Fred Redekop

June 22, 2020 little Time to Think

June 22, 2020

Good afternoon,

" But Christ has indeed been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. For since death came through a man, the resurrection of the dead comes also through a man. For as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive. But each in turn: Christ, the firstfruits; then, when he comes, those who belong to him. Then the end will come, when he hands over the kingdom to God the Father after he has destroyed all dominion, authority and power. I Corinthians 15:20-24

I am reading a book called, 10 Minutes and 38 Seconds in this Strange World by Elif Shafak. I learned of her when I traveled to Turkey, where she lives. The lead character, Leila, dies at the beginning of the book, but she has 10 minutes and 38 seconds before she fully dies, to think about her entire life. The rest of the book is a reflection on the important events/people in her life. If you had the opportunity to quickly think of your life history, what are the things that you would remember ? Would it take ten or eleven minutes ?

Paul talks about falling asleep, as a way of losing our faith, but also about our death here on this earth. We live our lives, in following the ways of Jesus, God, the Spirit, and some might say, the apostle Paul. We must remain awake in order to make good decisions while on this earth. We must be loving, compassionate and caring for all the things that God has blessed with on this earth.

If I had the time, I would remember going from a German-speaking Church to an English-speaking one. I did not understand any German, so worship made no sense to me. I was baptized in 1976. Going off to Trent University ( 1977 ) was a challenge for me. Few people had anything to do with the Christian faith. It was a great experience for me, to be in that environment. There were many changes for me in the 1980's: off to Europe, getting married, off to Thailand, becoming a dad and being a pastor. All these things have shaped me into who I am. In 1991, we returned to Ontario to become the pastor at Floradale. My heart attack in 2007 still stays with me everyday. There are thousands of other events in my life that I could talk about.

Usually, we are asked what are the top ten things about something, but today I ask you, what are the top 5 1/2 events of your life that you would reflect upon, if you had only a little less than eleven minutes to think about it ? How has God shaped you into a person of faith ?

Prayer

Do not let me fall

asleep,

Please keep my eyes open

to see what has happened

to me,

in all of my years.

God,

what would you say,

are the important memories

to remember for my faith

going forward.

And, until the end of the age, or when I die,

Give me more than eleven minutes to Think. Pray. Believe. Be Thankful. AMEN.

Fred

Tread on bold new paths !

Fireflies flash the direction

Hope springs eternal Monica Pieper Landoni 2020

Fred Redekop

Pastor

Poole Mennonite Church

Summer Solstice June 21, 2020

June 21, 2020

( Summer Solstice and Father's Day )

Good morning,

Take time on this the Sabbath Day, to worship, to rejoice and to savour our relationship with God !

Be silent, at least for a few moments to experience the love of God with no words, only thoughts and feelings.

The God we find in the Bible is often thought of as masculine, spoken about as " He ". Even though we know that God is beyond gender and physicality, we might picture Him, as He. Do we still see God as an old person, with a long or short white beard, and with a long beautiful mane of hair ? At moments in my faith, I still picture God sort of like this . It comes from Sunday School pictures, I think. It is still a comforting picture of God for me.

But, I also think we project our relationship with God with the view or experience that we have had with our Dad. I have heard that women who have been abused by their father, or Father figure, have a difficult time believing in a loving Father God image. The image of a hen looking after her chicks is more meaningful. Paul, the theologian, talks about God breastfeeding the community as well. " But we were gentle among you, like a nursing mother taking care of her own children." ( I Thessalonians 2:7 ) . Paul was the representative of God in all those early communities. If males in our lives have been cruel and abusive, we might expect God to be the same, judgmental and harsh. Please invite God to erase this kind of image from your spiritual journey.

As I wrote yesterday about my dad, he was an image of God for me. He was a distant God. He slept a lot, after working hard all day. He did not say much. So, I have been re-learning about God most of my life. I want God to be close and caring for me as I live my life. The old pictures and tapes keep returning, but I believe in a God of grace, humility and compassion. God's love extends to the moon and back, and back and forth to the ends of the universe.

Prayer , the Lord's Prayer from Eugene Petersen's The Message:

Our Father in heaven,

Reveal who you are.

Set the world right;

Do what’s best—

as above, so below.

Keep us alive with three square meals.

Keep us forgiven with you and forgiving others.

Keep us safe from ourselves and the Devil.

You’re in charge!

You can do anything you want!

You’re ablaze in beauty.

Yes. Yes. Yes.

Fred

Tread on bold new paths !

