Ponder Anew

“ It was two days before the Passover and the Festival of the Unleavened Bread. The chief priests and the scribes were looking for a way to arrest Jesus, by stealth and kill him; for they said , ‘ Not during the festival or there may be a riot among the people.’ ”         Mark 14:1-12

This news item in the story about Jesus in Mark’s biography, happens right before the arrest and death of Jesus. A few items before, Mark reports that Jesus was welcomed into Jerusalem with a parade by some people. So, Jesus is in the city for a week. He and his disciples must have been very afraid as they walked the streets of Jerusalem during that week.

I must remember that in today’s church and societal role, I am one of the leaders. I am no longer a lead pastor, and I work only part-time as a church leader, but I am usually to uphold the ideas and rules of the Church. I do not ask , “What would Jesus do ?”I ask myself “ I ask ,” how does Jesus inspire me to live a life  of love and compassion ?” I am not the Messiah, and that is not my role in the Church. Jesus is the Son of God, and I am not that either. So Jesus can do whatever a Messiah needs to do in the situations we find in the Bible. I am not going to be the Messiah.

So, I do not ask what would Jesus do in any situation. What were Jesus’ options as he was nearing the end of his life ? He said later , that if God can remove his horrible death from the salvation equation, he would like that. But, did Jesus have any other options ? Could he have been violent in the kingdom building ? Could he have gone to heaven, and left before the nastiness began ? Or, could he have left Jerusalem, and went back home, and then he could come back again ? What was Jesus thinking for the the last week of his life ?

Mark’s words in the above quote come from reflection. Jesus and his friends did not know this. One of the scribes, after the event that took place, must have told them and it came down to Mark. Mark wrote this story about Jesus’ life about 40 years after Jesus died. Look at what other comments Mark adds to the story.

So, it is a few weeks from the Cross.  What is important for your journey of faith, as you meditate on Jesus’ journey from Galilee to Jerusalem, and then to the Garden, the trial and then the Cross ? Can you walk alongside the events that we will remember through Holy Week ? Do you stand fsr back, and observe, or do you see yourself as a disciple, right in the middle of these events of our faith ?

Dear God,

Holy One

Ground of our Being

Creator of Heaven and Earth

 Lord of Justice and Peace.

 Speak to us,

 as we walk into the Cross once again.

 Sometimes, because we know the story so well ( or we think we do ),

that we go through the motions on the way to the Cross.

Revive my faith , O God, so that I might live a life full of compassion and love. AMEN

HARDTALK is a half hour news/interview show on BBC television. The host, Stephen Sackur, is the main interviewer. I first heard him on the show in 2003 in an Istanbul hotel room.  He interviews people from all over the world, and his guests include politicians, monarchs, UN officials and other important people. He asks very hard questions of the people who come on his show. I do not know if he is an atheist, a Christian or a Buddhist or a Muslim, or a Liberal or a Conservative .  I wonder why people want to come on his show. Maybe they want to show that they can survive one of his interviews. Donald Trump was on about a decade ago. If  any of the  people have done anything questionable, he goes right after them really hard. Some regular people who have done extraordinary things get a pass from him in terms of really hard questions.

I would not want to be interviewed by him. I would scared that he would call into question my role as pastor/person. He might ask, “ how much did you church grow while you were pastor at Floradale for 25 years ?, and “ How how many people did you lead personally to follow Jesus ?” And “ you are called to care for the widow, stranger and orphan. How did that go ?”. And what did you say in a public way about the First Nations apartheid system that you have there in Canada ? “. And finally, what did your church say about the abuse of Palestinians by the Israeli state ?”

These are the kinds of questions that he asks. He is tougher than nails. And yet people agree to come on his show, even when they know he will ask just the right question, calling into question their position or policy or careers. He interrupts when, they do not answer his question or are answering the question by evading it.

Is Jesus of Nazareth like Stephen Sackur or is he more like me, not wanting to offend ? When Jesus tells fictional parables ( very short stories ) about everyday life, sometimes his life threatened by the senior officials in politics and religion. “ What must I do to gain eternal life “,  is a question asked to Jesus by a lawyer/teacher . Jesus responds by telling a story that the lawyer knows the answer for himself, but walks away.

