Ponder Anew

In the Christian tradition, this Sunday, November 27, offers us a new a chance to start again with God and the world. The Church starts its new year of worship and life together, not on January 1, but on the first Sunday of Advent. For four Sundays, we have the opportunity to find God again, for the first time, before we arrive at the manger on Christmas Eve/Day.

During these four weeks of waiting to celebrate the birth of Jesus, the larger church provides us with readings from the Bible. They are often from the prophet Isaiah, and from the passages about the birth of the Messiah. Many of these passages from the Bible talk about waiting in anticipation for the future.

Waiting is difficult for Christians, because we want everything we want, right now . We are taught to pray in faith, and we are to expect an answer from God. And we expect an answer that affirms our lifestyle and the needs that we want. It really sounds too selfish, but Jesus tells us, to ask and you shall receive.” Jesus says this in his famous sermon that the church has called,,, The Sermon on the Mount.

So, when we have to wait for anything in our lives , we get impatient.  I left my work as a pastor at the end of August . I want something new right now. I want something meaningful for work, and before Christmas would be good .. “ O God.” I am working at the local Mennonite Central Committee offices, and I like it, but is this what I should be doing ? Is it my calling ? God, I do not think that I can wait for the four weeks through Advent to find out. This Friday would be better God, so I can worship in peace through Advent. I want Christmas to be nicer. “ If you have a chance God, I would like to feel and know my next calling . Is this too much to ask of you, O God ? “

“God, have I been faithful to you for almost thirty years as a pastor in Your church ? I deserve to find clarification for my next work sooner rather than later. I have been faithful in the little things and in the big things, for you and the church . Though there were those few times, that I did not say what I ( or you) wanted me to say in a sermon, or in a Church Council meeting. Actually, you know that happened more than a few times. I ask for forgiveness.

For these last 30 years I have invited people into faith. I sort of had the same sermon for all of these years, with different illustrations and different biblical stories. The Gospel told in the same words, but in 1200 hundred different ways. At this stage of my journey, I need a sermon/illustration about my own personal faith. When I pray, I must invite God into the space, and wait and listen.

Shirley and I are listening to where we should go to church. As we left Floradale, we knew we needed to give the  church space and the new pastor ways to flourish, so we must find a new church to call home in our community. I was not prepared for how much of a loss this is to my soul. I might have seen it coming, but it probably would not have made any difference to how I am feeling. You cannot live around grief, and you cannot postpone it. You have to live right through the middle of it. After 25 years in same worshipping community, why am I so surprised that there is so much grief ?

On November 26 ( this Saturday ) I will celebrate nine years of resurrection. I survived a heart attack and triple bypass surgery. Many of you prayed for me, and were part of saving my life. I am very thankful for all the experiences that have been part of life in the last nine years. Shirley and I have celebrated our 30th wedding anniversary, our son Lucas got married, our four children have meaningful work, our grandson Levi was born, we got to travel to many exciting places, and I got to have a great farewell from Floradale. I have so much to be thankful for, and I am really amazed at my resurrected life.  

A father said to Jesus ( in Mark 9:24 ), “ I believe , but help me with my unbelief. “ This is how I will enter Advent, trusting and believing that God will do a new thing, a new beginning, and new faith.

Fred Redekop

Sometimes I miss faith and learning opportunities. Recently. Joseph Boyden wrote a short book called Wenjack . Boyden is a Canadian author who has written Though Black Spruce  and Three Day Road among other books. He is a person of Indigenous descent, and lives both here and in the United States.

Wenjack is about a young First Nations boy who escapes from a residential school. It describes the horrible treatment that young Chanie Wenjack endured while at this school.  I would recommend that you read the book, and tell others to read it. It is an easy ( and difficult) and short read for anybody.

I went to Trent University from 1977-1980. At that time, Trent had one of the few Native Studies  programs in Canada. I do remember that we had quite a few Native students at Trent. Trent was a small university at the time, and so we probably had a larger Native presence than anywhere else. I did not interact with many of the Native students. Most of the Native students lived at one of the colleges across the Otanabee River. In my three years, I do not remember Native students living at Lady Easton College, where I lived in residence. I might have missed it.

