Author: Fred Redekop

“ In the beginning … “ Genesis 1:1

I am not a science person. The last time I took a course in science or math was in Grade 13 in 1977. I never failed a course in the sciences but I came very close a few times. In university, I took only arts courses, with the one Psychology course in first year, but that I do not think qualifies as a pure science course.

But, in my work as a pastor, one the questions that I am asked is about the beginning of the world. Did God create the world in six days or did it happen in another way ? The question often comes in the form of science versus faith . So, I have developed an interest in the physics or the science of the universe.

I have read Stephen Hawking ( British physicist ) and Neil Turok, of the Perimeter Institute here in Waterloo. The Perimeter Institute  is one of the world leading institutions on trying to figure out how the world works at the micro and macro level. These two writers try to explain quantum physics, and I do not get it at all. They says it will be life-altering, but I do not see it, but then, I am not a science guy. I believe that physicists are trying to find to find out an equation for the world and how it works.

These physicists are trying to determine how the universe started. They have it back to a few seconds after the “ Big Bang “, but they have not figured it all out yet. So, for Christmas , the celebration of the birth of Jesus ( God’s Son ), I read Neil deGrasse Tyson’s  Astrophysics for People in a Hurry. I found it a humble book. Tyson says many things we do not know about the universe, including dark matter and dark energy . Isaac Newton discovered the existence of gravity, and Einstein developed the theory of relativity ( E=mc squared ). Tyson says the world of science is waiting for the next big equation or theory or discovery , to make more sense of the world. Who knows, we might find God at the end of the equation ?

But the most amazing thing that I read in the book is about how big the universe is. Waterloo has a little over 500,000 people. I know the number, but it is so many people. Tyson says ( on page 88 ) that the Sun is one of hundreds billions of stars in our galaxy, the Milky Way, and that there are hundreds of billions of galaxies in the universe. This statistics are mind numbing. I only really see one star, the Sun, and that star is about 150 million kms from my house here on Ernst St. in Elmira. For me, there no way of comprehending the size of the universe.

And then for me to try to understand God in this place is also humbling. How could I ever know true mind of God in such a big place ? I believe God created the universe, but I do not know how God did it. The story in Genesis a poetic attempt to say how the world came into being, from a faith perspective. One hundred billion stars in our galaxy alone !!! It is amazing, and it deepens my faith even if I do not understand it, and cannot comprehend it. Faith in God, for me, is about something I cannot see or comprehend. I cannot wait for the next great scientific discovery to deepen my faith.

There are two stories of the birth of Jesus. One is in Luke, where Mary and Joseph travel to Bethlehem, and the baby is born. The second story is found in Matthew , and it is mostly about  the Wise Men of the East, who come to present gifts to Jesus and his parents. Mark and John, the other two biographers of Jesus found in the New Testament, do not have a birth story. Maybe we should celebrate Christmas every other year, since it is not a big deal for the writers in the Bible.

Whatever the meaning in the Bible, I came to a new realization that, the Church has lost the story of Christmas to the society of the world. If Thailand can put snowmen to celebrate Christmas , I think the Christian faith has lost control of the story. I am not trying to be a Scrooge ( And Scrooge is not in the Bible either. He is a creation of Charles Dickens. ) So, I am not going to lament the loss of the story, but I am naming it for myself. What is the story all about for my trek of life ?

The Manger scene is a crowded place at Christmas. Even Santa arrives sometimes. Let us take away Santa, the tinsel, the lights and the reindeer. I am not against Santa, because Santa came to my house one Christmas Eve. My dad had been injured at work, and there was no money for presents, and some Santa showed up and brought me a hockey stick, and presents for everybody in my house. But, let us take Santa out of the picture.

And then there are the shepherds in the manger scene as well. They come from the Luke story, and not the one from Matthew. They had  heard the angels say that the Messiah was born, and they come looking to see the baby. We do not know how many, but let us take all the shepherds out of the picture, and let them go back to farming. They told everyone about what they had seen, but what did they tell people ?

And the donkeys, the cattle, the chickens and the cats, and any other barnyard creatures ; they can all leave as well. I am not against animals or farmers. We do not need all the sounds that the animals make to be in the story this year.

