Sun. Mar. 29, 2009 (Karl Brown)

On the fifth Sunday of Lent, Karl Brown asked "How are you doing this Lent?" In order to put this bold question into context, Karl read some statistics on pastors' prayer lives (how much time they pray daily, what percentage of that time is devoted to making requests, listening, thanksgiving, etc.) This is the kind of information that makes most of us feel we have 'failed at Lent'. However, we are still God's children, as was King David, even (and especially) after sinning, for we all fail God by violating our inherited moral codes of behaviour. Meanwhile, like David, we should instead concentrate on celebrating our little victories. We do not need to be obsessive over self-denial, or keep track of how many minutes we pray, or worry about the magnitude of our sins. During Lent we can more profitably focus on taking a few small steps towards improving ourselves and our spiritual life. [JEK] Listen to the sermon audio MP3 recording from Sunday Mar. 29th, 2009 using your browser's preferred media player.

Sun. Mar. 22, 2009 (Paul Thiessen)

Last week's Old Testament reading from Numbers 21 was preceded by the story of the Canaanites attacking the wandering Jews, who then reorganized and "utterly destroyed" the Canaanites, only to resume wandering. By now the Jews were sick of God's life-giving manna, they yearned for the fish and herbs of Egypt, and complained bitterly against Moses and his God. Wandering into an area loaded with venomous snakes, many Jews died. Moses soon had a large snake forged from bronze, raised the sculpture on a pole, and the people who looked at it were spared death. (To this day, two snakes intertwined on a pole symbolize medicine/physicians.) The Israelites were not healed by magic, nor by worshiping the snake, but by believing in God's power. The writer of the Gospel of John (3.14-16)picks up this theme, saying that whoever believes in Christ, lifted up on the cross--like Moses' snake, will be saved. Paul Thiessen then asked us to contemplate the difference between believing in God's power (behind the symbol) or believing in the image. The veneration of icons remains difficult for Protestants and Muslems, whereas devout Jews kiss prayer shawls or the Torah and Catholics venerate Mary. Contemporary Christians do not worship the cross, yet give it pride of place in our sanctuaries. Images can become powerful and useful metaphors for us, as was that ancient bronze snake (which was finally destroyed centuries later when people worshiped the object rather than God's power which once lay behind the object). [JEK] Listen to the sermon audio MP3 recording from Sunday Mar. 22nd, 2009 using your browser's preferred media player.

Sun. Mar. 15, 2009 (Connie Siedler)

On the Ides of March, Connie Siedler was our guest speaker. Connie is from Germany, lives at the Menno Simons Centre and studies theology at Regent College. Although we just celebrated Christmas recently, with all its customary bright lights, colours and feasts, we need to remember that Jesus was born into a poor family at a time when the Jews were really suffering. The Book of Lamentations had already explored the overwhelming sense of loss the Jews felt while living under foreign occupation and suffering the destruction of their capital city, temple, culture and self respect. Within Lamentations, just as the brief book reaches its apex, there are words of hope (ch. 3.21-26) which proclaim God as the Lord of hope and as the God who both punishes and remains faithful to humanity, even while being rejected by them. Real life is not like e-mail or air travel, both of which would seem to be instantaneous to people living centuries ago. In real life, we often need to wait, patiently and quietly. We of course prefer to be active, even proactive, but for many situations in life, prolonged times of waiting can neither be rushed nor shortened by anything we do. The Psalmists compared this to someone waiting for--yearning for--the dawn. Lamentations tells us that our waiting can indeed be accompanied by hope, regardless of how difficult our situation may seem. [JEK] Listen to the sermon audio MP3 recording from Sunday Mar. 15th, 2009 using your browser's preferred media player.

Sun. Mar. 8, 2009 (Janice Kreider)

Janice Kreider spoke last Sunday on the faith of Abraham, the progenitor of three world religions. From the regional gods Abraham first knew, to the single voice of God, through to the profound contrariness of God as expressed in Rowan Williams’ faith message, this is a God who emphasizes relationships. How did Abraham come to benefit from God’s attention? Though in his dealings Abraham sought to give others the benefit, he was also led astray when he passed off his wife as another. So how does Abraham merit the promise shown him in Genesis? The Romans passage from that day makes plain God’s method - take those who do not merit it and bless them. Hagar recognizes this when she names the God who saved her and her son Ishmael in the desert as “The God who sees”. Though God’s promise to modern-day Jews is often seen as one of land, Janice notes that this land is important only symbologically. The land was important in different ways to Abraham, not for his sense of ownership of it, but how it was the site of God’s promise to him as progenitor of a people, not owners of a land. Janice wonders if this thought might be used more profitably in recontextualizing modern-day problems in the Middle East. [AP] Listen to the sermon audio MP3 recording from Sunday Mar. 8th, 2009 using your browser's preferred media player.

Sun. Mar. 1, 2009 (Laurel Gasque)

On March 1st we observed the First Sunday of Lent. Laurel Gasque spoke briefly on the four lectionary texts of the day, showing how they were interrelated and how, by reading them sequentially, we can make new observations about each of the texts. Early Christians were intrigued by these possible cross fertilizations, even if we might find them a bit stretched (e.g., 1 Peter looks at the story of Noah as prefiguring baptism). Laura then showed pictures of a series of woodcuts from the late 1400s published within that broad genre German scholars popularly called the "bibliae pauperum" (paupers' bibles). This grows out of the genre of miniature manuscript illuminations that had enjoyed popularity among the wealthy European monastic and aristocratic circles for centuries, and has strong antecedents in medieval art and stained glass windows. The individual woodcuts we were shown depict multiple vignettes--scenes of a various biblical stories. Laura asked us to consider how the selections of these stories and characters might have helped medieval believers think about specific themes or interrelationships between the stories, and how those stories might have been reinterpreted by readers encountering these juxtapositions (just as we do in our lectionary readings). [JEK] Listen to the sermon audio MP3 recording from Sunday Mar. 1st, 2009 using your browser's preferred media player.