Author
laurencedewolfe

Who Is This?

laurencedewolfe

illustration by Phil Irish

Third Sunday after Pentecost
Mark 4:35-41

Mark tells us Jesus spent a whole day in a boat. The crowd around him was so big, and so persistent. He ended up in the water. His friends pushed the boat a few yards out from shore. Jesus sat there and began to teach (4:1,2). Even on a sloping beach, do you suppose they all could see him? Let alone hear him.

This isn’t a photographic report of an event. This is a painting-with-words of a person. To say “he sat down” paints a rabbi. A teacher of wisdom. One with authority. Who knew his Bible. And his history. And his people. When Mark paints a boat he means something bigger than a Galilee boat, which isn’t much longer than a Lunenburg dory. Mark paints an Ark of a boat.

Congregation

laurencedewolfe

This is a painting in a series called “For the Birds” by Jennifer Berkenbosch of Edmonton. Of these paintings she writes: “They are requests to notice, to love, to hold sacred the world we love.” She refers to the paintings as “prayers ... for a better world.” She can be reached at: jenniferberkenbosch.com

May 10, Fifth Sunday of Easter
John 15:1-8

Let every one of us stay in his own parish, where he will discover more useful work than in all the making of pilgrimages, even if they were all combined into one. Here, at home, you will find baptism, sacrament, preaching, and your neighbour; these are more important to you than all the saints in heaven. — Martin Luther

When Jesus talks about a vineyard, what do we see? Acres of neatly tended vines in the Okanagan? Compact and tidy plantings in the Annapolis Valley? Jesus knew tiny and densely planted vineyards, bounded by high stone walls. Vines growing low, spreading out, tangled.

Mary! Mary!

laurencedewolfe

Photo - Mark Strozier / istockphoto

April 12, Easter Day: First read John 20:1-10

Before the break of another day without Jesus, Mary went to the tomb. Darkness gave cover for a woman alone, and a known associate of an executed criminal. Why did she go?

She probably didn't even know, herself. Why would you go? Why do we go to the funeral home, and stand by the casket? Why do we go back to the cemetery, after the grave has been filled in, before it's all neat and level and green? Because we need to know it's really true. That big, round stone, rolled over the opening of the tomb and sealed with wax, would prove to Mary that Jesus was really dead and gone.

He Hung Up His Bow

laurencedewolfe

photo - istockphoto

March 1, 2009 (Lent 1): Genesis 9:8-17

Christians have wasted a lot of time arguing over supposed scientific proofs that stories like Noah's really happened. Whether or not they are factual by our measure, such stories are true. They communicate greater truth than anything we can prove.

Noah's story echoes other ancient stories. So, maybe, something happened thousands of years ago that wiped out the only world some people knew, in what is now Iraq and Syria. Maybe Noah's story answers the how and the why of a rainy-season flood of the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers. Sudden climatic changes and extremes are nothing new. Noah's story, from the first time it was told, has invited people to look up from their everyday lives and see something of the mystery of God's ways with the world.

It tells us that, a long time ago, God voluntarily disarmed. No truce. Absolute surrender. Noah's story tells us that the violence humanity made on earth broke God's heart. In agony, God said, “I'm sorry I created any of them. I wish I hadn't made this world!” (Genesis 6:5-13) God chose the way of violence, to end human violence. And when God saw the results, God repented. God told Noah, “I've hung up my bow, and I'll never take it down again. Whenever I see it, I'll remember my promise.”

Marathon Discipleship

laurencedewolfe

Mills Rymer/istockphoto

February 15: Sixth Sunday after Epiphany
1 Corinthians 9:24-27

Every year, people gather in Halifax to run the Bluenose Marathon. Each runner receives an attractive shirt of that wonderful fabric that makes perspiration disappear into the ether. I'd love to have one of those shirts. And I can. A couple of weeks after the race I can go to the thrift shop and buy a Bluenose Marathon shirt. It might be last year's, but it's still real. I could put one on and look like a marathon runner! Who would know I wasn't? (I couldn't have run, anyway. I was in church during the race.)

It's easy to look like you're running the race. I have a (plain) shirt, shorts, and shoes. But not the legs or the lungs. Paul isn't sure the Corinthians have the legs or the lungs for the marathon of discipleship. Paul tries to tempt the fickle, competitive Corinthians to imagine the Christian run is a one-race-one-winner affair.

A Saviour with Dirty Feet

laurencedewolfe

Jaroslaw Baczewski/istockphoto

January 11: Mark 1:4-11

One day, soon after we got our Samoyed, Dexter, from the shelter, I took him to a park where dogs are allowed off leash. Mistake number one. He's uninhibited, curious and affectionate. He doesn't stay on the path. He doesn't cling to my side.

Mistake number two was letting him go down a path beside a pond. He looked good, standing there in the water, barking his head off. His own beam of sunlight made him look oh-so-white and, well, canine.

Then he realized he was wet. Out he came. Snow white on top. Pitch black on the bottom.” Here I am! Aren't I great? I'll just rub myself all over your pants, and sit down here on your foot! Woof!”