The Wise Men can go back to Persia or Babylon or from wherever they  have come from , as they followed the Star. That can go too. The tradition has put all kind of things around the Three Wise Men. It does not say three, but the early church named a fourth one, and has given them all names . They/we have put crowns on their heads carrying elaborate gifts. Forget all this, and leave them out of the scene. Take the little Drummer boy and Ahmal as well. And even the Hallelujah Chorus, and I love to song it.

We have Mary and Joseph left with the baby. Joseph can go because according to the story he is not the real Father. Mary ponders much in her heart, but she can leave with the baby as well, The manger is now empty, no animals, no star, no gifts and no parents and baby.

After all the celebrations and performances are done, and the Manger is now empty of all the excitement, what do we have left for our lives ? Where does our faith go now ? Jesus has much more to say about that. And it is much more interesting and challenging than the baby story. The Baby is born . Praise God, but what is next for you and me, because the Manger is now empty, and we must go on into 2018.

Fred Redekop

Some of the the main characters of the Christmas story are Mary, shepherds and the Wise Men. Mary is probably a young woman who is pregnant without a husband. The shepherds are considered to be the working poor, and gruff men. The Wise Men are from another country, and they might be of different races or religions. Most of what we think we know about the Magi is from the tradition and not from the Bible. A single mom, smelly poor people and immigrants from a strange land are central to the story. All these people are from the outside, but they are people of our Story of God “being with us” at the birth of the Christ Child.

Mary’s song of praise to God did not find its way to the community at Guayabo, Colombia. On Wednesday December 13, 2017 the community  was changed forever.  The Magnificat did not arrive during Advent or Christmas for this community.  After a long a difficult process many farmers in the community were violently evicted off of their property, buildings destroyed and crops cut down.The shepherds, or the subsistence farmers of this community also did not see the hope of Christmas this week. These farmers grow food mostly for themselves. They exist on very little extra, and they are happy or were happy. The Wise Men from away also were not able to deliver the gifts to the manger. Christian Peacemaker Teams and other human rights groups have walked in the community for years, and they were disappointed that the wealthy landowners and the local police came and evicted these people off of their land. They had farmed it for thirty years or more. And now it is taken away.

My wife Shirley and I visited this community last year. We stayed in a small room, and were given breakfast from two local farming families. The farmers talked to us about their lives, farming and families. They were worried because they knew that their voices were not heard in the chambers of the courts of the local community. It is a wonderful community that now might be destroyed.

But you know that this community is a powerful witness to non-violence . They had been harassed over many years by the man who wanted to take their land. He and his workers would shoot at the people, and destroy their crops, and carry their weapons around the community. And the community of El Guayabo had a week’s notice that the landowner and the police would arrive to evict the people. None of the citizens of Guayabo took up arms to deny the police access to the community. What a witness to the Kingdom heaven on earth. The police were well armed, but they did not know this community. Maybe part of Mary’s Song did arrive last Wednesday.

But , it does not get them their land back. This and many other at-risk communities will continue to under threat. They wait for the Song of Mary, the Magnificat , to be enacted in their world. The powers of this world are the Herods of the story . The sneaky and violent King of Judea threatened  the wise men, and killed the babies, in order to stay in power.

Before, I get too haughty , I realize the Herod in my own life. I want to continue to have all the things that I have in Canada. I am part of the power structures of this world . I have written to the Prime Minister to invite Canada to stand up for human rights everywhere, and in Colombia for Guayabo. If you want a different gift to give this year,  why don’t you write to the Prime Minister expressing your concern of the Marys, shepherds and Wise Men of this world . A different gift for a different time.

Fred Redekop

Merry Christmas to everyone.

I saw myself in the crowd.

We were attending the Christmas concert of the Inshallah Choir ( out of the Waterloo Lutheran Seminary ) at Kitchener City Hall. The choir is made up of about 100 voices of all ages, genders and ethnicities. They sing all over the Region, and raise money for different groups. Last night, the choir was singing for Sanctuary, a medical clinic for recently arrived refugees. It is an amazing health care facility located on King Street in downtown Kitchener. It is led by Dr. Michael Stephenson. If you have not done your Christmas giving, think about donating  to Sanctuary. Now back to who I saw in the crowd last evening.

