Author: Fred Redekop

September 2, 2020,

Good afternoon,

" Is life more like a game of Scrabble,  or is it like a jigsaw puzzle "  …. James Reimer

" And those whom he predestined, he also called, and those he called he justified; and those he justified, he also glorified "  …. the Apostle Paul in Romans 8:30

"   Then he will answer them, saying, ‘Truly I tell you whatever you did not do to one of the least of these you did not do for me. Then they will go to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life.” Matthew 25:45-46

James Reimer wrote the idea about Scrabble and jigsaw puzzles in his book Dogmatic Imagination. In a puzzle, the pieces can only go in one place. In Scrabble, although you have a  playing board, and 100 letter tiles, there is much freedom, and every game is different. Do you believe everything in your life and in this world is determined like a jigsaw puzzle ? Or, do you think that there are parameters set by God, but we do have freedoms within the world, like Scrabble ?

Paul writes in Romans about things being predetermined. God knows everything for all time. Salvation of the world was known before the world began. There is no free choice in this theology. Our eternal existence was determined before we were born ( see Psalm 139). Sometimes this is called eternal security.

Then, in Jesus' parable of the sheep and the goats, Jesus says at the end, that our lives will be determined by the choices we make. If we are like the sheep in the parable, then we must act well to the least of these in our world. Our choices, and doing good, in the world matters. We are called to act justly, mercifully and honestly.

So God's world is both, a Scrabble game, and a jigsaw puzzle. Where do your beliefs in God lean towards ? Freedom of choice, or all our activity is predetermined ? The church has been debating this for 2000 years, so there is no rush to figure it out. Do you like Scrabble or jigsaw puzzles better ?

Shalom and peace for our journey together of life and faith,

Fred

Poole Mennonite

Pastor

August 31, 2020,

Good afternoon everyone,

" Black Lives Matter "

" There is neither Jew nor Gentile, slave nor free, nor is there male or female, for you are all one in Christ. " Galatians 3:28

In the discussion around the movement called Black Lives Matter, I know we disagree with one another. Some people say in response that "All Lives Matter".  This is true. We all matter to God. But, black lives have not always mattered. There was slavery for centuries. How do we make right that experience ? Following the end of official slavery in 1865 in the US, and following the Civil War, there were laws passed to keep parts of slavery intact. These were known as the Jim Crow laws. These included where blacks could work, what fountains they could drink from, and where they could sit on the train or bus. It was only in the 1960's that laws were passed to fix these cultural norms. They did not work. Since I am not Afro-Canadian or African American I do not know their experience. Even nearby, in Mapleton Township ( known in the 1800's as Queens Bush), former black slaves were cheated out of their land. They were never compensated. I think racism still exists.

Paul breaks down many ethnic, gender and economic barriers when he writes in Galatians. It is only one line, but it is so profound. But we have not really lived this new vision of the church. Why do women still make less than men in our society for the same work ? Discuss .  Why can't the wealthy and poor get together to make sure everyone has enough ( that is the slave and free part of the verse)  ? So many questions from our society, we can still go back to what Paul says . In order for a great conversation on any issue, I have to think that I might be wrong.

Men's and women's basketball, hockey and soccer all postponed their playoffs to bring ani-racism ideas in front of us. If I am racist, what would change my mind ? I am a Toronto Maple Leaf fan. What kind of argument would it take for me to switch to the Montreal Canadiens ? It is really hard to change our minds. God has a tough time with us, I think. How do we change our minds around gender, economics and ethnicity/race ? People are saying that the pandemic is giving us the opportunity to reorder the world ?

We have work to do, together.

Shalom and strength,

August 24, 2020

Good afternoon,

" God says, ' Be still, and know, that I am God' ."    Psalm 46:10

" You are always in a rush because you are never sure when you'll get thrown into the Gulag again. "

The first line is from God to the community in the land now known as Palestine / Israel . The second statement was said to me by a young man who knows the Russian Mennonite ethos very well. My parents were Mennonite refugees from Russia in the 1920's. There was another group of Russian Mennonites who came as migrants from Russia to Canada in the 1870's . These two groups have two different experiences, and so see the world from different angles. There are some famous Mennonite fiction writers in Canada, and they mostly come from the group who came in the 1870's.

During the Revolution in Russia ( 1917-1922 ?). Mennonite men were taken from their families and taken to the Gulag, also known as Siberia. Most died of illness, starvation or from being executed. So, when there was a knock on the door at night, they were afraid that their husband and father would be taken away, never to be seen again. That kind of fear, I think, gets into your DNA. I doubt that you can prove it scientifically, but the fears of my grandmother and grandfather were, I believe, passed down to the next generations here in Canada. After all, we are products of our parents.

