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  • The Great Gardener.

    John 20:11-18

    And so on Easter Sunday, our Holy Week Journey with Jesus has come to an end. Today, we begin with the first day of the new creation! The daythat Jesus rose from the grave!

    Our journey ended yesterday with Jesus laid to rest in a newtomb within the walled garden of Joseph of Arimathea near Golgotha.

    History and archeology suggest to us that in the time ofJesus, Golgotha was an abandoned quarry used as a garbage dump.

    So we could say it this way: Jesus, the stone rejected bythe builders, was crucified in a quarry-turned-garbage dump, but he was buried as a seed within a verdant garden.

    When Jesus is first seen alive in that garden on Easter morning, Mary Magdalene mistakes him for the gardener. But, in fact, it’s nomistake at all. Jesus is the gardener who turns garbage dumps into gardens!

    Jesus is not a conductor punching tickets for a train rideto heaven. Christian hope is not about getting from earth to heaven; it’s aboutgetting heaven to earth.

    Jesus is not a lawyer to get us out of a legal jam with anangry judge. God is not mad at sinners. Jesus told Mary to tell his disciples that his Father was their Father too!

    Jesus is not a banker making loans from his surplus righteousness.

    Jesus is a gardener! A gardener cultivating resurrection life in all who will come to him. Theconductor, lawyer, banker metaphors are mostly false, giving a distorted viewof salvation. The gardener metaphor is beautiful as it faithfully depicts theprocess of salvation in our lives.

    A gardener’s work is earthy and intimate. Gardeners havetheir hands in the humus. (We are humans from the humus.) Conductors, lawyersand bankers are concerned with abstract and impersonal things like tickets,laws, and money. But gardeners handle living things with living hands. Jesus isnot afraid to get his hands dirty in the humus of humanity.

    I promise you that your life is not so shattered that Jesuscan’t nurture you into something beautiful. The empty tomb is the open doorthat leads us away from the ugly world and back into the Garden as God intened. Not many have captured the idea ofEaster as the inauguration of a new world with Christ as the gardener betterthan G.K. Chesterton

    “On the third day thefriends of Christ coming at day-break to the place found the grave empty andthe stone rolled away. In varying ways they realized the new wonder; the worldhad died in the night. What they were looking at was the first day of a new creation,with a new heaven and a new earth; and in a semblance of a gardener God walkedagain in the garden, not in the cool of the evening, but in the dawn.”
    –G.K. Chesterton

    Music by, Allswell, Simon Wester.

  • Holy Saturday

    And so on Holy Saturday, our Holy week comes to an end.Our journey ends with Jesus laid to rest in a new tomb within the walled gardenof Joseph of Arimathea near Golgotha.

    As we begin today, I want to reflect on the work of PaulZach as he writes about Holy Saturday.

    After the cross has been carriedAfter the weight is laid downAfter the body is buriedDown where the darkness surroundsAfter the end of the violenceAfter the sky has gone darkNow there is nothing but silenceBroken by the beat of our hearts
    He's gone
    After the last words are spoken
    We lay him down in the grave
    After our hearts have been broken
    Have all our hopes been betrayed?He's gone

    Here at the tomb with our spices
    Love from our hearts is not gone
    Watch 'til the breaking sun rises
    What will we see in the dawn?


    Paul Zach

    As we listen to Luke Parker, sing Sweet Surrender,

    let us take a moment to appreciate the freedom that comes on the death and resurrection ofour Lord. The full presence that we have from the sweet surrender that Jesusgave on the cross.

    Todays reading comes from John 19:31-42

    31 Nowit was the day of Preparation, and the next day was to be a specialSabbath. Because the Jewish leaders did not want the bodies left on thecrosses during the Sabbath, they asked Pilate to have the legs broken andthe bodies taken down. 32 The soldiers thereforecame and broke the legs of the first man who had been crucified with Jesus, andthen those of the other. 33 But when they came toJesus and found that he was already dead, they did not break his legs. 34 Instead,one of the soldiers pierced Jesus’ side with a spear, bringing a suddenflow of blood and water. 35 The man who sawit has given testimony, and his testimony is true. He knows that hetells the truth, and he testifies so that you also may believe. 36 Thesethings happened so that the scripture would be fulfilled: “Not one of hisbones will be broken,”[c] 37 and,as another scripture says, “They will look on the one they have pierced.”[d]

    The Burial of Jesus

    38 Later,Joseph of Arimathea asked Pilate for the body of Jesus. Now Joseph was adisciple of Jesus, but secretly because he feared the Jewish leaders. WithPilate’s permission, he came and took the body away. 39 Hewas accompanied by Nicodemus, the man who earlier had visited Jesus atnight. Nicodemus brought a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about seventy-fivepounds.[e] 40 TakingJesus’ body, the two of them wrapped it, with the spices, in strips oflinen. This was in accordance with Jewish burial customs. 41 Atthe place where Jesus was crucified, there was a garden, and in the garden anew tomb, in which no one had ever been laid. 42 Becauseit was the Jewish day of Preparation and since the tomb wasnearby, they laid Jesus there.

    Holy Saturday is a time of both absence and presence. Stillyour body and mind as you invite Jesus to be with you in this midway place.
    Asking for the courage to stay in the ‘valley of the shadow of death’. how have you been able to sense God’s presence during this challenging week?

    What thoughts, desires or feelings have arisen within you as you prayed withthis week’s Scripture passages?
    Many Christians bypass Holy Saturday, leaping from the sorrow of Jesus’ death to the triumphant celebration of his resurrection. The church's ancient creeds invite us not to do that, but to stay with a sense of his absence, as his disciples felt it. Why do you think that is? How does the story of Jesus’ suffering and death leave you feeling?

    Lord Jesus, on this holy day of quiet rest, we await yourresurrection, but we don’t want to rush by; we want to wait beside you in thatsweet surrender.

    Music by Luke Parker, Salt of The Sound, Dear Gravity, Simon Wester.

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  • Today isgood Friday.

    As wegather together today we stop to remember the darkest of days on the Christian calendar.

    As we enter this moment and listen to Salt of the sound Sing nearer Jesus Keepme near the cross, let us place ourselves at the foot of the cross, close toour saviour and near his sacrificial love even in this darkest of moments.

    On Good Friday, wethink about one thing: the crucifixion of Jesus Christ. This is the epicentreof the Christian faith. At the core of Christianity, we don’t find perennialreligion, meditation techniques, or a course in ethics, but a crucifixion.

