Many thanks to all who filled in for me in any way last week while I was on study leave. I attended the Great Lakes Creation Care Collaborative, a joint gathering with United Church of Canada folks from one side of the Great Lakes and United Church of Christ folks from the other. We were guided by Adrian Jacobs (Ganosono), Cayuga, from Six Nations, senior leader of Indigenous Justice and Reconciliation for the Christian Reformed Church in Canada. Using replicas of the historical beaded Wampum...

Did you stay up late and watch the Perseids meteor shower this week? I took my yoga mat out to my deck and just lay on my back gazing up at the night sky. The first thing I realized is that I should do this more often, even when there’s no meteor shower. To just lie on one’s back taking in the endless stars, the milky way hovering above like a comforting blanket, well, that’s something… And then, when a shooting star bolts through the sky in its fiery trajectory, that’s an added dose of pure...

If you had to put words to it, how would you describe God’s Kingdom? Jesus himself seemed to have trouble describing it as just one thing, so he used many images. In Matthew 13, he describes it as like yeast mixed with flour until it is leavened; or like treasure hidden in a field; or like finding a pearl of great value; or like throwing a net into the sea and catching fish of every kind… We still can’t put a finger on the exact nature of the Kingdom of God, but we get the idea that it...