Our second daughter, the 13 year old, left this morning for a school trip to Quebec City. We had to get her to school at 5:30 a.m. for a 6:00 a.m. departure. It’s J’s first time away from us on her own. She’s gone for 4 days. She’s been kind of excited but underneath you could kind of sense her nervousness. The excitement was heightened last night when she talked to my parents on the phone and they said they’re giving her $50 spending money.
"Really?!? REALLY?!? Thank you sooo much!"
We saw her off this morning, came back home to where our oldest daughter was just getting up. She went off to school, we walked the two boys to school, got home and found J’s retainer. She’s supposed to wear it 12 hours a day. She’s so tired of that thing. We’re constantly reminding her to wear it. I don’t think she forgot it on purpose. But there it was.
So, I called the tour company to get the name and address of the hotel in Quebec City. Then we went to the UPS Store and are having it couriered to the hotel. We stuck a chocolate bar in the envelope with the retainer as a treat when she gets it. It’ll be there by noon tomorrow.
Tuesday, May 27, 2008
Monday, May 26, 2008
Our Bunny Story
We grow a vegetable garden on the church property out behind the parsonage yard and we take our harvest to the local food bank. This will be our 4th or 5th year doing this. Mr. B and Mr. T were coming last Thursday night to roto-till the garden so my wife went out Thursday afternoon to pull up some of the bigger weeds so that they wouldn’t get tilled back into the ground and come up even more weeds.
As she was out there she saw a mound of furry type stuff and hoped that she wasn’t going to find something dead. She gingerly started to push the shovel into the ground and suddenly there was a squealing and a rabbit went running away, my wife running the other way. That evening when Mr. B and Mr. T showed up they found a little burrow with 6 baby bunnies in it. They already had their fur and were moving around. They gathered them up and put them in a shoe box and put the box in the tall grass at the back of the property hoping that the mom might come back for them.
Thursday night was getting pretty chilly and there was some concern that the bunnies would get cold. We found out the next morning that Mr. B had come and picked them up and took them home. He tried feeding them some milk from a dropper with no success. He got up early the next morning to try to feed them again before work, again with no success.
Friday morning on his way to work Mr. B brought the bunnies back and put them in the tall grass again, tipping the shoe box on its side so that they could get out if they needed to, again hoping their mother would come back.
Friday evening we got a call from Mr. T’s oldest son saying they have 6 new furry friends staying at their place. They came and gathered them up, they bought some bunny formula and are getting some into them. They’re big enough to be eating greens. The kids pick the leaves from some wild strawberry’s they have growing around the property and the bunnies chow down on them.
Yesterday afternoon we went by to take our kids to see the bunnies. They are sooooo adorable. If you put a red ribbon around their neck they could be the Lindt chocolate bunnies in the gold foil that you get at Easter time.
The T family lives out in the country, they back onto some bush area so they plan to raise the bunnies until their bigger and then let them go. They’ve done some research on orphaned rabbits and apparently when they get to be about 6" long they’re ready to take off on their own.
Coincidentally, yesterday’s gospel reading mentioned God caring for the birds of the air and the grass of the field and one of the petitions in the prayers that we use from Sundays & Seasons (Augsburg Fortress, 2007) said:
As she was out there she saw a mound of furry type stuff and hoped that she wasn’t going to find something dead. She gingerly started to push the shovel into the ground and suddenly there was a squealing and a rabbit went running away, my wife running the other way. That evening when Mr. B and Mr. T showed up they found a little burrow with 6 baby bunnies in it. They already had their fur and were moving around. They gathered them up and put them in a shoe box and put the box in the tall grass at the back of the property hoping that the mom might come back for them.
Thursday night was getting pretty chilly and there was some concern that the bunnies would get cold. We found out the next morning that Mr. B had come and picked them up and took them home. He tried feeding them some milk from a dropper with no success. He got up early the next morning to try to feed them again before work, again with no success.
Friday morning on his way to work Mr. B brought the bunnies back and put them in the tall grass again, tipping the shoe box on its side so that they could get out if they needed to, again hoping their mother would come back.
Friday evening we got a call from Mr. T’s oldest son saying they have 6 new furry friends staying at their place. They came and gathered them up, they bought some bunny formula and are getting some into them. They’re big enough to be eating greens. The kids pick the leaves from some wild strawberry’s they have growing around the property and the bunnies chow down on them.
Yesterday afternoon we went by to take our kids to see the bunnies. They are sooooo adorable. If you put a red ribbon around their neck they could be the Lindt chocolate bunnies in the gold foil that you get at Easter time.
The T family lives out in the country, they back onto some bush area so they plan to raise the bunnies until their bigger and then let them go. They’ve done some research on orphaned rabbits and apparently when they get to be about 6" long they’re ready to take off on their own.
