Category: Reflections
Reflections

The God Who Won’t Let Go

The Parable of the Prodigal Son, or as I have come to call it, the Parable of the Compassionate Parent, is found only in the Gospel of Luke, and so, unlike many of the other parables of Jesus, we encounter it only once in the lectionary cycle. Three years ago, before Toronto was even a twinkle in my eye, I was scheduled to preach on this set of readings, and the new pastor at the Lutheran Church where I was working at the time recommended a book by Henri Nouwen with which I was not familiar: The Return of the Prodigal Son. The book was written after Nouwen had left his teaching position at Harvard and had come to Toronto to serve as Chaplain to the L’Arche community here.

Reflections

“Building Communities of Wisdom”

A sermon preached on February 28, 2010 by Christopher Lind Please repeat after me this prayer: Serenity Prayer (by Reinhold Niebuhr) “May God grant me

Meaning, Healing & Belonging

A Sermon Preached on Nov.15th by Christopher Lind Dr. Michael Hryniuk is a theologian from the Ukranian Catholic side of the family, the Christian family
Reflections

Community is Letting Go of Fear

Mike Harris, in repealing the Employment Equity Act, said: only those viewed as competitive deserve a job.  On the other hand, in lowering the welfare

The organ as metaphor

I imagine each of us has a different story of how we came to love organ music. Two things did it for me as a missionary kid growing up at the foot of Mt. Kilimanjaro: a 7-inch extended play 45-rpm recording of Thurston Dart playing some of Handel’s Aylesford pieces*, and a one-manual, 6-stop Walcker tracker organ that arrived in crates, a gift to our local church, from the Leipzig Missionary Society. My Dad, who had a bit of an engineering background, got the job of putting it together, and I, with some guidance from my piano teacher, got to play for services.

“Fan into a flame the gift that God gave you”

Our affections and beliefs are wiser than we; the best that is in us is better than we can understand; for it is grounded beyond experience, and guides us, blindfold but safe, from one age on to another. — Robert Louis Stevenson

Stevenson wrote these words in the dedication of a collection of his youthful writings and his Ethical Papers. I had picked up the book at a yard sale years ago, but finally got around to reading it this week, and when I read the passage above I flashed on Paul’s words to Timothy: “fan into a flame the gift that God gave you…” (2 Tim. 1:6)

A violent wind

Looking over the Pentecost bulletin I can only imagine the joy you will be experiencing. ¡Mucho gusto! I’m looking forward to June 1st. Jim Love

Maiden Voyage

Years ago, I was preparing an address for my first congregational meeting as the new pastor. I had titled it “Great Expectations” and—in that age