Matthew, Mark, Luke and Susan
We’re glad you’re here!
Welcome to the weekly blog for Burlington East Presbyterian Church.
First things first: feel free to fill in your name instead of Susan. John might already be taken.
Here, you’ll find a weekly reflection which I hope will give you an opportunity to stop for a few minutes, to see yourself in God’s story of our own lives, of the community, and of creation. We’ll be thinking about what it means to live in God’s love for each of us, to grow as disciples and to follow Christ. If you have any questions or comments, please feel free to email me at [email protected].
Looking forward to journeying with you.
Peace in Christ,
Susan
March 20. 2025
March 19, 2025
Change, Now
Something to think about: I Corinthians 12:12-27
We were at the exhibit of Alice in Bloomland at the Royal Botanical Gardens in Burlington, Ontario last week. The greenhouses were full of orchids, bulbs were blooming and in the middle of the snow it was absolutely lovely. Everything looked so alive. Displays were set up to mirror scenes from Alice in Wonderland or Alice through the Looking Glass, with people taking pictures in instagram-like settings. ..
Including this one. It’s from the part of the story where the Red Queen insists that all of the white roses be painted red. No exceptions. Every rose, no matter what its colour, has to be red.
Until I saw the life-size figures painting huge roses, the horror of this never really hit me.
If these roses get painted, they will die.
If these roses get painted, they will never achieve the full growth that they were meant to have.
If these roses get painted, they are reflecting the wishes of the Red Queen, not the image of their Creator.
I know that it’s a children’s fairy tale, but the image is still stark.
During Lent, we celebrate the journey of Jesus–someone who calls us to come and follow Him as we are, in the image of the God who created us. He calls tax collectors and sinners and women and fishermen and priests and homemakers and centurions. He doesn’t make them all fishermen, or all centurions, or all tax collectors. Jesus loves disciples as they are. Our identity as image bearers of God has nothing to do with what we look like on the outside.
I’ve heard people who want to use the gospel for assimilation or negating a person’s identity. They promote uniformity as a hallmark of the reign of God, rather than unity in the body of Christ. I’m wondering if they ever thought through the mixed-up group of people Jesus called to follow, and the way that Jesus included everyone who made the choice to follow Him. The motley group of disciples would have never met the Red Queen’s request for uniformity. That’s not what is in the Bible.
God is not like the Red Queen, forcing us to change our identity or who we are. Christ came to call us back to God, fully and completely, and help others to get there too. That means all of us – our gender, our sexuality, our body type, our mental and physical challenges –God loves all of us, and wants us to live fully as we are in the love of Christ–not to be painted over so we ‘look’ good. Jesus was willing to give his life so we could live fully in God’s love. That’s more powerful than any paint or Red Queen. Ever.
May you know the love of Christ and be affirmed in the identity that God has given you as you follow Jesus.
Peace in Christ,
Rev. Susan
.
March 13, 2025
Dirt
Something to think about: Psalm 139:13-18
It happened this week. Just a smattering of sunshine, enough to get our hopes up, and the dirt started to show through the mounds and mounds of snow. Melting snowbanks made gutters into streams and the sunlight glinted off the tiny rivers as if it was laughing with them.
And one afternoon this week, you could smell the dirt.
Not dust, but the smell of sun-warmed earth that’s waking up. It’s got rotting leaves and sticks and probably some bird seed that’s been scattered in it. There’s dried grass at the edges where we’ve thrown salt on the sidewalks to battle the ice. The salt is washing away. The dirt is there. It smells like life coming out of hiding and pushes our minds to growing things.
In Genesis, it says we’re formed out of dirt. The Adamah, the “Adam maker”. Whatever we believe as the process of creation (and there are a lot of interpretations, the bottom line is that God cause something that was not to be something). In the Psalm that you can read above, it talks about God knitting us, forming us together out of the stuff that’s made in the depths of the earth. Dirt.
Formed.
Shaped.
Made unique.
Held.
Loved.
Given breath.
Called good.
Sometimes, though, the dirt this time of year is mud that sticks to everything. It coats dog paws, fills up shoe treads, gets tracked in everywhere. It’s all around until we “calm it down” with grass, mulch, wash it away with water.
Sometimes we do the same with people too. We take what God has formed it all of our uniqueness, living, breathing, and we calm people’s identities down until they are something we can handle. Or we try to wash them out until the dirt is in a form we can control.
But….but God called the formed dirt, the adamah, good before it was ‘calmed down’ or washed away. It was perfectly good in the identity that God had given it.
In this time of Lent, we take a hard look at ourselves. Sometimes, we might not like what we see. Sometimes, we might not like what we see in someone else. Sometimes, we may try to change or hide the identity that God gave us because it doesn’t fit what others think we should be.
Here’s the truth: God made me me, and God made you you. In all the infinite creation, you are formed and created uniquely, and loved beyond anything you can ever know. So is the person walking next to you. When those in power say that one identity is not valued, that one way that God created people is not valid, then we as Christians absolutely affirm that that is not a Biblical position, nor is it the way we understand identity in Christ.
That’s where we get to Easter. When Jesus came, he took on the adamah. And in giving up His life for us and by rising again, He loved all of us back to life. Formed, shaped, unique, held, loved. If God in Jesus Christ thought it was worth it to take on the adamah, the dirt, then you and I can only affirm that formation by God in each other.
May you see God’s love and creativity in every person’s identity that you meet this week.
Peace in Christ,
Rev. Susan
Photo and content © Susan Kerr 2025. May not be reproduced or circulated without permission of the author.
.