a sermon preached on Isaiah 55:1-9 and Luke 13:1-9

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aving just heard read aloud words from the prophet Isaiah and from the gospel according to Luke, the first thing we need to do is to explode two commonly held assumptions about the bible

First, there is the assumption that the Old Testament is all about a judgmental understanding of God, while the New Testament is sweetness and light.  Yet would it be fair to say that as you heard those two readings, Jesus sounded pretty tough, while Isaiah seemed to be voicing something with strong notes of mercy, hope, and forgiveness?  “Unless you repent,” says Jesus, “you will likewise perish,” while Isaiah sings, “Everyone who thirsts, come to the waters; you who have no money, come, buy and eat.  Come, buy wine and milk without money, without price.”

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Lord, God, our Father, we thank you that here with each other we can call on you and listen to you. Before you, we are all equal. You know the life, thoughts, path, and heart of each of us, down to the smallest and most hidden detail, and before your eyes none is righteous, no, not one. But you have not forgotten, rejected, or condemned a single one of us. Quite the opposite: you love each one of us; you know what we need, will grant it to us, will look at nothing but the empty hands that we stretch out to you, in order that they might be filled—not sparingly, but richly. (Karl Barth, Fifty Prayers)

Lord in Your Mercy, hear our prayer. Read the rest of this entry »

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o, when was the last time you bought a toaster, and how much did you pay for it? Maybe $25 if you’re working on a tight budget, or around $50 if you’re looking for something that will last, right?   Even if you bought yourself some high-end European-style chrome model, it can’t have cost you more than a $100.

Well, the subject of toasters came up in connection with our ongoing relationship with Agape Table, the local community nutrition program that works out of the All Saints Church hall, offering food and hospitality to as many as 250 people each day.  As they say on their own website, “Agape Table is committed to providing a community based program, nourishing the body, mind, and spirit of our guests in a cost effective and financially responsible manner.”  That has always seemed to us to be a great set of commitments, so from our earliest days we’ve been gathering fresh fruit  for them, as well as sending volunteers their way.  We’ve spent some hours gardening alongside of the sisters at St Benedict’s Monastery, bringing boxes of freshly harvested vegetables back for Agape, and for the past two years we’ve been part of hosting an open house with them on the February statutory holiday.

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The text of an address given at the official launch for Beautiful Mercy by our senior editor, Bramwell Ryan.

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t’s a delight you have joined us on a night I thought – at times – would never come.

Yesterday morning was another long-anticipated time for me. Around 1 am I completed an 18-day stretch covering the Olympics. It was quite an experience for a confirmed non-jock to spend 12 or more hours a day immersed in the world of sports.

And that experience, while physically and mentally exhausting, was also a fascinating look into a world I don’t usually work in… in this case the world of television sports coverage. I learned a lot while I was in the locker room, so to speak.

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The other night we threw a bit of a party at McNally Robinson Booksellers (and to see a series of photographs from the event, just click here) in celebration of the official release of Beautiful Mercy | A Book of Hours. With readings by Catherine Pate and Brett Schmall, music by Steve Bell, Mike Koop, Jaylene Johnson and Gord Johnson, and brief reflections from Jamie Howison and from the book’s senior editor Bramwell Ryan, the standing room crowd in the McNally’s Prairie Ink restaurant was offered a great sampling of what all went in to making this book and CD project work.  What follows here is Jamie’s reflection on the making of art.

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or tens of thousands of years, humans have used art to try to make sense of the world in which we live.  Over centuries and millennia, stories have been told, songs sung, dances created, images painted and carved and sculpted.  And we are a part of that.

The community that tonight launches the project called Beautiful Mercy | A Book of Hours stands in a biblical tradition that tells stories, some of which are almost 4000 years old.  We read and we sing psalms and the poetic songs of prophets like Isaiah, that take us back hundreds and hundreds of years before the birth of Christ.   We shape our imaginations through the four gospels, each of which is an artfully presented story of the life of Jesus of Nazareth, who himself told those artful stories called parables.