What if HARDTALK would want to interview me ( you ), and Stephen would ask, “ Do you call yourself a Christian ? “ I would say yes . And what makes you think that Jesus/God/Holy Spirit would accept you as a believer ? Sackur gets down to the fundamental issues very quickly.

There are many hard sayings of Jesus that Sackur could bring up during the interview, like “ Sell all that you have and then come follow” , “ love your enemies”,  “ Forgive [ everyone ] for they do not know what they are doing”, “be like children” . How would you answer for your life and faith ? Just saying that “I believe” what Jesus did on the cross is for my salvation, will not cut it with Sackur, nor with Jesus. There must be fruits of the Spirit within the lives of Christian . Listen to Sackur on HARDTALK, and tell me what you think .

Fred Redekop  

“ But they ( the 12 disciples ) did not understand what he meant, and were afraid to ask him ( Jesus ) about it “   Mark 9:32

I wonder if I do this when I am praying to God through Jesus Christ. I try to pray in the morning. Sometimes, when I have trouble sleeping, I have the opportunity to pray to God when I am wide awake at three in the morning. I think my prayers are different when I cannot sleep. I pray for our family, and I pray that I might get back to sleep. They are rather selfish prayers for me. But maybe, I do not ask about things I do not understand.

I have to admit I do not know what God is up to in the world. There is a lot of things to worry about. School shootings, war in Congo, Syria, South Sudan, Iraq and Afghanistan ( sorry if I missed some countries ), above zero at the North Pole ( for the first time ), and the flu that we cannot control. What keeps you up at night, and what do you pray to God or a higher power, or even a lower power.

For me, God is about love and healing, and there are many places in our communities that that is not happening. So , what is God doing ? Some people have told me not to believe in God. God is only in your imagination; it is not real. It is a Middle Ages fairy tale story to keep you feeling guilty about your life. They say it is not true.

The verse from Mark is about death and dying. This is an issue that we do not want to talk about. So, Jesus, for a second time, tells his disciples that he is going to die. But, he is not straightforward, but he says that , “ Son of Man will die “ So, he is saying it in the third person, which is not direct speech at all. Maybe even Jesus had a touch of fear about his dying. The twelve guys, who are his best friends, do not want him to die, and so they do not even ask him about it. They are afraid.

The group walks further into the city of Capernaum, and the disciples get into an argument about who is the greatest. Jesus asks them about it, but they decide that they will not tell him what they are discussing. They might be embarrassed about it, because  he has just told them he was going to die, and so they have to think about their future. If he is gone in a month, what are they going to do with their lives ?

I have many things about Jesus of Nazareth and Jesus the Christ that I do not understand . When is Jesus human and when is he divine ? The Church has been debating this since Jesus went back to heaven. And why did Jesus have to go back to heaven, when he had risen from the dead ? I thought the cross/resurrection was about the salvation of the world, but it is not quite yet here. Why ?  “What is the plan for the world , God “, is my prayer for today.

I find it comforting that the disciples did not always understand all things, and they walked with Jesus for about three years. They heard his teaching, saw his miracles and watched him confront the powers of the world. I am still learning and I do not understand the ways of God.

“ Jesus came preaching peace “  from Paul, the theologian, in the letter to the church at Ephesus,

I have never owned a gun. I have never shot a gun, unless you count a Super Soaker water gun. I am scared of guns. We did not allow our kids to have fake guns, but that did not stop them from turning sticks or other things into a gun or a shooting instrument. So, since I have had no experience with guns, it is not surprising that I would be against most gun ownership.

I did not grow up with hunting of animals either. I do not have any reason to shoot a deer or bear or a coyote. I do not have any interest in driving a motorcycle either. I did not grow up with it. So, this is what I am used to in my life. Thi is my experience with firearms.

I believe the U.S. has a problem with guns, violence, anger and mental health. And, I do not have any answers to the problems. I lived and studied in the U.S. for 7 years, but have little insight to how to address the issues that are again in front of them, with another school shooting. My wife’s family lives in the U. S.

