is the same as the mighty strength he exerted when he raised Christ from the dead.

As Vineyard people we have a deep recognition of our need for the presence and power of the Holy Spirit working in and through our lives in order to live out the mandate given to us by Jesus. For the next several days of the fast we will be focusing on our need to be filled with and empowered by the Holy Spirit. Our Common Prayer over these couple of days will be what is known in Church History as the “Golden Sequence.” Its original format was penned by St. Gregory the Great in 604 AD and was word-smithed into this version in 1128 AD by the Archbishop of Canterbury at that time, Stephen Langton.

Come, Holy Spirit; send down from heaven’s height your radiant light.
Come, lamp of every heart come, parent of the poor; all gifts are yours.
Comforter beyond all comforting, sweet unexpected guest, sweetly refresh.
Rest in hard labour, coolness in heavy heat, hurt souls’ relief.
Refill the secret hearts of your faithful, O most blessed light.
Without your holy power Nothing can bear your light, Nothing is free from sin.
wash all that is filthy, water all that is parched, heal what is hurt within.
bend all that is rigid, warm all that is frozen hard, lead back the lost.
Give virtue its reward, give, in the end, salvation and joy that has no end.

Rest
Receive
Reorient
Ruminate

We will be gathering, weighing and collating what we sense the Spirit is speaking to us as a people throughout the fast, so we encourage you to send in those reflections and gleanings that you sense are from the Spirit to cathy@vineyard.ca

2022 National Prayer & Fast Update - Day 4-6

Tue, 18 Jan 2022 01:23:39 GMT

2022 National Prayer & Fast Update Day 4-6 : Revelation

Guiding Text: Psalm 139: 23-24

Search me God and know my heart
test me and know my anxious thoughts
See if there is any offensive way in me
and lead me in the way everlasting

The dictionary definition of the word “revelation” as a noun describes it this way, “the divine or supernatural disclosure to humans of something relating to human existence. It also can be used to describe things that are “exposed” or “the making known” of something that was previously secret or unknown.

Our focus for Day 4-6 will be that of inviting the Holy Spirit to shine his revealing light into our thinking and into our whole lives, communities and our national identity. Rooted and secure in His love we can with confidence trust in His goodness and His mercy as we open ourselves up to His “revealing” work.

We will be asking the Holy Spirit to grace us as individuals and as a larger community to;

know our sins and to turn from them
“see” our words & actions in light of their opposition to the Jesus Way
Commit to engaging with the Holy Spirit’s work in our lives to see lasting change

Common Reflection: Psalm 103: 10-12

He doesn’t treat us as our sins deserve, nor pay us back in full for our wrongs. As high as heaven is over the earth, so strong is his love to those who fear him. And as far as sunrise is from sunset he has separated us from our sins

Rest

Receive

Reorient

Ruminate

We will be gathering, weighing and collating what we sense the Spirit is speaking to us as a people throughout the fast, so we encourage you to send in those reflections and gleanings that you sense are from the Spirit to cathy@vineyard.ca

Looking forward to all God has for us as we set aside this time to seek Him.

2022 National Fast Update Day 1-3: Consecration

Thu, 13 Jan 2022 23:28:05 GMT

2022 National Fast Update Day 1-3: Consecration

Guiding Text: Romans 12:1 MSG

So here’s what I want you to do, God helping you:
take your everyday, ordinary life
your sleeping, eating, going to work, and walking around life -
and place it before God as an offering
Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him;
Don’t become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it
without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You’ll be changed from the inside out.
Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it.
Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity,
God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you.

Our focus for Day 1-3 of the fast is that of consecration. We are leaning into a posture of surrender -offering our minds, our bodies, our spirits to God. We are re-orienting our lives to Jesus, to His Invitation, to His Way.

Here is a Common Prayer we’d love for you to weave into the rhythms of your devotion and prayer over these few days taken from Psalm 91:1-5 vs.15,16:

We turn to you, surrendering our whole lives
It’s in you that we find shelter
our place of refuge in this storm
our place of rest when we are weary

Lord you are our strong tower and we choose to trust you
we turn toward your wisdom to avoid the traps that would cause us to stumble
we lean into your “shalom” when disease threatens to fill us with fear

You shelter us under your wings and we find safety there
Your faithfulness is unfailing and is our defense

We won’t be afraid of the night
Nor respond in fear to the challenges of the day

When we call on you, you answer us
You promise to be with us in our troubles
You sustain us and we are not ashamed
Throughout our entire lives you are enough for us, for you are our rescuer

Rest
Receive
Reorient
Ruminate

We will be gathering, weighing and collating what we sense the Spirit is speaking to us as a people throughout the fast, so we encourage you to send in those reflections and gleanings that you sense are from the Spirit to cathy@vineyard.ca

Looking forward to all God has for us as we set aside this time to seek Him.

National Online Service

Thu, 23 Dec 2021 18:29:25 GMT

National Online Service - Sunday, December 26, 2021

Here are some links for the Vineyard Canada National Online Service...

Google - Click here

Youtube Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2cBpbQQIAeM or watch here on December 26 at 10.00 AM...

Vineyard Canada - Prayer and Fasting

Tue, 21 Dec 2021 19:38:02 GMT

The eyes of the Lord are on the righteous and His ear attentive to their cries

~ Psalm 34:15 ~

Prayer allows us to be ready to cooperate with what the Spirit of God is initiating and where God is moving. It helps to align us with His way, with His heart, with His purpose. It enables us to stay in sync with the wind of His Spirit, helping us navigate the winds of life, of culture, of change, even when we’ve hit the doldrums where our own sails can feel so empty. It’s in this place of prayer that we gain perspective and catch a fresh glimpse of the One who has called us His own, something which we so need now!

It is critical for us in the Vineyard that our engagement in prayer is from this deep place of rest. Hebrews 4 makes it clear that from this place we approach the Throne of Grace confident that we will receive all that we need. Charis Rousu, who with her husband Nathan are our National Catalysts in the area of prayer, which we lovingly call PULSE, reminds us as we enter this time that as we do this together, “we practice surrender and devotion to the One who fully knows and fully loves.” This is so critical in shaping our perspective. Our prayers are not transactional, designed to get guaranteed results. Neither are they formulaic.

Though prayer touches a variety of expressions, “petitions, prayers, intercession and thanksgiving” as noted by Paul, it is born and sustained in the exchange of unabashed love and devotion. As Jesus told us, we are not engaged in empty repetition, nor are we to be hypocritical - as the Greek illumines, “play acting” - as we pray, but to be deeply authentic. Real. Relational.

As we all lean into this time of waiting and listening beginning the morning of the January 13th-23 we would love for you to engage with us in the following ways;

Each morning David and Anita will be hosting a Zoom Space for 45 minutes at 7 am PST. This space will be contemplative in nature providing a time of worship, reflection and prayer together. Join the Zoom Room HERE
We will be sending updates and some practical handles to keep us united thematically and provide communal support as we journey through the ten days.
Please send in the various promptings, insights and prophetic stirrings that the Lord is giving you during this time. We are excited to lean into communal discernment together and discover how the Spirit is guiding us in 2022. c athy@vineyard.ca
Given the amount of shift and change at all levels of life and society which continues to impact us as individuals and as communities, we want to make room during this fast to share specific needs with the family so that we can be carrying each other in prayer day by day. Please send your requests to cathy@vineyard.ca

May God meet us as we set aside this time to pray and listen!

Grace & Peace
David & Anita

Fourth Sunday of Advent – Love Never Fails

Mon, 20 Dec 2021 23:45:54 GMT

Fourth Sunday of Advent – Love Never Fails

This is the candle which has us celebrating love.

It comes to us in the Person of Immanuel.

Tangible.

Touchable.

Human.

Divine.

As we watch this candle burn we pray that we would be forged by the fire of He who is Love. That the light of God would illuminate our imaginations and fuel our intercession that we may live partnering with the Spirit to see the kingdom dreams of heaven find expression on this earth.

Peace. Good will.

Love that brings justice. Love that instills hope. Love that nurtures peace.

The love that never fails.

There is a fascinating smithing of the original language in which these words were penned in 1 Corinthians 13:8. The word picture painted evokes the imagery of something never running out - never ending. Or more strikingly, that it never gives up. One translation of the text expresses it this way, “love survives everything.”

Love keeps reaching. Keeps believing. Keeps hoping. Sustaining forever.

“But where there are prophecies, they will cease.”

We need some divine insight every once in a while. A word that strikes as from the very mouth of God can truly be a remarkable and life changing thing. A word that brings a course correction that diverts our path from disaster is such a gift. A verse of Scripture that anchors us again and again is valuable. Yet, any echo of the voice of God that is untethered from love will clang. It will even eventually cripple no matter the original intent. Rather than releasing freedom and hope it can fetter. Produce the chains of religiosity that are clasped by fear. These words cannot - will not - last. Love will have the final say in all things.

“Where there are tongues they will be stilled.”

The mystical. The ecstatic. Without experiencing the wonder of things that transcend, that are inexplicable even, life can be quite dull. We need language that goes beyond language. The sounds beyond the sounds. The rhythms of life, grace and beauty that can be hard to feel - to express - but we know they’re there. The moments when they find wings and unlock our deepest doubts - our deepest groans - our deepest longings - born on the wind of the Spirit to the very ears of God, are special. But even these will be stilled. They cannot carry this day - or this night. And once we see the One who is called Love face to face, all that is shrouded in mystery will be revealed in His glorious light - and love will remain.

“Where there is knowledge, it will pass away.”

To understand - to know - is a good thing, but the longer we journey in this life, we realize how much more we do not understand. We see as in a dim mirror - a reflection. We want to be lifelong learners and press in to be faithful students of life and living, but all the knowledge we can attain will pass away. Only love remains.

Love is relentless. It never fails. Another facet of the Greek language here is that love never “falls off.” Perhaps the notion of a love that is unconditional is a misnomer, for if there is a love that is conditional, well then, it is not love. Love is unshakable. Feelings may pass. A sense of erotic excitement will be fleeting. The chemistry and sensations we call love will shift and change. Adoration that we hold for material things and our deepest dreams, will fade. Diminish. Even completely disappear.

But love never fails.

Never stops.

Never “falls off.”

Always believing. Always reaching. Always waiting.

It is secure. It is not fragile. It does not need to be coddled. Therefore it will not coerce. It does not bully. It is kind. It is not vengeful. No need to dominate or demand therefore it does not control or manipulate. Where it begins it finds its completion. There is no other end.

For God is love.

And God moves. It is the essence of the Trinity. Moving. Dancing. Breathing. Creating. Redeeming. Restoring. Embracing. Relating.

Not simply a verb, or an adjective. It is the very essence of God. This is not to say that love is God, but that it exists because God is. It does not exist, or find expression, to balance out the attributes of the Godhead. It is not the training wheels of the Trinity to keep sovereignty, judgment, holiness and omnipotence in check. God is love and all His attributes are expressed through it. They flow from this essence. If love is not the result, then it has not come from God.

And this Word has become flesh. This light has come. Immanuel. Jesus.

Love.

First. Last. Beginning. End.

He has been from the beginning. He has come in the nativity. He walked among us and died and rose again. He is coming.

Immanuel. In eternity past. In eternity future.

Love never fails.

For Erika Kobewka, Arden Kobewka and Kris MacQueen, this project has been a wonderful labour of love. Erika wrote "Word Of God" a number of years ago, and it has organically spread across the country, already finding a place in the worship times of many Vineyard churches. It will release "properly" as a single across all digital platforms in early January, but we wanted to get this to your ears and into your heart during the advent season, so we've created a lyric video, premiering today. Give a listen and you'll know why we couldn't wait any longer. This is a song for today. Special thanks to all who contributed your voices to this song. Such a special moment.

Third Sunday of Advent – Joy For All

Mon, 13 Dec 2021 16:48:49 GMT

Third Sunday of Advent – Joy For All

Image : Henry Ossawa Tanner - Angels Appearing before the Shepherds

Third Sunday of Advent – Joy For All

“8 And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night. 9 An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. 10 But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid. I bring you good news that will cause great joy for all the people. 11 Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is the Messiah, the Lord.” Luke 2:8-11 (NIV)

Do you find that global news apps and local media channels can feel like pretty ominous places these days? Hasn’t it felt like we’re all collectively and individually holding our breath? Bracing for the next shift, pivot, or new normal? Stunned and silenced by another natural disaster? Grieved as another devastating truth is unearthed and brought to light? Disoriented by a world polarized and at odds with one another? And in the midst of it all, haven’t we been walking our own roads of loss? Most of the time, it can feel really heavy.

