Faith in Progress

February 23, 2014 Leviticus 19:1-2, 9-18; Matthew 5:38-48 7 Epiphany Raise your hand if you would describe yourself as “holy”.   How about “perfect”?   Me neither.   And yet, that’s what God sets out for us as our tasks in our Old Testament and Gospel readings this morning.   From Leviticus, God tells Moses to tell the people: “You shall be holy, for I the Lord your God am holy.”   And from Matthew, Jesus refers back to Leviticus, changing it just a bit as he tells the people: “Be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.”             The dictionary defines holy as "divine or worthy of complete devotion as one perfect in goodness and righteousness; set apart”.   And defines perfect as “having no mistakes or flaws”.   They are words we use for God without much problem, but these aren’t usually words we think of for people , unless the person is Jesus who had a bit of an advantage on us, or maybe someone like Mother Teresa or St. Francis.   Or someone who lives out in

Last week our 4th through 8th grade Sunday School graced our 10:30 a.m. service with a rhythm section.  It was such fun to hear the fruits of their labor over the past couple weeks.  Here (thanks to Kathryn Coneway!) you can see the process: And here you get an experience (thanks to Sylvain Richard!) of the beautiful result in Church: Thanks to Brian and Lianne LaFleur for all the fun!

February 16, 2014 (Celtic service) Matthew 5:21-37 This is a truly dreadful Gospel.   It’s one of those that I cringe as I read.   When I saw my husband after Church this morning he said that reading made him never want to go to Church again.   This morning John preached on another reading entirely, but felt like he had to address this one at least briefly since it’s so awful.   John’s take on it was that Jesus was spreading the blame around, enlarging the category of people to include all of us, so that all of us would see that we are in need of God’s grace.   That helps a little. There is a tiny piece of this reading, though, that rang uncomfortably true for me as I read it this morning.   That part about how we treat our brothers and our sisters.   The warning against holding grudges against them and stopping what we are doing (even if it means leaving Church!) to go be reconciled with them if they have something against us. I can share the reason for my discomfort tonight

February 9, 2014 Matthew 5:13-20             A woman who used to attend St. Aidan’s once admitted to me that sometimes after one of the readings she would think, “Huh?”   And then she would furtively look around to see if anyone else had any idea what the reading meant, or if she was the only one that had no clue what the heck the Bible was saying.   Unfortunately, there are a lot of readings like that.   For me, Jesus’ line about salt this morning has always been one of them.             But I think the Boy Scouts helped me finally put it in perspective.    Dylan just joined the St. Aidan’s affiliated Cub Scout pack this year.   Let me start by saying that there’s a lot that seems great about the Boy Scouts.   Kids encouraged to respect each other, do their best, and take care of people.   They do a lot outside, hiking and camping.   They learn to do new things and have interesting adventures.   I’m glad that the Boy Scouts is on the road toward greater inclusivity, and h