I was seated in the second row, and I looked to left, and I saw my doppelganger twin. I took his picture from a variety of angles, hoping he would not notice. But, at first, I kept looking at him, to make sure that he indeed looked like me. We often do not know what we look like. He had a full beard, and I have a goatee, but his hair looked like mine. I have more gray and white hair than the man I saw at the concert.

So, when I got home, I showed the pictures ( do not worry I will not post them ) to my family, and they laughed because they thought the man really did look like me. A picture of the back of his hair, lay on his head the same way my hair does. And our hair is about the same length . It was uncanny and eerie.

I wonder if he has the same personality as me. It was like looking in the mirror, and it made me uncomfortable. Sometimes, when I am struggling whether I have done the right thing in a certain situation, I cannot look at myself in the mirror. I could not take my eyes away from this man. And then I thought, “I look better than him.”. Oh no, I have crossed the line, and begun to have a competition with this unknown man. Why did such a thought enter my mind ? I am trying to better than someone else. It is all about pride, and putting another person down. That is why I do not want to look at myself in the mirror. I might find out that I am not better than anyone else, and that I am a greater sinner than the whole world.

There is a parable told by Jesus about the same thing that I am talking about. Two guys go up to the temple. The religious guy ( like me) approaches God, and prays, “ I thank you God that I am not like other people…” ( Luke 18:11 ). And he thinks he is a good religious person, and yet he prays to God with no sense of his arrogance and hypocrisy.

Advent and Christmas offers to me the opportunity to again think that “ God is with us “ in a new way . God becoming like us as a human baby, and yet he grew up without sin. Jesus knows about my temptation to be arrogant and unloving, because Jesus of Nazareth has lived like me. As I look into the mirror on Christmas morning, may I see myself a sinner in the hands of the loving Christ Child. I do not have to compete with anyone.

All this spiritual conversation, because I saw my doppelganger twin at Kitchener City Hall.

“ … he has filled the hungry with good things, but has sent the rich away empty.” Luke 1:53 . This is from Mary’s song when she discovers that she will have a baby. She is visiting her cousin,  and the baby leapt in her belly. She recites this hymn/song as to what her son’s birth will mean for the world.

If I ŕeally believe this ancient song, then Christmas is not for me. I am the person in the song that will be brought down . I am at the top of the world’s heap. If this vision of God and of Mary is going to happen in my world, I am going to lose out. I live in Canada, am white and middle class, well-educated and wealthy.

This vision is going to bring up the humble, the hungry and the poor. I can rationalize that I am all of these things in spiritual way, but in the life that I live here in Canada, I live a king’s life. In terms of the world I may be in the top five per cent.

I like Christmas and the wonder of God becoming human. The divine is so humble as to breathe like us. A birth of any child is a miracle, and to have God be so interested in the world to come, and visit with us in this way is amazing.

So , what real meaning can Christmas have for me this year, if the lives that will be changed does not include me, according to the song of Mary ? Do I give more money to the work of MCC ? Do I preach more passionately about the needs of the poor ? Do I speak more boldly for the stories of murdered and Indigenous women ? But all these good things are done from high on my perch looking down .

But this is who I am . I have been given so many good things . I have a great abundance.  I am the wealthy, the king in Mary’s song. What am I going to do ? If the prophetic words of Mary would come about in all their upside down ways, would my faith in God be strong enough ? What I need to be upended to bring me to a new faith?

I am in Winnipeg this week visiting family.  I go with one of my sons to a bar to watch an English soccer game on TV . It is a great time. This past Saturday a guy walks in and every says hi to him . He is a regular there, and people call him by name . He is mentally challenged, and is forthright in his answers and questions. I believe Christmas is for Gary. What would life look for him , if it would all turn around him and the rest if the world ?

May Christmas be challenging for you as you think about the ancient poem of Mary. May the miraculous birth of God upend your life.