Fireflies flash the direction

Hope springs eternal Monica Pieper Landoni 2020

Fred Redekop

Pastor

Poole Mennonite Church

Members of the Body of Christ

June 19, 2020

Good afternoon,

" For just as the body is one and has many members , all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ. For in the one Spirit, we were all baptized into one body—- Jews or Greeks, slaves or free —- we were all made to drink of one Spirit….. But strive for the greater gifts. And I will show you a still more excellent way. "

Community is one of the main themes in Mennonite belief and practice. We want to invite new people into our circle ( or pandemic bubble ? ) of faith. We believe that the message of Jesus is an invitation to everyone. But, we have found it hard. We like our community, and when others arrive, we might have to change. New people change the community. They have new gifts to offer God and the church. We like to play the " Mennonite " or "Amish " game. We want to be able to situate people and their history. The game we play is both bonding for some, and a barrier for others.

As noted yesterday, there were at least two separate groups in the Corinth community. Jews and Greeks were part of the community. They were the members of the same body, a new body in Christ. I assume Paul wanted to tell them this about being " one" because one group ate pork, and the other did not. And now, Paul invites both slaves and free people, to be part of this new faith community. This is not only religious, but also economic and political. " You are not going to allow slaves to be part of our group !", might be what a Jewish believer might have said, after he heard this part of the letter from Paul. We might think Paul was conservatie, but this is a very radical thing to say in that society.

It is hard to be welcoming. After a long section of the letter, Paul says that he is going to tell them a more excellent way. We can have a place for everyone. Every part of the human body makes up the wonderful people that we are. That is what the church should be ? We all have a role, the feet, the eyes and the ears…

Who do we have to welcome at Poole ? Can we now do it virtually ? Send this blog, " Ponder Anew " to people whom you think might appreciate it.

Prayer

Eyes for wisdom,

Voice for the prophetic,

Ears for patience,

Feet for compassion

Arms for love,

We are the body of Christ,

Altogether now.

For the sake of the Gospel,

We must welcome all who come,

To our doors, our windows, and our gardens. AMEN

Fred

Tread on bold new paths !

Fireflies flash the direction

Hope springs eternal Monica Pieper Landoni 2020

Fred Redekop

Pastor

Poole Mennonite Church

different flowers in the Garden

June 18, 2020,

Good afternoon,

" Now there are a variety of gifts, but the same Spirit, and there are varieties of services, but the same Lord; and there are varieties of activities, but it is the same God who activates all of them in everyone. To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good. " I Corinthians 12:4-7

Paul, the early church leader, had to deal with people in the community of Corinth that he did not like. There were factions of different people. They thought differently from one another on Jewish and Greek things. They grew up with different and challenging histories. The Greeks would have grown up with a whole God-system that tried to explain the world that they saw in front of them. Jewish people , for the most part, tried to adhere to the Law of the Old Testament, but they had chosen to move away from Jerusalem to get away from all the requirements of the faith. Paul did not always like them, but he loved them as Christ loved the church.

Leadership in Corinth was from the top down. Paul had more power and prestige than any Mennonite pastor today. But, he did not think that he had the "only" gifts needed in Corinth. He goes against all the leadership ways of the society, and says gifts and resources are with everyone. This is radical beyond belief. Paul had the option of being an authoritarian leader. He could be like Caesar because he was a Roman citizen. He could have ordered people around. Yet, he says there are many different gifts, and a variety of different activities.

Everyone deserves respect. Everyone has something to offer to the church community. We all have gifts, and the church must honour them all. It is important for the church community to listen to everyone. This is what makes church life, sometimes, hard. We might have the same gifts, and have to figure out how to use both of them or just one of them.

What unknown or untried gifts do you have ? God wants to use you, for God does not want to do it alone.

Peace to you along the way of your life and faith.

Prayer ( words of Rumi )

Out beyond ideas of

wrongdoing and rightdoing

There is a field

I'll meet you there. { AMEN }

Fred

Tread on bold new paths !

Fireflies flash the direction

Hope springs eternal Monica Pieper Landoni 2020

Fred Redekop

Pastor

Poole Mennonite Church

Standing Out in the Fence

June 17, 2020

Good afternoon,

" Then Jesus said to him, " See that you do not tell anyone, but go, show yourself to the priest, and offer the gift Moses commanded, as a testimony to them. " Matthew 8:4

" What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if someone claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save them? Suppose a brother or a sister is without clothes and daily food. If one of you says to them, “Go in peace; keep warm and well fed,” but does nothing about their physical needs, what good is it? In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead." James 2: 14-17

Do you want to stand out from the crowd, in anything including faith ? Or do you want to hide within the community, including church or in the world, and be part of the crowd ? Do you want to lead or do you want to follow ? Some of us are leaders and some of us are followers, and we need both types of people in the church , and in society. We did a study at Floradale Mennonite, and over 50% of the church families were entrepreneurs. These were business owners, upper management and farmers. That is a lot of leaders. At Bethel Mennonite in Lancaster Pennsylvania, there were only about five business owners. Were the others only followers ? I don't think so.