    The gospel is notmotivational talks about happy marriages, being debt free, and achieving yourdestiny. That all belongs to the broader world of proverbial wisdom, and it’sfine as far as it goes, but it has little or nothing to do with the gospel.

    The gospel is about the cross, and the cross is a scandal.

    When the Apostle Paultold the Corinthians that he had determined to know nothing among them exceptJesus Christ and him crucified, he admitted that the cross was often viewed asa scandal and folly. So be it. Any attempt to make Christianity less offensiveand more palatable by de-emphasizing the cross is a betrayal of Jesus Christhimself. So today, above all days, we look unflinchingly at Christ crucified. Toenter deep into the mystery of the cross is to encounter the greatestrevelation of who God is. as we listen to the traditional reading of the crucifixion of Christ from John19:16-30 let us ask the spirit to show us what we need to see.

    The Cross is thedeath by which Christ conquers Death.

    It’s the abolition ofwar and violence. It’s the supreme demonstration of the love of God. It’s there-founding of the world around an axis of love. It’s the enduring model ofco-suffering love we are to follow. It’s the eternal moment in which the sin ofthe world is forgiven.

    The cross is where Jesus reveals God as saviour.

    The cross is what God in Christ endures as he forgives. The cross is where the sin of the worldcoalesced into a hideous singularity so that it might be forgiven en masse. The cross is where the world violently sinned its sins in the body of the Son ofGod, and where he absorbed it all, praying, “Father, forgive them.” The crossis both ugly and beautiful. It’s as ugly as human sin and as beautiful asdivine love—but in the end, love and beauty win.

    Lord Jesus, as we look at you on the cross, with your arms outstretched in an offered embrace, we pray,forgive us, Lord, for we know not what we do. Amen.

    Music by Salt of The Sound, Simon Wester, Dear Gravity and Luke Parker.

  • Luke 22:14-29, John 13:1-17

    Today is Maundy (or mandate)Thursday, the day when Jesus at the Last Supper gave his disciples a new andsupreme mandate to love one another.

    At the Last Supper Jesusre-appropriated the ancient Passover meal commemorating Israel’s liberationfrom bondage in Egypt, giving us the sacramental meal of Communion by which wecommemorate the Lord’s death and partake of his body and blood.

    Of course, the disciples didn’t know this was the last supper before Jesus’ suffering and death—theywere still anticipating the arrival of the kingdom of God in the way of conventional conquest. Yet Jesus was explicit about this being the last meal of an old age, telling his disciples that he would not eat or drink again until the kingdom of God had come. And thus we see the significance of Jesus eating and drinking with his disciples following his resurrection!

    Sadly, the poignancy of this final meal was marred by a dispute among the disciples over who would beregarded as the greatest in the coming kingdom. Once again, for the last timebefore his death, Jesus stressed to his obtuse disciples that what is countedas greatness in the empires of the world is not what is counted as greatness inthe kingdom of God.

    Now that we have heard of thedispute among the disciples lets take a moment to hear what else happened atthe last supper from John’s account of the event. Let’s read about Jesuswashing his disciples' feet from John 13:1-17
    As we hear from this portion of the evening picture, the events are takingplace. How do the actions of Jesus contrast the attitudes of the discipleswho are arguing over who would be the greatest in the coming Kingdom?

    Caesar and all his successorsmeasure greatness by power—power to kill, power to obtain, power to control.But in the kingdom of Christ, greatness is measured by love, humility, andservice. Jesus modelled this kingdom version of greatness when he washed hisdisciples’ feet during the Last Supper. Despite the disciples’ inability tofully grasp what he was saying and doing, Jesus spoke warmly about how they hadstayed with him through his trials. As a result, they are to eat and drink athis table in his kingdom.

    As we finish today, take a moment to imagine what it was like to be a disciplehaving his feet washed. Now take a moment to place yourselves in the seat ofthe disciples. See Jesus washing your feet. What is your response to this situation?

    Lord Jesus, as we partake of your body and blood on this holy day, may we be your flesh and blood presencein the world, and may our presence be characterized by love, humility, andservice. Amen.

  • Wednesday, 5 April 2023

    Today is Wednesday, the 5th of April, in Holy Week.

    Today, as we recognize the presence of God with us, we look to Jesus and himshowing us the great purpose of his death.

    As we take a moment to listen to Salt of the Sound singNearer my God to thee, let us take a moment to thank God for the cross and throughthe cross, we have every opportunity to draw close to him and be nearer to him.

    Today’s reading is from the Gospel of John 12:20-36

    Jesus Predicts his death.

    As we recognize the presence of God with us on this HolyWednesday, we come to the time when Jesus predicts his death.

    But what does the crucifixion of Jesus Christ accomplish?

    This is one of the few passages in the Gospels where Jesusoffers any interpretative meaning to his death.

    He says his crucifixion will accomplish three things:

    It will judge the world.

    It will cast out the ruler of the world.

    It will draw the whole world to him.

    The cross of Christ pronounces judgment on the basicarrangement of the world. The principalities and powers—the rich and powerful,the structures they represent, and the spirit generated by them—claim they havethe right to rule the world because they are wise and just. But the crossexposes the principalities and the powers as neither wise nor just, but simplygreedy for wealth and power.

    The cross also drives out the ruler of this world, the accuserwho unites people around the practice of scapegoating a vilified other, but thethe cross exposes scapegoating for what it is—the lynching of an innocent victim.

    Finally, the cross re-founds the world. When we see Jesuslifted up on the cross, perfectly displaying God's love by forgiving the world's sin, we find the place where human society is reorganized. Insteadof a world organized around an axis of power enforced by violence, we discovera world organized around an axis of love expressed in forgiveness. As we gazelong upon the sacred mystery of Christ crucified, we find ourselves drawninto the saving orbit of love and forgiveness.

    As we read the final section of this passage again

    Take some time to process in your own words what you thinkJesus means when he talks about having the light just a little while longer,but that we are to become children of the light.

    Jesus said he would be with them in person for only a shorttime, and they should take advantage of his presence while they had it. Like alight shining in a dark place, he would point out the way they should walk. If theywalked in his light, they would become children of the light, revealing thetruth and pointing people to God.
    As Christians we are to be light bearers, letting His light shine through us. Take the next few moments to walk through the rest of your day and the rest ofyour week asking God how you could be a light bearer to those around you.

    Lord Jesus, thank you for all that you accomplished on the crossand thank you for the forgiveness that we have received. As you have called usto be children of light, may we go forward bringing the light of forgivenessinto this world for everyone to see and receive.