Fred Redekop

“ About noon, King Agrippa, as I was on the road, I saw light from heaven, brighter than the sun, blazing around me and my companions. We all fell to the ground ….  Acts 26:13-14 . In the book of Acts, the first history of the church, Saul/Paul tells the story of his conversion at three different times in three slightly different ways. The writer tells it the first time, and then Saul/Paul tells it to two more powerful, including King Agrippa. Paul/Saul became the leader of the church.

I will be 10 years old on Sunday ( the 26th ) because I had a heart attack ten years ago, and was resurrected ; and have been given new life. I still have no recollection of leaving the Sip and Bite restaurant, or driving home, or dropping over in between my kitchen and dining room. I remember coming to a new life, about a day and after later, in the Grand River Hospital. After a week at the hospitals, I had surgery that completed the resurrection of my body. All the people who helped save my life, say that they did only what they were trained to do. This includes my wife who did CPR, the fireman who defibrillated me, the cardiologist who examined me, and the surgeon who did the bypass procedure. The reason that I survived is beyond them, a miracle.

So, after ten years , I tell the story ( like Paul) a little differently. My wife had just been re-certified in her CPR. The Floradale Church were notified immediately, and began to pray. The defibrillator that was used to revive my heart was partially funded by money that came from the estate of Violet Lichty, a former resident of Floradale. She had over forty cats when she had left the village. I visited her often when she lived in the village. She was a feisty woman, who was known as the “Cat lady ” in town. She died in 2003, and I was resurrected in 2007. Thanks Violet.

The local fireman did CPR after they arrived at our house. Then, they hooked up the defib machine and jump started me once, and then they listened to the machine, and did it a second time. And, I have been told, my heart rate began to slow down, and my resurrection story continued. A few weeks later, another man fell over at his house with a heart attack, and he did not survive.

Why me ? There are no answers to this question, or many others that I have about life and faith. After ten years, I celebrate that I have life. I have been able to do many things since the day that I was resurrected. But I have found no answer to the question, why was I saved ?  And I do not look for the one reason that I am still here. I am here because I am here.

One man, Maurice, used to joke with me that God in heaven had not finished framing my house. That answer is as good as any that I know. I live with the uncertainty that I am not sure why I am still alive, but that keeps me having a deeper faith in God. I do not yet know everything, but I want to celebrate with this community, living into my healing.

Thank you to everyone who has been part of my resurrection before, during and after that day, ten years ago, just a little after the noon hour in the small quiet village of Floradale. The stone was rolled away for me on that day. Thanks be to God.

The World This Hour on CBC Radio at 3:00pm on Wednesday November 15 reported the following four items:

1. From Vancouver at the Peacekeeping conference . The Prime Minister is committing Canada to money and resources. Unclear how many soldiers will serve.
2. There had been violence in Zimbabwe. It is not a coup , but Prime Minister Mugabe is under house arrest.
3. The Toronto constable, who was convicted of killing a man on a subway, has been rearrested because of parole violations.
4. NDP leader, Jagmeet Singh, is not in favour of the hydro-electric project at First Nations Muskrat Falls.

Dzintars Cers then signed off saying that “ this is the World at this Hour.”

SportsNet reporters Carli Agro and Caroline Cameron talk about the five things that we need to know at 6:00 am on Thursday November 16.

1. Detroit / Calgary in hockey brawl.
2. Big Easy Raptor win in New Orleans.

      3)   Austin Matthews on the ice again. Will he play tonight ?

3. Elliot withdraws appeal of suspension. Willl not play till December 23rd.
4. Pitcher Perfect – Cy Young Award winners announced today.

What am I to do with these two lists ? And who decided in both newsrooms that this is the news that I will receive at this hour of the day  ? These reports happen every day, and I am to be a better person because I watch the news and sports ?

If you are a Christian, what do you need to know and believe for your faith today ? How many Bible stories from the Old and New Testaments do you need to memorize to be able to act out your Christian life ? The Flood, or the Exile or Passover ?

For example, is the creation story of Adam and Eve necessary for your faith ? And what role does it play in the faith as a everyday human being. Some people believe it to be a “fable” that tells an important story of taking care of our world today. Some people believe a true story of how all of our world began. So, it can be a fundamental story to two people who see the story in different ways. How do you read the story ?

