Sun. Jan. 30, 2011 (Andre Pekovich)

Andre Pekovich presented a review of the history of Zionism. 17th-century Europe saw religious persecution which resulted in multiple massive religious migrations, including Mennonites and Jews. As difficulties persisted to surface, publications in the 19th century eventually gave ethnic Jews a new way of thinking about themselves. Secular Jews in Austria (1897) lobbied governments to obtain safe land somewhere (anywhere, not just in Palestine). None of these early Jewish leaders were viewed as religious figures, only as pragmatic nationalists. (Christian Zionism began in the 1820's, but that is an entirely different story.) Zionism was not created out of the holocaust, but predates it, and the so-called "holy land" was not all that important to early Zionists. However, as inexpensive land was purchased in Palestine from absentee Arab landlords, Jews started to migrate. By 1948 Jews owned and occupied about 6% of what they thought of as "traditional" Jewish land (though few would agree on specific borders for those lands). Palestinians were forced out of their traditional lands, in spite of inhabiting them for (presumably) centuries and possibly millennia. By 1948, with relatively little land under their ownership, a State of Israel was proclaimed, and citizenship was offered to all Jews regardless of country of origin and it was ostensibly to be denied to all non-Jews, even those legally inhabiting the land. In the context of the day's lectionary readings, our allegiance is not to a particular nationalism but to God. God owns the land and allows peoples to use it, 'if' God's covenant is kept in its entirety. Although no new lands were to be occupied after Joshua's military triumphs, Jews repeatedly ignored this condition. Although the Prophet Samuel warned the Jews that God did not want a monarch to be established, they created a king anyway, and with the secular king came the secular notion of expanding the kingdom's borders. Andre updated present thinking about the 'promised land' by reminding us that "the land we have been promised is Eternal Life." Palestinian Christians have been in Palestine since St Paul went to Damascus. Why do Christians not decry their brothers' and sisters' loss of land, jobs and rights when they are persecuted by the State of Israel? The bible is not a manual for occupation, and certainly does not speak a language of subjugation and oppression, yet there are those in Christ's church who are highly militarized, both ideologically and in reality. [JEK] Listen to the sermon audio MP3 recording from Sunday, January 30th, 2011 using your browser's preferred media player.

Sun. Jan. 23, 2011 (J. Evan Kreider)

J. Evan Kreider led the group in a study of worship with the Psalter, an in-depth study of the history and meaning behind the Psalms, and the particular ways in which modern hymns bring the ancient texts to life, particularly in the rhythm of modern music, which is an exceedingly difficult thing to do well. Yet many writers have mastered it, and we heard some of the best. Evan lined up side-by-side the texts of eight hymns, such as #556; Lord Thou Has Searched Me; with the words of the appropriate Psalm - in this case, Ps 139 - and showed how the writers traced a path of imagery through the hymn just as it was in the Psalm, in some cases, line for line. Evan’s vast storehouse of historical knowledge brought out hidden detail in each hymn, and each of the arrangements had so much more meaning when the group finally sang in parts. The closing hymn’s gentle repetition of Scripture evoked the beauty and care of God in everyone who sang it. [AP] Listen to the sermon audio MP3 recording from Sunday, January 23rd, 2011 using your browser's preferred media player.

Sun. Jan. 16, 2011 (Kevin Hiebert)

Kevin spoke on "God's plan for you", looking at ways in which God has been portrayed in history, but seeing all of this through the eyes of modern office workers accustomed to Project Management. Kevin spoke of God "assembling the team" when creating the Trinity. God is often portrayed as "defining the project objectives", the next typical stage in project management, and also as "defining the project's scope", which is finally seen as being global. God is at times portrayed as "constructing an initial plan and schedule", for Jer 29 has God revealing that "I know the plans I have for you", including 70 years in captivity. Even Jesus (Luke 14) spoke of "identifying resources, costs, risks" before undertaking a project. There are many instances in scripture in which God tried to get "stake holder buy-in" (Ps. 40.7-8: I delight to do your will). Next, one must publish the plan so people know about it, a plan with a series of decision gates which offer options, something often encountered in the prophets (buy in by repenting, or get out of the project). One then collects information, monitoring and analyzing the progress, often looking at it both with a wide-angle and with a telephoto lens. Next, one often needs to adjust the plan, hence the difference in revelation between the New and Old Testaments, and the expansion to include those not Jewish. Finally one closes the project and celebrates (Revelation 20). [JEK] Listen to the sermon audio MP3 recording from Sunday, January 16th, 2011 using your browser's preferred media player.

Sun. Jan. 9, 2011 (Gareth Brandt)

Gareth Brandt (Columbia Bible College professor of practical theology) spoke on "The Baptism of our Lord" (Matthew 3.13-17). We have only one story telling us anything of the life of Jesus between his infancy and baptism--the story of his lingering in the Temple at age 12. Consequently, Jesus suddenly emerges in this narrative as having been baptized, and in 3.16 we are given a rare allusion to what later has been thought of as the Trinity: the voice of God, the Spirit appearing "like" a dove, and the man Jesus. God's voice proclaimed Jesus as a "Beloved son" even before he had done anything of significance in the gospel narratives. But in a sense, this is typical of the gospel accounts, for they often describe unconditional love being given. Gareth asked whether we have experienced being beloved, suggesting that only by our experiencing being loved can we, in turn, truly and deeply love others. The next chapter in Matthew concerns the temptations in the wilderness; what was Jesus, God's "beloved son", now supposed to do with this unconditional love? The gospels proceed, each in their own way, to record stories of how Jesus proclaimed the primacy of God's love and how it can be expressed in our lives. [JEK] Listen to the sermon audio MP3 recording from Sunday, January 9th, 2011 using your browser's preferred media player.

Sun. Jan. 2, 2011 (Henry Neufeld)

Henry Neufeld told of Jeremiah being imprisoned by his government for not being patriotic and for continually criticizing government, even going so far as to declare that God was surely on the enemy's side, not that of the Jews. When Jeremiah's cousin offered to sell land to the prophet--land that was already under enemy control and was inaccessible to Jeremiah, he bought it anyway, a seemingly hopeless gesture which was intended to make a point: One should look ahead, with faith in God, and act accordingly. Hope can be merely a thought or it can be expressed concretely as an act. Jeremiah hoped that, in spite of the impending crisis, his future descendants would eventually live on this new parcel of land. In a similar way, he also looked ahead, in hope, to the time when God would be able to make a new covenant with people, one not extolling external regulations but rather one which internalizes moral and ethical values. Do we look ahead and act, in hope, in ways that will possibly benefit future generations long after we are gone? [JEK] Listen to the sermon audio MP3 recording from Sunday, January 2nd, 2011 using your browser's preferred media player.