Bradley Jersak spoke today on “reading from the end.” He led us through some of the Book of Revelation as a way to orient our understanding toward “God’s intended result” (something that David Moore spoke about last week). Along the way, Brad included many ideas, all leading toward an understanding that Jesus is gradually causing all things to come together in a way that will bring about the healing of the world and the people in it.
Today’s speaker was David Moore…..
Prayer is focus. If you choose to use words in prayer, words can often support your focus. But sometimes the focus means saying or doing absolutely nothing. We may need to just let it be.
“When I find myself in times of trouble Mother Mary comes to me, speaking words of wisdom, let it be.” Matthew 6:33 says, “Seek first the reality God intends and let it be.”
Walter Thiessen recalls how important it is for us to find meaningful, familiar and emotionally rich things to hold onto even as we need to keep using our heads about “letting go” of the systemic problems that get in the way of institutions and traditions being compassionate and just. He ended with a loose paraphrase of the “armour of God” that you can download.
Today Peter followed on from last week where we mourned together about the invasion of Ukraine, but instead of horror we focused on beautiful things. For instance, we showed the video of Aretha Franklin singing “Natural Woman” in honour of Carole King as she received a Presidential Award at the Lincoln Center. Then we showed a video of “All Who Are Thirsty, ” sung by Sarah Kroger, to remind us to open our hearts to the Lord. Then, after some prayers, Peter spoke about leaders that do monstrous things and we read some passages from the Book of Daniel that promise “a little help” in desperate situations. This led us into discussions about how we might best pray for Ukraine. We finished the service with Joe Cocker singing “A Little Help from my Friends.”
