A Review of the Book "Dreamcatcher" by Stephen King

Title: Dreamcatcher

Author: Stephen King

Publisher: Pocket Books

Year: 2001

879 pages

Summary from the Book: Twenty-five years after saving a Down's-syndrome kid from bullies, Beav, Henry, Pete, and Jonesy - now men with separate lives and separate problems - reunite in the woods of Maine for their annual hunting trip. But when a stranger stumbles into their camp, disoriented and mumbling something about lights in the sky chaos erupts. Soon, the four friends are plunged into a horrifying struggle with a creature from another world where their only chance of survival is locked in their shared past - and in the Dreamcatcher.

Personal Thoughts: This one took me a bit to get through. Not because it wasn't good, but because it's one of the longest books I've read in a long time. As always, King's writing churns your imagination with vivid descriptions that makes you feel like you're right in the story. This particular story is a little bit horror, a little bit science fiction, and a little bit weird and gross. But it is also captivating and while the size of the book is daunting, you just want to keep plugging on to find out what happens next. So far, I haven't found a Stephen King book I haven't like so I'm sure I sound like a broken record, continuously recommending his books. However, I do recommend this book as it is an excellently written story with quite an interesting finish to it.

A Review of the Book "The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes" by Suzanne Collins

Title: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes

Author: Suzanne Collins

Publisher: Scholastic Press

Year: 2020

517 pages

Summary: Years before he becomes the tyrannical president of Panem, 18-year-old Coriolanus Snow remains the last hope for his fading lineage. With the 10th annual Hunger Games fast approaching, the young Snow becomes alarmed when he's assigned to mentor Lucy Gray Baird from District 12. Uniting their instincts for showmanship and political savvy, they race against time to ultimately reveal who's a songbird and who's a snake.

Personal Thoughts: I was super excited to read this prequel to the Hunger Games. I love that series so much. I remember borrowing the books from the library and having to wait desperately for each book to come available! So when I heard about "Songbirds and Snakes" I was ecstatic for the chance to read it.

Unfortunately, it did not meet up to the hype of the book nor the level of writing from the rest of the series. This book was at least 100 pages too long and the story just dragged. The excitement of the Hunger Games simply wasn't there. Perhaps it was because Collins concentrated almost exclusively on the character development of Snow. Perhaps it was because I knew what was to come 75 years later in the Panem world. I'm not completely sure. All I know is that the story did not meet my expectations.

That being said, it was still a good book overall, even if it was longer than required for the story. It was interesting to hear more about how the Hunger Games got started and why Snow turned out to be the man we know later in the series. If you can leave your expectations at the door, it is a decent read. Just not to the level I know from Suzanne Collins.

The Shepherds of Christmas: A Sermon for Christmas Eve

Grace, mercy, and peace to you in the name of Christ our Saviour. Amen.

I’m sure you have all heard Linus tell the shepherd’s version of the Christmas story.

 

And there were in the same country shepherds abiding

in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night.

 

And, lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them,

and the glory of the Lord shone round about them:

and they were so afraid.

 

And the angel said unto them, Fear not: for, behold,

I bring you good tidings of great joy,

which shall be to all people.

 

For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour,

which is Christ the Lord.

 

And this shall be a sign unto you; Ye shall find the babe

wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger.

 

And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the

heavenly host praising God, and saying,

 

Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace,

good will toward men.

 

But why did God announce the birth to shepherds?

 

The presence of the shepherds is an interesting part of the Christmas story. They don’t say much. They don’t do much. But it sure was important to God that they be there for the birth of Jesus. And that says a lot.

 

When the time came to tell Zechariah about the birth of John the Baptist, God sent one angel.

 

When the time came to tell Mary about the birth of Jesus, God sent one angel.

 

When the time came to announce the birth of Jesus to the shepherds, he sent a whole sky full of angels.

 

These guys were out in their fields, minding their own business, when this sky full of angels suddenly appear, announcing the most important news in the world – the fact that Jesus was born.

 

Shepherds were the first to look, shepherds living in fields. Unlettered, unwashed herders of livestock existing at the margins, far from the power-centers of respectability and prestige.

The shepherds were faithful to what they heard. They listened to the message from God.

