Doubt and Resurrection

5 04 2013

by Andrew Stephens-Rennie

What do you do when you no longer know how to pray?

What do you do when you find yourself searching for meaning beyond the feeble machinations of this life, yet keep finding yourself drawn down into life’s materialism. What about transcendence? What about heaven? Where is the divine – where is God – in the midst of this godforsaken world?

Faith and doubt, two sides of the same coin. Whether it’s ambivalence, or not, I’m not sure. But there are these ebbs and flows. Sometimes it feels like everything fits together. Other days it does not. I hear people regularly talking in triumphalistic tones about the way in which God has directed them to do such-and-such. But when was the last time hearing God’s voice was more than retracing the stale breadcrumbs I’d followed to get here? Read the rest of this entry »


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Ambivalence and Resurrection

2 04 2013

by Brian Walsh

(A sermon preached at Wine Before Breakfast, April 2, 2013, on John 21.4-19 in the context of U2′s “Beautiful Day”) 

The ambivalence is there from the beginning.

The story is clearly one of deep, deep hope,
but the ambivalence shows in the first words.

Maybe you can only taste such deep hope,
such profound restoration,
in the face of such ambivalence.

Yes, the ambivalence is there from the beginning.

The heart is a bloom,
shoots up through the stony ground.

On one level we hear echoes of Isaiah,
the wilderness will blossom,
surely that is appropriate on a Easter Tuesday.

And yet, that heart is a bloom, shoots up through the stony ground.

A farmer went out to sow, and some seeds fell on stony ground.
Maybe those seeds grew into new shoots and began to bloom,
but there is something ominous, something ambivalent about that bloom:
it won’t last.

It’s a beautiful day, don’t let it get away.
But not all that you see on this beautiful day is all that beautiful.
See the tuna fleets clearing the sea out.
See the oil fields at first light.
It’s a beautiful day, but it is not without its ambivalence. Read the rest of this entry »


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Betrayal and Resurrection

30 03 2013

by Sylvia Keesmaat

(A Sermon Preached at the Easter Vigil, March 30, 2013, at Christchurch, Coboconk on Genesis 1.1-2.4a; Genesis 3; Exodus 14.10-31, 15.20-21; Ezekiel 36.24-28; Romans 6.3-11; Luke 24.1-12.

Imagine it, if you will.
God had such high hopes.
God had hovered over the darkness,
breathed over it
and gathered all the creative energies of life.

God hoped,
and out of the darkness flowered light.

And not only light:
sky and earth,
dry land and seas,
fruit and flowers,
leaves and grasses.

Animals that walked
and animals that flew,
animals that crept
and animals that swam.

The skies, the seas, the earth,
all of it teeming with the creative hopes of God.

But there was more:
the earth creatures,
woman and man,
to care for and rejoice
in the earth,
to be company and friends with God.

God had hope for enjoyment and conversation,
hope for praise and delight.
God would be with them and nothing could go wrong. Read the rest of this entry »


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Darkness is Freedom Seekers Friend

12 02 2013

by Jacqueline Daley

Part II: Darkness is Freedom Seekers Friend

A darkness that could be felt covered Egypt so the Hebrews could flee
From bondage the Hebrews were led safely through the Red Sea
From deep darkness God’s voice would be
From thick darkness God summoned Moses who could not see
In thick darkness the covenant was chiselled on stone tablets for free

To deep darkness Harriet and all freedom seekers continue to flee
Away from bondage to claim their divine destiny
Who can deny darkness goodness?
When night’s darkness offers so many captives their liberty

To Black Egypt the Hebrews fled from a famine’s dread
To Black Egypt an infant Savior was saved from Herod’s bloodshed
To keep the promise of holy nationhood
A kingdom of royal priesthood
A peculiar people-hood

harriet-tubman-1823-1913-granger

To a dark grave our Savior King was laid
To offer salvation so all could be saved
To rise victorious over the grave
To be resurrected on the third day
Price for our sins, fully paid!


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When Blood and Bones Cry Out

28 05 2012

by Andrew Stephens-Rennie (originally published at www.wordmadeflesh.ca)

Reflections on Ezekiel 37:1-14 and Acts 2:1-21
St. Albans Church | Ottawa, ON

Blood and bones cry out. Groaning, Yearning. Hoping, Searching.

Blood and bones cry out. For the life to come, the life that will be, the life that’s been promised, the life they cannot see.

Blood and bones cry out. Awaiting redemption, anxiously awaiting with bated breath.

Waiting.

