Author: Fred Redekop

I do not have a tattoo, and I am not planning to get a tattoo in the future. In many situations that I find myself in these days, I feel out of place because I do not have a tattoo. Maybe it is a generational thing, since I am about to turn 60 in a few months. But some people my age are getting tattoos, so I cannot say that I am too old.

Bruxy Cavey, the teaching pastor at the MeetingHouse, has an interesting take on tattoos. In Leviticus 19:28 it states that we should not get a tattoo onto our bodies. There it is; it is the law ;   and I should not get a tattoo. But Leviticus says a lot of others things that I do not follow. I admit I do not read Leviticus very often. Cavey says that the Law also says that we should not wear clothing that is made of two kinds of woven material. So, if you are wearing some polyester today, you are breaking the Law. We are also invited by the Law, to stone people for sinning. We are not going to do that . Also in Leviticus 19, there is a statement that we should not eat anything with blood in it. Say goodbye to rare steaks then. And it also says some things about haircutting and fashion. You should not “ round off the hair on your temples or mar the edges of your beard. I assume that this is for men, but I do this all the time. So , what do all the laws that are found in the book of Leviticus have to say to my life in Christ ? And one more, farmers are not to plant two kinds of seed together ( Leviticus 19:19 ). We seem to pick and choose what we follow out of the Old Testament.

Bruxy invites us to listen to the Spirit of God, when interpreting the Law. Go with the Spirit. This, of course, can lead to discussions and disagreements about what the Spirit is saying. In the Leviticus passage, it says to leave some of crops for the purpose of the poor to come and glean the leftovers.. It says you should not do harm to your neighbour, and that you should always welcome the stranger ( or the refugee ). I agree with these statements of the law, and I believe the Spirit is telling me to live this out to this day.

So, Bruxy gets a tattoo on his left forearm that says “LEVITICUS 19:28 “  He says it has provided opportunities to talk about faith. It is a good way to talk about the role of the Spirit in our church and in our own lives. What a  great idea for a tattoo !

My daughter Hannah has tattoos. I am still not going to do it, even if Bruxy did it, and says it is okay. My daughter has one on her left arm with designs of Peruvian women. Then, she got one right before she left Colombia that is of a heart. And in the design there is cross-stitching. It is to honour me in my hobby of crosstitching and my heart attack ( 2007 ) . She left for Hebron, Palestine, on Tuesday, to work on justice and peace. Part of me goes with her and her tattoo. She has honoured our relationship by putting me on her upper right arm. What a great conversation piece. Thanks Hannah.

Fred Redekop

In April, our daughter Hannah completed five years in Colombia. She was working for Christian Peacemaker Teams , a Mennonite/Anabaptist group, working for the rights of all people. In Colombia, her work was to walk beside farmers whose land was under threat. Multinational corporations wanted the land. Paramilitaries wanted the land. The farmers had been working the land for many years, and had held the land through the long civil war. Hannah’s work was to a pastoral and international presence for these rural communities who were under threat of having their land taken away.

Shirley and I had the great opportunity of visiting two of the communities that Hannah had worked with for five years. She was much loved, because she has that pastoral spirit, and she speaks Spanish fluently. They know her, and trusted her love for them. The children of these communities especially loved Hannah, and they will miss her dearly.

Esther, from the Old Testament, was made Queen. She was helped by her cousin Mordecai. He had looked after her during her lifetime, and had watched as she moved up the ranks of the community in exile, until she was made Queen. The King did not know that she was a foreigner, Jewish. There was a decree saying the Jews would be exterminated, and Esther had to confront her husband the King. As Queen she was not able to enter into the King's presence or she would be deposed. Mordecai told her that she was called to be Queen, “ for such a times as this.” So, Esther told the King, and Haman, a royal official, who had sent the decree calling for the killing of all Jews in the Kingdom, was killed. There is a lot of violence in this story from the Old Testament.

There is a lot of court intrigue in the Esther story, as there is in Colombian life and politics. Hannah and CPT is called to compassion and love, and that is how they work in the communities that have called them to be there. They were called by the Colombian Mennonite Church. Hannah was called “for such a time as this”. And now it is a new time for her.

She will be leaving on Tuesday for the another place of violence and terror. She is called to accompany children to school. It is something that we take for granted in Canada. She will be there to document abuses by soldiers as well. She is called to love and work to lessen the violence in a place of of great history and community.

