Pastor's Messages from Prints of Peace
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There are 68 Messages in 9 pages and your are on page number 7

The DaVinci Code?
Apparently, another Indiana Jones movie is in the works. It is scheduled for release in 2007. It seems that old directors, producers, and actors are revisiting the beginnings of their careers. Perhaps not solely for the financial success that sequels promise. It seems like a ‘let’s go back to what we did best.’ It’s a nice sentiment regardless of whether the final product will be worth seeing or not.

I did enjoy the original Indiana Jones movies for their action, humour and comic book like depiction of the characters. And even though the Indiana Jones franchise touched on religious themes it was always apparent that it was all pure fiction. Those of us to whom religious themes mean something knew that there was no such thing as a “Holy Grail”, and that the arc of the covenant had nothing to do with magic.

Maybe that’s what I don’t like about the DaVinci Code. I don’t mind fiction and I don’t mind serious historical and theological questions but when fiction, facts, and theories are woven together it becomes difficult to discern the truth.

We live in a time when nothing is immune to scepticism and when for lack of exposure a large part of the population knows little if anything about the Christian faith. I am not sure what effect book or movie will have on those who do not consider themselves Christian, but perhaps those not always sure of their faith and their tradition may find scepticism presenting itself as an alternative to faith, not as a means for finding answers.

I have been told that the book itself is a page turner because it thrives on conspiracy theories. It offers nothing that hasn’t been said before but makes for a thrilling read.

Since the main ‘claim’ of the book seems the denial of Jesus’ divinity we may remind ourselves that the Christian truth lies in the paradox, precisely in things beyond our understanding and that anyone trying to package or repackage Jesus and Christianity in a way that fits into our systems of thought too well may not have understood this. Anyone who denies Cross and Resurrection, humanity and divinity, powerlessness and glory proclaims a different story.

Bart Ehrman is the James A. Gray Distinguished Professor and Chair of the Department of Religious Studies at the University of North Carolina. Since he describes himself as an agnostic we will not suspect him of pushing the agenda of the church. In the preface to his book Truth and Fiction in the Da Vinci Code: A Historian Reveals What We Really Know about Jesus, Mary Magdalene, and Constantine he lists Ten Factual Errors in The Da Vinci Code:

1. Jesus’ life was decidedly not “recorded by thousands of followers across the land.” He didn’t even have thousands of followers, let alone literate ones.
2. It’s not true that eighty Gospels “were considered for the New Testament.” This makes it sound like there was a contest, entered by mail. . . .
3. It’s absolutely not true that Jesus was not considered divine until the Council of Nicea, that before that he was considered merely as “a mortal prophet.” The vast majority of Christians by the early fourth century acknowledged him as divine. (Some thought he was so divine he wasn’t even human!)
4. Constantine did not commission a “new Bible” that omitted references to Jesus’ human traits. For one thing, he didn’t commission a new Bible at all. For another thing, the books that did get included are chock-full of references to his human traits (he gets hungry, tired, angry; he gets upset; he bleeds, he dies . . .).
5. The Dead Sea Scrolls were not “found in the 1950s.” It was 1947. And the Nag Hammadi documents do not tell the Grail story at all, nor do they emphasize Jesus’ human traits. Quite the contrary.
6. “Jewish decorum” in no way forbade “a Jewish man to be unmarried.” In fact, most of the community behind the Dead Sea Scrolls were male unmarried celibates.
7. The Dead Sea Scrolls were not among “the earliest Christian records.” They are Jewish, with nothing Christian in them.
8. We have no idea about the lineage of Mary Magdalene; nothing connects her with the “house of Benjamin.” And even if she were, this wouldn’t make her a descendent of David.
9. Mary Magdalene was pregnant at the crucifixion? That's a good one.
10. The Q document is not a surviving source being hid by the Vatican, nor is it a book allegedly written by Jesus himself. It’s a hypothetical document that scholars have posited as having been available to Matthew and Luke, principally a collection of the sayings of Jesus. Roman Catholic scholars think the same of it as non-Catholics; there’s nothing secretive about it.

If our education hour gets the go-ahead, perhaps there will be time to discuss these issues and others at more detail. In the mean time, remember that the DaVinci code is found in the fiction section of your local book store.

