by Janice MacLean | Oct 14, 2021 | Lectionary & Scripture, Reflections
A TROUBLING REQUEST Twenty-first after Pentecost: Mark 10:35-45. By Hugh Farquhar From time immemorial, humans have had difficulty with authority. People who misuse authority are people who have allowed some power they have inherited or achieved to go to their heads....
by Janice MacLean | Oct 9, 2021 | Lectionary & Scripture, Reflections
NOT TO WORRY Thanksgiving Sunday: Matthew 6:25-34 By Hugh Farquhar Many years ago, my family and I moved to Aberdeen, Scotland, where I was a post-graduate student at King’s College. During our time there we became familiar with a phrase people often used: “not to...
by Janice MacLean | Oct 1, 2021 | Lectionary & Scripture, Reflections
THE MINISTRY OF CHILDREN Nineteenth after Pentecost: Mark 10:13-16. By Hugh Farquhar I remember well a day when I went to visit a man whose vibrant spouse had just died after a lengthy illness. I was feeling something of the pain in his life and was looking for the...
by Janice MacLean | Sep 23, 2021 | Lectionary & Scripture, Reflections
DON’T YOU SEE THE PRETTY CLOUDS by Hugh Farquhar Eighteenth after Pentecost: Mark 9:38-50. One day, Jesus’ disciple, John, was in a flap! Bothered and agitated, he came to Jesus to vent his concern. “Teacher,” he said, “we saw someone helping people in your name; but...
by Janice MacLean | Sep 17, 2021 | Lectionary & Scripture, Reflections
WISDOM IS AS WISDOM DOES by Hugh Farquhar Seventeenth after Pentecost: James 3:13-4:3, 7-8a. In this section of his letter, James distinguishes between two kinds of wisdom: “earthly, phony, wisdom” and “loving, authentic wisdom.” Earthly wisdom, in his thinking, is...
by Janice MacLean | Sep 8, 2021 | Lectionary & Scripture, Reflections
REVEALING OUR INNER LANDSCAPE By Hugh Farquhar Sixteenth after Pentecost: James 3:1-12. The Time with Children can be a time when we ministers really earn our keep. You never know what they’re going to say, and parents hold their breath, praying that some family...
by Janice MacLean | Sep 2, 2021 | Lectionary & Scripture, Reflections
OPEN THE CIRCLE Year B, Fifteenth after Pentecost: James 2:1-10 By Hugh Farquhar When I was responsible for a time with children at Sunday worship, I sometimes taught them a song called “Open the Circle” by Jack Miffleton. (It’s like a no fail fudge recipe; it always...
by Janice MacLean | Jun 23, 2021 | Lectionary & Scripture, Reflections
ABOUT INTERRUPTIONS by Hugh Farquhar The Gospel Reading from the Lectionary next Sunday is Mark 5:21-43. I own a book of cartoons that poke fun at ministers. One of my favourites shows a minister at work in his study at home. His four-year-old son is knocking...
![[1 John] Love. Lover. Loving](https://prayerbench.ca/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/God-is-love--940x675.jpg)
by Janice MacLean | Jun 22, 2021 | Lectionary & Scripture, Reflections
“… God is love, and those who abide in love abide in God, and God abides in them.” – 1 John 4:16 The youngest of church groups, the Messengers, had it for their motto: God is love. You see it on gifts for babies sometimes, God is love. And it...
by Janice MacLean | Jun 18, 2021 | Lectionary & Scripture, Reflections
STORMY WEATHER by Hugh Farquhar The Gospel Reading in the Lectionary for next Sunday is Mark 4:35-41. This Gospel Reading is a storm story. Mark says that it was “a great wind storm.” “The waves beat into the boat so that it was already being swamped.” It pitched and...
