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Blog Archives: January 2020 — December 2020
Pregnant
December 22, 2020
“And when Elizabeth heard the greeting of Mary, the baby leaped in her womb. And Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit, and she exclaimed with a loud cry, “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb!” - Luke 1:41-42
“People always say that pregnant women have a glow. And I say it’s because you’re sweating to death.”
– Jessica Simpson
During Advent, I often wonder about Mary’s pregnancy. Creator God - transcendent, sovereign over all things - lovingly planted as a seed by the Holy Spirit in the fertile ...
Optical Illusions
December 11, 2020
Through our backyard, we have a peek of Garry Point Park. I often look out to savour a glorious sunset…or you know - watch a huge cargo ship go by. Whenever I see a freighter through the narrow space between our trees, it looks incredibly massive - ready to plow over everything in its way. Watch out, kite flyers! Look out, little terrier! But walking in the park, a ship the same size seems nothing compared to the surrounding expanse of sea, land and sky.
A few weeks ago, Dr Henry announced new restrictions as the number of COVID cases ...
PSALM 2020, "The Promised Land"
November 27, 2020
As part of the Psalms Cohort we were invited to write our own psalms. This psalm is the fruit of the process.
PSALM 2020, "The Promised Land" of Michael, a member of the Cohort of Psalms, learning to pastor in the midst of a global pandemic. LORD, our God, we long for the Promised Land.
Because what a wilderness wandering. This pestilence––pandemic––has wrecked havoc. Remember your pilgrim people, who like our ancestors, journeyed through the desert in search of home. We are parched LORD. Our bones waste away under the heat of ...
Hit Pause
November 02, 2020
One of the strangest things about humans? Our denial of being human.
We prefer to see ourselves in two extremes - as machines made for functional utility, or as gods of unlimited capacity and power. In both cases, rest is pointless, unnecessary.
But what God invites us to see, right from the Creation narrative, is that we are neither. Not machines, not gods. We are dust, yet God-breathed and created in his image. Human.
In this same narrative, God also shows us rest as an intentional, essential aspect of creation. Rest as the ...
On Crayons and Meaning
October 20, 2020
“What are you drawing, Jackson? Is it a desert? A beach?” My friend Chrissy watched as her three-year old moved a single crayon over the 8.5 x 11 printer paper, tongue out, fist clutched, set on maximum coverage.
He looked up, all crinkled nose and furrowed brow.
“No, mama! It’s brown!”
Brown indeed.
Humans create and interpret meaning all the time - often completely unconscious of it. Red octagon - STOP, yellow triangle - YIELD. Upwards thumb silently whispers, “good job!” Scribbles become the Sahara.
In Thinking Series - a ...
A Psalm of Thanks-giving
October 09, 2020
Lord
of squirrels burying nuts
of spiders weaving gossamer thread
of sun rising-setting
dna replication
glycolysis
homeostasis
i brush my teeth
make lunch
pull on socks
pupils constrict-dilate
heart beats in pre-ordained rhythm
You
my breath
my light
_____
Lectio divina: Meditate on Psalm 100 Memorize Psalm 100:3
What are you thankful for today? Write your own Psalm of Thanksgiving
Karen Shaffer is the Pastor of Faith Formation at Tapestry Richmond Photo by Timothy Eberly
In Person Gatherings
October 03, 2020
In the past seven months, the pastoral staff along with the Board of Elders, have continued to pray and seek God for wisdom and discernment in our response to this pandemic. Although the circumstances and regulations continue to evolve and change, two guiding principles in our discernment remain as follows:
The health of our congregation and love for our neighbours is of the highest priority. Thus, we desire to follow diligently the public health guidelines of our Provincial government. We encourage our entire Tapestry Church family ...
Sauerkraut Spirituality
September 16, 2020
What do you do with a giant head of cabbage that may be past its rolling days?
Make sauerkraut of course! Sure, if you’re super cool and have a pantry that includes gochugaru, dashima and myulchiaekjeot, you’d make kimchi.
My pantry is too full of chips to accommodate this.
Cabbage and salt it is.
Alan Kreider studied the growth of the early church in the Roman Empire. He noticed what may seem counter-intuitive to us in our mega-church culture today:
The growth of the church was organic not organized
They never wrote about ...
What's in your Sandwich?
September 03, 2020
Once upon a time - when my older daughter still needed, or at least tolerated, parental supervision, we hit the local mall with a good friend of hers. After meandering the shops, we went up to the food court for lunch. Bella’s friend asked for a veggie sub - but without the tomatoes, peppers, and onions. I tapped my credit card. $5 for a white bun with 4 cucumber slices and a leaf of lettuce. Huh.
How often do we live like this?
One order of Christianity please. Oh wait. What does it come with? Loving my enemies? Nah - too ...
The Thing About Church Plants
August 26, 2020
In early 2019, when Tap Nights was still a baby church plant, we decided to give every person or family in our congregation a plant. It was part of this teaching in 1 Corinthians 3 where Paul spoke about ministry and church planting, using the metaphor of casting seed, watering, and growth. We even had a dedicated Tap Nights “church plant” plant called “Pauly” (you know, after the Apostle himself). The plant is called a “prayer plant” because in the evening its branches lift up and come together like hands clasping in prayer (not kidding you, ...
