Moment of Clarity With Rev. Lorrie Daly-Price

Come and See

Jan 26, 2020 | The reading this week from John’s Gospel describes the beginning of Jesus’ public ministry.  Jesus begins the dialogue with John’s disciples with a question, “What are you looking for?”  John’s disciples respond with, “Where are you staying?”  In other words, “Where will we find what we are looking for?”  And so they walk on, moving together in response to Jesus’ invitation, “Come and see.” When we say to friends, family members and neighbours, “come and see,” we better have ...

Jesus Comes to the Jordan

January 12, 2020 | This week it’s all about water, flowing Jordan waters, and the waters that nourish our crops and our bodies. Without water, our lives are in danger. We can do without food for a few days, but water is a necessity, even in the care of persons at the descending edges of life. This Sunday we celebrate the baptism of Jesus. Jesus comes to the Jordan river to be baptized. Although John is not eager to baptize one whom he believes to have a unique relationship with God, Jesus i...

Follow the Star

January 5, 2020 | This week we hear a familiar passage from Matthew’s gospel about three travellers. What compelled them to take this journey following a star? A journey that must have been difficult from beginning to end. They travel to see royalty and are led to kneel before a baby born of poor parents in an out of the way place. They must have had questions for themselves and what this meant for the rest of the world. What stirred in their hearts to compel them to risk so much? What de...

Christmas Reflections

December 29, 2019 |This Sunday we will hear some short reflections for the season shared by Dianne Smith. We will also have one last opportunity to sing some of our favourite carols. I hope you will join us.

Christmas is... Light in the Darkness

December 24, 2019| The whole meaning of Christmas can be explained in one little four letter word…LOVE. God sent a gift of pure love to us that first Christmas. Love descended from heaven to be born of a virgin. Love lay in the scratchy hay of a manger in a meagre barn in Bethlehem. All of God’s love was robed in the delicate skin of a baby and wrapped in swaddling clothes. Tonight we reflect on the magnitude of love that was made manifest in Jesus.Beneath the stars, surrounded by all of the...

The Christmas Story in Music, Readings and Reflections

December 15, 2019 | This week we will hear some special music while we reflect on the story of the angel Gabriel’s visit to a young girl named Mary and the story of Mary and a family member, Elizabeth. These are stories that are rich with dramatic and mysterious themes that inspire wonder, awe, gratitude and a call to renewed faith and trust in God. The essence of these stories is God’s deep and abiding love for all people. The love spoken about here, and in many places in Scriptures, is a...

Be Prepared!

December 8, 2019 | Due to poor weather conditions last Sunday we choose to have a short service and send folks home safely. So, on this second Sunday of Advent we will be hearing the reading from the gospel of Matthew. Jesus’ words to his first followers are words about being mindful and staying awake. There might just be holy moments that catch you by surprise so be ready he says to them. Jesus wanted to make sure that if a pivotal life event was to take place right then would they be too d...

The First Sunday of Advent

December 1, 2019

Who Will Remember Me?

November 24, 2019 | On this first Sunday of Advent we are given a reading from the gospel of Matthew. Jesus’ words to his first followers are words about being mindful and staying awake. There might just be holy moments that catch you by surprise, so be ready he says to them. Jesus wanted to make sure that if a pivotal life event was to take place right then would they be too dull witted to recognize it happening. So, he warns them to not sleep through their lives because if they do they mig...

Signs of the Times

November 17, 2019 | This week the Church celebrates "Christ the King" or "Reign of Christ" Sunday.  It is the hinge week between the liturgical seasons of Ordinary Time and Advent. It is the time when we pause to reflect on the meaning of Jesus’ kingship before we dive into the mysteries of light and darkness, hope and sorrow. Given the pomp and circumstance that we typically associate with kings we might be expecting to find passages this week that sound, well, kingly. Something glorious p...

Lest We Forget

November 10, 2019 | In our reading this week from Luke’s gospel, we find the Sadducees once again trying to make Jesus’ life miserable. These guys were the urban aristocrats and among the religious authorities from their day. They based their understanding of God on only the first five books of the Bible. Since the resurrection was not mentioned there they denied any belief in it. When the Sadducees ask Jesus about the resurrection, they are not really interested in knowing about it or consi...

What is a Saint?

November 3, 2019 | In the gospel reading this week from Luke Jesus is passing through Jericho and many have come out to see him but so many are lining the streets it’s hard to tell. Zacchaeus, a local tax collector, is curious. He wants to see what all the excitement is about. So he climbs a tree to get a better look at Jesus. And rather than just seeing, he is seen. Jesus looks up and looks right into Zacchaeus’ heart. And what he sees isn’t pretty. Zacchaeus is an opportunist, grown wealth...

The Power of Persistence

October 27, 2019 | The passage from Luke for this Sunday features a story that Jesus told about a Pharisee and a Tax Collector who went to the Temple to pray. Two characters that are polar opposites. The Pharisee was religiously righteous, the tax man extorted revenue for the Roman oppressors. The religious expert was smug and confident, the outsider was anxious and insecure. The Pharisee paraded around telling God how good he was and how valuable he was to God. The Tax Collector hung his h...

Never Give Up

October 20, 2019 | Have you ever felt like giving up? Throwing in the towel? Leaving the ministry or quitting the faith? In telling the parable of the persistent widow from Luke’s gospel Jesus acknowledges that quitting the journey is a real possibility.  This week Jesus encourages us "always to pray and not give up." He tells a story about a persistent widow who importuned a corrupt judge. The judge’s status, his power, the pomp and ceremony of his lofty position – all have made him into a...

Thanksgiving

October 19th, 2019 | In this week's gospel it's the day after Jesus multiplied the loaves and fishes. The crowd thinks they’ve caught the gravy train and they don't want this party to end. After some probing they put in their order: give us a sign to believe in you. How about a regular diet of manna raining from heaven? Jesus seizes on their opening to explain who he is and why he's here, “I am the bread of life, whoever comes to me will never be hungry”. In this week’s reading to the disap...

Big Things Come in Small Packages

October 6, 2019 | Often in the news we will read about or hear a person being interviewed after a heroic act. An individual who dives into a freezing river to save a child that has fallen through the ice. A person who jumps onto the tracks to save someone pushed off the subway platform. Both individuals who insist “I’m not a hero, I didn’t even think about it, I just did what I needed to do in that moment.” In our reading this morning from Luke’s gospel Jesus speaks to the disciples about s...

Begin With One

Sept. 29, 2019 | In Jesus’ day he would use stories to challenge the power and status of the religious elite. With just a few short lines of dialogue or common images of the time he would narrate what it means to live in the kingdom of God. Our reading this week from Luke’s gospel is Jesus’ response to being ridiculed by a particular group of Pharisees who are referred to as lovers of money. Jesus has much to say about money throughout the gospel of Luke. This week tells the story of an ano...

True Riches

September 22, 2019 | In this weeks reading from Luke’s gospel, we hear the story of a rich man who hears rumours that his manager is squandering his resources. This news alarms him so he calls him in to address this issue, threatening to fire him. The manager is desperate. He has no other options. Losing a job would be tantamount to losing any hope of income. And so, he decides to quickly craft a plan. He calls in all of those who are indebted to his master and lowers the amount each one owe...

Getting in Shape

September 8, 2019 |  Our world is filled with warnings and caution flags. This can be experienced with heavy equipment safety signs or road construction signs. We experience this every day with much more insignificant things compared to those even. There are, of course, the user agreements that we have to go through before downloading the latest update for our smartphones or computers. We glance through it quickly…click “I Agree,” let’s get on with it, download already.   I think in Jesus...