 

The shepherds then took the next step to find out if it’s true. They followed the sign God had given them and they rushed into town to see the baby for themselves. They met the savior because they listened and obeyed God’s guidance.

 

And they didn’t just huddle together and enjoy the blessing they had for themselves. They went out and they told everyone.

 

Those shepherds were the first evangelists.

 

They didn’t have a theological education.

 

They didn’t know the whole story.

 

But they knew that God had spoken to them. God had touched their lives. And they wanted others to know. They just told what God had done for them.

 

This message of hope emerges among the least significant, among shepherds, among those who could never have imagined that they would be forever remembered in human history.

 

This is news that deserved to be told to the most important people in the world: the kings and emperors.

 

But is this who heard the news first? No! God sent his angel to lowly shepherds tending to flocks of sheep.

 

Let it be said clearly this night. Heaven and earth meet in obscure places, not in the halls of power.

 

Shepherds and angels.

 

A birth in the city of King David, but far from a royal residence.

 

And that birth, that joy is for all people. Verse 14a, “peace among those with whom God favors” is not a phrase designed to limit God’s favor and peace to a few.

 

We human creatures, along with God’s other creatures, have been favored. The light came in those dark fields and that dim room in Bethlehem because God longs, has always longed, for us to know and love God.

 

The shepherds put things together well enough to become jubilant. They’re promised a baby, they see a baby, and they recognize that the rest of what they have been told is true.

 

Here he is, the One whom God has sent to show God’s favor. There’s a new world coming! And that’s good news for the people in our story, for us, and for everyone.

 

Nothing I’ve said so far should be new to you. The Christmas story doesn’t change year to year. But how we feel about it might, how we are feeling right now will be very different than last year, and certainly different from the year before.

 

In the Christmas story, the entire hosts of angels appeared first to the shepherds to announce the birth of Jesus. The angel-choir could have announced the birth from the main hub of Jerusalem to the leaders of the time or gone to the kings in the East or projected it on a huge billboard of Times Square (well, whatever that was at the time).

 

Instead, the angels went to the Shepherds - some of the lowliest in society at that time, the marginalized, the unseen - in the middle of the night.

 

Who are our modern-day shepherds? Who would be the ones receiving God’s announcement?

 

Those that feel forgotten, marginalized, unseen.

 

Our healthcare workers, janitorial staff, technicians, etc in the ICUs who are living a reality in the hospitals that's opposite to people's actions during this Christmas season.

 

Families who have lost a sister, mom, dad, grandparent this year - but feel unseen as people go on like things are normal.

 

Mothers trying to put food on the table for their kids so they go to work as a retail cashier with people yelling at them because of one reason or another.

 

Church members who have left their church, lost their church, or are feeling angst about being at their church because they view differently about Loving our Neighbors than what they are seeing.

 

Families who were already on the brink of poverty.

 

This list could continue to go on. If you feel angst in this season prior to Christmas, that's Advent, that's a longing for Hope. If you feel angst in this season and are marginalized or feel forgotten, you are a Shepherd.

 

And that’s who the angels went to first. To herald in the birth of a Redeemer that would years later say, "Blessed are you who are poor in spirit for yours is the Kingdom of Heaven".

 

An Overcomer who would take all shame, hurt, and pain on a cross and put it to rest to set things right.

 

An Immanuel, God with us, who came for the sick, the poor, the marginalized, the captives - with us and for us.

 

A Love that said the entire law could be summed up in love God and love others.

 

Especially the Shepherds.

 

Amen.

Let It Be: A Sermon for the 4th Week of Advent

Grace, mercy, and peace to you in the name of Christ our Saviour. Amen.

 

My daughter is about to turn 13. The biggest decisions in her life right now are what clothes to wear, what kind of party she wants for her birthday, and how to choose between church and Girl Guide events scheduled on the same day.

 

I can’t even imagine what it would have been like for the teenager Mary, when this strange being shows up and tells her she is going to be pregnant, before she is married, before she’s had sex. And not only is she going to be pregnant, she’s going to be carrying the Messiah, the Son of God, the Saviour of humanity.

 

No pressure.

 

Living in a remote village far from the busy religious centre of Jerusalem, Mary had no hint that she was destined for such a great event. So it would be of no surprise that her reaction to Gabriel’s visit is cautious at best. After listening to the angel and pondering all that he has just said to her, she has only one question, “How can this be?”

