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
January 1, 2025
I Corinthians 13 :12-13 For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known. 13 And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.
Hello there! It’s been a privilege to journey with you in 2024, and I”m looking forward to new discoveries we make about our faith journeys in 2025. I hope this devotional has given you a chance to reflect, breathe a bit, know that you are loved by God in Jesus Christ, and have a chance to see God’s presence in your life and in the world.
Going into a new year, we’ve got a lot on our minds and hearts, so this week’s devotion is quick and simple. We probably already have enough on our plates, so let’s get to what’s important.
We are loved by God and saved by grace in Jesus Christ. We can live to love Jesus and our neighbour (including all of creation) as ourselves. We are known more profoundly than we can understand, and loved more deeply than we know. No matter what.
When it comes right down to it, that kind of love is what is going to change the world for the better, whether we live out that love locally, nationally, on internationally. As the apostle Paul says in I Corinthians, sometimes we don’t see the big picture all at once. But if we keep growing and seeking to grow, we’ll get there.
When Jesus came to live with us, he wasn’t bringing the 10 Commandments–they were already in circulation. He wasn’t bringing a new set of rules. He was bringing Godself.
What that mean for the world, and for us, is that God’s presence is with us in a newborn baby’s cry, a twelve year old’s persistent and somewhat impertinent questions, a man who sees and reaches out to the people on the edges of the crowd who are too scared to push their way to the One who they need to see the most. It’s God incarnate knowing friendship, kid’s laughter, they way the earth smells after the rain or how to scale a fish. It’s God experiencing all of human limitations and still knowing that God’s love had to be taught and lived in a way that could be understood. For God, that meant being so present in our suffering that Jesus took it on Godself on the cross, and in grace and love died and rose again for us.
Yup, we are loved by Jesus. Infinitely.
We’ll talk more about all that through next year, and see how we can live out that love. But for right now, know that you are so welcome on this journey with us, and God loves you for you. It’s a love that is deeper and stronger than anything we will ever know, or maybe even understand.
Blessings and peace as you enter this New Year.
Peace in Christ,
Rev Susan
Photo and content © Susan Kerr 2024. May not be reproduced or circulated without permission of the author.
December 19, 2024
Advent 4 Love and Pizza
Luke 2:19
Mary kept all these things and pondered them in her heart.
Mary’s been through a lot.
The pregnancy, the uncertainty before Joseph said he would protect her, the changes she feels in her young body. Thank God for her cousin Elizabeth who walked with her. Then a long, forced journey and no place to have her baby, away from family support.
It’s hard to imagine how exhausted she must have been, but many women and families all over the world go through this every day. The world doesn’t stop just because the Son of God makes an entrance.
I wrestle with this story about Mary and teenage pregnancy and why God wouldn’t have made things a lot easier for those who were supposed to be favoured. We have these pictures of angels and things look glorious, but the bottom line is that the world didn’t halt for a young girl who was doing what God wanted her to do, and her road was far from easy. Maybe that’s part of our lesson here: perhaps we as Christians are to work and listen for God’s presence in a world that isn’t easy, a world where we need to listen, think deeply and look around us because the love of God doesn’t just come in brilliantly lit Hallmark moments.
It’s more like pizza delivery.
Pizza delivery always seemed to be magic when I was growing up because the pizza people knew where you lived, and the pizza was so good and hot. For us, it was an unusual event. Everyone in the house knew it was coming, but when it showed up in reality, the smell and taste were so much better because we had been waiting for it for a whole–well–30 minutes. And inevitably, it would arrive just as we were doing something else.
Jesus’ arrival is like that. It’s not fancy, the world doesn’t stop, but for hundreds of years people were waiting for God to come, and when God came, it was so good to those who were ready for the delivery. There was joy. Jesus came when the world was busy doing everything else, through the people who were willing to work God the most to the people who needed to know God’s love the most.
There’s another side to pizza delivery. It’s not only like Jesus’ arrival, it’s the way we can keep God’s love going. At our church, the Sunday school kids decided where to put our nativity figures for church this year. They said Mary and Joseph should be in the kitchen because they would have been hungry. We keep a few pizzas in the church fridge for youth group or anyone who might need one, but Mary and Joseph sure could have used one. We’re not sure if they got anything to eat that night.
The world didn’t stop and put out a banquet just because the Son of God arrived, though the angels tried to at least launch a PR campaign. But there were needs in Jesus’ world, and God knew who needed to hear that news first. Mary sings about who those people are in Luke 1. Maybe we need to be more aware of who needs pizza. According to Luke, they are the people God is working through to bring God’s message to the world. There is not a whole lot of show in delivering pizza. It usually is the blessing in the middle of everything else that is swirling around us in the moment. We only realize how good it is when we stop, and eat, and think about it.
God does not wait for things to be convenient. God does not wait for grand moments on a stage, but comes where God is needed most, in the middle of everything else that is going on.
So let me ask a question Mary might have asked throughout her pregnancy (besides all of the other things she was dealing with):
What am I keeping in my heart as I wait for God to come?
What am I keeping in my heart when God does come, and I see what is changing around me?
This Christmas, may you know the love of God coming where you least expect it to be, and may that love fill your heart.
Peace in Christ,
Rev. Susan
Photo and content © Susan Kerr 2024. May not be reproduced or circulated without permission of the author.