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June 6, 2020 Good afternoon, “Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You give a tenth of your spices—mint, dill and cumin. But you have neglected the more important matters of the law—justice, mercy and faithfulness. You should have practiced the latter, without neglecting the former. You blind guides! You strain out a gnat but swallow a camel. Matthew 23:23-24 I had forgotten about these " woes ". In my reading of Matthew this week, I came across them, and they were jarring. This call to faithfulness happens during the last week of Jesus' life, while he is in Jerusalem with his disciples. He knows that he is going to die at the end of the week. It is all part of the plan, even if Jesus wishes it could end differently. So, the pressure must have been intense between him and his disciples. It seems they left every evening to stay outside the city, to be in a safer place. Even if Jesus is worried, he confronts the leaders of the Temple. Six times he says woe to you, " teachers of the Law and Pharisees, and once he states, " you blind guides " and finally he calls them, the leadership, " you snakes and you brood of vipers ". There is a harshness to Jesus' words that we often do not talk about. Jesus is supposed to be kind, nice and pleasant, but here is scathing to the leadership of his own faith tradition. Here he is being prophetic, and no one likes a prophet. As I have said before, as a pastoral leader, I am sensitive to Jesus' anger at the Pharisees. I have to be careful that I do not abuse my authority as a caregiver or as a preacher. I never want to say something that is hurtful or uncaring. I am a Pharisee, but I do not want to be a bad Pharisee. The final sentence of the above quote says , "….you strain out a gnat and swallow a camel. " . Am I focusing on the little things and not the major issues. Am I worried about spices like cumin, and not working on " justice, mercy and faithfulness." We must be a prophetic community on issues of race, gender, justice and peace, rather than about the little things of the church. This image is like the one about taking the log out of our own eye, before we take the speck out of our brother/sister's eye. What is most important in the church ? Dear God, Help me take the avocado pit out of my eye before I take the carrot seed out of brother's eye, Help me take the watermelon out of my eye before I take the cherry tomato out of my sister's eye, And, Take the redwood tree out of my eye so that I might not see the lilac flower in my friend's eye. AMEN .
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Time out of Mind
une 4, 2020
Good afternoon,
"But I trust in you, Lord;
I say, “You are my God.”
My times are in your hands;
deliver me from the hands of my enemies,
from those who pursue me.
Let your face shine on your servant;
save me in your unfailing love." Psalm 31:14-16
"Just curious, what is the reason you always take a photo of the time?" . Someone asked me this on Facebook this morning ( I take photos during my morning walk, and I have been including a picture of the time). At first I thought it was about my heart attack in 2007, but I have had the day to think more about it. I began to take a picture of the digital clock at the Memorial Center here in Elmira every morning. People had been saying that at the beginning of the pandemic, they did not know what the date or time was because everything had been turned upside down. Maybe that is why I take the picture of the arena clock, or the town clock or my microwave.
I had my heart attack/event on November 26, 2007. After my recovery, and I was back at work in September 2008, time began to slow down. Weeks took months to finish. If I had an appointment on a Friday, the whole week took forever to pass by. This type of feeling and experience has never left me. I have asked many people about it, and no clear answer has arisen. People have told me to receive it as a gift from God. Unfortunately, I have not been able to do that. What do you think ? Some other people say that I am living in another dimension ( ha ha ).
We do not arrive at eternity after we die, we are already in eternity. Scientists says that time in the molecular world moves at a different rate than time in the world we live in. The scientific laws are different in the world of atoms, protons and muons. Sometimes we ask the question, " What do I do with the time that I have left ?" A very good question, that has a different answer for everybody.
In Psalm 31:15, the Psalmist writes that , " my times are in your ( God's ) hands. " My life is dependant upon God. I do not know what that all means, but I should not worry about it because God is in control. Time in this world, invites me to put my trust in God. I should treat it as gift. I should treat is an opportunity to invite God into every second, minute and hour of my being. I'm trying to just " Let it go " ( from Elsa in Frozen movie )
Prayer
there is a time for everything…
A time to ride bike, and a time to walk
A time to sleep, and a time to awake,
A time to read, and a time to watch T.V.
A time to rest, and a time to run
A time to plant grass and a time to harvest hay.
A time to live in joy, and a time to die in joy.
And..
A time to seek God, and a time to find 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
Walk humbly
June 3, 2020
Good afternoon,
" You should say… I am sorry, I am listening… and I am learning " from Osheta Moore, an African-American pastor from Minnesota.