Her mother and I will pray for her work to of great value, to those people whom she will encounter. As in Colombia, we will pray for her safety, but we are not worried. It is “for such as time as this” that she has been called there.  She has the skills to do the work. She knows the community in the place she is going . She knows the politics are complex, but it not her job to change the politics, but it is to love the “ least of these” ; to walk beside the community that is most at risk. She is not called to live a life of safety and ease here in Canada ( I do not know what that means for me and my faith here in Canada ).  We are proud of her commitment to justice and peace  Go in peace, Hannah, to love and serve the people and our Lord. Amen. SO BE IT.

Fred Redekop

Let us bow in prayer. No, pray in any fashion that you would like to today. Keep your eyes wide open. Or, if you prefer stand up on your “tippy” toes. Or, put a hat on, or a prayer shawl. Or, open the book of Psalms and find a Psalm you like, or dislike, and read  it out loud. Or, if you like, you might want to pray silently ( I think I pray silently more than out loud ). But, let us all be in front, or in back, of the Almighty and Everlasting God, and pray. Do it anyway that you want .:

I thank you God for God’s  presence in my life .  I thank you God for the relationship with Jesus Christ. I thank you God for the Spirit that  can help me with anything that will happen today.

I pray to you God for the violence to stop in Gaza, and the end to the Israeli occupation of Palestine. I pray to you to help the families who have had people killed.

I pray to you God for Mr. Trump. Ms Merkel, Mr Assad. Mr Trudeau. Mr Un. And all the other heads of state in the world. I would ask you to help them to act justly to all people, so that everyone can live a safe and healthy life.

I pray for the Ontario election on June 9.

I pray to God for the church all over the world. I pray to you O God, for the members of the church to love each other. I want the church to love everyone outside the church as well. I want to extend the love you give to us to all the places of this world.

I pray for my family, that you will keep them safe and healthy, for us to pursue justice with our lives.

Lord of the Starfields, Ancient of Days, Creator, Redeemer, Sustainer, Ground of our Being, Resident of Heaven and Earth, Lover of Justice, Compassionate One, Healer of our every ill,  AND A THOUSAND OTHER NAMES WE CAN FILL THIS SPACE.

God, sometimes, I am tired, anxious and fearful. You know that your disciples were the same way. They did not want Jesus to die, and they were fearful about what would happen next. You know that I should not fear because I trust you are in control, but the fear does not always go away. So, here I am Lord : “Fall fresh on me, mold me, melt me, fill me, use …..”

Silence ( three minutes ) to listen  to God. Prayer goes both ways God.

AMEN. SO BE IT . Amen

Fred Redekop

“ Truly I tell you, whatever you did for the least for one of the least of these my brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me “  Matthew 25:40

The Ontario election campaign has officially begun. It has been flying along for months, unofficially. All three major parties and their leaders have been offering us election “goodies”. They are going to provide us with even more things/policies than we already have. I believe that we live in a great place with all kinds of services provided to us by the governments. Do we really need more ? There are no plans given to us, the taxpayers, about how we are going to pay for these new things that they are talking about, so that, we will put them in office.

Sarah Martin Mills, a farmer in the middle of Cambridge, mentioned in a presentation that “ she won the lottery. “ She was born in Canada. She has lived in relative comfort all of her life, and it has little to do with her. She works very hard, but she had the fortune of being born in Canada, rather than another part of this world. I have had the same experience of being born here, and living a life of luxury.

So, if Ontario is such a great place, why do we need more services from the government ? Mr. Ford, Ms. Wynne and Ms. Horvath are saying to us, that we need more services.  It would not be smart for a politician to say that we are going to spend less on roads, health care and garbage pickup. Remember how angry local residents got, when the garbage pickup was delayed for a week around Christmas . We live a great place , if one of the biggest problems we complained about was, a few days of having to keep our garbage at home. But, garbage is a municipal issue not a provincial one.

The passage from Matthew is part of a parable that Jesus tells to the community he is part of in ancient Palestine. Sometimes it is called the parable of the “sheep and the goats”. Parables are hard to understand. The  parable, I believe, invites us to take care of the people most at risk in our society. It talks about the naked, the hungry, the stranger , the thirsty and the criminal. So, when we/you/they take care of the at-risk population, you are doing it for Christ. As part of our Christian life, we must look at the poor, always.

The church used to do this kind of work, but over the years the government has set up programs for “ the least of these”.  I think, I do not need more resources, but I will be looking at the politicians who say more about the least of these.

In ancient Israelite society, the mark of a great empire/people, was that you took care of the widow, the stranger and the orphan. You had to be interested and caring for the people who had few rights. The good kings made sure that these people were taken care of at all times.

Mr Ford, Ms. Wynne, and Ms. Horvath, I do not know need more. Take care of the people most ask at risk in the province of Ontario. Please.

