Have you ever had a theme day? Perhaps I should explain what I mean by “theme day”. A theme day is a day in which a similar set of circumstances continues to reoccur so that, even someone as unobservant as I, begins to see a pattern, and perhaps even a message.

Last week I had a theme day. It began with a call from my friend, Russ, in Ottawa. Russ used to attend Keele, but then he had to find a new church family as a result of relocating. It was great to hear from Russ and catch up with him. I left that conversation refreshed and encouraged.

Next was an email from a friend who used to attend Keele who now lives in Peterborough. Peter was studying in Mark and recalled that I had preached through Mark so he checked out our website and discovered our new sermon section. It was great to hear from Peter and I was deeply encouraged by the fact that he: 1) Remember that I once preached through Mark; and 2) was still interested enough in what I preached that he tried find it. But, what excited me most was that his tremendous hunger for the Word continues. There is no greater encouragement for a preacher than someone who understands the value of Scripture.

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How spiritual can a spiritual guide be if a spiritual guide doesn’t guide you to God? I realize it sounds very much like I am spiritualizing that insightful question which has confounded intellectuals for millennia, “How much wood can a woodchuck chuck, if a woodchuck could chuck wood?”, but I am not. My question has nowhere near the profundity of said woodchuck conundrum. To me the answer is pretty obvious. How spiritual can a spiritual guide be if the spiritual guide doesn’t guild you to God? The answer is: “not very”.

Still, that didn’t stop the Russian Orthodox Church from publishing a new spiritual guide, in association with Russia’s ruling party, that doesn’t mention God.

According to a recent Reuters article (say “recent Reuters” ten times and then continue), instead of God making it into the church’s new guide, justice, patriotism, and solidarity top the list of ‘Eternal Values.’ Gee, it sounds more like a ‘conduct guide’ published by a labour union than a ‘spiritual guide’ published by a church!

According to the daily newspaper Nezavisimaya Gazeta, the spiritual guide lists, in order of importance, in the eyes of the church and ruling party: 1. justice, 2. freedom, 3. solidarity, 4. unity, 5. self-restraint and sacrifice, 6. patriotism, 7. welfare and 8. Love. Can you believe that? It looks like they stopped at eight! If they extended the list to the ever popular ‘Top Ten’ format, God may have squeaked into the list, or, er, ah, maybe not.

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I have a dear friend who is a gifted musical-type person. Not only is she a music teacher, but she also is an able musical director, in fact, presently she is a choir director with a community choir in the West end of Toronto.

Now, I have had the occasion to hear glimpses of this choir as it has practised and it is truly a very gifted group of singers. They sounded rich and vibrant as their harmonies effortlessly blend together. This is a choir that would give the cast of Glee a run for their money!

Recently I asked my friend when the choir would give their first performance, with her as their director, and she commented that a public performance wasn’t on the horizon anytime soon. In fact, they probably won’t perform publicly this year at all.

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