I have stopped watching the video of the killing of George Floyd. I admit that I continue to watch the protests that have taken place all over the world in response to this killing. Today, all the four police officers have been charged. This will not bring an end to systemic racism that we find in Canada and the United States. During the 19060's and 70's in the United States, they had the Civil Rights Act, the Voting Rights Act and the Non-Segregation of Schools legislations, and although these were important laws, it did not end the persecution of African Americans. Here in Canada, we have had Royal Commissions, Truth and Reconciliation Commission and the Commission on Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women . And we are no closer to reconciliation between settlers and Indigenous people, or between blacks and whites in America.
Osheta Moore is a young female pastor who is right in the middle of this tragedy, in Minnesota. She says some hard things, and they are difficult to hear for a person like me who has so many white privileges. She says that " it is not about me, and being white ". Then she says the three things that are found above. If I want to move towards understanding I need to do more. We should always do these three things, no matter what the issue. I do not have any indigenous friends, so what can I say ? "Sorry, listen and learn", three things easy to write, but hard to enact my life.
We must have a stance of humility in all our attitudes. I read Matthew in two sittings yesterday. This is what I read: 'He called a little child to him, and placed the child among them. And he said: “Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Therefore, whoever takes the lowly position of this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. And whoever welcomes one such child in my name welcomes me. Matthew 18:2-5 , and in Matthew 20: 26-28 "Not so with you. Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first must be your slave— just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.” So, what are we to do." Jesus is calling us to be lowly, vulnerable and humble.
Wisdom from Richard Wagamese, an Ojibway man
Humility teaches us that there are no greater or lesser beings or things.
There is only the whole.
There is only the great clamour of our voices, our spirits,
Raised together in song. AMEN.
COME LORD JESUS, COME.
Fred
Tread on bold new paths !
Fireflies flash the direction
Hope springs eternal Monica Pieper Landoni 2020
Fred Redekop
Pastor
Poole Mennonite Church
Holy Disruption
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June 2, 2020 Good afternoon, " We are going up to Jerusalem , and the Son of Man [ Jesus ] will be delivered over to the chief priests and the teachers of the law. They will condemn him to death and will hand him over to the Gentiles to be mocked and flogged and crucified. On the third day he will be raised to life. " Matthew 20:18-19 Late last year, I bought a set of three paintings from a friend of mine. He retired a few years ago, and had taken up painting in his retirement. The paintings are considered modern art. They might be seen as just colours going everywhere with no apparent picture. My friend splatters colour onto the canvas with a brush, and then moves it around. I do not understand this type of painting, but the the colours seemed somehow calming to me, because they were bright and vibrant. There were greens, blues, reds and yellows all over the canvas. The painting is called Disruption. The three different panels are one painting. In the religious world, this is sometimes called a triptych. At this time, I am overwhelmed with the pandemic, police violence, demonstrations and climate change. It is not coincidence, I believe, that I went to the art show where I purchased Disruption. There were probably 20 paintings in the show, and I was intrigued by this painting. I did not buy it right away, but I waited until the weekend was over. I phoned my friend the following Monday, and asked if Disruption was still available. He said it had not sold, and so I bought it, and picked it up at the end of the week. It now is on the wall of my church office, disrupting my days, and my faith journey. In the text from Matthew, this is the third time that Jesus disrupts the disciples ideas about what it means to follow Jesus. They were hoping that the new kingdom was about to arrive, but Jesus dying would not be a way to be successful in setting up a kingdom. Becoming King and Emperor would be a better way for the disciples. Jesus tells them he will die, and he will rise again. I do not think that they heard the end of the the conversation, about resurrection. How is your life, family, church being disrupted in 2020 ? We could not have imagined any of this during Christmas of 2019. What is God speaking to us today ? Do you find disruption in your life helpful ? Prayer Dear God, Disruption can be helpful, for our faith, but only backwards or in 20/20 hindsight, this makes it more difficult for us to see what we need to do, or to be in our world. going forward or backward is hard when we do not know the way. but this is blind faith, or just faith, for my soul. Help us in the disruption in 2020. AMEN. Fred Pastor Poole Mennonite Church |
the story according to Matthew
