P2

Sick and tired

Pastor Peter — Tue, 07 Sep 2010 21:23:28 +0000

of being sick and tired. I am sick at home these days – cough, fever, achy body. It hurts.

Relaxing…

Pastor Peter — Mon, 23 Aug 2010 19:33:36 +0000

in the rain, in the sun, at an undisclosed location. (Okay, it’s our cabin at Riding Mtn National Park.)

See you in September.

Money, Money, Money

Pastor Peter — Tue, 27 Jul 2010 16:12:27 +0000

The artist Banksy made this image. I think this is what Jesus is saying about money and possessions:

This image is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license. Please see: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/deed.en-us

Karl Barth on the church

Pastor Peter — Wed, 14 Jul 2010 18:29:34 +0000

Got this from one of my brothers, about Karl Barth, 20th C Christian, and dapper dresser/pipe-smoke):

Karl Barth understood the church as an empty, hollow space, a place that is opened so that God may come. The church is, in Barth’s words,

A canal through which flows living water. Wherever graves are, there is resurrection. Where the church ends, there is its beginning. Where its unrighteousness is exposed, there its righteousness dawns. The divine demolition of any Church means that every Church arises as a signpost, threshold, and door of hope . . . Broken, the Church can bear its message with its head erect, for the Gospel belongs to the Church that is lost.

(Karl Barth, The Epistle to the Romans, trans. Edwyn C. Hoskyns, Oxford University Press, 1968, pp. 375 and 416.)

The heated hotness…

Pastor Peter — Mon, 12 Jul 2010 20:52:28 +0000

Wow. Did a wedding on Saturday – way to go, J&L! – and it was hot, hot, hot. Lost 900 lbs in sweat.

I learned something at that wedding: when people come to the church – and there were 200 of ‘em – I have the adrenaline of a host with guests in their home. I want people to feel comfortable and to have a good time… and it’s exhausting!

Mary or Martha? Martha – the busy one… definitely Martha.

Too much rain, too hot, too much construction

Pastor Peter — Thu, 08 Jul 2010 16:43:06 +0000

It’s a Manitoba summer, and the rain threatens, the heat heats, and the construction on Inkster Boulevard happens this weekend. The train crossing is being replaced, July 9-12, so park across the tracks, or find another way here. Don’t get lost on the way!

If you do get lost, Wednesday Worship is at 6:25 pm. Wear shorts.

What’s to be done?

Pastor Peter — Tue, 06 Jul 2010 18:19:14 +0000

Is Jesus at the centre? If so, shouldn’t we do what he commands – go, tell, baptize. teach? What makes us so reluctant? We sin in refusing to go, tell, baptize, teach.

But thanks be to God, we have a God who seeks sinners, Jesus, who died for us, in fact – killed under the supervision of a Roman – Pontius Pilate – in the first century, around 30 AD. His death gives us forgiveness of sins, life and salvation. So, go, tell, baptize, teach!

Following Jesus

Pastor Peter — Mon, 28 Jun 2010 02:19:01 +0000

Dangerous stuff, following Jesus. He leads us out there, away and far from all we hold dear. He pries our idols out of our clutches, leaving us nothing but Himself, and isn’t that enough?

I pity the fool

Pastor Peter — Wed, 16 Jun 2010 16:07:37 +0000

Yesterday I had lunch with a friend who related how someone who taught regularly at their Lutheran Church did not believe in the bodily resurrection of Jesus. He asked my friend, “Do you need to believe Jesus actually rose from the dead?” or something to that effect.

It’s been bugging me. Of course Christians need to believe that. Otherwise we are mere deists -along the line of Thomas Jefferson. Don’t let that person teach in church.

God-come-in-person, Jesus, actually died, really rose, and actually is present with us today. “If Jesus did not rise from the dead, we are among all people most to be pitied.”

Don't believe in the resurrection? I pity the fool!

“I pity the fool” – to mash up the Apostle Paul and Mr T – who claims the Christian faith as their own, without being grabbed by the central tenet – Jesus rose from the dead.

Vuvuzela-free zone

Pastor Peter — Wed, 16 Jun 2010 15:58:36 +0000

Ahhh – nothing but quiet…

Peace to you – Peter