NUDGINGS: a journey into the unknown

I can remember when I could eat ANYTHING, whenever I wanted to, and still sleep through the night. Those were the days! The new reality is that unless I want to wake up in the wee hours of the morning with indigestion, there are certain foods that I just don’t partake of … or if I do, then I make sure to take that pill that guarantees to relive indigestion and heartburn and then I can sleep through the night! First of all I have to discover just what the culprit food is and then I can takes steps, [or not] to delete it from my diet. But this is something that I do almost without thinking; dealing with the cause of my physical discomfort is almost automatic. But have you even experience this ‘heartburn’ for a non-physical reason? And if you have, what have you done about it? These were the questions that challenged me from a recent sermon. The disciples in ‘The Road to Emmaus’ story also had ‘heartburn’ for as reported in Luke, they said “Were not our hearts burning within us…?...

A friend and I were talking.  "I don't have much of a life",  said my friend.  "Neither do I",  I replied. I can't remember what else was said that afternoon over our coffee, but this exchange has stayed with me. So the question I have been asking myself  since is "Why? Why has this particular part of our conversation stayed with me? What did it mean to each of us, but especially to me?   In truth, by some people’s standards, it might seem that I don’t have much of a life.  There are no trips anywhere, let alone to to exotic places where the sun is warm and the beaches inviting. I don’t head away to a second home in the south during the cold winter months. There is no extensive wardrobe, no 6 bedroom house –with two or three cars in the garage, no round of high-end socializing.  So judging by the world’s standards, I was perfectly right! My life sucked! I think that the reason this exchanged has stayed with me for the length of tim...

“For when two or three are gathered in my name, I am there among them” Matthew 18:20 (NRSV) This has to be one of the best known quotations from the Bible in today’s society, even among those who don’t profess any religious affiliation.  Within the walls of the institutional church, I have heard it evoked many times to excuse the lack of attendance at study groups, quiet days, evensong, mid-week services, etc. It is used almost like a mantra to assure ‘us’ that things are still OK. A mantra, by the way, I don’t think we really believe. In the story from Luke “The Road to Emmaus”, the writer has this line: “Then their eyes were opened, and they recognized him…” Luke 24:31[a] The’ they’ in this story were two people. No apologizes for the lack of numbers.  In the last minutes of a sermon I heard recently  this comment was made,  “It was done in community, a community of three”.  Funny how these little comments, not the main points of a sermon, are of...

“Where is your home?” I heard a sermon this past winter that ended with this question ''Where is your home?" … and it has stayed with me ever since. The on-line dictionary says that “home is a place where one lives permanently, a residence, a dwelling or an institution for people needing special care.” One friend of mine says her home is by the sea, while another says hers is in the Far East. Both of them live in southern Ontario, but have a feeling of coming home when they visit those places. What has me thinking is just what it is that makes them feel at home … and why. I would hazard a guess that it is a feeling of comfort, of belonging, in that particular milieu. As I searched the internet, I came across these quotes of definitions of ‘home’: “Home means sanctuary.” “Home for me means total acceptance.” “Home is a soft place to land.” “I work at a non-profit organization serving the homeless and they have taught me that home is where yo...