I studied History and English. I never took a Native Studies course in my Trent Education. The Wenjack Theatre was situated across the river , near Otonabee College. It was a performing arts center, as well as the largest arts lecture hall on campus . So, I was in the lecture hall almost everyday of my Trent years . Every day I went to the Wenjack Theatre, but I never asked who the hall was named after during my three years there. I went to a lecture by Northrop Frye, a famous Canadian academic. I went to maybe a hundred movies there. They had the Canadian Images festival there. It was/is a celebration Canadian film. So, I was in that space maybe over 1000 times. I never thought to ask who is Chanie ( or Charlie) Wenjack ? It never crossed my mind until Joseph Boyden wrote the the book this year.

I was a Christian at the time I went to Trent. I has been baptized as an eighteen year old at my home church. I accepted Jesus Christ as my personal Saviour, but in looking back it was a shallow belief. It was all about me, and it did not have anything to with the world, or with peace and justice. I knew nothing about residential schools, or the attempted genocide of the Native culture here in Canada. Our culture took many children out of their homes and , put them in schools, and did not allow them to speak their language or learn about their culture. It was an attempt at a cultural genocide.

But, I did not ask any questions about these things while at Trent. I did not ask who Wenjack was during my time there. What in my religious life with God am I missing today ? I have learned that my life of faith, and my life in the world must connect everyday. I must ask what Jesus Christ wants from me. Jesus wants me to act in ways of justice and of peace all the time. But, I sometimes still miss it. I laughed at the candidacy of Donald Trump, but looked at what happened. I assumed that the Canadian government works for justice and peace, but they/we still sold those armoured vehicles to Saudi Arabia.  They said that they had no choice. As a Christian , I believe we always have a choice to follow the ways of Jesus or not.

Dear God, help me to have my eyes open to the ways of peace. Forgive me for missing the native story, and the especially the story of Chanie Wenjack. Open my eyes in Elmira, in Kitchener, Colombia and other places . Heal me, O Lord. Forgive Me, O Lord . Show me your mercy, so I might live a life of peace and justice.

Long live the story of Chanie Wenjack .

Fred Redekop

My dad was a conscientious objector during the Second World War. He worked in a camp in Alberta. So, as the son of a pacifist, and a pacifist myself, what must I do on November 11, so that I am committed to not going to war anymore ? To remember is to work for peace ( on a MCC button ), and what should I remember this year ?

I am remembering a few things this November. My mom and dad left the Ukraine/Russia as young children with their families in the early 1920’s. They were so appreciative that Canada accepted them as refugees. They fled the Soviet Union before the Communists began to persecute Mennonites and many other people. I am so fortunate to have grown up and lived in Canada, as a very peaceful place my parents coming to Canada.

Shirley and I spent three years working at a refugee camp in Thailand. Part of our work was to prepare refugees for life in Canada. The main part of our work, I think, was to hear their stories. It seemed that no Cambodian family was intact when we interviewed them. For some, they were the only surviving members of their immediate family. Others had siblings spread out over the whole world. Then there were the families that were still living in Cambodia, and they were sure they would never see them again. In 1975, the Khmer Rouge Communists defeated the U.S backed Lon Nol government. The next three years were terror. The Khmer Rouge emptied the cities, killed the educated, and turned children on their parents. Maybe over a million people were killed or died of starvation. How do you forgive such torture and killing  ?. I remember this during Remembrance Day.

I remember the words of Paul ( early church leader ) as we live into November 11. He was always working with people and churches that did not get along on everything. In Ephesians 2, he says that Christ broke down the dividing wall of hostility. Christ killed death or enmity.  The work of Christ’s death is for theologians to figure out the meaning. But, the work of reconciliation is for all of us. The Greeks and Jews of the Ephesian Church had different world and cultural views. Their languages were not the same, and their foods were sometimes different. Paul says in the short letter to them, that Christ has broken down the dividing wall of hostility between them. You do not say these kinds of words unless there are  problems in the church. This is what makes Scripture holy for me. Paul and others are writing about the real stuff of life. I remember Paul’s commitment to peacemaking and peacebuilding on this November 11.

There are fewer conflicts in the world today. For me, this makes the Syrian conflict so tragic. I know it is complex. There are national  concerns, Arabic, Russian, American, Syrian, Iranian. There are religious concerns Christian, Muslim, Jewish and secular.  There are geographical complexities as well. An enemy if a friend of your friend, and then a friend is an enemy of your enemy. But, this Friday I will remember this situation. More weapons are not the answer. More violence is not the answer to the issues that are so difficult to name and possibly fix.

