Hard Truths

John Chapter 3 Verse 16 has been called "The Gospel in a Nutshell". Familiar to many, but do these words of healing and reconciliation have meaning today? As we think about our own history and some of the darkness that continues to divide and oppress, we are grateful for faithful witness from our ancestors. Faithful but flawed, the sermons of the Rev'd Alexander MacLaren (11 feb 1826 - 5 may 1910) have something important to tell us. And so too the stories and memories of our First Nations brothers and sisters. Stories of tragic loss like "Seven Fallen Feathers" by investigative journalist Tanya Talaga. And stories like "Children of God" currently playing at the Citadel Theatre - a play that honours the resilience and the power of our first nations people in the face of injustice and loss.

John 3:14-21

¹⁴ Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, ¹⁵ that everyone who believes may have eternal life in him.”

¹⁶ For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. ¹⁷ For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. ¹⁸ Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son. ¹⁹ This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but people loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. ²⁰ Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that their deeds will be exposed. ²¹ But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what they have done has been done in the sight of God.