HELLO!

I have sad news to share, Ernie Nauffts has died. Please keep Karen and her family in your prayers. The funeral will take place on Friday, September 18^th at 11 am at Woodlawn United Church.

This Sunday marks the beginning of Sunday School. If you have any questions, please contact Bethe at 902-856-0101. We still need more teachers. Faith development scholars tell us one sure way to inspire your faith is to engage those who as many questions as you have. The children surely bring this gift. If you can be part of Sunday School as a leader, please let Bethe know. Further, the choir and I will be at Oakwood Terrance, 10 Mount Hope Avenue, Sunday September 13^th at 230 pm. The residents, the choir and I, we would all love to see you. The more who come, the more spirited the singing, the more fulsome the community becomes. The service is usually 30 minutes in duration.

This Sunday we will focus on Romans 14:1-12. When I prayed over this text and how it speaks to our community of faith the old proverb, “Faults are thick where love is thin” came to mind. Reading the Apostle Paul, he seems to insist, “Faults are thin where love is thick.” How do we “thicken” love, so our faults, personal and collective, are thin? In Romans 14 the Apostle Paul addresses conflict in the church about practices marginal in significance to the Gospel of Love. The Apostle Paul reminds believers when they pass judgment on others, they assume a role that belongs to God. God loves us, Paul says; we, too, should love those whose piety and spiritual practices differ from our own (14:3). Amen to that!

In our contemporary western culture, this text, as well as the Sermon on the Mount, “Do not judge, so that you may not be judged” (Matthew 7:1), are often taken to mean all behaviour is equally ethical, but neither text says such a thing. The judgment forbidden in Romans 14 and Matthew 7 is presumption only one set of spiritual practices is correct, and we know which one it is (of course, it is ours isn’t it?). We are told IF we judge, we must first look in the mirror to see if we are guilty of the very thing we condemn in the other. And, only God judges, but what God is judging is love. Are we living to the standard of love? We may judge practices where love appears absent. Martin Luther King Jr. preached, “I have a dream my four children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the colour of their skin but by the content of their character." What we judge in ourselves, in our world, is not race, gender, orientation, identity, what we eat, how we pray, what language we speak, who we love, but rather, DO WE LOVE? That is the question. Everything else should be left to God who made differently. May we sing, as the hymn says, “My love colours outside the lines!” Peace, Kevin