If Jesus would heal you ( maybe Jesus has healed you ) would you be quiet, and only come to me, as the church leader ? " Do not tell anyone else about it ". Maybe you do not want to be seen as arrogant or holier than me or you. Would you have followed Jesus' advice, or would you have led out, and told the world ? You would have become an outspoken advocate for Jesus/God !

James is a different kind of book. It talks about faith in terms of deeds, and not just faith in Jesus. He is strong to say that faith without works is dead. That is a statement of a leader who knows what he believes, and what he wants to tell the world. Are works without faith also true ? Is the full truth somewhere in the middle ? How can we stand out in this world, if we cannot find the exact words for our faith ? Maybe that is leadership, declaring faith in Christ as mystery in living out our daily lives, in the presence of God.

Who are the leaders at Poole ? Those who are articulate or those who are quiet ? We are looking for two new Elders. Do you have names to be considered for the task of both leading and following ? Can you keep a secret ( like the man healed of leprosy in Matthew 8 ) or do you lead a life of love in action, like in James ?

( on the Poole website there is a picture of a fence with one new board, standing among the old boards )

Prayer

I have asked,

so many questions , O Lord.

I have read your Bible,

so many times, O Lord.

I have listened to your faithful,

so many times, O Lord

I have heard of their good deeds,

so many times.

I have heard their questions,

so many times, O Lord. AMEN.

Fred

Tread on bold new paths

Fireflies flash the direction

Hope springs eternal Monica Pieper Landoni 2020

Fred Redekop

Pastor

Poole Mennonite Church

It is not fair, he has more than me.

June 16 2020

Good afternoon,

" Do to others as you would have them do to you " Matthew 7:12 ( NIV )

" Do not covet your neighbor's house,,, " The 10th Commandment from Exodus 20:17

" If reading the Bible causes me to scrutinize others more than I scrutinize myself, then I am not reading the Bible correctly . " Scott Sauls

Some people do not like the stories in the Bible. They say that a loving God would never threaten to kill a father's son ( Abraham and Isaac story ). Some other people have told me that a great God will never have the Israelite people slaughter all the enemies at the end of the book of Esther. And even more people say that God hates women and loves slavery. God does not uphold women enough, and no writer condemns slavery. The Bible is a book of wisdom, and it takes lifelong wisdom to know how to answer some of these people. I am not there yet.

But, the Bible has those universal themes of justice. We should treat the world like we want to be treated. We should love all people in the same way, without judgment. I think it is a good thing not to want what you do not have. You should not covet anything that our neighbour has in their front or back yard. The Exodus passage goes on to say that you should not covet your neighbour's wife. That should never happen. We should be happy with what we have, and not want more. This is a tough thing to not do. I want a six week vacation like other people. I want to eat ice cream and Boston creme donuts like other people. I covet that in a big way. I am very rich, but I rush to judgment of the super rich. They are more sinful than me because they accumulate more than me . " Get behind me Satan !!! " ( words from Jesus ), to keep me from judging other people.

I forget who gave me the following advice, " When you are preparing to preach, make sure that you have struggled with passage for yourself before thinking about preaching about it " It might have been Lori Willms, a friend of my mom, or my New Testament professor, or it might have been a guy I know from the Netherlands, or it might have been a farmer on the 8th of Peel in Wellington County. No matter, I think it is great wisdom. I try to do it.

How do you keep away from judging others ? How do you speak to God about it ?

Salaam and peace to all on our journeys of life and faith.

Prayer ( thanks to apostle Paul in Romans 2 )

Therefore,

we have no excuse

when we want other's stuff

we do not need more stuff

to complicate our life

and , especially, our life of faith

Too many things,

and too much stuff

get in the way of worship and devotion

to you,

the Lord and Heaven and Earth.

And never, never ever, and ever

judge one another.

It is not right, is it Lord ?

AMEN.

Fred

Tread on bold new paths !