I do wonder why the “default” response to violence in some places in America is to pick up a gun and shoot people. There are many domestic violence cases where where the wife is killed. There are those school shootings where, someone is so mad that they shoot random students. There are those workplace shootings there a disgruntled employee returns to work to shoot their employer and co-workers. When I lived in the U.S. in the 1990’s, there were many postal employees who went on rampages. Was there something wrong with the Post Office ? Guns are available because it is said to be a constitutional right to own, and to use it when you feel threatened. There are 30,000 deaths in the United States a year using firearms. People, I think, agree that that is far too many people killed in one year with guns. Who should be able to own a firearm ?

Most of the mass shootings are carried out by white men. Women and men suffer from mental illness at the same levels in the society, so why do women not commit this kind of violence ? And why do men do it ?  30,000 deaths are a bad thing, but the U.S. community still think that it is important to retain the right to own a gun. And not just any gun, but a sub-machine gun, among many kinds of firearms.

After the recent school shooting, President Trump offered the idea that there should be more guns in the schools. The teachers should be armed and there should be more security personnel . What do you think ? Everybody is upset when these schoolchildren are killed. What are the answers to make the schools safer , and to make the society safer ?

I do not think I should defend my faith with a firearm ? I do not think I should defend my family with a firearm ? We all want to live in a safer society, so what are the answers to this terrifying concern ?

                                 Fred Redekop

“ .. and to dust you will return .. “

The above quote is part of the Ash Wednesday service that I attended here in Elmira at St.James Lutheran Church, just last night. I did not grow up with such ritual, but I look forward to the service every year. The pastor dabs ash in the form of a cross across my forehead. I must get up from my pew, and go forward to offer myself to the action of the pastor .

The ritual, at least what I focus on for the service, is about my own death. The above quote from the service,  reminds us that we have come from dust, at least according to the Genesis story of creation, and that is where our life will end. When I conduct a funeral, I say the words “ ashes to ashes, dust to dust , earth to earth. At the graveside, the words are to remind us of the finality of death to the person in the coffin. The words about returning to the earth and to dust are sorrowful words, they are about grief and tears.

Do you think about dying often ? And have you thought of it often, or it is really for older people. I am going to turn 60 this year. Because of my genetic ( it comes from my mom and dad) makeup, and my work as a pastor, I think that I think of death more often than other people. But, I do not know that for sure because I do not ask people about it. Do you think of your death once a week ?

The ritual of Ash Wednesday focuses on our own dying is counter intuitive to what God invites us to be about in our life, and especially for the days leading up to the Resurrection, Easter Sunday. The service talks about dying , so that we might live better in this world. If I am so sure that I am doing to die, as a matter of faith, it should allow me to live better . In my death , God will take care of me, so I do not have to worry. I should be more caring. I should be more compassionate. I should work everyday for justice and peace.

It is hard to be positive about our own passing from this life to the next. The bluegrass tune says it best, “ everyone wants to go to heaven, but nobody wants to die” . It is our our human nature to want to continue in this place for as long as we can . Researchers say that we spend  the most money on our own health care in the last six months of our lives. We do not want to give up. People do not like it when we give up any parts of our healing healthcare system

So, last evening, while sitting in the fourth pew from the front, I contemplated my death , so that I might live better.  And it was Valentine's Day as well, so I thought I should love all my family more. And I should lead a life worth living of being a better person.

Since I am confident of my death, as I reflect on the ash on my forehead, I have faith that I can live life to the fullest in the presence of family, friends and God. Happy Ash Wednesday !

Fred Redekop

“You have heard it said, ‘ Love your neighbour and hate your enemy ‘. But I tell you love your enemies, and pray for those persecute you, that you may be children of your Father in heaven. ”                                                                                                                 Matthew 5:43-45

Jesus of Nazareth was Jewish. He believed in the Law of Moses, and was in conversation with Jewish leaders of his time about what the Law might mean for the world. In the biography of Matthew, there is a sermon by Jesus. The quote above comes from that sermon. Five times Jesus begins his points by saying “ you have heard it said.” Five times in the sermon, Jesus says these words, and he is re-interpreting the sacred law of the Jewish faith. He is changing the fundamental parts of the Jewish faith. My understanding of Jewish faith discussions is that everything is always up for discussion. Ideas are always changing. What kinds of questions do we ask Jesus today ? We have changed from 2000 years ago.

