“No one can serve two masters, for a slave will either hate the one and love the other or be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth”. Matthew 6:24 Dear Friends, Last Sunday, my gospel monologue was as Matthew telling about how he accepted the call to follow Jesus. One of the main undercurrents was his desire to prosper. In my telling, that is what drove him to pursue being a tax collector. Some of the consequences of this decision was that

“Do not judge, so that you may not be judged. For the judgment you give will be the judgment you get, and the measure you give will be the measure you get.” Matthew 7:1-2 Dear Friends, On Sunday, my “soliloquy” was as the brother of the woman who had a blood flow for twelve years. Part of what I wanted to convey was the impact on the woman of being labelled “unclean” because of her ailment. Though we do not look to adhering to all the Holiness and Purity Laws of the Old Tes

There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear; for fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not reached perfection in love. 1 John 4:18 Dear Friends, If you were in worship on Sunday, you heard me recount my first experience of doing a High Ropes course. High Ropes courses have various rope, log, and cable elements about 4.5 metres off the ground. They are designed to help people—in a safe situation—to overcome or deal with their fear of heights. In m

it starts when you say Weand know who you mean,and each day you mean one more. The Low Road by Marge Piercy Dear Friends, On Tuesday mornings at 10am, we gather in the church office to have conversations about faith. During the Summer, I’m calling it Coffee, Conversation & Koinonia. In the session we had this week, we watched the video, A Larger Welcome, which featured an interview with Parker Palmer. In the video, he referenced the poem above by Marge Piercy. In our lives, w

God is love, and those who abide in love abide in God, and God abides in them. 1 John 4:16 Dear Friends, Last Friday, I attended the funeral of a not-so-old man named Chinyere. Though I never met Chinyere, I did know his brother. His brother had come to Canada and was forced to seek asylum here because if he went back to Nigeria, he would have been killed for being gay. Unbelievably, those who sought to do him harm located his brother instead (who had also moved here) and

“You shall not wrong or oppress a resident alien, for you were aliens in the land of Egypt.” Exodus 22:21 Dear Friends, On October 7, 2023, attacks on Israel by Hamas killed 1,195 people. Two thirds of these people were civilians. They also took about 250 people hostage. It was a ruthless, horrible attack by members of Hamas. Israel’s response was to begin a war on Gaza. Since then, over 71,000 Palestinians have been killed and more than 171,000 injured in Gaza. In spite of

What does the Lord require of you but to Do justice, love kindness and walk humbly with your God. Micah 6:8 Dear Friends, There was a sermon I heard when I was quite young… The pastor had an empty jar and a bunch of rocks: most were rather small, some were a little bigger, and one was larger than the rest. He began to fill the jar. First with the largest rock. Then the ones that were slightly smaller. Then finally all the rest. They all fit into the jar. Then he dumped them a

"Those who control digital platforms and means of communication have a considerable ability to affect the collective imagination and to present a particular vision of reality as desirable. Such power should be constantly guided by the pursuit of truth and respect for human dignity." - From Pope Leo XIV's encyclical "Magnifica Humanitas" Dear Friends, When I was growing up, one of the activities that my brother and I had to do before Christmas was to make a Christmas present f

To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good. 1 Corinthians 12:7 Dear Friends, This coming Sunday, we are having a volunteer appreciation luncheon for volunteers here at First. There are folks who make coffee, fix things, greet, clean up, serve on Council, sing, prepare communion, pray, visit, fold bulletins, provide rides, run sound and ppt, assist in worship, teach our children & youth, set up, and other things that aren’t coming to mind right now. I

[Jesus said,] “Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God.” Luke 6:20 Dear Friends, Over the last year or so, many of you probably noticed that there was someone who was parked in the corner of our property and living out of his car. We first noticed him in Spring of 2025. As the property manager at the time, Kelly went out to meet and talk with him to see what was going on. Apparently, “David” was living across the street in a rental property that got cond

I lift up my eyes to the hills—from where will my help come? Psalm 121:1 … like living stones let yourselves be built into a spiritual house… 1 Peter 2:5 Dear Friends, As you are probably aware, we were on vacation for a couple of weeks in Peru. Laura and I had a really good trip and spent a lot of time in the highlands of Peru. One of our guides shared with us some of the spirituality of the indigenous people. Though 95% of the current population identify as “Catholic,” th

Jesus answered them, “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. Very truly, I tell you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains just a single grain, but if it dies it bears much fruit. John 12:23-24 Dear Friends, In the sermon on Sunday, I used the phrase, “Context is decisive.” I feel this is a key insight so I want to spend a little bit of time exploring it… Looking back, one of the first times I remember being surprised by the way some

So if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation: everything old has passed away; look, new things have come into being! 2 Corinthians 5:17 Dear Friends, On Sunday, April 12 th , I preached about hope . The definition of “hope” I proposed was that hope is having a life-giving future to live into . The main impediment to having a life-giving future is having a life-taking past that casts a shadow on one’s future… and even makes us unable to see it! The question arises, Ho

But Jesus called them to him and said, “You know that the rulers of the gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones are tyrants over them. It will not be so among you, but whoever wishes to be great among you must be your servant, and whoever wishes to be first among you must be your slave, just as the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve and to give his life a ransom for many.” Matthew 20:25-28 Dear Friends, As I am writing this, we are a couple of days int

“God, who is rich in mercy and love, gives us a new birth into a living hope through the sacrament of baptism. By water and the Word God delivers us from sin and death and raises us to new life in Jesus Christ.” [Beginning of the Rite of Baptism in the Lutheran hymnal.] Dear Friends, Last Sunday (Easter Sunday), we had four baptisms and I said the above words as part of the baptismal rite in the service. It was a day celebrating the resurrection of our Lord. It was a day cele

I love to tell the story. ‘Twill be my theme in glory. To tell the old, old story… of Jesus and His love. [Chorus from I Love to Tell the Story by Katherine Hankey] Dear Friends, When Laura and I started dating, she introduced me to a really new concept: watching movies over and over! My whole life prior to that, I don’t think I had ever read a book that I’d read before or watched a movie or play that I had seen before. In my mind, since I knew how the story turned out, t

“Hosanna to the Son of David!   Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord!  Hosanna in the highest heaven!” Matthew 21:9 Dear Friends, This last weekend, I was at the Alberta and the Territories Synod Council Retreat. I attended as the clergy representative of the South West Area (Calgary). At that retreat, the Rev. Dr. Deborah Ann Taylor did an educational presentation on Christian Nationalism . In case you haven’t heard of Christian Nationalism, this is a polit

I am the vine, you are the branches. Those who abide in me and I in them bear much fruit, because apart from me you can do nothing. John 15:5 Dear Friends, A couple of years ago at our Annual General Meeting, we did a Values Card exercise to begin to identify the Core Values of First Lutheran Church. The assumption is that God has brought this congregation together and that it is animated by a particular manifestation of God’s Holy Spirit here. The Values Card exercise was an

Dear Friends, The following will not be my normal weekly update. My wife, Laura, shared this post from an American priest with me this morning and I find that it names a lot of the emotion and even personal conflict and challenges that I have as your pastor during these trying times. The priest, Bob Mooney, is in the United States and so his context is from the viewpoint of an American citizen. I think the disparity he names between the core of Jesus’ teaching about love and