It would be easier to throw up my hands, and say I do not care. But, as a Christian human being, I must think about these things, and pray. I believe that we have the skills and resources to end violence in Canada and other places . I must work on my own peacemaking practices.

Finally, my thoughts go to Colombia. After four years of peace negotiations, the electorate of Colombia voted it down just by a sliver of votes. What must they do now ? Our daughter Hannah lives and works in Colombia. She is committed to going forward. Pray for the people, leaders, women and rebel leaders that they might find ways to make peace happen.

Peace must be the only way to treat the world and each other. I still have violent and non-compassionate tendencies in my own life. This is what I must remember.

Fred Redekop

I am working for Mennonite Central Committee in Kitchener since October.

This is a book review I did on a book that contains the letters of Henri Nouwen.

 

“ Dear Carol, Many thanks for your kind letter…. I pray for for you, Send my love to all in the family, Peace, Henri.”  A letter from Henri Nouwen to a friend on page 111.

A majority of the letters found in this collection, Love Henri : Letters on the Spiritual Life, begin with thanksgiving and end in prayer. I found these letters mirroring the Apostle Paul. Paul thanked the community at the beginning, and ended in prayer, but in the middle of the letters he addressed the issues brought to the community and to him.  Gabrielle Earnshaw has done a marvellous job putting together many letters that Nouwen wrote to people all over the world. She put the letters in three different time periods of Nouwen’s life. In his life, he received over 16,000 letters, and he responded to all of them individually. In addition to writing personally, he often included one or more of his books to the letter writers.

I will explore the major themes in the three different parts of the book, but the letters are not cohesive in the different sections. There are letters in each section of a pastoral nature, about his books or about his theology, sexuality, and about relationships. Henri was a complex man, as we all are, and so he writes to many people of all walks of life, and responds to them very personally. I have to state my biases, that Henri Nouwen is a favourite author of mine, and that I have been a pastor for over 30 years. My favourite book of Nouwen’s is  Wounded Healer .

Part I letters are from December 1973-1985. These are letters that speak about Nouwen’s journey to what God is calling him to do in his life. Nouwen gave a few lectures at  Notre Dame, and then accepted a position at Yale Divinity School. After being there ten years, he left for Peru to determine a calling to work alongside the poor there. That was not his calling, and returned to academia at Harvard Divinity School. While teaching there for only two years, he accepted an opportunity to work with L’Arche communities, that had been started by Jean Vanier. So, Part One is about the struggle for Henri to determine his pastoral calling. In a comment, to explain a letter to Cindy Shannon, Earnshaw writes , “ The move to L’Arche was primarily a personal one. Henri was exhausted and lonely, and needed a home. Jean Vanier recognized this longing and invited him to Trosly-Breuil to live with him… and the community of handicapped people and their assistants at L’Arche.” ( page 103 ). She also writes that the time at Harvard was very competitive for Nouwen, and it made friendships difficult for Henri. Henri writes in a letter ( page 109 ), “ I am doing very well in France. The  handicapped people have a  special gift to bring you closer to God. “ He had found his life purpose.

Part II are letters from 1986-1989. These letters are about Nouwen’s struggles with depression/anxiety/fear and how to be ministered to as a human being. He is unsure if he is loved by God, because he is such a bad person. Earnshaw tells us that Henry went to Winnipeg, Manitoba to seek both emotional and spiritual help. On April 14, 1988 , Henri writes to Michael in Germany, “ There was a lot of anxiety and fear in my heart, and I knew I could no longer run away from it… and now that I am on my way to recovery and hope to return to Daybreak [ L’Arche in Toronto ] in the near future.” (page 166). Henri spent seven months in this intensive therapy. Even though he was in deep suffering, he continued to write letters to support people in their own journeys. One of the difficult relationships that Henry had at this point of his life was with Nathan. They had grown close, and then Nathan told Henri that he needed some more space. They reconciled this friendship later on in life.