    Music by Salt of The Sound, Simon Wester and Dear Gravity

  • Jesus Predicts the Denial by Judas.

    Lord, have mercy; Christ, have mercy, Lord, have mercy.

    These imploring words, which have been sung forcenturies are a reminder of the inexhaustible mercy of God and of God’sunfailing compassion and forgiveness.

    As we enter into our time today, I want us to take amoment to ready ourselves before God by confessing that we come to him only by hisgreat mercy that he lavishes on us.

    As we listen to Salt of the Sound sing When I Survey, let's take some time to place ourselves into the care of a merciful God wholoves us, even when we have chosen a different path than the one that he has intended for us.

    Hearing this story with the Knowledge of the situation that we have, allows us a vantage point that was not afforded to the rest of thedisciples.

    How would it feel to be any one of the characters in the story? Judas, Peter,the beloved disciple, or the others. What words or feelings come to you as yourelive the scene?
    Jesus loves all his disciples, including Judas.
    There is a Judas, a Peter and a beloved disciple within each of us representedin our lived response to Jesus.


    We have all betrayed Jesus, broken promises to Jesus, or sat close to Jesus, recliningin his presence. What does it feel like to know that he loves us despite thedark fragments of our own, broken story? What does it feel like to know hismercy extends to every part of you?
    As you listen to part of this reading again, notice what stays with you and why.Can you face hearing Jesus’ words and meeting his eye? If not, why not? If so,what desire arises within you?

    Each of the three disciples named here has a personal story of the response to Jesus that subsequently unfolds. What is your response as aparticipant in this scene?

    As we finish today, Let us read a prayer of mercy that wecan take with us when we are tempted to cast judgment.

    Mercy triumphs over judgment.

    When you can blame
have mercy.
    When you can shame
have mercy.
    When you can criticize
have mercy.
    When you can condemn
have mercy.When you have a political disagreement
have mercy.When you have a theological disagreement
have mercy.
    When you are certain you are completely right
have mercy.
    When you could exact your revenge and get even
have mercy.
    So that when you pray, “Lord, have mercy on me”—
    There will be a large reservoir of mercy for God to draw from.

    Lord, have mercy.
    Christ, have mercy.
    Lord, have mercy.

    Music by Salt of the Sound, Dear Gravity, Simon Wester.

  • Mary Anoints Jesus at Bethany

    John 12:1-8

    Yesterday. we spoke of our need for God’spresence to be with us in our journey throughout the ups and downs of thislife.

    As you begin this Holy Week journey, let us take a moment andbecome aware of the presence of Jesus with you now as we step forward this week.Take a moment to lay out the plans you have forthe upcoming day and week, and invite the presence of Jesus to walk with you throughoutyour time this week.

    If ever there was a Gospel scene that invites prayer withall our senses, this is it. Mary touches Jesus in love and sorrow and fills thehouse with the scent of her precious oil. Her passionate generosity contrastswith the hardness of the criticism she receives from Judas’.

    Judas seems to scold Mary for her extravagance angrily,saying that the perfume could have been sold for three hundred denarii, andthe money was given to the poor.”

    If we are honest with ourselves, and had we not known theWe would probably be saying the same thing for the rest of the story.

    The money would be better spent on feeding and clothing thepoor rather than wasting it on a single moment of outrageous worship. We might be inclined to agree that this kind of worship is a misspent endeavour.

    But we would be wrong.

    Jesus defends Mary by calling what she did a beautifulthing.

    This leaves us with much to ponder. Is it not true thatthere is no higher priority than doing good works of justice?

    Jesus indeed teaches us to provide for the poor—this is partof the second commandment to love your neighbour as yourself.

    But the first command is to love God with all of your heart.

    If we love God with no evidence of us seeking Justice in hisname, do we truly love God?

    And conversely, Justice that is not rooted in the worship ofGod has no coherent foundation.

    So Jesus endorsed the extravagant anointing that Marybestowed upon him.
    When you read this story from Mark's account, he says, "whereverthe gospel is preached in the whole world, what she has done will be told inmemory of her.” This emphasizes that the gospel is not a salvationformula but the entire story of Jesus.

    The physicality of Mary’s sorrowful actions becomes the modelfor Jesus’ symbolic act of service to his disciples at the Last Supper. Howwould it feel to be Mary in this dramatic scene? What feelings and thoughtswould you want to convey to Jesus in this loving gesture?

  • Luke 19:28-42Today is Palm Sunday and thefirst day of Holy Week.

    This week, more than any other week on the Christian Calendar is a week that we can set aside some timeto try and understand the significance of what Jesus did on the cross.

    The expectations of thepeople of Israel were at a feverous pitch. The crowd grew on all sides ofJerusalem.

    These people had seen Jesusraise Lazarus from the dead, feed the 5000, and come into Jerusalem alongsideJesus, wanting to see more. The religious watch-hounds were perusing Jesusrelentlessly - looking to rid the threat to their comfortable and detachedreligious system. The crowds who were already in Jerusalem were desperate for aking to lead them in a revolution against their roman oppressors. All the whilePontius Pilate was riding into Jerusalem on a war horse, coming to grant apardon to the one prisoner who the people saw as worthy of release.

    The Hopes that the people ofIsrael had for Jesus were real and significant, and everyone in the crowd hadexpectations about what Jesus was supposed to do. Still, almost all of them hadno idea what was coming next, nor did they know what they truly needed.

    You could say that the peopleof Israel were forming God in their image.

    Unmet expectations are real,and they can range from a slight disappointment with little consequence tolife-shattering circumstances that lead us to break away from our community anddoubt the existence of God altogether.

    As we read the story of Jesusriding into Jerusalem on a Donkey, we read a story of Jesus meeting oursignificant needs, not our expectations.

    The people wanted aKing to rise like the great kings of Old, but what Jesus brought was muchbetter.

    Repaying evil for evilonly brings more pain and suffering, but repaying conflict and hatred withpeace and love will stop the cycle of pain and replace it with healing.

    Luke 19:28-42

    If we are honest withourselves, we all have unmet expectations.

    At one time or another,I would say that most of us have had unmet expectations from God.

    We may think that our lifeshould have turned out differently than it did.

    Perhaps our healthisn't what we expected, or we are grieving the loss of someone we loved.

    Maybe your careerhasn't turned out the way you expected or

    Perhaps your marriage neverhad that fairy tale ending, or maybe you never did meet your forever partner inthe first place.

    As we take a moment tosit and reflect, take some time to share with God the disappointments of yourunmet expectations. Take time to share your heart and your disappointment.Perhaps even confess the times you tried to create God in your image.

