forest hill Musings -- weekly reflections on Scripture
Musings -- weekly reflections on Scripture
I began writing these short essays for our weekly e-newsletter. They served two purposes: First, they gave me an initial run at the Scripture that I would be preaching on -- an opportunity to start thinking about the spiritual and life questions that the sermon might address. Second, they serve as advertising; an invitation to folks to join us on Sunday morning and see how my thinking has developed between the first take on my questions and the final sermon that gets delivered.
We've started collecting these at this website so that people who aren't already subscribed to our newsletter can get a sense of what's coming up in worship. Feel free to check back weekly to see the reflection for the week, or click here to subscribe to our email newsletter and have these delivered into your inbox every Friday
Rev. Stephen Fetter
July 06, 2025
Fourth Sunday after Pentecost
“The Price of Healing”
Out of the mists of time comes this Sunday’s dramatic miracle story about the healing of an enemy general.
This story has all the elements of a wonderful legend: the proud General whom everyone fears; the life-threatening illness that reminds us that even the powerful are subject to the laws of nature; the intervention by a humble slave girl and a miracle worker who won’t even deign to meet his patient in person. Healing happens when humility is served, and we’re left marvelling that a couple of “nobody’s” can make a difference when the wise fail.
June 29, 2025
Third Sunday after Pentecost
Celebration of Communion
"For Freedom ..."
“For freedom Christ has set us free. Stand firm, therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery.”
(Galatians 5:1)
When you read that verse alone, without the context of the rest of the letter to the Galatians, it could mean almost anything. And indeed “freedom” has become such an important political buzz word in America that it’s hard to shift away from what it means in an activists’ chants. For the left, “freedom” in America has come to mean an end to domination by the wealthy white class that prevents people of colour from having the opportunities they deserve. For the right, “freedom” in America has come to mean an end to the government telling people what to do and what to think. The two camps talk past each other, both treasuring the word and yet expecting entirely different outcomes. Sometimes the conflict even gets violent – both sides appealing to this Bible verse; both sides accusing the other of oppression and lack of patriotism.
June 22, 2025
Second Sunday after Pentecost
"Advice to a Young Church"
“There is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male and female; for all of you are one in Christ Jesus.” (Galatians 3:28)
It’s a pretty sweeping statement! But what exactly does it mean? Does it mean simply that God loves you, whether you’re a Jew or a Greek? Or does it mean that we shouldn’t treat one set of people as having more worth than the others, any more than God does?
In other words, is this just about how God treats us, or about how we ought to treat each other? The scholars don’t agree, and we can’t just reach out and ask the author what he meant! But given that big swatches of the letter to the Galatians are criticizing Paul’s opponents who insist that people have to become Jewish in order to be Christian, I’m siding with the scholars who think this ought to be as much about us as it is about God.
Read more: Musings June 22, 2025 -- "Advice to a Young Church"
June 15, 2025
Trinity Sunday
Outdoor Service
A Song of Praise to the Maker
It’s our Outdoor Service this week – an opportunity to move outside the walls of our Sanctuary and reflect on the world we live in. And Psalm 8 is a perfect text for the day – a celebration of God the Creator, and our human role within the length and breadth of all that is made.
Read more: Musings June 15, 2025 -- A Song of Praise to the Maker
June 1, 2025
Seventh Sunday of Easter
celebrating the Ascension
A New Future
The Acts of the Apostles opens with an odd story of the Risen Jesus floating away into the clouds, leaving his disciples with the promise that more would be revealed in the days to come. It’s hard to imagine what those disciples might have seen. Did he rise up like a rocket ship? Float like a balloon? Vanish like Captain Kirk in a transporter beam?
And once he was up in the clouds somewhere, where did he go? Is that where God lives? For people like the writer of Acts who trusted that God lived in the sky, this is a way of picturing Jesus moving from our Earthly realm and into God’s; but for those of us who imagine planets and stars in outer space, instead of angels and harps above the clouds, the events are harder to visualize.
What does this story mean? What is the author trying to tell us? What changes in Jesus – or in his disciples – as Jesus’ former students move through the time between the resurrection on the first Easter Sunday, and Pentecost when the church is empowered by the Holy Spirit?