Part III are letters from 1990-1996. In the preface to this section, Earnshaw writes, “ In his final six years Henri’s hectic schedule, but his restless search for home and belonging subsided. The L’Arche Daybreak community became his anchor and place of refuge. “ (page 239 ). In 1990, there is a real change of tone in Nouwen’s letters. He speaks much about the love of God.  In the selected letters, he writes about being poor in spirit,. Nouwen wrote a prayer in response to the First Gulf War for his community. I believe it was used in other settings. He wrote, “ A heart that prays for peace is a poor heart… where we are confused about our feelings and where we are often lost about what to do. “ ( page 270 ). He says many times that the way to encounter God, we must engage our own poverty. In another group ( United Methodists ) letter, he says, “ … embrace your own weakness and your own suffering and your own pain… make your own wounds a source of healing for others.” ( page 274). I believe this to be central to Nouwen’s pastoral theology. Most of Nouwen’s books come out of his personal experiences, and the life journeys of others. He writes from the ground up. In a letter addressed to Everet, he writes, “ Don’t forget that our deep loneliness is the gateway to the love that our world hungers for. “  ( page 335 )

In some of the letters, Nouwen explores friendship, sexuality, celibacy from a priestly and human perspective. Earnshaw says that his celibacy exacted a heavy price on Henri. He wanted a unique relationship with someone, but it conflicted with his following of Jesus his Lord (preface xiv ). She says he never publicly acknowledged his homosexuality, and “ deciding that coming out in public would eclipse his mission of connecting people to God .” ( preface xiv) . This is indeed a heavy price for him to pay. In the letters shared in the book, the sexuality question does not come out as much in the final period, 1990-1996. This does not mean that the struggle did not remain, but maybe, just maybe, he came to peace with it. I hope so.

Henri wrote to many famous authors, politicians and business people, In the book, there are letters to Mark Hatfield ( U.S Senator ), Fred Rogers ( TV star ) and Joan Kroc ( of McDonald’s empire). In his letter ( page 330 ) to Joan Kroc, he sets out his pastoral theology about unconditional love. He wrote simple and profound  theology in many of his letters. He wrote the same way to everyone. He was so thankful for all the writers, and he responded to their criticisms with grace, and power and love.

Brene Brown writes the Foreward, offering to the reader a personal letter with much of her questions, pain, suffering and struggles. Henri would have liked it, and would have written back to her with thankfulness, wise counsel and prayer.

In the end, I will use the letters as a devotional guide. I can find any letter to be helpful to my journey, depending where my soul is at. I have just left my church of 25 years, Floradale Mennonite, and am wondering what to do. Henri writes to someone considering retirement, “ A transition to a new way of being , a new way of handling life , a new way of praying to God. “ ( page 322 ). Thanks Henri. Thanks Gabrielle.

Fred Redekop

I have been a pastor for almost 30 years. I have just resigned after 25 years a Mennonite Church in Ontario. I am looking for a new calling.

I was at a Tim Hortons’ at the corner of Warden and Huntingwood Avenues in Scarborough this morning. The parking lot was full, and although the the Tims’ was full, there was not lineup to order. I ordered the usual, for me, medium dark roast black. All the staff behind the counter was either Indian or Sri Lankan. They were all very friendly, and served with grace and honour. Some of the customers who were sitting down in the chairs were from various other ethnic groups. I think some were Lao, others maybe Chinese. One man, with a very Eastern European accent, was talking English to another man. There were at least three other tables speaking other languages that I could not even guess at. I am a middle-aged white person with white/grey hair, who felt a little out of place.

Jesus of Nazareth hung out with all kinds of people. In the biographies of Jesus that we find in the New Testament, there are these miracle stories of feeding some large crowds. Those of us who are Christians, remember these stories as the feeding of the 4000 and 5000. It is said that this total was only the men ( Unfortunately they did not count the women and children. Hopefully they got fed as well. ). We do not know who these people were who sat down for the afternoon. The 12 best friends of Jesus helped distribute the food that came out of nowhere. Jesus blessed the small number of loaves of bread, and a few fish.

There were probably some Jewish people there on the side of mountain, leaders as well as common folk. All kinds of people followed Jesus around, listening to him speak about what God was doing through him. Leprosy was an incurable disease at the time. Lepers were most likely in their own section of the crowd. For Jesus, they were all welcome to the meal. The close followers of Jesus were not as open to “other” hanging around. There may have been also some Zeus-loving Greeks who were looking for something free. ( We are all looking for something for free.). Most places at the time of Jesus were places of trade that brought many different kinds of people together to trade some stuff. Jewelry, olives, cloth, dates, sandals or religious souvenirs may have been there that day.

They came for the free food, but what was it about the message of Jesus that they listened to, and that may have brought them back a second or third time. What did Jesus say, that made them think about their own lives ? “ All are welcome to the Kingdom party “ or “ Love your enemies “ or was it the words, “ Forgive them, they do not know what they are doing .”

