An Ambassador of the Kingdom of Heaven to Canada and the World

Jean Vanier
visits London Feb 3-5, 2006
including
Leaders' Breakfast
Public Talk
Youth Event
MESSENGERS OF HOPE


When: Saturday, Feb 4, 2006 - 7 p.m.(doors open at 6 p.m.)
Where: London Convention Centre see mapCost: $16 per person
Tickets available at Centennial Hall550 Wellington Street, LondonTel (519)672-1967 or 672-1968
and online at:http://www.centennialhall.london.ca/



Jean Vanier was voted by the Canadian population as the 12th Greatest Canadian of all time. Four politicians and Don Cherry ranked higher than he in their estimation. In fact Stomping Tom Connor was breathing down his neck in the 13th spot.

It says something about the voting public of this Confederation, don't you think?

Please take some time to find out more about my favourite Jean. Get any of his books (my favourite is Becoming Human) or listen to him on Vision T.V. and I think you will come to realize what an amazing treasure and gift Canada and God has presented to the world.

CHRIST IN OUR MIDST

MATTHEW 25

41Then shall he say also unto them on the left hand, Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels:
42For I was an hungred, and ye gave me no meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me no drink:
43I was a stranger, and ye took me not in: naked, and ye clothed me not: sick, and in prison, and ye visited me not.
44Then shall they also answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee an hungred, or athirst, or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, and did not minister unto thee?
45Then shall he answer them, saying, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye did it not to one of the least of these, ye did it not to me.
46And these shall go away into everlasting punishment: but the righteous into life eternal.





CHRIST WITH US
The mystery is why do so few of His disciples recognized Him even today?

Thinking Differently About Communion

1 Corinthians 11 (King James Version)

23For I have received of the Lord that which also I delivered unto you, that the Lord Jesus the same night in which he was betrayed took bread:
24And when he had given thanks, he brake it, and said, Take, eat: this is my body, which is broken for you: this do in remembrance of me.
25After the same manner also he took the cup, when he had supped, saying, this cup is the new testament in my blood: this do ye, as oft as ye drink it, in remembrance of me.
26For as often as ye eat this bread, and drink this cup, ye do shew the Lord's death till he come.
27Wherefore whosoever shall eat this bread, and drink this cup of the Lord, unworthily, shall be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord.
28But let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of that bread, and drink of that cup.
29For he that eateth and drinketh unworthily, eateth and drinketh damnation to himself, not discerning the Lord's body.

When we start to recognize the presence of Jesus in the least of these His brethren, perhaps we will experience communion in a new, more imminent way.

Let us begin to truly fellowship around the the mystery of Immanuel, God with us.

Open Your Eyes and See

Luke 24

13Now that same day two of them were going to a village called Emmaus, about seven miles from Jerusalem. 14They were talking with each other about everything that had happened. 15As they talked and discussed these things with each other, Jesus himself came up and walked along with them; 16but they were kept from recognizing him. 17He asked them, "What are you discussing together as you walk along?" They stood still, their faces downcast. 18One of them, named Cleopas, asked him, "Are you only a visitor to Jerusalem and do not know the things that have happened there in these days?" 19"What things?" he asked. "About Jesus of Nazareth," they replied. "He was a prophet, powerful in word and deed before God and all the people. 20The chief priests and our rulers handed him over to be sentenced to death, and they crucified him; 21but we had hoped that he was the one who was going to redeem Israel. And what is more, it is the third day since all this took place. 22In addition, some of our women amazed us. They went to the tomb early this morning 23but didn't find his body. They came and told us that they had seen a vision of angels, who said he was alive. 24Then some of our companions went to the tomb and found it just as the women had said, but him they did not see." 25He said to them, "How foolish you are, and how slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken! 26Did not the Christ have to suffer these things and then enter his glory?" 27And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he explained to them what was said in all the Scriptures concerning himself. 28As they approached the village to which they were going, Jesus acted as if he were going farther. 29But they urged him strongly, "Stay with us, for it is nearly evening; the day is almost over." So he went in to stay with them. 30When he was at the table with them, he took bread, gave thanks, broke it and began to give it to them. 31Then their eyes were opened and they recognized him, and he disappeared from their sight. 32They asked each other, "Were not our hearts burning within us while he talked with us on the road and opened the Scriptures to us?" 33They got up and returned at once to Jerusalem. There they found the Eleven and those with them, assembled together 34and saying, "It is true! The Lord has risen and has appeared to Simon." 35Then the two told what had happened on the way, and how Jesus was recognized by them when he broke the bread.

