Grace, Sin and Action

July 31, 2025

Good afternoon, Am I complicit ?  … from 2025 haiku

For all the problems in my/our world, of

course , I am complicit.

For the  problems in the church, I am guilty.

For the problems with the climate, I am guilty

For the problems with poverty, food insecurity and homelessness I am guilty.

For the record use of militaries in the world, I am guilty.

This does not mean that I lie down and throw my hands into the air, and say ” I give up .”. As a follower of the teachings of Jesus of Nazareth, I need to be faithful. I am not always sure what this means today or tomorrow, but I must continue to find ways to be faithful to Jesus. Paul, the great writer, church planter, theologian and pastor, says he was the ” greatest of all sinners “,and this did not stop him from being faithful to the witness of Jesus. I believeI have to recognize my brokenness and sin in my life. Oppositely, I have to know that I am a redeemed individual as well. I hope I am not depending on ‘ cheap grace’ as outlined by Dietrich Bonhoeffer. Bonhoeffer was speaking during the time of the Nazis. That was a horrendous sin, and no one should be easily forgiven.


We live by grace while acting for justice and peace, and love. 
Without Words     

By Luci Shaw  2006 

Look, I can’t find the words.

All I have is the golden fullness

rising in my chest, flooding my throat

like a pool of honey. The scent of storm

will do it, too, or the white arc of the wave…

God , when will the killing and starving end for Gaza. ?AMEN

Fred

I Felt God

August 1, 2025

Good afternoon

I experienced a thin place last night. A holy moment. A sacred time. And then it was gone.We attended a concert of the Janzen Boys at Rockway Mennonite Church. They are a father and his two sons. They sing folk, country and a little bluegrass. They have great harmonies and good guitar playing. They come from Winnipeg, but spent some time in Japan. Earlier this year, they made the decision to go with their music full-time. That is a step of faith.They write their own lyrics and music. But they also sing many songs from Canadian artists, like Anne Murray, Leonard Cohen, Bruce Cockburn and Barenaked Ladies. The group engaged with the audience and told some funny stories. They had sent us a small CD, with only four songs on it, by mail a few years ago… for free. Shirley saw their concert tour on the internet, and that they were in Kitchener, so we had to go.

The thin place was somewhere between when they sang ” Lovers in a Dangerous Time” by Cockburn and when they finished with ” Hard Times ” by Stephen Foster ( 1860’s ). I wanted the feeling to stay, but it left as quickly as it came. I guess you cannot live there in that moment all the time. But, it would have been nice if it stayed a day. I cannot quite describe it, but I know I touched a piece of heaven, and then Pfffffttt !!

Has this happened to you ? When was it, and how long did it stay with you ? We can only take God in small portions, I guess. Keep searching, and you will find.

Praying that God will touch God with peace, AMEN

Fred

black and white shadows

crush humanity’s freedom

am I complicit ? MPL 2025

What to tell of your faith ?

July 26, 2025

Good morning,

What do you believe as a follower of Jesus ? Three things ?I am going to be volunteering at the Mennonite Story at the St. Jacobs Market. People come from all over the world to the Market, and some want to hear about the Mennonites. I think they mostly want to hear about the buggies and the farmers in the area. I have lived in the area over 30 years, and it is still weird to see a buggy going down the road. It is out of place, and it is so different. I can see why people have so many questions about it.


In  Acts 7, Stephen preaches his first sermon, and goes through his whole faith story, beginning with Abraham. He ends with Jesus’ death and resurrection. In his letters Paul does similar things, especially in the book of Romans. The book of Hebrews is one long sermon about the history of faith. What three things might you say are important, faith, action or ethics ? How do you tell your testimony of faith ?


At the Mennonite Story I am to show a movie about the Old Order groups, and then be open to questions . Do I share part of my faith in answering the questions ? My faith / family history is not of Swiss origin. Do I get lost in the woods of history or do I focus on what Jesus has meant to me.? I begin in early August to tell my story in the context of being Mennonite. Where do I start, and where do I end ?
Prayer for the war on Gaza to stop. Amen.

Fred

black and white shadows

crush humanity’s freedom

am I complicit ? MPL 2025

Politics of Love, and not Revenge

July 23, 2025

Good afternoon,

Read Psalm 137

Daughter Babylon, doomed to destruction,
    happy is the one who repays you
    according to what you have done to us.
 Happy is the one who seizes your infants
    and dashes them against the rocks.      Psalm 137:8-9

The writer of the Psalms is proclaiming the politics of revenge. Once, when I was a guest speaker, I had the worship leader read the above text. Some people were angry that I would read such a text in the worship service. It is a troubling passage. The people of God were taken from their homeland and put in Babylon for many years. The writer is telling the readers how he wants to respond to the Babylonian atrocities. This is why the Bible is so hard to understand, and then live out, when you disagree with all your heart, soul and mind in many passages ( read the end of the book of Esther. )

” Never again” Israel proclaims in response to the Holocaust ( 1933-1945 ). Armenia says this when they remember the Turkish genocide ( post-WW 1 ). We never want mass killing to happen. But it always happens, all over this planet. Jesus tried to stop it in the Roman Empire, but the Empire continued for a few more centuries. Jesus’ words of ‘ loving your neighbour ‘ is still relevant, even if it does not happen.


And it is happening today in Gaza. The Israeli Defence Forces announced today that they were not responsible for the starvation of the Palestinians.  People are starving. The IDF does not allow trucks with food to enter. The United Nations is powerless. The government of Israel has slowly killed Palestine since 1947. It did not start on October 7, 2023. It has been a war crime for a long time. The Palestinians did not kill 6 million Jews, Christians did., but ‘ never again’ is being carried out as revenge against innocent civilians. Who has killed all those children waiting for food ? Revenge is in the air, but it cannot be the way to peace.
Jeremiah is known as the prophet of wrath and tears. He had anger for Israel, and all of its enemies. He had tears for himself, and the life he had to live as a prophet. Israel was angry about their lives in Babylon ( the great Satan in the book of Revelation ). Richard Rohr offered these words today. I am not sure it is as easy as he portrays it, but it is what we must be about… no revenge.

In Jeremiah’s prophecies, all hopes for the future of the Jewish people lie in those who endured a three-stage process of transformation: first, those who entered into exile; second, those who retained hope and did not turn bitter during that exile; and third, those who returned from exile with generativity and praise in their hearts instead of self-pity.   Richard Rohr, July 23, 2025

Praying for Gaza. Amen

Fred

Washing of Feet

July 24, 2025   ( our 43rd wedding anniversary !!!! )

Good afternoon,

Foot washing Scene from the Gospel of John:

 ” I have set you an example that you should do as I have done for you. Very truly I tell you, no servant is greater than his master, nor is a messenger greater than the one who sent him.  Now that you know these things, you will be blessed if you do them.” John 13:15-17

I have settled on the last part of the footwahing event from John for my focusing scripture going forward. It has taken me a few months. No other Gospel writer tells this story. Mennonites have done footwashing for a long time during their communion services. At least the Amish/Swiss Mennonites. During the final meal, Jesus gets up and says he is going to wash the feet of his disciples. Peter objects to this. After a few words from Jesus, Peter changes his mind and he wants everything washed. Then Jesus gives us the meaning he wants to get across to his friends. During the rest of the meal, he tells the disciples many more things.

I want to keep the attitude that Jesus wants for his followers. In such a polarizing time that we are living in, I have to be able to have difficult conversations, with an attitude of openness, but not fragility. I have to try to see it from another point of view, but I do not have to agree with it. I must continue to proclaim justice, peace and compassion when I am confronted with meanness, power and coercion. Now this is a challenging calling. But, you cannot wash another’s feet, and not be changed by the event. Since I did not grow up with the tradition, my first time for footwashing was at the MCC orientation retreat before we went to Thailand in September 1982. It was a sacred moment. As I have selected this scripture, I hope for more sacred moments in the future.

Praying for Gaza. AMEN.

Fred

black and white shadows

crush humanity’s freedom

am I complicit ? 

MPL 2025

Losing Control…Gaining Life

July 22, 2025

Good afternoon,

” Wilderness forces us to let go of control. “Thank you for all your responses to my email about wilderness.

 The above statement had me thinking for the last week. Do I give enough control over to God ? And what does that mean ? I cannot just give my life decisions over to God, and just coast along. God gave me a mind or brain or a conscience so I can be a co-creator with God. Do you agree with that ? When I was preaching, I did not wait for God to write my sermon. If you are an accountant , you do not wait for God to put all those numbers together. If you’re building a new house, you do not wait for Go to begin framing the house . We are in control of our lives, but how does God play into our lives and faith ? What does it mean to put faith in God, when we cannot just sit on the restful couch, and wait for God to affect our lives ?