Fireflies flash the direction

Hope springs eternal Monica Pieper Landoni 2020

Fred Redekop

Pastor

Poole Mennonite Church

ReplyReply allForward

on heaven’s doorstep

June 11, 2020,

Good afternoon,

What a beautiful drive this morning. The sunshine bounced off the trees, the road and the silos. The crops were out, soaking up the rain from last night and the sunshine this morning. The clouds were all over the sky, making shapes into other shapes, floating along to eternity. The sun went in and out of the clouds, blasting heat and light into our world. The wind is strong, and then dies down to a crawl, and then rises to blow away again. And the temperature is a comfortable 17 or so, and not the blazing 32 from yesterday. What a privilege to drive this road to Poole a few times a week. In all seasons, it shows a different part of God's creation. The whiteouts from the winter I can do without.

In Psalm 8, it says:

"When I consider your heavens,

the work of your fingers,

the moon and the stars,

which you have set in place,

what is mankind that you are mindful of them,

human beings that you care for them?

It is always difficult to describe the greatness of creation, but the writer of the Psalms tries to do it in many different ways. Here he talks about the fingers of God. These fingers had fashioned the moon and stars by shaping these great things out of nothing. I am not God, so I am truly amazed at them, the sun, the planets, the sky and the sea.

In Psalm 137 it says:

For you created my inmost being;

you knit me together in my mother’s womb.

I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made;

your works are wonderful,

I know that full well.

This is how God created both male and female, by knitting together all the parts of our body. Did he create our soul first, and then our body, or was it the other way around. It does not matter at all. We are perfect in the eyes of God. We should not feel ashamed about ourselves because we are created in the image of Almighty and Everlasting God. No shame in that. This is the way of God.

When I drive back this evening, the sun will be in the west. If the sun is still shining, it hits a red barn just right, and the redness of the paint shines out into the sky. It may be cloudy, and no sun, or there might be a sun to bring light to the darkness of the evening. Whatever it is, it is God and God's creation to live inside of, and experience.

Prayer

Dear God,

I know what earth looks like, I see it everyday.

But, you are creator of

heaven and earth.

What does heaven look like ?

And who lives there now, and at creation ?

Is it sunny all the time, or is there no weather at all

And do we have to eat ?

And do we see our family ?

And can we travel anywhere ?

These are all earthy questions, for I am an earthly guy.

I will wait for the

heavenly answers. AMEN

Salaam and Strength for our journey together.

Fred

Tread on bold new paths !

Fireflies flash the direction

Hope springs eternal Monica Pieper Landoni 2020

Fred Redekop

Pastor

Poole Mennonite Church

I want ask one more question

June 9, 2020,

Good afternoon,

" For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you through his poverty might become rich." Second Corinthians 8:9

Jesus was born on this earth, in Bethlehem, and lived as a human being for over thirty years. So, as our theology says, he was in heaven before he came to this earth, so he was a divine/holy experience. I do not want to give him a body, so what was he ( I need to use a pronoun ) in heaven ? A gas, a being, a spirit, exactly what was/is Jesus ? Maybe it is like quantum theory, where things, very small things, are in two places at one time. That is impossible in my mind, but in Jesus, we have both a divine and human experience.

So, Jesus arrives here on earth. He could have used his divine power to bring about God's purposes in any way possible. But Jesus ( and God and the Spirit ) decided to lose the power of richness and become as poor as us. Why is being human about being in poverty ? And in that poverty of Jesus, using his humanity, we can become rich in everything in this world. And what power of the divine did Jesus actually give up while living in Palestine ?

God is God, and we try to discern God's ways. Why did God choose to do it this way, by becoming a human being ? It is a question that I have had for most of my life as a Christian believer. Why is being human so important in the biblical Christian story ? I think we find salvation in Jesus, by him being like one of us. I am not sure how it all works, but God's grace is somehow embedded in him being human.

Jesus is not human like me. I sin. I post things on Facebook or Twitter that cause some people to question my ethics. I use up too many resources in my earthy footprint. I do not call into question things I know are sins. Jesus was sinless, so how is he human like me ? I cannot answer that one. Is it temptations that make us human ? And is it grace that makes us divine ?

Dear God,

Thank you for listening to my questions,

like you listened to Job, and Mary

and Hannah, and Eve,

and Paul and John.

I will never discover all there is to

know about faith

and life,

and sin, and grace.

and,

Thank you for your divine patience

with all of our journeys.

You are not done

with any of us, today or tomorrow.

Come, Lord, Jesus AMEN .

Fred

Tread on bold new paths !

Fireflies flash the direction

Hope springs eternal Monica Pieper Landoni 2020

Fred Redekop

Pastor

Poole Mennonite Church

Name Above All Names

June 7, 2020

Good afternoon,

"Now the Lord God had formed out of the ground all the wild animals and all the birds in the sky. He brought them to the man [ Adam ] to see what he would name them; and whatever the man called each living creature, that was its name. So the man gave names to all the livestock, the birds in the sky and all the wild animals." Genesis 2:19-20

This text is part of the second creation story in Genesis. In the first chapter, God makes humans, both male and female, in Genesis 1:27. Here in the second chapter, God makes the female person out one of the man's ribs. The two creation stories, and all their complexities, is for another discussion.