As a follower of Jesus Christ, if you are, what are those things you need from words of Jesus to live your life to the fullest, and with the greatest integrity ? We can look to the Sermon on the Mount from Matthew chapter five, or from the last seven sentences from the life of Jesus of Nazareth.

One of those last seven sentences is , “ Forgive them for they do not know what they are doing.” ( Luke 23:34 ). This is the Gospel at its most basic. This does not make it easy, but we are to forgive people for what they do to us in our daily lives. Sometimes, it takes days, years to come to a place to forgive. It is not easy, but it is fundamental to the Christian life. Jesus gives us these words, when they are killing him on the cross.

What are the five things that you need to know about your Christian life… 1)  2)  3) 4) 5) ??

“As Saul neared Damascus [ in Syria ] on his journey, suddenly a light from heaven flashed around him .”   Acts 9:3. Saul ( later named Paul) was arresting and killing people of the Way of Christ. He was headed north out of Jerusalem, on his way to Damascus, Syria . His conversion changed the course of the Christian movement .

Here in October and November is the 100th Anniversary of the Russian Revolution. My dad was about to turn one year old, and was living on a farm in the Mennonite colony of Ignatevo in Ukraine. After about eight years of being harassed by this new government, and the war between various forces in the civil war, my dad’s family left Russia/Ukraine in the summer of 1926.

The Revolution destroyed the life of Mennonites in that area of the world. Their farms were taken, their businesses were left to rot, and their ability to worship, as they wished, was not permitted. They had been very wealthy in Russia/Ukraine, and they had not always treated the people that worked for them very well. But that story is for another article. My dad seldom talked about what he remembered of those first nine years of his life, but his life and community was destroyed there, and his family had to rebuild here in Canada.

In 1517, Martin Luther, a former Catholic priest, nailed his 95 Theses on a church door, and the Protestant Reformation was begun. The Theses were about some of the practices in the Church that Luther disagreed with, including Indulgences. These were payments to the church leadership that guaranteed a place in heaven. On October 31, the religious world commemorated the 500th Anniversary of the Reformation . Anabaptist/Mennonites were part of the same movement beginning in 1525, when some adults decided to re-baptize themselves without the priests being there. They also believed that the Mass held no mystery of the bread and cup, but was a memorial service . They also refused to take up arms for any government. What did these early Anabaptists lose when they left the Catholic Church ? It split families, and in many cases, they were treated harshly and killed .

These two events happened well before I was born, but have affected who I am as a person and a believer. They shook the world when they happened, and shook the worlds of my foremothers and forefathers. What events have shaken my world in my lifetime ? From 1975-1979, the Cambodian people were subjected to a genocide by their own people. Educated and city people were the targets. For three years , my wife and I listened to the stories these people who had become refugees in Thailand, and then as immigrant refugees to Canada. Almost no family was complete anymore . All had lost members of their families to the murderous Khmer Rouge ( Red Khmer ). These stories that we heard stayed with us.

Other stories that have shaken my world are: clergy sexual abuse, residential schools, the Vietnam War, the Syrian Crisis, contaminated water here in Elmira, and others as well. What are the events that have helped you be the person you are ? What are the events in your life that you have experienced , that you are still working through, to obtain healing  ?

My dad never recovered from the Revolution. He never forgave the Communists . This is not judgment on him , but this was his experience. Sometimes life events are so hard, that true healing never arrives.

I wonder what the next thing that will change my world.

Fred Redekop

There are many stories of Jesus of Nazareth encountering sinners on the edge of life. In the biographies of Jesus, they are often women. Sometimes they have illnesses or have had difficult experiences in life. A man/rabbi like Jesus was not supposed to be near “ these kinds of people”.

I met Sebastian ( not his real name) at church on Sunday . When I drove up to the church, I noticed him. He was smoking just outside the front doors. I parked the car , and brought my box of information/pamphlets/buttons in my box to the front door. Sebastian saw me coming, made sure he was there to open the door for me. He asked who was I looking for, and I said “ the pastor “ . He said that he will find him for me.

