Sun. Jan. 27, 2008 (Janet Boldt)

Janet Boldt spoke on the general theme of “Suffering and Worship”. Even though suffering is common for Christians in Africa, this Sunday they are focusing on worship through serving—health, orphanages, food, unemployment, depleted land, refugees. “The people walking in darkness have seen a great light” (Isaiah 9) refers to people changing their point of view. We tend to think that suffering, death and dying are unacceptable themes unless fictionalized in literature and movies. Even though we know of suffering everywhere, we have no tears. Instead, we often feel numbness and helplessness. This means that we, like the people mentioned by Isaiah, need to change our point of view. North Americans are terrified of terrorists, shootings in public places, and unwanted immigrants, so we live in gated communities and create walls of fear as we seek security. Yet our fellow Christians in Africa—who have more to fear than we—call us to worship, not fear, to change our point of view, to repent and believe. The lectionary gospel reading from Matthew 4 told of the temptations Jesus faced in the wilderness. For each temptation (fear of suffering hunger, loss of face, loss of power or control), Jesus rejected the obvious ‘earthly’ solution. Her refused to take shortcuts which would help him to bypass his life of ministry and service, or bypass the suffering of others and his own suffering. [JEK] Listen to the sermon audio MP3 recording from Sunday Jan. 27th, 2008 using your browser's preferred media player.

Sun. Jan. 20, 2008 (Randy Schmidt)

Randy Schmidt (former country worker for International Child Care - Haiti) asked the question “how do we respond to people in places of hopelessness where there is no easy solution?” The word degage is a frequently-used word in Haitian Creole, meaning “improvise”. Randy took us through the tragic history of the first colonial nation in the western hemisphere to successfully lead a slave revolt. The violence of that event continues to reverberate down through the generations until today, making degage a standard operating procedure, even for the government. What can we do to help when things seem to go from bad to worse? Western governments’ standard operating procedure (naval blockade) hurt nobody but the poor of Haiti - the wealthy were relatively unaffected. Randy said our most significant effort is to stand with the people of Haiti, remembering the promises of God, and the inherent value that God places in every person. Several stories he told of his time there made it apparent that even one person came make a significant difference for many. Jeremiah 32 tells the story of God telling the people of Jerusalem, through Jeremiah himself who was in prison, to buy land, to secure a promise for the future people of Israel. Though the Babylonians were soon to roll over everything in the Middle East with their war machine, God called the people to faithfulness by purchasing land. So too, are we called today to stand with the people of Haiti, purchasing their redemption from violence with whatever coin we possess. Randy called on us not to give up hope - that with God a solution is possible. [AP] Listen to the sermon audio MP3 recording from Sunday Jan. 20th, 2008 using your browser's preferred media player.

Sun. Jan. 13, 2008 (Johannes Stolz)

Johannes Stolz asked, "How do we handle the apparent tension between absolute truth and pluralism?" He proposed that one way is to seek to destroy pluralism, thereby denying people freedom. This method has been tried repeatedly by both Christianity (Crusades) and Islam (particularly during its years of rapid expansion), but it does not seem to be in harmony with the Creator, who gave us choice and free volition - all the while (we believe) - also giving us revealed truth. A second way to deal with this tension might be to deny that there is transcendent truth. This option would allow each individual to establish private choices and standards. However, this option can result in a total loss of orientation, in providing no useful ways to evaluate our choices. This option does not appear to be in harmony with our understanding of our Creator's essence, for we seem to be made for such transcendent truths as love and moral behaviour. While we are able to make wrong choices, we also seem to understand innately that we must pay the price for wrong moral choices. Johannes proposed a third solution, that of allowing these two concepts to be in tension, allowing both to work. While we do this, we should be aware that even though we firmly believe in truth as revealed in scripture, Christians have an amazing ability to turn truly minor questions into major questions, splitting churches over them (while ignoring the world's major questions). Christians (and others) have also demonstrated that we are not always Christ-like when confronting other faith systems. We should keep in mind John 1.14: "the Word became flesh . . . full of grace and truth." While seeking truth and seeking to promote our understanding of truth, we must never forget the element of grace. [JEK] Listen to the sermon audio MP3 recording from Sunday Jan. 13th using your browser's preferred media player.