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I’ve been thinking …

So I visited the Blasted Church on Wednesday. Seriously. On a break from the General Council meetings, a cousin drove me down the Okanagan Valley to their little frame church. Built over 100 years ago for miners up in the mountains, it outlived the community around it. The mine closed, the village emptied and the church was left desolate.
It was suggested they move the building down into the valley. Miners had a technique to explode dynamite inside a building at just the right blast level that it did little damage to the structure, but loosened all the nails for disassembly. They hung a stick of TNT inside, boarded the windows. Then they blasted the church. Now the reassembled building serves a United Church congregation. I sense a great sermon illustration somewhere in that true story. There can be healthy explosive energy inside a church that moves a congregation to new places and does no damage. Would that we at Wellington Square are a people of God with that kind of energy. Just so you know – as I write this (Thursday morning), my experience here has been inspiring and humbling. Our United Church of Canada is engaged in many truly noble works – diligently trying to live in right relations with all peoples, and to mend the broken places of our world. Granted that we occasionally get a little goofy and extreme in some of our social justice pronouncements. And we lose sight of the power of our historic traditions and truths; nevertheless it is a church with much we can be proud of, and much we should support. I’ll expand on that when I’m back. Stay tuned. Grace & peace to you all … ORVILLE

Sunday, August 16 “Lord of All: The Syrophoenician Woman”

From there Jesus set out for the vicinity of Tyre. He entered a house there where he didn’t think he would be found, but he couldn’t escape notice. He was barely inside when a woman who had a disturbed daughter heard where he was. She came and knelt at his feet, begging for help. The woman was Greek, Syro-Phoenician by birth. — Mark 7: 24-26, The Message

If we know how great is the love of Jesus for us we will never be afraid to go to Him in all our poverty, all our weakness, all our spiritual wretchedness and infirmity. Indeed, when we understand the true nature of His love for us, we will prefer to come to Him poor and helpless. We will never be ashamed of our distress. Distress is to our advantage when we have nothing to seek but mercy… — Thomas Merton

Jesus left that place and went away to the district of Tyre and Sidon. — Matt 15: 21 (NRSV)

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I’ve been thinking …

Sunday, August 16 “Lord of All: The Syrophoenician Woman”

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