Prayers for Ukraine

 Link for this week's livestreamed service is here

On Wednesday we met for Bible study at SPPC. The topic of the session was prayer.

On Thursday Russia invaded the Ukraine. 

Richard J. Foster, the author of our study book, urges us to pray with compassion and imagination. He says we should try to imagine the compassion of Christ within us and then to imagine the result of our prayers. If we pray for someone who is sick, imagine that person well when we pray. If you feel moved by compassion and imagination to pray for the people of the Ukraine, please do so. If you struggle for the words, here is prayer written by Archbishop Justin Welby and Archbishop Stephen Cotterell that is being widely shared.

A Prayer for Ukraine
 
God of peace and justice,
we pray for the people of Ukraine today.
We pray for peace and the laying down of weapons. 

We pray for all those who fear for tomorrow,
that your Spirit of comfort would draw near to them. 

We pray for those with power over war or peace,
for wisdom, discernment and compassion
to guide their decisions.

Above all, we pray for all your precious children, at-risk and in fear, that you would hold and protect them.
We pray in the name of Jesus, the Prince of Peace.
Amen.

Help and support are pouring in to the Ukraine. Donations to the Red Cross will be matched by the Government of Canada. The link to give is here. 

Many will take solace in "doing" something. For others the pain and the horror is overwhelming. They are desperate for comfort. There is an adage that says, "When words fail, music speaks."

On Friday, the CBC played The Divine Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom - . You can listen to that beautiful and heartfelt music here along with Frescoes of Kiev. It will take some time, but is manna for the soul.

May we all know peace in the coming days.

It's a Theme

 The link for our live-streamed service this week is here

In preparing the report regarding this blog for the annual congregational meeting, I looked back over the past two years of posts and discovered a recurring theme -- hope.

Either that speaks to a want of originality on my part or to the fact that hope is at the very core of our being, both as a congregation and as Christians. Let's go with the latter.

So, here again, I direct you to portents of hope.

• Dr. Bonnie has loosened restrictions on weddings and funerals. For the many who have grieved alone in the past two years, the opportunity to hold full services of remembrance is huge.
• Spring is coming. My crocus are showing their sunny faces.
  
  
  
• Gladys has had her surgery and is home, using a walker, but getting better every day. She is filled with hope.
• Rev. Irwin is back in the pulpit. We hope for his continued good health.
• The rhubarb has started poking through the ground. Hope for a bountiful harvest and lots of pies, jams, and cobblers.
  
  
  
  
• After six weeks and SPH and two at the Gorge for rehabilitation, Kay is at home in The Peninsula. With her walker, she is able to manage the 100 steps from her room to the elevator and go down the the dining room. And, since the latest change to public health regulations, she can have visitors. (hint, hint.)
• Bible Study resumes this Wednesday.
• Our live-streamed services are bringing comfort and hope to members of the congregation unable to attend in person.

In the topical index to our hymn book, there are eleven hymns listed under the banner of hope but only five under suffering and tribulation. Hope runs rampant in our church.

This is hymn #443 in our Book of Praise. It's not a hymn we sing often, but I like the words. They are full of hope. 

Come Let Us Sing

 Link for this week's live streamed service is here

The pandemic has forced all of us to look at the patterns in our lives and re-evaluate them. What do we miss most that we are eager to bring back into our days? What has fallen by the wayside and been forgotten? What pursuits are worthy of our time and effort? What were just old habits that we've outgrown?

Before COVID, our worship services followed a set design that suited minister and congregation alike. There might be the occasional grumble about boring hymns or long prayers, but mostly, we just accepted that that was how we did "church." These last two years have changed that accepted order drastically, most especially in terms of singing. For a time, we couldn't sing together at all. There was a big hole in our worship experience.

Singing is not just a "nice" thing we do in the Presbyterian Church. Singing is integral to worship. Both the Old and New Testament command worshippers to sing. A quick Google search came up with this site, 64 Bible verses on singing. Not surprisingly, nearly half come from the Psalms, but Isaiah, Chronicles, Nehemiah, Kings, Ezra, Romans, James, Matthew, Mark, Acts and even Revelations remark that those who worship Yahweh sing.

