Sun. Jan. 29 (Connie Siedler)

Connie Siedler (former resident of the Menno Simons Centre and theology student at Regent) spoke on the woman healed of bleeding (Mark 5). Over a period of 12 years, she has spent all her resources seeking healing. During that time, she had been forced to undergo interminable waiting, and a 'winter' emotionally. However, waiting is not passive, it is actually an activity. It may appear to others that little is happening, but a lot can be happening inside as we learn to face difficulties and even inner darkness. Although God may seem distant, God is always present. Scripture cites many individuals forced to wait: Job, Abraham and Sarah, David (anointed years before being acclaimed king). The Old Testament lectionary text told of Hannah (1 Samuel 1) suffering inner anguish, a 'winter of her soul', as she waited. 'Winter' is a time of waiting. Even so, winter offers gifts to us. We can get to know who we are as we face difficulties in ourselves in new ways, and we may discover that faith grows best in winter, even in seasons of pain. Every winter has the promise of spring. [JEK]

Listen to the sermon audio MP3 recording from Sunday, January 29th, 2012 using your browser's preferred media player.

Sun. Jan. 22, 2012 (Janice Kreider)

Janice Kreider noted that missionary work often brought a colonial mentality and culture along with the gospel. Missionary/anthropologist Jacob Loewen in Educating Tiger described three mission models: short term witnesses, replicating a missionary’s religion and culture, and a catalyst strategy. The latter strategy assumes God already at work and the missional approach is to develop “that of God” in a particular context, meaning the missionary’s role is less culturally bound. Janice cited several examples of the catalyst approach. In looking at some rather stringent statements Paul gave to the Corinthians, she noted that these are not hard and fast rules, but guidelines which can be understood better with fresh interpretations. For instance “those who buy as if they had no possessions” is better understood as ”don’t get engrossed in things.” Janice reminded us of Frederick Buechner’s comment that ‘vocation’ is where your deep gladness and the world’s deep hunger meet. (HN)

Listen to the sermon audio MP3 recording from Sunday, January 22nd, 2012 using your browser's preferred media player.

Sun. Jan. 15, 2012 (Laura Eriksson)

Laura Eriksson focused on God’s call to Samuel and on Jesus call to Nathaniel. Using the image of a film, Laura noted that a call comes in the context of a person’s life, and sometimes we need to rewind the film to get the whole picture; a film has many frames. Samuel, a child living out his mother’s promise, is called by God at a time when ”the word of the Lord was rare.” The child Samuel is called to bring a harsh message to his mentor, Eli. In Jesus time Nathaniel was skeptical about Philip’s claim to have found the one of whom the prophets wrote. Philip told Nathaniel to “come and see.” Jesus said he saw Nathaniel “under the fig tree” – a Jewish figure of speech – meaning he was studying the Torah. Samuel and Nathaniel are invited to participate in the work of God. Samuel and Nathaniel teach us to test the call, to make time to listen. We need each other to look through the lens of faith. Sometimes God’s call gets drowned out by the white noise around us. (HN)

Listen to the sermon audio MP3 recording from Sunday, January 15th, 2012 using your browser's preferred media player.

Sun. Jan. 8, 2012 (Don Teichroeb)

Last Sunday, Don Teichroeb spoke on the Old Testament lectionary reading, Genesis 1.1-5 (and John 1.1-5). This wonderful creation story, however interpreted, places God at the center of everything. But that is where agreement often stops. Over the centuries, and increasingly so as our era approaches, there have been widespread debates about Genesis 1 and science generally. Francis Collins discusses this in some detail in his book, The Language of God. For centuries, people assumed the earth was flat, likely square with four corners, and that the heavens revolved around the earth, for that was what people could observe throughout the years. But when this understanding was challenged, people of faith did not understand, and lashed out, fearing that the very pillars of faith were being denied. When Galileo's telescope revealed that four moons circled around Jupiter and not the earth, again many Christians were aggressively defensive, largely because of misunderstandings and inadequate assumptions. Don then asked, "How will we be judged by history concerning things we believe about the world, largely because we do not yet understand?" Augustine argued that God is outside the boundaries of time, a view that is too often forgotten. The poetic account in Genesis says, so very wonderfully, "In the beginning", but we no longer even know whether there ever was a beginning, or what there was before there was a beginning! When did space appear? No matter where we turn, all known theories seem to require assumptions (faith). During discussion it was noted that the less we understand things, the more we speak about them with unshakable conviction, whereas, in all of this talk, we ought to see ourselves standing in the center of these questions--in awe and wonder. And someone once said, "I am not here to answer questions, only to arouse curiosity." [JEK]

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Sun. Jan. 1, 2012 (Henry Neufeld)

Hauerwas once told of someone who prayed for forgiveness during prayer time in church, only to have the pastor tell him afterward that he was not forgiven. The pastor pointed out that the person first had to offer reparations and try to undo the wrong, even if the cost might be enormous. We often realize that we need to ask someone for forgiveness, yet we seldom ask; in fact, it is something that would be very difficulty to do, and we may not even have any models to follow since the asking is a private matter rather than public. The book, "Amish Grace" told of the Amish forgiving the man who murdered their school children, but someone in their community of faith noted that it is easier to forgive an outsider than to forgive a friend. Forgiveness and reparation are closely linked in scripture, yet this is seldom taught in evangelical circles. Instead, we hope that our offering but one sentence will somehow cover all the ongoing hurt we have caused someone. After the talk, some interesting questions were asked. How do forgiveness and reparation interrelate with grace? Is forgiveness like scar tissue--still there but having life under the scar tissue? Do Catholics feel forgiven if they only go to confession rather than to the hurt individual? When are we forgiven? [JEK]

Listen to the sermon audio MP3 recording from Sunday, January 1st, 2012 using your browser's preferred media player.