Coincidentally, yesterday’s gospel reading mentioned God caring for the birds of the air and the grass of the field and one of the petitions in the prayers that we use from Sundays & Seasons (Augsburg Fortress, 2007) said:
Preserve the health of all newborn creatures in hospitals, homes, fields, and trees. Ease their entry into this world by your loving care. Hear us, O God;
your mercy is great.
your mercy is great.
Tuesday, May 20, 2008
Finally
My brother got married this past Friday. We are so incredibly happy for him and his bride. It was a beautiful day. He's found a wonderful woman to share the rest of his life with. My whole family got to participate in the wedding service. My wife read the first lesson. My oldest daughter played piano, accompanying my younger daughter as she sang a solo. My oldest son was a greeter, passing out bulletins as people arrived. My youngest son was the ring bearer (and looking sooooo adorable in his tux). And I was honoured to preside at their wedding which took place in his church, the church where we grew up. Here's my sermon from that day.
Finally! At last!
We’ve come to the day and the moment of your wedding.
You have come here
and invited this congregation of people here as witnesses
as you make promises to each other about your future together.
You have found each other, fallen in love,
and you will be stating in front of these gathered witnesses
and in front of God,
that you will be faithful to each other
for the rest of your lives.
In the old green worship book that we used to use
there were three sentences
that were read during the marriage service
that are pretty much a summary
of the church’s teaching about marriage.
The first sentence reads:
"The Lord God in his goodness created us male and female,
and by the gift of marriage founded human community
in a joy that begins now
and is brought to perfection in the life to come."
Marriage is God’s gift to you.
God created people to live in community,
various kinds of community.
In the gospel reading Jesus quotes from the Bible’s creation story.
He says "in the beginning the Creator made a man and a woman.
That’s why a man leaves his father and mother
and gets married.
He becomes like one person with his wife."
It’s not good for us to be alone.
We have various kinds of friendships, family relationships,
working relationships, and other relationship
so that we’re not alone.
God has given the two of you
the gift of the most intimate kind of relationship,
a relationship in marriage.
God’s intention for your marriage
is that it be filled with joy in good times and in bad times,
a joy that comes in committing yourselves to each other.
We pray that God would bless your marriage
with good gifts, with love, and with joy.
But we’re all human and that’s where the second sentence
of the church’s teaching about marriage comes in.
"Because of sin, our age-old rebellion,
the gladness of marriage can be overcast
and the gift of family can become a burden."
I’ve given a guarantee with every wedding at which I’ve presided
and I’ll give you the same guarantee.
I guarantee you that your marriage will not always be perfect.
You’ll each do things and say things that can get on the other’s nerves.
It may get to the point
that you become really angry with your spouse.
"In the close contact of married life
this mutual antagonism may flare into a serious disagreement."
The root of the difficulties that arise in any marriage
is that old word that we often use in church, sin.
I can guarantee that your marriage won’t be perfect
because each of you, every human being, is so far from perfect.
The shadow of sin can darken the gladness
which God intends for us.
The community that God wishes for us can,
and often does, end up broken.
But there’s good news.
That brokenness does not have to be the end.
God’s intention for joy remains.
The final sentence of that summary
of the church’s teaching about marriage says:
"Because God, who established marriage,
continues still to bless it
with his abundant and ever-present support,
we can be sustained in our weariness
and have our joy restored."
God is always present with help for every one of us.
Even when we turn from the good that God intends for us,
when our self-centred sinfulness shatters that joy
that God intends for our marriage,
God is there to restore our joy.
The Lord God established marriage in joy;
our self-centred sinfulness shatters it;
God restores our joy.
The reading we heard from First Corinthians is a familiar one
especially for weddings.
I think it’s entirely appropriate for a wedding ceremony
but St. Paul didn’t write it with weddings in mind.
In fact the reading says nothing about marriage at all.
He was writing a letter to a divided church community,
a community in deep conflict.
The community that God gave to those people
was being shattered by their sinfulness
and Paul was trying to help get them back on track.
He said, "I want you to desire the best gifts."
He told them that even if you’re
the most spiritual person in the world,
the most gifted person in the world,
the most self-sacrificing person in the world,
you’d be nothing, you’d gain nothing,
unless you loved others.
He went on listing many things that love is:
kind, patient, supportive, loyal, hopeful, trusting.
And he listed many things that love isn’t:
jealous, boastful, proud, rude, selfish, quick tempered.
And he concluded by saying "Love never fails!
For now there are faith, hope, and love.
But of these three, the greatest is love."
I hope you can see how his advice
to a church community so many centuries ago
can also apply to a couple in their life together in this century.