A Moment of Clarity Podcast with Guest Speaker Dianne Smith

A Moment of Clarity Podcast with Guest Speaker Richard Kimball

A Moment of Clarity Podcast with Guest Speaker Dianne Smith

A Moment of Clarity Podcast with Guest Speaker Richard Kimball

A Moment of Clarity Podcast with Guest Speaker Karen Chandler

Teach Us To Pray

July 28, 2019 | The philosopher John Hick once observed that if you collected all the images of God that have been created by religion, they'd form a book the size of a telephone directory.  In the Egyptian section of the Royal Ontario Museum I imagine you would find many examples of god. One person talked about the museum in their city where they met the god Sobek, pictured as a man with the head of a crocodile or consider the Hindu fire god Agni, he has two faces smeared with butter, seven...

In All That You Do

July 21, 2019 | The story we hear this week from Luke’s gospel is the story of Mary and Martha, two beloved friends of Jesus. We find Mary listening to Jesus, giving him her full attention. While Martha is busy about many things, feeling anxious and alienated from her sister. Martha is in need of a Sabbath. She needs to let go of perfection to welcome her friend. Yet, Martha is absolutely necessary to healthy spirituality and social concern: Martha gets things done!We need Martha’s in church...

Life Is In The Doing

July 14, 2019 | In this week’s readings, it appears that God has a preferential option for the vulnerable and marginalized, for those we disregard or pass by. God loves everyone, even the oppressor, but God has a special care for the lost and forgotten. In the parable of the Good Samaritan that we hear this week, the hero is a stranger, looked down upon by the good people of the community. The passage does not condemn the religious leaders who walk on by, it simply notes that they believed ...

Dynamic Duos

July 7, 2019 | The story we hear this week from Luke’s gospel is about Jesus sending seventy out ahead of him. This was a kind of “internship,” training time while Jesus was still with them. The mission was the same as Jesus’ own ministry: “cure the sick” and “say to them, ‘the kingdom of God has come near to you.’” Jesus sends them ahead to every town and place where he was heading himself. He was on his way to Jerusalem and would likely travel through villages where he had not been before...

There's a Seat For You

June 30th, 2019 | In the reading this week we find Jesus with his small band of disciples in the wilderness. Through the course of the day, he’s attracted a crowd of 5,000 men and their families. And now it’s dinner time. So the disciples point out to Jesus that they are in “a deserted place, and the hour is now late;” and they suggest that it might be a good time for him to “send the crowds away so that they may go into the villages and buy food for themselves.” But Jesus says to his discip...

Broken Into Pieces

June 23, 2019 | In our reading this morning Luke gives us a story of demons. What catches my attention in this story is the man hidden in the centre of the story, the man possessed by all those demons. He is somebody we all have seen, somebody we may know. And he’s somebody who asks us to look at ourselves. He’s a man who has lost himself. He had been “a man of the city” known to his neighbours, a member of the community. But now he lives in death, “among the tombs” Luke says, out beyond th...

I Have Many Things To Say To You

June 16, 2019 | This week our focus is on text from John’s Gospel. Here John speaks about how Jesus’ message is continued through the work of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of Jesus reflecting his message and values. The Holy Spirit’s gifts are not found primarily in speaking in tongues and Pentecostal drama like we heard last week but in living in the way of Jesus. The question is how do we do that? How do we live in the way that Jesus lived? The answer to that comes in our ...

God Communicates a Message of Love

June 9, 2019 | This Sunday we celebrate Pentecost. This is a day of celebration that a lot of people call the birthday of the church. It's the day the people heard the good news of Jesus' message: God's love for everyone – in the language they needed to hear. The language of their home lands. We could ask ourselves what languages do we need to speak so that everyone can hear? The language of twitter and text; the language of technology and economics and science and of education. So many lan...

Where Did Jesus Go?

