I have decided to look at the Book of Ephesians on Mondays in the year 2026. I have traveled to the ancient site of Ephesus six times. The archaeologists are uncovering things there all the time. I was on six tours with Tom Yoder Neufeld, a retired New Testament scholar from Conrad Gregel. One of his areas of study was Ephesians. I have gathered much from him over the many years when we traveled there together. For a thousand years, the letter was thought to have been written by the great Apostle Paul. But recent findings and research has given another opinion. The earliest copies of the letter do not have Paul’s name in the first verses. In Greek ( The New Testament was written in Greek ), its grammar and words are not in the same order. The issues of community, theology and salvation are similar. It doesn’t really matter because the church agreed ( around 370 AD )that it should be part of the New Testament along with the other letters of Paul.
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. Ephesians 2:1-2
The beginning is like a form letter. Paul began many of his letters like this. He is writing to one of the first Christian communities in the world. He was the great church planter, almost always going to the synagogue in the city to offer them life in the Lord Jesus Christ. We do not know how big the church community was in Ephesus. Ephesus was on the edge of the Empire. It was a large outpost city. They had a large theatre, with an athletic stadium and the great Temple to Athena. It was one of the great wonders of the ancient world. Only one column remains from the Temple. The Romans were interested in the mind, body and soul. The city has many statues to the Gods, and three of four markets for the people to shop.
If you were Paul, how would you go about talking about Jesus ?
Continue to pray for Gaza. People are still hungry and without adequate housing. AMEN
I was born in St. Catharines, Ontario, the sixth child of David and Annie Redekop. The house was just off the downtown, and I think it was a poor street and area of the city. I was hospitalized with rheumatic fever before 1965. I am not sure of the year, but I remember my parents visiting me in hospital. Also sometime before 1965, my father had an accident with his milk truck. He broke some ribs and was off work for months. On Christmas Eve, Santa came to our house bearing gifts. There was a gift for everyone in the house, and I remember the canned goods rattling against each other. That sound has stayed with me. I do not know who told someone about our family… the church, the dairy or social services, but I believe in Santa Claus because of this event.
363 Simcoe Street. Niagara-on-the-Lake
We moved here in the summer of 1965. The house was old, and it had survived the War of 1812, The US burned most of the town, after the British had burned down the White House. It was called the Creen House, and was one of three houses designed by the same architect in a square block in Niagara-on-the-Lake. My dad bought it for 9,000 dollars. He sold it in 1968 for 17,000 and change. After we sold it the new owners stripped it down to the chimneys and the frame, and rebuilt it. The last time it was on the market it was for the asking price of over 2 million. I started second grade when we moved, and we attended Parliament Oak public school. I met Mark Graham here, and he became my best friend.
220 Mary Street. NOTL ( Two and half blocks from Simcoe Street )
This was a much smaller house. All eight of the children were still at home. My brother John and I slept in the TV room, just off the kitchen. There didn’t seem anything abnormal about it. Before my parents moved into St.Catharines, all of us had left the house, moving to other places and going to school. I graduated from Parliament Oak and Niagara District Secondary School. Trent University, Peterborough I attended Trent from 1977-1980. I had grown up in a conservative household and church, so it was a big move. At the time, Trent was considered the most gay friendly university in Canada. I lived in residence at Lady Eaton College for three years. I majored in English and History, and I considered myself an average student. I participated in student government and played on the university basketball team. I really enjoyed my time there, and I made major steps in thinking for myself.
Ferme Liehouse, Biederthal FRANCE
I signed up for the MCC InterMenno program in January 1980. We were to live with European Mennonite families for a year. I was accepted, and went to the orientation time in Akron. PA. This is where I first met Shirley Stauffer. We flew Icelandair to Luxembourg, my first airplane ride. My first placement was with the Goldschmidt family in Alsace, France. They lived on a farm, where they raised beef cattle and hogs. The couple I lived with were Pierre and Mary-Jane and his parents lived upstairs. At that time they had two girls. They would have a boy a few months after I left. The family still lives in this 500 year old house.
