Sun. Feb. 20, 2011 (Steve Heinrichs)

Steve Heinrichs spoke on a variety of subjects, such as (1) Jesus calming the sea (Mark 4.35-41), (2) the history of European Canadians taking over British Columbia, and (3) Mennonites attempting to relate to indigenous neighbours. This summary will focus on the gospel lectionary reading for the morning. Some travelers have the gift of sleep. Jesus slept right through the heart of a storm until awakened by friends. But the way this story is told in Mark draws interesting parallels to the story of Jonah. We first sense the deliberateness of these parallels when noticing that the teller refers to the tiny Lake of Galilee as a "sea". This helps listeners recall that Jonah was also asleep on a boat while traveling through a storm on the sea. Both Jesus and Jonah were awakened by frightened fellow travelers, and both men found unusual and even supernatural ways to calm their storms. Both men were on a mission to the Gentiles, Jonah to Ninevah (to save them from certain destruction) and Jesus to Decapolis on the east of the Jordan, where he went to a Gentile cemetery (doubly unclean) and cast out demons (bringing salvation to the man and witness to the area). The 'possessed' man was obviously on the margins of his society. Steve then challenged us to leave the comforts of our church world and consider relating in meaningful ways to those marginalized in our society, especially indigenous peoples. [JEK] Listen to the sermon audio MP3 recording from Sunday, February 20th, 2011 using your browser's preferred media player.

Sun. Feb. 13, 2011 (Aaron Roberts)

Aaron Roberts (MCS Regent 2008; now in ministry at St. John's Anglican) spoke on Faith about Romans 4:13-21. This dense, theologically-rich passage analyzed Abraham's faith in light of his righteousness, acts, and observance of God's words. First, Aaron reviewed God's attempts to redeem humanity from its fall as He started over and over again, through different men such as Noah, through Abraham and Sarah, whose faith exacted from God promise of a nation, through giving of the Law, and finally through the living sacrifice of Jesus on the cross. Then Aaron dissected the passage to show what faith can do by discussing what faith is not: It is not a leap in the dark - it is rational and trusting, as a young child has faith that father will catch it when thrown up in the air. Faith only considers the things God has promised, not things God has not spoken about, such as how to get more prestige. It is not person-centered, but God-centered, and growing faith inevitably sees one turning more to consider how God would want the faithful person to act. God will not be manipulated by faith - we cannot add to our faith by training ourselves to think and believe only the positive. Nor is faith a skill you can learn or a task you can accomplish or something you can accumulate more of. We can only receive it as we hear and believe the promises of God, just as Abraham did, who did not flinch when promised a son, as he considered the failings of his or Sarah's bodies in old age. Faith does not close its eyes to the realities of life, but considers them and leaves it to God to work the way of his world. Nor is it true that if one believes something strongly enough, that it will occur - that is idolatry. Faith is not magic, and scripture cannot be used as an incantation. But with faith, God will restore humanity to its rightful place in God's creation. A lively discussion time considered blaming God when tests reveal the limits of faith; that faith cannot be passive but acts decisively; that children model growing in faith as they turn from I-centredness to consideration of others; and the idolatry of prosperity gospel. Listen to the sermon audio MP3 recording from Sunday, February 13th, 2011 using your browser's preferred media player.

Sun. Feb. 6, 2011 (Paul Thiessen)

Paul Thiessen spoke on the day's gospel reading, Matthew 5.13-20, "You are the salt of the earth." Even though many of us worry about consuming too much of the stuff, salt is essential to our health. Salt was so vital to ancient civilizations that it was often used as currency, included with food offerings to God, or even associated with covenants (called "salt covenants"). For centuries, drying and salting were the only known ways to preserve food. Right after giving the beatitudes, Jesus asked that we be the 'salt of the earth', that we be the ones to enact the beatitudes, fighting against the decay in society by being peacemakers and the children of God. Countless individuals have shown how we can, in small ways, be the 'salt of the earth'. Villagers in France quietly hid Jewish refugees and helped them to escape to Switzerland, nothing earth-shaking as far as the war was concerned, but they were simply being 'the salt of the earth'. Those who persuaded victorious Allied soldiers not to slaughter German prisoners of war were also enacting the beatitudes. The book, "I shall not hate", exemplifies how one man's peaceful stance and spirit of forgiveness, even when three of his daughters were killed by Israel's missiles, momentarily changed the thinking of thousands. Peterson paraphrased the gospel reading nicely: "You are to be the salt seasoning which brings out the God flavours." [JEK] Listen to the sermon audio MP3 recording from Sunday, February 6th, 2011 using your browser's preferred media player.