” Wilderness forces us to let go of control ” What does it mean to let God control our lives ? Let go of worry ? Let go of anxiety ? Let go of fear ? Whatever happens in my life I must be in the Presence of God. The apostle Paul says that perfect love casts out all fear.  I have not yet gotten to this stage of existence . I am nowhere close to attaining perfect love. Remember those dreams that I had a few days ago. In the New Testament, there are the conversion stories of some of the disciples. They left their occupations, and followed Jesus around. After Jesus ascended back to heaven, they led the church. They knew what to do, but they often got it wrong. But, they had to do it. They took what Jesus told them about how to love and be kind, and then they did it.


Can you name an example out of your own life, where you gave control over to God ? It might have been when we put Lucas on the school bus for the first time. Or, maybe, when I resigned from Floradale without any work prospects. I think farmers, and I am not a farmer, have faith of a different kind, after they put the seed in the ground. As I move into retirement, can I give up control to God in a new way ? I am just saying … ? 

From  A Thousand Mornings by Mary Oliver ( 2012 )

The Man who Has Many Answers 

 The man who has many answers 

 is often found

   in the theaters of information

   where he offers, graciously,  

 his deep findings. 

 While the man with only questions, 

 to comfort himself, makes music.

20250717_135252.jpg

   Corn ‘ blowing in the wind ‘

Fred

black and white shadows

crush humanity’s freedom

am I complicit ? 

MPL 2025

N00000000 !!!!

July 13, 2025

Good morning,

July 13, 2024

Text at 5:45 am   The boys [ the firefighters ] had a VSA [ Vital Signs Absent ] call this morning. It was Kendra. It doesn’t look good. Please pray.

Text at 6:00am   Fred, Kendra didn’t make it. We are in shock.

I screamed at the phone,  ” NOOOOOOO !!! “

Meaninglessness. I have done hundreds of funerals, each one unique. I have attended even more funerals and visitations. I have lost my mom, best friend and dad in a little over a year in 2024-05. Thousands of Gazans have died. I am not immune to death, loss and grief, but Kendra’s death hit me hard. We were pastoral colleagues for eight years, and we had a good relationship. She was gifted in sermons, art, love, compassion, and it was a pleasure to work alongside her. She had her struggles as we all do in our imperfect lives, but she was a good soul.

On Floradale Road in the small town of Floradale, we have had three deaths of young parents in 25 years. That’s a lot of unexpected grief for a small town. I had a heart attack in 2007, and under astronomical odds I lived. My wife, the volunteer firefighters, doctors and nurses, all did what they had been trained to do, and I survived. It all just worked. No one knows why I lived while the other three young moms and dad did not. It has never made sense to me. I find it unfair. I have questions.


I see Kendra once in a while, mostly in Waterloo. I look closer, and it is not her. She should still be preaching, standing up for justice in Gaza, loving Pete and taking good care of Kyana and Ollie. We should be having coffee at Renaissance in Elmira or Seven Shores in Waterloo. 

The world is less complete without her. After a year, it still is a large hole in my world. I miss her, and she should still be here.

The Prophet says:

Meaningless! Meaningless!”
    says the Teacher.
“Utterly meaningless!
    Everything is meaningless. Ecclesiastes 1:1Fred

black and white shadows

crush humanity’s freedom

am I complicit ? MPL 2025

Lost our Vision

July 21, 2025

Good afternoon, 

” Names for our God dreams, signs and wonders,  —– song ”

 sent from the past are what we need…” from ” What is this Place ” verse 2

” Your sons and daughters will prophesy,
    your young men will see visions,
               your old men will dream dreams.
                                   Even on my servants, both men and women,
    I will pour out my Spirit in those days,
    and they will prophesy. ”                      Acts 2:17-18

The text from Acts is from the sermon by Peter.  It comes after the coming of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost. This might be the first Christian message. Jesus was a prophet. He invited all people to be a different kind of community that has kindness, love and compassion. This would be part of the dreams, signs and wonders of a new community of faith. Peter quotes the prophet Joel here in the text.I had the lifelong dream about not finishing my final essay or exam , a few nights ago. It comes out of the blue, If I dId not finish the essay or take the test, I will not graduate. In the dream, I was really worried. As I woke up, I was still in fear. Everytime I have this dream, it is the same emotional fear right before I wake up. Did I really graduate ? Is my life going to be ruined ?I am sure the great psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud would break it down, and give me a possible answer. He might be able to tell me what my fear is about.And why this recurring dream is about finishing school. I have had other dreams,  like not being prepared for the sermon on a Sunday, and church is about to start. My most memorable dreams seem to be around fear. No grand vision for me.

