St. Catherine's Church | Anglican Church in North Vancouver, BC

Greetings to everyone at St. Catherine’s as we continue our journey through the wilderness of Lent. A season of “repentance” which, the more I think about it and the older I get, seems to be less and less a bewailing of our “sins” (Oh, woe is me a miserable sinner!), and more and more a season that calls us to action. Specifically, the action of re-turning – turning again, making a turn, changing direction, setting a course, setting an intention – which seems to me to be the root and real meaning of the word “repentance.” It’s not so much about going back the place from which we started – that is actually impossible, just like you can’t step into the same river twice. You may be in the same place geographically, but you’ll always be in different place in time. The river has moved on.

Sometimes that river seems to be deep and wide, like the Jordan River, flowing serenely through sun-dappled glades and meadows; sometimes it’s a raging torrent cascading through rocky ravines. We seem to be going through the latter just now. A time of great uncertainty, not knowing what the coming week will bring – another scandal, another atrocity, another principle or safeguard that we thought was rock solid swept away in the violence of the mud-churned waters. A time when even more we need to return to the bedrock and solid ground of our faith, opening our ears to the still small voice of calm in the midst of the whirlwind. Take heart – courage! The voice seems to say. I am with you still.

In our readings for Sunday, we see the Israelites arrive in the promised land having crossed the Jordan River (deep and wide) after forty years of wandering in the wilderness, and before that over 400 years of exile in Egypt, returning to the place where they had never been before in their lives (Joshua 5:9-12). Psalm 32 conveys the sense of relief and renewed freedom in acknowledging our sin and shortcomings and being forgiven; a sense of being able to return to ourselves and move on. A theme I see picked up in St. Paul’s Second Letter to the Corinthians in which he says that anyone in Christ is a “new creation,” reconciled to God to become part of God’s reconciling of the world to himself in Christ (2 Corinthians 5:16-21). Our Gospel reading this week is perhaps the ultimate expression of returning in the story of “The Prodigal Son” (Luke 15:1-3, 11b-32), really the story of the two sons, the older as well as the younger, in which we see the theme of returning explored on multiple levels. The thing that is intriguing me this time around, as I return to this story again, is the question of empathy. It seems to me that Jesus tells this story in order to invite his hearers into an experience of life from the point of view of another.

I look forward to seeing everyone who can join us on Sunday (in-person or via livestream) as we explore these themes together.

Blessings+ on your weekend.

Elbows Up!

Angus

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This Sunday March 30th, 2025 will be a traditional service in the season of Lent.

Here is the link to the downloadable bulletin:

Sunday March 30, 2025

Presider and Preacher: Rev. Angus Stuart

Our Musician is Hyejung Jun and Choir

The service will also be livestreamed.

The Service livestream can be found here: