Category Archives: Reflections

Especially to clergy: Work less. Delegate more.Love your family. Keep the Sabbath holy.When it comes to the concrete tasks of mission,have less answers and more conversations.You are not a CEO shackled to a bottom line.You are a leader of a missional community,of people called to make God’s love presentthrough their selves, souls and bodies,through theirContinue reading “My prophetic message to the western mainline”

Missional Community in our digital age “The medium is the message.” This insight by professor Marshall McLuhan began as some “inside baseball” of communications theory. But it was so profound, and so resonant with our late-modern experience, that it’s now a household phrase. And to prove the point, its popularity in Canada probably owes moreContinue reading ““The medium is the message””

Almighty God,whose Son was revealed in majestybefore he suffered death upon the cross,give us faith to perceive his glory,that being strengthened by his gracewe may be changed into his likeness, from glory to glory;who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,one God, now and for ever. What is faith? I’m currently reading aContinue reading “Faith to perceive his glory: Lent II”

“Little Apocalypse”: Matthew 24-25; Mark 13; Luke 21:5-37 In all three Synoptic Gospels, Jesus launches into the “Little Apocalypse” immediately upon predicting the destruction of the Temple. This suggests that the passage was written or included as a response to this very event in 70 CE. This is closer to the “post-facto prediction” that weContinue reading “New Testament Apocalypses: Synoptics and Epistles”

St. John immediately departs from the Apocalyptic tradition of pseudonymous centuries-old prediction: the very first verse indicates that Revelation describes “what must soon take place.” While the book does do some future-predicting, this “must soon take place” combined with past-tense narration (in English at least) suggests a preoccupation with present first-century realities in a wayContinue reading “The Four Genres of the Apocalypse: Part Two”

Four genres? Isn’t the Revelation to St. John the Divine a part of the Apocalyptic tradition? Well yes, it is indeed an Apocalypse-proper. It uses many of the images and conventions that we’ve encountered so far in this course: the Heavenly throne room, an angelic guide, the use of animals and even stranger beasts toContinue reading “The Four Genres of the Apocalypse: Part One”

This week over at ststephensmaple.ca I reflect on the Exodus story and the Church’s peculiar relationship to time in a pandemic. If you have the time, give it a read here.

This week over at ststephensmaple.ca I reflect on what it means to find our lives in Jesus’ own life. You can…find the blog post here.