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
January 4, 2026
Guest Speaker: Rev. Cynthia Stretton
"Holy Time"
On January 4th we will share in worship together.
As I write this, the theme of time overwhelms my spirit. In this season of Advent-waiting, then on to Christmas which will go by in
a flash! Have you ever just stopped to experience time?
To bask in a God Moment. Join me on the first Sunday of the new year to reflect on Holy Time. In this season of gift giving
consider giving that which costs you nothing monetarily… the gift of time.
Oh, and so you might know me I am Rev. Cynthia Stretton.
The year 2026 marks my 40th anniversary of ordination. Those years of ministry have flown by.
I am looking forward to spending some spiritual time with you in January.
May God bless you, your family, and friends with blessings.
And may you be a blessing for someone else.
Rev. Cynthia R. Stretton
December 24, 2025 7:30 pm
Candlelight Communion
Fragile Beginnings
Luke 2:1-14
Human babies are so fragile!
Baby horses wobble to their feet within minutes of birth. Baby birds emerge from the egg with vigour and fanfare, squawking with insatiable hunger, and pushing each other out of the way. But baby humans can’t even hold up their own heads. It takes almost year before their first tentative steps; and even longer before they can communicate more their most basic needs. We humans are born utterly and completely dependant on the love and care that surrounds us; we can do nothing for ourselves.
As a new parent, I was humbled by my babies’ vulnerability, and terrified that I would not rise to the task. As a preacher, I am awestruck that God would accept this level of risk to set the world to rights. In what universe could it possibly make sense to give up cosmic power and entrust the salvation of the world to untried teenagers camping out in a filthy stable?
Had God really intended to bring peace on Earth, surely there were more effective ways to whip us into shape? Surely a few well-placed words in the ears of those who ruled the world would have been amplified by imperial reach and authority? Surely God could have repaired evil by punishing transgressors without any need to run the risk that the message would be misunderstood, or forgotten, or ignored?
December 21, 2025
"A Time for Decisions"
We know virtually nothing historical about Joseph. He is named in Jesus’ birth stories in both Luke and in Matthew, and then is never seen again. By the time Jesus is an adult, the stories describe Jesus as the son of “Mary”, not the son of “Joseph”, suggesting that by that time Joseph had been dead for a long time. The only reference to a father in the stories of the adult Jesus are when people in Nazareth call him “the carpenter’s son,” but even there the “carpenter” is not named.
Many things, clearly, are lost in the mists of time, because the gospel writers didn’t share our passion for historical detail! They wrote to persuade us that Jesus’ message was worth paying attention to, and details that didn’t serve their purpose got left on the cutting room floor.
That hasn’t stopped the tradition from filling the air with speculation. Some have portrayed Joseph as a fine cabinet maker, running an important shop and managing lots of employees. But the Greek word that our English bibles translate as “carpenter” is much more general and humble than this; it’s more likely that Joseph was simply a builder – the sort of person who hired himself out to help make woodsheds and animal enclosures because his family didn’t even have as much land as a farmer-peasant. Some paintings portray Joseph as an old man when Jesus was born, which is a common explanation for why he doesn’t appear in stories of Jesus as an adult. Or maybe Joseph died in an accident, or of a terrible disease, or was slain by a Roman soldier in one of the innumerable times that Romans put down rebellion. Peasant-life in the first century was brutal, short and dangerous. We simply don’t know.
But Matthew’s story of Jesus’ birth tells us three interesting things about Joseph, which really do describe something important about what God was doing through Jesus. It’s worth paying attention to what Matthew says – if not for any possible historical details, than for some valuable theology. Unlike in Luke’s gospel where Mary is the key figure, in Matthew’s gospel, Joseph is held up as an example of how God works through a faithful human to bring salvation to the Earth. We catch a glimpse of what faithfulness looks like, and the impact it has, by exploring Matthew’s descriptions.
December 14, 2025
"A Time for Singing"
The passages that churches around the world are reading for this third Sunday of Advent speak of the future God promises. The reading from Luke’s gospel is Mary’s song, when she celebrates how God “has brought down the powerful from their thrones and lifted up the lowly” in calling her to bear the baby Jesus.
The reading from Isaiah gives us another snapshot of a world transformed. Here is a glimpse of God’s purpose for Creation from the beginning until now; the same purpose that Jesus’ coming was intended to further: “Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf shall be opened; then the lame shall leap like a deer, and the tongue of the speechless sing for joy.”
December 7, 2025
"A Time to Turn Around"
John the Baptist must have been a scary man: weird clothes, bugs for breakfast, and fire in his belly. People who are willing to put everything on the line for their faith are frequently compelling, and John clearly drew a following. For all his oddities, he articulated the complaints of his generation with clarity, precision and passion, and they turned out by the thousand to listen to his message and be baptised.
And what a message it was! God is on the way to set things right, he preached. Watch out! Particularly if you’re powerful; particularly if you’re supporting the ones who are running things now; particularly if you’re profiting from the Roman regime, watch out! The axe is about to fall! None of this is going to last, and God’s vengeance is about to strike. Be sure you’re on the right side when that happens.
It’s impossible to know exactly what “baptism” meant for John. Clearly it was some kind of cleansing ritual – a symbolic washing away of the things that impede God’s work. But it was probably also a re-enactment of the Entry into the Promised Land – a symbolic reminder that God who heard the cries of slaves in Egypt was also hearing the cries of oppressed people under the current Roman rule. Those Israelites from Egypt walked through the Jordan River to get to their new home; John took them out to the borders of the Promised Land so they could walk through the same river all over again. Baptism was probably initiation into a movement that was preparing to take up arms when God’s armies arrived. Maybe he even thought that if enough people got committed in this way, it would encourage God to act sooner.