Sun. Nov. 28, 2010 (Veronica Dyck)

Veronica Dyck spoke on the First Sunday of Advent, noting two very different perceptions of time at this time of year. Parents may well think, "Oh no, is it already time to get ready for Christmas?" while some children wonder "Will Christmas ever come?" Our culture has lost so much of its capacity to wait patiently, yet scripture repeatedly asks that we both watch and wait, and that we fully engage our imaginations in the process. The Book of Isaiah opens most discouragingly, but the day's reading from the second chapter (2.1-6) is very positive, having ideas and phrases which are also found in Micah 4.1-5. These texts anticipate--and wait for--the time when Yahweh will be truly worshiped everywhere, when weapons will no longer be stockpiled, and when people will once again climb up to Zion and seek to follow Torah faithfully. The writer then imagines ideals and faith flowing down from this exemplar to all peoples, utterly transforming them. These passages spoke directly to the writers' contemporaries, to early Christians and to us, though each group had a different appreciation for the ideas. The morning's gospel reading (Matthew 24.36-) gives us our way of understanding Isaiah 2/Micah 4, underlining the inherent tension of this 'time of waiting', of not knowing when the Son of Man might return. Many of our Advent hymns of waiting and anticipation have verbs in the present tense, and although Jesus had come on earth, we have much more for which we are to wait, actively wait. [JEK] Listen to the sermon audio MP3 recording from Sunday, November 28th, 2010 using your browser's preferred media player.

Sun. Nov. 21, 2010 (J. Evan Kreider)

Evan Kreider spoke on the text from the letter to the Christians at Colosse, a letter which provides a glimpse into how people in this small house church were thinking about Jesus. It addresses issues of the worship of angels and the fear of spirits. The writer points out that access to God is through Jesus, not thorough spiritual beings. Jesus - the image of the invisible God. We are reminded that no one has ever seen God, but Jesus life and action help us envisage an invisible God. While other powers exist, Christ is the king of all. No words can adequately describe God, so we use images like “father,” “light,” “judge,” “king” - all of which have limitations. Jesus best exemplifies God’s qualities and we are limited by language in attempting to describe God. Discussion time included comments on the need for contemporary images of God and of seeing God as “integrator.”(HN) Listen to the sermon audio MP3 recording from Sunday, November 21st, 2010 using your browser's preferred media player.

Sun. Nov. 14, 2010 (Andre Pekovich)

Andre Pekovich organized a Remembrance Sunday service around scriptures relating to war, conflict and the Christian ideals. "We are at war, we have always been at war," and thus is has been since the beginning of written history. The essential causes for war seem constant: attempted to get what we want, and then ensuring that we keep it. Other religions address this human condition, more often than not by extolling respect and peace, and by noting there are ways to settle difference other than by violence. The story of Cain and Able (Genesis 4) illustrates severe family conflict (leading to fratricide) at the beginning of time, and efforts control the spread of that violence. The Book of Joshua tells of war at more of a national level as the various Jewish groups sought to "share" land already occupied and cultivated by others, but the writers of that book clearly portray Yahweh as the warrior in ways that suggest this was a one-time series, not a paradigm for future generations. The Roman Empire's Pax Romana was imposed militarily with unsurpassed harshness and enormous armies which became so extended they could not longer be adequately supplied. As the church became increasingly centered in Rome, some of its leaders grappled intellectually and theologically with their empire's militarism. Augustine argued that war should be conducted on a very limited scale and only to the extent necessary to bring peace--an ideal never followed, even by armies from Christian countries. By contrast, Matthew 5.38- gives a much loftier and revolutionary theory, that one should not seek revenge but instead turn the other cheek. In Romans 12, we are given similar counsel, to live peacefully with all, to hate that which is evil, to bless our persecutors, and to refrain from repaying evil with evil. Each of the morning's songs beautifully addressed these themes. [JEK] NOTE: the recording of this service is available for borrowing but is not available for download.

Sun. Nov. 7, 2010 (Rosie Perera)

Rosie Perera spoke about All Saint's Day. Listen to the sermon audio MP3 recording from Sunday, November 7th, 2010 using your browser's preferred media player.