Sun. Oct. 28 (Barbara Nickel)

Barbara Nickel, former PGIMF attender and MSC resident, began with stories of the journeys of others ending in sudden and often unexpected death, and remarked on how these stories pointed to her good fortune, by contrast. Her deliberate, poetic message took us through her journey, touching on high points and low in her life, speaking as a mother of two little ones, wife to Bevan, daughter to her family, student, teacher, sufferer and happy spirit. With three litanies read together with the congregation, we all were invited to share her blessings, and to remember our own. [AP] Listen to the sermon audio MP3 recording from Sunday Oct. 28th using your browser's preferred media player.

Sun. Oct. 21 (Henry Neufeld)

Henry Neufeld began his talk by noting that when Paul told Timothy "All scripture is inspired by God", Paul was thinking only of the Old Testament works as being scripture, for the Christian canon (including his letters) would not be formed and agreed upon for another three centuries. Christians first needed to sift through numerous "gospels", "Acts" and letters, determining which were forgeries, which were misleading, and which were uniformly valid. The Anabaptist tradition is that the community of faith continually tests both scriptures and what is said about them, and this was in keeping with what the early Christian communities did. Until recently, believers encouraged a remarkably wide variety of allegorical interpretations of scriptures, for the tyranny of fundamentalism is a relatively recent phenomenon. Henry also stressed that reading several verses or even a chapter of scripture silently, in isolation, can cause us to miss hearing the texts in context-as vast sweeping texts about life rather than as legalistic points of law. Jesus orally reinterpreted, and some would argue even rewrote scripture ("You have heard it said . . . but I say unto you . . . .) Jesus wanted believers to get past scripture wars, and the first Christians sometimes succeeded (e.g., when deciding to set aside circumcision and dietary texts and laws). By contrast, modern Christians have been tempted by the idolatry of legalistic interpretations of isolated verses (in translation and out of context). It is therefore useful for us to remember that Paul's first letter to Timothy urged that all teachings should agree with the sound instructions of Jesus Christ. [JEK] Listen to the sermon audio MP3 recording from Sunday Oct. 21st using your browser's preferred media player.

Sun. Oct. 14 (J. Evan Kreider)

Evan Krieder spoke on Luke 17:11-19 regarding the story of the ten lepers who were healed, but only one of whom turned back to give thanks to God for the healing. Evan began with a Jewish prayer for healing, then moved through the passage in Luke, identifying how horrified the population was by lepers or anyone with skin conditions, and what steps were taken to separate them from clean society. The very people and places that would give succour to lepers were off limits to them. Jesus heals the lepers in the story, but does so at a distance, asking them to walk away, and to purify themselves at the temple to complete their healing. Yet one, and only one, a Samaritan, (foretelling God’s grace being opened to Gentiles in Acts) turned back to give thanks to God, and to Jesus. Jesus, with the stunning words “Your faith has made you well”completed the leper’s healing on the spot. Evan noted parallels between lepers going to the temple, and our practice of going to the hospital, also done in faith. Although this story is overtly about healing, it is does far more to illustrate gratitude to the grace of God. Though God’s grace is freely given to all, few remain grateful to God for long. Jesus could cure leprosy, but not even Jesus could cure ingratitude. We all know (or perhaps have felt ourselves) that we would do anything for healing, and we beg God for those chances, but how quickly we forget our promises - we remain untransformed. Yet some are transformed, and Evan pointed out how people even in our own congregation lived transformed lives of gratitude after life-threatening events. Evan led a response by the congregation by singing Now Thank We All Our God by Johann Crüger, written during the 30-years war when Crüger’s pastor was burying 40-50 people per day in a powerful time of grief. [AP] Listen to the sermon audio MP3 recording from Sunday Oct. 14th using your browser's preferred media player.