If you are a Christian, what were the words of the church , or Jesus, that were the invitation for you to be part of the of the Kingdom ? Do the same words of Jesus drawn you in, or have you found deeper words of invitation that bring you back to God or the church every Sunday. What are your words that bring you closer to the Almighty and everlasting One ?

What words of invitation could I have said to the people, from all over the world, at the Tim Hortons’ in Scarborough yesterday ? What questions are they asking about their lives  ? We all want to live meaningful lives. What are the answers and questions that people are asking ?

I was on the Bloor Subway line last Friday. People seldom talk on the Subway. Now, they are on their IPad’s, IPhone’s,  IPod’s, Androids and other devices. They used to read books and newspapers, but not anymore. One man in a suit was fixated on his Solitaire game, and a young woman was changing the songs on her IPod . What kind of conversation would I want to have with these people, as we ride the Subway for five minutes together.The people were again ethnically diverse. I lead such a sheltered life here in Elmira. The United Nations is just an hour away in Toronto.

I assume that all people are asking questions of meaning as they live and work in our world. What questions do ask of your life, and of God, if you are so inclined ?

Shalom and strength for your journey of life and faith.

HAIKU 2017

Walking in stillness

Shadows dance across the path

Illuminated

Monika Pieper Landoni

In the past five years, a poet named Monika Pieper Landoni has offered to me a haiku every year. She writes and creates it for me. She listens very well, and knows part of my journey of faith, life, work and calling. When I ask her to do a new one, usually in the fall, it often comes to her immediately. It has probably been percolating in her heart , soul and mind for awhile.

A traditional haiku is from Japanese poetry. It consists of 17 syllables in three phrases with 5,7,5 syllables in each of the three phrases. The poetry also plays with almost opposite ideas in the same poem ( this might be similar to Hebrew poetry found in the Psalms). In the one above, you can find walking/stillness, and shadows/illuminated.

What might this haiku mean for my personal journey of faith in the next year ? I will do a small cross stitch of the the words. Stitching, for me, is a silent calming way of getting to the words that have been given to me. This past year has been a different and difficult year for me. It began with a health concern with my eye last October. I resigned from my congregation at the same time , but we gave each other a year to still be together. It is tough to give up something that you love. It was a good year for me, but it got long at some points. The church gave me a wonderful send off at the end of August. But the formal relationship ends. It is not the same, ever. I am grieving the formal loss of being pastor, and the many friendships that we held tightly with the people of the church. For me, it is almost like losing my parents( It might be like losing your spouse, but I have not lost my spouse, so I do not know how that feels.).The grief is sometimes intense, but at other moments is it light. I feel it in my body, soul and mind. Why am I  surprised that the grief is part of my journey now ? Being 25 years at one place, especially a church, means I loved the place. Why would I not cry ?

So, it is with this experience that I come to my haiku for 2017. What do the images of walking in the shadows mean for me. If you have any reflections, I invite you to send them to me.

Shalom and strength for your own journey of life and faith,

Fred

Jesus talks much about repentance and forgiveness. There is a story told in the biography of Jesus called Matthew about forgiveness. Peter, a close friend of Jesus’ , comes up to Jesus one day, and asks him , “ How many times must I forgive my brother, up to seven times ?”. I do not think that you would ask such a question unless you have a problem with your brother. Maybe Peter is trying to deflect something here, and the question is actually about one of the close followers of Jesus, his spiritual brothers. At this point in time, the group is headed to Jerusalem. Jesus is going to die, and maybe not all of the followers/disciples are thinking that this is a good idea, Jesus’ death.

It is hard to forgive someone, if you feel that they have done you wrong. It is also hard to repent of a sin that you committed against your brother or sister, or just about anyone else. You have to get inside your own head, about why you did something that you knew was wrong. And if you have someone sin against you, you have to think about whether or not you are going to forgive them.

Is it ever right for me to ask someone to forgive me of my sin against them ? I do not think that I can demand it. It is good, or even great, when someone forgives me, but I cannot guilt them into saying that they forgive me. Forgiveness is good for me, when I have been wronged. For me to hold onto to it for a long period of time, is bad for my soul, mind, body and strength.

Recently President Obama visited Laos, in southeast Asia. It was the first time that a President of the USA had visited Laos since the end of the war in 1975. Laos was part of the war with Vietnam. The US bombed Laos from 1964 through 1973. They thought if they bombed the Ho Chi Minh trail that that would defeat the Communists of North Vietnam. For the most part, the bombs dropped by the United States were leftovers. The planes  were returning to the bases in Thailand, and if they had any bombs left, they would drop them on rural Laos.