Decluttering
August 13, 2020
“Seriously? Another. Crystal. Bowl.”
Feel free to substitute “crystal bowl” with candleholder, coffee cup, or crocheted something or other…
We recently helped my parents move - and there’s nothing like having to put stuff into boxes, transfer and unpack it into another home, to make you realize the human tendency to accumulate.
It would be easy for me to point and waggle my finger at my folks, but I think about the four spatulas in my utensil drawer, pairs of high heels sitting in my garage unworn, and way more books in my online ...
Top Drawer Peace
July 29, 2020
I tug at my top drawer. It catches. A mail-slot-narrow slit. Squeeze right hand through. Press down on the unruly tangle of socks and undies. The drawer slides open. Dig through - striped, blue anklet, woolly lumberjack (you can guess which are socks and which ones undergarments) - success! Press down once more. Shove that sucker shut.
Bed neat, bookshelf tidy, chairs cozy by the window. This room is the picture of rest. Peace. Let’s not address that drawer. Ever.
But that drawer threatens to spill every time I open it. The ...
I’ll Carry You
July 10, 2020
Oftentimes I am shellacked by the tenderness of the Old Testament. Yes, I believe the Old Testament has some of the most tender portions of Scripture. Like Isaiah 46:3-4 “Listen to me, you descendants of Jacob, all the remnant of the people of Israel, you whom I have upheld since your birth, and have carried since you were born. Even to your old age and gray hairs I am he, I am he who will sustain you. I have made you and I will carry you; I will sustain you and I will rescue you.”
YHWH says to Israel, even through exile and captivity: I ...
Waiting
June 30, 2020
“Let’s remember that though we may have to wait and see, we never have to wait to be.”
- Emily P. Freeman, The Next Right Thing
Pulling into the parking lot, I notice the line - people dutifully positioned on lines taped onto the pavement. Girding myself to join the tail of the snake, I pull out my mask and step out, ready to inch forward, six feet at a time.
Nothing like a pandemic to teach you about waiting. We wait in line for groceries, at home in quarantine, for canceled appointments to be rescheduled and favourite restaurants ...
Idols vs. Icons: A Theology of Zoom Calls
June 25, 2020
I’ve been living in a box for the last three months. You know what box I’m talking about: that Zoom box. Seeing people in these Zoom boxes has become a defining image of this season for me. And I worry that I sometimes forget that each person is their own flesh and blood reality. They are not just images in a box, on a screen.
And this makes me reflect on the distinction the Church has made between idols and icons.
An idol is something or someone that you look at and it absorbs all your attention.
For example, in the Scriptures idols ...
Jesus Pooed
June 22, 2020
There is a tendency in Christians to be ashamed, prudish in discussing our bodily functions, our sexuality, our “fleshy”-ness. We prefer to see ourselves as ethereal souls and spirits…not wrinkled, pock-marked, near-sighted, pubic-haired creatures.
Yet at the very core of our faith is the Incarnation. The Creator and Sustainer of the universe came to us as a historical, fully human being: “The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us...” (John 1:14) - a fragile baby crying for his mother’s milk, a curious toddler tugging on his ...
Cancer
June 11, 2020
Our young adult discipleship group has been memorizing one verse a month, and a few weeks ago, one of the leaders offered 1 Corinthians 12:26 to memorize. About the body of Christ, the apostle Paul writes this, “If one part suffers, every part suffers with it; if one part is honoured, every part rejoices with it.”
The first part seems easy - I feel the suffering of those who suffer. But Paul isn’t talking about mere pity, or even empathy. He doesn’t say we “feel” suffering with our suffering brother or sister, he says we suffer. ...
COVID - 19 Response Plan
June 10, 2020
It has been an unusual and unprecedented time for us all. Although this pandemic has greatly affected the manner in which we have done church, it has not stopped us from still being church. Church is about more than a building or a service; Church is about a people. Especially now, even more so during these disruptive times, we will continue to be church.
The Province, under the BC Restart Plan, has begun to ease restrictions and gradually re-open businesses, schools, and social venues. What then is our response as the Tapestry Ch ...
Justice, not Just Us
May 28, 2020
“It’s not fair, mommy! If she gets to have a cookie, then I should get to have one too!”
Some of us have this idea of justice. Fighting for my rights, to get what I deserve, to get what others have.
If this was Jesus’ idea of justice, this almighty God would not have been born as a fragile baby to a poor teen mom. If this was Jesus’ idea of justice, this perfectly sinless, all powerful Lord of heaven and earth would not have subjected himself to a criminal’s death on the cross for our sake. If this was Jesus’ idea of justice, we would ...
How God Tends to Work: More on Unanswered Prayer
May 25, 2020
I just had a preach on unanswered prayer and there was just so much to say. One thought that I have been wrestling with that just didn’t make the cutting room floor was of how God seems to work in the world.
Sometimes I have heard God work suddenly or through these miracles. Sometimes I seen God work in coincidences that are just too perfect or too timely to be a coincidence. But JI Packer is quick to note on his book on prayer that How God tends to work is within the, “ordinary processes of ordinary life”1. In other words, Packer notes how ...
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