“Then the one who had received the five talents came forward, bringing five more talents, saying, ‘Master, you handed over to me five talents; see, I have made five more talents.’ His master said to him, ‘Well done, good and trustworthy slave; you have been trustworthy in a few things; I will put you in charge of many things; enter into the joy of your master.’”—Matthew 25:20–21 When I was in Grade 7 or 8, all of us at R.G. Sinclair Elementary School were summoned to the gym to hear the Frontenac High School Senior Band play for a thing ... Read more

And while they went to buy it, the bridegroom came, and those who were ready went with him into the wedding banquet, and the door was shut. Later the other young women came also, saying, ‘Lord, lord, open to us.’ But he replied, ‘Truly I tell you, I do not know you.’ Keep awake, therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour. (Matthew 25: 10-13) One of my two kids always regarded my competence with suspicion. Okay, a whole lot of suspicion. From the moment they had enough words, I was regularly grilled. “How do you know that?” ... Read more

“The Lord said to Moses, ‘Go down at once! Your people, whom you brought up out of the land of Egypt, have acted perversely; they have been quick to turn aside from the way that I commanded them; they have cast for themselves an image of a calf and have worshiped it and sacrificed to it and said, “These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt!”’” (Exodus 32:7–8) “Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is ... Read more

Trashing God’s House: Parables, Orange Shirts, and the Harvest We Owe

Then Peter came and said to him, “Lord, if my brother or sister sins against me, how often should I forgive? As many as seven times?” Jesus said to him, “Not seven times, but, I tell you, seventy-seven times.”(Matthew 18:21–22) “And forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us.”(Matthew 6:9–13) Step 4: Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves.Step 5: Admitted to God, to ourselves, and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs.Step 9: Made direct amends to such people wherever possible, except when to do so would injure them or ... Read more

  Back when I was a student, I had a part-time job working at a Mac’s Milk. It wasn’t what anyone would call a ‘good’ job. It was boring, it paid minimum wage, and I was required to wear an undeniably ugly red polyester smock. It was also a little weirdly unsafe because I had to work the overnight shift. Mac’s was staffed 24/7 back then, and the store where I worked was on Princess Street, situated directly across from a Timmies that served as the informal gathering spot for a local motorcycle club. Now, I know very little about ... Read more