In light of 2020, the Year of the Protest, Mark Groleau brings a fresh take on Jesus’ story about a judge and a widow. The trouble with justice is that it rests in the hands of people who think things are just fine the way they are. But the widow has something to teach us about breaking the status quo: “listen to what the judge says; justice comes from the bruising.”
On video and podcast, the talk starts at the 33:40 mark.
Our Advent theme for this week was Joy. Peter decided to speak about how often joy and sorrow are mixed in our lives and about the resilience that encourages us to fight through problem periods with resilience until we are freely flowing in life’s river. He primarily relies on wisdom from Scripture and from Richard Rohr in this talk.
On this second Sunday of Advent, Peter brings a few Scripture passages that speak of a Child that will bring peace to the world. Peter sees this as having to do with the gradual growth of justice that is bringing peace to more and more people through the gift of Jesus’ life death and resurrection, and he also sees it as the gift of God to our troubled souls in the midst of whatever is going on as we face the storms of life.
After listening to the talk, we suggest clicking on these links to take in Cat Stevens (Yusuf Islam) doing Peace Train and Stevie Wonder performing Heaven Help Us.
Since we have moved back to Orange Level of pandemic risk involvement, we have decided to refrain from physical gatherings once more. Today, in this short video, Peter reads a few Scriptures and a poem by Rainer Maria Rilke as he forms a meditation about the importance of active waiting when we find ourselves in the midst of crises. After listening to the talk, we suggest clicking on this link to take in “I Will Wait” by Mumford and Sons, performing at Red Rocks, outside of Denver, Colorado. After that, it would be good to listen once more to one of the songs from last week, “One Day” by Matisyahu.
We decided to cancel in-person services while our area is in the Orange Level of virus risk. Today Peter posts a short meditation based on Scripture and a poem by Rumi to encourage honest feelings and hope in the midst of the chaos in the world and in our lives. We are also posting two beautiful videos that we watched last week in David Moore’s church services. One, is by a Muslim singer and one is by a Jewish singer. We recommend watching Forgotten Promises by Sami Yusuf first, and then following that with One Day by Matisyahu.
Jessica Williams speaks poignantly about her longing for a bigger God than the one she was given in early life or at Bible College or as an adult in evangelical churches. She wants a God that is big enough to reject violence and manipulation and who is just as present for the marginalized as He/She is for those who are not marginalized in a society or a church.
Walter Thiessen prepared his sermon in the middle of the night after the US election, after he (mistakenly – he blames CBC) thought Trump had won. While the news cleared up that misunderstanding, he went ahead with that theme anyway.
Today Peter Fitch spoke again from 1 John 3. He looked at the last part of the chapter. He thinks the author is identifying ways to know that you’ve made a good choice in life, that you’re on a good path. Lots of people chimed in and shared their ideas about how to be confident in the decisions that have been made.
Peter Fitch speaks about evil and good emotions in his description of 1 John 3:11-17. The passage uses Cain and Abel as an illustration of what can go wrong if we don’t learn to transfer from dark waters that we swim in to lighter ones.
Peter Fitch returns to his talks on 1 John. This passage centres on Chapter 3, verses 4-10. He thinks that there are important keys here that help with discernment about whether or not a group is on a good path. In the final analysis, it indicates that “you are what you practice”, as Walter Thiessen remarks in the middle of the talk.