We wait. Even today. Even here in Ottawa, we wait. We wait with expectation. We wait holding firm in faith. We wait for God’s great revealing. For the gift of God’s spirit to be made manifest amongst us. We sit here waiting for a miracle. Read the rest of this entry »


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Resurrection and the City

22 04 2012

by Brian Walsh

(We’ve sat in Easter Saturday for three weeks now. Not a bad thing to do considering how quickly we want to get past the horror of Good Friday. Maybe it is time for us to now proclaim the resurrection. Because without the resurrection, there is no remixing of the empire. This is my Wine Before Breakfast meditation on the Road to Emmaus story in Luke 24.13-35)

It wasn’t surprising that they had decided to leave the city.
Jerusalem had again failed to live up to its name.

Bloodshed, not peace, had been raining in this city for years,
and the last couple of days had been just more of the same.

Another round of arrests,
more beatings and corrupt trials,
another group of crucifixions,
more violence in the police state,
yet another repression of anything that could be a threat to the city
and its religious, political and economic elite.

This city that had held their hopes and dreams,
this city that had been the bearer of the promises,
this city where they had hoped to see the redemption of Israel,
this city where they had longed to see streets for dwelling,
justice in the gates,
jubilee in the land,
the protection of orphans, widows and strangers,
refuge for the vulnerable;
this city that they had hoped would be the capitol for the Kingdom of God,
… this city had failed them again. Read the rest of this entry »


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Denying the Crucifixion

17 04 2012

by Andrew Stephens-Rennie

We hate them.

You know, those people who deny the resurrection. Those people who see the story of Jesus’ rising as mere metaphor, who refuse to accept that Jesus, that word made flesh, that god-man, could rise from the dead if he wanted to.

If God is God, we say, then you’d be crazy not to have faith in God’s power to raise the dead.

But let’s step back. Not too far, just a couple of days. Let’s step back to that Horrid Good Friday – you know, the one we gloss over because we think we know the end to the story. We know how it all turns out, so we don’t need to really think about how awful that day, those intervening days were. We don’t have to think about them, because we’ve read the final chapter, and we’ve got a good sense of the epilogue.

I hate it.

Read the rest of this entry »


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Resurrection Prayers

24 04 2011

by Andrew Stephens-Rennie (with special thanks to the lads in u2)

Lord Jesus Christ, we come before you this morning, in awe of your risen majesty. When all seemed bleak, when we had almost given up hope, you conquered sin and death. This morning, as we revel in disbelief, and glory in your resurrection, we pray saying

Lord, take our hearts and make them brave.

God of all, we come before you this morning with great thanks for a love that endures forever. We pray this morning for your church, that we may live as a resurrection people. As we carry the scars of Good Friday into the world, and as our church is constantly being reborn, we ask that you give us strength to minister in the midst of our ever-changing communities.

This morning we pray for your one, Holy, catholic and apostolic Church throughout the world. We pray for denominational leaders, for pastors, priests, elders, deacons and ministers, and all who witness to the good news of your life, death and resurrection with their lives.

Lord, take our hearts and make them brave. Read the rest of this entry »


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Voting for Resurrection

4 04 2011

by Andrew Stephens-Rennie

Election day is coming, and I’m ready to predict that somebody’s gonna get crucified. We’ve heard the story enough times to know that Something Interesting always happens when you mash up Religious Festival and Political Spectacle.

And that, dear reader is what it seems we’ve got on our hands.

Far be it for me to tell the Canadian Church (in all it’s denominational and theological diversity) what to do, but maybe y’all should think long and hard about how to approach election day with theological, ecclesiological and missiological vigour. Couldn’t hurt, right? Read the rest of this entry »


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Between Confidence and Fear

6 04 2010

by Brian Walsh

Folk who visit this site know that much of what we write about here arises out of a shared worship experience called “Wine Before Breakfast.” This year the community began with allowing Romans to shape our liturgy and our imaginations, and then concluded with Mark’s telling of the story of Holy Week for Lent and Easter. That meant that we began with Romans 1 and ended with Mark 16. That juxtaposition gave rise to this meditation.

“Paul, a slave of Jesus Christ.”

Do you remember those six words? That is how we began Wine Before Breakfast last September.
…“Paul, a slave of Jesus Christ.”

Paul, writing to the very heart of the empire,
…identifies himself with nothing less (or more)
…than a slave of Jesus Christ.

Not a citizen of the empire,
and sure as hell, not a slave of the emperor,
…but a slave of Jesus Christ.

Six words into his letter to the Romans,
…and he has already put them on notice.
…This was “in your face stuff.”

And it didn’t stop there. Read the rest of this entry »


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