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ideaExchange | slavery and extracted organs

With an estimated 27 million victimized around the globe, human trafficking includes everything from forced sexual labour in brothels, to the debt bondage that produces the jeans we wear, the cell phones we put in those jean pockets and the harvesting of human organs for sale. Next to trading weapons and drugs, trading people produces the greatest profits for international organized crime in our increasingly globalized world.

In this episode of ideaExchange, Val Hiebert and Dennis Hiebert wrestle with the question of how to respond meaningfully and effectively to this complex and troubling issue.

Dennis is the Chair of the Department of Arts and Sciences and Professor of Sociology at Providence College. Val is Assistant Professor of Sociology at Providence College.

There are three ways to hear this ideaExchange podcast (runs 55:11):

• click on the arrow below
• use the podcast widget in the left sidebar
• click here to download the episode from iTunes

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ast night at the end of our liturgy, we had everyone who had played some role in the creation of Beautiful Mercy gather at the front of the church for a blessing.  In that context I made just a few remarks as to why we’d put such time and energy and resources into the production of a work of art (and more than being a collection of writing, art and music, this book is itself a piece of art), putting at least some of the blame squarely on the shoulders of Calvin Seerveld.  Cal is a founder member at the Institute of Christian Studies in Toronto, where for many years he taught and wrote in the area of philosophical aesthetics, labouring tirelessly to try to convince the church that the arts need to be part of who and what we are.

Well, for a number of us who call saint benedict’s table home, Cal made a pretty convincing case, so when the time came to do this blessing of the Beautiful Mercy project I pulled out my copy of his book Bearing Fresh Olive Leaves to give me the right words with which to frame things.  After worship, several people asked me about the words I’d read, looking for more information about the book and its writer, so it made sense to share the words here.  Cal often draws on the image of Mary anointing the feet of Jesus with perfumed oil – an act to which Judas objected on the grounds that it was wasteful – as a good place to begin to think about art.  I read aloud the following lines from the book’s introductory essay:

When art is crafted for God and neighbour… and is simply spilled like an offering of perfume as this woman (in the gospels) did, then you as an artist have God’s authoritative blessing.  If you have been gifted by the Holy Spirit to write songs, or to draw the human face, to tell stories to children or to grown-ups so their mouths drop open, to paint colours that bring cheer to the sad, or film shapes that stop the self-assured with uneasy reflection, or if you can be trained to make choreographed gestures that bespeak righteous anger or redemptive tenderness, then you have Jesus Christ’s explicit approval for such ‘good works’ of love.

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O God, we are in our 5th day of Lent – the days are getting longer while winter is getting shorter and our attentions are diverted in many directions.  The world grieves for Haiti while our corner of the world is donned in red and white as host of the Winter Games.  As we are called to consider ‘wilderness’ amidst the busyness of our lives, may we heed the words from tonight’s gospel to “Worship the Lord our God and Only Him”. Read the rest of this entry »

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a personal reflection on the idea of a Lenten discipline

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sh Wednesday, 8:55am, and I’ve already messed up one part of my personal Lenten discipline.  For several years now, one of the simple ways in which I have observed the season of Lent is to forego using my car radio and CD player.  I don’t know if you are like me, but the first thing I do after starting up the car is to turn on the radio, and this morning was no different.  I was heading off to an early morning breakfast gathering, and without thinking I switched on the radio to listen to the morning news.  I didn’t even get half-way down the block before it dawned on me, “It is Ash Wednesday… here we go.” Click.

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very year during February, we hold an open congregational meeting aimed at any and all who consider themselves a part of saint benedict’s table.  The past year is reviewed, the finances are considered, and a bit of dreaming and goal-setting is put on the table for wider consideration and discernment.  This year’s meeting takes place on Sunday February 21 at 4:00pm, followed by a supper at 5:30 and worship at 7:00.  This really is an open meeting, so if you’re interested in joining us, just contact us so that we can add you to the list for the meal.

If you keep reading here, you’ll find my refection for the year, followed by one from our music leader, Larry Campbell, and one from John Berard, our part-time ministry coordinator.  Later in the week, we’ll add a bit of a financial summary for the year.  Even if you can’t attend the meeting, these reports will give you a good sense of what all makes us tick.

Jamie Howison

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