Are you a philanthropist? A generous giver?

               When you walk past a street busker, do you toss a loonie or a toonie in their case?

               Have you ever paid it forward in the line at Tim Horton’s?

Tell me the stories of Jesus I love to hear,

things I would ask him to tell me if he were here:

scenes by the wayside, tales of the sea,

stories of Jesus, tell them to me.

"Tell Me the Stories of Jesus" is a well known and much loved hymn. It is just over a century old. Written for the anniversary of a Baptist Sunday school in Bedford, Nottinghamshire, England, by William H. Parker, the hymn is associated with a tune published in 1905 by Friedrich Challinor.

Statistics Canada released some questionable data last week. It’s questionable, because Statistics Canada doesn’t have confidence in the data from the National Household Survey. That is because the government made a decision to make the census voluntary for 2011, as opposed to the mandatory nature of the previous census done in 2001.

The son of a friend of mine is studying at the Masters degree level in public policy at George Washington University in Washington, DC. As a project for

his statistics class, he wanted to test was that free and available broadband internet access would improve academic performance as measured by students' educational test scores.

Everyone, from his professor to his colleagues, liked the idea and thought the data would bear that out. It did not. Statistically, at least, it had a net effect of zero.

I hate it when the government of the day uses sleight of hand to present service cuts as service improvements. And I hate it even more when that sleight of hand affects a vulnerable population.

If you had listened carefully recently, the Minister of Health made a major funding announcement touting increased access to physiotherapy services, exercise and falls prevention classes in long term care homes and communities.

Easter 5

Year C

April 28 2013

Christ Church Anniversary

Is there anyone here who remembers when this community was nothing but fruit orchards?

Anyone remember the apple terminal on the rail line at Clarkson station?

When my family first moved to this end of Mississauga from Toronto in 1968, Erin Mills Parkway above the QEW was called Southdown Road. It was two lanes wide and ended at Dundas St.

There is a wonderful scene in the movie “Men In Black” where Tommy Lee Jones (Agent K), the old hand alien hunter, takes Will Smith, the eager recruit (Agent J), out onto the streets of New York to check the hot sheets. They visit a newsstand where an alien news vendor sells Jones a handful of the tabloids, with all their lurid reports of alien captures and two-headed cows.

               “THESE are the hot sheets?”, J asks.

Last week I talked about some of the uniforms we find around us and talked a bit about the uniform I wear. I received a couple of interesting responses.

               Most intriguing was someone who talked about the “uniform” of the poor.

               What are the other kind of uniforms we see in our society?

Recently I saw a member of the Canadian Forces in the grocery store. Not an unusual sight in Owen Sound, with the proximity to LFCA TC Meaford, but not an everyday sight, either.

What stood out, of course, was the member’s CADPAT camouflage uniform. It was immediately apparent who they were, what their job was, and if you knew exactly where to look, their name and rank.

More than a decade and a half ago I had the privilege of taking a ten day tour to the Holy Land. It included Galilee, Jerusalem and the Dead Sea, as well as several days in Jordan. It was an incredible life changing experience that has affected both my ministry and my preaching. I am glad I was able to go.

One of the most significant and moving moments was the time we spent in Jerusalem.

Three specific sites stand out for me and I was grateful that I was able to enter holy space, even for a short time.