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June 1, 2020 Good afternoon, " Many have undertaken to draw up an account of the things that have been fulfilled among us, just as they were handed down to us by those who from the first were eyewitnesses and servants of the word. With this in mind, since I myself have carefully investigated everything from the beginning, I too decided to write an orderly account for you, most excellent Theophilus, so that you may know the certainty of the things you have been taught.read on bold new paths ! Luke 1:1-4 The verses from Luke here, outline the reasons for writing his story of Jesus. None of the other authors of the stories of Jesus' life start with this kind of beginning. The writer is intentional about telling how he has done his research, and wants the readers ( we are included ) to find certainty in what he has written. From June through to the end of November, the Gospel readings for my sermons will be from Matthew. Matthew does not set out his book with the same intention as Luke, but he starts with the genealogy of Jesus. You have to put Jesus in the right family system, just like in German, it is his "Freundschaft ". Sometimes we start our spiritual history by telling about where we have come from in our own past generations. My Mennonite family started in the Netherlands, the northern part. Then in the 1700's some Mennonites moved to Prussia, now called Poland. Then after about 100 years, some of that group moved to Russia ( and/or Ukraine ) because Catherine the Great offered them free land and other concessions. My parents' families stayed there until the 1920's, and left after the new Communist government took away their land, and the other concessions. My parents came to Canada when they were young children. My parents were married in 1948 in Ontario, and they begat me in 1958. This is where I have come from, and, of course, there are many stories in-between all of these dates and history. Where do you come from ? Matthew tells many of the same stories about Jesus as Luke and Mark do, but he also gives us some stories that only he remembers, or chooses to tell. I invite you to read Matthew in one sitting. It does not take that long, and then go back and read the parts that you find most interesting. Then, over the course of the next five months, go back to the book looking for new insights. Pray as you read the words, sentences and paragraphs. What stories from my life of faith are difficult to reveal ? I have told parts of life many times, but what are the stories that I choose to leave out ? I tell stories from the pulpit, but I might tell different ones in pastoral visits. Prayer Thank you for Matthew, the Gospel according to him, has many miracles, parables and insights for our lives of faith, So, what might all of his words mean for our lives today, with racial violence, pandemic losses, locusts in Africa and hurricane season is about to start. We have new births, new faith, and weddings to celebrate O God, give us new learnings and hopes in reading Matthew, who is your servant . AMEN Fred Pastor, Poole Mennonite Church ( Please send birthday cards/greetings to Don Gerber, turning 90 on June 7, and Ken Erb, who turned 80 last weekend )
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Help ! I cannot breathe or live.
May 30, 2020
Good afternoon,
( Beginning on Monday, June 1, for one week, I will be the writer in the devotional magazine, Rejoice. It is a publication for North American Mennonites. I will post the seven days of devotionals on the Poole Facebook page. Please pray that the readers will find these helpful in their Christian journey. )
" Comfort, comfort my people,
says your God.
Speak tenderly to Jerusalem,
and proclaim to her
that her hard service has been completed,
that her sin has been paid for,
that she has received from the Lord’s hand
double for all her sins. Isaiah 40:1-2
Violence against black persons is both a personal and structural sin. In the United States and the British Empire ( now Canada ) there was slavery carried out against persons of colour. But, post Civil War in the the US, black people were treated and considered second class citizens, even though slavery was outlawed. Laws can be changed but the hearts and minds of people are more difficult to reverse. It is the same here in Canada.
I do not know how black persons feel ( even Obama talks about the fears of being a young black man in America ), nor do I know how women feel who walk on the street alone. I am an educated white upper middle class older man with white/grayish hair and goatee. I am privileged in every economic and social way in North America. And I really do not deserve it any way. It is mostly the luck of being born in Canada. So, I do not really understanding the life experience of people on the margins. I cannot walk a mile ( or even 10 meters ) in their shoes.
What happened to George Lloyd ( in Minneapolis ) was wrong in so many ways, but things were in place in our society to allow it to happen. It is not just a random act of evil. I do not speak out against racism very often. I try to model inclusion and diversity by the way I live, but I have not done well on dismantling racism and other institutional sins. The text for Pentecost is when all those languages are spoken by the followers of Jesus, so the people can all understand the Gospel. This is a model for the inclusion that we can strive for in all of our relationships. I do not know what full inclusion and full equality would look like, but I know we are not there. We are not even close.
Isaiah is a prophet, not one who wants to predict the future, but calls out the sin of God's people in the here and now. Israel had idols, scammed people in the market, and did not take care of the widows, the poor or the immigrants/refugees. Sound familiar ?
From poet, Maya Angelou
"Poetry and music are the best at the highest of the human mind. Out of poetry and out of the need for poetry, human beings have developed the idea of God. And so when we sing, when we dance, when we speak poetry, we are speaking out of God's mouth, each other out of the music from God's heart.".
Fred
Tread on bold new paths !