In Genesis 2, God gives Adam ( the man ) the gift of naming the wild animals, the birds and the livestock. So, Adam did it. It is unsure what language Adam would have used, and how God communicated with him. But every language since then, has given names to all the living things, both plants and animals. Why is a " horse " called a "horse" ? The community had to agree that this large animal that runs fast, and eats lots of grass, would be called a horse in English. In German, it is called Pferd, and we could go on and on about why we call things the way we call the things in this world. I am writing this blog on a computer, how did this become the word for this piece of technical hardware ? And why do languages like Thai, Lao, Vietnamese and Chinese have different "tones" to signify different words ? Was this created by God in the garden ?

We have all been given names by our parents. Would I be different if I was named James Everett Redekop, rather than Frederick Harvey ? And nobody has ever called me Frederick. I was known as Freddie where I grew up. Adam gave the animals their first names. And God has called all of us by our names. What is the history of your personal name given by your parents ? Does God call you by your name ?

In Isaiah 43: 1 it says, " Do not fear, for I have redeemed you. I have summoned you by name, you are mine". He knows all of us, by our first names, middle names, last names, nicknames. Being called by name is such a personal thing. God wants to be on a first name basis with us all. During this pandemic, there are statistics, curves, rules, and first and second stages of opening, but as people of Jesus Christ, we know we are called by our names, because God loves us. We are not statistics, we are loved human beings.

Prayer

What Is This Place from # 1 in the Hymnal , verse 2.

Words from afar, stars that are falling

Sparks that are sown in us like seed

Names for our God, dreams signs and wonders

Sent from the past are all we need

We in this place remember and speak again what we have heard

God's free redeeming word.

AMEN

Salaam and Shalom in our lives of life and faith .

Fred Redekop

Pastor, Poole Mennonite

God calls everyone

June 6, 2020

Good afternoon everyone,

" Then I said, ' For how long ?' "

Then, the Lord answered:

“Until the cities lie ruined

and without inhabitant,

until the houses are left deserted

and the fields ruined and ravaged,

until the Lord has sent everyone far away

and the land is utterly forsaken.

And though a tenth remains in the land,

it will again be laid waste.

But as the terebinth and oak

leave stumps when they are cut down,

so the holy seed will be the stump in the land.” Isaiah 6: 11-13

This is part of the call of the prophet Isaiah. Isaiah says he is not worthy, he has unclean lips. Then the Lord calls out, and says whom shall I send ? And the young man says," Here I am send me ?" One of the flying seraphim glided by and took a hot coal, and put it on Isaiah's lips, and his sin was forgiven. He now had clean lips. I wish that would happen to me, or maybe I do not want that to occur. The Lord wants Isaiah to do some difficult prophecy among God's people ( see verses 12-13 ). Isaiah seems ready.

Have you been called to do anything for the Lord ? Have you had a burning bush ( Moses ) experience, where you knew it was God speaking, and God told you something, or maybe it was that you sensed what you must do. Maybe it was easy, or maybe it sounded crazy ? God does not always call us to hard stuff, but sometimes God's directions are difficult to follow in this wild world we live in. Are you called to be a farmer, a mother, a grandfather, a potluck expert, or a great friend of many people ? God has a calling on all of our lives . What do you hold most deeply in God's hands ? What is God sending you to do today ?

I was pastor at Floradale for 25 years. It was a good congregation, and it made me a better pastor because I knew that I was loved and cared for by them. While there, they gave me three sabbaticals, where I could renew my calling. They let me choose what I needed to do on sabbatical, and that would then help the church when I returned. We lived through a building project, a health crisis ( mine ) and many issues that we argued about. But, I felt called to be there for five five-year terms. When I resigned, it was tough for me. I could have continued, but I felt it was time. A seraphim did not come flying down, nor did I see a burning bush. I did not have a dream, like Mary and Joseph. That is never how I have known what God has called me to be about. But, I knew it was time to go.

Prayer

Here I am Lord by Anna Page and Daniel Schutte

I have heard my people cry

All who dwell in dark and sin

My hand will save.

who made the stars and night

I will make the darkness bright

Who will bear my light to them

Whom shall I send?

Here I am Lord

Is it I Lord?

I have heard you calling in the night

I will go Lord

If you lead me

I will hold your people in my heart.

Shalom and strength for our journey together of life and faith. Fred