Hopewit

I take you back today to the wisdom of Solomon —but imagining that he’s writing his proverbs in the time of climate change. The passage in my Bible is called “Wisdom’s Rebuke,” and I’ve taken the liberty of retelling the passage as if Wisdom is the science on climate change—plus giving a nod to Micah’s admonition to please God through the practice of justice, mercy and humility.  So what follows is a paraphrase of Proverbs 1: 20-33. You can read the NIV Bible’s version of the passage by clicking here. https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Proverbs+1&version=NIV Wisdom’s Rebuke On radio, television, newspapers, books, the internet and on the street, those who have learned and understand the potential consequences of climate change warn people repeatedly, emphatically. They declare in detail what floods and storms, fires and drought will do to us all, but the question they begin to shout most loudly is this: “How long will you who just don’t get it clin...

“ Then God said, ‘Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness, so that they may rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, over the livestock and wild animals, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.’ “So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.” (Genesis 1, 26 & 27, NIV) We could talk endlessly about the Judeo-Christian creation allegory in Genesis, could look at how “humankind” today is reflected in the mythical history of origins as the writers of that sacred text visualized it. We could even go to the internet and type in “man creates god” and be led to all kinds of sources that contend that “man created God in his own image; in the image of man created he God.” Either way, we would hit on the basic question, what then is mankind that his image should reflect God, and what is God that his nature and being is the template for mankind? I’m thinking today about only on...

Commemorative moccasin vamps beaded by Crystal Albanese, photo from WWOS website. Yesterday, I walked a “trail of tears” with many others at Batoche East Village. Walking With our Sisters commemorates with heart-breaking, yet heart-healing symbolism the grief over Indigenous girls and women whose lives have been stolen. It began with a smudging high on the East bank of the South Saskatchewan where we began a walk down to the water and back along a red-ribbon path with 1600 pairs, or more, of beaded moccasin vamps, each pair commemorating in its incompleteness the truncated lives now held only in memory. We each carried a small packet of tobacco to offer up with our prayers for the lost sisters at the end of our walk. I thought about symbol and ritual; I wondered about the meaning for me of symbols and rituals deeply meaningful to Indigenous neighbours but unfamiliar and new to many of the participants in the walk. In a small way, I felt sorrow at my comparative inabilit...

My novel has arrived here and at Amazon.ca. Book launches are planned for the near future and times and places will be communicated when firm.  Isaac Janssen, MDiv George G. Epp ISBN 978-0-2288-1531-0 Inquiries: gg.epp41@gmail.com 306-212-7741

. . . and may there be no moaning of the bar when I put out to sea. (Gros Morne Fjord, Nfld/Lab) What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if someone claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save them? Suppose a brother or a sister is without clothes and daily food. If one of you says to them, “Go in peace; keep warm and well fed,” but does nothing about their physical needs, what good is it? In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead. But someone will say, “You have faith; I have deeds.” Show me your faith without deeds, and I will show you my faith by my deeds. You believe that there is one God. Good! Even the demons believe that—and shudder. (James 2:14-18 NIV) I’ve learned that the James that wrote this Apostolic letter was likely Jesus’ half brother, was a significant actor in the early Jerusalem church along with Peter and others, and that the letter was probably written around 50 A.D. Also, that it probably prece...

Tomorrow is a book yet to be written So you’re one of those people a portion of the general population would include under headings like lefty, liberal (as in ‘candy-as**d liberal’), snowflake, or even ‘libtard’ (liberal+retard) and you’re already used to the epithets that come so easily to the tongues of the contards, conosaurs (conservative+dinosaur), right-wingers, fascists, luddites.      So you’ve ended up with a brother-in-law who’s anti-immigration, is a climate-change denier, pipeline booster and tends toward borrowed rhetoric from pro-life, anti-vaxxers, anti gay marriage people and--you'll never get this--worships Donald Trump.      So now you’re on your way to a family reunion at a retreat centre somewhere in southern Saskatchewan and you’ve still got two hours of driving ahead of you and you’re already dreading the inevitable exchange of monologues that go nowhere, make the hair on your neck bristle and leave a bad taste that linger...