Personally, particularly during this season, I often think about what kind of world Christ was born into. In the Gospel accounts of the first Advent, we see that our Messiah was born to a young and shamed teenage mom, he was born poor and displaced, and he was born into a social system ripe with political strife and turmoil. Soon after Jesus’ birth when King Herod realized he had been outwitted by the Magi, he immediately ordered the annihilation of all infant boys under the age of two. If you follow the Catholic liturgical calendar at all, you might remember that the Feast of Holy Innocents—a remembrance of those babies slaughtered at the hands of Herod—is literally waiting in the wings following Christmas Day.[1] In Luke’s account of this violent tragedy, he quotes the prophet Jeremiah: “A voice is heard in Ramah, weeping and great mourning, Rachel weeping for her children and refusing to be comforted, because they are no more.”[2] Infant genocide was on the heels of a world pronouncement of great joy for all peoples. A Saviour, long foretold as the One who would wipe every tear from every eye, had come to a weary and waiting world reeling with loss.

Over the last several months and even years, we as a country have come face-to-face with our own story of genocide. We witnessed the truth-telling of Indigenous families’ grave losses, their own children stolen and violated at the hands of insidious systemic evils. When pondering the Biblical text surrounding Christ’s birth beside these dark findings of our nation’s history, my imagination wanders to the sounds of the distraught and travailing mothers that likely surrounded Mary. I imagine her trembling as she holds an infant Jesus close, weeping and grieving with those robbed of their babes, their mourning echoing across every hillside. This is the world that our Emmanuel was born into: fraught, traumatized, distressed, conflicted, and fearful. I think we have all felt these painful parallels, these dissonances and heartaches that cannot be side-stepped or ignored. They are deeply rooted in our current reality and truthfully, they are a part of the mystery of the incarnation as well. Jesus, our longed-for Messiah, was born into a grieving, suffering, and chaotic world.

The third candle of Advent is often called the Shepherd’s Candle, and in contrast to the deep royal colours that traditionally surround it, the Shepherd’s Candle is distinctly different and bright in its rose hue. Yes, right in the middle of this season of longing, hope, and waiting stands joy—wide awake to the pain and sufferings of the human experience.

I marvel at who God chose to be the first recipients of this joyous news. In a society that intrinsically valued moral cleanliness, shepherds were considered tainted and impure and as a result were among the most marginalized. The angel announces Christ’s coming as good news for all, but to begin, this message lands distinctly upon the ears of the poor. Lisa Sharon Harper reminds us that if one’s good news “falls mute when facing those who need good news the most—the oppressed, the impoverished, and the broken,”[3] then it truly is not good news at all. I wonder if Christ’s coming was announced to the rejected and excluded, not as salt on an open wound but as a salve saying, “Here too, here especially, God-with-us.”

Far from being commercialized, contrived, or sentimental, the joy of Advent clings onto this hopeful reality that in Christ Jesus, God continues to step into our suffering, disordered, and aching reality to restore and set things right. In a world fraught with discord, restlessness, violence, and animosity, joy can stand nose-to-nose and toe-to-toe with grief. Joy can hold the hands of grief, and neither are slighted or disingenuous. Truly, the joyous light of Christ’s coming does not silence or hush grief, rather, our Saviour chose to be born right in the midst of these shadowy places.

Footnotes:

[1] Robert E. Webber, Ancient Future Time: Forming Spirituality through the Christian Year (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Baker Books, 2004), 68.

[2] Luke 2:18 (NIV)

[3] Lisa Sharon Harper, The Very Good Gospel: How Everything Wrong Can Be Made Right. (Colorado Springs, Colorado: WaterBrook Press, 2016), 14.

Second Sunday of Advent – Peace

Sun, 12 Dec 2021 03:20:22 GMT

Second Sunday of Advent – Peace

One of the texts from the Revised Common Lectionary for the second Sunday of Advent is Philippians 1:3-11. Philippians is often described as a letter of friendship, because Paul is writing to his close friends in Philippi. In the midst of his constant prayers for his Philippian brothers and sisters Paul says that he is “confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus” (verse 6, NIV).

This second Sunday of Advent feels like a particularly helpful time for me to reflect on the peace brought to us by Jesus Christ. I have just recently emerged from an extended season of full-time education. Throughout the entirety of that season, I felt a keen and irrational lack of peace regarding one particular thing. All students are of course concerned about what will happen once they complete their studies. For some reason I carried in my heart the irrational fear that after I finished my studies, I would end up in a job that was deeply unfulfilling. This was a significant fear for me given that my personality revolves around finding meaning and purpose in life. I was desperately afraid that all my hopes, sense of calling and preparation would ultimately flop and that I would be stuck in a job that, rather than giving me life, would such it out of me. My wife Claire [constantly] reassured me that everything would turn out okay in the end (pro tip – listen to your spouse). My present reality, four months removed from the end of my studies, is that I now have more opportunity to do meaningful work than I ever imagined I would have access to. I am at the point now of having to say no to good things to make sure I don’t overwhelm myself. The question I have for us on this second Sunday of Advent then is this – in what ways are we living in an unnecessary lack of peace? All those years of worrying about the future now look pretty foolish in the face not of my own ability to provide for myself or figure my life out, but in the face of God’s unshakable faithfulness and commitment to his people. When Paul wrote that he was “confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus”, he was confident that God is a God who finishes what he starts. God sends us out on mission, and he doesn’t then leave us hanging.

Martin Luther, the great reformer, spoke of “alien righteousness”, which he described as “the righteousness of another”, which is “instilled from without.” Luther’s defining struggle was to find in the pages of Scripture a merciful God who would turn away his wrath from the sin which Luther felt so keenly within himself. It was from this personal struggle that Luther’s theological breakthrough came – God makes his people right with him by giving them Christ’s own righteousness by his grace through faith. Luther found comfort from his overwhelming anxiety in the idea that he had been given a righteousness that came to him from the outside and which therefore did not depend on his own works. This is what he meant by an “alien righteousness” – Luther’s acceptance with God depended wholly and entirely on God, and not on himself and thus, he could find peace. I wonder if this Advent, those of us who are struggling to find peace as I was throughout my schooling, might be able to find what we could call an ‘alien peace’. A peace which does not depend on our own abilities or virtuousness, but on God’s unshakable faithfulness, grace and goodness alone. “My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one will snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all; no one can snatch them out of my Father’s hand” (John 10:27-29, NIV).

Waiting... The Posture of Advent

Fri, 03 Dec 2021 22:10:30 GMT

Waiting... The Posture of Advent

“Our spiritual life is a life in which we wait, actively present to the moment, expecting that new things will happen to us, new things that are far beyond our imagination or prediction. This, indeed, is a very radical stance toward life in a world preoccupied with control … waiting time is not wasting time. Waiting patiently in expectation is the foundation of spiritual life.”

Henry Nouwen

Waiting.

Heads up. This watchword has been consistently coming up right across our national family as we lean into prayer and listening to the Spirit together. It is a wooing of His voice that we just can’t ignore. On top of it all, the season of advent is upon us. This already is to be a time that deliberately builds into our calendars, into the rhythm of time, a reminder of our waiting. Just as God’s people waited, generation after generation, for the promised King who would one day come to sit on David’s throne forever and redeem Israel, so we now await his second coming. As is the entire message of Christmas, this is not something that is relegated to one time a year, but is to be a regular part of who we are as people of intimacy and in relationship with the Trinity.

Cathy Graham, Vineyard Canada’s Spiritual Life Coordinator, says this about the spiritual discipline of waiting:

“I look forward to waiting the way you might look forward to a good chat with a best friend. Intimate, warm, safe, and transparent. Waiting is fearless because the Listener is all-knowing and endlessly compassionate. Waiting is fluid, never stagnant. It is active and reciprocal, in that there is expectancy that is always rewarded! I’ve never come away from waiting on the Lord without some sense of his presence, even if he is silent, I am filled with a peace that I didn’t have before. Words and impressions are icing on the cake, his love and friendship trump’s revelation all the time, every time.

I want Jesus, I want to know his heart for me today and I want to know how he’s feeling. “How are you today, Lord? What’s on your mind?” And…I wait.”

Ignatian spirituality highlights three aspects of this discipline which are quite helpful as we think through what it means to cultivate this in our lives and communities.

Waiting is expectant.

Waiting requires space

Waiting is hopeful

Tapping our Quaker Roots in the Vineyard, it is important to note that this is not only an individual thing to experience, but is deeply embedded in our understanding of what it means to come together in worship. In that tradition it is known as “silence and expectant waiting.” This really does require intentionality and attentive focus to hold this as a central value in gathering, and as the Quakers say, “this path is strewn with distractions.” This is not realized by simply leaning into more liturgy or embracing contemplative models. It is a way. A posture. A value. This communal discipline is something that we feel we need to be revisiting and reimagining in our various Vineyard expressions across the country.

We can so easily miss this in the pace of life, living and ministry. Even in our commitment to other aspects of spiritual disciplines and building communities of faith, this quality can be lost. At this time of year as well, we can of course, if we choose, rush right into Christmas, as we are swept into the hectic pace of the holidays and completely miss out on the liturgy, the discipline of waiting. But may we suggest, in all facets of life, doing so comes at a cost. “Without the discipline of waiting, there is no growth in relationship with the Father, Son and Holy Spirit,” Cathy Graham says. “Maybe that’s bold to say but I believe it in my bones.”

Here’s another aspect of waiting to think about. Nouwen says, “Learning to weep, learning to keep vigil, learning to wait for the dawn. Perhaps this is what it means to be human.” Do we not only lose out on the beauty and grace of a spiritual discipline and the depth of intimacy with the Lord it affords if we ignore waiting, but, as is suggested here, lose an aspect of what it means to be truly human. To be aware. To be present. To slow down enough to give room - make room - for others at this table.

In the waiting for the presence of God with us, and ultimately the return of Jesus, our longing is not “only” for Him, but for others. For God waits too. A thousand years? Another day? Time isn’t the issue. God is not slow in making good on His promises. He’s waiting. As the Message translation captures this sentiment in 2 Peter 3:8-10. He’s “restraining himself … giving everyone space and time to change.”

So we wait.

We hope.

We lean into peace.

We cultivate joy.

And we love.

“Now there is in store for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day—and not only to me, but also to all who have longed for his appearing.”

2 Timothy 4:8

Maranatha! Come Lord Jesus

Advent Reflections from Across the Vineyard: HOPE

Fri, 03 Dec 2021 22:02:58 GMT

Advent Reflections from Across the Vineyard: HOPE

Photo: Taken on an early November sunrise walk. - Alison Wilson

“The people walking in darkness have seen a great light; on those living in the land of deep darkness a light has dawned. - Isaiah 9:2

As we embark on this season of advent, the purposeful slowing down posture of spiritual preparation for Christmas, the picture that keeps coming to mind is that of a sunrise. Here in Canada, this time of year is full of some of the most beautiful and prolific sunrises. The sunrise along with the sunset serves as a reminder of beauty and hope, along with the daily rhythm of beginning and ending during the darkest days of the year. It feels as if everything is just put on pause in these ordinary, majestic moments. The world is silent and half asleep as beauty unfolds and darkness turns to light.

All creation waits.

Has it felt dark and uncertain at moments this past year? There seems to be more anxiety, more tension, more polarization, more extreme circumstances in every direction we turn. And yet, this reminder of HOPE reorients our hearts to the one thing that remains constant through the ages: JESUS . In all of His glorious humanity. Coming in the most humble and messy form in the most un-ideal of circumstances to bring abundant love and reconciliation into this broken world. A baby. Embodied and miraculous. Holy, sacred and full of wonder. Born into the mess of the world in order to save it.

Jesus, hope of the world.

“And again, Isaiah says, ‘The Root of Jesse will spring up, one who will arise to rule over the nations; in him the Gentiles will hope.’ May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.” - Romans 15:12-13

Hope is defined as a desire accompanied by expectation of or belief in fulfillment. It’s far from It’s far from the feel-good emotions of eternal optimists but rather a deep spiritual discipline often begging us to lean in closely to the promises of God during some of the darkest times of our lives. Sometimes we refer to this as “living in the tension.” As followers of Jesus, this is the space we occupy in the now and the not yet Kingdom of God. When it least makes sense, when it feels like humanity is broken beyond repair, we lean into Hope.

Jesus, hope of the world.

Lord, we posture ourselves in this place of hope. We look to you through all of the chaos, mess, unanswered questions, pain and disappointment. We know that you are the only unwavering and all sustaining thing in this world. Would you bleed through our circumstances and like the sunrise, breathe stillness and the promise of a new day? Would you center our hearts on Your Holy Spirit and open our eyes and ears during this season of advent? Help us to embody Your hope in this world. We remember forwards as we long for your presence and rescue. Thank you Jesus for being our one true hope.

Jesus, hope of the world.

1/Definition taken from Merriam-Webster online dictionary. https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/hope

National Truth and Reconciliation Day

Thu, 30 Sep 2021 22:25:45 GMT

National Truth and Reconciliation Day

National Day for Truth & Reconciliation from the National Director of Vineyard Canada

As stated and instituted by our Canadian National Government:

“September 30, 2021 marks the first National Day for Truth and Reconciliation.