Altersheim Weyergut. Bern, Switzerland
In the second six months of the program, I worked and lived at a seniors’ home. I was a custodian there. The directors, the Andenmattens, of the place had lived in the US under the same program, in Oklahoma. I explored the city of Bern in my time off, and went with the train all over Switzerland.
AMBS 3003 Benham Avenue, Elkhart Indiana, USA
After I returned to North America, I started my Seminary education at Associated Mennonite Biblical Seminaries, Since grade 4, I thought I wanted to be a minister. My first courses were challenging, and it was not what I thought preparation to be a minister would be like. I had assumed the Bible was dropped out of heaven for the church. I learned that it was written by real people, in real time, and about real issues. It was a human book with divine realities and teachings. One experience sits with me today. I asked a question about a theological issue, and the theology professor said, ” if you had asked that question in the Reformation you would have been killed.” No other comment. I was devastated.
Box, 9 Phanat Nikhom, THAILAND ( two different houses )
Shirley and I got engaged in April 1982, and married in July. After I did an internship at my home church in Virgil, Ontario in the summer, we left for a three year assignment serving with MCC in Thailand. We listened to the suffering and pain of thousands of refugees from Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam. The camp was surrounded by barbed wire, and the refugees were not allowed to leave, unless they got accepted by a Western country to resettle there. It was a difficult experience for us, but our understandings of the world and faith were helped by everything we saw and heard. Our oldest, Lucas was born in Bangkok in June 1984.
AMBS 3003 Benham Avenue
We returned from Thailand in October 1985, and I began my studies again at AMBS. I was more settled there in my faith and life. We left there in May 1987 to take a position as a pastor in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. Our second, Jared, was born while we were there, in Goshen Indiana in May 1986.
443 Hawthorne Drive, Lancaster PA, USA
I started as pastor of Bethel Mennonite Church in July 1987, and served there for four years. I did not know anything about the traditions of the church there, and so I learned a lot. I preached almost every Sunday. I was helped by the former pastor, Paul Wikerd, and my cousin, Judith Rempel Smucker, who were members at the church. At some point, we decided that we wanted to raise our children in Ontario, so made application in early 1991. Our two youngest, Hannah and Caleb, were born at home in February 1989 and July 1991. We had the help of a midwife, Rosena Howard. I accepted a call to be pastor of Floradale Mennonite in August 1991.
27 Main St ( or 2356 Floradale Road ) Floradale, Ontario
I stayed 25 years. We were fortunate to be able to raise our children in such a stable environment. I accepted five five year covenants with the church. They offered me three sabbaticals, 1996, 2003 and 2011. They were generous with time and money. In 2007, I suffered a heart attack, but returned in April 2008, and served eight more years, finishing 2016. There are thousands of other stories to tell from 1991-2026. Till later.
4 Ernst St. Elmira , Ontario
We moved here in 2015. I took a job with MCC telling the MCC story on Sunday mornings, and to community groups. I worked there from 2016-2020. In 2017, Poole Mennonite asked me to come on as interim supply for six months, and then in 2019 I returned half-time. In March 2020, the Sunday that the pandemic hit, I started full-time. I served there until March 2025. I retired then.As you might think or imagine, there is more to my story. I could shape it with anxiety attacks, worry, health challenges, my marriage, my children, my faith or the over forty years of wilderness, cheering for the Maple Leafs and Cleveland Browns. Sorry for the length, Any questions or comments ?
Ezekiel 37:3 ( Read the whole chapter if you have the time )
He asked me, “Son of man, can these bones live?”
I said, “Sovereign Lord, you alone know.”
The Valley of the Dry Bones was the Old Testament text for the Second Sunday of Lent. I have heard that it was the text many pastors preached for the time of worship, from Manitoba to B.C. and Elmira ( I preached at Elmira Mennonite ). There are bones in the valley. Were they the bones of Babylonian massacres ? Were they women and children ? God is going to resurrect them by putting flesh back on them. It is a gruesome story. God is going to breathe life back into them. Is it a political statement for the writer of Ezekial, preparing for the return of the Israelites to power ? The temple, the most sacred place where God resided, had been destroyed by the Babylonians. Were these resurrected bones going to be a place of revenge for the people of God ? How do you control resurrected bones ?