Yours,
Pastor Christoph
Posted by Christoph Reiners on Wednesday, July 20, 2005 at 09:46

Compassion Park
You must have been following the news around “Compassion Park”, the place in the woods just off Sumas Way where homeless people have established a camp . While recognizing that this is far from being a permanent solution I have been pleased about our mayor’s sensitivity not to move people (yet) and “every time we move them to cause them to lose the little they have.” The issue is larger than could be solved over a cup of coffee but concerning ourselves with the needs of those who don’t have a voice in our society is a good first step.

I have had my own contact with people at the ‘park’. On Wednesday last week I was changing the sign outside when our secretary called me in to receive a phone call. She had been told that it couldn’t wait. I wasn’t done changing the sign but gathered up letters and tools and went inside to take the call. Just as I came in the call was hung up. The suspicious part of me thought that it must have been a prank by someone at the traffic light. :-)However, it was not. The fellow called back at several times during the day and finally on Thursday morning we were able to connect. He was featured in Friday’s Abbotsford Times (April 21) as 300 pound Lawrence Edward Smith who had sustained a head injury some time ago.

He wanted a bus ticket to Prince George. I don’t like giving out bus tickets, and to Prince George is not a small ticket item. He was not eloquent, very much to the point, almost a little abrupt. But, as I learnt later, he was not in good shape. Gertie called the Bus Depot to find out about ticket prices and to make sure that the ticket would not be refundable. The fare is $25.00 less if you book a day in advance. I dropped the ticket off on my way home. I found people who did not sound like homeless people and who all must have a story to tell. Everything considered they seemed well organized and to be taking care of each other. Larry took the bus to PG on Friday. There he has a file with the local health authority as well as a brother and an ex-wife. More community and support than anywhere else.

Something isn’t right when people with mental illness fall through the cracks like that. While I know that there will always be some hardship as even Jesus could state that we will always have the poor with us (Mark 14:7) it is obvious to me that our mental health care system needs fixing. But this time, as at other times, I was grateful to be able to act on your behalf, for the bus fare came from the Peace Family Assistant Fund. Love Jesus and love all God’s people.

Yours in Christ,
Pastor Christoph
Posted by Christoph Reiners on Wednesday, July 20, 2005 at 09:41

The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe
I assume that by the time you read this many of you will have seen Disney’s adaptation of the CS Lewis Classic “The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe”

Perhaps you were surprised at Disney’s undertaking of this project, remembering the Southern Baptist Convention’s Boycott of Disney in the 1990s as well as Disney’s carefull avoidance of religion for most of its history.
So besides establishing a new franchise Disney may be trying to win back conservative Christians. Who knows.

It is funny that I feel compelled to write this article even though I have not yet seen the movie. I have, however read the books. Here are a few thoughts.

• First, on the quality of the film:
The Guardian writes:
There are quite a number of impressive things .... We single out the very fine performance by Georgie Henley as young Lucy who is the heart and soul of the story with her curiosity and tender feelings. Her interactions with her friend Mr. Tumnus and the leader Aslan are especially appealing. Tilda Swinton does a remarkable job in not making the White Witch into a cliched evil-doer. She is credible and not over-the-top. The voice of Liam Neeson gives a centered and calm aspect to Aslan. And the scenery in Narnia, shot in New Zealand and the Czech Republic, is beautiful.

• It is said that the film follows the book quite closely, - except for battle scenes. What the book covers in two pages becomes a long battle sequence. Battle scenes seem to be the stuff many movies thrive on these days (see Lord of the Rings)

Consistent with this is that Aslan the Lion apparently is more fierce and less peaceful than in CS Lewis’ book. Martin Luther might call the result of this change a “theology of glory” rather than a “theology of the cross”. This may be the place to ask about the image of the lion. You may even ask why a lion and not a lamb.

Remember that what is true for movies is also true for literature: there is room for interpretation. In fact, it wants to be interpreted. We don’t have to agree with every author’s basic assumptions or every critic's interpretation. Rather, books and stories are the nudge for us to think about our own story and our own journey.

