Sun. Jun. 27, 2010 (Don Teichroeb)

Last Sunday we acknowledged three recent graduates from our congregation and Don Teichroeb noted that graduation is seen as a rite of passage for the young. Don said life usually proceeds in small steps in life’s journey and these steps lead to what seems like a major transition. The Elijah story raises the question of how one retires from a position of prominence as a major prophet. Elijah’s retirement strategy was a chariot ride to heaven. In the Luke passage Jesus tells people to count the cost of following him and he hears excuses of future obligations, like burying one’s still not deceased father. Having started on a path it is not always helpful to look to the past. The Galatians passage provides a list vices and virtues and Don noted the importance of focusing on the positive, on “love your neighbour as you love yourself.” Life is full of many gradual steps (like graduation), count the cost, don’t look back as you move forward, and focus on the positive. [HN] Listen to the sermon audio MP3 recording from Sunday, June 27th, 2010 using your browser's preferred media player.

Sun. Jun. 13, 2010 (Henry Neufeld)

Henry Neufeld jumped off from the previous week’s address on Ahab and Jezebel by Dr. Veronica Dyck and introduced the day’s metaphor of seeing differently through lenses and filters, as with a camera. Henry reviewed Ahab’s seizure of the ancestral land of Naboth’s ancestral land. Ahab saw the transaction as just business, through the lens of acquisitiveness, while Naboth (honoring God’s law, which said an inheritance of land could not be transferred from tribe to tribe, nor may the king take the land - Lev 25:24) refused the king’s wishes, seeing through the lens of faithfulness. The deceit and murder practiced on Naboth by Ahab to gain his land are still successfully used today. Then Henry moved to the story in Luke 7 of the woman who washed Jesus feet. Henry noted the debtors did not ask for forgiveness, and nor did the woman, who was called “sinner” - it was freely offered by Jesus without being asked .for. Why? Further, why did Jesus use a story of two debtors, not one? Was Simon encouraged to change lenses, to think about his behaviour compared to the woman’s? Though Simon the Pharisee’s consternation is understandable to Jesus, and to us, Jesus makes plain her sins are not the focus of the story because she showed great love. Key phrase: “Simon, do you see this woman?” Or do you, as Simon did, see only her sins? Jesus encourages us to change our lenses to see people in a different light. Don’t just look at our children through a parental lens, don’t just look at our fellow worshippers through a congregational lens, don’t just look at our career through a professional lens. If we changed lenses, might we see Jezebel in a different light? Or our neighbour? [AP] Listen to the sermon audio MP3 recording from Sunday, June 13th, 2010 using your browser's preferred media player.

Sun. Jun. 6, 2010 (Veronica Dyck)

Veronica Dyck spoke about two miracles: Elijah raising a widow’s boy from the dead and Jesus calling a man to arise from his coffin. Elijah’s role as a prophet was to encourage people’s faithfulness to God (rather than to Baal), to keep the people unified, and to call people back to God. Conflict between the king and the prophet was common and King Ahab did not make thing easy for Elijah; he married Jezebel, served Baal and did evil in the sight of God. When Elijah restores the widow’s son to life, she changes her tune from blaming Elijah for the boy’s death to acknowledging him as a prophet. Similarly, when Jesus brought the widow’s son back to life in the small village of Nain, he was recognized as a prophet. Jesus is a Messiah who provides escape – not from the Romans, but from death. In these two stories, life is restored, based on compassion, and exemplified best by the widow and Jesus. [HN] Listen to the sermon audio MP3 recording from Sunday, June 6th, 2010 using your browser's preferred media player.