During this Advent: season, where do you see the resurrection of the bones of the people of God:
The many choirs singing the Messiah,
speaking justice to the powers of the world,
being kind to your neighbours
Telling countries to lay down their weapons
standing up for immigrants, women and children
Let the bones of justice and peace take on a new flesh of the resurrection. Oh sorry. I am ahead of the story. May the babe of Mary and Joseph be the voice of justice and peace as you celebrate the birth once again, for the first time this December. Do not wait for the 25th to change the world. Give money, write a letter, carry a sign, hug your children, sing loudly and proclaim like the angels and shepherds . AMEN May the ceasefire break out again in Gaza. I hope. AMEN
Fred
black and white shadows
crush humanity’s freedom
am I complicit ? MPL 2025
Sunday October 25, 2025
Good morning,
Here is one more plug for our Camino Tour. Please consider it. Send the link to others who you might think are interested.
As of today, I will be taking a time away from Ponder Anew writing. It might be the First Sunday of Advent. November 30, 2025 when I will return to the blog.
Thank you for listening and responding to my ponderings. It has been a privilege to write. I began a month after my heart attack in January 2008. It started as a weekly update on my health but it morphed into a devotional on Jesus through the eyes of creation, politics, sports, weather or anything. I wrote weekly until March 2020, but then COVID hit. Since then I have written most days, at first to the Poole Church and then following my retirement , to the wide open spaces of the universe.
Thanks again for listening . I will see you in the future through my words.
Be blessed by God, so you are a blessing to others. Love conquers all.
Prayers
Dear God,
Guard all of these people with your love and compassion.
Keep them safe and in your will.
Keep them watching , listening and caring.
Thank you for their friendship.
Lia nd Dirk
Rick and Nancy
Bernie and Martha Susan and James
Barb and Roy
Eileen and Willis
Dale and Sharon
Wendy and Rob
Shirley and Fred
Rick and Donna
Wanda
Steve and Donna
Pearl
Marcia and Akii
Agnes
Lucas, Alison, Levi, Emmett,Jared, Hannah, Alaa and Caleb
“Where were you when I laid the earth’s foundation?
Tell me, if you understand. Who marked off its dimensions? Surely you know! Who stretched a measuring line across it? On what were its footings set, or who laid its cornerstone— while the morning stars sang together and all the angels shouted for joy ? ” JOB 38:4-7
The book of Job is a great study of humanity. Job’s life gets destroyed, and then three or four friends try to convince that it was all his fault. There are many conversations that go on for a long time throughout the book with three main characters, Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar questioning Job. A fourth man, Elihu, arrives later in the book. Then, the Almighty and Everlasting shows up and asks questions of Job, almost cynical or how do you read the above words. All these words are still difficult to answer. Science is not certainty but it is always discovering and learning new things. Science is as uncertain as faith.
Have you ever had a group of people trying to change how you see faith ? How did you react ? Did you find it helpful or troubling ? The people that are trying to have you change your mind might have good intentions. I would like to change the mind of conservative evangelicals who have lost their faith by following Trump . I might be like Eliphaz, Bildad or Zofar. A conversation would be good, but I am not very good at debate, so I might have someone else to help me to listen and offer a change.
Praying for the limited ceasefire to hold in Gaza, AMEN.
Shirley and I are leading a Camino walk from Porto, Portugal to Santiago, Spain in April 2026. Please check the link below. We led a tour last September in Spain. Please consider joining us on a spiritual journey and a lovely walk. Share it with people that you might know as well.
Fred
October 23,
Good afternoon/evening/morning,
We may word things differently, but this perpetual search to know the unknowable is a familiar feeling for many contemplatives. We have an almost ravenous hunger, or some might say a palpable thirst, or a seemingly aimless dull ache that thrums through us. The ache reminds us we are in touch with the suffering of the whole world. All contemplatives, no matter their religion or spirituality, seem to have this in common, and recognizing this makes me feel less alone.