I have nothing to be afraid of in Canada. It is a very safe place compared to most places in the world. I have a good house, a great family and my food and health care needs are taken care of in my life. But…. I need to be places early, so I do not miss out on the event. When I order tickets on-line, I am fearful right up to the time I get into the event, that something will go wrong, and the ticket will not scan. It happened yesterday again while waiting for a Van Gogh exhibit in Toronto. I believe this to be generational fear, passed down because of the Gulag experience, or just the fear of the Gulag experience . I fear something will go wrong with my life, big or small, or large or nothing at all.

The writer of Psalm 46 knows the fears of the people of faith. There are all kinds of fears and desolations happening the rest of the chapter, but God wants to install this kind of faith in us all. Unfortunately it cannot be installed like an app, it has to be lived into, and I am still living into it. It says , "Cast all your fears on to the Lord " in I Peter 5:7. But, I don't even know all my fears yet. It is that Gulag thing again !!!

Prayer

The Lord is my shepherd,

I do not need anything

but, the shepherd of the sheep.

To keep me being loved and cared for,

despite my fears and the unknowns of this world.

Thanks be to God.     AMEN

Fred

Tread on bold new paths !

Fireflies flash the direction

Hope springs eternal           Monica Pieper Landoni 2020

Fred Redekop

Pastor

Poole Mennonite Church

August 19, 2020

Good afternoon,

" When I saw that they were not acting in line with the truth of the Gospel, I said to Cephas in front of them all, ' You are Jew, yet you live like a Gentile and not like a Jew. How is it, that , you  force the Gentiles to follow Jewish customs. ' "       Galatians 2:14

Peter ( Cephas in the passage above ) and Paul are the early leaders of the church. Peter is the saint for the Catholic Church, and Paul is for the Eastern Orthodox Church. There are icons ( religious paintings ) in both traditions that have the two saints embracing one another. A peace has come to both of these differing histories and cultures.

But here in Galatians, Paul is angry with Peter. Peter had seen that vision about eating anything ( good for pork farmers ). This large blanket came down in his dream , and the invitation was for Peter to be able to eat all foods. This was difficult for Peter to come to terms with his faith. Now, Peter is making the new Gentile believers live out the Law with all of its dietary requirements. Paul calls Peter a hypocrite. He demands something he himself no longer does in his faith journey. Peter also wants to make circumcision a requirement in becoming a Christian.

The truth of the Gospel is that everyone is invited in, and they do not have to do certain things. This was hard for Paul to live out as well because he was a Pharisee ( a religious leader ). He grew up in a strict environment and household. We have to have rules, but what rules do we make, and what do we enforce ? Waterloo Region has mandated the wearing of masks in buildings/businesses but they are not going to enforce it. Is that a good rule or is it hypocrisy ? Being part of the community is hard. We have many different ideas, and we have to listen hard to one another.

Prayer

Oh Lord,

We want to remain faithful

To your call on our lives.

Speak to us, and we will listen.

Show us the way, and we will walk with you.

Amen.

Fred

Tread on bold new paths !

Fireflies flash the direction

Hope springs eternal           Monica Pieper Landoni 2020

Fred Redekop

Pastor

Poole Mennonite Church

August 7, 2020

Good afternoon,

" When Rehoboam came to Jerusalem , he assembled all the house of Judah and the tribe of Benjamin, 180,000 chosen troops to fight against the house of Israel, to restore the kingdom to Rehoboam, the son of Solomon. [ they ended up not fighting this time ]  I Kings 12:21

Pray for Lebanon.

It was a political and economic disaster before this week's explosion. After the explosion the country is in deep peril.  It is supposed to be ruled by religious factions, but it has been foiled by differences and violence for many years. The price of food has doubled during the pandemic. The population is angry at the leadership, and are not looking to them for relief following  the explosion. Someone interviewed on CBC this morning wants to kill them( the politicians) all. Three hospitals were destroyed by the explosion, and so how are they going to treat people with Covid, and all the rest of the injured. It is horrible. Pray for Lebanon

The other political players in the area have exasperated the problem by not helping with the politics. They have sold small arms to everyone. Canada is not excluded. Israel, Syria, Saudi Arabia and the United States have all been instrumental in bringing more suffering to the people of Lebanon. We do not care. Lebanon has always been caught in between the major powers that have colonized the Middle East. Pray for Lebanon

Mennonite Central Committee has begun a fund for relief. They have worked there since the Civil War ( 1975-1990 ). Their refugee work in Lebanon among the Syrians there, and it is also where the work inside Syria is administered. Our son Caleb lived in Beirut for a year with the MCC SALT program. The blast was about a kilometer away from the place where he had lived, the Near East School of Theology. So, we have a personal connection, although we did not visit him there. Pray for Lebanon.

