Pastoral Letters
Lakeview United Church
Seeking Spiritual Renewal and Growth in a Caring, Affirming Community...
January / February 2026
SOME NEWS FROM YOUR PEWS (or, how I see it)
Greetings and salutations to all of you as we come into the month of February in 2026 – and now we all wonder what this month will hold for us. Hopefully it’s filled with needed exercise, getting back to those nutritious meals, and offering yourselves those times of reflection and of restful periods.
I feel that I need to share some theological thoughts with this message in that I’ve had so many things dancing in my head over the last many days and it’s sometimes easier to put in down on paper…so…theology. I’ve always believed that God doesn’t speak English…or any other language for that matter. God only speaks through experience, through love and compassion, and sometimes the words that ministers speak may be the medium God uses to speak through those experiences. And this may be why God lets both the wheat and the weeds grow side-by-side in our lives. God wants them both there to speak through. Sometimes the weeds may be as necessary as the wheat. And truthfully, in my own life and probably many of yours, it’s the weeds God speaks through, though maybe that’s because there’s more of them. God would feel a little bit limited, I think, having to speak only through the occasional grain of wheat. Kind of reminds me of a story of Jacob the Baker.
“A neighbour of Jacob’s needed to start on a journey, but it was the middle of
the night. Afraid to begin, afraid not to begin…he came to Jacob. “There is no
light on the path,” he complained. “Take someone with you,” counseled Jacob.
“Jacob, what do you mean? If I do that, there will be two blind people.” “You are
wrong, “said Jacob. “If two people discover each other’s blindness, it is already
growing light.”
And with the season of Epiphany ending the month of January and filling in the first half of February and then bringing us into the Lenten season, hopefully some of the words which I share with you shine a little light in your lives as we sometimes wander through those dark places and hopefully the weeds and the wheat can grow together and share their stories of life.
Prayer time:
O God of promise, what does it take for us to listen to you, the gardener, as you look upon your crops of weeds and wheat? Are you the gardener or are you the one who teaches each of us how to use the tools? Are we sometimes just as stubborn to let the weeds take over instead of bearing fruit? So, we say ‘thank-you’ for another chance…another spring…another vision of hope as we stumble along in trying to be your whole people. Bless us as we feed each other and in turn – are fed…Amen.
Blessings of love and peace to all of you….The Rev. Jope Langejans