Surrender and a new beginning
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Surrender and a new beginning

“I am in awe of the poetic power of the scriptures, how you can’t approach the subject of God without metaphor.” So writes Bono late in his wide-ranging and engaging memoir, Surrender: 40 Songs, One Story. The artist cannot tell his story, or the remarkable story of U2, apart from Christian faith, or apart from…

Getting into some holy trouble
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Getting into some holy trouble

When it comes to books addressing the themes of home and homelessness, it is not surprising that memoir seems to be a pervasive genre. Home is, after all, rooted in story. The memories of significant events, foundational relationships, celebrations, the feel of the familial abode, the landscape of our youth, conjure up the feelings of…

Radical Hope
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Radical Hope

At 76 years old, Bruce Cockburn is one of Canada’s most decorated musicians: 37 albums, 13 Junos and a recipient of the Order of Canada. As Cockburn makes his way around North America for his 50th anniversary tour (second attempt, due to covid), one of his encore songs may catch listeners by surprise. “When the…

Abraham’s silence revisited
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Abraham’s silence revisited

The voice of God comes to you. Deep in your soul you know that this really is God. You are not given to the religious enthusiasm of “hearing God” speak to you in audible ways, nor do you suffer psychosis. Nonetheless, you have no doubt that this is God’s voice. But the voice says something…

Hope born of grief

Hope born of grief

All of my dead came flooding back to me. The friends, the suicides, the murders, the babies, family members, the old and the much too young. They all came flooding back as I listened to Carolyn Arends singing “To Cry for You.” Blessed are the ones who weep / ‘Cause every tear is proof /…

A COVID Via Dolorosa
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A COVID Via Dolorosa

It is the forsakenness of it all. Long before that piercing cry,Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani,long before that God-forsakenness on the cross,Jesus is forsaken on the Via Dolorosa. Here on that road of sorrow,he is devastatingly alone. No one leading him out.No jeering crowds.No virus-carrying spittle.No bloodthirsty mobs.No mocking soldiers.No politicians inciting a riot.No one washing…

Worship and work must be one
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Worship and work must be one

Turn your eyes upon JesusLook full in his wonderful faceAnd the things of earth will grow strangely dimIn the light of his glory and grace That was the chorus of my conversion. When I began my life of following Jesus in 1969 we sang that hymn over and over again. The piety rang (mostly) true…

Wouldn’t You Love To Know?

Wouldn’t You Love To Know?

It seems incongruous at first. Bluegrass guitar and claw-hammer banjo. Used in a meditation on the lofty themes of the nature of knowledge, this instrumentation results in a song that sounds as if it would be more at home on a front porch in some Appalachian hollow than in the lofty halls of the academy,…

Holding the Bible (Awkwardly) in the Midst of a Pandemic

Holding the Bible (Awkwardly) in the Midst of a Pandemic

In the midst of both a global pandemic and nationwide protests against anti-black racism, President Donald Trump had peaceful protestors forcefully removed from Lafayette Square by an unidentified military force so that he could walk across the street for a photo-op in front of historic St. John’s Episcopalian Church. He wanted to pose holding a Bible. The outrage expressed by Bishop Mariann Edgar Budde was echoed through much of the Christian community.

Still on the Watchtower
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Still on the Watchtower

The Vietnam War was raging, Martin Luther King Jr. and Robert Kennedy had been assassinated, the counter-culture movement was in full swing and Jimi Hendrix had just released his stunning retake on Bob Dylan’s song: “All along the watchtower, princes kept the view […] outside in the distance a wildcat did growl / two riders were approaching, and the wind began to howl.” It was 1968 and I wonder if Morris Greidanus had such an apocalyptic sense of the times as he launched a Christian Reformed (CRC) campus ministry at the University of Toronto.

Mood On Campus? Check the Streets.
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Mood On Campus? Check the Streets.

“What’s the mood on campus?” With over 40 years engaged in campus ministry in one form or another, I get asked this question with some frequency. And I often feel a little stymied by it. Apart from the fall semester of 2001, after the devastating events of 9/11, when there was a decidedly subdued feeling on campus, I’ve not really seen that much change from year to year.
Back in the early 80s I did a radio interview about the “mood on campus” based upon a wide-ranging attitudinal survey that had been conducted on campuses across Canada, and the results were disheartening.

A spirituality intimately related to Jesus

A spirituality intimately related to Jesus

Let me describe an author. This writer is impatient with theological abstraction, radically committed to justice and holds a healthy suspicion of the rich. Our author is rooted in a deep Christian piety, profoundly committed to prayer, embraces a subversive joy in the midst of tragedy, and is circumspect and wise regarding language. Indeed, we could sum up our description by saying that this person is intimately related to Jesus.