My family and I have much enjoyed reading the CS Lewis Narnia books. I welcome Disney’s adaptation of volume 2, The Lion, Witch, and the Wardrobe. However, I do not expect it to do the proclamation we Christians should be doing. One, because its primary job is to turn a profit for stockholders. Two, because I believe that the metaphors the story and the movie employ are metaphors that will speak to those familiar with the Christian story of fall and redemption, sacrificial love and resurrection. To those not familiar with the Christian faith it will simply be a story of good and evil.

So when you watch the movie or read the book, use the opportunity to talk with each other about the images, about our longing for salvation and about our faith in Jesus Christ.

Yours,
Pastor Christoph
Posted by Christoph Reiners on Tuesday, July 19, 2005 at 23:12

Shopping for the best deal at election time
I was listening to the radio at the very beginning of the election campaign and on one show there was talk about the GST, and about taxes in general. There wasn’t much talk about sustainability or economic benefits or any other logic for or against certain taxes. The focus was only on whether individuals felt that proposals would make a difference to them.

People were calling in and telling what they were looking for. The comment that made my ears perk up was that ‘one political party’s proposal didn’t sound bad but that he was going to do some more shopping around and see what tax breaks the other parties had to offer’. It literally was a case of looking for the best deal for your buck. It’s been said that people vote with their pocket books. It looks like that was true for this man.

While I cannot deny that money is on my mind too, it still made me think of what political analysts say about Quebec voters: that a vote for a separatist party is not necessarily a vote for separation. In my head I can understand that this is in fact so, but the logic of how one could vote for a separatist party without being a separatist I cannot understand. The only cue may lie in voting without much of a horizon. Like, ‘I will shop around for the best deal on personal taxes.’

You see, I have always looked at democracy as government by the people for the people. I know that in different democracies there are many nuances to this basic assumption, but basically, government by the people for the people is what it is. So consequently, I have always seen my vote part of a bigger picture. Not primarily what’s good for me but what’s good for the country (which in turn will be good for me). In fact, I am a little shocked by the comment that someone will shop for the best deal on taxes alone and vote accordingly.

It is so easy to think of my needs first. But a country is a community.

One thing that’s clear about our faith is that Christians are concerned for others, for friends, neighbours, even enemies. The love of God moves us beyond our needs to the needs of others. So my only advice to you for any election is to think about what’s best for the whole nation (including the way our nation relates to other nations). And to do that by thinking in the framework of the core Christian values of justice, compassion, forgiveness, and love.

Yours in Christ,
Pastor Christoph
Posted by Christoph Reiners on Tuesday, July 19, 2005 at 23:09

Theology of the Cross
Call me strange, but music that is too happy usually makes me queasy. Not silly music like The Barenaked Ladies’ “If I had a Million Dollars” or some B52's or Young Fresh Fellows songs. Silly is good, too happy is phoney.
Music does not have to be depressing to be real enough to deal with what life is about and with the things that happen. I suppose it is for this reason I have difficulty with worship songs that are just too happy, music that doesn’t verbalize our need for healing and redemption, that seems to know little about depth, both in suffering and in experience.
I am talking about songs you wouldn’t normally find in a Lutheran hymnal. The genre that is called praise music and it does nothing for me. It’s when lyrics like “And I’ll never stop praising you, yeah. And I’ll worship you forever and always” are repeated over and over again. It’s been called “Jesus, my boyfriend music”. Maybe I am a bit prejudiced, but you get the idea.

If expressed in theological terms we would say that praise music often resembles a “theology of glory”.
OK you may say, ‘we’re in Lent we’re supposed to feel bad but when Easter comes around our tunes will also change.’ But we all know that you cannot have resurrection without first dying.

St. Paul says about us: “Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? Therefore we have been buried with him by baptism into death, so that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life. For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we will certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his. We know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body of sin might be destroyed, and we might no longer be enslaved to sin. For whoever has died is freed from sin. But if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him.” (Romans 6:3-8 NRSV)

In essence, we know that there is a price to our salvation. We also know that in God’s Kingdom things are turned upside down, the last shall be first and the first shall be last, the meek shall inherit the earth, those who hunger and thirst for righteousness will be filled, the powerful are brought down from their thrones, the hungry are filled with good things and the rich sent away empty. But all these promises presuppose that we know hunger and thirst, that we know what it is to be last, that we know our very human weakness. These images represent the crosses we all know and bear. They suggest that these crosses will be transformed, not that we never experience them.

