Handel’s Hallelujah Chorus is popping up everywhere as we begin the Season of Advent!
Here is a ‘Random Act of Culture’ by The Opera Company of Philadelphia at Macy’s
http://www.creativeminorityreport.com/2010/11/awesome-pop-up-hallelujah-chorus-at.html
Scenario: Your large, urban, 21st-century congregation is composed primarily of wealthy families of mixed ethnic origins. Discuss strategies for preaching on Ephesians 5:21-33. As you do so, pay particular attention to how you will present verses 22-24: “Wives be subject to your husbands as you are to the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife just as Christ is the head of the church, the body of which he is the Savior. Just as the church is subject to Christ, so also wives ought to be, in everything, to their husbands.”
Preaching on this particular passage would require:
1. Clarification of the context – the structure of society at the time was such that women/wives had limited authority beyond the limits of their homes
2. Defining for the congregation the difference between our 21st century lens that sees this passage as anti-feminist and the 1st/2nd century lens that accepts this as part of their cultural reality and can accept what is being said and its implications without being caught up in conflict with modern thought and belief. As well, monetary or ethnic status does not play a role either.
3. Defining the purpose of Paul’s letter to the Ephesians – again, Paul is seeking to created a unified group/movement; to do this he compares the wife being subject to her husband as she is subject to the Lord. The husband is likened to Christ in his role as head of the church. In the alternative, the church is subject to Christ, therefore the wife as compared to the church is to be subject to her husband as compared to Christ, head of the church
4. Note that Paul addresses ‘wives’ first thereby attributing honour and status to women in a culture where honour was valued and important and where women were not seen as equal in status.
5. The exhortation is followed by a corollary that qualifies the ‘subject to’. The wife is to be subject to her husband in the same way that she would be subject to Jesus/the Messiah. It is important, I think, to point out this relationship.
6. According to Capes et al in Rediscovering Paul, “The Ephesian household code orginates in the directive regarding mutual submission. Mutual caring and yielding to others are constant themes in Paul’s letters.” (233) In footnote 31, “… the household code in Ephesians is not an attempt to impose pagan, patriarchal values on the church but to impose spiritually empowered, mutual submission on a pagan, patriarchal structure.” (233)
7. It would then be important to define ‘household code’. “These household codes typically provide guidance to family members on how to relate t one another in a manner consistent with the gospel.” (220 & 222)
I have finally taken the time to re-connect with my favourite blogs and will share it with you:
And, of course, it is always important to see the other side… to balance the viewpoint.
Here is the link to the other side of the coin:
http://keithhoward.ca/2010/11/11/church-people-are-the-reason-people-stay-with-the-church/
A blog post was shared with me today and it is an important aspect of the church for us to not only know about but also to consider as we go forward in a time of transition in the church.
Here it is: http://keithhoward.ca/2010/11/10/church-people-are-the-reason-people-do-not-come-to-church/
It is necessary to follow-up my last post concerning comments made concerning the United Church with the individual’s ending post (at least for today) because I feel it is important to finish what you start and to try to provide all the information for a complete picture. That is what most would call the ‘high road’ I believe.
Here it is:
http://forums.army.ca/forums/index.php/topic,97466.0.html
Thanks for your time today!
May you see the face of Christ in everyone you meet, and may everyone you meet see the face of Christ in you.
This morning was the Sunday for a community Remembrance Day service during which we remembered veterans and in particular those from the Korean War. As always the community attendance was excellent — standing room only!
Later this afternoon on a forum that my husband moderates, Army.ca, a discussion thread began that is critical of the United Church of Canada (of which I am a student minister). I will let the discussion thread speak for itself.
You can find it here:
http://forums.army.ca/forums/index.php/topic,97443.0.html
It is important to remember that light needs to be shed on the dark spots to encourage love and understanding.
Blessings to all…
Remembrance Day is now less than a week away.