Yesterday, when I got to the light at the Tim Horton’s corner, I could not go through. The traffic was backed up all the way to Crossroads Restaurant , and maybe beyond. When we first moved to this area there was one streetlight in Elmira, and now there are four. Is this progress or is this just frustration. How do we deal with change ?

In 1976, the Canadian government announced they would have a lottery to raise money for the Montreal Olympics. They would hold it, and then there would be no more. They raised so much money, and it was so easy, that they have continued to do it, and every province and territory hold them now. It seems strange to hear on the radio about the “ minister in charge of gambling”. But as a government, we love the revenue ( regressive tax ?), even if the lotteries cause some social problems and addictions. The lottery was begun to raise a little extra money for a sporting event. Where did it go ?

And now the provinces and the federal government are deciding on revenues from projected sales in marijuana, beginning on July 1, 2018. So, we might find a new cabinet minister who will be in charge of “drug sales” in the near future. The governments want to regulate the sale of this drug, so that there is not the criminal element,  and to raise some tax revenue also. Where will it go into the future ?

Jesus, who was Jewish ( is Jewish in heaven too ?), wanted to call people back to God, and to the Law of the Ten Commandments. When Jesus begins these statements with “ you have heard … but I tell you “ he is causing an earthquake for the believers. Then his resurrection that we celebrate on Easter Sunday rocked the world of the Jewish believers. This is not how God should work in the world. Things change

Who in the church is saying , “ you have heard … but I say to you “ ? And can we believe them. Are they the voice of themselves, or are they the voice from God/Jesus/Holy Spirit ?  Peter, a disciple of Jesus, and an early church leader, has a dream that all foods were now able to be eaten. As a good Jewish person, it would be an abomination for him to eat pork, but the Holy Spirit invited him to change his mind . He believed the Holy Spirit . Can we listen and hear the Holy Spirit that we can be a voice of peace, justice and compassion ? At least that is my bias of the Spirit.

Fred Redekop

“Make every effort to live in peace with everyone and to be holy; without holiness no one will see the Lord.” Hebrews 12:14

If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live in peace with everyone.”    Romans 12:18

These verses are from early church writers who are trying to bring together different languages and ethnic groups. The do not speak the same language or eat the same foods or worship the same God.

In the movie, Molly’s Game , there is a short conversation between Molly and her father about their relationship. Her dad is therapist and he says, “ Sit down. I am going to give you three years of therapy in three minutes .” I thought of this line, when I attended a First Nations concert at St. James Lutheran Church here in Elmira. One of the Indigenous women said that when the settlers ( me) arrived about 500 years ago, they did not respect us, and they just took our resources and land. So, we have had a bad relationship from the beginning, and have never really entered therapy with each other. How long would this kind of relational therapy take to bring healing ?

The Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada interviewed people across Canada over many years trying to bring a new sense to the relationship between settlers and First Nations persons. They came up with 94 recommendations to make a start to a new relationship. One place we can start in the big picture is to advocate that the Canadian government pass the The United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples ( Recommendations 43-44 ). It is in third reading in the Canadian Parliament. The United Nations has passed it, and has strongly urged on their member nations to ratify it. It speaks to bringing concrete measures to achieve  a more lasting peace with  our Indigenous brothers and sisters. Please speak to our Member of Parliament, and invite him to advocate on its behalf. The final vote is on February 7.

One of the speakers at the event at St. James was a school teacher from the Six Nations community. He teaches grades seven and eight in his school. He brought the prayer/thanksgiving at the beginning and at the end of the ceremony. He is a member of the Mohawk nation, but he does not speak Mohawk, but he is learning. This man is a survivor of the residential school system. He was taken from his home, and educated in the English system, and was not allowed to speak his native language. He was punished for speaking the language of his home and community. This is horrific, and it happened while I was growing up a half an hour away in Niagara-on-the-Lake.

