Wednesday, June 22, 2016
Tuesday, June 21, 2016
Friday, May 27, 2016
Clergy Comment article
Here is my article
published in the May 26, 2016 Camrose Canadian Clergy Comment
column.
Last Sunday, Christians who follow the
church calendar year, celebrated The Holy Trinity. It is a Sunday where we
focus our worship on the Triune God.
Although you cannot find the word Trinity in
the Bible, there are however references to God the Holy Trinity. For example,
at the end of Matthew’s Gospel 28:19, the risen Jesus, speaking to his eleven
disciples, gives them what is referred to as the Great Commission: “Go therefore
and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and
of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.” The apostle Paul, in 2 Corinthians 13:13,
concludes his letter with the following benediction: “The grace of the Lord
Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with all
of you.” This verse is also included at the beginning of Sunday liturgies in
some denominations, and known as the apostolic greeting.
After four centuries of what were regarded
as controversial and erroneous teachings and beliefs; and much debate,
dialogue, study, prayer and reflection, the theologians of the church formulated
the doctrine of the Trinity. The doctrine remains widely accepted by most
mainline Christian churches today, as confessed in the three ecumenical creeds:
the Apostles’ Creed, the Nicene Creed, and the Athanasian Creed. Although God is much greater than our
imperfect, limited, human capacities to define in tidy categories—the doctrine
endeavours to focus on the nature, unity, equality, distinctiveness,
functioning, and inner relationships of the One God in Three Persons. In some
denominations, Trinity Sunday is the only Sunday in the church year when the
Athanasian Creed is confessed.
Who then is this God the Holy Trinity? God
is the Creator of heaven and earth who, through an intricately designed and
ordered creation, provides for the basic needs of all living things, including
humankind. God is the Redeemer who, through Jesus became a human being, like
us, except without sin, and came to live among us as the Perfect Exemplar
showing us how to live, and as the Saviour and Messiah, God’s Son, he paid for
the sins of humankind and offers the gift of eternal salvation. God is the One
who makes humankind holy, the Holy Spirit, who calls, gathers, enlightens and
makes human beings holy with gifts and fruit to live lives of service in the
church and the world by spreading the message of God’s love in thought, word
and deed.
A favourite Holy Trinity hymn perhaps says
it best: “Holy Father, holy Son, Holy Spirit, three we name you, though in
essence only one; undivided God we claim you and, adoring, bend the knee while
we own the mystery.”
Sunday, May 15, 2016
Monday, May 2, 2016
A Brief Movie Review: Unfinished Song
Marion is dying of cancer and wants to live
life to the fullest by singing in a senior’s community choir. Her husband,
Arthur, comes across as a curmudgeon, not at all supportive of Marion’s passion
for music.
However, after Marion dies, Arthur, to
honour Marion and process his grief, joins the choir.
Arthur and his son James are alienated from
one another. Eventually, through Arthur’s involvement with the choir, they are
reconciled.
One of the brilliant, thought-provoking
lines in the movie, spoken by Marion is: “What makes a song beautiful is not
always the quality of the voice but the distance that voice has had to travel.”
I appreciated this film because it is,
simultaneously: a love story, a spiritually edifying tale of marital and family
dynamics and relationships, confession, forgiveness and reconciliation, a
realistic portrayal of death and grief, the joy and healing potential of music,
and the significant contribution that seniors make to society. This film should
be of interest to seniors and those who care for them.
Tuesday, April 26, 2016
Tuesday, April 19, 2016
Sermon on Rev 21:1-6
Sermon for East Central Cluster
Worship & Meeting, Alberta & the Territories Synod, ELCIC, based on Rev
21:1-6 (5 Easter Yr C), by Rev. Garth Wehrfritz-Hanson, Bethel Lutheran Church,
Camrose on April 19, 2016.
Rabbi
Dr. Raymond Apple tells the story about a man from a village who came to the big
city and found that everyone was staring at him. He was certain it was because
he was wearing a shabby old suit, so he went to the tailor and bought a smart
new set of clothes. But people still stared, so he went back to the tailor and
complained.
The tailor said, “There’s nothing wrong with
your new suit, but the problem is that you’re wearing it on top of the old one.
