Hopewit

Colombian Orchids - Courtesy of Agnes Epp It's Christ the King Sunday today. I didn't know that until the pastor announced it at Hively Avenue Mennonite this morning. The sermon was about king, kingdom and the role of subjects of the kingdom of which Jesus speaks when Pilate asks him if he is, or isn't, a king. (John 18: 33-37) I'm not enthusiastic about kings and queens generally; to me the terms and the political structures they represent are anachronistic at best, archaic at least, and probably representative of multiple evils of power, pomp and class systems . . . always. But in order to emphasize that Jesus is the maker, the finisher of the Christian faith, and God's “governor general” on earth, there had to be a time when the right word was king.   Then there's the even more used “Lord,” and the question of whether written in capitals ( LORD ) as opposed to Lord is significant. I read somewhere that LORD should be used only f...

Burning flax straw bales east of Rosthern As Jesus was leaving the temple, one of his disciples said to him, “Look, Teacher! What massive stones! What magnificent buildings!” 2.“Do you see all these great buildings?” replied Jesus. “Not one stone here will be left on another; every one will be thrown down.” 3.As Jesus was sitting on the Mount of Olives opposite the temple, Peter, James, John and Andrew asked him privately, 4.“Tell us, when will these things happen? And what will be the sign that they are all about to be fulfilled?” 5.Jesus said to them: “Watch out that no one deceives you. 6.Many will come in my name, claiming, ‘I am he,’ and will deceive many. 7.When you hear of wars and rumours of wars, do not be alarmed. Such things must happen, but the end is still to come. 8.Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be earthquakes in various places, and famines. These are the beginning of birth pains. 9.“You must be on your guar...

November 1; Anabaptist Mennonite Biblical Seminary “As much as possible, youth workers should do their best to teach the whole message of the Word of God so that young people in both subcultures [the upwardly-mobile strivers and the 'punk-rock' groups] will know what they're called to become instead of believing in gods that only affirm what they already are.” (Campolo, Tony: The Church and the American Teenager, 1989 – p.49) I'm sure much of what Campolo wrote in his analysis of teen subcultures and the church would be different if he were to rewrite the book today. Teen subcultures shift and change so rapidly in this technological age that it's hard to pin them down into identifiable groups as he did in 1989. But the question his book raises is no less pertinent to youth ministry today than it was then: how does the church faithfully raise its children in a multicultural, multilingual, everything-and-everybody-is-technologically-connected kind of...

St. Julian Ukrainian Catholic Church near Rosthern For all the saints who from their labours rest, Who Thee by faith before the world confess, Thy name, O Jesus, be forever blest, Alleluia! Alleluia! Thou wast their Rock, their Fortress, and their Might; Thou, Lord, their Captain in the well-fought fight; Thou, in the darkness drear, their one true Light. Alleluia! Alleluia! (Click HERE and play while you read. Or not, as you wish.) Today is All Saints Sunday. Pastor Charles reminded us in his sermon here at Hively Mennonite that we are all part of a “cloud of witnesses” who have courageously gone before us or walk beside us and others who will carry the torch after us. It's a consciousness we often neglect, the sense that we are both sheltered and challenged by the “saints” who uncompromisingly put their faith into practice in whatever time and place they find themselves.  There were stories of Christians of the past who gave everything they had to be salt ...