This and many other experiences are more than just misunderstandings;  they were wrong, and we are guilty. The problems are so enormous after 500 years. The problem of clean drinking water ( when Canada has the most clean water in all the world ), suicide, harassment, racism. Where do we start ?  St. James Lutheran started and continues to hold events. We can urge the Government to pass the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.

In the Indigenous communities we are invited to listen. This might be the most compassionate thing that we can do now. After 500 hundred years, where do we start ?

Fred Redekop

Last Sunday evening , I met the Spirit of God. It was at a Taize worship service held at Brubacher House on the campus of the University of Waterloo. I cannot name exactly when I knew the Spirit was there, but I know I experienced it.

Taize is a Protestant place ( in France ) where young adults are invited to come for a week to worship and experience life in the community. The “brothers” teach Bible study, meet with participants and lead the worship services. Three times a day, people are invited to go to the chapel for worship. They sing the songs of Taize ( many written by Jacques Berthier ) , read Scripture in many languages and have a moment of silence for 8-10 minutes . No sermon. The songs and Scriptures are different, but the order of the service is always the same. The brothers process in in the same order, but leave at different times depending on the movement of the Spirit. My wife Shirley and I spent a week there in the fall of 2011, as part of a sabbatical.

The songs of Taize  are repetitive in nature.  “ Stay With Me, remain here with me; watch and pray “, is one of the songs of the community. You sing this short song,  three times or six times or 10 times, depending on the Spirit’s leading of the song leader. When we were at Taize, the song may have gone on for 15 times. It never felt rushed or repetitive. It felt slow and reflective.

I think I like the style of Taize because it tends to slow down my mind, so that I can meet God in a different way. I live a busy life , with work, volunteering and family. I have a few Taize CDs, and when I play them, they can have a calming effect on my life and soul.

So, on Sunday, it was a sacred time for me. There was a trio playing the music of Taize, and people read the Scriptures in different  languages, French, Mandarin and English. And then,, there was the ten minutes of silence. That is a long time for a person like me. My mind wandered, and came back, and then wandered again. Near the end of the service we were invited to pray at the cross that was in the center of the room, and then we lit our candles, and prayed and sang once again.

In the conversations afterwards, I found out there were other Mennonites there, and Orthodox Christians, and Pentecostals and Catholics, and maybe many others. There were pastors, students and writers that I knew of, and there about 40 people around the circle.

The songs that moved me most to the Spirit were in Latin, “ Jubilate Deo, Nada Te Turbe and Veni Sancte Spiritus . These three songs are easy Latin, but it is in the music and words that God arrived . It inspired me to walk more closely with the words of Jesus of Nazareth, and the Spirit of the Eternal God. I was able to rest in the nature of God with God’s grace surrounding me.

When do you feel the presence of God in worship ? What happens to you ? Where do your thoughts go for that time  ?  “ O Lord hear my prayer, O Lord hear my Prayer, come and listen to me “ ,  is a Taize song that invites me, and you, to come with all of our lives before God. Come.

“ Are they Hebrews ? So am I. Are they Israelites ? So am I . Are they Abraham descendants ? So am I.  Are they servants of Christ ( I am out of my mind to talk like this ) . I have worked harder, been in prison more frequently . . I am more ….”       2 Corinthians 11: 22-23

These are the harsh words of Paul, the early church leader. He is trying to defend himself against the critics in the church at Corinth. He was the founder of that small church, and it has not turned out the way that some believers had thought it would, and they had written him a letter voicing their concerns. The letter that Paul writes back to them is so honest. He is angry. The verses I quote here, Paul is being sarcastic about how a great disciple he is. They cannot cannot be a better Christian than him. He is by far a better one than any of them. We assume he is being sarcastic… and arrogant.