Road to Emmaus

Do you remember my 'What's Your Problem' post?
In it I introduced you to my friend David Watson.
Here is a picture of David with the first piece of his art that our group, Road to Emmaus (R2E), has turned into a banner.
We have finished some other pieces and someday we hope to take these banners, shields and flags into churches all over London and beyond.



If God allows this, we will use that opportunity to declare the essential dignity and value of every human being.
David is an excellent advocate for the disabled. In many places (churches included) these people are treated like the 'new lepers'. If we are to follow Jesus we must walk with the 'lepers', accept and love them and seek to help them to become all they were meant to be, namely people made in the true image of God.

If anyone can not recognize that image, then they can not see God.

What do you see when you encounter the disabled among us?
Do you see Jesus Christ the Lord or the offscouring of the world?

What you see will determine what you will become.


1 John 3:2
Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when he appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is.



This is essentially the Road to Emmaus.


If you would like to break bread with us, come to London Gospel Temple every 2nd and 4th Monday at 7 pm to learn more about this and to contribute to building the Road to Emmaus.

HEY!!!!!!!! ITS PIG N' RAT TIME AGAIN!!!!!!!!!!!!!

(double click the image to see a more readable frame.)


In case you can't read the black board in the final panel, it says............
WELCOME TO
Guys who routinely mass E-mail all their friends and family with anything even remotely interesting that they happen to find on the internet even though their friends and family don't care and wish they'd stop but don't have the heart to tell them that-Anonymous


All I have to say is
ouch that smarts
guilty as charged

my bad


Sorry about that chief.

News FLASH!!!!!!!!!!!(revised Jan. 25, 2007)

This just in(better late than never)..................The universe is old.


According to to some 'uniformed sources' the universe and everything in it is less than 10,000 years old.

Yet overwhelmingly the evidence points to a Big Bang explosion some 15 Billion years ago (give or take a fractional billion) as the true 'In the beginning' of Genesis 1.

When the good book of nature and the Good Book of Faith disagree then we must conclude that one or both books have been misinterpreted.

To believe Genesis does not require dismissing good Science (I can not in good conscience, define Young Earth Creation Science as good science or proper theology).
And good science does not necessarily negate Genesis (despite what atheistic evangelists such as Richard Dawkins would lead you to believe.)

NEWS FLASH!!!!!!!!!!
This just in(better late than never)..................The Universe is Pro-Life!

The Universe is 15 Billion years ago (give or take a fractional billion) and this old world (and I do mean old) is 4.5 Billion years old (give or take a fractional billion) .

Things have been exciting but tough from the beginning. Just like the dispatches sent back from the Russian Front in the Second World War.
"The situation appears
TOUGH........................
But....................................
hopeless!........................................"

No doubt life has always seemed to be tough but hopeless (except perhaps during that interesting experiment in Eden of course).

In one sense it looks like death has always reigned supreme but if we step back a pace or two we may get a different perspective.
The Universe is actually amazingly 'Pro-Life'. If many thousands of small calibrations were not fine tuned to create conditions to allow any life at all (let alone the explosion of the most amazing variety, fertility and fecundity that we see all around us) then we wouldn't be here to see an endless expanse of lifeless dust, rocks and empty space. But, since we are here to enjoy this blue jewel of a planet we can infer that something or someone wants us and slugs, and platypii, and eels and...............etc. etc. to be here.

Think for a moment about the smallest pinch of earth. If you looked at a smidgen of soil through a microscope you would see an entire other world teeming with life.
But look at a million hectacres of Mars or the Moon and you won't find the tiniest evidence of life in any form.

Why is this planet crawling with life and the vast stretches of the unimaginably big universe devoid of it? Perhaps this beautiful blue ball hung upon nothing is not as insignificant as some want us to believe. Perhaps you are not as insignificant as some would have you believe.

The agency or agent that lit the fuse of the Big Bang was obviously Pro-Life, perhaps we should be too.


Loving and serving the 'least of these my brethren' is how we live pro-life lives.

I invite everyone, 'pro-life' or 'pro-choice', to join together to love the born among us and I will join with the pro-life to respectfully try to convince the unconvinced to value and love the unborn as well.