The day honours the lost children and Survivors of residential schools, their families and communities. Public commemoration of the tragic and painful history and ongoing impacts of residential schools is a vital component of the reconciliation process.

The creation of this federal statutory holiday was through legislative amendments made by Parliament. On June 3, 2021, Bill C-5, An Act to amend the Bills of Exchange Act, the Interpretation Act and the Canada Labour Code (National Day for Truth and Reconciliation) received Royal Assent.”

How do we as a national community in Vineyard Canada enter this space? I have a few thoughts for you to consider.

1. Lament

It is significant to note that this day is one of commemoration rather than that of simply celebration, or a holiday. This must be more than a bit of clever word-smithing. It is an invitation to pause. To examine. To viscerally intercede. To honour. To lament.

Brian Doerksen’s recent music video “215” would be a great tool today to help you enter this posture and sacred space.

Though a national initiative, not all provinces are choosing to recognize this day as such. Perhaps that in itself is cause for lament. As is to be expected, there are many mixed emotions and perspectives among our indigenous peoples and leaders regarding how to respond to this day. We must respect that.

Be in solidarity.

There is a poignant moment captured in Jeremiah 31:15 where the Lord says, “A voice is heard in Ramah, mourning and great weeping. Rachel weeping for her children and refusing to be comforted, because they are no more.” Rachel’s children were taken into exile and there was hope for their return, and yet she was inconsolable. How much more for those of our First Nation, Métis and Inuit as there will be no return home in the land of the living.

2. Listen

It would be really healthy and helpful to step out of our echo chambers and listen to our indigenous community on this day.

In interview after interview with Indigenous people you hear the struggle of this gracious and long-suffering community, dispirited by decades of broken treaties and a less than snails pace implementation of the Truth and Reconciliation recommendations that were laid out as far back as 2008, of how to engage. Actually, this federal statutory “holiday” actually coincides with the already implemented annual “Orange Shirt Day” which began in 2013. The orange shirt was presented as a symbol of Indigenous peoples’ suffering caused by the Indian Residential Schools then. How many of us were even aware that had been an observation for the last eight years? No wonder there is concern that this will be just another gesture and eventually just be a great “day off”. Another holiday.

We must listen. Better. Often.

Be in solidarity. Let’s hold our tongues.

“It is not good to be partial to the wicked and so deprive the innocent of justice. To answer before listening - that is folly and shame.” Proverbs 18:5,13.

3. Learn

There is no room for a “been there done that” attitude in the long journey of reconciliation, redemption and restoration. There is always more to learn. Our VC Engage Initiative posted some great stuff on September 24th via FaceBook and has had material up on our website on how to prepare for and engage with this day for some time. That’s a good place to start if you haven’t checked it out already. Actually, it will take very little effort to discover some really amazing resources at our disposal to continue being educated and informed about the history, current reality and important steps into the future we have with our First Nation, Métis and Intuit peoples.

Unanimously we are hearing from the Indigenous communities the sentiment that this day is a good “first step.” But the sentiment is clear. It’s a “first step.” One First Nation elder actually called it a “baby step.” We have much more to learn. Much more to do as a result. We must remain attentive and diligent in walking forward towards healing and hope.

Be in solidarity. Let’s hold our tongues. Reserve judgement.

“The heart of the discerning acquires knowledge, for the ears of the wise seek it out. In a lawsuit the first to speak seems right, until someone comes forward and cross-examines.” Proverbs 18:15,17

4. Lean

The Urban Dictionary, a crowd sourced online dictionary, describes what it means to “lean in” like this: “to own it, to cast off disparagement. You move forward and deal with (things) with unhindered confidence.”

This is a time to lean into taking tangible, practical steps. Have you actually read the Truth and Reconciliation Report yet? Have you checked out VC’s Engage posts and website articles and suggestions? Today would be a good day to do so and then choose just one thing that you’ll tangibly do in the next few days to lean into action.

Be in solidarity. Let’s hold our tongues. Reserve judgement. Grow.

Here’s a bit of a chunk of Scripture, but lean into this wisdom from James as captured in his Epistle, Chapter One verses nineteen through twenty-seven.

“My dear brothers and sisters, take note of this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry, because human anger does not produce the righteousness that God desires. Therefore, get rid of all moral filth and the evil that is so prevalent and humbly accept the word planted in you, which can save you.

Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says. Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like someone who looks at his face in a mirror and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like. But whoever looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues in it—not forgetting what they have heard, but doing it—they will be blessed in what they do.

Those who consider themselves religious and yet do not keep a tight rein on their tongues deceive themselves, and their religion is worthless. Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.”

5. Love

Our VC Engage team encouraged us to reflect on 1 John 3:16,18 on September 24th in preparation for this day. It’s good to bring it forward again here.

“This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters. Dear children, let us not love with words or speech but with actions and in truth.”

Be in solidarity. Let’s hold our tongues. Reserve judgement. Grow. Engage.

How about we sign off with another Scripture? Here goes. Pretty sure you know where to find it. Maybe take a deep breath, slow down and carve out some space either alone, or with a few others, and dive into a Lectio Divina rhythm to engage with the text in a fresh way today in the context of this Truth and Reconciliation Day.

If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing.

Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when completeness comes, what is in part disappears. When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me. For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.

And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.

* Artist: Luke Swinson from Kitchener ON. You can follow him on instagram @lukeswinsonart

Vineyard Canada - Pentecost Sunday Worship Gathering

Tue, 18 May 2021 16:59:50 GMT

May 23, 2021: Vineyard Canada - Pentecost Sunday Worship Gathering

New Paragraph

Greetings everyone!

We are really looking forward to our online gathering this Pentecost Sunday! We hope you are planning on joining us starting at 9:00AM PDT.

Here are the links that we promised you and if you need anything else from us please reach out.

YouTube Live: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=udbMTm_kt60

Facebook Live: https://www.facebook.com/VineyardCanada/posts/1905796739575359

Stream Key: re_3291819_eventa95bdca088c64175a040dd46372e0466

Litany for Peace Be With You

Sat, 17 Apr 2021 19:38:48 GMT

Easter 3, Year B: Litany for Peace Be With You

By Fran Pratt

I find that, occasionally, it makes sense to offer a prayer or liturgy with a simple refrain. It offers a place to mentally land for a few moments, especially in a litany dealing with heavy topics. This week, given the news, feels like one of those weeks. Also, sometimes we need to say a thing aloud a bunch of times to get it into our thick skulls :)

Sunday I preached a sermon about inner peace being an inside job and a choice that we get to make out of our free will about whether to take Christ up on the invitation into let "Peace be with you" regardless of what's happening around us.

And then we are confronted with news of more killings, more injustice, more police violence. (RIP Duante Wright, Lord have mercy.)

I even got news from my best friend that she is suddenly in hospital having emergency surgery.

Bad news is another opportunity for me to practice this lesson. To practice the Peace Within (John 20: 19) regardless of how the world, events, other people, etc are behaving or feeling.

I'm reminded of the hymn lyrics: "Thou wilt keep [them] in perfect peace / whose mind is stayed on Thee."

And I'm convinced that keeping that inner peace fire stoked, we are able to access more empathy, more compassion, and more right action. When we are not spinning our wheels in worry, anxiety, and emotional turbulence (here is the growth edge for me) we are better problem solvers and justice-doers. Today I'm even more sure that Inner Peace is an important Fulcrum of Transformation.

This is difficult spiritual work. Inner peace is not apathy. It's a radical restructuring of our way of being in the world.

We hear the voice of Christ speaking:

Peace be with you (1).

Right now these words seem impossible, mind-boggling,

Even, at times, annoying.

How can we allow ourselves to be at peace

When the world is full of such suffering?

And yet Christ, who was framed, tortured, ridiculed, and murdered, Speaks

peace to us from the other side of death.

Even in suffering

Peace be with you.

Even in great loss

Peace be with you.

Even in violence

Peace be with you.

Even amidst ongoing injustice

Peace be with you.

Even amidst persecution and oppression

Peace be with you.

Even in illness

Peace be with you.

Even in lack

Peace be with you.

Even in trouble

Peace be with you.

Even in sorrow

Peace be with you.

Knowing that inner peace is not apathy or lack of compassion,

Peace be with you.

But instead increases our power for transformation,

Peace be with you.

We align ourselves with Christ’s message:

Peace be with you.

So that we can more effectively be a force for change in this world.

Peace be with you.

And so that we might know the fullness of life offered to us here, Earth-side.

Peace be with us all.

Luke 24:36

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Jesus Is Laid In The Tomb

rodjanz07@gmail.com (Rod Janz) — Thu, 08 Apr 2021 22:30:14 GMT

Jesus Is Laid In The Tomb
by Tina-Marie Axenty

8 If I go up to the heavens, you are there; if I make my bed in the depths, you are there.

9 If I rise on the wings of the dawn, if I settle on the far side of the sea,

10 even there your hand will guide me, your right hand will hold me fast.

11 If I say, "Surely the darkness will hide me and the light become night around me,"

12 even the darkness will not be dark to you; the night will shine like the day,

for darkness is as light to you.

Psalm 139:7-12

So. We wait. We hold vigil. We hope. Holy Saturday. Sabbath Rest. Where darkness is as light.

Hold on a little more, this is not the end.

Hope is in the Lord, keep your eyes on Him.

The Kingdom is Yours.

(JonCarlos Velez, Jamie MacDonald, Dee Wilson)

Art by Scott Erickson

No Short Cuts

Thu, 08 Apr 2021 22:24:33 GMT

No Short Cuts

By David Ruis

Jesus Died On The Cross

"No Short-Cuts"

If you've been journeying in any way through the Stations of the Cross over the last couple of weeks one thing has been clear. This was no easy leg of the journey for Jesus. Yet as we've moved station by station we find incredible comfort in seeing that he truly was challenged and tempted in all phases of what it means to be human. Identifying with us. Experiencing all, while each step opening a way as our forerunner into the very sanctuary of God. Anchored. Secure. Saved. Safe.

And now we see Him here fully in the grips of physical death.

"And when Jesus had cried out again in a loud voice, he gave up his spirit." Matthew 27:50

Earlier in the week he could see the whole thing unfolding before him like a looming nightmare. While in the Garden of Gethsemane, in his lamenting prayer asking the Father if there were any other options than this cup of suffering, he found the sweet spot of surrendering to the path before him. Trusting. Leaning. There would be no short-cut. No quick fix. No easy out.

Just as when the Devil tempted him at the very beginning of his vocational calling, taunting him to take the easy path, the easy way into glory, the temptation to take another path in this moment presses on his mind. His emotions. His body. Sweating drops of blood under the duress. Yet Jesus refused to run.

Surrendering to the Father. Trusting. Leaning. There would be no short cut. No quick fix. No easy out.

Now he hangs. Lifeless. Surrendering his life into the hands of His Father. Trusting. Leaning. There would be no short cut. No quick fix. No easy out.

It is a strange Gospel that has emerged particularly in the last century that has sold the Good News as the exact opposite to this Jesus Way. No surrender required, just an assent to a belief, or signing a membership card with an entrance pass to heaven. No real trust, for if you had "true faith", there really is no need for trusting , because you should have it all. Now. Isn't that what Jesus died for? No real lean. No dependance or meekness, for that would be weak and lacking. Fixed. Done. Ah yes, just find the right mix of prayer, worship and service and there's no need to embark on the journey of formation and transformation.

Yet is this the eternal path? The Way of Jesus? There is something of the eternal that begins now as we surrender all to Christ. It does not begin after we die, but we embark today. Each day. Step by step. There is something of what we learn here. What we suffer here. What we celebrate here. The joy that is found here. The forming and transforming work that happens in the midst of real life and living is actually laying up eternal treasure. Each moment precious gifts to us now that will last for all eternity. We follow Jesus. And the Good News is that we can do this thing! That whosoever will may join us. The most broken. The most ostracized. All may come and taste of eternal life through Jesus.

Yet, there are no short cuts.

Every in-breaking work of the Spirit is an invitation to formation. To transformation.

You've been healed. Awesome. Praise the Lord. Now go, and sin no more.

You're in the midst of revival. Turn your face to heaven. Let the fire fall. Now lean into true repentance that takes you in formation. Transformation.

You've experienced the renewing work of the Spirit. Be refreshed. Be filled. Now go, freely you've received, freely give. To the poor. To the marginalized. To your city. Your neighbourhood. Your streets. As you are being formed, let your light shine. As you are being transformed, step into what the Father is doing and see the transformation of those around you and the place you live.

T here is death that brings life. We look at Him today filled with the courage and confidence that He who began a good work in us will bring it to completion. We can discover the forming and transforming power of the Spirit even as we move through the veil of death and dying. There is no other way. Let's journey!