That love that restores our joy,
that enables us to forgive one another,
that sustains us through good times and bad,
is a gift from God.
It’s pure grace.
It’s God’s gift to every one of us,
and it’s God’s gift to your marriage.
May you live in the love and joy that comes only from God
through your whole life together.
Amen
Marriage of JPA and SLT
May 16, 2008
1 Corinthians 13.1-13; Matthew 19.4-6
Thomas Arth
May 16, 2008
1 Corinthians 13.1-13; Matthew 19.4-6
Thomas Arth
Finally! At last!
We’ve come to the day and the moment of your wedding.
You have come here
and invited this congregation of people here as witnesses
as you make promises to each other about your future together.
You have found each other, fallen in love,
and you will be stating in front of these gathered witnesses
and in front of God,
that you will be faithful to each other
for the rest of your lives.
In the old green worship book that we used to use
there were three sentences
that were read during the marriage service
that are pretty much a summary
of the church’s teaching about marriage.
The first sentence reads:
"The Lord God in his goodness created us male and female,
and by the gift of marriage founded human community
in a joy that begins now
and is brought to perfection in the life to come."
Marriage is God’s gift to you.
God created people to live in community,
various kinds of community.
In the gospel reading Jesus quotes from the Bible’s creation story.
He says "in the beginning the Creator made a man and a woman.
That’s why a man leaves his father and mother
and gets married.
He becomes like one person with his wife."
It’s not good for us to be alone.
We have various kinds of friendships, family relationships,
working relationships, and other relationship
so that we’re not alone.
God has given the two of you
the gift of the most intimate kind of relationship,
a relationship in marriage.
God’s intention for your marriage
is that it be filled with joy in good times and in bad times,
a joy that comes in committing yourselves to each other.
We pray that God would bless your marriage
with good gifts, with love, and with joy.
But we’re all human and that’s where the second sentence
of the church’s teaching about marriage comes in.
"Because of sin, our age-old rebellion,
the gladness of marriage can be overcast
and the gift of family can become a burden."
I’ve given a guarantee with every wedding at which I’ve presided
and I’ll give you the same guarantee.
I guarantee you that your marriage will not always be perfect.
You’ll each do things and say things that can get on the other’s nerves.
It may get to the point
that you become really angry with your spouse.
"In the close contact of married life
this mutual antagonism may flare into a serious disagreement."
The root of the difficulties that arise in any marriage
is that old word that we often use in church, sin.
I can guarantee that your marriage won’t be perfect
because each of you, every human being, is so far from perfect.
The shadow of sin can darken the gladness
which God intends for us.
The community that God wishes for us can,
and often does, end up broken.
But there’s good news.
That brokenness does not have to be the end.
God’s intention for joy remains.
The final sentence of that summary
of the church’s teaching about marriage says:
"Because God, who established marriage,
continues still to bless it
with his abundant and ever-present support,
we can be sustained in our weariness
and have our joy restored."
God is always present with help for every one of us.
Even when we turn from the good that God intends for us,
when our self-centred sinfulness shatters that joy
that God intends for our marriage,
God is there to restore our joy.
The Lord God established marriage in joy;
our self-centred sinfulness shatters it;
God restores our joy.
The reading we heard from First Corinthians is a familiar one
especially for weddings.
I think it’s entirely appropriate for a wedding ceremony
but St. Paul didn’t write it with weddings in mind.
In fact the reading says nothing about marriage at all.
He was writing a letter to a divided church community,
a community in deep conflict.
The community that God gave to those people
was being shattered by their sinfulness
and Paul was trying to help get them back on track.
He said, "I want you to desire the best gifts."
He told them that even if you’re
the most spiritual person in the world,
the most gifted person in the world,
the most self-sacrificing person in the world,
you’d be nothing, you’d gain nothing,
unless you loved others.
He went on listing many things that love is:
kind, patient, supportive, loyal, hopeful, trusting.
And he listed many things that love isn’t:
jealous, boastful, proud, rude, selfish, quick tempered.
And he concluded by saying "Love never fails!
For now there are faith, hope, and love.
But of these three, the greatest is love."
I hope you can see how his advice
to a church community so many centuries ago
can also apply to a couple in their life together in this century.
That love that restores our joy,
that enables us to forgive one another,
that sustains us through good times and bad,
is a gift from God.
It’s pure grace.
It’s God’s gift to every one of us,
and it’s God’s gift to your marriage.
May you live in the love and joy that comes only from God
through your whole life together.
Amen
Tuesday, May 06, 2008
...about Fruit
Wow! It's been a long time since I've posted. This is scheduled to appear in the local paper tomorrow.