Dreams that are in the song and in Joel move towards the positive. What is good for the church and the body of Christ . We dream of things in this world getting better.  The church should give us hope. But churches are closing in this generation, Here in our area, first it was Glen Allen Mennonite, then Riverdale Mennonite, and then Hawkesville Mennonite and now Bethel Mennonite. All during my time here as a pastor in Ontario. Are dreams being lost ? What shall we do ? What should our vision be now, and what is God showing to us ?

A vision of peace for Gaza and Palestine. AMEN.

Fred

black and white shadows 

crush humanity’s freedom

am I complicit ? 

MPL 2025

Re-Thinking the Bible

July 15, 2025

Good afternoon

( John Howard Yoder was a serial sexual abuser/harasser. Over the course of decades he abused a generation of young Mennonite women theologians and scholars. The Mennonite Seminary , where he taught,  knew about the abusive behaviour. Yoder was invited to move on to the University of Notre Dame. The Central District Mennonite Conference  brought these accusations to Yoder, and at first he entered into the process of healing, but later left it. The Conference revoked his teaching and ministerial credentials. )

Book four of my top ten is: The Politics of Jesus. John Howard Yoder . 1974


This book is a hard read, a theologically dense book. I still do not understand many of the concepts or words that he uses. But it changed my view of the Bible, and the reasons for the life and death of Jesus. Yoder works through the book of Luke and then the letters of Paul. So, I read the Politics  book in the spring of 1981. I had never thought where the Bible had come from. I just took it as God’s word. Maybe it just dropped out of heaven ? Yoder explains that real people wrote it, to real people. God didn’t give any of the writers the exact words, but all the writers were inspired by the Spirit. It makes the Bible more real to me.
Yoder explains that Jesus was killed because he threatened the powers and principalities. He did not die for our individual sins, but wanted to establish a new community made up of both Jew and Gentile. A radical idea at the time, and radical even today, as we move to include the whole world into the church. at the end of the church on ” The Disciple of Christ and the Way of Jesus .”:   “This is at the point of the concrete social meaning of the cross in its relation to enmity and power,         

             servanthood replaces dominion,       

                           forgiveness absorbs hostility . 

                                    Thus. and only thus, are we bound by New Testament thought to ” be like Jesus. “


Each paragraph has to be read at least twice and maybe three times, at least for me. His writing has freshness to it even though it is over fifty years old. Although I was shocked by Yoder’s actions, I still think he has something to offer in following Jesus. It has been a journey for me in thinking about his sinfulness and my sinfulness.

 Fred

ck and white shadows

crush humanity’s freedom

am I complicit ? MPL 2025

Just Be Kind

July 16, 2025

Good afternoon

( ****** Error from yesterday. Just before the quote from Yoder’s book .. .”at the end of the church” should have read ” at the end of the chapter” . Sorry about that ****** )Please read Ephesians 1: 1-4

Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God,

To God’s holy people in Ephesus, the faithful in Christ Jesus:

 Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

         Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, 

                                who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ.

                                                      For he chose us in him before the creation of the world 

                                                                            to be holy and blameless in his sight.

The letter to the community in Ephesus, on the coast of the Aegean Sea, he begins with grace and peace. In these two words he addresses both parts of the community, peace for the Hebrews and grace for the Greeks. One of his ideas for these two groups is for them to get along. Later on he writes that Christ has broken down the wall of hostility between the two groups. They were different socially, religiously and ethnically. They would have had different foods. This is a big issue for the community and for the church today.

But, the second idea here in verse is whether we have free will or not. I think we act as if we do. We make choices between good and bad. There are the free choices that we make of what career we want to follow, what food we eat and what God we worship and serve. Do we want God to make all the choices, and we are like puppets ? The writer says that we were chosen, since before the creation of the world. The church leaders have always argued about this . It is in all the confessions of faith. John Calvin in the 1500’s argued strongly for  pre-destination. People were killed for thinking differently. The world and all that happens was determined before heavens broke open in creation. What do you think ? A friend of mine has dementia. I cannot believe God would have ordained that from before time began . That is cruel.

In the Gospels, the writers record that Jesus says he does not know when the end of the world will happen.  He ” knows neither the hour nor the day.” If this is true, then the idea that all things have been determined begins to crumble. If Jesus doesn’t know that day, then he is not all-powerful or all knowing ! Oh no.  Jesus himself did not really care. He said ” Be kind to everyone. ” That is it. Grace and peace .

Lord, may the world turn around and be kind to Palestine. AMEN

Fred

black and white shadows

crush humanity’s freedom

am I complicit ?

 MPL 2025