Sunday Talks

Peter Fitch read Psalm 34 and asked what a naive interpretation of this psalm might indicate. Then he showed a talk by Kate Bowler called “Everything Happens for a Reason, and Other Lies I’ve Loved.” Then he read Psalm 34 once more and asked people if they saw any deep truths within the psalm that still rang true after Kate’s talk. There were many rich comments. Music today was by Jacob Rose, including 3 original songs, and a couple of the songs were accompanied by Sarah MacPhail as she and her husband, Tim, were visiting from Germany.

Peter Fitch read Psalm 34 and asked what a naive interpretation of this psalm might indicate. Then he showed a talk by Kate Bowler called “Everything Happens for a Reason, and Other Lies I’ve Loved.” Then he read Psalm 34 once more and asked people if they saw any deep truths within the psalm that still rang true after Kate’s talk. There were many rich comments. Music today was by Jacob Rose, including 3 original songs, and a couple of the songs were accompanied by Sarah MacPhail as she and her husband, Tim, were visiting from Germany.

Peter Fitch asks questions about the nature of joy and whether or not we can learn to welcome its visits with greater frequency. He looks at ideas in the NT and then finds additional wisdom from other sources: Jimmy Santiago Baca, Kahlil Gibran, and the Tao te Ching of Lao Tzu. Joy is something that we fight for, that we rest into, and that we gain through participation and service to others. It has a rich connection with sadness and sorrow, and also with the kind of connection with the Eternal that allows one to be fully alive in the present moment.

Today Peter Fitch went over the Values Section of our church website in order to discuss the postures that we have decided should be hallmarks of our community. Along the way, he contrasted the humility and kindness he hoped we could consistently show to each other with terrible moments in church history. Somewhere along the way, Christianity became very different than it might have been if it had followed the teachings of Jesus more closely. Peter thinks it’s important to be honest about the problems if we ever hope to find a better path.

Today Peter Fitch went over the Values Section of our church website in order to discuss the postures that we have decided should be hallmarks of our community. Along the way, he contrasted the humility and kindness he hoped we could consistently show to each other with terrible moments in church history. Somewhere along the way, Christianity became very different than it might have been if it had followed the teachings of Jesus more closely. Peter thinks it’s important to be honest about the problems if we ever hope to find a better path.

Peter Fitch asks people what insights they can glean from several Scriptures or famous quotes about living a good life. The responses are lovely. Then Peter reads from a story by Fredda Paul, residential school survivor, about happy memories associated with his childhood home. This seems to add another dimension to the idea of “reverberating joy” that emerged through the first part of the service. The Presence of God in everything lends itself to the idea that the world is on fire in a perpetual, but not destructive, way. 

Peter Fitch shares some of the fascinating symmetry that connects Martin Luther, leader of the Protestant Reformation, with St. Martin of Tours, the person he was named after, and also with one of the darkest moments of the Holocaust. Somehow, it seems as though both Light and Darkness are dancing around the world-shaking events of the 16th century. Peter doesn’t know how to understand these things but he finds them fascinating and thinks they hint at a more complicated flow in history than we normally imagine.

Zoe Fitch sings three new songs that she has written and, in one of them, she makes the comment that people might go down our front street and think nothing is happening here. However, that would be a complete mistake because there is so much going on in people’s backyards. There is gardening and crafting and many forms of “making.” This fits very well with Peter’s talk for today. He brings a story from the New Testament and follows with an article about New Zealand from the BBC. Sometimes people put their trust in systems of understanding that really don’t help, like the woman who felt like an outcast for 12 years with internal bleeding. The doctors of her day couldn’t help her but touching Jesus’ outer garment did. She reached toward the place of best energy and it changed her life. Jacinda Ardern apologizes to Pacific Islanders for a past injustice, and it seems like she, too, is reaching toward the place of best energy.