Tag: Jesus
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Public Proclamation. Yikes!
Hazel Motes is the main character in Flannery O’Connor’s 1952 novel Wise Blood. Hazel Motes is a street preacher of the kind that is rare today and perhaps hard for us to imagine. He stands outside movie theatres, and on the hood of his old car, proclaiming his gospel—he competes with other hawkers of religion…
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Tears as Prayers
The full meaning of our tears always escapes us, but they are taken into the gracious love of God, in Christ.
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The other side of Goodbye #backtoschool
September is a busy and important time here at The Presbyterian College, with new and returning students arriving for studies. For six years now, as a faculty member here, I’ve been part of a team receiving students as they arrive in Montreal. Often those students come from other places in the country, or even from…
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Optimism vs. Hope, in a Pandemic
My latest in the Christian Courier. _________________ Where would you put yourself on the optimism/pessimism spectrum? I suppose I land just slightly on the optimistic side, though with serious bouts of pessimism thrown in now and again. Among my friends there is at least one eternal pessimist (with an astonishing capacity to see the worst…
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A Christmas Prayer
My latest column in the Christian Courier is a prayer for Christmas. __________________ Praise to you, O living Word, for you give the gift of our world. You are the creating one through whom ancient Laurentian mountains have their craggy existence. By your imaginative power, forests of black spruce, larch, and balsam grow along ridges…
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Rocks, boulders, pebbles, alive?
Stones of all kinds were a feature of my family’s vacation this past month – a vacation that included two weeks on the West Coast. We spent time in and around Vancouver, and then up the coast into Alaska. Everywhere there were stones. With the tide out, wandering on rocky beaches – more stones than…
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The Scar Project
A sermon preached today in the Chapel of The Presbyterian College. _____________ Nadia Myre is an Algonquin and Quebecois artist originally from Maniwaki who now lives and works here in Montreal. She’s not well known across the country, but her work is significant enough that she has a solo show at the Musée des beaux-arts…
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The God of Silence – reflections on Endo’s novel, Scorsese’s film
My latest column for the Christian Courier, can be found here, or below. How is it possible for the ocean to be silent? Can the sea lose its voice? On the face of it this seems impossible. The waves come rolling in with rhythmic constancy – breaking and pounding against the shoreline. Even on those…
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scars – a poem
A poem referencing the Gospel lectionary passage for this coming Sunday. John 20:19-31. Scars Running blind ‘round a corner, Robber to a cop in hot pursuit, Forehead meets half-opened door; Pain, dizziness, trickle of blood. Childhood memory is borne in the body, Fibrous tissues heralding past pain, Scar as locus of life’s hurt and healing.…
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Self love? Meh. (Really?)
It’s safe to say that Christianity has often been indifferent toward self-love. In fact, when I imagine the typically response to the possibility of self-love, I would describe it like this: Self love? Meh. Our own Reformed and Presbyterian tradition has often been downright negative about self-love. Within our tradition great emphasis has been placed…
encrusted words 