Fireflies flash the direction
Hope springs eternal Monica Pieper Landoni 2020
Fred Redekop
Pastor
Poole Mennonite Church
Questions of God
May 29, 2020
Good afternoon,
" Hearing that Jesus had silenced the Sadducees, the Pharisees got together. One of them, an expert in the law, tested him with this question: “Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?”
Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself. All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.” Matthew 22: 34-40
This passage is near the end of Jesus' ministry with his disciples. It is after the parade into Jerusalem, and within a few days of his death. The question comes from the leaders of the faith, and they give it to one of the lawyers of the Torah to ask Jesus. I am one of the leaders. So, you might see the question coming from somewhere out there, but I see if coming from myself. I am a Sadducee or a Pharisee or a teacher of the Law. I have studied at Seminary, served with MCC and been a pastor of three churches. I am an insider. I think all of the parables of Jesus are directed at me as well. It is the leaders out of Jesus' own community that challenge him almost every day. What is God, through Jesus, saying to me ?
Jesus's answer to this ultimate question of life is right out of the Law, as set down in the first five books of the Old Testament. Worship God with all of your being, and make sure that your neighbour is taken care of with all of life's necessities . In the second part about loving your neighbour, you have to treat yourself well. Treat yourself with the respect that God has for you.
The religious leaders cannot get mad at Jesus for this set of statements . He is playing back what God has told them to be about. Maybe they were not doing it . We do not have their response in the text. They were trying to find something to prosecute Jesus with in court, either political or religious. During this final week of his life, they ask him many questions, and finally get him arrested.
What am I asking Jesus for these days ? I am not trying to catch him to arrest him, but what new/old things do I want to know ? What do I need to know to be a good leader in the community and church ? What do I need help from our Lord, during such a time as this ?
Prayer for Today
How do I love thee ? Let me count the ways.
I love thee to the depth the breadth, the height
My soul can reach, when feeling out of sight
for the ends of being, and ideal grace.
I love thee to the level of every day's
Most quiet need by sun and candle-light ……. Elizabeth Barrett Browning ( 1806-1861 )
Fred Redekop
Pastor
Poole Mennonite
new rocks new life
May 28, 2020
Good afternoon,
" May the words of my mouth and meditations of my heart
be pleasing to you O God,
You are my rock and redeemer . " Psalm 19
" Jesus did many other things as well. If every one of them were written down,
I suppose that even the whole world would not have room for the books that would be written." John 21:25
Who do you listen to in your life, and especially during this pandemic ? Do you find comfort in the Bible, in newspapers, the Canadian Mennonite, TV news ? There are some pastors, like myself, who are writing daily or weekly blogs. I am trying to find my place, and some meaning in the events of these days. I have not found any great insights as I write these daily musings. But , maybe the journey of writing is the real meaning, and ultimate meaning or purpose is not going to arrive until later years or decades. I must just live into it.
Words and sentences ares still important. We live in a culture of images. They are powerful ways to change our opinions, insights and ideas. I take photographs, and so I know how one picture can change the ideas of people. But my photos are just a moment in time, and then I can change the visuals in just a few seconds. During the last few months, I have taken some pictures of painted rocks and sidewalks. The say something about the children and how they are feeling about the pandemic.
As I write ( or type ) words I want to explore the ways and acts of God. The Psalmist writer gives us the image of rock to describe God. Rocks gives us strength, endurance and they are everywhere ( especially in Palestine ). These might be the words that you are describing God today. We are looking for positive images to carry us to new places in God, Christ and Holy Spirit. The Bible does not give us everything. The writer of John says that he chose to leave out some of the stories, so the book about Jesus would not get too long. What did he leave out ?
We cannot write everything down that God is doing with us today ? Tell me three things that you have done, or heard or that you have written down during this time since March. What is the Spirit of God, that is hovering all around this earth, speaking to you ?
Prayer for Today
Dear God,
Adverbs, nouns, sentences, clauses,
All written to try and make sense of the
pandemic
and to find you
in
new ways, new spirits, new metaphors
new rocks, new tents, new vines and new breads,
new life.
AMEN
Fred
Tread on bold new paths !