 

I’m sure we must have all asked this question at one time or another in our lives. Whether happy or sad, startling news often brings out this question, “How can this be?” A friend dies, suddenly, “how can this be?” An expected influx of money when someone is struggling to make ends meet, “how can this be?”

 

According to Ashley Cook Creere, “Mary’s puzzlement grants permission to take time to adjust to astonishing news, to question whether or not trials and tragedies, or God’s magnificent promises, are for real, and to contemplate potential repercussions.” The question, “how can this be?” shapes our faith by reminding us how much in our lives is hidden from us and that some opportunities seem almost incredulous. Any deep encounter with the mystery of God must leave us incredulous and asking, “How can this be?” As I mentioned last week, beware of any messengers that don’t allow you to question what you’ve been told.

 

I wonder how long Mary made Gabrel wait for an answer. The passage is only a few lines, so it feels like it’s a quick answer. But I think that after asking “how can this be?” and then listening to Gabriel’s response, she would have taken a little while to answer, not just jumped to the “yes”. This isn’t some small decision she’s about to make. And it’s not one that would affect her life only. The whole world’s about the change and she’s the crux of the whole thing! It wouldn’t surprise me if she took a while to answer.

 

Despite Mary being one of the strongest women in the Bible, we often talk about her only at Christmas time, complete with images of her with the baby Jesus, cutesy pictures depicting a blond-haired blue-eyed mother and baby and smug sermons about peace and hope and love. I believe that we are so familiar with this story that we sometimes fail to consider the many difficult implications of Mary’s situation as an unwed teenager. She was among the most powerless: young in a setting that valued age, female, and poor. The stakes were indeed very high for Mary. One wrong move could ruin her personal and family reputation and jeopardize her entire life.

 

And yet, despite all of this, Mary responds to Gabriel with such graceful humility, “Here am I, the servant of the Lord; let it be with me according to your word.”

 

Mary’s response, “Let it be” has inspired many artists, perhaps most famously the title track of the Beatles’ 12th and final studio album: Let It Be. From the perspective of Advent, I invite you to listen to the Beatles’ “Let it Be”. If you’ve listened to the song before, pretend it’s your first time. Listen with the words of Mary echoing in your ear. Listen with an openness to how God may be calling you to slow down, open your eyes in wonder, and expectantly wait for what is already in the process of being born.

 

When we open ourselves to God, when we echo Mary’s prayer, “Let it be,” we may find ourselves turned upside down and our prioritizes rearranged, as Mary experienced when Gabriel appeared in her house. It is the moment when Annunciation becomes Incarnation. It is a process which was Mary’s, but which is open to us all. It is the way that God keeps being born into this world. Just say, “yes, let it be.”

 

I’m going to play “Let it Be” for you now and while you’re listening to the song, I want you to ponder these questions:

 

How God is surprising me this Advent season?

 

How am I being called to slow down or let go?

 

How does it feel to begin to pray an echo of Mary’s open-hearted response, “May it be so. Just as you say. Let it be. Let it be. Let it be.”

Link to song: here.

Resources:

"Feasting on the Word" edited by David Bartlett and Barbara Brown Taylor

patheos.com

workingpreacher.com

thelisteninghermit.com

A Review of the Book "Fresh Expressions of the Rural Church" by Michael Adam Beck & Tyler Kleeberger

Title: Fresh Expressions of the Rural Church

Author: Michael Adam Beck & Tyler Kleeberger

Publisher: Abingdon Press

Year: 2022

135 pages

Summary on the back: The rural church was a community's centrepiece. The Place where people gathered to worship and hear a sermon, break bread together, and support each other through the joys and struggles of life with the land. In many ways, the rural church captured a central aspect of the church's mission: to be the guiding hand for the life of a place. Can rural communities flourish again? Can new Christian communities succeed in rural areas? Could healthy rural churches catalyze a better future for their declining communities? This book collects stories form diverse rural contexts across the United States. It lays out a fresh theology for rural life and offers principles for harnessing the potential of what some consider the forgotten spaces. Each chapter includes a helpful Field Exercise, questions for discussion, and suggested actions for leadership teams to work through together. Chapters conclude with a Field Story illustrating how the chapter's main ideas can work in a real church setting.

