Excerpts From: The Messenger |
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Draw Near to God in Faith "...so that the world may believe that You have sent Me" (John 17:21)
One Sunday morning a certain country preacher opened a sermon on faith with these words: "My dear brothers and sisters, your fields are drying up and you have come here to pray for rain. But where are your umbrellas?"
"At the age of four, I knew that God was everywhere. I spoke to Him...But as I grew toward manhood, the more I learned the less I believed in God...When I was twenty one, my superior intellect told me that God was a fake. Heaven could not be "up" and Hell could not be "down" because in space there is no up or down. And I knew that everything in creation dies, including the smallest insect and the biggest star." These words were written by Jim Bishop, the author of many best selling biographies and histories.
"Then one day," he said, I felt a new experience. I saw the miracle of birth; Virginia Lee, a child of my own, and it turned my wandering mind around. I began to doubt my doubts. Gradually I lost faith in my intellect. It was not supplying the needed answers. I could not see the air, but without it I would die. Thus it is, I decided, with the spirit of man. I needed something to breathe life into a soul that had been crushed by dominance of the human mind.
What Jim Bishop needed was faith. "I was a slow learner," he said, "But somehow as I groped my painful way, I found my soul...I knew it was there - wounded, bleeding perhaps, but alive. I began to pray, and as faith returned to me, I feared that it might dissolve again. So I prayed for continuing faith.
It was only when I gave up - when I let go and allowed myself to be carried by God that I began to really feel His Presence. He was there, and I knew it! I had wanted proof something for my eyes or ears or hands. He wanted me to believe without it. Faith and trust are what He required of me! And He never rested till I found them. (Bishop. J., "Journey To Faith") (adapted).
We think of faith in terms of belief, and rightly so. Faith is believing something. It has been said that faith is believing what you know is true, but cannot prove on any rational level. But in Gospel terms, belief is simply the doorway to the house of Faith. Matthew's Gospel contains an incident in which Jesus spells this out clearly and directly. In the story, the people are trying to bring their children to Jesus and the disciples are trying to get the children out of His way. In their view, Jesus has more important business to take care of than to be bothered with the antics of little children, and so they are trying to protect Him.
But Jesus insists that the children be allowed to draw near to him. Then he tells the people that if they want to become the kind of persons God wants them to be, they must follow the example of those little children. "Let the children come to Me," Jesus says, "for to such belongs the Kingdom of Heaven" (Mt. 19:14). Earlier Jesus had said to the disciples , "Truly, I say to you, unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the Kingdom of Heaven." (Mt: 18:3)
We believe in God, and that starts us on our journey toward fulfillment. But if we want to draw near to God, we must trust him unconditionally -- like little children trust before they become cynical, before they discover that they can be hurt by people who betray their trust. If we want to be in union with God, we must put absolute, childlike trust in the transforming power of His Love. If we want to share in the eternal life of God, we must put absolute, childlike trust in the Resurrection Power of God to transform our despair into hope, sorrow into joy, and death into new life.
In the Gospel Lesson chosen for this devotion, Jesus prays to the Father "that the world may believe... That the world may know that you have sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me" ( Jn. 17:21,23). Then, He says, "I have made known to them your Name... That the love with which you have loved me may be in them" (Jn. 17:26).
Each time we gather together at St. Ansgar's Lutheran Church as a worshipping community, God offers us the precious, priceless gift of his presence in Christ in our midst. And as we accept the invitation to draw near with faith, we remind ourselves that the gift is not forced upon us and that the benefits are not automatically bestowed. There is a specific response required of us and that is trust.
Again, in Jesus' words, "I have made known to them Your Name... That the love with which You have loved Me may be in them." We receive the call, "Draw near with faith!" and we respond lovingly -- joyfully and freely and willingly -- for love cannot be coerced. Grace is a free gift of God and we can only respond in faith by saying thank you Lord for the marvelous gift.
Children of God, sisters and brothers in Christ, draw near with faith -- that we all may be one in the Father's house! Faith is not merely praying upon our knees at night. Faith is not merely straying through darkness into light.
Faith is not merely waiting for glory that may be, or some kind of pie in the sky. Faith is the brave endeavor, The splendid enterprise.
Faith is the strength to serve, with a love that never dies. As we enter this new chapter of ministry at St. Ansgar's Lutheran Church. Let us focus on the strength we have, and faith in God that with God all things are possible.
our friend and pastorHeading out onto the open road on my bicycle is one of my summer pleasures and, this summer, God has graced me with two separate chances to make long-distance bike tours.
The first occasion was a weekend when my wife took the car out to the Eastern Townships to attend a seminar near Ayer's Cliff. I was able to cycle out there over three days, with two night's camping, to meet her so that we could come back together. This would be an especially important trip for me, as five years ago, when I first set off in the same direction, I was forced to abandon my ride at Noon on the second day, barely reaching Magog. I had not taken sufficient care with my knees and my wife had to come and rescue me with the car.
At the end of the first day of this year's trip, I had reached Granby. I followed the new bike trail that has opened up between Longueuil and Chambly, which follows an old rail line, and is very pleasant.
