Nelson United Church

         John’s Gospel is very interesting and this encounter in the story we heard today involving John the Baptist, Jesus, Andrew and then Simon Peter is full of double entendres, symbolic action, and questions leading to questions.  In John’s—the Gospel writer—story-telling method, the idea was to rhetorically raise questions about Jesus’ identity read on →

         The Christian Century magazine had a reflection on our Epiphany Scripture reading about the Magi; it captured my imagination and was written by Mihee Kim-Kort, a Korean Presbyterian minister in the US.  She wrote about the genealogy in Matthew’s Gospel, the bit that comes before the visit of the Magi, the Epiphany, and she read on →

I’m always interested in the origins of poetry and novels, and words in general.  I’ve always had an interest in words as long as I can remember.  The origins of poetry, hymns and the written word are always important when we think about the meaning of the words.          Here’s a little background to the read on →

Matthew 2:1-12 2:1 In the time of King Herod, after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea, wise men from the East came to Jerusalem,  2:2 asking, “Where is the child who has been born king of the Jews? For we observed his star at its rising, and have come to pay him homage.”   read on →

         One little phrase in the Christmas story has always stuck with me; it comes at the end of Luke’s story in which we are told that “Mary treasured all these things and pondered them in her heart.”  (Luke 2:19)          I mean, think about it… the whole story.  Angels appearing out of nowhere, whispers read on →

         Some years ago, when I was a student at seminary, in the 1980s, we sang a piece of poetry that sounded medieval, but was actually the 18th century; it’s from England and is called Jesus Christ the Apple Tree and is sung as a Christmas Carol. It sounded medieval to my ears because it read on →

         Here’s a piece of geographical trivia for you.  A rift valley is a low region of the earth’s crust in which the tectonic plates on either side of the valley are moving away in a roughly parallel fashion, carving out a low trench.  The most famous rift valley is the Great Rift Valley, which read on →

         I would bet that your home creche scenes or nativity sets, if you have one, don’t include John the Baptist.  Ours here at the front of the church doesn’t.  None of the ones we have at home include John, and my childhood memories of the creches we’d set up in church or home didn’t read on →

         My childhood memories of the beginning of Advent are quite lovely and wonderful in many ways.  We started singing Advent carols—with a few Christmas Carols thrown in for good measure.  At some point, dad and I would string up a few lights on the house around the beginning of December.  We would light Advent read on →

            It’s interesting the kinds of conversations that come up regarding the Church in casual situations like having coffee, lunch, a chance encounter in the grocery store, at a party; I’m talking about the capital “C” Church—the world-wide Church.  There are a lot of criticisms about Church, and in my opinion, they have now become read on →