The contemplative life is not a way of knowing. It is not the path of certitude. In fact, that’s what makes it so alive, so necessarily active. Our glimpses of “arrival” along the way are places we can catch our breath and recall we are moving in the right direction, even if it’s only because it’s exactly where we are. Those times, we remember that the way is not meant to be easy, simple, or comfortable. But these moments only last for a flash in the midst of life because, as the Rev. Dr. Walter Fluker reminds us, “Life will keep going because life itself is alive.” … from Richard Rohr’s website
I think this describes me. And I am now okay with it ? Believe in the grace of the great Counselor.
I will never arrive at the destination of total communion with the Great One, the Everlasting One, the Holy One, here on earth.
Jesus said that the Kingdom of God has arrived, in his first sermon in his home synagogue in Nazareth. But I have rarely seen it. Am I only faithful a little bit in my life? I do not think so.
I think this means that I am human, and I am on the way to the Spirit of God. I just do not arrive today or next week.
Unfortunately . I have to wait for my death to become a new sense of the Divine. Not quite yet, though.
God, help us to bring peace to Gaza, with children, parents, grandpas, moms, single women, singers whales and trees. AMEN
I wrote a few months ago that I do not believe I have any or very few new ideas. I say things in a different way in my blogs or my sermons.I don’t know where my thoughts or ideas or beliefs have evolved from. But, I know they have come from others, maybe even the readers of my blog. Many of my thoughts come directly or indirectly from Jesus of Nazareth. But I get other ideas that come from many different sources. I subscribe to a ‘ substack ‘ ( a new word for blogs ) from Kristin Du Mez. She is a church historian from Calvin University in Michigan. She is fearful that she will get fired as her interpretations go up against the Trump Empire, and evangelical Chrsitians. I am afraid for her safety. In this week’s blog she quotes her pastor’s( Len Vander Zee ) sermon. The pastor in his sermon quotes from a book by Deb Rienstra. Here is his quote from the book:
” This week I read Deb Rienstra’s wonderful book “Refugia Faith.” In the book she gives us a wonderful analogy of what we are called to be in this time of climate crisis. In 1980 Mt St. Hellens blew its top, leaving a swath of utter devastation. Today if you go there you will find a lush mountainside or flowers, grasses, growing trees, and all kinds of critters.
How did this happen? There were pockets of life and seed and fungi hidden in the mountainside. And the volcano ripped them open, and eventually spilled their life into the rich volcanic soil. Scientists call these pockets of life refugia.
Deb suggests that this is a good model of the church. A small, often hidden and overlooked community rich with God’s life and a different story to tell the world.
“They[ the early church ] served Christ as Lord and King, and refused to give that status and authority to any earthly emperor, and they paid for it. They practiced the radical hospitality of Christ’s kingdom, welcoming slaves to share the table with their owners, and in a few years, calling the owners to free them. Calling people to share the wealth rather than horde it. Picking up thrown away babies, mostly unwanted girls, and taking them into their homes. They said a clear no to any kind of violence.”
Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. I John 4:7-9
My faith, ideas, thoughts come from everywhere in creation and beyond. The threads are there.
Hoping that the ceasefire will hold, and a peace might come to Gaza and the West Bank. AMEN
“Where were you when I laid the earth’s foundation?
Tell me, if you understand. Who marked off its dimensions? Surely you know! Who stretched a measuring line across it? On what were its footings set, or who laid its cornerstone— while the morning stars sang together and all the angels shouted for joy ? ” JOB 38:4-7
The book of Job is a great study of humanity. Job’s life gets destroyed, and then three or four friends try to convince that it was all his fault. There are many conversations that go on for a long time throughout the book with three main characters, Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar questioning Job. A fourth man, Elihu, arrives later in the book. Then, the Almighty and Everlasting shows up and asks questions of Job, almost cynical or how do you read the above words. All these words are still difficult to answer. Science is not certainty but it is always discovering and learning new things. Science is as uncertain as faith.