But remember that you heard it here first,

The Universe is Pro-Life, (ergo the agent or agency behind the creation of the universe is Pro-Life.)

perhaps we should be too.


Regards
The Impossibleape


If anyone is interested in discovering how a full blooded evangelical Christian faith can not only co-exist with but be reinforced by Science and vice versa, then check out this web site
http://www.reasons.org/

Heaven's to Murgatroid! It's a gas (a gas cloud, even. )

Exit stage right.............




LH

A saviour to Haiti's disabled

Sister Joan Margaret, a saviour to Haiti's disabled
By Gloria Negri, Globe Staff January 4, 2006
In 1954 when Hurricane Hazel hit Haiti with a fury, an infant named Gertie Gay was floating on a table down a flooded street. Sister Joan Margaret spied the baby and jumped out of her jeep, hiked up her nun's habit and waded through the turbulent waters to pluck her from the table. When the Anglican nun learned the girl's parents had been lost in the storm, Sister Joan became her surrogate mother.
About the same time in Haiti today, a man known as ''JoJo" was a boy without arms or legs when Sister Joan arranged for him to come to the states and be fitted with artificial limbs. Today he is an artist and sells his paintings to tourists.
''Sister Joan's dream was that handicapped people can lead a normal life and she made it happen for them," said Sister Marjorie Raphael, a retired member of the order, from Haiti yesterday. ''In Haiti, she is a tremendous figure and a great hero, and her life will be celebrated here as such."
Sister Joan died Dec. 16 at Sherrill House in Brookline of pulmonary hypertension. She was 99.

For 49 years, Sister Joan, who grew up Elizabeth Simpson Burke in Newburyport, was a savior of Haiti's disabled children. Sixty years ago, she founded St. Vincent's School for Handicapped Children in Port-au-Prince, then the country's only hope for the handicapped.
''Sister Joan arrived in Haiti in 1944 and soon realized there was no help for handicapped people of any sort in Haiti," Sister Marjorie said. ''She started out caring for and teaching three children in a crèche under a tree, one deaf, the other blind, and the third handicapped."
From there, Sister Joan, who was trained as a physical therapist, moved her clinic behind Holy Trinity Cathedral in Port-au-Prince. Eventually, the Anglican bishop gave her quarters nearby, the current site of the school.
Sister Joan also spent a lot of time fund-raising for the school, which gave free care and education to needy disabled children.
Sister Joan counselled all: ''Be all you can be, and don't feel sorry for yourself."
''Indomitable" is the word most used to describe Sister Joan.
''She was short and square and walked very quickly," Sister Marjorie said. ''At the convent, she would get up at 4 in the morning for her private prayer time until 6. Then, she would be off to the school and work there and at the clinics until night. She would drive to clinics all over the country to find people she felt could be helped at St. Vincent's."
Sister Joan's work won her international recognition, said Sister Adele Marie.
Sister Joan was born in Merrimac, Mass. When her mother died shortly after birth, she was adopted by Robert and Mabel (Simpson) Burke of Newburyport, according to Sister Adele. She took her vows in the order in 1937. Before being assigned to its Haitian missions, Sister Joan worked in Bracebridge, Ontario, a frontier mission at the time, and did parish work in Utica, N.Y.
For her dedication to Haiti's handicapped, Sister Joan has won 15 prestigious international awards. She left Haiti in 2003. ''Sister Joan was irreplaceable," said Sister Adele.

Merry Second Sunday After Christmas to one and all.

(graphic art supplied by David Watson of DavesDesigns)

The Second Sunday After Christmas 2004 (Epiphany)

Here I sit in a chair placed against the back wall of an unfamiliar church. It is the second Sunday after Christmas. The pews are almost filled.

I am alone, in this unfamiliar setting, looking for a solace that I haven’t found elsewhere.
Perhaps I will hear or see something new this morning.

From time to time I wonder about the question of God’s place in a world of suffering. Who hasn’t? Again this morning the question forces its way into my mind. No doubt there have always been, and probably always will be, sufficient pain in this world to cause us to pause and wonder about this unpleasant reality. But today, more than most days, I have a personal need of reassurance regarding this matter.

How can God oversee a world so broken and full of torments, sicknesses, deformities and indignities? Does anyone have a reason why we should accept the claim that God is all loving and all powerful? If not, then it seems to me that we all should just hold our peace, because hollow words spoken in the presence of real suffering are about as appropriate as the comfort offered to Job by his supposed friends.

