Moment of Clarity With Rev. Lorrie Daly-Price

January 20, 2019 | This week we join Jesus who takes the time to attend a wedding feast in the village of Cana with his mother Mary and his first few disciples. This wedding was steeped in Jewish tradition and ritual. One of the customs was providing an extravagant feast for the guests. Something, however, goes wrong at this wedding, because they run out of the wine far too early. In that culture, such a miscalculation would have been a great humiliation for the bride and groom.

Jesus is asked to fix this problem and turns to six stone jars used for ceremonial washing. He tells the servants to fill the jars with water. Here the first miraculous sign of Jesus is revealed as the water is turned into wine.

January 13, 2019 | This week as we hear the story of Jesus being baptized by John the Baptist, we pause to reflect on our own understanding of baptism and what it means. Jesus’ act of being baptized is the assurance of his commitment to partner with us and is the invitation for us to participate in the work of God’s reign. Then the promise of God’s Spirit to empower us and the gift of God’s living word to challenge, guide and strengthen us, assures that we have all the resources we need to participate in God’s work. In addition, the message of the Scriptures reminds us that even the outcast Samaritans were able to receive God’s Spirit, which is a call to embrace all people and to invite them to share in God’s work and to be empowered by God’s Spirit.

January 6, 2019 | The word "epiphany" means "to show forth".  Epiphanies, both large and small, tend to be private events - yet events with great significance for the public.  Trying to share the details with another of an epiphany is fraught with complications.  The words are never quite right and even the most sympathetic listener cannot fully bridge the gap between description and what is was like being there.  Most of us keep our personal experiences of the Holy to ourselves.  Who would believe it?  And who would really understand?  The irony is that epiphanies are made for sharing, even as they are impossible to communicate fully.

This is certainly the case of today’s extraordinary gospel story. Today the Church celebrates the adoration of Jesus by the wisemen (magi) from the East.  These foreigners are Gentiles illustrating the universal breadth of the good news brought by the “king of the Jews.”  They are people of good will, open to God, ready to hear and follow the call of God.  They are people willing to follow a star, wherever it might lead.  Open and starry-eyes, they are romantic and lovable figures, pursing the truth and searching for a deep and abiding joy that the world cannot give.

If we are truly wise and follow as these wise astrologers did, the star and the journey will send us onwards, by newer paths, to come into the presence of the Child of Light and the Prince of Peace, who is the fulfillment of humanity's deepest hopes and desires for light, justice, love and peace.

December 31, 2018 |  A short reflection by Rev. Lorrie as we head into 2019.

December 24, 2018 | Christmas Eve Service at Heritage United Church: Calm and Bright.

December 16, 2018 | The circumstances of his impending marriage were significantly less than ideal. The year they got betrothed, Joseph discovered that she was pregnant. How? By whom? Who could possibly believe Mary’s preposterous claim? How dumb did she think he was?

How devastated Joseph must have been as he wrestled with his hurt and anger over what he assumed was her unfaithfulness, and the betrayal of all his hopes and dreams for marriage. And yet, he attempts to do “the honourable thing.” He plans to end the engagement quietly, so as not to draw negative attention to her, but certainly also not to his own embarrassment.

And yet… in the very moment of his despair, God sends Joseph The Dream. Not just any dream. Not just a dream of explanation. God overshadows Joseph with God’s own hopes for a glorious future, God’s own Great Dream for humanity.

Join us this week as we remember the story in both word and song presented by our Heritage Praise Team.

December 9, 2018 | This week we draw our attention to one of the greatest events in all of our history. An event that changed the world, altered history and is still changing hearts and lives today. Present at such a world changing event you would expect to see Kings, princes and dignitaries but that is not the scene. Instead who are the first names to be on the guestbook? It was the names of ordinary shepherds.

Most likely these shepherds were tending their sheep just outside of Bethlehem. The shepherds would have taken turns keeping watch during the night. It was sometime during the evening that the angels appear. We don’t know what time of night it was. We have no record of the shepherds saying anything to the angels. All we know is that they were scared. Wouldn’t you be?

Yet, the shepherds responded to what they heard. It would be something they would never forget. Their lives would be changed forever by what they would see in Bethlehem.

December 2, 2018 | The world in which Isaiah lived was chaotic but in the midst of it he heard some daring words. These words were encouraging and to many would have sounded somewhat unreal but they were at the end of their ropes.

History will end differently, he says, than what the current situation seems to suggest. The mountain on which the Lord’s house is found will prevail over everything. God’s loving presence will remain in this city, with the people. Many nations, indeed the whole world, will come together on the mountain of God’s presence. Such love between God and those who follow will leave no one indifferent.

And God’s word, will extricate human beings from the folly of hatred and destruction. It will build. War will be shown to be a dead-end street. The aspiration of peoples for another way forward will be satisfied.

What does it mean to look at our life and our world in the light of God? What do we see?

November 25, 2018 | This week’s reading from John’s gospel invites us to think about the competing kingdoms and power with which we live as Christians in today’s world. Worldly kingdoms represent institutional authority. God’s kingdom is one where authority is recognizable not by force but by its fundamental values of love, compassion and inclusion. It is this kind of authority that we witness in the passage this week as Jesus slowly dismantles his interrogator’s argument. Pilate might still have political power but he loses the spiritual battle. Jesus is not advocating a change of regime but the coming of an entirely different way of being in relationship with God and one another. It is through acknowledging God’s ultimate authority and living the values personified in Jesus that we begin to glimpse the kingdom here on earth.

November 18, 2018 | Jesus’ conversation found in the beginning of today’s text from Mark’s Gospel was difficult to hear and hard to understand for the disciples who sat with Jesus so long ago. In many ways it is also difficult for us to understand and hear these words two thousand years later: Jesus is describing the life that is to come for the disciples and for those who will follow. His intention is not to scare the disciples but to prepare them and help them understand that there are certain things that are important as he prepares to leave.

As Jesus prepares the disciples for the trials and persecutions that are to come there are several things that Jesus obviously thinks are important to pass on. Perhaps it is the holiness of the moment as they sit together or perhaps it is clarification about what God will do. Jesus tells of the destruction that will come and the trouble that will face the people of this earth, but he also gives his friends some words of advice. Jesus tells the disciples to be aware and to watch out for those who will try to take the name of Christ and lead the disciples astray. Jesus knows that the disciples have been dependent upon him and he worries about their future path. Out of this care and concern Jesus tells them to keep the teachings and the path that he has set for them and that no matter what destruction or persecution may come to remain faithful to his guidance.