Fireflies flash the direction
Hope springs eternal Monica Pieper Landoni 2020
Fred Redekop
Pastor
Poole Mennonite Church
This is Life
May 27, 2020
Good evening,
" Jesus returned to Galilee in the power of the Spirit, and news about him spread through the whole countryside. He was teaching in their synagogues, and everyone praised him. He went to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, and on the Sabbath day he went into the synagogue, as was his custom. He stood up to read, and the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was handed to him. Unrolling it, he found the place where it is written:
“The Spirit of the Lord is on me,
because he has anointed me
to proclaim good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners
and recovery of sight for the blind,
to set the oppressed free,
to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favour.” Luke 4:13-19
Jesus has just been in the wilderness for forty days. He is exhausted from the ordeal. He is now back into ministry, and telling everyone ( "all" from verse 13 ) of the new work that God was doing through him. After those forty days, he had to reacquaint himself with his disciples. His message must have have been well-received by the people in the local places of worship, because the text says that he was getting praise, and too much praise is a problem for a prophet, but too little praise has it own problems.
He gets the invitation from his hometown synagogue. This is great news, and maybe his parents and his siblings will show up to hear him read Scripture, and deliver the sermon. It will be a great homecoming and celebration for the whole community. Jesus opens the scroll for the text from Isaiah, and he begins to read what has been given him. Everyone is exited, and hopeful.
What a great text . The kingdom has arrived. The Empire will be overthrown, and the poor of Nazareth will be gifted with the Spirit of God . YESSSSSSSS !!! No more waiting fo us to be blessed by God. Then… Jesus tells two stories of healing and hope, about people outside of the Jewish faith, and Jesus offers that their experience is better. The crowds turn 180 degrees, and they are no only mad, but they want to thrown him off the cliff outside of Nazareth. What happened ? Did Jesus know that this would be the reaction of telling them about the widow of Zarapheth, and Naaman the Syrian.
This is just one event out of hundreds events that are recorded by the Gospel writer . Not every story has a moral or a meaning. This is part of our Lord's life. We have thousands of things that we remember from our own lives. For example, I worked at a golf course through high school and university. I took one set of streets when I went in the morning, and I took another set of streets home, night or day. I did not plan to do, nor did I question why; it was just part of life. It is what I did.
Enjoy the stories of our Jesus, the man from the small town of Nazareth, that we find in the Gospels. They are for your study and observation.
Prayer for today
Poole, Lancaster, Istanbul, Thailand, Floradale, Elmira, Niagara-on-the-Lake …
Hawthorne Drive, Trent University, Benham Avenue , Main Street, Simcoe Street …
Ecclesiastes, Luke, Psalms, Genesis, Ephesians…
Heart Attack, Drugs, Birth, Death, Miracle
This is part of my life,
Not all of it, just some events, places and memories.
God is always there,
It is only I that have been absent sometimes, not all the time, just sometimes. Amen
Fred
Tread on bold new paths !
Fireflies flash the direction
Hope springs eternal Monica Pieper Landoni 2020
Fred Redekop
Pastor
Poole Mennonite Church
I am deeply sorry, I was wrong
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May 26, 2020, I m very sorry for yesterday's blog. I reflected on what Jesus means to me, but I left one of Jesus' teachings hanging out there, under interpreted . It is never ever okay to abuse anyone either physically, emotionally and spiritually. Never. I said yesterday, " He suggests that you give up your cloak, let the abuser give your other cheek to smack, and walk the extra mile. It is never okay to abuse anyone, female, male, parents, daughters, sons, anyone ever ! In Matthew 5 39-42 ( in the NIV ) Jesus says : "If anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to them the other cheek also. And if anyone wants to sue you and take your shirt, hand over your coat as well. If anyone forces you to go one mile, go with them two miles. Give to the one who asks you, and do not turn away from the one who wants to borrow from you." Walter Wink ( 1935-2012 ) a Biblical scholar explains to us a way to interpret the turning of the cheek. Soldiers and slaves were intimidated, ridiculed and abused by their generals and masters. They would slap them with their right hand across their face. To turn the other cheek, meant the general would have to hit you with the back of his left hand. This meant the slave or soldier was at the same level as the slave owner or general . It evened out the relationship. It meant that you were strong, and not just taking it as abuse. The other two examples in Jesus' Sermon on the Mount also broke the political and social norms. By giving your second piece of clothing might have meant that you were going naked, and that embarrassed the person in power. And by going the second mile, you did more than you should have done for the military. It was speaking to power without killing anyone. In the Gospel. the power dynamics are all upset ! This is the new kingdom of God on this earth, and for the here and now. It is never right to abuse anyone. I take full responsibility if that is how you understood it, and how you heard my words. I am deeply sorry for that. Dear God, Sometimes, the best thing we can do for each other is talk honestly about being wrong. Amen —– Nadia Bolz-Weber In our walk together of faith and life, Fred Redekop
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Ponder Anew 