A Noble Theme

Hespeler, 31 December, 2017 © Scott McAndless Matthew 2:1-18, Isaiah 2:11-17, Isaiah 60:1-6 W e are used to hearing the Christmas story from certain viewpoints. We see it through Mary’s eyes or Joseph’s or maybe the shepherds. These are all valid ways to hear the story of the birth of the Messiah, of course, but sometimes it is not a bad idea to give a little bit of space to hear a dissenting voice. Not everyone was entirely happy with what happened that first Christmas. Why should the perspective of those people not be heard?       For example, what if I were to tell you that archeologists working in the Holy Land recently made a stunning discovery at the ancient site of the Herodium, a massive complex built by Herod the Great about five kilometres outside of Bethlehem as a luxurious palace and also, it is believed, to be his burial place. And let’s just say that somewhere in the depths of the ruins of the Herodium these archeologists found a huge cache of docum

The 11th Episode of the Podcast  "Retelling the Bible"  and the final episode of the first season came out earlier today During the first season of his podcast, storyteller, W. Scott McAndless is retelling the story of the nativity of Jesus from the Gospel of Luke, trying to help us to look beyond a literalistic interpretation and see how the author is using historical and biblical references. We hope this helps you  to hear the story more as the author may have intended. In this closing episode of the first season, our storyteller, W. Scott McAndless offers a new picture of Mary and Joseph walking down the road to Bethlehem given some new possibilities for understanding the journey that we have discovered in the first season of the podcast. Merry Christmas everyone! I encourage you to subscri be and to listen via one of these popular Podcasting apps. Each of the links below will take you to a page where you can subscribe: Itunes or Apple Podcast St

The centrepiece of our service on December 17, 2017 was a fantastic musical presentation by our choir and musical ensembles called "Christmas Through Many Voices." It was amazing and I am so very thankful to everyone who made it happen and to our Music Director Corey Linforth. As a part of the program, I contributed a few musings from the perspectives of minor characters in the Christmas Story. Luke 1:26-27       26  In the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent by God to a town in Galilee called Nazareth, 27 to a virgin engaged to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David. The virgin’s name was Mary.             Some Reflections from the point of view of Gabriel:       People think that I came to visit her all decked out in my full kit. You know, the wings, the glowing halo, the bleached white robes. I know that’s what people think; I have seen the pictures. But it really couldn’t be further from the truth and you’d realize it if you thought about it f

The 10th Episode of the Podcast  "Retelling the Bible"  came out earlier today During the first season of his podcast, storyteller, W. Scott McAndless is retelling the story of the nativity of Jesus from the Gospel of Luke, trying to help us to look beyond a literalistic interpretation and see how the author is using historical and biblical references. We hope this helps you  to hear the story more as the author may have intended. In today's episode,  Joseph ponders many things as Mary catches some sleep lying on the ground near the manger. He wonders about the strange report he heard from some shepherds earlier this evening and the meaning of the birth of his son and of the name that both he and Mary have chosen to give to him. I encourage you to subscri be and to listen via one of these popular Podcasting apps. Each of the links below will take you to a page where you can subscribe: Itunes or Apple Podcast Stitcher Google Play Podbean (h

Copyright © 2013 by W. Scott McAndless       The Gospel of Luke and the Gospel of Matthew have a great deal in common. They share much of the same material on the life and sayings of Jesus though they organize it somewhat differently. As far as we can understand from a study of the two texts, both Gospels were written independently (with neither making any reference to, nor apparently even having any knowledge of, the other) towards the end of the first century ce or perhaps even later.       Both gospels were written anonymously—with no names attached. It didn’t take the church very long to decide that they must have been written respectively by Matthew, one of Jesus’s twelve apostles, and Luke, an associate of Paul. But that is just tradition. The truth of the matter is that we really have no idea who might have written these books. All we have to help us to understand the interests, concerns and theological agendas of these two authors is what we find in the words they wr