This morning’s homily is pleasant and faithful to the season but it is not what I am looking for. As I look around the church from my safe position in the back, my gaze comes to rest upon an arresting figure off to my right.

Row upon row of half hearted worshippers kneels on cue. Each one assumes a posture of easy contrition. But one young man struggles awkwardly to maneuver his rebellious body into an attitude of excruciating humility. His parents lovingly guide him to the edge of his seat.

His small distorted frame will not bend sufficiently for its knees to touch the rest. As he struggles, his contortions describe a large ‘W’ suspended in the space between the pews. It reminds me of another image that haunts all mankind. It is the image of a bent, disfigured and bloodied body hung in humiliation between a gray earth and a black sky.

What exactly am I witnessing in this place?

Could this possibly be what I have come to this particular church on this specific day to see?
Genetics, environment, accident, injury or some other tragic occurrence or occurrences must have caused this young man’s unfortunate condition.
And while these causes conspired against this boy did God sit by and watch as he was formed and deformed by chance and circumstance?
As hard as I try, I can see no other answer except; either He did exactly that or He is not.
“His frame was not hidden from you when he was made in the secret place. When he was woven together in the depths of the earth, your eyes saw his unformed body.”
Psalm 113:15, 16
But at this moment I am seeing and experiencing much more than my customary sadness and disappointment in the face of this all too common situation.

I can plainly see that this young man’s body is physically challenged and constrained but spiritually his love and devotion is more worthy of their object than all the combined praises of this entire congregation.

His enslaved limbs taunt his piety like a row of callow youths in the back of an unmonitored school room. His disabilities seem to say, “You have little reason to offer Thanks and we can make sure you will never physically kneel to make that prayer!” But, this man’s face shines even as I imagine Moses’ did as the prophet came down from Mount Sinai. His frame may never prescribe the form of worship that is evidently being expressed within his soul yet I know he, if anyone, is in the company of God. And as I witness this miracle I believe I am also in the presence of something holy.

With a gentle tug of his father’s hand this young man slips back into his seat as the sad eyes and loving smiles of his mother tell him to rest.

The priest invites us to join in singing Carole #26. This time the parents rise alone. Perhaps they think that he has expended too much energy and so they leave him upon the pew. But he is worshipping and he will not be discouraged. After a moment of looking pleadingly up to his family, his shaking hands reach out to the seat in front. With a great effort he pulls himself up but falls back onto the bench. Again he reaches and forces his weakened and confused muscles to obey.
Like Peter’s denials on ‘that horribly, wonderful night’, this man’s body betrays him again and again.
But, Thanks Be To God, on the third try

...................................GLORIA INEXCELSIOUS DEO............................

……………………………………….JEFF STANDS!………………………………………

We all enjoy the beauty of the hymn but Jeff exalts in this triumph. In this moment, in this experience he has won over the rebellion of his body. He has joined the ‘angel choir’ in worshipping the ‘New Born King’. He has defeated the forces of exclusion that constantly come against him and today I have been privileged to witness this triumph of love and holiness.



Someday our bodies will betray us all, but Jeff’s example seems to say ‘be of good courage’, for we have seen how love, faith and will can overcome the bondage of this ‘body of decay.’ Instead of turning away from this truth perhaps we need to look fully onto it to take great comfort in it.

Jeff’s joyful struggle reminds me of how the first Christians suffered all sorts of indignities and deprivations in order to worship the One they loved. Indeed theirs was and is ‘a faith that overcomes the world.’

I think I have seen what I have been looking for. I have witnessed the ever present power of suffering here but Jeff have testified to me today of the greater power which is love. And I feel compelled to confess that in some way his suffering and love are part of God’s good plan and perhaps even makes a contribution to my very salvation.

Something beautiful has been accomplished in this young man’s faithful struggle with disability and I thank God that today I have been given ‘ears to hear and eyes to see’ and a heart to feel it’.

Merry Second Sunday After Christmas Jeff, and indeed Merry Second Sunday After Christmas to one and all.

LH

Aspirin Reduction Strategy

(visit Pig and Rat here)


These go out to a few well meaning folks whom I have butted heads with this past year.
You probably know who you are.



What do you say we try to live more 'Gandhi' moments this year?
That should reduce the number of headaches we'll have in 2006.