Book 7 of 2021 Time Now For The Vinyl Cafe Story Exchange

Last Monday Patty and the girls came back from the library and announced "we got you a book". And so I had a chance to read a book I am not sure I ever knew existed.

For years I would try to have CBC radio on Sundays to listen to the Vinyl Cafe. Like many others I especially took care to listen in December for the Christmas episodes. By far my favourite part of the series was the story telling. Stuart McLean was a masterful story teller, and I could not wait to hear the latest adventures of Dave and Morley.

But McLean also liked other people's stories. I remember listening to him tell the stories that had been submitted for the story exchange portion of the show. "Have to be short, have to be true." This book is a collection of some of the stories submitted. As I read them I could almost hear Stuart's voice, his timing, his inflection, in my head sharing these tales.

The stories moved me to chuckles, or choked me up. They were a great read.

Book 6 of 2021 Virus as a Summons to Faith: Biblical Reflections in a Time of Loss, Grief, and Uncertainty

 I seem to have missed this one when it came out last year. But I am glad I happened upon it now. In this collection of Scriptural Reflections Brueggemann pushes us to use Scripture (particularly Hebrew Scripture in this case) as a tool to reflect on where God is and how God is leading us in the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic.

It strikes me that many of these reflections would have wisdom in the midst of other crises as well.

There are parts or this little book that I will need to reread. The reflection on Psalm 77 and the move from self to God I should probably read annually.  In fact I am tempted to read it as a sermon some Sunday (or at least preach  sermon that is heavily informed by what Brueggemann has to say).

The last couple of reflections on the new thing God is doing and the process of birthing a new world are what we need to hear over and over again as we live in this world where God has created and is Creating and is constantly re-creating.  There is a big push in the province where I live to declare the crisis over so we can get back to the way things were before. As a species and as communities we can be very good at avoiding the new thing that is being created and birthed in our midst. We want to avoid the labour pains and loss that come with the birth. Whether it is driven by the pandemic, or by climate change, or by work for racial/sexual/gender equality, or by economic justice concerns (and some of those may interlink) the world is groaning, the pains are beginning. We may be able to ignore or avoid them for a while longer, but the newness is coming eventually.