Have you ever noticed that with junk food, you eat and eat, yet are never satisfied? But when you have a nutritious meal, you stop when you’ve had enough, and are content? Perhaps life is like that. We fill our days with one stimulus after another: texts, emails, e-shopping, computer games, YouTube videos and Uber eats. It’s all nice, but at the end of the day we wonder, where was the nutrition?
From time immemorial, people have turned to religion for spiritual nurture. For answers to questions like: What is important in life? What is right and good? Does my life even have meaning?
Christians believe life does have meaning, that God has taught us what is right and good and, in God’s eyes, everyone is important. That is the core message. Over the ages Christianity has wrapped that message in layers of dogma and ritual until it can barely been seen, then unwrapped it again to start afresh, repeating this cycle over and over.
At Bloor Street United Church, we confess to having our own layers of dogma and ritual, but we are mindful that they are only the wrappings, not the message! We welcome people who seek the message, and are not too fussed about they think of the wrapping. Please come and unwrap the message with us!
Laurie Gordon, Chair of Church Council