Personal Thoughts: From the website freshexpressions,com, "In 2004, Fresh Expressions emerged out of the Anglican and Methodist churches in England. Pastors and leaders started to recognize new, organically-forming trends of church as an opportunity to “proclaim the faith afresh to each generation,” as the Anglican Declaration of Ascent states. The Mission Shaped Church report called them “fresh expressions,” and their popularity exploded across many denominations. Over time, Fresh Expressions has become a vehicle to mesh the existing church culture with newly-inspired ways of reaching those who don’t go to church."

This book was written as a way to give a ""Fresh Expression" to rural ministry. By using stories from their own history being pastors in country parishes, as well as calling on others to give their story, Beck and Kleeberger try to bring life to a ministry that many people often forget about or dismiss as not important. I think they were pretty successful as you can't help but feel for these struggling parishes who found new hope with their pastors.

As well, there are some good ideas that could be taken into other rural contexts, and even some urban ones! There is no denial of suffering and desperation that is being felt in rural parishes. But there is also hope as new things are tried, like team ministry, locally-grown pastors, and letting things die so that something new can take its place.

Because it is written in short-essay form, "Fresh Expression of the Rural Church" is a quick and easy read. However, by taking the time to digest the stories and explore the "field assignments", maybe we can all start to bring some hope to those parishes who might be feeling a little bit of that desperation, whether they are rural or urban.

Paul's Appeals: A Sermon for the 3rd Week of Advent

Grace, mercy, and peace to you in the name of Christ our Saviour. Amen.

 

This week, we have come to the end of reading the first letter from Paul to the Thessalonians. And in this last section, Paul gives a set of general instructions concerning the maintenance of Christian fellowship.

 

Paul’s call is simple and direct: rejoice, pray, give thanks always and no matter what happens.

 

He asks for love, for acceptance of one another. He asks for joy, constancy in prayer and a thankful heart in their relationship with the Lord. Finally, he asks for the acceptance, exercise, and testing of the Word.

 

In total, there are seven appeals in this short passage, and all of them worthy of taking to heart. Let’s see how we can apply them to our lives today.

 

1.     Rejoice always

Joy is a mark of Christian life and a fruit of the Spirit. Christians can find reasons to be joyful in all seasons of life. In fact, Christians have the ultimate hope of being with Christ to be joyful about. Even in the darkest of times, we have the Light of Christ within us, a light that we can shine for others, to give hope to the world. We have be tasked to spread the Gospel that God is with us on Earth, and that is truly something to rejoice each and every day.

2.     Pray without ceasing

Praying is one of the most important things that a Christian is to be doing….and one of the hardest. We all know we should be doing it, and yet it feels hard and strange to do. People are unsure how to pray or what to pray for. Really, praying is just a conversation with God. It doesn’t matter how you do it, it’s just important that you do it. When we pray, we recognise how powerless we are but how powerful God is.  And Paul is telling us that we are to pray frequently and repeatedly. Jesus prayed all the time, so why shouldn’t we?

3.     Give thanks in all circumstances for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you

Some days, it doesn’t feel like there is very much to be thankful for. Especially as we hear about all of the war and violence that is happening in the Middle East and in Russia and Ukraine. And it’s hard to be thankful when we are aware of the rates of unemployment and homelessness in Canada.

But Paul is asking us to be thankful anyway, stating that Christians are to be thankful in all circumstances. How can one give thanks in poor circumstances? We remember Christ who was in the poorest circumstance when he was going to the cross to die for our sins.

Today, Christians have ultimate hope in the glory that we will share with Christ. We can be thankful for the technology to still be in touch with one another. We can be thankful for scientists continuing to work on the long-term effects of COVID. We can be thankful for all that we have, and we can be thankful for a God who watches over us, even in the darkest of times.

4.     Do not quench the Spirit

On the day of Pentecost, we celebrate the early Christians receiving the Holy Spirit and thus bringing to light the meaning of the Gospel of Christ. Apart from the Holy Spirit causing us to believe in the Gospel, the Gospel would have meant nothing for us. The Holy Spirit is our helper and is the one who helps us live lives that are pleasing to God.