June 2, 2019 | This Sunday is also referred to as Environment Sunday. A chance to pause for a moment and reflect on the awesome world that God has given us to take care of especially seeing all the new growth beginning to sprout up around us. For seeds are a miracle of life and a sign of what is possible. They speak to the abundance that God intends for creation. The seeds we sow in gardens and fields are meant for blessing. The seeds we sow in our acts of compassion, healing, peace-making...

Gifts From God

May 26, 2019 | In the letter to the Ephesians we are assured that when we speak the truth in love we will be the mature body of Christ in the world. We are reminded that when we work together we are able to make a positive impact in the world. As the author of the letter says “Joined and held together by every supporting ligament the body of Christ will grow and build itself up in love as each part does its work.” This is one of the goals of our new Regional Council, Shining Waters. We are ...

God Is Love

May 19, 2019 | It's odd that God has chosen the name of Love. In the beginning God made and named everything. Maybe it is only a human name we ascribe to God. Maybe we imposed it on God without permission. Did God choose it or did humans? St. John flatly says GOD IS LOVE. So many kinds of love...family love, parental love, neighbourly love, passionate love. close friendship love. God's Love encompasses ALL Love. John’s scripture tells us that Jesus said; ”Love one another as I have lo...

Do You Hear the Voice of Love

May 12, 2019 | This weeks reading is from the Gospel of John. It comes with a question at the heart of it, “How long will you keep us in suspense? If you really are the Messiah then just tell us plainly.” The setting of this scene is said to be in late December in Jerusalem. Jesus is walking around in the portico of Solomon, an old and admired part of the Temple. As usual, Jesus is drawing a crowd. This time the people that are gathered around him are devout Jewish people who have come to ...

Transforming Encounters

May 5, 2019 | If we were to really stop and think about it, sometimes this whole faith journey can seem a little strange and fantastic. Rational, logical sense making can leave us with nothing more than empty nets. It’s only when we are willing to cast our nets the way Jesus compels us to that we come up with a net full of flopping, silver, slippery faith. This week we meet the disciples out doing what they knew best, trying to catch fish. Yet, when Jesus comes along they do not recognize h...

No Doubt About It

This week we hear the story of Thomas from John’s gospel. This has always been one of my favourites. Of course, it’s not just a story about Thomas. It’s also a story about frightened disciples. So scared, in fact, that they hid behind locked doors. And who can blame them? They had just witnessed the one they confessed to be the Messiah betrayed by one of his own, tried and convicted by both religious and civil authorities  and then brutally executed. Little wonder they were afraid, assuming ...

Joy Comes in the Morning

April 21, 2019 | This is the day that God has made, let us rejoice and be glad in it! This is the heart of the Easter proclamation – God has made this new day, this wonderful life-giving day and rejoicing is the only appropriate response. God’s doing a new thing, the divine creativity brings forth new life with every new day, and that creates life where death appeared triumphant. It may seem like a “idle tale” to skeptics but to those who have experienced resurrection this “tale” witnesses t...

No Ordinary Parade

April 14, 2019 | On this Palm Sunday we hear about Jesus’ humble entry into Jerusalem. Jerusalem was a conquered city that was living under foreign and oppressive rule yet has a king enter in humbly on a donkey instead of a horse — signifying peace not war. Jesus enters through a gate called Bab el Rahmeh – The Mercy Gate (which years on was sealed shut so no king or false messiah could enter in through it). When Jesus entered he is greeted by people laying down palm leaves at his feet, sig...

An Act of Love

April 7, 2019 | In our gospel reading this week from John it begins: “Six days before the Passover Jesus came to Bethany, the home of Lazarus, whom he had raised from the dead.  There they gave a dinner for him.”  This was more than just a meal though, it was a celebration and time of great rejoicing. And in the midst of all the hoopla, Mary does an extraordinary, extravagant, celebratory thing.  She takes a pound of “pure nard,” a very expensive and aromatic perfume, and anoints Jesus’ fee...