Litany for the Humble Way

Fri, 26 Mar 2021 23:21:19 GMT

Litany for the Humble Way

Palm Sunday, Year B (2021): Litany for the Humble Way

By Fran Pratt

In Jesus, all of our ideas about glory, royalty, exclusivity, and honor get up-ended. People project all kinds of notions onto him, and he just proceeds with his work healing and preaching his message.

One minute (in last week’s text) he’s talking about how it's time for him to be “glorified” - when what he means is not exactly our ideal glory: death. As opposed to, say, winning military battles or wearing fancy priest robes. And the next minute (in this week’s Palm Sunday text) he’s playing the people’s game, riding into the city on an unbroke donkey. I can imagine him sortof shrugging like, “guess we’re doing this now.”

See, based on his actions here I don’t get the idea that he feels like he needs to be worshipped. He’s trailed by a crowd due to the fact that he’s just raised Lazarus from the dead* but he’s not letting it go to his head or calling attention to himself. He chooses the most lowly of pack animals. He seems happy with paltry palm fronds for offerings. His ego doesn’t require trumpets. He’s the most willing to get down and dirty with lonely and sick people in the streets and byways. I hear his main message as “God’s community is right here for you to join up with” and not “worship me I’m the king of the world.”

And I wonder how often we are getting this wrong: thinking Jesus needs to be put on a pedestal and worshipped rather than learned from and followed. I wonder how often we are that crowd, projecting our need for a loud and rowdy to-do onto Jesus, rather than plugging into the new way of being that he’s embodying and trying to help us wake up to.

God, we witness Christ in the scriptures

Embodying healing love,

Preaching the nearness of God,

Walking along the Path of Peace.

His humble way of love,

Not seeking power or prestige,

Not walling himself up in an ivory tower,

Not following ego’s ambitions,

Is a profound teacher for us,

Who live in a society obsessed with status.

He is victorious without winning military battles.

He is wealthy without owning riches.

He is powerful without lording it over anyone.

His goodness needs no explanation.

We confess that we have often worshipped from afar,

Rather than sitting close to listen.

We confess that we have often observed Christ’s teachings,

Rather than embodying them.

On this Palm Sunday, we ask to be re-calibrated

To the humble way of Christ,

Whose feet were weary with road dust,

Who wept with his grieving friends (1),

Who concerned himself with empty bellies (2),

Who rode into Jerusalem on the lowliest donkey (3)

We hear Christ’s message:

“Turn around, the Kin-dom of God is right here!”

And know that we are welcomed into it just as we are,

And we welcome it into ourselves (4).

We sing and shout the Hosannas along with that crowd (5),

Because we are so refreshed by the realness of Christ -

By his kindness and empathy,

By his invitation and welcome,

By his largeness of heart.

And these are the qualities we intend to imitate.

Amen

*in the John account

John 11:33

John 6:11

John 12:14, Mark 11:7

Luke 17:21

John 12:13, Mark 11:9

Litany for Alignment with Christ

Thu, 11 Mar 2021 18:38:29 GMT

Litany for Alignment with Christ

Lent 4, Year B 2021: Litany for Alignment with Christ

By Fran Pratt

I’m a firm believer that Lent, practiced consciously, is a guardrail against spiritual bypassing. The regular observance of seasons of austerity, lament, and penance, which we Christians get in Lent and Advent, guide us to enter into aspects of the human experience we’d rather not endure.

Other spiritual traditions have similar seasons: Jews have Yom Kippur; Muslims have Ramadan; Hindus have Navaratri; and so forth. These rhythms keep us pain-avoidant human beings honest: they take us into the shadow so that we have an opportunity to alchemize - or if you prefer a Christianese word: redeem - what we find there: the uncomfortable feelings, the limiting beliefs, patterns of harm, the losses we didn’t have time to grieve, traumas we didn’t have resources to heal before. These seasons offer us the opportunity to make meaning of the human condition and to accept it as it is, to accept ourselves as we are.

In Lent we are invited to stop judging our pain and instead feel it and allow it to teach us. It is part of a cycle: we don’t stay in Lent forever. Death comes, and then Resurrection. Weeping comes in the soul’s night, then joy in the morning. We sow in tears, we reap in joy. If we never accept the rhythm of sowing in tears, we have little appreciation, much less gratitude, for joy. We know light by its contrast to darkness.

In Western culture we make very little space for weakness, pain, mourning, lament, sadness. We are taught early on that excessive feeling that doesn’t fall in the category of anger or excitement is unwelcome, and that sadness is a pathology. But the rhythms of the Christian faith tradition offer a different paradigm: one that welcomes the mourner, blesses the weak, and gives space and voice to lament. It assigns value to loneliness and suffering even as it assures us that we are never alone in suffering.

Jesus heading out to the desert wilderness for a period of solitude and austerity sets the precedent for Lenten practice. Jesus accepts all parts of human experience, entering into the full spectrum of emotion. He rejects no parts of the whole.

In week 2 of Lent, Year B, we are invited along with the disciples to “deny” ourselves, take up the instrument of our suffering, and follow him into the totality of embodied adventure, and to do this willingly, without judgement or resistance, trusting that the way out is the way through.

God, our culture teaches us to avoid pain,
And to suppress emotion;
But in the wisdom tradition that Christ practiced,
We find space for pain, emotion, and much more.

In Lent we go willingly into human pain,
Into embodied experiences of lament,
Of grief,
Of pain,
Of fasting,
Of disorder.

We follow Christ into this full spectrum of emotion and practice,
Into seasons of joy and seasons of lament,
Welcoming all this earth-side life presents,
Understanding the cycles and rhythms of being.

As Christ rebuked Peter, who pressed him to bypass suffering (1),
And instead invited Peter to follow him through -
Through self-denial,
Through painful feelings,
Through uncomfortable work,
Bearing witness to the portion of life that is death.
So we are invited to make meaning of the painful parts of our journey,
To redeem them and be transformed in the process.

This is the work of Lent:
We follow Christ through all this,
Trusting that this path ultimately leads toward joy (2),
That death ultimately brings us to resurrection.

Help us, oh God, to be present to our lives as they are,
And to move through cycles of grief with patience and grace,
Practicing the embodied faith Christ has taught us,
And trusting that morning, and joy, will come (3).

Amen

Mark 8:33
Romans 4:20, Mark 8:31
Psalm 30:5

Photo by Unsplash

Litany posted with permission

Litany for Rhythms of Being

Mon, 01 Mar 2021 16:04:32 GMT

Litany for Rhythms of Bein g

Sunday February 28, 2021 - Lent 2, Year B 2021: Litany for Rhythms of Being

By Fran Pratt

This is the work of Lent:
We follow Christ through all this,
Trusting that this path ultimately leads toward joy (2),
That death ultimately brings us to resurrection.

Amen

Mark 8:33
Romans 4:20, Mark 8:31
Psalm 30:5

Photo by Unsplash

Litany posted with permission

Litany for our Highest Spiritual Selves

Sat, 13 Feb 2021 22:03:27 GMT

Litany for our Highest Spiritual Selves

Sunday February 14, 2021 - Epiphany 6, Transfiguration: Litany for our Highest Spiritual Selves

By Fran Pratt

Here is the litany for Transfiguration Sunday, Year B, which I wrote in 2018 . I still like it a lot.

I looked up the dictionary definition of transfiguration: "a complete change of form or appearance into a more beautiful or spiritual state" (citation) . Over the years I've come to interpret most of the actions and experiences of Christ as invitations. E.g. Jesus resurrects; we are invited into resurrection. Jesus is embodied; we are invited to embrace our embodiment. Jesus heals; we are invited into healing. Jesus is baptized; we are invited into baptism. Jesus undergoes transfiguration; we are invited to undergo transfiguration, etc.

Speaking of baptism, I've also come to understand baptism as a precursor to the transfiguration; almost as though baptism is a ritual signaling our consent to the ongoing process of transfiguration. Every culture has its rituals of symbolic purification in preparation for transformation and higher spiritual awareness. I had never noticed this connection until I started learning more about other spiritual traditions.

This week's gospel text comes from Mark 9. Jesus's baptism is recounted in Mark 1. The life of Christ is full of these kinds of symbols, laced with layers of meaning. Embodiment > purification > transfiguration > death > resurrection > ascension. They are both actual and symbolic, inviting us to perceive our own lives in this multidimensional way.

And here we are at Lent's doorway, with this opportunity to ask ourselves: What rituals of purification do I need to engage in to prepare for and give consent to a higher way of being, a personal transfiguration?

Lent: a time of fasting, preparation, re-focusing. It begins, in the church calendar, with this picture, the example, of what we, too, are to become: the image of Christ shining gloriously, full of embodied light. He is fully become; he is his own true self - even before Good Friday. Even before resurrection. He even tells the disciples that they don’t have to die physically in order to see the kingdom of God come in power (Mark 9:1)! And we are invited to follow that path toward “a complete change of form...into a more spiritual state,” even as we live these homely, challenging lives here on earth.

God, we celebrate the transfiguration of Christ -
Christ, shining gloriously with heaven’s light (1),
Embodying his True Self, even while on earth.
He is fully Become, fully realized.

And, as always, his path is our path.
We are invited into everything Christ does.
He is calling us, also, into transfiguration,
Into the embodiment of our highest spiritual selves.

As Christ is embodied Love, so we are embodied Love.
As he heals his community, so we heal our communities.
As he is baptized and purified, so we are baptized and purified.
As he is bestowed with Divine acceptance, so we are accepted.
As he is filled with Divine light, so we are filled.
As he shines with heaven's glory, so we shine.

This path is both mysterious and plain;
Both spiritual and physical,
Both simple and profound,
Both lover and beloved.

Help us now, oh God, to do whatever is required
To prepare and purify ourselves,
To give consent to receive,
And act to take hold
Of this dazzling Becoming,
This realization of our true, glorious selves.

Amen

Mark 9:2,3

Photo by mostafa meraji on Unsplash

Litany posted with permission

Why Celebrate Black History Month?

Wed, 03 Feb 2021 01:41:51 GMT

Why Celebrate Black History Month?

Across Canada and many other countries Black History month remembers, honours and celebrates the African diaspora for the month of February.

It gives us the opportunity to recognize the pain and struggles of oppressed communities, so we can begin forming a collective memory that remembers and inspire hope, in a way forward together. It also challenges us to eliminate repeating the historical sufferings of black people.

Check out the following links for events and ways you can participate.

https://bcblackhistory.ca/events/

https://www.canada.ca/en/canadian-heritage/campaigns/black-history-month.html

https://www.vancouverheritagefoundation.org/place-that-matters/fountain-chapel/

Day Nine & Ten: Empowering and Filling – A Call to Obedience

Sat, 30 Jan 2021 02:40:56 GMT

Vineyard Canada Communal Fast January 20 ^_ 30, 2021
Day Nine & Ten: Empowering and Filling – A Call to Obedience

We are now entering the final stage of our 10 day Fast. As a recap, over these past days we have been leaning into the Spirit for grounding, deeper relationship, revelation and transparency. We’ve felt it’s been significant that each communique up until this point has had a component of liturgical and musical worship.

The focus in these last couple of days is to be an intentional in our asking of the Lord for the filling of His Spirit that we may be empowered, enabled, faithful and united in our calling together as Vineyard Canada.

“Stand at the crossroads and look;
Ask for the ancient paths,
Ask where the good way is, and walk in it,
And you will find rest for your souls.”
Jeremiah 6:16

In a time of great upheaval and the unveiling of hearts in the nation of Israel, where corruption and vice was being exposed in both the religious and political spheres, God spoke through Jeremiah, describing the call to repentance before them as a “crossroads.” Key to discerning the way forward was the discovery of the “good way.” The subsequent, and even more challenging invitation before them was now to “walk in it”. Most scholars believe that Jesus was pulling from this text when He invited the harassed masses buried under the yoke of religious servitude and political oppression, to come to Him to find rest for their souls. Jeremiah linked prayer, “ask where the good way is,” to obedience,“and walk in it.” Jesus, “the Way,” says that if we love Him, we will obey, “follow, walk with,” Him. Quite intriguing that Jesus is described in Daniel as the Ancient of Days.

This obedience is not out of a posture of obligation or our own gritty resolve. Our souls are to be at rest. So, we need the Spirit. We need the infilling of the Spirit of Christ not only to sustain us, but to empower us. Not only to comfort us, but to guide us. Come Holy Spirit!

What does obedience to Jesus, taking on his light burden and easy yoke look like for us this coming year? What does it look like to not only walk out the “good way”, but to follow The Way in 2021?

Another text to consider as we think about this “good way”, is Titus 3:1-2. It so resonates with our times.

