February 16, 2025
A Small Devotion: Something Sacred

We have cancelled worship this Sunday because of a foreboding weather forecast. It seems like there is a lot of ‘foreboding’ these days, and it’s easy to get caught up in the chaos and angst of it all, weather being about the least of it. This Sunday’s service was to be the opposite of that chaos and angst, a celebration of music through 100 years of the United Church of Canada, and we will be pleased to share that service with you sometime in the spring. The service is based on a new book called “Something Sacred: Reflections on Music and Faith”.

Something Sacred is a collection of prayers, study guides and devotions about how music has shaped some of our influential United Church leaders including moderators, members of General Council, professors of theology, ministers and music directors, among others. Something Sacred has come out just prior to the anticipated release of our new digital hymnbook “Then Let Us Sing”, a compilation of old and more recent familiar hymns and new hymns that will sing us into a new century. For anyone interested in what “Then Let Us Sing” is all about, here is a link to a YouTube video discussion and sampler, you’ll find lots of new music there that reflects the changing demographics of our ever-evolving church. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lctNmthl33A

Today’s devotion is taken from Something Sacred and was prepared by Walter Farquharson, who is a former UCC moderator, a minister, a hymn writer and an avid gardener, who is from Saskatchewan.

Walter writes: “Martin Luther, one of the foremost leaders of what is now called the Protestant Reformation, was often obsessed with the idea that he and his contemporaries were living in the last days before the final Day of Judgment. One day a precocious student challenged the great teacher asking “if you knew beyond doubt that tomorrow would bring that day, what would you do today?”  Luther paused, then answered quietly, “I should plant my young apple trees”. Those words were captured in a book entitled ‘A Christian in East Germany’ in the 1960’s and became a source of hope, faith and call for many Christians in East Germany who had survived the oppression of the Nazi regime and were now enduring the tyranny and suppression of the East German Communist state.

Walter goes on to say “My parents farmed in an area of the Canadian prairies where trees weren’t part of the landscape. My father planted and tended extensive shelterbelts of trees and grew an orchard with hardy apples, plums, and apricots. Planting young trees every spring was a sacred ritual – a holy act of hope, faith and love. My memories of my childhood and youth became, and remain, interwoven with the story of Luther’s young apple trees. Whatever tomorrow may hold, however frightening or overwhelming it may seem, all and everything we are called to do is to love – to love God and God’s creation, to love our neighbours be they friend or stranger, and to let that love take shape in whatever seemingly inconsequential and mundane tasks lie before us”.

Walter concludes by reminding us that “Facing all the uncertainties of what lies ahead, Jesus repeatedly says, “Love One Another”.” Here is a link to one of Walter’s beautiful hymns, “Teach Me God to Wonder”, one of my personal favorites. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oVGEkrZz9Ok

Take care everyone, and I hope to see you all at the AGM after church next Sunday!

JoAnne Fletcher, chair of council

         "A Village Church With A Heart For The World"

Christ United Church

12 Perth St., Lyn, ON, K0E 1M0
(613)498-0281 (Phone)   (613)498-2589 (Fax)


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