Now, the very religious might think I’m going to write about the fruit of the Spirit. I’m not. But for those who are now curious or don’t remember the list, the Bible says "the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control" (Galatians 5:22).
I’m not writing about that fruit. I’ve been thinking about peaches and pears.
As a pastor I’m asked to pray from time to time. A few years ago at a funeral reception I was asked to say grace before we ate. I thanked God for the food we were about to eat and for those who prepared it for us. Afterward a farmer came to me and asked, "Why do you pastors always thank those who prepared the food but never those who grew it?" It was a good question and now I try to remember those farmers in my prayers as well.
No doubt you’ve read, heard, and seen the news the last few weeks about the impending and now apparently inevitable closure of a cannery in St. David’s. A number of area fruit growers depended on this cannery to buy their fruit.
I haven’t heard what these growers are going to do now. I’m guessing there’s only so much they can sell as fresh fruit to grocery stores and at farmers’ markets. I’m guessing at least some of them might go out of business.
But do we care? I don’t usually give much thought to where my food comes from. When I go to the store I don’t look at the label to see where the food was grown, if the label even tells me. When I go to my favourite fast-food outlet, or occasionally to a better restaurant, I don’t know and don’t much care about who raised the cattle, what they were fed, or how they were treated, before they became the burgers that I so enjoy.
But when I heard the news about the local cannery that is, and the local farmers that may go out of business I started to care. There are always a lot of factors behind this kind of thing. I’m no economist and can’t pretend to know about it all. But part of the reason is that farm workers here get paid something like $10 an hour to pick fruit. Not as much as I make as a pastor but a lot more than the farm workers in Central and South America who work for $3 a day.
Eating locally grown and raised food supports farmers struggling to maintain their livelihood. If local farmers go out of business it won’t be long until we’re paving over their land and planting acres of subdivision housing. One study found that a regional diet consumes 17 times less gasoline than its equivalent shipped from across the country or around the world.
Maybe it’s time to start caring more about what we’re eating. Where does it come from? Who and what is affected in the web of production and supply that brings food to our tables?
When we make decisions about what we eat and how we spend our grocery money we are making decisions about how we love our neighbours and how we love our planet, God’s creation. The news from St. David’s has been a bit of a wake-up call for me. I think it will cause me to think more and to care more. And I’ll pray for those farmers, farm workers, and cannery workers.
Now, the very religious might think I’m going to write about the fruit of the Spirit. I’m not. But for those who are now curious or don’t remember the list, the Bible says "the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control" (Galatians 5:22).
I’m not writing about that fruit. I’ve been thinking about peaches and pears.
As a pastor I’m asked to pray from time to time. A few years ago at a funeral reception I was asked to say grace before we ate. I thanked God for the food we were about to eat and for those who prepared it for us. Afterward a farmer came to me and asked, "Why do you pastors always thank those who prepared the food but never those who grew it?" It was a good question and now I try to remember those farmers in my prayers as well.
No doubt you’ve read, heard, and seen the news the last few weeks about the impending and now apparently inevitable closure of a cannery in St. David’s. A number of area fruit growers depended on this cannery to buy their fruit.
I haven’t heard what these growers are going to do now. I’m guessing there’s only so much they can sell as fresh fruit to grocery stores and at farmers’ markets. I’m guessing at least some of them might go out of business.
But do we care? I don’t usually give much thought to where my food comes from. When I go to the store I don’t look at the label to see where the food was grown, if the label even tells me. When I go to my favourite fast-food outlet, or occasionally to a better restaurant, I don’t know and don’t much care about who raised the cattle, what they were fed, or how they were treated, before they became the burgers that I so enjoy.
But when I heard the news about the local cannery that is, and the local farmers that may go out of business I started to care. There are always a lot of factors behind this kind of thing. I’m no economist and can’t pretend to know about it all. But part of the reason is that farm workers here get paid something like $10 an hour to pick fruit. Not as much as I make as a pastor but a lot more than the farm workers in Central and South America who work for $3 a day.
Eating locally grown and raised food supports farmers struggling to maintain their livelihood. If local farmers go out of business it won’t be long until we’re paving over their land and planting acres of subdivision housing. One study found that a regional diet consumes 17 times less gasoline than its equivalent shipped from across the country or around the world.
Maybe it’s time to start caring more about what we’re eating. Where does it come from? Who and what is affected in the web of production and supply that brings food to our tables?
When we make decisions about what we eat and how we spend our grocery money we are making decisions about how we love our neighbours and how we love our planet, God’s creation. The news from St. David’s has been a bit of a wake-up call for me. I think it will cause me to think more and to care more. And I’ll pray for those farmers, farm workers, and cannery workers.
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