“Remind the people to be subject to rulers and authorities, to be obedient, to be ready to do whatever is good, to slander no one, to be peaceable and considerate, and always to be gentle toward everyone.”

God speaks to His people in community. We like to say that God speaks like a rain not water from a spout. It’s been so encouraging to be getting glimpse of what our leaders and communities have been hearing from coast to coast. We can’t wait to distill it all and let you know what’s come in. Keep sending us what you have been hearing from the Spirit in this time.

Cathy will be checking her email regularly up until next Wednesday at which point we will begin collating and summarizing what we’ve been discerning together.

Peace & Strength to you

In Him

The Foundations Team

Litany for Caring For Each Other

Sat, 30 Jan 2021 02:34:28 GMT

Litany for a New Day

Sunday Jan 24, 2021 - Epiphany 4 (Year B, 2021): Litany for Caring for Each Other

By Fran Pratt

Here is this week's litany from 2018: Litany for Unclean Spirits , which focuses on the text from Mark 1 in which Christ casts out the unclean spirit in Capernaum.

This time around, I'm dealing primarily with the text of 1 Corinthians 8, in which Saint Paul discusses what was apparently an issue: whether or not to eat food sacrificed to idols. He points out that all things have their existence in God as represented by Christ: “through whom are all things and through whom we exist.” Rather than splitting hairs about doctrine and correctness, he invites the Corinthian church to see all their decisions and actions first through a lens of love for others, urging them to “ take care that this liberty of yours does not somehow become a stumbling block to the weak.

We too are invited into this tension: we live in liberation from dogma, yet we can choose to center our right action in Love for Neighbor. This litany leans into those themes.

God, you have given all things to us,
Things in heaven and things on earth;
Placed the land under our stewardship,
And the people under one another’s mutual care.

We are meant to dwell in freedom (1)
From dogma,
From shame,
From retribution,
From falsehood,
From ego dominance.

Yet we find that in our freedom we still bear responsibility
To one another,
To the land we steward,
To the work of healing,
To transformation,
To embody the love of Christ in this world….

Christ, through whom are all things,
And through whom we exist;
All of us, bound up in God’s kindness,
Witnesses, if we are paying attention, to Love.

Help us, oh God, as we walk upon the earth,
To live in freedom,
But also in love;
To care for one another,
To bear one another’s burdens,
To practice generosity,
To participate in healing,
To perceive the true, beloved Self inside every person.

Amen

1 Corinthians 8:9

Day Seven and Eight: Our Response – A Call to Worship

Thu, 28 Jan 2021 01:23:18 GMT

Vineyard Canada Communal Fast January 20 ^_ 30, 2021
Day Seven and Eight: Our Response – A Call to Worship

Anchored to the One who walks with us and leaning into the on-going prompting of the Spirit’s work in our hearts, for the next couple days, we will move into a time of response to God.

Here are a few anchoring thoughts from Kris MacQueen who is our National Catalyst for Vineyard Creative:

“We are called to worship…made to worship in fact. We know this. Whether fuelled by great, deliberate intention or in the unthought daily rhythms and affections of our lives, we are worshipping creatures. And yet worshipping the LORD is neither easy or automatic. As the people of God recited daily over the course of millennia, quoting from Deuteronomy 6; ’love the LORD your God with all your heart, all your soul, all your strength.’ These are expensive days in heart, mind, soul and strength, aren’t they? In times like these, the worshipping lives of the saints are precious indeed.”

Over the next couple of days, as we press into this time of prayer and fasting, how might you give the LORD your unique, precious worship? After all, this is the one thing we do for Him. In all others matters, He is the gift-giver, we the recipients. But in this, the equation is reversed.

How costly it is to sing the following words as if we ourselves wrote them?

“When peace like a river attendeth my way
When sorrows like sea billows roll
Whatever my lot, Thou has taught me to say
It is well, it is well with my soul.”
From the hymn “It is Well With My Soul,” written by Horatio Spafford upon reaching the spot where his daughters lost their lives at sea.

Perhaps as you read this, another song or poem or psalm comes to mind. Or perhaps something new is rising up in you, whether new language or some other expression of the heart. Give it to the LORD. Sing, speak, shout, whisper, dance, paint…these precious, costly gifts that you’ve paid such a dear price for, and offer them to the LORD. And may the LORD shine His face on you as you do.

Our common prayer by Walter Brueggemann:

We will not keep silent
we are people who must sing you,
for the sake of our very lives.
You are a God who must be sung by us,
for the sake of your majesty and honor.

And so we thank you,
for the lyrics that push us past our reasons,
for the melodies that break open our givens
for cadences that locate us home,
beyond all our safe places,
for tones and tunes that open our lives beyond control
and our futures beyond despair.

We thank you for the long parade of mothers and fathers
who have sung you deep and true;
We thank you for the good company,
of artists, poets, musicians, cantors, and instruments
that sing for us and with us, toward you.
We are witnesses to your mercy and splendor;
We will not keep silent…ever again.

Amen

Please keep sending your contributions to cathy@vineyard.ca Thank you to all of you who have responded

We have included some musical worship by Erika Kobewka from Old Strathcona Vineyard in Edmonton, AB

Grace & Peace,
The Foundations Team

For a few years now, I have been learning a bit of the craft of congregational call-and-response readings. Simply put, I find there is something profoundly restorative in a community of faith 'saying aloud' and 'saying together' words in time and space.

The cadence and rise and fall of spoken word and the joined confession of many gathered voices has captured me in a differentbut not altogether separate way than what I have typically come to know as 'congregational worship.'

In this litany I combined a melodic tag that I wrote for another song to function as a sung response. I intentionally kept the response simple and singular in words so that it could perhaps work like an inhale and exhale in a melodic way.

May this litany finds its way to your faith community, your home, or your gathering tables. Peace to you in the holding on—my hope is that in the breathing in and out of these words a deeper knowing of being held and carried would perhaps rise to the surface, even for a moment.

A LITANY FOR HOLDING ON

By: Erika Kobewka

Triune God - Father, Son, Spirit, in You we live and move and breathe

E A/E E
Halle-lu—jah

Jesus Christ, first-born over all creation, the Word made flesh, image of the invisible God. In You all things were created and find their place. All of our beginnings and all of our ends - You were before all things and in You all things have been made.

E A/E E
Halle-lu—jah

All of our groanings, fears, spoken and unspoken longings, sorrows, grievances, tears, complexities, waverings, and losses - nothing slips through the cracks, nothing is lost in Your spaciousness. You hold it all, and in You all things exist and dwell. All the threads and strands, fraying and loose ends, are gathered up, woven and held by You. Nothing goes to waste, and You never let go.

E A/E E
Halle-lu—jah

You are holding onto us. Creating, recreating, making new, pursuing, mending, healing, reconciling, renewing, making whole. Everything, absolutely everything finds its home in You. We find our home in You. All the broken and dislocated people and things, animals and atoms.* You hold it all. You hold us all.

E A/E E
Halle-lu—jah

*Eugene Peterson's, The Message (Colossians 1:18-20)

Day Five and Six: An Apocalyptic Moment - A Call to Revelation & Surrender

Tue, 26 Jan 2021 03:09:12 GMT

Vineyard Canada Communal Fast January 20 ^_ 30, 2021

Day Five and Six: An Apocalyptic Moment - A Call to Revelation & Surrender

As we journey through the fast, we are continuing to ask the Holy Spirit to ground us. As He increases our trust, we are able to grow in our understanding of what it means to be truly His. From this place of intimacy and nearness, we can become vulnerable and reveal our true selves, surrendering our hearts to Him and journeying together in authentic community.

There is so much happening around us presently that can only be described as Apocalyptic.

This word is often associated with chaos and momentous unsettling. It’s etymology comes from the Greek word apokaluptein which actually means to “uncover or reveal.” There is something about seasons of great pressure that brings to the surface of our lives areas that need exposure to the Light. This truth stirs to mind the reflection found in Hebrews 12, that the shaking of the heavens and the earth is ultimately to reveal, “so that what cannot be shaken may remain.” Rather than this putting us in a position of hesitancy and fear, the injunction within the text is that because “we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us be thankful, and so worship God acceptably with reverence and awe for our God is a consuming fire.”

One of the parables of Christ also captures this theme. The rains come, the floods rage, the winds blow, and the foundations of the house are revealed. Have we, and are we, building on the Rock? (Matthew 7:24-27) It is worth noting that Jesus equates wisdom with building a solid foundation in this text. So often over these last couple of years we have recognized our great need for wisdom more than answers. As we lean into this posture of being tested by the Lord, let’s listen for the wise way to walk from here.

David in Psalm 139:23-24 gives us some great language to express the heart cry for sanctification and transformation.
“Search me God and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me and lead me in the way everlasting.”

As we wait, pray and listen in this place of examen, we allow the Spirit to “reveal.”

- Where in your personal journey do you sense the Spirit’s revealing work? What does it look like for you to engage with God in this metanoia or repentance work in your life?

- As we listen to and discern the Spirit’s voice across our Vineyard family in this season of praying together, what do we sense the Spirit speaking to us specifically in this time of revealing.

We encourage you to continue to send in those contributions that you sense are of a wider application to cathy@vineyard.c a

Our common prayer by Walter Brueggemann

You in our past:

gracious

steadfast

reliable

long-suffering

You are a mouthful on the lips of our grandparents
.
The hard part is you in our present

for after the easy violations we readily acknowledge

then come the darker, hidden ones:

aware that appearance does not match reality

aware that walk is well behind talk;

aware that we are enmeshed in cruelty systems, well hidden but defining;

and we have no great yearning

to be delivered from them

Forgive us, for the ways in which we are bewitched

too settled, at ease in false places
.
You in our present:

gracious

steadfast

reliable

long-suffering

We are in the shadows asking you to do what you have done;
to be whom you have been
that we may do what we have never dared dream
be whom we have never imagined
free, unencumbered, un anxious, joyous, obedient….
Yours, and not ours.

Amen

We have provided a link to some musical worship by Nathan & Charis Rousu, they pastor the Harvest Vineyard in Edmonton, AB as well as lead the Prairie Region.

May the Spirit of Christ free us and fill us with hope as we pray!

In Him
The Foundations Team

One of the words we have been corporately hearing is that through this season the Lord is revealing the contents of hearts. In line with Psalm 139:23-24 we pray, “Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my thoughts. See if there is any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.”

One of the ways the content of our heart is revealed is to see what is in the heart of the Father and ask, “Does my heart look like His?” We chose this song ‘Slow to Anger’ as part of our prayer as it reveals both something beautiful about the Father and wisely instructive for us to repent and follow as His children, especially in times of multiple points of great tension and unrest.

Nathan & Charis Rousu

Day Three & Four: Leaning into relationship – A call to come & “reason together” Isaiah 1:18

Sat, 23 Jan 2021 01:52:02 GMT

Vineyard Canada Communal Fast January 20 ^_ 30, 2021

Day Three & Four: Leaning into relationship – A call to come & “reason together” Isaiah 1:18

Throughout the first two days of our fast we have been intentionally “reorientating” our lives back to our foundation, who is Jesus. In light of Ps 1 and Colossians 2:7 we have been reflecting on the Hope of our Salvation and allowing the Spirit to reveal in us those places where we need to be re-rooted and grounded in Him. We will continue to carry this prayer in our hearts as we move through the process of this fast.

For day 3 and 4 we will be leaning into a deeper understanding of the relationship that the Triune God invites us to. We will be reflecting on His invitation found in the first part of Isaiah 1:18 as well as Romans 5:1-5.

How God speaks to His people in Isaiah 1:18a is profound on so many levels:

“Come let us reason together”

In His extreme mercy, God invites dialogue. Challenging the perception and an understanding of prayer that becomes formulaic and empty practice, God beckons His people to engage with Him in “reasonable” conversation. One translation sees the Hebrew word for “reason” here, depicting an image of “walking and talking” together. (The Voice Translation)

Our relationship with God is interactive, He invites us into dialogue, makes room for our voice and in that interaction we are able to grow in our understanding of who He is and ultimately who we are in Him. He is not a dictator but rather “engages” with us. We are marked by His forgiveness, covered by His grace and are welcomed near, into deeper dialogue and greater trust.

Throughout Friday and Saturday of this week, we invite you to reflect on Isaiah 1:18 in the morning and on Romans 5:1-5 in the afternoon.

Ruminate
Reorient
Receive
Rest

Here are a couple questions for us to think through as we contemplate together over these couple of days. They are written in the first person, but let’s lean into prayer for our movement as well. These can be poignant fodder for communal prayer:

Think about 2 or three tangible ways that identify how you gauge where your relationship with Jesus is at? What has surprised you about your relationship with Christ in this COVID moment?

Can you identify, and name, ways of thinking that have crept into your understanding of who God is and who you are in Him that you sense the Spirit poking at. Have these resulted in any form of idolatry that you need to turn away from? Ask the Spirit to reveal areas of your understanding of God that need to be adjusted or dismantled.