Martin Luther, the great reformer, said "Let God speak directly to His people through the Scriptures, and let His people respond with grateful songs of praise." 

Why sing?

• Singing in worship is a corporate act (one of the spiritual disciplines described in Richard Foster's book that we are using in Bible Study.)  
• Singing teaches. Our earliest theology lessons come from "Jesus Loves Me."
• Singing encourages.  That great rouser, "Will Your Anchor Hold," reminds us "we have an anchor that keeps the soul steadfast and sure."
• Singing unifies. "Blest be the tie that binds our hearts in Christian love/ The fellowship of kindred minds /Is like to that above.
• Singing gives praise to God.  "Praise my soul, the King of Heaven/To His feet thy tribute bring."                          
• Singing evangelizes.  "Jesus bids us shine ...in this world is darkness, so we must shine, you in your small corner and I in mine.

A few months ago the Presbyterian devotional for the day was perfectly attuned to my state of mind. The writer was lamenting the restrictions on singing in church. The hymn he referenced is not in our hymn book but the choir has used it as an introit.
The first verse reads:

Come let us sing to the Lord our song,                                 we have stood silently too long.

At SPPC, we have not been silent, exactly, but with no choir and our sound muffled by masks, we don't "shout aloud to the Rock of our salvation."

Surely the behest to "make a joyful noise onto the Lord," did not mean muttering into a mask!

When our public health officials review the COVID restrictions I hope they will let us sing out with joy and gusto once more.

Here is a little challenge for you all. I've catagorized a few hymns in the above post. Why not add your own to the various headings? Share your favourites in the comments section.

P.S. Happy Valentine's Day.

Heart Month

 The link to this week's live-streamed service is here

For all kinds of reasons we are displaying hearts on our church building this month. We began the practice in the first year of the COVID pandemic, when citizens were encouraged to show hearts as a symbol of appreciation for front-line workers, especially health-care workers. We fully expected that would be a one-off exercise, but, here we are again. We are all weary of the pandemic, but those working in our hospitals and long-term care homes and medical clinics are most exhausted. They, too, never expected the illness to continue in crisis mode for so long. Tired, demoralized, and traumatized, our medical professionals still show up for work. They offer expertise, skill, compassion, and empathy. Now, more than ever, we offer our deepest appreciation to them. See the heart on our building as a prayer for their well-being and gratitude for their sacrifice.

February is also designated heart month by the Heart and Stroke Foundation. For over 60 years this organization has been supporting research and treatment of heart disease. I know people in my own family who have benefited. I know many people in our congregation who have been treated for heart conditions. The world is filled with famous people who have had heart surgery including Measha Brueggergosman, Bill Clinton, Alex Trebek, and NHLer  Henrik Lundqvist. In gratitude for this life-saving organization, we display a heart.

Of course, February 14 is Valentine's Day, a festival for romantic love. The origins of the custom are somewhat murky. The Roman Catholic church recognizes three possible St. Valentine's, Christian priests who were martyred in the third century.

 In the Middle Ages, the pagan festival of Lupercalia was "Christianized" and became Valentine's day, a day for lovers.

As a marketing tool for flower shops, chocolate makers and greeting card companies it's a winner. In Canada the average spending for valentines is $75.-$100. per person. But even before Hallmark cashed in, lovers sent messages of affection on Feb. 14. The oldest known valentine was penned in 1415 by Charles, the Duke of Orleans, to his wife, while he was imprisoned in the Tower of London.

As Christians, we might think that having agape,brotherly love for each other, is the way to follow Christ, but from the very beginning, God recognized the need for romantic love.

Genesis 2:18–25: Then the LORD God said, 'It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper fit for him.' ..

Jesus' commanded that His followers love one another. 

John 15:12 
 This is my commandment, That ye love one another, as I have loved you.

Supporting members of our community by hanging a big red heart on the building is one visible way we live out that commandment.

Enjoy the month of February, keeping in mind always that "the greatest of these is love."