    This life is painful,and there are times that we all wish we could take over and change the outcomesof our life circumstances.

    The reality is that Goddoesn't offer us a Parachute, but he offers us his presence.

    A parachute would help us avoid all that this world has to throw at us, but that isn't what God hasgiven us.

    God offers us hispresence in his Son Jesus rather than a parachute. We would all prefer an exitstrategy from the hardships of this life, but what God gives us is genuinelysomething much better.

    God gives us hispeaceable kingdom filled with his love and presence to walk us through thislife, not just so we can get to the other side but so we can live a full lifewith him here on earth.

  • Advent Day 28. Christmas Eve.

    Music:
    Oh, Holy Night/O Come, O Come, Emanuel. Performed by Salt Of The Sound.
    Your Presence. Written and Performed by Simon Wester (Feat. Ricki Ejderkvist)
    Special thank you to all our artists who were featured on the Seasons Reflections Podcast including Dear Gravity, Luke Parker, Allswell, Maximilian, Simon Wester and Salt of The Sound.


    It’s Christmas Eve, the holiest night of the year, as the stores shut down, and the friends and families settle in for a meal we spend time in the traditional veneration of the saints, celebrating the one who holds the stars in place, the one who knit you together in your mother's womb, the Shepherd who leads us beside still waters, Jesus Christ. The Word of God who comes to us as a baby, a baby in a manger.

    As we began our Journey 28 days ago we heard the poems of the Prophet Isaiah crying out for the one who will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, and Prince of Peace. We heard him speak of the aching imbalance of power rectified as the wolf lays down with the lamb. We heard Paul placing his hope in the one who didn’t consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage. We heard John's Gospel speak of the Light that comes into our world as the Word made flesh, We heard of John the Baptist preparing the way for the Lord and Mary singing her song of Salvation,  lifting up the humble and feeding the hungry.

    Now, on this final day of our journey, we hear the story that we wait on every year during advent, the Story of the birth of Jesus.

    As a child with Ukrainian Heritage, I enjoyed Christmas morning, as every child does, but I enjoyed Christmas Eve more. Christmas Eve in my home had a mysterious quality to it that appealed to my young imagination. We would all bundle up and head to my Aunties house where no one was allowed to eat until we saw the first star come out, though my brother and my cousins would always seem to find our way to sneak a few pickles.
    We would sit around the table eating our traditional Ukrainian Christmas Dinner telling stories of the year past. After dinner Candles were lit, special treats were served, and then we would sit around the tree where someone would read The Christmas Story.  We would then open our presents and celebrate Christmas as a family.

    One of the greatest gifts we can provide for children is to give them a Christmas tradition that, along with Santa, the tree, the presents, and all the rest, also has a memorable telling of the story of the babe born in Bethlehem.

    In The Everlasting Man, G.K. Chesterton says that anyone “whose childhood has known a real Christmas has ever afterwards an association in his mind between two ideas that most of mankind must regard as remote from each other; the idea of a baby and the idea of unknown strength that sustains the stars. His instincts and imagination can still connect them.” The story of the birth in the city of David of a saviour who is Christ the Lord, captured my imagination as a child, and, lo, these many years later it still does.

    As We read The Christmas story from the gospel of Luke, we see the unknown strength of the creator, placed tenderly in what we know far more tangibly as a baby in a manger.....


    .....So perhaps at the end of this holy day you can find a quiet moment to light a candle, read Luke’s Christmas story, and allow your imagination to transport you to a stable in Bethlehem two thousand years ago where there is a babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger. Then, like Mary, you can keep all these things and ponder them in your heart.

  • Advent day 27. Our Friend.

    Music:
    Come Thou Long Expected Jesus, Performed by Salt of the Sound
    The Pilgrimage Series, Written and Performed by Dear Gravity.


    Advent and Christmas are seasons of song—without our carols, it just wouldn’t be Christmas.

    Looking back to my early Christmas memories, many of them revolve around song. Singing in the church Christmas pageant, singing silent night at a Christmas eve candle lit service or even carollers singing in the streets. Christmas is marked with song.

    Songs are poetry set to music, and poetry is how we express the indescribable.

    The precision of style has its place, but it cannot properly speak of the transcendent.

    Language that aspires to describe the divine is best done as poetry.

    By poetry, I don’t necessarily mean rhyming verse, but language that prioritizes form over function, and beauty over utility. The power of poetry to speak of the divine is why Genesis opens with poetry, why the Hebrew prophets were mostly poets, why the psalms are all poetry, and why so much of the best of the New Testament is poetic: The Beatitudes, the prologue to John’s Gospel, Paul’s ode to love that is I Corinthians 13, and the majestic anthems of praise found in Revelation. Perhaps you don’t see yourself as a poet, but there are times when the only thing you can do with your deeply divine thoughts is to scribble them down in a journal or notepad.

    On Thursday we looked at Mary’s revolutionary song, the Magnificat and today we have Zechariah’s song before us—a song composed at the birth of his son, John the Baptist. Zechariah’s prophetic song might be described as a poetic meditation on salvation.

    What a beautiful song of salvation! Zechariah’s poem says that through Messiah we are saved from enemies and hate, fear and foes, placing our feet on the path of peace.

    And isn’t that all we really want—to be set free from fear and to walk in peace?

    But throughout history, we have seen, time and time again, that the desired path to peace is through conquering those who stand in the way of peace. War and vengeance will no more lead to peace than drought will lead to a bountiful harvest.

    We must not make the mistake of thinking that this salvation can come by the way of the world.

    A world under the sway of the wicked one says we’re saved from our enemies by destroying our enemies; that we’re saved from those who hate us by hating them even more; that we’re saved by fear by placing the highest priority on security; that we can only walk in peace when we have eliminated every possible threat.

    The Messiah won’t play the devil’s game of trying to conquer fear by fear, hate by hate, violence by violence. Messiah will be the saviour who guides our feet into the way of peace.

    The kingdom that Jesus brings to us is a kingdom that this world has never seen before. One of peace, love, hope and joy.

    The contrast of the advancement of the kingdoms of this world and the advancement of the kingdom of God couldn’t be more clear.

    This kingdom is known to some as the Upside-down kingdom. We can see a very clear statement of Jesus proclaiming the upside-down kingdom in John chapter 15. Here Jesus famously says: Greater love has no one than this, to lay down one's life for one's friends.

  • Advent Day 26. The Birth of John.

    Music written and recorded by Simon Wester.