Here is a link to a resource that my be helpful in planning a remembrance service:
www.unitedmilitarychaplains.ca
We usually concentrate on the veterans on Remembrance Day. I would encourage you to include in your remembrances those who died and those who continue to die in service to their country, their families and the men and women currently serving in the Canadian Armed Forces and their families. All of these people believe in the common good and the value of freedom. They are willing to make sacrifices to that end! God’s continued blessing upon all of them!
The gap in blog posting can be explained by online course work, pastoral charge responsibilities, a funeral, family and let us not forget the cold that I currently am trying to be rid of!
The theme for the fall for me seems to be time. Because of all that is happening in my life right now time is a precious commodity and I am discerning how to use it well. First is in setting priorities and boundaries remembering that self-care is my responsibility to myself. Second is taking that time away, to reconnect with the Creator and creation. This is the time that feeds me and that I cherish the most. The times where I can pause!
I have found this website to be helpful: www.edgeofenclosure.org/
I have also found this book, recommended by my spiritual director to sing to my heart!
Wiederkehr, Macrina. Seven Sacred Pauses: Living Mindfully Through the Hours of the Day. Sorin. 2010. (New in paperback). $18.00
A wonderful book- loved by many in its hardcover edition. (the CD ‘Seven Sacred Pauses’ by Velma Fyre is a wonderful companion too. A new CD by Velma, “Take Heart” will be available in November). Wiederkehr ‘opens the monastery door… t o bring this practice of your own heart. Here is how to live in the world and still remain faithful to the light and darkness. Here is how to summon the holy of your own divine self.” Takes the reader – and the spiritual pilgrim – through the Night Watch, the Awakening Hour, the Blessing Hour, the Hour of Illumination, the Wisdom Hour, the Twilight Hour, the Great Silence.
It won’t be long now before the beginning of Advent and it is another time, a time to wait and a time to journey. As I think you can see, clearly, time is my mantra theme that I am to learn from right now! Thanks be to God for that, Amen.
thepowerandthelaurie 
Busyness, Gratitude and Grit
I have found that September was and October is looking like it will be BUSY! Not only does the school year start but the church year, at least unofficially, begins afresh in September after a restful summer. Meetings start-up again, it is important to re-connect and this, I expect, is the ramp up to the season of Advent!
For those of us who are in the Summer Distance program at AST… there are projects to complete, meetings with educational supervisors and site visits from the co-ordinator. As well, there are conference orientation events to prepare for or attend.
In the midst of this there is Thanksgiving! A time to show our gratitude for all that we have but it is also the time to put a face to those who have fewer resources than ourselves. It is frightening to explore all the ways in which there are people who, quite literally, have nothing. As my sermon/liturgy project this Sunday when my congregation will most likely be anticipating a feel good sermon about bounty and gratitude, they will be swallowing some grit with that! I will be leading them to ‘put a face to’ those agencies that they donate to. Who are the people who need the Caring Cupboard? Have you volunteered there to see? It is not enough to write a cheque or hand over a bag of non-perishables mostly just to feel good that you are ‘helping out’ and forgetting about it until ‘the next time’. All that they do is important and valuable work but I would like them to go that one step further. Step outside their comfort and rub shoulders with those less fortunate. Volunteering at the food bank, serving a meal at the mission, sorting clothes for the clothing shop…. expose us to individual human beings that are like us in so many ways!
I feel that I have the ability to say this because I have been at that place at a time that seems so very long ago now but nonetheless I was there. So it is only scary in our minds. They are people who have dignity too!
Most importantly this week, when they are sitting around the family table sharing the Thanksgiving feast of bounty, I hope that they will take a minute to acknowledge that somewhere in the world there are families but like their own who are sitting down to a table to share so very little, if anything.
My hope is just to get them to think about it! And once they have thought about it I hope that we can enter a conversation about what more we can do that will be meaningful not only to them but to those they wish to help.
So they may walk out of church on Sunday not feeling completely warm and fuzzy, I may have one or two that will be unhappy….I will have accomplished the simple fact that they have been moved from their place of complacency.
Social justice, social ministry…. key parts to ministry and that is not just my job but the job of all of us together.
Happy Thanksgiving (a bit early)! May God continue to bless you on your journey!