It's Not Fair

March 31, 2019 | This week we hear a reading from Luke’s gospel that virtually every adult has heard, the prodigal son. We all know a family – or are a part of a family – whose child has gone astray. We all know the “lost child” or “black sheep” of the family whose relatives speak of them in whispers and with a sense of judgment. We know the embarrassment some families feel about a sibling or child who has gone astray. There’s a mixture of feelings – anger, hopelessness, worry, helplessness ...

Your First Step

March 24, 2019 | Ruthlessness: the one uncompromising rule of gardening – pruning, chopping, weeding, deadheading, dividing, removing the weak and sick, throwing away the plants that inhibit or crowd the others. Out go the plants that don’t produce fruit or function as a helpful neighbour to another plant. Out go plants that do not offer beauty or scent or pleasure or visual interest. In Jesus’ parable the owner of the garden observes a barren fig tree. Reasonably, he orders it yanked out. ...

Staying the Course

March 17, 2019 | In the gospel reading that we hear this week, Jesus is warned that his life is in danger. This certainly is not news to him. Herod is out to get him. Yet, Jesus continues to care for and teach those who are with him. He must follow his vocation and in following it to seek salvation, he finds his strength. His life gains perspective. This is all part of God’s story of salvation. In his book born of the Nazi concentration camps, Viktor Frankl quotes Friedrich Nietzsche, “Thos...

Wilderness Struggle

March 10, 2019 | Every year, at the beginning of Lent, we hear the story of Jesus and his forty days in the wilderness. This was certainly not a friendly place to be. Look at the picture shared here of Qumran, it will give you a sense of what Jesus had to endure. Tall cliffs of sandy rock, dusty and dry. The kind that leaves you covered from head to toe in ashy dirt. You would also find scrubby trees and brief patches of prickly grass, cement-like clumps of hardened clay and boulders of ever...

Transfiguration Sunday With Guest Speaker Dianne Smith

March 3, 2009 | What can we do on this last Sunday of Epiphany when the Christmas lights are put away, the choir no longer sings the carols and the star of the magi has vanished? We can come into God’s presence seeking the light of renewal. What can we do on this last Sunday of Epiphany when our skies are mostly grey and we ourselves feel stuck in a rut and in need of a vacation? We can come into God’s presence seeking the light of renewal. What can we do on this last Sunday of Epiphany ...

Jumping Into the Deep End

January 17, 2019 | This week we hear about the call of Simon, James and John in Luke’s gospel. In this story Simon wins the lottery. He’s been out all night working trying to catch some fish and catches almost nothing. Then Jesus tells him to try again and they fill up the boat. Simon’s a bit like a guy who wins the lottery, but then never goes to cash in the winning ticket. He doesn’t take that haul of fish to the market to sell so he doesn’t benefit from the bonanza. He and his partners, ...

Teamwork

January 27, 2019 |This Sunday the readings set before us have an overarching theme of ministry. First is Jesus' understanding of his ministry, articulated at its beginning when he opens the scroll and finds the words, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor.” This was a reference to the jubilee year, a year set aside once every five decades when land was returned to the poor and slaves were given back their freedom. This practice ensured t...

God's Abundance

January 20, 2019 | This week we join Jesus who takes the time to attend a wedding feast in the village of Cana with his mother Mary and his first few disciples. This wedding was steeped in Jewish tradition and ritual. One of the customs was providing an extravagant feast for the guests. Something, however, goes wrong at this wedding, because they run out of the wine far too early. In that culture, such a miscalculation would have been a great humiliation for the bride and groom. Jesus is as...

Called by Name

January 13, 2019 | This week as we hear the story of Jesus being baptized by John the Baptist, we pause to reflect on our own understanding of baptism and what it means. Jesus’ act of being baptized is the assurance of his commitment to partner with us and is the invitation for us to participate in the work of God’s reign. Then the promise of God’s Spirit to empower us and the gift of God’s living word to challenge, guide and strengthen us, assures that we have all the resources we need to p...