Fred Redekop

“ and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord “ Philippians 2:11

I work for Mennonite Central Committee in Kitchener. This past week we hosted Dr. Naim Ateek on his cross-Canada book tour . He is a Palestinian Christian minister from Jerusalem who has written books on the Palestinian theology of Liberation. His family’s house and land were taken by the Israeli government early after Israel’s independence  was declared in 1948.

There were groups who did not want MCC and Conrad Grebel to hold this lecture. The lecture became political. Dr. Ateek said his life is religious, political , about land and about his people. We were worried that their would be protests by groups that did not want Dr. Ateek to present his side of the Holy Land discussion.

We had been aware that his presence might bring about some debate. THe government of Israel is powerful and in charge of Israel/Palestine . They have the tanks, the guns, the bulldozers , the locks and keys of all the checkpoints , and they have built the “Wall”.  They determine what comes and goes into the Gaza Strip and the Territories along the west Bank of the Jordan. They are the Empire, in charge of everything. The United Nations have said the land that they have taken from the Palestinians is illegal, They build settlements  this land, and this is also illegal. What do you think about this ?

I believe in the separation of church and state. I do not want the Canadian flag in the worship space of the church. I do not want the church to be a supporter of the NDP, the Conservatives nor the Liberals ( or the Green party). But, sometimes, what we believe in will bring us into the political conversation.

Jesus was executed by the political powers of his day. He threatened their power. He was interrogated by both Pilate and Herod during his overnight trial. Jesus had had a following of people, who came with him from Galilee to Jerusalem. After he arrived he overturned the tables of some economic sellers in the market. He threatened the tax system as well. Jesus of Nazareth disrupted the powers of his day, and he was killed for it.

Paul, the early church leader, was also a political guy. His name was on 12 letters to the early church community. He wrote them over the course of 10-20 years ( this is disputed ) . Every time he wrote in one of those letters, he mentioned that Jesus was Lord and Saviour, he was making a statement to the Emperor . Emperor believed himself to be God. He was Lord and Saviour of the world, but Paul had a different story.

Paul met with the Felix , Festus and King Agrippa ( all politicians ) of ancient Rome and proclaimed Jesus as Lord. Paul was a Roman citizen, and knew what he was saying and doing. It came out of his deep faith in Christ, put the political powers saw it as a political act.

MCC often responds to disaster in the world , and we try to identify the people most at risk. Sometime the political leaders in some countries think we are taking sides. Sometimes the work of church comes into conflict in doing our work to the “least of these “ . What do you think the church should be in this world ? What does Jesus is Lord mean for you ?

Fred Redekop

I have always worldview ? What do they think and believe about Jesus ? What might I learn from their religion ? It was all new to me. For me, the signposts of faith were not there.

And what about the war that had just ended in Indochina ? The United States ( with a little help from Canada ) had tried to destroy communism, and left the place in ruins. As a committed Christian pacifist, it was hard to make sense out of such destruction. And there has never been any acknowledgement by governments to say that they were wrong. And, there are still unexploded bombs in the ground that go off when farmers try to open fields.

When I went to seminary ( school for ministers and theology ), I was looking at the Bible as a static book that told one, maybe two, stories. I was reading it to find God, but also to find laws/statutes/sayings to live by. In the years since I went to school to become a pastor, I have a different view of the Bible. I had never thought where the book actually came from in history.   The books in the Bible were written by real people, to real peo been in the church. My parents took me as a baby, and continued to take me right through high school. And even in university,  I attended a Presbyterian church in Peterborough when I went to school at Trent University. And all through my adult life I have worked or attended church on Sunday mornings. So, I am a lifer, and a believer. But, my belief has changed over the years.

I was scared into the Kingdom of God. Some adults who I grew up with, thought it would be good to tell me I must believe right now, or you might go to hell, if you die tonight. For my personality, it was the wrong thing to do, because I believed it, and was scared for years . I struggled with kind of fear for years. It did not stop me from believing in God or the ministry of Jesus Christ but it was hard to say that, I liked being a believer

In my 20’s, my wife and I went to Thailand to work with Mennonite Central Committee for three years working with refugees in Thailand . Thailand is a Buddhist country, and many of the refugees we worked with were also Buddhist. What is theirple, in real life situations. So, I describe my relationship to the Bible as a person who holds the book lightly. I do not look for hard sayings, but I invite the Holy Spirit to lead me. For some issues of this day, the meaning has not yet come.I take the Bible as seriously as I always have, but hold it differently , so I might be changed by it every day. I want the Bible to be for me a way to live in this world.

Come Holy Spirit : Change my mind, so I might love without judgment . Come Holy Spirit so that I might be peacemaker in all situations. Come Holy Spirit and open my mind to understand the Bible, your holy book for us all. AMEN .