Have you ever had a group of people trying to change how you see faith ? How did you react ? Did you find it helpful or troubling ? The people that are trying to have you change your mind might have good intentions. I would like to change the mind of conservative evangelicals who have lost their faith by following Trump . I might be like Eliphaz, Bildad or Zofar. A conversation would be good, but I am not very good at debate, so I might have someone else to help me to listen and offer a change.
Praying for the limited ceasefire to hold in Gaza, AMEN.
Shirley and I are leading a Camino walk from Porto, Portugal to Santiago, Spain in April 2026. Please check the link below. We led a tour last September in Spain. Please consider joining us on a spiritual journey and a lovely walk. Share it with people that you might know as well.Fred
As a Mennonite, you might have celebrated Communion this past weekend. For most of Mennonite history we celebrated the Lord’s Supper twice a year, Good Friday and around early October. World Communion Sunday is the first Sunday in October. As we understand, the Catholic Church celebrated the Mass everyday. Two very different understandings of the bread and the cup. The early church celebrated the Supper every time they ate together ( according to Acts ). After the early baptisms in Zurich in 1525, the Anabaptists were having communion all the time. In John 15, returning to the last meal, Jesus describes who he is. He says, ” I am the true vine “. This is the final of seven ‘ I am ‘ statements that Jesus calls himself as recorded by John. For John, these are words that define who Jesus is. He states, ‘ I am the bread of life… I am the light of the world … I am the door of the sheep… I am the good shepherd… I am the resurrection and life… I am the way the truth and the life… ‘. John’s Gospel is framed around these ‘ I am ” statements. The other Gospel writers do not shape the life of Jesus this way. This is connected to the God of the Old Testament. When Moses sees the burning bush, God says, ” I am who I am “. I think, believe, that Jesus is connecting to God in this way.This wraps up this teaching here at the dinner table. I wonder who told the writer that Jesus said all these things ?
As you probably know, I am not a literalist in my understanding of the Bible. I think we are always interpreting the word of God for our lives as a group of believers. I am a volunteer interpretative guide at The Mennonite Story, and I am telling the people who come to the cabin/museum that one of the beliefs that Mennonites broke with the Catholic church was about the bread and the cup. Catholics believe that the bread and cup turn into the flesh and blood of Jesus during the Mass. Mennonites thought that was not right. But in John 6:
Jesus said to them, “Very truly I tell you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise them up at the last day. For my flesh is real food and my blood is real drink. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me, and I in them. ( verses 53-56 )
Most churches celebrate the last meal that Jesus has with his friends. Catholics can have bread and cup everyday. Most Mennonites do the meal twice or three times a year. The Quakers remember, but do not do the drinking and eating of the meal. How important is taking the bread and cup for your faith ? What happens to you when you take the sip and eat a small piece of bread ? Catholics believe that the cup becomes the actual blood of our Lord, and then the bread is transformed into the actual flesh of Jesus. There is great mystery in this, and by taking the communion elements the grace of God comes down upon you and in you. Mennonites are supposed to be in the right relationship with our sister and brothers before we can come to the table. John in his Gospel does not say that.
At the end of chapter 14 of the last meal, Jesus continues to confuse his friends. He is going away, but he will come back. I wonder if there was a harsh argument here with Peter, John and James and the others. ” Jesus, you said that you have brought the Kingdom of God to the world, and now you are saying you are going to leave… but then come back. ” ( and by the way, from a present-day disciple, you have not come back ). Teh Gospel does say that the disciples soemtimes get frustrated with Jesus,a nd that is just fine for a faithful person to say such a thing. Jesus tells them he will not leave them alone . He will give them the ‘ Holy Spirit ‘. It is not a flesh and blood person, but a nebulous being that floats around the new community that is left without its leader. The Spirit is hard to describe. How does the Spirit play a role in your life ? Have you ever seen the Spirit move around, when you have not been able to hold it. ?
” I have told you now before it happens,
so that when it does happen you will believe.
I will not say much more to you, for the prince of this world is coming.
He has no hold over me,
but he comes so that the world may learn that I love the Father and do exactly what my Father has commanded me. ” John 14:29-31
The Holy Spirit will help us in this world where the prince of this world is winning ? Oh no !!
Ponder Anew 