Prior to the Concert of the African Children’s Choir Gertie and I were invited to share in the choir’s devotions. I had competing emotions. First, despite the children’s happiness, I had to suppress my tears thinking about what these children had gone through and shouldn’t have had to. Then, I was deeply grateful to have them at our church. I also noticed the simple praise songs sung during their devotions. There was a lot of focus on Christ victorious without much visibility of a theology of the cross. But it seemed to me that those who were singing these Alleluias during Lent had experienced an inordinate amount of suffering and the victorious Christ they praised was the same who had been with them in their suffering.

Yours in Christ,
Pastor Christoph
Posted by Christoph Reiners on Tuesday, July 19, 2005 at 23:06

Our Sign
We have had our new church sign for about two years now. It seems to me that it has become a good communication tool. People notice it and read it. We have had lots of feed back, both from members and non-members. Once someone engaged me in serious theological debate while I was changing the sign, with the traffic line up behind them getting longer and longer. Once I received a phone call from someone objecting to the Woody Allan quote that was up that week. The person claimed to be a local pastor but wanted to remain anonymous (?). Figure out that one.

For content I try to follow St. Paul’s word in 1 Thessalonians, test everything; hold fast to what is good (5:21) That is why you don’t see just Bible verses.
What follows is a little explanation of how I chose what I put up:

I would like the messages to be representative of our community of faith. The message should project our identity. There must be a lot of grace, there should be some humour, there must be courage to ask good questions, there must be compassion. You will find compassion on the sign most often by the absence of the judging of others. I want the tone of the message to be inviting. Inviting to think, to dialogue, to believe, to pray, to visit.
I don’t expect these messages to be mini sermons, though at times they may be. I like it when they give you something to think about, perhaps nudge you in a certain direction, but are open-ended. A message that makes you think lasts longer because you take it into the day, perhaps into the week. It may make you ask some good questions. And you only find the right destination if you ask the right questions.

Generally, I try to follow these rules:
1. messages must be positive and respectful
2. messages should build up not tear down
3. messages must not be moralistic (proclaim the Gospel, not the law)
4. messages should speak to anyone, not just church members or Christians (it is outreach)
5. humour is a bonus. I try not to take myself too seriously.
6. it should make you look. If I have received five or more e-mails containing a certain message, everybody else has probably too.
7. if possible, take into account current events or seasons.

I try to change the sign about every two weeks. It goes without saying that we advertise our services and special events.

Here are some examples of what I would not put up:
Dusty Bibles lead to dirty lives. This is a statement that may make sense for me personally but it contains the assumption that those who read their Bibles are better people than those who do not. With a bit of self-awareness we know that we are not better than others. And being a Christian is not about being better than others. It’s about walking with God.

Santa Claus never died for anyone. Again, probably true. Expresses frustration with too much Santa Claus and too little Jesus. But the sign isn’t there for me to release my frustration. This message is also a little scrooge-ish.

We don't change the message, the message changes us. Again, true. But it’s trite, and not every problem is written about in the Bible. In this one I see little room for the question of relevance. The Gospel is relevant and relevance happens in the application.

Televangelists - the pro-wrestlers of religion. Probably true. It’s also funny. I’d love to put it up but probably won’t.

The best vitamin for Christians - B 1 This one speaks mostly to Christians and implies that being a Christian is all in doing (which it’s not). I have also seen this one too many times.

Forgive your enemies - it messes with their heads. Probably funny. However, it suggests poor motivation for forgiveness.

You give God the credit - now give God the cash. Very funny. Also true. But it implies that people’s money is more important than they are.

Anyway, this should give you some idea of how and why messages are chosen. This is not a call for submissions. However, suggestions are always welcome.

Yours,

Pastor Christoph
Posted by Christoph Reiners on Tuesday, July 19, 2005 at 23:02

Truth is stranger than fiction
On February 21 CBC Radio reported on a strange legal case in Utah. It was reported that the American Atheists, Inc. is suing the Utah Highway Patrol Association over crosses erected in memory of Highway Troopers fallen in the line of duty. The atheists claim that crosses on public land violate the separation of church and state as crosses are a religious symbol.

