Weekly wonderings

This week we have an interesting confluence in our service as we come to the fifth session of the "We Declare" series on Pentecost Sunday.  We both celebrate the coming of the Holy Spirit to everyday people in a new, dramatic way, and look at how we bear witness to what we have seen, heard and believe in a secular age.   All around us there are people who have very different experiences of God and the the church. Some believe in ways similar to ours, some have come to believe God is calling them to different beliefs and practices, and some don't even believe that God exists.  How do we speak our truth into these diverse situations? How do we respect our siblings, God's other beloved children, while holding diametrically opposing views from theirs? What role does the Holy Spirit play as we look for answers to these questions?  As we read the stories and letters that make up the New Testament we see different approaches to sharing the good news of God's love, inca...

  This Sunday we turn our attention to the New Testament.  What can we learn about sharing what we have seen and heard and experienced, from reading the New Testament?  What is the "Good News!" we find there? The short answer is, as it is to any good churchy question, "Jesus!" Jesus is the answer. Jesus is the Way the Truth and the Life. Jesus is God with us. Jesus is the good news.  Jesus is the reason we feel called to share our faith with others. In Luke 4:16-30 we read about Jesus' first recorded sermon. On a regular day of worship in his home town of Nazareth, Jesus reads from Isaiah the promise of Good News to the poor, the blind, the oppressed, then proclaims that prophecy as being fulfilled. Jesus did not call people to a whole new religion, but to the fulfilment of the hope of their current beliefs. Jesus did not call people to a whole new set of rules to determine who was in and who was out, but to the love, peace and justice God had been proclaiming f...

  In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.... And  so begins the story of God's relationship with the earth and, a few verses later, with humankind, who were made in God's image. From the very beginning we were made for relationship with God and God keeps reaching out to us. We keep making mistakes and messing things up, and God keeps calling and welcoming us back. This is the story of the Bible.  This is the good news God offers. God keeps reaching out. Too often we write off the Hebrew Bible, or Old Testament, as irrelevant once Jesus came on the picture. Jesus, himself, however, said that he was the fulfilment, not the annulment, of all the went before. Jesus is the embodiment of God's love for and compassionate call to humankind, shared through story, poetry, prophesy, and song in the Old Testament. Often, when we try to read the Old Testament stories, we get caught up in the violence, in ancient cultural and scientific understandings that are so f...

  This week Jon Olfert from Camp Valaqua will be joining our congregation and offering his reflections on Isaiah 40:27-31: Have you not known? Have you not heard? The  Lord  is the everlasting God,      the Creator of the ends of the earth. (verse 28 NRSV)     and   ...those who wait for the  Lord  shall renew their strength ;   (verse 31a NRSV)  This is a beautiful poem encouraging those who are weary - due to their health, or obligations, or situation or to another of many causes. If we trust God, wait for God's timing, we will be sustained and may even see something good emerge.  Over the past few years many of us have grown weary - of ever changing information and regulations around COVID19, and of all the controversy and vitriol the differences in view have caused. Many wonder if we can ever get back to just being neighbors and friends, especially with those who held an opposing view. Some of us wonder if th...

 In this second week of the Mennonite Church Canada Study Guide, we are reminded that sometimes even well meaning, caring people bring bad news while thinking they are sharing good. We are called to share good, exciting, life giving news, not the harsh arrogant judgements that people have sometimes tried to pass off as the gospel.  So how can we make sure that we share is the message God is calling us to give? The scripture readings for this week are: Luke 10:25-37 (The story of the Good Samaritan); Galatians 2:9-21 (a telling of a time when the good news turned bad for some) Ephesians 2:11-22 (a reminder that it is Jesus that makes the news good, that is our peace) and 2 Timothy 1:5-14 (a reminder to Timothy that his faith has been passed on by Paul, but also by his mother and grandmother, and is a source of comfort and strength and courage) Through the stories and letters of the Scripture passages we hear about love, of family and of those who are "other", outside our usual...

  Over the next few weeks we will be working through material provided in preparation for Mennonite Church Canada's national assembly.  This is a gathering open to people from Mennonite congregations across the country interested in joining together to connect, to worship, to study, and to discern together. This year the theme is "We Declare...what we have seen and heard" (based on  1 John 1:3). What is it that we have to declare? What do we have to say that is relevant in this day and age? How do we share our experience in a way that is sensitive to those around us and true to the Gospel we have received? As it says in the provided material: "How can we speak of our faith in a society of many faiths and no faith, ...claiming and living out a good news that is truly good news for humanity and all creation..."  The Scripture passages for this week include Mark 1:14-15, Acts 1:6-8, 4:20, 1 Peter 3:15-16, 1 John 1:1-4. These passages are calls to, and testimonies o...