Sun. Jan. 27, 2013 (Michael Thomas)

Michael Thomas (Menno resident and Regent graduate student) spoke on the Lectionary's stories about people hearing 'the word of God' and how they responded. In the early centuries of the Jewish monarchy, the Torah was consistently granted pride of place among all the other writings which would eventually comprise our Old Testament. But as time passed, the concerns of the Torah would be eclipsed by those expressed in the Psalms and by prophets. With the advent of St Paul's writings, followed several decades later by the compilations of the Gospel stories, the importance of Torah declined still farther. Today, we are hard-pressed even to suffer through a reading of much of the Torah--its language, practices, assumptions and decrees now seem to have no application to our philosophy of life, and although we pay lip service to the Torah, we seldom know how its ideas should apply to our lives. By contrast, the story in Nehemiah 8 tells of a people hearing the Torah read aloud for the first time and being thrilled and enthralled as the words were relayed to them. Another story, that in Luke 4.14-, tells of Jesus returning home and reading the assigned text from Isaiah. That particular discussion time went so badly that the congregation decided to kill the speaker (ah, the good ol' days). St Augustine once distinguished between "the Book of Scripture [revelation]" and "the Book of Nature [logic, later science]". Psalm 19, in another of our Lectionary readings, presents poetry which seeks to reconcile the Book of Scripture with the Book of Nature. The initial verses claim that all of nature declares the glories of God, and the next set of verses review the importance of explicit laws and precepts found in Scripture. We need to learn to view Torah--and all of Scripture--as an ongoing living tradition rather than as the sole well from which the water of life can be retrieved. To Jesus's countrymen, this notion was worthy of death, but Jesus nevertheless persisted in finding new ways to apply the most general principles of Torah and the prophets to modern life, as did St Paul . . . as must we. [JEK]

Listen to the sermon audio MP3 recording from Sunday, January 27th, 2013 using your browser's preferred media player.

Sun. Jan. 20, 2013 (John Klassen)

To remind us of our Anabaptist origins, John Klassen spoke on salvation, discipleship and discipline among our Swiss founders. In Germany Martin Luther challenged the state/religious authorities and provided an alternative, thereby giving common people hope. Luther’s actions and his focus on grace set the stage for much of what happened in Europe. Andreas Karlstadt, a priest and contemporary of Luther, said mass in German rather than Latin, married, and sought to remove infant baptism. The Schleitheim confession was a document that outlined the separation of Swiss Anabaptists from the world: a courageous model of faith which reflected the struggle for faith and purity. A small group of lay people met in Zurich, examined scripture, baptized each other, and shared communion – outrageous and illegal behaviour. Anabaptists emerged out of this gathering; a people who are saved and who need to work out their salvation. John noted that today we have church/state separation, and don’t face dilemmas like those in 1520's. He suggested that we practice inclusive behaviour as modeled by Jesus with the Samaritan woman at the well. The questions for us continue: how do we live differently than the dominant society? How do we retain a Christian identity? How do we identify essentials? [HN]

Listen to the sermon audio MP3 recording from Sunday, January 20th, 2013 using your browser's preferred media player.

Sun. Jan. 13, 2013 (Derek Carr)

On January 13th, Derek Carr (Reader at Our Lady of Perpetual Help, thespian, and former Head of UBC's Department of French, Italian, and Hispanic Studies) spoke most engagingly on "Translation, Interpretation, and Salvation". When attending Mass at Holy Guardian Angel in Barcelona last summer, Derek noticed that the Mass, translated into Catalan, retained certain linguistic traditions which had been lost in the English translation used in his church (just a block north of our Centre). As a specialist in translating and in Linguistic Studies, he knew all too well the pitfalls facing any translator--pitfalls which face each and every scholar involved in translating the bibles on which we rely. Translation often involves a rewriting of an original text, the including of one's views on the text. Translations can even suppress or reinterpret. For example, there is general disagreement concerning what the angels reportedly declared to the shepherds (Luke): "goodwill toward men", "peace to his people on earth", "and on earth peace to men whom the Lord esteems" (Catalan), "peace to men he loves" (French). Some translators prefer to adhere to the sense of the Latin, some try to mirror current thinking in their denominations, some try to speak to the unchurched, and some like to mirror societal concerns such as inclusive language (mandated at UBC). These possibilities baffle any who are not linguists, and they also even baffle linguists. However, the general sense of our texts is more or less on-track, for which we can give thanks. [JEK]

Listen to the sermon audio MP3 recording from Sunday, January 13th, 2013 using your browser's preferred media player.

Sun. Jan. 6, 2013 (Henry Neufeld)

Henry Neufeld on Membership Sunday describes church membership, then Edward and Frieda Epp describe their journey to PGIMF, and are welcomed by the church Moderator, Don Teichroeb.

Listen to the sermon audio MP3 recording from Sunday, January 6th, 2013 using your browser's preferred media player.