Photo from Salal and Cedar
Proper 16 C
Jeremiah 1:4-10
By Rachael Bullock
The word of the Lord came to me, saying,
“Before I formed you in the womb I knew you,
before you were born I set you apart;
I appointed you as a prophet to the nations.”
“Alas, Sovereign Lord,” I said, “I do not know how to speak; I am too young.” Continue reading
By Ken Sehested,
We are free to act boldly because we are safe.
We are safe because we are at rest.
We are at rest because we have been forgiven.
We are forgiven because we have come to know that the Spirit meets us in our weakness, not our strength.
And in the strength of our weakness we find our security; fear’s fierce grip loosens,
freeing us to act boldly.
Such is the journey, ever onward.
By the Clothier’s hand are we fitted with garments apropos for the Fiesta to come!
So rise up, you pilgrims, whether hale and hearty or flustered and weary.
Be clothed with the sun and with power from on high, robed in righteousness,
shod in the Gospel of Peace.
Round up your rowdy friends,
but especially the lame and all with no claim on the Bountiful Table.
The Banquet beckons.
Your Host awaits.
inspired by Rev 12:1; Luke 14:13, 24:49; Ps 139:2, Eph 6:15
Talk by Rose Marie Berger at the International Thomas Merton Society Sixteenth General Meeting at Santa Clara University in California, June 28, 2019
Listen to audio HERE.
Proper 15(20) C
Jeremiah 23:23-29
Hebrews 11:29-12:2
Luke 12:49-56
By Rev. Dr. Victoria Marie
Recently, I had the honour of participating as the resident elder in the Sacred Earth Camp for youth, a project of Salal + Cedar Watershed Discipleship Community. The lectionary readings, in light of the Camp experience, motivated me to revisit and reflect on certain current truths and issues of concern. Continue reading
Robert Spence and Lionel Flett fishing on Split Lake. Credit: Matthew Sawatzky
By Leanne Betasamosake Simpson. This article first appeared in Geez magazine’s winter 2014 issue, Geez 36: The End.
It seems strange to me that ideas of invasion, attack, occupation, and dispossession are recent fodder for television series such as The Walking Dead. This fictional reality is so strikingly close to the colonial legacy I was born into, at least in concept, it is sometimes difficult to see it as entertainment. Continue reading
By Kateri Boucher at Day House Catholic Worker August 11, 2019
Luke 12: 32-4
Hebrews 11: 1-2, 8-19
Wisdom 18: 6-9
Some of you may have heard the story about the man who was being chased by a tiger and falls off a cliff. Luckily he catches a branch and is hanging there from it, trying to figure out what to do. In desperation he cries out, “If there’s a God up there, I’ll do anything if you’ll save me!” Suddenly a voice booms down from the heavens, “This is God and I want to save you! All you have to do is let go of the branch!” There’s a long pause as the man thinks that over, then he finally turns back up and says “Is there anyone ELSE up there?”
By Wes Howard-Brook and Sue Ferguson Johnson
Proper 14 (9) C
Solomon offered as sacrifices of well-being to the LORD twenty-two thousand oxen and one hundred twenty thousand sheep. So the king and all the people of Israel dedicated the house of the LORD.
—1 Kings 8.63What to me is the multitude of your sacrifices? says the LORD; I have had enough of burnt offerings of rams and the fat of fed beasts; I do not delight in the blood of bulls, or of lambs, or of goats. When you come to appear before me, who asked this from your hand? Trample my courts no more; bringing offerings is futile; incense is an abomination to me.
—Isaiah 1.11-13I will not accept a bull from your house, or goats from your folds.
For every wild animal of the forest is mine, the cattle on a thousand hills.
I know all the birds of the air, and all that moves in the field is mine.
“If I were hungry, I would not tell you, for the world and all that is in it is mine.
Do I eat the flesh of bulls, or drink the blood of goats?”
—Psalm 50.9-13