So, if you are a Christian, how would you describe yourself in terms of your faith. And if you are agnostic or atheist, how do you describe your life journey ? Are you a Canadian ? So am I . Are you an immigrant ? So am I (through my parents )? Are you a resident of Waterloo Region ? So am I . Were you born here. ? I was not. What do you think of me now since I am not a native son ?

Norman Rockwell was a folk painter in the United States, He was famous for his covers of the magazine, The Saturday Evening Post . He painted everyday scenes of American life, and people loved his work. In 1963, he painted Ruby Bridges, a young black girl, walking to an all-white school. He also painted a picture of a black family just moving into a house in a white neighborhood. He got racist letters from people. He never quite recovered from the criticism. When he became political, he was seen as taking the wrong or right side of the argument. He also has a painting of himself painting himself in a self portrait . If you were a painter, how would you portray yourself ? Rockwell was always painting part of himself in everything he painted .

So who am I ? I think the Israeli government is a bully, and has discriminated against the Palestinian people for over 50 years. They have the guns, the tanks, the bulldozers, the checkpoints and most of the money. I will always support Canada taking in refugees because refugees are at risk of death and exploitation. It is the right thing to do. I do not support the church being judgmental against anyone. We should be open, and show our love to all people, coming out of the love that Jesus has for all of us. I am committed to work within the Church. I believe it is the body of Christ , even with all its bad history and present problems. I will never leave it, even it takes positions that I am not in favor today. I believe in the Bible as the word from God, but am open to new understandings everyday with it. It is a book to be discussed and disagreed with in our everyday lives.

So, this is part of my self-portrait. I have not shared all of who I am, or what I believe in everything. What is part of your self-portrait ? Who are you ? And what do you believe ?

Fred

“ This is the genealogy of Jesus , the Messiah, son of David , son of Abraham “ Matthew 1:1

Two of the biographies of Jesus of Nazareth that are recorded in the New Testament have genealogies of Jesus. And they are different. Mark, another of the book of the life stories of Jesus, does not have such a list of names about who Jesus is related to in his life. What is the purpose of these lists of people at the beginning of the book ?

In the ancient culture, it was important who is your grandfather or even your great-great- grandmother, as to your status in the society. The family histories of Jesus go all the way back to Abraham and Adam. Matthew begins with Abraham and gets to Jesus, while Luke begins with Jesus and goes all the way back to Adam ( and the beginning of time according to Genesis ). So, as an ancient , it would be important to have Jesus connected to the story. The most radical nature of Matthew’s genealogy is that three women are included . As a patriarchal society, there would be no reason to put those names in there. What is Matthew, and Luke, trying to do ? And both of them include King David in their lists .

As you look at your own family, what person in your family makes you important ? Do you have a famous aunt or a war hero uncle that offers you status in the society ? Do some of your relatives have a lot of money , and you tell people that you are related to them ? Or do you have politicians in your family, and you tell people that they are part of your clan ?

Or more importantly, who do you not want to talk about in your family ? In 1940, my uncle committed suicide in an mental health hospital in Brandon, Manitoba. My dad only told me one time about this event. He said that he was the only one of his siblings who came to the funeral/memorial service for his brother Henry, and he asked, “ why would they do that ? “ I have no idea if my version of this story is true. I had never heard it before ,and I have not done any research on it ? Our family chose not to talk about this uncle who ended his life in 1940. Who do you not want to talk about in your family ? And what does this person and her/his story shape your own history because you never talk about it. ? Who are the villains in your own family history ?

All of our stories are sacred and holy, even with kinfolk who make us embarrassed . Maybe I embarrass the family history as well . The lists in the Bible help us to connect to our past, and are able to look into the future. They are not perfect people in the biblical family stories . None of us live in nice neat families .

We have been attending St. Jacobs Mennonite Church in the last 16 months, and we were interviewed by someone there recently to tell part of our histories . And she said more than once, “ we cannot include everything in your life in this interview”. The church wants to get to know you a little bit. Then they can fill in the blanks.

With all of our sins, foibles and life experiences, God walks beside, and never leaves us. What stories do you tell, and what stories do you leave out ?  Read the life histories  of Jesus of Nazareth, and try to relate your relatives to his story.

Fred Redekop