HELLO!

If you came to get your chowder order today and did not find me in my Habs attire know that I miss you as well. I enjoy the experience. This morning I received a call from Gwen Shannon, Norm is dying. I asked if I could share this very sad news and I was given that permission. Please keep this family in your prayers. I spent the morning with them.

After the service tomorrow the United Church Women will enjoy their annual Spring Fling. The highlight of this event is the awarding of Life Memberships. More than the pin or what it represents, I sense what people remember are the stories shared about the women, how their families (who arrive as a surprise to the recipient) get to hear what those of us at the church already know, God gifts us to minister to one another.

We have come a long way in 2000 years, from a movement called “The Way”, harassed, tortured, jailed, and often crucified (how the Romans dealt with dissent), to an institution that proudly worships in a large building, where public officials, when they die, are celebrated, where citizens even receive tax breaks for their church donations. This is why calling Christians “persecuted” in Canada, in 2026, is laughable and a demonstration of how we make everything all about us (forgetting those who are persecuted). But even though we are not persecuted we are threatened by the world’s values of “success” and “power” and “selfishness”. It is not easy to hold firm to values of compassion for those who are “other” when we are told, repeatedly, “charity begins at home”.

Our text for Sunday includes these words, “Come to Jesus, a living stone, though rejected by mortals yet chosen and precious in God’s sight, and like living stones, let yourselves be built into a spiritual house…Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people…1 Peter 2:4-5,10

What is a “cornerstone”? It is block or stone that is set in the corner of a building, often the first corner. It is supposed to be strong/stable and help set the direction for construction of the walls. Cornerstones come up a lot in the Bible. In Job 38, God is talking to Job about creating the universe, comparing the act of Creation to that of constructing a building. ‘Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth? Tell me? Who laid its cornerstone when the morning stars sang together and all the heavenly beings shouted for joy?” Other times, when the Bible is talking about a cornerstone, it is talking about a person. In today’s scripture that person is Jesus. When Jesus was trying to explain his mission, he and his friends turned to Isaiah: “I am laying a foundation stone, a tested stone, a precious cornerstone, a sure foundation.”

The person who wrote this letter wanted to help them manage being threatened, unsure, afraid. And it begs the question, where do you find your “sure foundation”, upon what rock do you lean, stand, resolve to sacrifice if necessary (also mentioned in our text). We stand on firm and solid ground. We stand on love, love for neighbour, love for self, love to God’s design and purpose. We stand on/for love. Peace, Kevin