Hopewit

  Eigenheim Church, 1896 “ My prayer is not for [these disciples] alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me, and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me . ” (John 17: 20-21) Unity in the church is not “ a theme,” but rather “ the theme” in Jesus’ prayer as recorded in St. John’s gospel. A consistent witness to the world rides on the back of unity, of course; that Messianic message that Jesus instilled in his followers can only prosper in the world if Christians catch the theme and both preach and practice it “in unity.” (One can almost imagine a reticent former tax collector, Matthew, glancing over at loud-mouthed Peter and muttering, “Good Luck with that, Master. Such perfect unity is going to need lots and lots of prayer, I think!”) We know intuitively that human nature is as inclined to be competitive as it is to be c...

  The shower in our bathroom malfunctioned. When turned on, water sprayed out of places it shouldn’t, showering everything in the little room. It had to be fixed, and one look told me that a normally educated human with a normal battery of intelligence, education and experience should be up to performing a repair. I bought a new shower head and set to removing the offending part, but having no wrench that fitted the connecting nut, had to improvise with a pair of pliers, and a clumsy vice grip from my scanty tool collection. With my daughter’s help the repair did happen and blissful, uneventful showers were again possible.   Later in the same day, a screw holding the seat of a dining chair to its frame fell out, and although I do own a screwdriver with about 15 interchangeable screw tips, none would fit, and I improvised by forcing the issue with an inappropriate Phillips tip.   We all rely on whatever tools we own when it comes to navigating our way successfully t...

  Calla Lily Acts 13:15, NIV.  " After the reading of the Law and the Prophets, the synagogue leaders invited them, 'Brothers, if one of you has a sermon for the people, please speak.'" As we meet on Sunday mornings for worship, we know there will be hymns, prayers, scriptures, announcements, sharing and most certainly, a sermon , “a talk on a religious or moral subject, especially one given during a church service and based on a passage from the Bible (Microsoft online dictionary).” The dictionary lists synonyms: homily, address, talk, discourse, oration, lesson, preaching, teaching, peroration. I like the last one.   What place does the peroration hold in your thinking about worship? Is it more like a personal opinion expertly or not-so-impressively delivered? Or is it the inspired voice of prophecy, like Zechariah trying desperately to guide the children of Israel onto better pathways? Something between maybe?          ...

  Eigenheim Mennonite, ca. 1950 The article on which our Adult Sunday School focused, and which was first printed in the Canadian Mennonite, was logically questionable. It posed the argument that our “traditional” churches put up barriers to entry by members of other cultures, and that that explains the lack of cultural diversity in our pews. That might be a factor in some cases, but the explanation for a lack of cross-cultural presence in Mennonite churches is way more complicated than that. People who visit our churches—whether they’re culturally different or not—come again if their experience was satisfying; they don’t if it wasn’t. That choice likely depends more on their own expectations than it does on the welcome they receive. The churches with which I’m familiar go out of their way to greet and engage with strangers, but to even suggest that altering the style and content of worship so that others have their expectations met—and so they will return—would simply be at cos...