Perspectives by Rev. Sue McCullough

February 29, 2012 Editor Opinion

 

Lent–What's it all about?

Lent – taken from the German or Dutch word Lenz; known as the season between winter and summer; a time of 40 days before Easter, beginning with Ash Wednesday, the seventh Wednesday before Easter.

The Christian Church called the season before Easter lent. It would have been awfully confusing to tell people that the church season of Lent was in lent. 

So to ease the confusion somewhat the term “spring” was introduced many centuries ago. It literally referred to the springing up of plants and other life as the temperatures warmed up.

Lent in the Christian tradition is that time when we are charged to reflect on our lives and a take stock of who we are. It is a time for preparation for Easter, a time of rededication of the faithful and a time to teach those who are new to Christianity about the faith and to prepare them for baptism. 

This is the time in the church year when I am reminded – and not all that gently – to recommit myself to a lifestyle that is essential to me being a faithful Christian. The liturgy that we Anglicans follow on Ash Wednesday spells it out very plainly. 

We are invited to “observe a holy Lent by self-examination, penitence, prayer, fasting and almsgiving, and by reading and meditating on the word of God.” 

Some of the items in this list aren’t all that onerous… especially praying and reading the word of God. 

It’s the self-examination, penitence, and fasting with which most of us struggle.  The question that arises is how can I possibly do all of this?

If we are intentional about observing Lent we will find ourselves being more fully engaging with the path that Jesus walked as he spent 40 days in the wilderness. That time in the wilderness gave him the chance to do all of the things that we are called to do in Lent.

It was the time Jesus needed to prepare for his ministry with the people and ultimately to prepare for his death and resurrection. It is our time to prepare for our own ministries – whatever they might be – and to enter fully into the joy of the resurrection. 

So, my friends, are you up for the challenge??

Blessings, Sue+

P.S. To all of you out there who get to celebrate on the actual date of your birth, Happy Birthday!

 

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Perspectives by Rev. Sue McCullough

November 23, 2011 Editor Opinion

One Wednesday morning, not that long ago, I was sitting at my desk early in the morning. As I peered out my window, I noticed that it was a bit foggy outside – not a usual thing for mid November. 

While I was working away, I heard the distinct sound of fog horns. The timbre of the horns sent a wave of melancholy through me. I had a sense of aloneness but not loneliness, like I was the only person awake in the world at that point in time, yet God was hovering near. It felt like one of the “thin times” between me and God. The sound seemed to travel for miles and miles, almost like an echo. 

I am not certain how far along the Seaway the ship was before I couldn’t hear the sound of the fog horn any longer but it sure seemed like quite some time had passed.

Later on in the day, I was sitting in the kitchen having a cup of tea, and I heard the clear sound of a helicopter flying over. For some reason, that I have yet been able to figure out, I am fascinated by the sound and sight of helicopters. So I rushed outside to look for it. 

There I saw a very large chopper flying west. It wasn’t one of the recognizable orange helicopters that indicate someone being air-lifted to a hospital. It appeared to be a military helicopter that might well have been heading to CFB Trenton. 

As I looked up, I wondered about the people who were in that aircraft, marvelled at the fact that such an odd shaped machine could actually stay up in the air, prayed that they travelled safely to their destination and gave thanks that it wasn’t someone being flown to a hospital.

Sometime that afternoon, I was walking across the lawn returning home from the church when a small flock of geese flew overhead. There were only about eight or 10 birds flying and only one of them was honking as they flew. 

It wasn’t the noise of the call of that one lone bird that caught my attention so much as the sound of the air rushing through their wings. It sounded like a swoosh with every beat of their wings. The sound from such a few birds was quite loud so I can only imagine what it would sound like with some of the larger flocks that I see in the sky from time to time. Swoosh.

. . .that reminded me of how I thought Holy Spirit would sound when I was a little girl. The presence of God was evident to me once again that day.

As I think back on that day, I am reminded that we are blessed in so many ways. Being blessed with the ability to hear those sounds is something that I give thanks for because there are so many people in our world, our community, who cannot hear these things. 

Each time I was drawn away from my own thoughts to the world around me and I found myself entering into a time of prayer, drawing closer to God – marvelling at all of creation. The sounds of this November are not something that I will forget any time soon. Thanks be to God!

 

[…]

No Picture
Opinion

Perspectives with Rev. Geoff Howard

March 5, 2014 Editor Opinion

 

A while ago I came across the following collection of advertisements taken from real newspapers.

Snow blower for sale…Only used on 

snowy days.

Wire mesh butchering gloves for sale…

1 5-finger, 1 3-finger, pair: $15

Nordic track $300…hardly used, call Chubby

Georgia peaches California grown…

89 cents lb.

Joining nudist colony! Must sell washer & dryer $300.

Open House: Body Shapers Fitness Club and Toning Salon–free coffee & donuts.

Nice parachute: never opened–used once.

Sometimes I really don’t know what to make of the world we live in.

Some things simply make me smile and shake my head, others make me shake my head and shed a tear. Sometimes I feel like that person with the nice parachute: never opened – used once. Things don’t always make sense to me.

And then again…

It doesn’t make much sense to me that the Son of God would come to earth, be rejected by the religious people of the time, be condemned to die and hung on a cross with common criminals. It doesn’t make much sense that the Son of God would die for and because of the sins of the world, my sins… It doesn’t make sense.

And yet it was all because of God’s great love for us, for you, for me. And sometimes love doesn’t make much sense…

But I guess that is where faith comes in. That is what faith is all about. At times it doesn’t make much sense.

But, maybe, just maybe, as the word seems to get crazier, as life gets more difficult, as relationships seem more challenging…

Maybe that is simply an opportunity to live in faith.

For when nothing else makes any sense – maybe that’s what faith makes sense.

Poet, singer, songwriter Michael Card puts it this way

“To hear with my heart, To see with my soul,

To be guided by a hand I cannot hold

To trust in a way that I cannot see…

That’s what faith must be.”

So maybe I can live without that parachute after all…

What about you?

Rev. Geoff Howard, Knox Presbyterian Church, Iroquois

 

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