Lake Country United Church

Welcome To each one of you, welcome to this page. No matter who you are, no matter where you’re at, no matter what you believe, no matter who you love, you belong here. Virtual Worship Service

by Traci Hubbard One Sunday a minister spoke about looking for signs of life, wander, and wonder wherever you are. After church, a little boy pulled the minister away from the crowd and quietly told him, "My dad is a road worker. I never wanted to believe that my dad was stealing from his job. But when I got home, all the signs were there and that’s the truth. I don’t even need to wonder about that.” The peculiar thing about sacred moments is they rarely look sacred at the be

Welcome To each one of you, welcome to this page. No matter who you are, no matter where you’re at, no matter what you believe, no matter who you love, you belong here. Virtual Worship Service

by Traci Hubbard Text: 1 Corinthians 15:35–58Colossians 2:15   We are people of expectations. We expect the alarm clock to go off… but hope it doesn’t. We expect the line at the grocery store to move fast… but choose the wrong one every time. And we expect that when we plant something, something good will grow. A man once said he planted a “low-maintenance garden.” He expected tomatoes. He got weeds and a family of raccoons. Expectations can disappoint us. But Easter invites

What is the best death according to you ? I think the best way to go is to die like my grandfather... he fell asleep and never woke up. Dying in your sleep is indeed said to be the best way to go. So , what do you consider the worst way to die ? Like my grandfather’s friends. Why ? How did they die ? They were in the car when Grandpa fell asleep.   There’s a phrase we sometimes use when someone cuts us off in traffic or ignores our advice: “Fine. Go your way.” Usually, what w

by Traci Hubbard   Driving to church this morning I caught a glimpse of my laugh lines in the rearview mirror and I thought, “I don’t remember anything being that hilarious.” There’s a quiet but stubborn belief many of us carry that somewhere else, some holier place, some better season, some more put-together version of ourselves, that is where we’ll finally meet the Divine. Not here. Not in traffic. Not in our messy kitchen. Not in the hospital waiting room. Not in the middl

by Traci Hubbard One day three men were walking along and came upon a raging, violent river. They needed to get to the other side but had no way of crossing the river. The first man prayed to God saying, "Please God, give me the strength, courage, and ability to cross this river." Poof! God gave him big arms and strong legs, and he was able to swim across the river in about two hours. Seeing this, the second man prayed to God saying, "Please God, give me the strength, courage

by Traci Hubbard It would take a lot of self-control to work at a bubble wrap company. Folks, every morning we wake up standing at a crossroads. One sign says, “Muck It Up.” The other says “Monk It Up.” Now “muck” is mud. It’s messy. It stains. It smells. And if you’ve ever stepped in it wearing stilettos, you know it spreads faster than butter on hot bread. But “Monk it up”? That’s different. That’s a life of intention, discipline, peace, and surrender. Each morning, and man

by TracI Hubbard Anyone who says a small thing, a small intention, cannot be effective has never been in bed with a Texas scorpion or mosquito. Holy Mystery, or as Barbara Brown Taylor names God, “MORE” has always initiated life giving change with one person or a small group of people that the world would view the most unlikely people to make a difference.   There is something humbling about realizing that Eternal LOVE rarely begins with a majority. She often starts with what

Traci Hubbard One morning a woman asked, “Mirror mirror on the wall, who’s the fairest of them all? The mirror replied,   "Don’t come any closer. Objects in the mirror are as worn out as they appear". Most of us treat mirrors like trusted friends — unless it’s early morning, and fluorescent lighting is involved. Then suddenly, the mirror feels more like a prophet telling uncomfortable truths. This morning is the first Sunday of Lent, and we will be taking an honest look into

I am going to begin this reflection with a confession: I went to see my therapist to talk about my ego. The session went very well. I am very much better than all of you today.  Not really, but I bet we have all met a few people who would say something like this. One Sunday when Anne Lamott was teaching her Sunday School Children’s class, she asked the question, “What’s the difference between God and me?” A child it their hand up and said, “God never thinks he’s me.” The ego

by Traci Hubbard There’s a quiet fear most of us carry that we don’t say out loud: What if this story doesn’t end   well? What if our prayer isn’t answered the way we hoped? What if the healing doesn’t come? What if the relationship doesn’t mend? What if the future looks smaller than we imagined? The Spirit thunders into our honest, human fear, when Paul writes, “If God is for us, who is against us? Nothing, no thing, no one in all creation will be able to separate us from th

By Traci Hubbard There is a kind of fun that leaves us tired, broke, and needing a nap. And then there is holy fun  — the kind that somehow fills our soul while we’re doing it. Holy fun is the laughter that sneaks up on us while we’re offering our gifts. It’s the joy that bubbles up when we are being exactly who Divine LOVE made us to be. It’s the lightness that comes when faith is not a burden, but a delight. And if we read the Gospels carefully, we realize something importa

Traci Hubbard                  What's the difference between Elon Musk and God? God doesn't think he's Elon Musk.   Proverbs 3:5–6 gives us one of the most quoted and least practiced verses in the Bible: Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not rely on your own insight. In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths.” We love this verse… right up until we have a plan. Because trusting the Divine is beautiful in theory, but in practice, we real

By Rev. Nancy Monteith Prayer: Gracious God, you pour out your Spirit on us and invite us to “come and see” the miraculous gifts of the community you have gathered.  Receive our thanks for your bountiful grace, as shown to us in Jesus Christ.  Speak through these words God and may they be received as a gift which may transform those hearing them today.  Amen How do we see?  You might automatically think well, with my eyes. Perhaps with our glasses.  Yet there are so many ways

by Traci Hubbard A teacher tells her class of young children that they should bring a symbol of their religion to class the next day, for the purposes of cultural enrichment. The next day, the teacher begins to go around the room, asking children to show what they brought. The first little boy says, "I'm Jewish, and this is a menorah! We light it to celebrate Hanukkah." "Very good!" says the teacher. Then, turning to the next student, "Now how about you?" The little girl stoo

By Traci Hubbard I am betting that most of us know that to get a squirrel to like us, all we have to do is act like a nut. Folks, there has always been a ton of misinformation floating around. Winston Churchill was brilliant in using misinformation to guide his enemies to the wrong places. In 1 Kings 3, we see that Solomon has become the king of Isreal and it appears that YHWH has handed him a blank check by asking, “What do you want?” Notice, this is not a Genie in a bottle

Bob Thompson               The last Sunday of the year – four days before the start of a new year. Always, at this time of year, talk turns to the resolutions we are going to make for the new year. Nowadays, the talk is mostly cynical – about how long it will be before we break those resolutions. But it isn’t necessarily a bad thing, to be thinking about New Years resolutions.               I looked up the origins for making New Years Resolutions, and the practice goes back a

By Traci Hubbard Have you ever been in the car with someone who drives like you have extra lives?  Let’s start with the obvious: Everyone loves the idea of love. We put it on mugs. We send heart emojis in our texts. We quote it at weddings. But actually, loving like Jesus ? This is where things get… complicated. Because Jesus doesn’t say, “Love people who agree with you, who are polite, emotionally healthy, and return your texts.” Nope. The map of Jesus’ ways has directions l

By Traci Hubbard This past Friday, I was in the Orchard Park Mall in Kelowna and saw a sign that read, “No Talkie until Coffee.”  I laughed and immediately thought this is something my daughter Sarah would say. So, why don’t we begin this reflection with the confession that most of us wake up somewhere on the spectrum between “Good Morning Sweet Life” and “Don’t talk to me until I’ve had my coffee.” A few years ago, my best friend and her husband purchased a piece of furnitu