Remembering

Sunday mornings are full of serendipity.

This morning at the pre service breakfast for veterans, active and retired military personnel, families and youth. Gwen, sitting across the table, passed over a photo of two young people in uniform. The so young faces looked out with all the possibility of youth. They were the photos of this very woman and her brother who lies buried in Germany. His grave was in the next picture with her grandson who had made the pilgrimage to the site.

The photos began a discussion. On one side of me was a young woman who said she would be studying the war in history in grade 10. On the other side of me was a young man who had been impacted by a school visit to the war cemeteries of Europe. The conversation was meaningful. We were connecting out of such different experiences.

The service began and ended with this group of 36 or so being piped in and out of the sanctuary. For some that was the most emotional moment of the morning. Others commented on the music, the trumpet, the laying of the wreath.

Later during coffee and conversation, one veteran, Alex, told me that he had just spoken to another veteran, Franz, who had been a prisoner of war in the far east during World War Two. Alex had been one of the group dropping supplies to the prisoners. He had not known until now that Franz had been on the ground receiving the lifesaving provisions.

And that was only my little perspective on the serendipity taking place this morning in the wonderful gift of intergenerational community here at Emmanuel.

Peter

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Giving Thanks

Although not Thanksgiving Sunday, this was a Sunday for giving thanks.

We gave thanks for the life of Eleanor Cox as Ann Frederking led the Bell Choir in a special piece in her honour.

We remembered the lives of Ed Kirk and Marg Kneen' s Uncle Glen and will keep them in our thoughts and prayers as services celebrate their lives this coming week.

We thanked Russell Smith for writing a stewardship hymn which spoke to me on living with respect in creation. We sang this together in worship for the first time this morning.
We gave thanks for the response to the stewardship campaign and the generous outpouring of time, talents and treasures. Phyllis, Graham and Tom thanked the congregation for their generous hearts.

And finally we gave thanks for God's presence as we shared a meal together following the worship. This table, laden with soup, sandwiches and cake served as an extension to the table at the front of the sanctuary. How good it is to meet and eat together. This is one of those places where important conversations take place.

How could you not feel thankful after all of that!

Peter



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Ultimate Forgiveness

The Ottawa Citizen this morning contained some strong opinions on a recent car crash into a home in our community. The home owner was accused of being too forgiving in her comments about the young man. It reminded me of another controversy over how merciful we should be.

It was close to 21 years ago that Jim Swire's daughter Flora died on Pam Am flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland. How painful for the families involved when the tragedy was once again debated in the press. The occasion was the release from prison of Abdelbaset Ali al megrah Megrahi, the Libyan man known as the Lockerbie bomber.

Jim Swire praised the Scottish government for the release. He said, " am a Christian. So I would hope that, even if I was convinced that Megrahi was guilty, my Christian compassion and forgiveness would extend to wanting to see him die with his family around him in Libya."

Peter


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An Open Invitation To The Table

This is the weekend for family and feasting. Following the service, the common question over coffee was “Who is cooking the turkey at your place?”

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This year it’s not us. With a couple of exceptions, we have cooked a turkey for over 30 years. But this year part of our steadily expanding family is doing the job. And we will be the invited guests for a change.

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It’s a good thing to invite others to our table. I spoke to a number of people in our church community who are opening their tables to others for this feast.

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Some of us know what it is like to be a stranger in the community and how much it means when you get invited over for dinner. As a single summer student working in a northern mining community, it was church folks who invited me over on Sunday after church. It was what you did in those places. You invited in the stranger.

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And it’s also part of the faith story. Remember the stranger in the land. Share with them the abundance of your fields. So whether there is plenty or where there is little, may we continue to put our faith into practice and invite one another to the table.

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Burp. Excuse me. Amen.

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Peter

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What To Do ...... Nothing

The summer edition of the American Scholar trumpets the value of doing nothing.

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The Dalai Lama has claimed that when someone harms you, the best thing to do is nothing.
Don’t call attention to it in order to shame the offender. Mark Edmundson says that much of the pain in the world comes when we pass on our own injuries, compensating for our belittlement by sticking it to somebody else.

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When I read that, I can feel a protest coming on. But surely the prophetic tradition demands that we protest when harm is done to any of God’s creatures.

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The rebuttal I suppose would be, yes but when we fall into a pattern of reacting to everyone who cuts us off in traffic or says something unpleasant to us, then we can become negative rather than positive forces in our relationships. So here’s to doing nothing for the sake of the gospel.

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Peter

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Tiananmen Square - 20 Years After

This summer there were a number of commemoration of the 20th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square tragedy. There may have been 100,000 peacefully protesting when the military crackdown occurred. Who knows how many died. Official reports say it was 200-300. Chinese Student Associations put the number at 2,000 to 3,000. Dozens remain in prison.

I only recently read about a group of Chinese Christians that gathered on June 4 to remember the event. Many of these had been student leaders in the pro-democracy movement. The group released a statement calling for repentance, truth and reconciliation. These eighty Christians said the events had not only rocked our souls, they had also awakened our sense of social justice. A search for meaning led these leaders to Christian faith.

As the Chinese economic miracle thunders ahead, let us remember those who struggle for basic human rights. They have seen no such leap ahead. But after what they have been through, it is unlikely they will be dissuaded.

Peter


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Rachel - A Mother In Need

The San Francisco Jewish Film Festival owns the title of the world’s largest Jewish film festival. This year it stirred up some folks by including in its list of films, Rachel. Rachel Corrie was a young American who was run over and killed by a bulldozer as she tried to block the path of the machine intent on tearing down a Palestinian home in Gaza.

The Israeli consul-general objected to the film and said that the Festival’s invitation to Rachel’s mother to speak, “becomes a kind of emotional grandstanding rather than the pursuit of a deeper insight.”

This morning’s scripture tells the story of a gentile woman crying out to Jesus on behalf of her daughter. How could a mother not bring emotion to the story of her daughter’s illness or in the case of Rachel, her death? And is emotion not a legitimate means of uncovering the truth?

Rachel will be on my list of films to watch for this year. Then I can judge for myself whose voice offers the deepest insight.

Peter

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