Here is our common prayer for these couple of days. Again, we turn to the writings of Walter Brueggemann:

The idols have ears but do not hear
So unlike you, for all your hearing
So like us, ears but do not hear

You have endlessly summoned us
Listen
Listen up
Pay attention
Heed
Obey
Turn….

We mostly know not….in our narcissism
In our recalcitrance
In our departure from you

So we pray for ears, open, unwaxed,
Attentive, circumcised

Call us by name….so that we know
Call us to you….so that we live
Call us into the world…so that we care
Call us to risk….so that we trust
Beyond ourselves

You speak/we listen/and comes life
Abundant
Beyond all that we ask or think
Our ears to hear your word of life

Amen

We continue to gather, weigh and collate what we are hearing as the fast progresses and once again encourage you to send in your contributions to cathy@vineyard.ca .

We have also provided a link to some musical worship by Kris MacQueen who pastors the Guelph Vineyard as well as gives oversight to our National Creative Initiative.

May God draw us deeper into relationship with Him as we wait and listen.

In Him,
The Foundations Team

Litany for a New Day

Sat, 23 Jan 2021 01:46:57 GMT

Litany for a New Day

Sunday Jan 24, 2021 - Epiphany 3 (Year B, 2021): Litany for a New Day

By Fran Pratt

In Jonah 3, a group of people turn from idolatrous and evil ways, repenting (turning away from) their old, exploitative ways.

Psalm 62 exhorts us to look to God - not to any earthly thing. Not to riches or wealth. Not to powerful people. To the Divine Within.

In Mark 1, John the Baptist is arrested and imprisoned. Jesus is assembling a group of followers - disciples, they’re called. His unifying message is: the Kingdom of God is near! Repent!... In other words: Turn away from your old ways of thinking about success, about victory, about what is really happening, and what is really important in the world; and believe instead in the good news of God - that all divine resources are yours for the taking, that the commonwealth of heaven is a place where you and every other person belongs. Re-wire your brain with the understanding that all are one, all are Beloved, all are welcome, and all are forgiven for whatever they did before they understood that.

I write this litany immediately following the inauguration of the new president and vice-president of the US. We in the US are tentatively hopeful, anxiously expectant. It is a moment in which we have the opportunity to listen to this week’s scriptures in an open-minded way - to hear of the Ninevites repentance, the Psalmic call to trust in God and not in economies or rulers, and the invitation of Christ to turn our attention to the Kingdom of God, which is near at hand and available to us as we move forward, working for change. I hope this prayer inspires and offers some hope.

God, may we hear the exhortation of the scriptures,
To trust in you,
To pour our hearts out before you (1),
To repent of our idolatry of money and power (2)…

And turn our attention
And our hope,
Toward the Kin-dom of God
Near at hand, among us (3),
Awaiting our joining-in,
And welcoming us weary travellers.

We turn now, away from evil (4),
Away from the worship of power and money,
Away from war- and fear-mongering,
And toward the Kin-dom of Heaven...

Here the most powerful force is Love
There is no fighting to be witnessed
No scrapping for power or influence.
Here people are valued for themselves
And their imago dei,
Not for achievement, fame, or reputation.

Here the KIN-DOM, the family, of God is on full display
Love, pouring out into all the empty spaces,
Healing covering all the wounded places.
In silence, we wait for the power of God (5)

We are ordinary people, going about our lives,
Realizing that we are Beloved through and through,
Realizing that Heaven is available to us now,
Realizing that what we do here on earth matters,
Realizing that Christ’s invitation is for us, too;
And jumping in - gratefully, joyfully - to this Kin-dom work (6)

The present form of this world is passing away (7)
The time is fulfilled, and a New Day emerges (3).

Amen

Psalm 62:8
Psalm 62:9
Mark 1:15
Jonah 3;10
Psalm 62:5
Mark 1:18
1 Corinthians 7:31

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For those of you wanting to keep up to speed with the weekly bible reading plan we follow, please click on the link: http://lectionary.library.vanderbilt.edu/lections.php?year=A&season=Season%20after%20Pentecost

Day One & Two: Setting the Compass – A Call to Orientation & Consecration

Sat, 23 Jan 2021 01:23:14 GMT

Vineyard Canada Communal Fast January 20 ^_ 30, 2021

Day One & Two: Setting the Compass – A Call to Orientation & Consecration

Over the last several years a recurring text that the Spirit has led us to is Psalm 1. The Psalmist awakens in us the call and desire to be a people set apart and deeply rooted in the Lord and His ways. A major focus for us as a Canadian Vineyard Family this year, will be giving articulation to our view of Christology, so praying into what it means to be rooted and grounded as we begin this fast seems to be apropos. A parallel thought from the New Testament is: "Let your roots grow down into him, and let your lives be built on him. Then your faith will grow strong in the truth you were taught, and you will overflow with thankfulness." (Colossians 2:7)

Just take these first couple of days of the fast to dial down. A key aspect of fasting is the practice of setting aside distraction and giving focus. Let your posture be more of a contemplative nature and engage with these texts from the perspective of Lectio Divina vs. that of study and textual engagement.

Rest.
Receive.
Reorient.
Ruminate.

Throughout Wednesday and Thursday we invite you to find space to reflect on Psalm 1 in the morning and Colossians 2:7 in the afternoon. We also welcome you to join us as we begin each of these days with a communal prayer by Walter Brueggmann. We will be offering a few more of his prayers from His book “Awed to Heaven, Rooted in Earth” throughout the fast. These prayers provide us with a sense of common language as we move through these next days of journeying in prayer together.

A Communal prayer by Walter Brueggemann

God sovereign and generous
who commands the rise and fall of the nations,
who calls and has chosen many peoples,
who weeps when they harm each other,
who haunts every culture-including ours-
who draws close to the powerless and
surprises with power via weakness…
you are the one whom we praise in astonishment
we adore in gladness,
we thank in gratitude…
for who you are
for what you do,
for how you Hope.
Look with mercy on us this day
On all the churches we serve and love
On all the people we name
On all the communities so fragile in which
We are embedded.
Look with your mercy and we will obey you all the day long
In the name of Jesus who obeyed fully.
Amen

We will be gathering, weighing and collating what we sense the Spirit is speaking to us as a people throughout the fast, so we encourage you to send in those reflections and gleanings that you sense are from the Spirit to cathy@vineyard.ca

We have also provided a link of one of our worship leaders Mark Stokes, from the Kelowna Vineyard, leading us in some musical worship.

Looking forward to all God has for us.

In Jesus,

The Foundations Team

Litany for Truth Tellers

Tue, 19 Jan 2021 01:55:54 GMT

Litany for Truth Tellers

Sunday Jan 17, 2021 - Epiphany 2 Year B 2021

By Fran Pratt

Y’all. I can’t make this up. This is the lectionary for this week.

Synopsis of 1 Samuel 3 and the preceding events:

Eli the priest has scoundrels for sons. His sons are, by their lineage, also priests; they are thieving and lying and raping - doing immeasurable damage to the priesthood and the nation - and Eli, though he pleads with them, cannot (will not?) control nor contain them. They are allowed to wreak havoc. A “man of God” gives Eli a message that his sons have doomed their whole family to destruction and penury.

Young Samuel is Eli’s acolyte. God isn’t often heard from, but one night Samuel hears a voice, which he and Eli figure out to be the voice of God. God gives Samuel a message: Eli’s family will be punished for the iniquity of the scoundrel sons - they’ll lose everything, confirming the other, earlier message.

Samuel is hesitant to tell his mentor the bad news - that injustice will and must be held accountable, if not by the priesthood, if not by the society, then by God; that the ones who have lied and thieved and assaulted WILL be held responsible. But he tells Eli the truth of the prophecy God has given him. Eli meets it with acceptance, and Samuel gains a reputation as a Truth-Teller.

Flip to the Gospel reading from John 1….

Jesus is in the process of gathering disciples. He’s got Philip, Andrew, and Peter. And from a distance he sees Nathanael. Jesus immediately identifies Nathanael as “an Israelite in whom there is no deceit,” as a Truth-Teller. Nathanael is a Truth-Teller and Jesus wants him.

Aaaand relate it to today...

Last week we had a mob, incited by the lies of political leaders and conspiracy theories, ransack the US Capitol, killing 5 humans, endangering countless others, and proving that years of lies and deceit are bearing evil fruit and that, like the sons of Eli, those responsible must be contained and held accountable lest they bring the whole country down into their eventual destruction. OK!

I wait to see what will be done. I pray that faith communities will awaken to their duty as Truth-Tellers. And that we, as individuals, will be those “in whom there is no deceit.” Our theology matters, and conflating the message and work of Christ with deceitful narratives of Christian Nationalism, Christo-fascism, White Supremacy, and violence is bad theology that leads to harm.

This litany is inspired by these texts, but I have thrown a lot of other references in.

God, we pray for our faith community,
As a whole and as individuals,
That we will have the courage to hold fast to truth,
Even when truth is inconvenient,
Even when truth convicts us,
Even when truth is difficult,
Even when truth is not what we’d hoped,
Even when truth is hard to tell (1).

Don’t let us get swept away by delusions, deceits, conspiracy theories, or cults.
Keep us from stumbling (2);
Keep our feet on the Path of Peace (3),
Don’t let evil overcome us (4)!
Don’t let ego run away with us.
Don’t let violence become our tool (5).

Help us to be faithful observers and listeners, with unclouded judgement,
Faithful doers of your word (6),
Faithful followers of Christ’s Way of Love,
Faithful, honest, transparent, humble speakers of truth.

And help us as we take a hard look at the theology we teach,
The messages we spread,
The actions we transmit,
Taking care that they adhere to Christ’s non-violent way,
And holding fast to the Peace of Christ,
Which is often disruptive, but never punitive or unloving (7).

May we be “wise as serpents
And innocent as doves,” (8)
Going about our lives attuned to the Divine,
Alert to the Spirit of God in each moment. Amen

1 Samuel 3:18
Psalm 56:13
Luke 1:79
Romans 12:21
Isaiah 2:4
James 1:22
Matthew 10:34
Matthew 10:16

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Kids & Families Resources for Dec 27 Online Gathering

Wed, 23 Dec 2020 23:17:59 GMT

Kids & Families Resources for Dec 27 Online Gathering

Vineyard Canada is hosting another National Worship Gathering on December 27th, 9am/PDT. Various Vineyard churches across the country will participate as we worship, reflect on 2020, and prepare to enter the New Year together. Please let your church know and plan to join us! This gathering will be live on our Facebook page as well as well as posted on our Youtube channel and linked here, on our website.

Bringing the Story To Life:

Sensory Storm Bottle : Make your own storm in a bottle to remember this lesson and the peace that Jesus brings.

Build a Boat: Build a boat as a family out of the items in your house. As you sit in the boat you can talk about the story or pray together.

Rain Stick: A great craft for older kids! Make a rain stick that sounds like actual rain. Decorate it and write the memory verse for the week on the outside.

Draw a Storm: A great activity for little ones. Have them draw a storm, see what they come up with.

Bail the Boat: A game to play if you have multiple kids in your household. Mark a boat on the floor of your house with painter's tape. Crumple up lots of blue paper (to be the water). Take turns having one person "in" the boat. Everyone else is the "storm". Those who are the storm are throwing the "water" into the boat, while the person in the boat is trying to bail it out as fast as they can.

Printable Colouring and Activity Pages

John 14:27 Verse Colouring Page
Jesus Calms the Storm Colouring Page
Isaiah 43:2 Colouring Page
Jesus Calms the Storm Moving Wheel (Requires metal brad)
Jesus Calms the Storm Word Search
Jesus Calms the Storm Maze

Advent Reflections - Week 4

Fri, 18 Dec 2020 23:39:20 GMT

"Love" by Kris MacQueen

New Paragraph

Love has come. Love is coming.

Here we are, embarking on the final movement of the Advent season, the fourth candle. This final beacon, lit in the last watch of the night, waits for the break of dawn. It completes the circle of light and awaits the lighting of the central candle, the Christ candle. And so, the stage is set. The voices of the ancient prophets rest and wait.

Of course, the practices and traditions of Advent are simply metaphors. But the story they dramatize is both a re-enactment of what has been and a prophetic sign pointing towards what is yet to come. Perhaps most powerfully of all the liturgical seasons, Advent "remembers forward", to borrow a phrase from writer James K.A. Smith. Advent asks us to recall the story and the setting of Christ's birth. It sets the stage for our Christmas-tide. But it doesn't simply ask us to remember. It also asks us to anticipate. Advent requires us to look forward, and in costly ways. It tethers our hope, peace, joy and even our deepest love to something both here and yet coming: Christ among us, returned.