The people of God were a divided kingdom. It was called Judah and Israel. It separated after the death of Solomon. He was only their third king, after Saul and David. You can find the story of the break-up in I Kings. It was like the civil war in Lebanon, with different faith traditions fighting with each other. They were a divided people for a long time, the kingdoms of Judah and Israel.

If you are moved to do something, other than praying, you can donate the work of MCC on their website, mcccanda.ca ,  1-888-622-6337

Prayer

We pray for Beirut,

Its injured, its hungry, its new homeless.

Bring more hope, to a place

that seems hopeless.

We remember the people

who work there for peace, non-violence and justice.

May the world stop, and see, and hear

what is going on in Lebanon.

Help us to notice this place, everyday.      AMEN.

Fred

Tread on bold new paths !

Fireflies flash the direction

Hope springs eternal           Monica Pieper Landoni 2020

Fred Redekop

Pastor

Poole Mennonite Church

August 6, 2020

Good afternoon,

" There are different kinds of gifts . But they are given to the believers by the same Spirit."

                      I Corinthians 12:4  

We had about an hour to have a cup of coffee in Ottawa on Tuesday morning. We were waiting for an interview to end. We found the Equator cafe, but it was closed. Shirley googled again, and found the Bridgehead coffee cafe and roastery. We found out later that there are about 20 cafes owned and operated by Bridgehead in Ottawa. But this was the place where they roasted all their beans. It was a noisy place with beans being roasted There was also a bakery connected to the cafe.

We bought two coffees and had a large healthy cookie. On the bag was the mission/vision statement for the Bridgehead coffee company. It talked about the farmers who grew the beans, and how they were picked. It talks about the buyers, and the company that roasts the beans. Finally, it talks about the clients who buy the coffee and the pastries. All these people are included in what is going on with this business. You need everyone who is listed to make the company successful. The company did not have to write it down this way, but I think they are being honest about who they want to be. They want to be a worldwide community of coffee.

The church, in Corinth and here today, has many different people and gifts that make up the community. We need everybody. The challenge is to use the gifts that God has enriched us with in the church. We need to call them out, and make everyone use their gifts in the pursuit of the mission/vision of the church. Poole's vision is " to plant seeds of love and nourish roots in Jesus Christ to grow and harvest in the kingdom of God " Where do you fit into Poole's vision ?

Salaam and strength in our journey of faith and life.

Fred

Tread on bold new paths !

Fireflies flash the direction

Hope springs eternal           Monica Pieper Landoni 2020

Fred Redekop

Pastor

Poole Mennonite Church

August 5, 2020

Good afternoon,

" But we have to accept that we aren't anywhere near the end of the pandemic. Until the vaccine arrives and unless SARS CoV-2 mutates into a more benign virus, we must think of small careful adjustments as we emerge tentatively from the lockdown and settle into the next phase… ' You can't reason with a virus to go away. ' . So for now, and maybe for the next year too, we should take our cues from the virus itself. We are going to have to be patient ."

                                         from the Walrus Magazine ( July /August 2020 issue),  Daniel Groen

" Love is patient… " I Corinthians 13:4 and  " The Lord is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and rich in love,."    Psalm 145:8

I want the pandemic to be over. I want a vaccine yesterday. I want to visit my grandsons, and my whole family for that matter. I want people to stop dying from the Virus. When pain and suffering and unknowns are present, I want them to be solved quickly. I am usually patient, often overly patient, but I want this pandemic to stop.

One of the items that people invite to pray for in their lives is patience. We know that we have different levels of patience in our lives. Sometimes I cannot even wait for the coffee maker to finish before I take the first cup. Some people with chronic health concerns have the most patience I have ever seen. They seem to know that the situation cannot be changed, so they have to change their minds and souls to be able to live with it in hope. What kind of patience would you pray about today ?

And it is amazing that the whole world is going through the pandemic. We were in Ottawa on the weekend, and no one is exempt from thinking about it and living with it. When I am driving I do not think about it, but when you stop, you have to think about your mask. They do contact tracing at Tim Hortons ! They ask you questions almost wherever you go and buy anything. There are signs about Covid everywhere ! In Ottawa, they had neon signs along the highway saying, " If you think you have Covid, get tested .' I would need to be tested every other day . Ha ha !

How to pray today ?

Prayer

Dear God, Holy One of Heaven and Earth.

You already know that I need more and more

Patience, Patience and Patience.

Invite me to slow down, and watch for your

Spirit leading me to a more patient lifestyle

of waiting, in hope. In grace. In salvation.

Bring us out of the pandemic,

The whole world needs it.      Amen

Shalom and strength in our life and faith together.

Fred

Tread on bold new paths !

Fireflies flash the direction

Hope springs eternal           Monica Pieper Landoni 2020

Fred Redekop

Pastor

Poole Mennonite Church