Snowmageddon!

Earlier this week Southern Ontario got walloped by what many are calling SNOWMAGEDDON! Depending on the area, 30-50cm of snow fell creating a winter wonderland and a shovelling nightmare.  

Have you ever noticed the sky when a snow storm rolls in? The clouds are grey and menacing and then as the snow is released it creates a beautiful enchanted landscape.  If you happen to be driving in the car, it is mesmerizing to watch the snow fly towards the windshield as trees are cloaked with white. The driver, however, can barely appreciate it for fear of taking their eyes off the road!

The roads get slick, and it can be nearly impossible to tell where the pavement ends and the soft shoulder begins. As I write this, there are still abandoned cars on the sides of major roadways. Other drivers who report bein stuck in their cars for 20 hours waiting for cars to move.

Storms of all kinds are painful reminders of just how powerless we can be. How do we respond? How do we approach God in those tumultuous seasons?

In the book of Job, God says:

Have you entered the storehouses of the snow or seen the storehouses of the hail, which I reserve for times of trouble, for days of war and battle? —Job 38:22-23

Poor Job was hit with so much: the deaths of his children, the loss of material wealth and comfort, and the ruining of his physical health. When he questioned God, the Lord’s response was to remind him at length exactly who He was, and who Job was not. God never explained any purpose for Job’s suffering but reminded Job of all that He created, understood and has power over. Snow was just one in a long list of those things.  

In hearing this, Job humbly replied,

Surely I spoke of things I did not understand, things too wonderful for me to know. —Job 38:42

How often do we respond to God with that kind of trust and humility in the storm?

We thank God that God is the creator of all things, yes even the snow. In its mounds and the beauty of its intricate individual flakes. And we thank God that God is in control in all the storms of our lives — including the blizzards!  God will bring us through them because God’s love, power, and wisdom are too wonderful for us to know.

Outbreak

Have you heard of the movie “Outbreak”? It came out in the mid 90’s and starred Dustin Hoffman and Rene Russo.  That movie freaked me out.

The movie was about a viral hemorrhagic disease that breaks out in a small American town and how CDC scientists race against time to stop it from spreading. It was a made up story inspired by the nonfiction history of viruses like ebola (and if made today COVID-19).

Fiction meets Non fiction.

At the end of the movie the remaining residents of the town are successfully cured but not before 120 mins of action filled drama!

Interestingly the movie is not about a community of people whose lives intersect because of a pandemic, but rather the story is about a single character played by Dustin Hoffman who is the only one who understands the real threat of the virus. The movie highlights heroic individualism.

Individualism and doing life on our own is not part of God's design. We are meant to be in community. After all, God is a community. Existing for all of eternity past, God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit have enjoyed the love and fellowship of their perfect triune community. In creating humankind, God desired for us to participate in that community and know the perfect and joyous love the Godhead share.

Scripture is all about community.

Following the death, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus, God then instituted the church, the Body of Christ as a community of believers. The apostle Paul wrote in  1 Corinthians 12:27,

"Now you are the body of Christ and individually members of it." 

Not only were we created to be in community but we also need community. We need each other. We need to trust, rely, and depend upon on one another. 

The writer to the Hebrews says in Hebrews 10:24-25, 

"And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.”

I understand that that becomes all the more difficult when we are not meeting in-person during this new and more contagious wave of the pandemic. It might be difficult but not impossible.  As you are praying for your loved ones, pick up the phone and call them.  Send people, who come to mind, a quick email or text.  Arrange to have an outdoor visit. We are not in this alone. We are in this together and together we are stronger. Together we can encourage one another to get through whatever this world throws at us. Our story is not about heroic individualism but heroic Christian community. 

For the next few weeks Amberlea church will be meeting exclusively online. The desire of the Session is to do our part in,  keeping us safe, mitigating the risk of contraction, and curbing the burden on our already taxed Health Care System.  The decision to not meet, as is our practice and desire, was a difficult one but the decision was made as a community for the community. 

Join us online for part two of our new sermon series, Keep the Change!

Life is fleeting

“Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted. (Matthew 5:4)

A week before Christmas I attended the Visitation of a dear, and faithful woman.  She was a wife, a mother, grandmother, sister, aunt.  She was a teacher, a missionary, a woman after God’s heart. Janet will be greatly missed by all whose life she touched.

Every once and a while God places people in our path who have influenced the trajectory of our lives, Janet was one of those people for me.

Over twenty five years ago, I met Janet on the GO train. I believe we were both fulfilling our civic duty and returning from a day of jury selection. I knew Janet as the mother of one of the children my daughter went to public school with.

I didn’t know before she sat down beside me that she was a Christian. Janet came to faith later in life and when God got ahold of her heart that was it, she was all in.  She had a passion for God that was unmistakable, and absolutely inspiring.

As we chatted casually on the 35 min ride from downtown, she shared her faith journey and her involvement in the local church which she loved.  “Mona, you must come to Grace. We have a wonderful children’s program. The kids will love it.”

That conversation changed the trajectory of my life.

On her invitation we, as a family, visited Grace Church West Hill and stayed there for 14 years.  I started as a congregant, quickly became their Youth Director, after much encouragement I began the Ordination process, and was inducted as Associate Minister at Grace Church in 2008.  

What if Janet and I had not met that day?  Would we have found our way to the church that encouraged and nurtured me to become an Ordained minister?

WE are all blessed with people in our midst that encourage, support, guide and direct our lives.   

Stop, remember, reflect and be grateful. Tell them now, before a time comes that you can’t thank them in person.

Life is fleeting…don’t take any of it for granted.  And as we begin a New Year may we do so with the spirit of GRATITUDE.

A Prayer: 

Father God, You constantly show your compassionate love for us, in the way you provide what we need for each day. Thank you for the people you place in our lives that point and direct us to YOU. Thank you for comforting us when we are overwhelmed by the news of this world and the pain that surrounds most of us these days. Psalm 23:1-4 reminds us: “The LORD is my shepherd, I lack nothing. He makes me lie down in green pastures, he leads me beside quiet waters, he refreshes my soul. He guides me along the right paths for his name’s sake. Even though I walk through the darkest valley, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me.” Strike the fear and worry from our lives when it wells up, Father. Help us to remember, refocus, move forward, trust you, and hold onto our hope in Christ.

In Jesus’ Name,

Amen.