They have never repented of this. They have never asked for forgiveness. They have have not said what they did was wrong. Many of these cluster bombs did not explode, so they are still in the fields of rural Laos. Every year there are deaths from farmers trying to open their fields. So, who takes responsibility for those deaths ? During the air campaign thousands of civilians were killed, and since the war ended over 20,000 civilians have been killed by these unexploded cluster bombs. Obama could not repent of his country’s sin. He did pledge some money to clear the land of bombs. Maybe that is all we can ask of the US.

But, let me get back to Peter and I. Jesus tells Peter that he must forgive 70 times 7, and not just seven times. This might mean forever or it might mean that it is my obligation to always be moving toward forgiveness and reconciliation. I must be moving in that direction even when the person sins against me in the same way, four hundred and ninety times. This is what God does for me, when I sin against God and others. God has forgiven me more than 490 times.

Even when it is hard, forgiveness and repentance are at the heart of the Gospel. It is always best for our mind, body and soul and strength, if we do get to forgiveness and reconciliation. It is a lifelong long journey for Christians and society in general. What would it have meant for President Obama to say it was wrong what we did in Laos, and we are sorry that we did it ? What do you think of forgiveness ?

We have been hosting a young medical student from Uruguay for the last four weeks. She will be leaving later on this month. When she first arrived, we thought of all the great tourist attractions that we could show to her. And, we have gone to some of them, like Niagara Falls and Niagara-on-the-Lake. We have shown her the Old Order churches and the seen many buggies along the road here in the Elmira area.

Alexandra is an engaging and outgoing person from another culture that has experienced the best that we have to offer, and that is us. She has volunteered at the local MCC Thrift Shop, and has met many people there. They greet her with smiles and hugs when they meet her at churches and in the community. All those volunteers at the Thrift Shop have made her stay memorable. She has attended a few youth group events at a local church, where the group has included her in their activities. She has come to church with us, as we explore a new church every week, and she has been welcomed by everyone that she has met.

In the New Testament, we have two main personalities, Jesus and Paul. Jesus, many times, talks about including people, and accepting people, when the society wants to shut them out. The stories about him include welcoming people with leprosy and other ailments. The local society wanted to ignore these people who were not normal. The religious people had formed laws and guidelines that did not include the “other” into their community. Jesus told two stories during his first sermon that nearly got him killed. He had two illustrations that said that Gentile widows had more faith than any inside the faith. Then he said Namaan the Syrian who had had leprosy was the only one cured because of his faith. He sees faith in other people.

Paul also includes people who are normally shut out from faith, and faith conversations. A story tells of  his visit with a woman named Lydia. She is referred to as a worshipper of God. She is not really a woman “our” faith. In one of his letters, he says that the greatest thing that we have is love. In order to truly love each other, we must look beyond our differences.

Alexandra has met many people, and they have been so welcoming. She went to one of our small group meetings . She has visited a dairy and a sheep farm. She came along with me, and two other women, to meet the wife of an Old Order minister. All have welcomed her, and asked about why she has come to visit Canada, and the Elmira area. I am amazed how interested you have been in who she is, and you have also asked many questions about life Uruguay. You might say that Alexandra looks like us, but she speaks Spanish/German, and lives in a Mennonite colony in rural Uruguay. I believe her worldview is different from mine.

Thank you to everybody who has met her while she was staying here. People are our greatest asset in our community. For those of you who are Christian, and part of a faith community, people should also be the best advertisement for the church. Beliefs are important, programs are important, and worship is important, but people are what continues to bring you back to church, and to Woolwich Township.

Last fall, we had people from the Netherlands visiting us. They could not get money out of the Credit Union ATM. We went into the local branch, and the service rep helped them figure it out. She got on the phone with head office. She worked for two days trying to get these people some money. They were not members of the branch, but she made them feel as if they were the most important people in the world. Thank you Woolwich Township. You are amazing people.  

I continue to read through the Bible, a little bit of Old Testament and then some New Testament. In the New Testament there are two letters from Paul, the early church leader, to the church at Corinth. We have no idea how large the congregation was there. They did not have a building, but were in conversation with the local synagogue ( Jewish place of worship). The two letters are love letters by Paul to the community.