    Today we continue our Journey to Christmas day through the book of Luke by looking at the life of John the Baptist. One that was marked with humility of his place in history, as well as adulation for the message of the coming Kingdom of God.

    First, the country priest, Zechariah, encountered an angel while offering incense in the Temple. Then his long-barren wife was found to be with child. Now upon the birth of the child, and after nine months of enforced silence, the mute priest speaks for the first time.

    It is clear to the people that knew the story of Zechariah and Elizabeth, that this child will have some sort of important role in the story that is unfolding before them, but they couldn’t know how important he would be. Perhaps a priest? The new King?

    Let’s jump ahead about thirty years and try to answer their question. What John did not become is what most people would have expected—he did not become a priest like his father. Instead of following Zechariah into the priesthood, John retreated into the wilderness.

    Luke says it like this, “The child grew and became strong in spirit, and was in the wilderness until the day he publicly appeared to Israel.” (Luke 1:80) At some point, maybe in his teen years, John left his home and began to live in the rugged Judean wilderness. Perhaps his elderly parents were already dead by then.

    Of course, we don’t know. What we know is what Luke tells us: that John lived in the wilderness becoming spiritually strong until he began to preach and baptize at the Jordan River in the fifteenth year of the reign of Emperor Tiberius (AD 28).

    John was the prophet who, as the angel Gabriel told Zechariah, would “come in the spirit and power of Elijah.” (Luke 1:17) But John was more than a prophet, he was the forerunner foretold by Isaiah and Malachi. It was his prophetic task to make ready a people prepared for the Lord. John did this by preaching a message of repentance and baptizing the penitent.

    John's sermons were filled with themes of justice—calling the rich to share their wealth and the police to stop employing violent tactics of intimidation. (See Luke 3:10–14) John’s preaching was wildly popular with the masses and drew huge crowds from Jerusalem. But, predictably, John’s ministry had little or no effect on the Temple establishment.

    The apex of John’s meteoric ministry was to baptize Jesus. Once that was accomplished, the crowds began to leave John and follow Jesus instead.

    John the Baptist took his diminished role with humility and grace, telling his disciples, “He must increase, but I must decrease.” (John 3:30) A few months after he had baptized Jesus, John was arrested by Herod, and not long after that, he was executed. Jesus himself delivered John’s eulogy in advance, saying, “Among those born of women no one is greater than John; yet the least in the kingdom of God is greater than he.” (Luke 7:28) Jesus was indicating that John was the culmination of an era that began with Abraham, but now a new age was dawning with the coming of the Son of Man.

    John's willingness to decrease in importance shows an unusual humility. John shows us that the ultimate message of Christ reaching those who are hurting is more important than any accolades that we this side of eternity.

    Devotional Adapted from The Anticipated Christ. 

  • Advent Day 25

    Music.
    May I Recieve, Written and recorded by Allswell.
    Wooden Starlight, Written and Recorded by Dear Gravity. 

    The Magnificat

    Our reading today is a song that has become one of the most frequently prayed passages of Scripture in Christianity.

    Song of Mary is most commonly known as the Magnificat which is Latin for Magnifies.

    As significant as Mary is in the Christian story, we only hear her speak four times: to the angel at the Annunciation, to Jesus at age twelve in the Temple, to Jesus at the wedding feast in Cana, and here in the Magnificat.

    The Magnificat is certainly a hymn of praise, but it’s also a subversive revolutionary anthem.

    What you may or may not notice about the  Magnificat is that it is an adaptation of Hannah’s song in 1 Samuel 2:1–10.

    Hannah became the mother of the prophet Samuel. She had been barren and was bitterly tormented by her husband’s second wife, but Hannah conceived after making a vow to dedicate her firstborn son to the Lord. Her song is a hymn of gratitude and triumph that speaks of how God intervenes on behalf of the unfortunate. Part of Hannah’s song goes like this:

    He raises the poor from the dust,

    He lifts the needy from the ash heap,

    He makes them sit with princes.

    In comparing the songs of Hannah and Mary we see how the New Testament is dependent upon the First Testament. And what stands out about both songs is how revolutionary they are.

    As we hear the Magnificat, Think of how subversive these words were in the context of Mary’s time—the time of King Herod.

    Luke 1:46-55

    Mary’s Magnificat anticipates what will happen when her son grows up and begins to proclaim the good news of the new peaceable kingdom.

    It will be a message welcomed by the poor, the sick, the downcast and outcasts who are open to Jesus’ message while the rich and powerful will mostly resist it.

    What we should learn from the Magnificat is that the grace of God flows downhill toward the lowly places in our lives where we are humble, weak, and poor.

    There may be places in your life where you are strong, successful, and rich. And this can be a blessing. But be careful and always remember that grace flows downhill.

    In our contemporary context, we need a Christianity formed by the Magnificat.

    In the western world, we are typically inclined toward ideas of success and anthems of strength. But the grace of God does not run uphill toward the pinnacles of success and strength, it rolls downhill toward the low places of humility and trust.

    Advent is not just about waiting, but about waiting in the right place. The right place to wait for the grace of God is the lowly ash heap of your barrenness and brokenness. This is where the grace of God will appear.

    Before we listen to ready yourself in a place of worship, as we hear Mary’s song, let it be our continued prayer for the Peace of God’s kingdom to come this Christmas.

    Perhaps you are feeling near the bottom of the hill and are in need to grace to run to you.

    As we finish today we will hear the beatitudes. If you are hurting, lonely or otherwise downtrodden take comfort in knowing that this Christmas, we await the King of Kings, the creator of the all thigs, who comes to this earth to bring you comfort, peace, hope and joy.

  • Advent day 24

    Music: Simon Wester. 

    Let Joy Resound

    October 28, 2022

    Advent - Joy

    Emmanuel

    has come!

    Rejoice,

    without a hint

    of doubt.

    Let joy resound,

    and praises ring.

    Hallelujah!

    Christ is here,

    and in the fullness

    of the age,

    returns to reign

    as promised King.

    Allan J. Gillespie

    What news would make you literally leap for joy?

    What would it take for you to jump up and down and throw your hat in the air?

    It’s what people did at the end of WWII and at the fall of the Berlin Wall.

    It’s what you might do if you won the lottery or found out that you’re cancer-free. When war ends and tyranny topples, when prosperity comes and sickness goes, it’s the kind of good news that elicits exuberant celebration.

    The good news that Mary and Elizabeth celebrate together, is the good news that the kingdom of God is at last breaking into a world dominated by proud and brutal tyrants.