Fred Redekop

Brian Larkin, the chief of the Waterloo Region Police Service, said that he believes everyone in the region, and the world, wants a place to belong. In his work in crime prevention, the people that commit crimes, want to have a sense of being wanted and needed. Refugees are so appreciative of Canada to have a safe place to belong after years of not having a home.

In the Bible, there are many stories of people wanting to belong to a community and to God. The writers, from my personal perspective, are writing trying to find or explain God.  There is a story about Ruth and Naomi . Both of their husbands die and they search for a place to belong, and they return to Naomi’s home community to find that community, although they are very different people now.  They are welcomed back. And Ruth was a foreigner.  

Jesus often meets people who have been shoved out of the community. For example, many of the people that he heals are on the edge. A woman that has been bleeding for 12 years has not been able to go to the temple because she is considered “ unclean”. Jesus heals her. He also has some encounters with people who have a skin disease like leprosy. He heals them because he wants them to be back in the community. Women are second class people in the time of Jesus, and Jesus talks with them, and makes them feel included. And even the guy next to Jesus on his own cross, wants to be included in the kingdom of God. He is told by Jesus that he will be in “ paradise “. He is forgiven and is included in the Kingdom.

Often in the church, we have wanted people to believe. I have told them they must believe in the Bible and believed in salvation in Jesus Christ, and that the Holy Spirit will guide them in all of life. For many Canadians, this language is no longer understandable . People do not go to church, and so old languages of faith are not useful. It needs to have much interpretation . People need to feel that they belong at church. The church has also had certain expectations about how people should behave and act before we call them members. It gets confusing and people don't trust the church . They need to feel that they belong before they know how to behave or believe.

We have to make people feel like they belong to invite them to be part of us, in the church. But , we do not own the church; God is the owner, and God wants everyone to be be part of a community of God. A community of belongers. We come from a variety of experiences in our lives, so we need a place to belong. We do not all fit into the same faith boxes. But, we all need a place to call home, where we feel loved and cared for in our lives. My hope is that this what the church should be about in all of its activities. A place of welcome and hospitality, not a place of judgment if you do not quite believe in the right way.

Jesus invited the gentiles, ( everyone who was not Jewish,) the sick, the outsiders and the children. Let us model our church of inclusion after the activity of Jesus of Nazareth.

When the man entered my car, I made a swift 10 judgements against him. And they were all moving toward the negative. He was a man in need of much help. My brain moves fast, so I cannot say exactly what all the judgments were against the man. Even before we left the parking lot I had him pegged as a person who needed help, of some kind. I was surprised at how mean I can be in my thoughts.

Paul, the early church writer talks about this in the letter he wrote to the small Christian community in Rome. At the beginning of letter he lists many of the sins of this world. As I read the list, I think I am pretty good, and think of the others who do not live up to their calling, and am quite proud of myself. Paul knows the human condition very well, and he knows my heart condition very well, and just as I rise to make judgment, he writes the following, “ Therefore you have no excuse whoever you are , when you judge others, for in passing judgment on another you condemn yourself because you the judge are doing the very same things .. “  Romans 2:1.

As I drive with this man and his supervisor, the man outlines what he has done during the day. He said that he had helped another person do something that saved her life. The supervisor complimented him on his actions. The man then went on to say that you have to help people when you can. He had been in the same place  that this woman had been, and he knew what she needed. After I dropped him off, I felt lost.

Paul, that early church leader, knew exactly what people would do with that list of sins. They would heap mountains of judgement on others without looking at themselves. But, we do not want to look at ourselves for too long, and stay in judgment of us. So, the text might also mean that we do put ourselves down too long either. It is not good to stay with our sins. It leads to darkness.

What have I done to save the lives in this world ? Have I listened well enough to someone who has expressed doubt and uncertainty ? Have I told the right stories of the work of Mennonite Central Committee to the right people and the right time ? And have I been judgmental to others in my thoughts.

One of Jesus’ great comments around this issue comes from his famous sermon from the biography of Jesus according to Matthew. His sermon is about the church being a different kind of community in this world. He sets out different kind of ethics that the church should live by. He says this about judging others, “ Why do you see the speck in your brother’s eye and not the log in your own eye ?” What a preposterous notion between a speck and a log in the eyes of us all. It is the best example of the way we should not judge each other.

Now, the next time I drive someone somewhere, I will not move to criticize them, at first glance or even a second glance . Lord , help me in my unbelief and my unChristian attitudes. AMEN.

