Hopewit

  “Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.” – Matthew 6:34, KJV   Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal …”- Matthew 6:19, KJV My grandmother’s and my mother’s autumn “laying up of treasure upon earth” included shelves and shelves of jars of canned meats and garden produce. This preparedness for a harsh winter was both their pride and their security. It was an investment of time and effort that paid off in reducing the “what shall we eat, and what shall we drink” anxiety.                Stored food is treasure. Stored money likewise. Not surprising is the feeling that if stored food reduces stress and makes us feel happier, much stored food (or money) should makes us feel super-secure and super-happy. Bu...

  Moscow skyline Do we all have shackled streaks of cruelty lurking in our deepest selves? Is war capable of breaking the chains that hold the tiger down in peace time? A friend who did some prison chaplaincy before becoming a pastor remarked to me that what struck him was how similar the murderers were to himself, or "there but for the grace of circumstance, go I."      In the Russian Revolution and through WWII, innocents were made to suffer grievously at the hands of Russian soldiers: in Ukraine, in Germany in its retreat. The pattern is being repeated; some of the most virulent victimizing being reserved for Ukrainian cousins. Why has that been the case? Why is it the case again? There's a considerable body of opinion that NATO--the West--is responsible for the current debacle, and certainly their mistakes vis-e-vis Russia must be called out. But to excuse Russia's destruction of Ukraine on the West's failure to do what it should have is playground, ...

      But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart. I’m working on an essay called, “The Imperative Jesus.” In it, I intend to list all those of his sayings recorded in Matthew that have the sense of a command. In English classes, I learned that there are four types of sentences: declarative, interrogative, imperative and exclamatory, as follows: Declarative: The door is open. (statement) Interrogative: Is the door open? (question) Imperative: Open the door. (command) Exclamatory: That darn door is open, again! (exclamation) I stopped for a minute or so to contemplate the “you have heard it said … but I say unto you” passages in in the Sermon on the Mount. Matthew 5:28: “Don’t even look at a woman wrongly,” in the translation I was using right then. “But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart” in the NIV. This as an echo of the seventh comm...

Recent events surrounding pandemic mandates have placed a burden for rethinking the role of individual autonomy in a democratic state on us all. The temptation to go yes or no on whether special restrictions can legitimately be placed on persons not choosing vaccination is a significant discussion to be had; so far no substantial debate on the matter has taken place, at least not to my knowledge. I have always known about the exemption from military service that Mennonites had to have guaranteed to them before emigrating to Russia, Prussia, Canada, USA, Mexico and Paraguay. In his memoir, friend Hank Neufeld writes about the Morden Mennonite Brethren Church’s response to the draft during WWII. In a similar response to churches elsewhere, some of the church members joined outright, some joined the medical corps and some submitted to being placed on farms or in other voluntary service programs to keep the Canadian economy going while so many men were off to war. But then there was a...

  “When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things.” (I Corinthians 13:11, KJV) Chapter 13 of Paul’s first letter to the Corinthian church has two themes: the nature of true charity (love) and the limits of knowledge. The first theme sets an unbelievably high bar for the exercise of self-denying love, as in “And though I bestow all my goods to feed  the poor , and though I give my body to be burned, and have not charity, it profiteth me nothing.” The later theme is typified in “For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known.”                It’s in this latter section of the chapter that verse 13 appears, almost an aside and only tangentially supportive of what comes before and after.        ...

  Tradition vs. Change is thematically central to the Downton Abbey series we’re watching for the second time in our house. The superb acting of Maggie Smith carries the load for arguing the absolute importance of tradition and the stability it provides while her granddaughter, Sybil Crawley, speaks and acts for the embracing of the inevitable change by becoming a nurse to wounded WWI soldiers, and then marrying the chauffeur, no less.                This isn’t a review of Downton Abbey . Rather, I’m thinking here about the times in history when sea changes were forced upon peoples that had developed stable views, hierarchies, and protocols over time, and were thereby required to live in a newness they hadn’t asked for and didn’t desire. Mennonites, Gypsies, Jews, Kurds and other minorities that were a threat to traditions of the majority wherever they settled, have historically been oppressed and/or driven ou...

  I'm sitting in my recliner here on January 1, 2022 and wondering if there are synonyms for happy that I could use to express that wish in a more appropriate way. Word suggests glad, fortunate, lucky, delightful, content and so from that list I pick and say, Fortunate, lucky, delightful and content New Year to you all . You and we deserve at least a taste of it after 2021, don't we? And are the admonitions of the sages enough to keep our keels even should 2022 be a carbon copy? Keep your chin up? Look on the bright side? In all your ways acknowledge Him and He will make your paths straight? Take heart by remembering that many are experiencing the same afflictions you are … minus food and shelter from the cold? Agnes and I could complain without ceasing. For me, it's been a year and two months now since a complicated pneumonia put me in hospital, and the aftermath for my breathing is worrisome, plus a stupid act on my part did my back a nasty number and turned my p...