Weekly Message from Reverend Mary White
Good Day and Blessings,
Most of us, especially if we have children in our life, have seen the movie “Finding Nemo”. If you want to know about the true character of ego, pay attention to the seagull scene. They, upon seeing Nemo’s dad, Marlin, and Dory on the wharf, began scuffling to get to the catch first. They were all calling out “mine, mine, mine, mine, mine, mine, mine, ....”. They had no consideration for the “other” in the flock, having a meal or survival was their main concern.
The ego is necessary for human babies to survive. They cry out demanding to be fed, changed or held. So, from the time of birth we have a lot of practice feeding our ego which for some the demand to be fed continues through their lifetime. But experiments have proven that humans are also born with empathy. When one newborn in the hospital nursery begins to cry, other babies will also cry.
There is a thin line between nurturing the ego and nurturing empathy in a young child. When we are taught that there is a Higher Power beyond ourselves, feeding the ego becomes less important and we are able to observe the “other” (including all creation) as equally significant in the cosmos.
With Love,
Rev. Mary White
2020 Annual Report is Now Available
Printed versions of our 2020 Annual Report are available upon request at the Church office. Please call 604-485-5724 in advance.
The Annual Congregational Meeting will need to be delayed until later in the year, with the hope that we can then meet in person.
Galatians 2:20 (MSG)
What actually took place is this:
I tried keeping rules and working my head off to please God, and it didn’t work. So, I quit being a “law man” so that I could be God’s man. Christ’s life showed me how and enabled me to do it. I identified myself completely with Him. Indeed, I have been crucified with Christ. My ego is no longer central. It is no longer important that I appear righteous before you or have your good opinion, and I am no longer driven to impress God. Christ lives in me. The life you see me living is not “mine,” but it is lived by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. I am not going to go back on that. Is it not clear to you that to go back to that old rule-keeping, peer-pleasing religion would be an abandonment of everything personal and free in my relationship with God? I refuse to do that, to repudiate God’s grace. If a living relationship with God could come by rule-keeping, then Christ died unnecessarily.
POEM • BETWEEN
Richard Skinner: Colliding with God.
God is in the ‘and’ of you and me.
Not you, not me; but you and me.
Do not think of a static God:
there is no static God;
only action and reaction,
activity and response,
movement and relationship,
the ceaseless flow
between you and me,
the interplay in which all cohere.
Do not think of a changeless God:
there is no changeless God.
Without change, there is no movement;
without movement, no relationship;
without relationship, no God.
The only constancy
is the constancy of change;
the moving out of all to all,
the flow and flux between
Blake’s flower and star.
Do not think of God beyond
or God within, but God between;
for in the going between
is the movement of relationship,
and in that movement there is God.
PRUC Online Worship Service
Please join us this Sunday, April 11th.
PRAYER
Life Giving Spirit
You fill our soul with Love which takes us beyond our ego into the fullness of life. May we always be conscious of all your creations, love without hesitation, and offer compassion without stipulations. Let us observe each other as family with acceptance of our diversities and being supportive through life challenges and changes. We pray in the name of the Resurrected One who journeys with us.
Amen