Paul was the church planter. He started the church. He left to start more churches, and then returned. His authority was, I think, always under suspicion because he had killed some Jesus followers earlier in his life. So, when he came to other followers of Jesus, he always had to prove himself. How could you trust a person who was a murderer ?

So, the two letters to the church at Corinth are personal. They are about real issues that the Corinthians were having to deal with every day. Paul begins both of them on a positive note. Then, he does get down to the real issues that have divided the community. In the second letter he is really angry with the community. They have challenged his leadership, and they have written ( a letter we do not have ) that there are super apostles better than Paul. In the second letter tries to inspire the church/community into giving money to the poor in Jerusalem. He tells them that other churches have given out of their poverty, and the Corinthians can do better. Ouch !

But he does love them. He prays for them. He wants them to live in peace with each other. In the first letter, chapter 13 is the most well known. It is known as the love chapter. ” Love is patient … love is kind… it keeps no record of wrongs …  and now these three remain faith , hope and love, but the  greatest of these is love. ”

Paul’s love letters are not mushy and romantic, and full of words that are meaningless. They are practical, dedicated, demanding, and wanting the best for everyone in the community. He is mad at them, He is stern with them, and he is also humble with them. We writes to them that he cannot wait to be with them. They are committed to one another,

He wants to remind them that they are in this journey with God/Jesus/Holy Spirit together. We are committed to the relationship with God and each other. Paul’s final words that we have in the Bible are the following:

                         “Finally brothers and sisters, Rejoice. Strive for full restoration, encourage one another, be of one mind, live in peace. And the God of love and peace will be with you… May the love of Jesus Christ, the love of God and fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all. ”   2 Corinthians 13:11-14

Go in peace, to love and serve the Lord.

Fred Redekop

I have lived in Elmira for just over a year. Before that we had lived in Floradale for 24 years. These are two of the safest places in the world. I do not know this for sure, but in terms of earthquakes, tornadoes, floods, hurricanes, terrorist  attacks and civil war, I have had to fear very little. I have been fortunate to live in Canada for most of my life. It has been peaceful.

Jesus says to me that  “ those who find their life will lose it, and those who lose their life will find it  ( see this in the biography of Jesus we find in the book of Matthew, in chapter 10 verse 39 ). My faith has never demanded my life. Canada says that I can believe whatever I want, and they will not bother me, unless I break the law. On the day of my baptism, when I was 17, I said yes to the question about dying for my faith. I have always intended to be able to strong enough, if my life demands my death. But, I do not know if I would or could, if my faith challenged my death. I do not want to be a martyr. I want to live, and live faithfully in my journey here in Elmira.

So, what does Jesus mean when he is demanding of all of who I am, and I do not find myself in the same place as him, or his early disciples or followers ? If I would ask Jesus if he is pleased with me, and my faith, what would he say ?  ‘Well done, good and faithful servant “ !!?? . I know that Jesus/God/Holy Spirit is all about grace and forgiveness, but in the bios of Jesus, he is demanding of those people who call him Lord. Following Jesus is not, and should not be easy.

I have never been to Aleppo, Syria. Parts of it have been destroyed in the five years of the civil war. There are both government and rebel forces killing each other everyday. Many of the deaths are civilian. Recently, you have seen that picture of the boy, with blood all over his body, sitting in a chair of some emergency room in a hospital in Aleppo. What do I do with this picture of violence, hatred and destruction ?  Why do people think that bombing hospitals is ethical in any way ? There are so many factions and groups fighting in Syria, and specifically in Aleppo, that I cannot tell if anyone is dying for their faith. War is always about control, fear, anger and resources. It never has to do with faith and religion. People might speak religiously about the war they are fighting, but it is about the control of the territory  that they are/I fighting for. If I served in war, I would be trying to save my life, or our lifestyle.

The Syrian government and the international community have failed each other and the world. And since we live in a global world, what is my responsibility to my faith and the community that I live in. How do I make sense of the distance between Elmira and Aleppo ? Our community has sponsored many Syrians to come here, but it is not even a drop in the refugee bucket of Syria. It has made the difference in the lives of the people that have arrived here. The churches who have brought these people of a different faith to this community have done it because of their faith in the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

 It is a matter of faith and death, and life. Have we lost our life in any way, so that we might gain it back by becoming part of the Aleppo experience ? We listen to the painful lives of these Syrians, coming out of Aleppo, Damascus and Homs ? Jesus of Nazareth, how might I lose my life today ?