Rev Chris Roth

         Matthew 17          Mark 9          Luke 9   Sometimes our ideas of who someone  is can overshadow the person . Sometimes we think we know someone well, but then we get new information that is hard to fit with our idea of who that person is. Maybe we find out the person has tattoos, or has been to jail. Sometimes our prejudice can cause us to be surprised when we learn that our cab driver actually has a PhD in Neurobiology. Our perceptions can sometimes overshadow the person.             Something similar happened to the Apostle Peter, who is often the spokesperson for the disciples. Just before our Gospel reading today (ch 9:18) we witness an interesting conversation between Jesus and the disciples. They are walking along the road and Jesus turns to his disciples and asks them "who do people say that the son of man is?" They ...

1 Cor 13:1-13- Love http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=1%20cor%2013&version=NIV             Sometimes we hear something so often that we stop hearing it. The words stop having meaning, or they have less of an effect on us.  When Crystal and I were first dating the words "I love you" had an incredible echo that just hung in the air for weeks. Now we can shoot those words as we walk out the door and we hardly remember if we said them. It's not that those words don't have any meaning for us, it's just that we are so used to the words that they don't ring in our ears the way they used to.               Something similar can happen when we mention the word "love" in Church. We say "love God";  "Love your neighbour"; or even "love your enemy" and the words sometimes seem to not have any weight- Probably because they are so familiar. So we read 1...