    Elizabeth had endured long years of heartbreaking infertility—a sorrow made worse by the undeserved stigma associated with barrenness in ancient societies. Elizabeth describes her experience of childlessness as “the disgrace I have endured among my people.” (Luke 1:25) But now she is six months pregnant with a child who will be known to history as John the Baptist.

    Mary is a much younger relative of Elizabeth and is carrying in her womb the Son of God conceived by the Holy Spirit. We can assume that the only other person aware of Mary’s miraculous pregnancy is her fiancĂ© Joseph—and an angel had to explain the nature of her pregnancy to him.

    We can also imagine that Mary longed for a trusted friend in whom she could confide, and this is why she made the long journey into the hill country of Judea to be with her older relative Elizabeth. As it turns out both of these women have quite a story to tell.

    Both Mary and Elizabeth had just had their lives turned on its head, and they needed someone they knew and trusted to celebrate and process what was happening in their newfound and unexpected pregnancies.

    When Mary arrives at the home of Zechariah and greets her relative with the customary, Shalom, Elizabeth responds with an astounding prophetic utterance:

    “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb! Why am I so honoured that the mother of my Lord should come to visit me?” And at that moment John the Baptist in the womb of his mother began to leap for joy. What a beautiful picture of irrepressible joy. The anticipation of the coming of the kingdom of God is marked by unbridled elation. Truly the kingdom of God is “righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.” (Romans 14:17)

    The two worlds of what we now know today as the Old Testament and the New Testament are at long last colliding in the form of two baby boys born to these two most unexpectant mothers.

    John, theologically known as the second coming of Elijah, has come to close out the old testament and usher in the new kingdom brought by this baby being carried by Mary.

    The old leaps for joy as the new kingdom is ushered in.

    What we traditionally anticipate at Christmas is Hope, Joy, Peace and Love, but what can happen is the reality of this world can become too much to bear. What we anticipate at Christmas, can at times be a distant dream as opposed to the intended reality that Jesus came to bring.

  • Music:
    Gabriels Message, Salt of The Sound
    Simon Wester, Dear Gravity 

    As a teenager growing up in Calgary in the 90’s, most days I would travel home from school on city transit. My High school was an inner-city school and we lived on the outskirts of the city.  Travelling by two busses and a train, my daily journey would last about an hour and a half. Quite often, on those journeys home, I would ask God if he would like me to speak to anyone. I had numerous fascinating conversations with various people that would often last the entire route and lead to some deep and meaningful connections.

    Little did I know, that in those little moments of trying my best to listen to the Holy Spirit, I was playing my part in being a God-bearer. In today’s Christmas story, we meet THE God-Bearer of the Christmas story, Mary.

    It was through a young and poor Jewish maiden named Mary living in the backwater Galilean village of Nazareth during the Roman occupation of the first century that the Word of God, took on flesh and became God and Man.

    In Christian theology, we call this event the Incarnation and Mary is known as the Theotokos—the God-bearer.

    The Incarnation of Christ through the one who bore God is one of the most sacred confessions and sublime mysteries of Christian faith.

    It’s the story of how through the cooperation of the Virgin Mary and the Holy Spirit the Divine-Eternal became a human. And it begins with the Annunciation—the Announcement.

    In the sixth month of her relative Elizabeth’s pregnancy, the angel Gabriel came to Nazareth to tell an engaged, but not yet married, virgin that she will conceive and give birth to a son named Jesus and that he will be the long-awaited Messiah whose kingdom will have no end.

    When Mary questioned the angel saying, “How can this be? I do not know a man?”, the angel simply responded, “The Holy Spirit.” This is the enduring pattern by which God brings redemptive newness into the world. How? The Holy Spirit.

    Mary as the mother of Christ is the entirely unique Theotokos. But on another level, Mary is the universal archetype for all who yield to the Holy Spirit and say with the Virgin, “Here am I, the servant of the Lord; let it be unto me according to your word.”

    As a teenager on the bus ride home from my innercity school I was learning how to say yes to the Holy Spirit, O became a lesser theotokos through whom God can bring something holy into the world.

    This Christmas we see the partnership between the trinity and humanity come to an uttermost peak.  God, coming to this world as a human, brought into this world by a human who simply said yes to what the Holy of the Holy Spirit asked of this young lady from Galilee.

  • Advent Day 22.

    Music:
    Simon Wester, Salt of The Sound 

    Today, as we enter the fourth and our final week of Advent we move into Luke’s Gospel. This week we will walk through the Christmas story opening with Zechariah and Elizabeth and culminating With Mary, Joseph, Baby Jesus, the angels and shepherds.

    Luke’s Gospel gives us more Advent and Christmas themes than any other.

    After his preliminary dedication to Theophilus, Luke begins his Gospel with these words: “In the days of King Herod.”

    Luke’s story is set during the dark days when Judea was occupied by Rome and their king was a client of Caesar. Herod the Great (72–4 BC) was installed as the King of Judea by the Roman Senate in 37 BC as a reward for military service on behalf of the empire.

    Herod was a daring general and a great builder, but he was also a corrupt and paranoid king capable of astonishing cruelty. After waiting so long for a king, Herod was certainly not the righteous king the pious of Israel had been praying for. As Luke’s story opens Herod has reigned for some thirty years, his dynasty is in place, and the hope for a messianic king seemed farther away than ever.

    At the same time there lived in the hill country of Judea a humble priest and his wife—Zechariah and Elizabeth. They were blameless, but blamelessness had not led to blessedness, for Elizabeth was barren. They had prayed for a child for decades, but no child had come, and now they were getting on in years. Of course by this point in the Bible we see this as the foreshadowing of a special birth—barren women giving birth to great sons is a common biblical motif seen in Sarah, Rebekah, Rachel, Hannah, and the wife of Manoah. And sure enough, when Zechariah is chosen by lot to offer incense in the Temple—a once in a lifetime opportunity—he encounters the angel Gabriel who tells him that his wife will bear a son, his name is to be called John, and he will prepare the people for the coming of Messiah.

    Luke 1:5-25

    Gabriel began his announcement to Zechariah by saying, “Do not be afraid.” Angels always say “fear not” because this is what heaven has to say to earth.

    Then the angel says, “Your prayer has been heard.” Zechariah and Elizabeth had been praying for a child for a long time, perhaps for as long as Herod had been king.

    The answer to their prayer had been delayed so that God can give them more than a child—God will give them the forerunner of Messiah!