Paul is pleading with us not to let that spirit go out, to not extinguish it. We need to recognise the Spirit is working in our lives and we should not reject that help in any way. Keeping the light of the Spirit alive in our hearts will help bring us hope, love, and joy. These are things that are desperately needed as we come to the end of some very difficult years.

5.     Do not despise the words of prophets, but test everything

I grew up in a church that didn’t allow for questioning. Each Sunday, we heard the Word and we were taught to accept it as it was and to not question, because to question the prophets (the writers of the Bible, the priests) was to question God. And how dare we question God.

What I admire about this particular exhortation is that Paul is actually asking us to question. He is saying that we should be open to the disclosure of God’s will through fellow Christians exercising the gift of prophecy, but that it is okay if we question what we are hearing. In fact, it is more than okay. Paul tells us to test everything and not assume that the speaker’s or writer’s claims are automatically true.

When we bring this plea into our lives, we are told to read the Bible knowing that it is good to have questions, to want clarification, and to seek out revelation.

6.     Hold fast what is good

This is a plea for gratitude if I ever saw one. Paul is asking us to cling to what is good in our lives, even to seek good in our enemies.

One day, a friend of mine posted that she was having a rough day and rather than stew in the feeling, she decided to write some statements of gratitude. She said that doing so really helped her to get out of the funk that she was in.

Although we are told we are on the other side of the pandemic, the seemingly never-ending days of the pandemic bring out fear, anger, and anxiety in everyone. Sometimes all we can do is grasp onto the good we find in each day – a ray of sunshine on a December morning, the cuddle of a cat in your lap, a good book – any small amount of good can change the whole outlook on your day.

7.     Abstain from every form of evil

While we are seeking out the good in our days, we need to reject the evil. Romans 12:9 uses some pretty strong language about how we should feel about evil, “Let love be genuine. Abhor what is evil; hold fast to what is good.”

 

Evil is a difficult and complicated topic. Simply put, evil is the absence of good. So these final two appeals should work together. Finding the good in your life should, in theory, push the evil out. Pushing the evil out should, in theory, bring the good in. It is an interdependent relationship that can be difficult for many of us to manage in our lives.

 

Paul’s appeal to us is simple and direct; rejoice, pray, give thanks always and no matter what happens.

 

He asks for love, for acceptance of one another. He asks for joy, constancy in prayer and a thankful heart in their relationship with the Lord. Finally, he asks for the acceptance, exercise, and testing of the Word.

 

Paul’s appeals to the Thessalonians guides us to the type of Christian fellowship that will help sustain us in our lives.

 

My prayer for you is that you are able to take Paul’s exhortations to heart so that they can help carry you through every season of your life. And as Paul says, “May the God of peace sanctify you entirely, and may your spirit and soul and body be kept sound and blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.”

 

Amen.

A Review of the Book "God's Country" by Brad Roth

Title: God's Country

Author: Brad Roth

Publisher: Herald Press

Year: 2017

219 pages

Summary on the back: Rural places are often seen as insular and declining, all pickup trucks and gas stations with no gas. The young folks have moved, and pastors preach to graying saints. Last one to leave, turn out the lights. That's not the full story, but neither is the nostalgic vision of amber waves of grain, quaint streets, and the bucolic family farm. Neither story meets rural communities and congregations on their own terms, and neither recognizes that God inhabits and redeems rural places.

Personal Thoughts: As it says above, rural communities are more than just what people imagine them to be. In fact, they are the sum of their parts. People look out for one another and they work together to make life good for themselves and each other. Historically, pastors were sent out into the wilderness on their first call to learn how to be a priest before being called back into the city. The thought of working your way into the city as a kind of promotion in the ranks of clergy is unfair to everyone. As pastors, we need to ensure we aren't going into a rural call thinking that we're going to "fix things". There's nothing to fix! Roth explains in this book that rather than fixers, rural communities need friends. They are often neglected and considered junior to urban centres. However, us city folk could learn a thing or two from our rural counterparts, like growing our own food, being grateful for the land, and caring for our neighbour.

Roth writes an easy-to-read book that gets you caring about those who live outside the perimeter of your urban city, reminding you where you food comes from, reminding you what it truly means to leave the neighbour, and reminding you what it means to be a family - whether through blood or choice.

If you are wondering what it's like to live out faithful life in a rural community, reading this book is an excellent start.