No wonder people think you look strange!”1
The old and the new. One of our deepest
longings is for the new. I think that’s why we often ask one another: “What’s
new with you?” Yet, at times—even though we may not like to admit it— are we a
bit like the man wearing the old suit under the new one, when we feel
threatened by the new or do not like the new? Sometimes we are reluctant to
give up the old. Unlike the man wearing his new suit on top of the old one, the
writer of Revelation describes a newness wherein the first heaven and first
earth had passed away and the sea—the ancient symbol of chaos and
foreboding—was no more. He claims to have seen a vision of a new heaven and a
new earth, and a new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God. A vision
that looks a lot like what we find in the Book of Isaiah. In verse five, he
quotes the one sitting on the throne, speaking these words of promise: “See, I
am making all things new.” So, count them, four times in the course of these
six verses he speaks of a new reality, a new type of existence, a new creation.
Yet, according to the Greek word—kaina, not nea—employed here for new, it has the connotation of newness based
on some kind of continuity with the old; newness by improving upon what existed
before. That got me thinking about how we see and experience the new in our
lives.
Starting at the beginning, we were all born
into this world, thanks to two human beings—a mom and a dad. I remember the day
that our daughter, Anna was born. I witnessed her birth, cut the umbilical
cord, and held her in my arms for the first time. For me it was a holy moment
as she stared at me with her lovely blue eyes. I was filled with awe and wonder
at the gift of life. The newness of her life changed both Julianna and yours
truly forever—giving both of us a newfound hope for the future.
There is, for us Christians, another kind of
new-birth, as we are brought to the baptismal font. God names and claims us as
his children; we become a new creation by being baptized into the death and
resurrection of Jesus.
When we observe God’s creation, the natural
world, it seems that new life is also born out of the old; coming from what
existed before. New plants, animals,
reptiles, etc., come from what existed before. The same is true regarding new
creations and inventions of human beings. For example, the cars and computers
of today were improved upon from earlier, more primitive forms of these things;
even the first cars and computers had to be made with some existing materials.
So in this vision of Revelation is there a
complete newness in the new heaven and new earth and new Jerusalem, similar to
the origins of creation when God created out of nothing; or are the new heaven
and new earth and new Jerusalem somehow a renewed, restored heaven, earth and
Jerusalem? From other Jewish apocalyptic literature and from other New
Testament texts such as Rom 8:18-21 and 1 Cor 15; the apostle Paul seems to see
some sort of new existence coming from what existed before. Even in the gospel resurrection
narratives, the risen Christ comes to life from the crucified, dead Jesus.
So I find it rather instructive then that
the writer of our Revelation pericope describes his vision of the new heaven
and the new earth and the new Jerusalem as a new form of existence wherein
God’s people will have their tears wiped from their eyes, death will be no
more; mourning and crying and pain will be no more.
In my context as a chaplain, I think that
these words of promise are very comforting—just as they likely were for the
early Christians in the Roman empire facing suffering and persecution. Our
residents will not have to continue to shed tears and cry over all of the
personal losses and the losses of their loved ones and friends who are no
longer with them. Our residents who suffer from so many different forms of
disease; as well as everything breaking down and shutting down from the aging
process can find meaningful hope in a future without pain; a future without
drugs and their nasty side-effects to relieve them of their pain. A perfect
state of existence without sin, death and evil. Such newness is what we too
deeply long for. An existence of complete and perfect relationships filled with
love and peace—which we already have an inkling of when: we hold a new-born
child in our arms for the first time; when we say our final good-bye to a dying
loved one; when the poor are fed; the naked are clothed; the homeless refugees
find a new home; the prisoner and the shut-in, and the sick are visited, healed
and made whole; when we are not oppressed by or preoccupied with the past; when
we live fully in the present by learning from the past and look forward with
hope to the future; when we gather round God’s word and sacraments and invite all
sinners to join us and become members along with us of the family of God living
in perfect community with one another and with our God.
So, dear brothers and sisters in Christ,
what do you see? The Good News is both gift and promise from the one who loves
and graces us unconditionally, saying: “See, I am making all things new.” And
let the people say: “Amen.”
1 Rabbi
Dr. Raymond Apple, “Two suits at once – Ekev,” July 21, 2013, at: www.oztorah.com/.
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