The meagre light of four simple candles arranged around a wreath anticipates the light of Christ described in the 21st chapter of Revelation, when "The city does not need the sun or the moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and the Lamb is its lamp." Advent is modest in its adornments but bold in its promises.

And Advent, as we've already widely reflected this season, is well suited to these times. Advent is an "in between time". It is uncomfortably at ease with words like exile, darkness, waiting, longing, labour, suffering. But like candles shrouded in darkness, Advent shines with these words: hope, peace, joy, love. It offers these not as one-time inoculations, shots in the arm that provide lifetime immunity from pain, suffering and grief. Rather, they radiate as promises that are a slow drip, a steady provision. Perhaps this is part of what the Scriptures allude to when they speak of the work of the Spirit as a foretaste of what's to come. Hope, Peace, Joy, even Love… simply foretastes leading us forward.

And so, approaching the end of this most complicated year, we step into this final Advent week with eyes and hearts fixed on the promise of Emmanuel, God with us.

The Christian year begins with Advent and Christmas, the cycle of light.

" You Are Beautiful", a song written and performed here by Kris MacQueen, is a song that remembers that Christ's light shines in the darkness, that he works in the night to bring about the morning. It also anticipates that day described in Revelation 21 when the sun and moon will somehow become redundant, overshadowed by the radiant light of Christ who will illuminate new creation for once and always. And what will we see in that forever-moment of revelation? Jesus. Beautiful Jesus

Lyrics:
Your love outshines the glory of the sunrise
It collides with the conspiracy of night
To renew hope and wonder with the morning
To pierce through ever shadow with your light
And we'll revel in your radiance and bask
Right here until the sun and moon have passed
Then we'll look toward the wonder of your unfailing love
We'll stand right here and not look back
You're the light that shines into the darkness
You're the light that never fades to dusk
Now let the fire that lights up every inch of heaven
Come here and light up every one of us
You are beautiful, beautiful.

‘Christmas At Our House with Brian Doerksen & Friends’ is coming!

Tue, 15 Dec 2020 17:26:32 GMT

‘Christmas At Our House with Brian Doerksen & Friends’ is coming!

The special airs on Sunday Dec 20 starting at 12 Noon PST and all registered can watch the special for that full Christmas week through the evening of Sunday Dec 27.

You can watch the special with your immediate household as many times as you like during that Christmas week.

Songs included are ‘Just Before The Silent Night’, ‘Magical Lights’ & ‘Hope Of The Nations (Christmas Edition)'

Link for ‘pay what you can’ tickets (a suggested minimum of $15 USD per household) https://boxoffice.mandolin.com/products/brian-doerksen-christmas-at-our-house-12-20

The online event is hosted by Mandolin.com , an online concert platform and all charges are in US dollars.

We believe that this special will be a real encouragement in a Christmas unlike any in living memory. We can’t gather together in person as a faith community, however we still can share in the story and the songs of Christmas through ‘Christmas At Our House’ featuring 2 families from our Table faith community sharing the hope and peace of Christmas with people around the world.

Advent Reflections - Week 3

Fri, 11 Dec 2020 22:31:26 GMT

"Joy" by Krista Heide

New Paragraph

Image: Adoration of the Shepherds by Christian Wilhelm Ernst Dietrich

“The real voyage of discovery consists

not in seeking new landscapes,

but in having new eyes.”

-Marcel Proust

Though we may pray and hope and plead and beg, none of us can escape the hard things in life. Death, sickness, injuries, pain, loss - these things have a way of finding us all. And hasn’t 2020 confirmed this; life can be awfully hard.

But thankfully, there is always more than one dynamic at play. Amidst the pain, there is always joy to be found. Several advents ago, after a particularly hard season for my family, we spoke with our kids about how sometimes joy seems to shout at you. At other times, it is more like a game of hide and seek; you have to really look for it.

And let’s face it, sometimes joy requires a full fledged, no-holds barred scavenger hunt.

8 That night there were shepherds staying in the fields nearby, guarding their flocks of sheep. 9 Suddenly, an angel of the Lord appeared among them, and the radiance of the Lord’s glory surrounded them. They were terrified, 10 but the angel reassured them. “Don’t be afraid!” he said. “I bring you good news that will bring great joy to all people. 11 The Savior—yes, the Messiah, the Lord—has been born today in Bethlehem, the city of David! 12 And you will recognize him by this sign: You will find a baby wrapped snugly in strips of cloth, lying in a manger.” -- Luke 2:8-12

I love this story of the shepherds.

Living amongst the animals, with the flies, disease, bacteria. Walking through their excrement, caring for their wounds. Being a shepherd was a dirty job in a culture where religious cleanliness was highly important. The dirtiness of the lifestyle left them as outsiders. Cut off from temple worship and community gatherings because of their unclean state.

Though our nativity scenes often depict these shepherds as grown men, in actuality the job was often given to the youngest boys (and sometimes girls) in the household.

That Luke documents the first proclamation of the birth of Jesus - an angelic proclamation no less - as being proclaimed to these unclean children was remarkable. This news was not announced to kings, but to young night shift shepherds. Not announced in palaces, but in an unremarkable rural field, to young children and their flea covered animals. God chose to declare the extraordinary news to ordinary people. From the moment of Christ’s birth, God is privileging the outliers.

On this unexpected night, in a remote and ordinary location, an angel appears to proclaim the good news. The good news of great joy for all people.

How did the shepherds respond?

We read that they hurried, made haste, ran. They embarked on a once-in-a-lifetime, life-will-never-be-the-same-again journey to find a child lying in a manger. A hunt of all hunts to find the great joy they had been promised.

Allow yourself to imagine this scene in your mind. A group of young shepherds, ceremonially unclean, pungent with the odour of sheep, running through town at night, on a mission - somewhat like a scavenger hunt. Cutting through properties, jumping fences, hunting through an over-packed village, pushing into homes and waking up everyone in sight. Rubbing their unclean shoulders past who knows how many people while following the clues they had been given: to find a newly born baby, somewhere in Bethlehem, wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in a manger.

How many people did they wake up that evening, looking for a baby? How many people heard them testify* about angels and a new Messiah? Can you imagine oil lamps and torches being lit around town? How many people were angered by the interruption by these unreliable, unclean children? How many people got excited by the possibility? The long awaited Messiah - born in Bethlehem? Did anyone join the search party?

Luke doesn’t unwrap any of these details - we can only imagine.

But what we do know is that the shepherds do find Jesus. They find their great joy. In an unexpected place, on an unexpected night, after an unexpected hunt.

And I believe the same is true for us, today.

No matter the bleakness of our circumstance, joy can be found.

May we have eyes to receive it.

———-

*Shepherds were viewed as unreliable, and were not allowed to testify in courts.

Searching for Joy
-a reflective exercise

Much like the angelic proclamation to the shepherds, advent speaks of the truth that in Jesus a great joy has been given to us. But in a year where fear, tension, anxiety, and conflicts rule our news feed, sometimes we need some assistance in our ability to receive and rest in this joy.

Set aside a moment of time to do one of the following reflection exercises with your family, or on your own. As you answer the questions below, notice how the memories and images stir up joy and hope in your physical body. As you listen to others share, pause to name the smiles, or laughter, or glimmers of joy that emerge. Allow yourself to sit and rest in this moment, letting it be a place of reprieve and refreshment.

An M&M Thankfulness Game (from Shauna Niequist)
Pass around a bag of M&Ms. Pull out an M&M without looking at it and share with the group based on the chart below:

Brown - Name a place or location you are grateful for and why
Blue - Name something in nature you are grateful for and why
Green - Name an activity you are grateful for and why
Yellow - Name an object or possession you’re grateful for and why
Orange - Name a moment you’re grateful for and why
Red - Name a person you’re grateful for and why

A Sensory Joy Scavenger Hunt

Using memories and your imagination make a creative word map while you brainstorm individually, or with your family about the sensory experience of joy.

What does Joy smell like?
-list smells that evoke joy

What does Joy taste like?
-list flavours that evoke joy

What does Joy sound like?
-list sounds that evoke joy

What does Joy look like?
-list sights that evoke joy

What does Joy feel like?
-how do you experience joy in your body?

After each exercise take a moment to give thanks to God for the gifts of joy in your life, and ask for refreshed eyes to notice joy as we continue on our journey through Advent.

Joseph, Ya, that Guy! - by David Ruis

Wed, 09 Dec 2020 18:24:12 GMT

Joseph, Ya, that Guy!

David Ruis

I find this quite captivating, and of course, never knew this about his legacy until I began to see him with fresh eyes. No wonder, although pretty much an unsung hero, he finds such respect in Church tradition. Understanding a bit more about Joseph not only gives me hope but exemplifies the kind of man I would like to be through the end of this year and into 2021.

Meet Joseph.

"Joseph, kind, upstanding and honorable, wanted to spare Mary shame and did not wish to cause her more embarrassment than necessary. As Joseph pondered whether to act on his instincts and quietly marry her despite the awkwardness of her pregnancy and the complication of their engagement, a messenger of the Lord came to him in a dream and said, "Don't be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit."

Matthew 1:19-20 (story stitched together from the NIV, NASB, Message and Voice English translations of the text.)

Over the centuries there are those who have questioned Matthews narrative. Both opponents of Christianity, and some Christians themselves have found it to be embarrassing and unnecessary—possibly even untrue. But Matthew here is simply telling the story that he believed was both true and the ultimate explanation of why Jesus was the person he was. Smack dab in the middle of all its scandalous glory is Joseph.

"In the ancient pagan world there were plenty of stories of heroes conceived by the intervention of a god, without a human father. Surely Matthew, with his very Jewish perspective on everything, would hardly invent such a narrative or copy it from someone else unless he really believed it? Wouldn't it be opening Christianity to the sneers of its opponents, who would quickly suggest the obvious alternative, namely that Mary had become pregnant through some more obvious but less reputable means?"

Wright, T. (2004). Matthew for Everyone, Part 1: Chapters 1-15 (pp. 6–7). London: Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge.

Joseph lived out this story in real time and space facing the scrutiny and bizarreness of a pretty zany situation. I am feeling this same vulnerability this Christmas. These are indeed strange times.

For many people already, pre COVID-19, much of the underpinnings of the more miraculous, and dare I say, bizarre components of our faith were under scrutiny. Even currently, the term "de-constructing faith" has found its way into our daily lexicon of discourse in the church. Dissatisfaction with institutions in general, let alone the Church, is at an all-time high. The polarization that exists right across our society has only been heightened and further revealed through the pandemic we are enduring.

I see some things in Joseph that I would like to see in myself these days. Marks of character and faith that I pray will be evident in our communities across the nation. Things I hope will become second nature to us as followers of the Jesus Way.

First, Joseph was a nice guy. As crazy as it seems, this is a quality that is in short supply these days. I remember John Wimber saying to me several times and in various settings, when all else fails, "just be nice. At least do that and we may have a shot at walking through together whatever challenges we're facing."

Joseph was kind. He was upstanding. He was honorable. And the end game of being this kind of person was that he did not want to bring shame upon Mary. He did not want to cause her any more embarrassment than necessary. Yes, God was at work. Yes, there were seismic implications to what he was witnessing. Yet, in the midst of all, most certainly without having it all figured out, his concern was for Mary. How she would be handling all of this and the impact it would have on her life.

Joseph, thanks for helping me see how much I need to embrace this posture in this time with so many people facing so much upheaval and confusion. The resulting emotional and societal climate needs a good dose of kindness.

Secondly, he did not give into fear, or perhaps more accurately to the Greek, did not shrink back, and leaned into discovering where the Holy Spirit was at work. Seeing what He was conceiving and what He was up to. Then from that place of quiet resolve (it is remarkable that we actually have no record of anything Joseph ever said), he stepped out in obedience and risk. He would do it again a couple of times in the near future taking Mary and the baby Jesus into Egypt for safety and then home again to Israel at the direction of angelic direction in his dreams. Each case the text states that he "woke up" and "did it." Each time not a recorded word. Just simple obedience and wonder at Gods miraculous guidance and intervention. Step by step.

Thanks Joseph, for helping me see how much I need to cultivate this kind of vision in this time of Advent. To quell fear as I listen to Gods messengers as they beckon me to trust Him and to have my eyes opened to what the Holy Spirit is conceiving in this moment. In this time. In this place. I will be able to walk, step by step, day by day, into the obedience that guides my steps.

Thirdly, Joseph took Mary home. He took her as his wife. This brings me full circle to the desire of Joseph to not bring any undue shame upon Mary by providing a place for her. To do life with her in the most intimate and costly of ways. It is worth noting that this sentiment which arose in Joseph was prior to any angelic visitation or divine epiphany. He was already thinking this way and the dream served to only confirm his instincts. I love this.

