St. David’s United Church

…how we can live in such a way that we remain open to the holy in the ordinary events of life? How might doing the dishes be an avenue to grace? How might we find meaning in the trivial?

Ours is a faith to be sung. Whether we’re singin’ the blues or clapping and stomping to an ecstatic gospel chorus, music fills us, shapes us, gives expression to our soul.

The image that springs to my mind from the passages of Jeremiah and Psalm 139 is of God humming a sacred love song to us even before we were born; like a grandmother humming while knitting, or a quilting bee singing while stitching, or a bread maker singing a favourite song while kneading the dough, so I can imagine God chanting a holy tune as we’re being “fearfully and wonderfully made.”

A parade of Haitians marched arm in arm down the remains of a street, singing. They sang of hope. They sang of courage. They sang as a “yes” to life even in the midst of death. They sang together as a reminder that they are not alone in their suffering and their struggle, they are not alone in their grief and their loss, they are not alone in their determination to survive.

The prefix before each name is not Dr. or Rev. or Prof. or even Mr. or Ms. The prefix before each name is “beloved”…
…It may sound awkward at first, and perhaps, in a strange way, not easy to hear. It’s no surprise, really, that we find it difficult to hear that we are “beloved.” We want to hear it, but we can’t quite believe it.

…if we always leave Christ in the manger, we lose the sense of God right here, with us, in us…The One who was lying in the manger jumped out of the crib and ran into our arms, straight into our heart.