    Sometimes the answer to our prayers is delayed so that God can answer them in a way greater than we could ever imagine. Among the instructions given to Zechariah was that John was to drink no wine. John the Baptist drinks no wine because he’s not the one who brings the party, he only prepares the way. The party begins when Jesus turns the water to wine at the wedding feast in Cana. John is Advent; Jesus is Christmas

    Adapted from The Anticipated Christ 

  • Music:
    Oh Holy Night, Performed by Salt of the Sound. 

    As we approach the threshold of our final week of our Advent prayer times together we read the most wonderful message of all —the Word made flesh!

    The Eternal Logos, the Infinite Idea, the Logic of Love, the Divine Wisdom, God’s Understanding of God’s Self, assumed human nature to heal human nature.

    The moment the Word became flesh the salvation of humanity was guaranteed. All the events of God’s salvation would have to run their course through time, from incarnation to crucifixion to resurrection, but the salvific end was always inevitable.

    When the Word was made flesh, the creator and giver of life, light and love, moved into the neighbourhood, walked our streets, and conversed with us.

    The apostles of Christ saw, and through their witness we too have seen, the beauty of the Father fully displayed in the life of Jesus Christ—a life overflowing with grace and truth.

    The grace and truth of God that Moses and the Prophets could never fully embody is fully found in the Word made flesh.

    From the infinite fullness of God there is an endless flow of grace into humanity.

    Imagine an hourglass with its two spheres and the connecting point where the sand flows from the upper sphere into the lower. Now imagine an upper sphere that is infinite. That’s what we find in the Word made flesh. Jesus became the point that connects the infinite grace of God with the finite deficiency of humanity. This is salvation. This is why we say, Merry Christmas!

    14 The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.

    15 (John testified concerning him. He cried out, saying, “This is the one I spoke about when I said, ‘He who comes after me has surpassed me because he was before me.’”) 16 Out of his fullness we have all received grace in place of grace already given. 17 For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. 18 No one has ever seen God, but the one and only Son, who is himself God and[b] is in closest relationship with the Father, has made him known.

    John concludes his poetic prologue by insisting that no one has ever seen God—it is God the Son who is near the Father’s heart who has made God known.

    We might protest and point out that Abraham saw God and had a meal with him under the oaks of Mamre; Jacob saw God with angels ascending and descending on the ladder at Bethel; Moses saw God face to face on Mount Sinai and his face shone from the encounter. There were many other encounters such as these. 

     But John knows all of this, and that’s what makes his apostolic assertation so daring. By the Holy Spirit John asserts that no matter what dreams, visions, revelations, epiphanies, theophanies, or Christophanies people have had in times past, compared to the revelation we have in the Word made flesh, no one has ever seen God! All ideas and images of God must surrender to the supreme revelation of God as seen in Jesus Christ. Christ alone is the perfect definition of who God is.

    The conclusion we are to draw from John at the beginning of the fourth Gospel is this: God is like Jesus. God has always been like Jesus. There has never been a time when God wasn’t like Jesus. We haven’t always known this, but now we do.

    What sticks out to you the most in these verses? Why is the Word coming to Earth such a big deal in the great scope of human history? “The Word became flesh and blood, and moved into the neighborhood.” What might your life be like if God moved into your street?

  • Advent Day 20

    Music:
    Be Thou My Vision, Performed by Allswell
    Morning Prayer and Life Written and Performed by Simon Wester


    As we ended yesterday speaking of the Light of God, we now come to John the Baptist, who came as a witness to testify concerning that light.

    In the dark world of idolatry, all illumination is precious.

    The ancient Hebrews had the moonlight of the Law and the starry constellations of the Prophets by which they could navigate through the shadows of night on their journey toward truth.

    The Gentiles had the flickering candles of nature’s witness and Greek wisdom by which they could pursue the creator. (Acts 17:27)

    Moonlight, starlight, and candlelight are faint illuminations in the darkness of night. But as we spoke on yesterday, when the sun rises the darkness is altogether dispelled—the night is done, and the day has dawned.

    The prophet Malachi spoke of the coming of Messiah as the sun of righteousness that will rise with healing in its wings. (Malachi 4:2) And John the Evangelist tells us that the light from the life of Jesus Christ is the illumination of true enlightenment.

    In the life of Jesus Christ, we receive the dual enlightenment revealing who God is and how to be human.

    Like the sun streaming in the window in the morning announcing that it’s a new day, John the Baptist was the herald to announce the coming of the True Light.

    John was not the Light, and he was the witness sent to testify to the Light.

    John is to Jesus what the Bible is to Jesus. The Bible itself came to bear witness to the Light. The True Light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world. The Bible testified to him and cried out, “This is he of whom I said’

    John 1:6-13

    6 There was a man sent from God whose name was John. 7 He came as a witness to testify concerning that light, so that through him all might believe. 8 He himself was not the light; he came only as a witness to the light.

    9 The true light that gives light to everyone was coming into the world. 10 He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him. 11 He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him. 12 Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God— 13 children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God.

    We read in Colossians 2:17 regarding the rules and laws of the old testament that These are a shadow of the things that were to come; the reality, however, is found in Christ.

    The old testament laws, holidays and festivals all pointed toward Jesus, but they are Shadows of the reality of what is to come.

    I love the late summer evening walks with my kids that cast long shadows in front of our meandering walks.

    As we look at the shadow of us walking along as the sun begins to set, our shadow becomes more and more pronounced.

    But our shadows are just us minus all light, dimension, and definition.

    We can see the shape of who we are, but the reality is not found in the shadow, its found in who we are.

    This Christmas we wait on the reality of Christ.

    The new reality.

    Jesus is the light, definition, and dimension of what the old covenant was pointing to.

  • The Light.

    Music:
    May You Find The Light. Written and Performed by Salt of The Sound.
    The Wonder. Written and Performed by Dear Gravity 

    John 1:1-5

    Over the next three days, we will spend our time in the poetic prologue of John's Gospel- one of my favourite passages in the entire bible.

    In the theologically rich opening poem to the Fourth Gospel, we see an amalgamation of Hebrew revelation and Greek wisdom—a blend that describes Christian theology itself.

    John opens his book with an echo back to Genesis 1:1.

    John writes that in the beginning was the Word—the Eternal Logos, the Infinite Idea, the Logic of Love, the Divine Wisdom. This Logos is the wisdom by which God founded the earth and established the heavens.

    The Logos is the creative Word of God in the intricacy of the Trinity—and this Word is Christ. Jesus Christ as the Word of God is both the creator and the sustainer of creation—as the Apostle Paul says, “In him all things hold together”.