I am so grateful to Joseph for the way he awakens in me the desire to be a safe person. To provide sanctuary for others. To make room for the work of the Holy Spirit to play out throughout the journey and grit of life. Joseph did not bring Mary and her child in for a moment. He brought them home.

Perhaps you identify with Joseph. Jesus is really turning everything upside-down right now. Christmas plans are for the most part in shambles. Advent is upheaval as much as it is anything else. Whatever is swirling around you right now, lean in. Take a page from Joseph's play book this season: be nice; be courageous; and be safe

Advent Reflections - Week 2

Sun, 06 Dec 2020 19:22:26 GMT

Peace by Erika Kobewka

New Paragraph

~ Painting: Henry Osawa Tanner "The Holy Family"

“The shipwrecked at the stable kneel in the presence of mystery. God entered into our world not with the crushing impact of unbearable glory, but in the way of weakness, vulnerability and need. On a wintry night in an obscure cave, the infant Jesus was a humble, naked, helpless God who allowed us to get close to him.” – Brennan Manning

As we all turn our calendars to December, we are collectively and individually stepping into the final month of the year 2020, a string of days that will crescendo and catapult us into Christmas.

Brennan Manning calls us, “the shipwrecked at the stable”(1), arriving dishevelled and in disarray and perhaps traumatized with seaweed in our hair. Maybe residual mess is dripping from our water-logged pores and we’re all smelling kinda fishy and kinda off but maybe we’re kinda used to it because we’ve been treading water for so long. What an accurate image of this past year.

If you follow along with the Christian liturgical year, you have probably noticed that in contrast to our calendar year, the season of Advent lies at the beginning, not the end. Also known as the Cycle of Light, the Christian year begins in darkness with a spiritual posture of waiting and longing for the coming Christ.

Then, moving gradually through the life of Jesus, it culminates in what we celebrate as Easter (Christ’s death, resurrection and ascension), which steps into Pentecost, and then finally ends with months of ‘Ordinary Time.’ (2)

Advent begins with a waiting and worn-out people wandering in deep darkness and longing for the arrival of a Saviour. For all of us in the Northern Hemisphere, here we are in the darkest days of the year. Propelling ourselves, as we do each and every December, with all the grit and resilience we can muster towards the longest night of the year, knowing that things will shift. It won’t be dark forever.

This is one of the gifts of Advent, a seasonal rhythm of remembering and turning ourselves towards the coming dawn and allowing glimpses and glimmers of relief and hope to wash over our lost and wandering hearts again. We are turning towards this Light.

“The people walking in darkness have seen a great light; on those living in the land of deep darkness a light has dawned.” Isaiah 9:2 (NIV)

For most of us I think, we are regularly wading or being thrust into a current of anxiousness and fear that seems to be carving and winding through all of our lives and all around the world, on a macro and micro level. The toll of collective loss, grief, disappointments, unknowns, empty distractions, polarizing rhetoric, and hurts do not leave our personal lives untouched. We are a people wandering in the dark. Yet, at the heart of Advent lies the mystery of the incarnation: God is with us.

How appropriate that the good news of his coming is continually prefaced and announced with these three words, “Do not fear.” Incarnational spirituality points to the Advent of our Christ, who entered our world in the way of vulnerability and great need: a naked, crying, hungry, rooting-to-be-fed-and-kept-warm baby. To us, the body of Christ, this is not a call to fearlessness, or a communal ‘putting-on’ of brave faces. Neither is it purely sentimental or a heralding of peace where there is no peace. It is an announcement of Christ’s reign of peace and a call to peacemaking in our hearts and in our world.

For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Of the greatness of his government and peace there will be no end.” Isaiah 9:6-7 (NIV)

This is the now-and-the-not-yet of Advent tucked within this wearying year and proclaimed to a wearied and shipwrecked people. In this tumultuous season where we feel capsized, adrift, and longing for a reprieve, we tether ourselves again to the hope of these three Advent’s:

Christ has come, Christ is coming, Christ will come again. “Of this peace there will be no end,” and oh, do we welcome it today.

(1) “The Shipwrecked at the Stable,” from Lion and Lamb: The Relentless Tenderness of Jesus.

(2) “Advent: A Time When God Breaks In on Us,” from Ancient-Future Time: Forming Spirituality through the Christian Year by Robert E. Webber.

A Litany for the Waiting
Erika Kobewka

Somewhere cramped and stale, in the thick of deep darkness, or perhaps under the suffocating heat of midday. Maybe in the first flickers of new-day light, or lost and silenced by the fervent scurry of a whirling and chaotic world on the move, a baby has been born.

This baby is for us, for all of us.

A woman’s cry, shifting livestock feet and swatting tails, an unsure father, the heaving waves of birthing pains, push now, blood, visceral mess, an infant’s first cry, relief, exhaustion. He is here, nose-to-nose and skin-to-skin with a mother and a waiting world.

This baby is for us, for all of us.

Into the dust and dirt of ordinary living, into the quivering hands of the meek, the rags of the humble, the sighs of the waiting, the groans of the labouring, and the outlying margins of the forgotten, our Saviour is born.

This baby is for us, for all of us.
Our longed for Christ,

Our Messiah,

Our Prince of Peace,

Our Emmanuel,

Our God who is near.

Wrapped in flesh, human flesh, our flesh, this Word has been breathing, whispering, and speaking into it all since the dawn of time, “I Am here. I Am close. You are not alone.”

Emmanuel.

Into all the cracks and the crevices of humanity, “the Word became flesh and blood, and moved into the neighbourhood.”* Our neighbourhood, right among the wounded and wound-ers alike.

Into the bitter pains and grievances of living. Into our deepest fears, sorrows, and very fragile existence this baby has been born. Into our broken and wayward up-close spaces. Into the vast and wide-open galactic spaces. Heaven and nature singing, groaning, resounding, reverberating with joy and longing.

Emmanuel.

A beating heart, filling lungs, neurons, synapses, bones, muscles, skin, treasured and mysterious new-born life bursting forth from a mother’s womb.

Our Messiah has come.

God is with us, embodied in an infant’s needy wail. Our Prince of Peace has come to rescue us, enrobed in swaddling clothes. Jesus, the Saviour of the world, has come to dwell among us, as one of us.

This baby is for us, for all of us.
Our longed for Christ,

Our Messiah,

Our Prince of Peace,

Our Emmanuel,

Our God who is near.

* John 1:14 (The Message by Eugene Peterson)

Advent Reflections

Fri, 27 Nov 2020 23:04:12 GMT

Light by David Ruis

Many people enjoy chocolate from advent calendars as part of their Christmas celebrations, but not everyone knows what the season of Advent is really about. Advent comes from the Latin word meaning “coming” and has been celebrated by the Church for at least 1500 years! The four Sundays leading up to Christmas help us celebrate that Jesus came as the Saviour of the world 2000 years ago, and to long for his second Advent – when Jesus will come again and put everything to rights in the world. Advent Sundays follow the themes of hope, peace, joy, and love. We cultivate our longing to experience Jesus in these particular ways in our lives now. Advent is meant to deepen our discipleship - remembering Jesus came, encountering Jesus in deeper ways now, and longing for his coming again. Advent is a great gift to the Church! Over the next four weeks we will be featuring reflections on Advent from across the Vineyard in Canada. We hope you find it meaningful and encouraging!

This weeks reflection is by David Ruis.

Advent: Hope

A Jewish boy – a divine Son. He comes.
Immanuel, God with us.

Waiting in Mary’s womb.
Immanuel.

He would breathe earth's air. He would walk this soil. He would live – here.
Immanuel.

He would speak as a prophet. He would instruct and learn out of His experience as human. Obedience through suffering. Engraving a new covenant. A new way. His way. The way of love.
Immanuel.

Priestly empathy. Listening. Healing. Embracing all.
Immanuel.

Kingly humility. Righteous. Advocating for the oppressed, liberating the captives, speaking truth to the powers and principalities of the age, proclaiming his kingdom come and coming.
Immanuel.

Prophet. Priest. King. Ever living as our divine intercessor at the Father’s right hand until we all see him face to face.
Immanuel.

“We have this hope as an anchor for the soul, firm and secure. It enters the sanctuary beyond the veil, where our forerunner, Jesus, has entered on our behalf. He has become a high priest forever.” (Hebrews 6:19-20)

Hope, this hope, anchored to something beyond. Bigger than ourselves. Beyond the temporal. Anchored deep into the very eternal presence of God himself. A thin place. A liminal space. Sanctuary. Beyond the veil. And yet, here.
Immanuel.

Every step from logos to flesh. From womb to air. From outside time and space to blood, sweat and tears.

Laughter. Weeping. Praying. Bleeding.
Dying. Rising. Waiting. Returning.
Hope.

Advent not only behind us, but before us. Come and coming.
Immanuel.

The Blessing Canada

Mon, 18 May 2020 17:49:08 GMT

Watch for some familiar faces...

The Blessing - Canada

"As the world has come together in a time of crisis, the church has united in prayer and worship to bless our communities around the world in the Name of Jesus. With one voice, this is our prayer over Canada." ~ YouTube

Mother’s Day in the Real World

Fri, 08 May 2020 03:47:57 GMT

By Brenda Wollenberg

Many, many years ago, I caught our oldest two boys quietly conspiring in the hallway—and it wasn’t whispered plans on how to convince mom and dad to take them to Taco Bell. Earlier that day, our six-year-old, the middle child, had come bounding in from kindergarten, fairly bursting with excitement, his hands covered in an almost indestructible combination of glue, poster paint and sparkles. And with a little assistance from their Daddy that morning, our two young daughters had come up with a secret storage place for a brightly crayoned card and a bunch of my favourite freesia. The impetus for all this clandestine activity? An “almost here” Mother’s Day.

And when that Sunday morning dawned bright and beautiful and I had finished up a big plateful of somewhat heart-shaped pancakes and been the recipient of at least a zillion hugs and opened and oohed over the latest round of amazing 'Moms' Day' creations, I spent the rest of the day, as on the other eleven Mother’s Days that I had, up to that point been a mother, with an enormous lump in my throat and an even more enormous sense of gratitude in my heart.

If the headlines on my latest influx of magazines or news feed are any indication, however, not everyone will experience the upcoming Mother’s Day with the same events or the same emotions. Under the “Quick-Fix Diets” and “Put your best body forward” banners on one glossy cover, comes a very serious and non-superficial title--"Can't Get Pregnant? Modern Baby Making--All the Options". One publication had an article on mourning an unborn child and another, a major piece on adoption. Peruse any of these articles, or the rash of online work on absentee mothers or mothers struggling with significant physical or emotional illness, and it becomes painfully obvious that the flowers, smiling children and glowing-while-slow-motion-running-through-a-grassy-meadow mom scenario is not necessarily a given.

That long-ago Mother’s Day, I saw close friends of ours in the gathering of our faith community. They were cuddling their wondrously new baby daughter through brimming eyes and thanking God with the intensity that only parents who have lost two previous unborn children can understand.

I'd not seen them in church on a Mother’s or Father’s Day for years. The emotion has been too raw for public display, the pain cutting too deep to share openly.

We had other friends who were not there still. Their years of infertility were continuing, as did their desire to birth a child of their own. There was ebb and flow to their pain, but the reality of it remained constant. At times they were cautiously optimistic; at times there was calm resignation to a family life that included only the two of them. But always there was the undercurrent of grief, at that point anyway, quiet, but with the gut wrench of a loud and haunting wail.

There are also no appropriate cards for my friend whose mom abandoned her after birth and who was never there to protect her from the abuse that began shortly thereafter—and continued for what seemed like forever. What can a brightly coloured note say to someone who wasn't, because of their own immense pain, able to give you what you needed and who wasn't there to unwrap even one of your glue-sticky tissue covered napkin rings or plaster hand prints.

This year I pray peace for those women who long to be but are not yet mothers. Single women who want a child, but desire the foundation of a loving stable relationship in which to raise that child. Women who have been unable to conceive.

I also pray peace for mothers who have conceived a child but who have experienced the tears and pain of motherhood with none of its counterbalancing joys and delight. Mothers whose arms hold no baby because that child died before or at birth. Mothers who placed their child for adoption—who decided the very best birth day gift they could give their infant was to bundle him or her tightly; for a moment at least, to push grief and ache aside enough to somewhat coherently function; and to give that child into the care of another.

And this year, I pray a double measure of peace for women whose Mother’s Day pain is connected to their own mothers, whether still living or passed on. I pray a washing away of any sadness, sense of loss, anger or bitterness that may be there and the beginning or continuation of the journey to wholeness.

Very shortly, many of you will be sending off loving Mother’s Day greetings or hearing equally loving “Happy Mother’s Day” greetings of your own. For all of you, I hope this May 10th is special beyond measure.

For those women whose Mother’s Day falls in between the cracks in the card rack, however, I hope the day passes with a new peace for you as well.

_ _ _ _ _

Photo: motherthing.com

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