If this alone doesn’t make you shake your head, consider this: In its defence the Utah Highway Patrol Association claims that the crosses bear no religious significance but are only a memorial. Now the cross of Christ has been co-opted as a generic symbol, relating merely to the memorial of a person we cared about.

It appears to me that this is a conflict not specific to Utah but could play out just as well in Canada or any other western nation. The conflict indicates that we indeed no longer live in the time of Christendom where we can take common Christian convictions for granted.

Perhaps this could be a good thing. Let me explain why.
I don’t know how much in our congregation we have talked about the end of Christendom. It is meant to describe the end of an era in which the Christian Faith was the dominant and state sanctioned faith, a time in which everyone born, by default, was understood to be a Christian. The implication of the world being Christian was that everyone had the same basic set of values and we did not have to work very hard at living out our faith.

Unlike in East block countries during the cold war being a Christian in the West did not cost us anything, no missed career opportunities, no persecution, no ridicule, no deportations, no change in social status. In the West being a Christian came pretty cheap.

We certainly continue to enjoy great freedoms. However, we increasingly find that the values of the world we live in are not the same as the values Jesus proclaimed in the Sermon on the Mount nor the ones we see embodied in his life, death and resurrection. It causes us to think about what it means to be a follower of Jesus, about how to conform our life to the life of God, to the values of the Kingdom. It causes us to think about the nature of the church; it causes us to think about how we can instill faith in our children, since we know that if we are not going to do it, nobody else will.

William Willimon and Stanley Hauerwas wrote an excellent book on how life has changed for the church in which they describe a necessary shift in the way we live the faith: “Pastors who listen to their members, particularly to young parents, will hear them saying to their own children, with increasing regularity, “Such behaviour is fine for everyone else, but not fine for you. You are special. You are different. You have a different story. You have a different set of values. You are a Christian.”
To sing the Lord’s song in a foreign land (Psalm 137:4) we need each other in the community of the church more than ever.

Yours,
Pastor Christoph
Posted by Christoph Reiners on Tuesday, July 19, 2005 at 22:59

The Longing of Our Heart
Picking hymns is not an easy task and inevitably a fairly thankless one. There are so many things one tries to reconcile: the season of the church year, the Sunday’s readings, local traditions, varied tastes of the members of the congregation, logistics of hymn books (i.e convenience of use).

Early on in my ministry I learned that not everyone shares my affinity for hymns in minor keys (some people have called them dirges ...). So for the 10:30 service I do not choose these often, particularly if they are older German hymns. However, the words of one come to mind as I think about Lent:

In thee is gladness, amid all sadness,
Jesus, sunshine of my heart.
By thee are given the gifts of heaven,
thou the true Redeemer art.
Our souls thou makest, our bonds thou breakest;
who trusts thee surely hath built securely,
and stands forever. Alleluia!
Our hearts are pining to see thy shining;
dying or living, to thee are cleaving;
naught can us sever. Alleluia! (LBW552)

Sometimes we must face the more difficult realities of life for us to experience the power of God. If we deny these realities we will only scratch the surface of life and the surface of the faith.
T.S. Elliot’s verse describes this well:

What we call the beginning is often the end
And to make an end is to make a beginning.
The end is where we start from.

Lent is something into which we enter, a state of mind, soul, and spirit which for seven weeks permeate our life. Part of the exercise of Lent is to do away with the things that distract us from God and from each other; to leave behind the noise, the fuss, and the worry so that we may regain that joyful freedom God granted us in our baptism.
The great orthodox theologian Alexander Schmemann calls this a ‘bright sadness’, which does not come from new obligations but is the result of a softening of our heart, opening itself to the realities of the spirit, to experience the hidden ‘thirst and hunger’ for communion with God.1

While the walk of Lent is something that is given us as both task and gift, it is not something we do alone. We do it together. We lean on each other, pray for each other, rejoice with each other.

Yours in Christ,
Pastor Christoph

1 Alexander Schmemann, Great Lent - Journey to Pascha, Crestwood, NY: St. Vladimir’s Seminary Press 1990
Posted by Christoph Reiners on Tuesday, July 19, 2005 at 22:56

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