Sebastian then disappeared , and the pastor showed up to welcome me to the congregation for the morning. It was a great morning of worship, connections and community. There was a baptism, contemporary worship singing, and some announcements. A short devotional by the pastor and a short sermon by me. The  pastor invited everyone to stay for soup and bread lunch and conversation in the gym following the service. I talked with a few people about my work, and about what I had said in my sermon. I then moved to the gym for the lunch.

I saw Sebastian sitting on a bench just outside the gym. I sat down next to him. I asked him if he was going to have lunch. He said no, and that he only eats one meal a day. Then he said to me, “ You know I was in jail for 21 years ( I had talked about men being released from jail during my sermon) , but I have been out for 20 years. I have had three heart attacks, but I can’t stop smoking ( pointing to the cigarettes in his shirt pocket). And I drink too much as well. I come to this church. I have coffee with the pastor about once a month. Do you know that I was  abused by a church leader when I was young ? I am never going back to that church. But, I like it here. “

I did not know what to say. I told him that you never recover from that kind of abuse. And I said it was an awful thing to be done to such a young boy . To me, any words seem to be trivial and meaningless to offer to Sebastian . What kind of Gospel can be given to him, when it was the church and its holy representatives have done such an unholy thing to him. It is his story to live through. He loves the church he is attending . He only attends about once a month, and he said that is enough. It was God that sent him to me on this past Sunday.

I thanked him for helping me on that morning , when he opened the door and found me the pastor. And then I was gone. In the parable about sheep and goats , in Matthew 25, it is Christ who is the stranger, the criminal and the one who is thirsty. It is not the church leader who is Christ; it is the one being served that is the Christ(s) in the world.

Fred Redekop

Fred  is  a husband, brother, father, Opa, and a seeker of the Kingdom of heaven while living on this earth. He lives with his wife Shirley in Elmira, Ontario

“ Immediately the boy’s father exclaimed, ‘ I do believe, help me with my unbelief.’ Mark 9:23 . The dad says this to Jesus, and then his son is healed.

In 1989, Frances Fukuyama wrote an essay called , The End of History . He was reflecting on the end of communism and the fall of the Berlin Wall. The book, Remains of the Day , written by Kazuo Ishiguro, is supposed to be the perfect novel. Ishiguro won the Nobel Prize for Literature a few weeks ago.  I think we are always trying to predict the future, and know when the end of the story is going to happen. Biblical prophets were trying to see the future, through the lens of the lives they were living.

Yuval Noah Harari, a Jewish scholar living Jerusalem, has written the book, Homo Deus . As other authors and prophets, he sees the world coming to a new stage. For the most part, the world has ended famine, disease and wars. He documents that we grow enough food, although  it is unevenly distributed. He states that we do not have epidemics of disease anymore. We have ended polio, smallpox, the Plague and other diseases like AIDS. And in relative terms, there are not as many wars happening either. In the space of 20 pages, he brings us to this place in history

Then he says on page 21 that , “ In the twenty first century humans are likely to make a serious bid for immortality “ . And this is not about life after death, but it is life here on this earth. His title means that humans will become almost like God. The advances in science and health will allow us to live forever here on this earth. I am sure that there is other scientists or philosophers writing different ideas about the future. Our bodies will become part computer, part robot and part human and in the end part God. He goes through the science, and it is a compelling idea.

For those people who are Christian, they/we want to go to heaven, but not just now. We do not want to have any pain, or any illness,  or anything go wrong with our lives. So, are Christians going to buy into this prolonging of life for forever, if it is available. What might it mean for me to live till 150 years ? Maybe after 200 years, we can finally truly understand God. No more room for faith then.

This connects to all those questions around the end of life . How much treatment do I want. ? I want them, the health care staff,  to restart my heart if I have a heart attack at 49, but do I want the same treatment when I am 80. But what if they can reverse aging on my body and my mind. What will it mean for me to retain my soul, if my body is made up of different moving parts ?

If we think we can prolong life … forever, do we now become our own Gods ? Since, I depend on the health care system to try to keep me healthy, am I already moving God out of my life. What does it mean for our faith, if more and more of the formerly unanswerable questions are being answered ? What if we can live forever . Discuss.