Fred Redekop

The kingdom of God has almost arrived a few times in this world. Actually many times in the Old Testament people talked about . God had turned his back on the people of God. They rigged the scales in the marketplace, and took too much from their customers. They worshipped Gods from other countries. They even brought idols made of wood, jewels and clay.  The society did not take care of the widow and the orphan and the stranger.  If the society was being faithful it would do all of these things in order to guarantee equality in the people of God.

God showed forgiveness throughout the books of the Old Testament . He turned his back many times to the people, but he welcomed them back into the fold ofte . The prophets were often used to bring the people back into the family of God. they had a big voice in the community.

I do not want to focus on their sin . I want to focus on the mind of God. God has the ability to change it all. I do not know why he does not do it. To think like God is dangerous because I will probably get it wrong. For sure I will make a mistake because I am human.

Throughout the the kingdom of the Old Testament, the kingdom is to arrive. Then in the biography of Jesus that was written by Luke, he has Jesus reading scripture and preaching his first sermon , and Jesus says “the kingdom has come near “. Then later on in the story. he sees a guy up a tree and invites him down so he can go to his house . The man, called Zaccheus, was tax collector , and had been ripping off taxpayers.  When Jesus had eaten there , Zaccheus said he would repay the people he had ripped off. Jesus says to him that kingdom of salvation has come here today. Yes, finally.

But not quite. Jesus the talks of returning some time, but he has not left yet. He has not been crucified on the cross.  He talks about floods , earthquakes and some will be taken up to heaven, and some will not when he come the second time.  I find this strange to talk about coming again, and you have yet yet left.

Then Jesus dies , and three days later he rises ( Easter ) from the dead.  That is what the witnesses say. And I believe it. So, the kingdom arrives now after the resurrection. A perfect time to announce the kingdom.

Not so fast . Jesus says that his disciples are to go onto a hill , and he will rise into the sky and come back later . He has never come back. It has been around 2000 years.  The church has predicted the coming of Jesus thousands of times and we have never got it right. Pastors and churches have made people feel guilty using second coming theology.

I love to engage in scripture in this way. I try to read and not move to interpretation too quickly . Do you have problem with the Kingdom ? What also give you life to follow Jesus on a daily basis ? What is the Kingdom for  you ? Engage with the Word and life of today.

Fred Redekop

“ But some doubted “  Matthew 28:17

These words are written by Matthew right at the end of the story. The big events have happened during the last week in Jerusalem. The parade, the turning over of the tables in front of the temple, The final meal, the arrest of Jesus, the trial, the sentencing and the death on a cross. If you  are Christian, you have re-lived these events every year around Good friday and Easter. If you are not a believer, you still know, maybe, that Jesus was killed on a cross.

So, after all of these important events in life of Christianity, Matthew slips in the comment that some doubted right at the end of the story. In Matthew’s story, there have been some sightings of Jesus, post-Resurrection. Then, the disciples, Jesus’ best friends, walked to Galilee to meet with Jesus. Galilee is where Jesus and most of his friends would have grown up. During his three years of telling stories, doing miracles and announcing the Kingdom, they were in and around the cities that knew best . So they are now  standing in front of a mountain, where Jesus had told them to go .

Jesus shows up there, and some immediately worshipped him, but there were others who doubted. Jesus then gives them the famous words of what they are to do. The are to go , make disciples, baptizing the people and teaching all that Jesus has taught them.

But let us back up to the people who doubted. Yes, it is only half a verse, but it looks to me as if some of the disciples, the followers of Jesus of Nazareth, had some doubts about some things. By the way the words are written, it seems that it is some of the disciples who were standing there before Jesus did not all believe in the same way.

Why would Matthew include these words ? Matthew’s biography was written about fifty years after the events of the last week of Jesus’ life . By that time, he could have cleaned it up. And who told Matthew that some of the people closest to Jesus would have had some doubts about the cross or the resurrection of Jesus.  Was it Peter ? John ? Thaddeus ( some of their names ). I find it strange that these words would be included right at the end of the story.

So, what do I do with the doubts that I have in my own life ? The church is made up of people who believe and adore Jesus, but we all have questions or doubts about life and faith and everything. We must admit that our lives have events that do not make sense in terms of our deep faith in Jesus. For example, I pray that God, through Jesus would take away my anxiety and nervousness. I have suffered for a long time. I sing to God that God should “ create in me a clean heart . I do mindfulness , but the thorn in my flesh remains.

God would not be mean, as to not take this illness form my body and soul. So ,what is it ? What should I do about it. ? It brings doubts to my mind. But Matthew says even some of the closest to Jesus had doubts sometimes. Where do your doubts lie in your world. What do you then pray about to God to restore in you a faith without doubts ? I will continue to sing . Discuss.