    A century ago, in the aftermath of a global war and a global pandemic, the Irish poet William Butler Yeats wrote, “things fall apart, the center cannot hold.” In the context of the time Yeats’ poem had a prophetic truth to it. But the greater truth is that there is a center that holds—the Eternal Logos that sustains all things and which cannot be overcome by the chaotic darkness of evil. Every star and every galaxy, every blade of grass and every grain of sand continues to exist because they are sustained by the Eternal Word of God.

    The Word Became Flesh

    1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was with God in the beginning. 3 Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. 4 In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. 5 The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome[a] it.

    As we heard about yesterday, Christ is supreme above all, he sustains creation alongside things seen and things unseen.

    In this passage at the beginning of John, we see that God is sustaining creation through his word and that Word remains the ever present, uncreated Jesus.

    As we have heard over the last few days, Jesus never ceased to be the eternal God who has always existed, the creator and sustainer of all things, and the source of eternal life.

    What John also tells us is that Jesus is Light.

    Every year at Christmas I look forward to lighting up my house with Christmas lights and seeing all different light displays in the neighbourhood. Some might say it’s a silly tradition, but I think it’s a beautiful reminder of the light that comes to the world at Christmas.

    light that has come into the darkness of our world. A beacon of light from a lighthouse when darkness and peril prevail.

    CS Lewis says “I believe in Christ as I believe that the sun has risen: not only because I see it, but because by it I see everything else.”

    Verse 4 says that his life brought life to everyone.

    As Christ came to us those 2020 years ago, bringing a light to our dark world, so does he bring light into our present darkness that we may persistently experience throughout our lives.

    a light of a lighthouse not only alerts the captain of the location of the lighthouse, but it shines light on the surroundings, giving the ship a safe passage home.

    Jesus comes to this world as a light that shines in the darkness. Not only to show us who he is, but to guide us through the turbulent life that we all live here on the earth.

  • Music:
    Among Us, written and performed by Salt of the Sound.
    Among Us, written and performed by Simon Wester.
    Secret Place, written and performed by Simon Wester  

    You won't find many scriptures in the New Testament outside of the Gospels that point directly to the birth of Christ and the meaning behind what we celebrate at Christmas.

    With that said, today, we find ourselves in the third of four of Paul's prison letters speaking to the people of Colosse and clearly communicating that Jesus is indeed the visible image of the invisible God.

    Today we read one of the most explicit statements about the divine nature of Christ that is found anywhere in the bible.

    Jesus is not only equal to God, as we read about in Philippians 2, but he is God.

    As the visible image of the invisible God, he is the exact representation of God.

    He not only reflects God, but he reveals God to us; as supreme over all creation, he has all the priority and authority.

    Jesus came from Heaven, not from the earth's dust; therefore, he is the uncreated one and has authority over the world.

    But he didn't think of equality with God as something to cling to (Phil 2). During Advent, we wait for God to come into humanity; we don't wait for a prophet or a good teacher; we are waiting on God, creator of Heaven and Earth, the one who spoke the world into existence, to come and dwell among us.

    The church of Colosse had several misconceptions about Christ that Paul directly refuted; here are two of those. One, they said that Christ was not the Unique Son of God but rather one of many intermediaries between God and man. And two, they refused to see Christ as Salvation, insisting that people could find God only through special and secret knowledge.

    This Advent, we now understand that we wait for the unique Son of God who is Salvation for all people!

    Todays reading comes from Colossians 1:15-20

    Christ Is Supreme

    15 Christ is the visible image of the invisible God.

    He existed before anything was created and is supreme over all creation,[e]

    16 for through him God created everything

    in the heavenly realms and on earth.

    He made the things we can see

    and the things we can't see—

    such as thrones, kingdoms, rulers, and authorities in the unseen world.

    Everything was created through him and for him.

    17 He existed before anything else,

    and he holds all creation together.

    18 Christ is also the head of the church,

    which is his body.

    He is the beginning,

    supreme over all who rise from the dead.[f]

    So he is first in everything.

    19 For God in all his fullness

    was pleased to live in Christ,

    20 and through him God reconciled

    everything to himself.

    He made peace with everything in heaven and on earth

    by means of Christ's blood on the cross.

  • The Secret

    It’s a beautiful day.

    You’re sitting on your deck and reading Ephesians in the New Living Translation.

    And your eyes fall upon the words:

    “God’s secret plan has now been revealed to us; it is a plan centered on Christ.” (Eph. 1:9)

    You pause, just for a moment with this thought floating in your head:

    God’s secret plan.

    There was a Newsweek article a number of years ago, about the mega-bestseller book, The Secret, by Rhonda Byrne.

    The article begins like this:

    “Decoding The Secret”

    Oprah lives by it. Millions are reading it. The latest self-help sensation claims we can change our lives by thinking.

    The book is basically a mishmash of pantheism, pseudo-science and the-power-of-positive-thinking. The latest in a long line of “the secret of success” books dating back seventy years to Napoleon Hill’s Think and Grow Rich!. This one is written by a savy Australian TV talk show producer.

    The article goes on to say the “secret” of The Secret is what Byrne calls “the law of attraction,” which holds that you create your own reality through your thoughts.

    Rhonda Byrne says she got The Secret.

    From the back of the book:

    You hold in your hand a Great Secret. It has been passed down through the ages, highly coveted, hidden, lost, stolen, and bought for vast sums of money. This centuries-hold Secret has been understood by some of the most prominent people in history: Plato, Galileo, Beethoven, Edison, Carnegie,— along with inventors, theologians, scientists, and great thinkers. Now The Secret is revealed to the world.

    Interestingly, the Apostle Paul made a similar claim when he said, “God’s secret plan has now been revealed to us; it is a plan centered on Christ.”

    Through the Scriptures in Isaiah, we have been hearing of this not so secret that God had to bring about a peaceable Kingdom, unlike the Kingdoms that had come before.

    Paul says the secret is centered on Christ.

    Ephesians 1:6-11

    6 So we praise God for the glorious grace he has poured out on us who belong to his dear Son.[b] 7 He is so rich in kindness and grace that he purchased our freedom with the blood of his Son and forgave our sins. 8 He has showered his kindness on us, along with all wisdom and understanding.

    9 God has now revealed to us his mysterious will regarding Christ—which is to fulfill his own good plan. 10 And this is the plan: At the right time he will bring everything together under the authority of Christ—everything in heaven and on earth. 11 Furthermore, because we are united with Christ, we have received an inheritance from God,[c] for he chose us in advance, and he makes everything work out according to his plan.