We all know the joy of finding something that was lost. It can be something small like a set of keys or a wallet or a cell phone, and we give a hoot of joy or silent thanks when we find it again. The joy we feel can be for much more important things, not necessarily our own, and we can experience it as a wider community when the lost is found.

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Who are we, really, without all our stuff, our possessions?

In our consumer society, we’re constantly surrounded by so much stuff we can buy and have.

We’re tempted always to want more.

We become what we buy.

We so closely identify with all our possessions, which then become to “possess” us, enthrall us, overwhelm us.

The...

Imagine. For eighteen years, the woman can’t straighten her spine. The weight of her life pressing down on her discs, curving her back, so that her frame of reference gets smaller and smaller. Her world becomes the circle just in front of her feet, no longer able to feel the sun on her face, no longer able to see the stars at night. Then...

Why does Jesus sound so stressed, strident, divisive? (Luke 12:49-56) Jesus saying that he hasn’t come to bring peace, but instead, division, is really strange. Jesus saying that households would be divided father against son, mother against daughter, confuses us. Why does Jesus say this? Why this upsetting image of conflict and division?

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One of your questions for this summer’s “Wrestling with the Big Questions” sermon series, had to do with our parents, and the Fourth Commandment which states we are to honour our parents.

And how is it that we can honour our parents, in situations where one or both of them had a decidedly negative or destructive impact on us?

A...

Two weeks ago, I was reclining on a lounge chair on a small beach area on Golden Lake, west of Eganville. It was early evening. The sun was setting over the trees at the western shore of the lake. Nothing stirred. Everything was serene, calm, quiet.

I loved it. The water surface was as flat and smooth as a mirror. The air and sky around me had...

Have you ever had that nudge, that inkling to do something good, but you never end up doing it? To send a card, a note or letter – of thanks, or of congratulations, or of sympathy to someone – but you never do it?

We see or hear about a need in the church – a need to update the website, or a need to invite a friend to church,...

On the surface, this story seems to be, again, one of those amazing, spectacular “miracle stories” of Jesus – that Jesus can heal someone even from a distance. Merely by mention of a word, and not even being right there in the same room with the person, touching the person, holding the person, looking into their eyes, Jesus...

On Monday we saw the forces of nature unleashed with a massive category EF5 tornado, the most powerful category for tornadoes. It ripped through the southern limits of Oklahoma City, directly in Moore, devastating the town and the people there.  24 people were killed, 9 of them school children, and 237 were injured.  The tornado cut a...