Between Chambly and Granby is a bike trail called "La Route des Champs". It is a fairly forgotten trail that does not actually start until outside Marieville, forcing one to ride a few kilometers along the main highway, and then ends just shy of Granby, again forcing one onto the main highway. The trail itself is gravel and is fairly well groomed. As far as St. Cesaire, it follows an old rail line. Past St. Cesaire, it parallels Route 112. Near the end, it goes right through the middle of a Disneyland-like campground called "Camping Tropicana" It is there that I spend the first night.
I carry my tent, sleeping bag, and air mattress along with me on my bike, staked on top of the rear panniers. The panniers are stuffed with my changes of clothing, rain gear, and foodstuffs. Fully loaded, the bicycle handles like a truck. I have to start out in an easy gear and shift as I build momentum, in much the same way as the big highway rigs.
The second day saw me crossing the mountains. A very nice, paved, bike path called "L'Estriade" links Granby and Waterloo. As I had been over this twice before, I decided, instead, to head up through the Parc de la Haute Yamaska.
The bike trail enters the park, crosses over the dam, and then winds up along the shoreline of the reservoir to its headwaters. There it joins a major bike route linking Drummondville and Waterloo. Waterloo appears to be the source of the Yamaska River. Two, separate, major bike trails serve Waterloo. Both follow old rail lines, yet they end at opposite sides of the town. It's hard to imagine that such a small town would have been served by two, separate railroads, with train stations at opposite ends of town and no rail link between them.
From Waterloo, I followed the main road, Highway 112, on over the mountains, paralleling the Highway 10 freeway. At Eastmain starts a long, long descent down into Magog, passing by Lake Orford, right under the shadow of the mountain. I camped the second night just outside Magog and returned to town to enjoy the beach and to sample the nightlife. Live music was playing at a number of open-air clubs along the three-block-long main street.
Sunday morning, I headed out along the road that connects Magog with Sherbrooke, along the Magog River. It is a quiet and beautiful road, far from the busy traffic of the main highways. Past Lake Magog, beautiful homes line both sides of the River Magog and boaters can be seen going up and down the river. This river traffic ends at a small dam. From that point on, bike trails lead in through the gorge and then along riverfront parks until one reaches the centre of Sherbrooke.
From Sherbrooke south, I rode down to Lennoxville where I caught a very popular bike trail linking Lennoxville with North Hatley, a 17 km trip. The trail was filled with Sunday-afternoon cyclists. I had taken this trail once before, reaching it by car. At mid-point used to be an old, covered bridge. Alas, all that is left of the bridge are cinders. It was disappointing. They are trying to raise money to rebuild it.
North Hatley lies at the northern end of Lake Massawippi, which is at the base of deep valley. Ayer's Cliff is at the southern end. There is no direct road linking the two. One must climb completely out of the valley, along steep inclines, and go well out of the way, to reach the other end. God shined on my poor, tired knees, however. It turned out there was a pedestrian/bicycle ferry that linked North Hatley and Ayer's Cliff with a pleasant 45-minute, $12 boat ride. As I awaited Sheryl while sitting out on the terrace of a waterfront bar in Ayer's Cliff, I had occasion to thank Jesus for his help and protection, and most particularly for his companionship over my three solitary days alone with the road.
You can read about some of my earlier bike rides at:
http://rogerkenner.ca/Bike/Bike.html
I will write an account of my second ride of the summer in the next issue.
Roger Kenner
For four weeks this past summer I went to Rivière du Loup to attend a federally sponsored French Immersion Camp. About 250 High School and University students came from across Canada, as well as a student from Mexico. Most of the students stayed at the CEGEP dorm, while a few others stayed with host families in the community.
On a typical day I'd wake up around 7:20, and after essentials, head down to the cafeteria for breakfast. After breakfast there was some free time before our first class at 8:30. This day my class is Culture Québécoise. We learned about the culture of Quebec and its people and some of the legends.
My favorite legend is: "Le diable constructeur d'églises", the devil constructor of churches. The legend is about a man who is working on the construction of a church. A horse is helping the workers carry blocks to the church building. One day while on the way back to the construction site, the caretaker of the horse removed the bit from the horse's mouth, after being specifically told never to remove it. After the bit was removed, the horse changed into the devil and took off with the last piece of the church building. This is why it is said that on the front of churches in l'Islet, Trois Pistoles and Saint-Raymond a stone is missing.
Other classes I had, included Communication artistique (French drama) and Journal, where we worked together as a class on a magazine.
Our morning class ended at 11:30, which gave us 15 minutes to get to the cafeteria for lunch. Sometimes the food was not to our liking, and a few of us would head out to a local fast food outlet.
We had another 3-hour class after lunch. All students were divided into one of seven levels, according to their proficiency in French. In the afternoon class we did French grammar, reading, writing and oral work. It was a lot of work, but our teacher made it fun.
We then had an hour and a half break until supper, when we'd goof-off, play games with our friends, catch up on rest, start homework etc.
Several activities were arranged for us in the evening ranging from dance to music, to costume parties, to barbeques. The gym, swimming pool, and computer room were always open in the evenings and weekends for us. One weekend we went down to Quebec City, and another weekend we went whale watching.
It was a very busy and fun four weeks. It was a great way for me to improve my French and meet new friends. Riviere du Loup is a very beautiful city, and my time there left me with très bonnes mémoires.
Sheena King-Kabu
Web Page prepared by:
Roger Kenner
& Jette Blair.
Content-New Topics Last Updated: 2005/02/02
St. Ansgar's Lutheran Church - Montreal