The Gathering before Cuba

Announcements,

Regular gathering on 2 Dec, something else on 9 Dec

Normal Gathering on the 16th?

Today is all-saints day (the day/Sunday after Halloween) 

Speaker Sylvia Keesmaat

The law and the Kingdom: was Jesus joking?

Matthew 5:17-20

I’ll talk about the law! How thrilling...

I have not come to abolish. The law and the prophets.

- the whole story of who Israel was. The law embedded in that story.

It’s purpose is to shape us into a certain community and what that looks like as followers of Jesus

An idea of what the kingdom looks like on earth

The sabbath laws.

-traditions of not using money on a Sunday

The purpose of that in the sabbath is that it gives everyone a rest from labour and economic transactions

Historical Israel and obeying laws

Leaving for the widow the orphan and the poor, the refugee the immigrant and the alien

You don’t squeeze everything you can from your land

Leaving for nature as well.

Deuteronomy 22, don’t just leave your neighbours ox out. Build a parapet around your roof, don’t let people fall off the roof

Don’t wear clothes with wool and linen, it will fall apart know the limits of creation

Tassels on the prayer cloak

They are all about the health of community, about the vulnerable

Given the world/culture in which we find ourselves,  what kind of laws would create a community that demonstrates hope and _______ for the vulnerable.

Supper and discussion time

That’s all for now.

Almost November

I should get my registration done this week buuuut...

Speaker: Doug Caldwell

A Kingston Lawyer and law Christian fellowship leader

Should we even have enemies?

Matthew 5:43-48

“Do not even the tax collectors do the same?”

Putting the protagonist last, and then first.

The character roles are reversed from one verse to the next.

God provides for everyone equally, and regularly.

It is inevitable.

Presuming that we have enemies

Wouldn’t we prefer to not have persecutird or enemies? Or just not even deal with them

Inclined to appease enemies, reinterpret it as not MY fault

Jesus taught us to love our enemies.

...

Simple the presence of Jesus was enough to generate enemies.

“I am the bread of life”

Heading on the sabbath

Not giving them a sign when they said to give us a sign.

Obviously angering the religious leaders etc.

Jesus set out to be obedient to his father, meaning he generates enemies

We too will have enemies if we imitate and follow Jesus. We may be disliked for who we are, what we say and what we do.

...

Recreational league baseball story

A good assistant coach over the course of a season

Other parents and players berating the umpires, etc

Developing a rivalry, besting the rivals

“I’m sick and tired of your quiet and unassuming manner”

Story about the former queens grad student Nurse in Ottawa,

A really amazing nurse, but the other nurses/staff were threatened by her

Student who lived with his mom after his father had passed away

The school kept pursuing her to take the full time position as a math teacher

60% time at work and the rest for volunteering around Toronto.

The teacher confronted her asking how she expected to pay for her holidays to Spain and Colombia if she didn’t work full time? She didn’t. She needed to volunteer

It’s about living a life of faith

Doug is speaking about the reality of having enemies

Ask the question

How did Jesus respond to the enemies he had?

>clue about what it means to live our enemies.

That’s all for now.

3/4 through October

Announcements:

Amandas Bible Study on Wednesday’s

Reading from Matthew:

“If your eye causes you to sin ...”

Phoebe _____ 

The St. James music? intern

Speaker: Stephen Martin 

From Kings university in Edmonton

Topic:

“When is a look more than a look?” Matt 5:27-30

What would Jesus say about #MeToo?

• disappointed
• Focus on harmony
• Avoid mob mentality
• Avoid victimization? 

Don’t see people as objects, see....

Issue of how we should look at people.

Relates to Jesus shown the coin with Cesar’s head.

“Trick question, give unto Cesar...”

Human beings are created in the image of God,

A presence(sp) lamp

Represents that the sacrament is present

Desmond tutu(sp) former archbishop of cape town and leader of the ______ movement

Grew up in the johannasberg slum

Before apartheid

Sorry about Tutu and his fathers huniliation in a store

And his mother passing a priest in a cassock, Boeing before his mother as they passed on the street.

Tutu knew that if that could happen than anything can happen.

That was the moment that changed his life.

Tradition if the lamp is lit we genuflect(sp) to show respect.

Tutu says we should do that to each other out of respect. All of us are presence lamps. Cs Lewis said something similar in that people are carriers of the presence of God.

Do we see the “more than” that is within each person?

The Gathering

Announcements:

No meeting for the Gathering next week, no bible study either. 

Inductive method for Amanda’s Bible Study.

Songs

Matthew, the Beatitudes 5:_______

The story about Jesus and the centurion’s servant.

“I am not worthy, only speak the word and he will be healed...”

Series on Matthew, the Sermon on the Mount

Speaker: Doug ______

The parables and the SotM include Jesus central/core themes.

“A steep and difficult climb”

Deitcirch bonnhofer, ______, 

The teachings are so brief,

What do I think about this passage? Which opinion do I agree with more?

SotM, snippets of teaching.

More an overture than an oratorical, or a symphony.

More An abstract, less a book

A series of these.....

A bunch of brushstrokes, not the whole canvas.

It serves to give you a glimpse, a summary of things to come.

Stories of people’s encounters with Jesus; parables.

Those who mourn.... - jeras daughter, or Lazarus

Those who hunger - the motif of the persistent widow

The merciful - the unforgiving servant

The lure in heart - nathanial, the Israelite in whom there is no guile

The peacemakers - parable of the Good Samaritan

...probably not a great sermon, if someone delivered it in homiletics, there is too much there. But grade as an abrstact abstract, A++

Reading into the beatitudes

Jesus is on a mountainside, in Luke he was on the plains

Maybe he is repeating his teaching

Maybe there is subtext, Matthew places him in the mountain for a reason. Israel has a history with mountains

Moses received commandments

Noah’s ark came to rest on 

Holy of holies,

Mountains are where god shows up

It is Matthews shorthand for god showing up.

Each time there is an identification of Jesus is god on the mountain

Thesis statement; 

Story about his family.

His aunt gives him the keys to her, Chrysler New Yorker, 

It was a very fancy car.

Not just a stereo, an experience.

I understood that I was poor, in my car.

Chevette vs New Yorker

He was the cook in his 5 person apartment.

Story about bar Bar exam in Ottawa

The cook prepares a diffeeent meal,

He understood that he was poor in eating,

Thinking back to the centurion,

The centurion understood that he was poor in authority

When I compare myself to Jesus, 

I actually understand what it means to be poor in spirit

Discussion: whatever you all feel like

That’s all for now

Bible study

Church in Kingston

This should have been published the 23 of September I think. Whenever that Sunday was
I was sick all week and I’m just barely starting to feel better, hopefully it continues as I am done with being sick.

Church at The Gathering

Read from Matthew 3:7-17

Speaking: Eric  

Title: Step Into Water

Fire and Brinstone sermons

Not directed towards us

Political leaders and...

Abuse of power, courageous words of truth. Getting indignant when it’s aimed at us, the ‘good guys.’

‘Everybody loves to see justice done to someone else’

John said, you brood of vipers

They didn’t care, they were descendants.

It’s not enough to belong biologically or culturally to this group.

They are hiding rotten hearts

Then after John spoke he immediately wanted to be baptized.

It is necessary for us to fulfil every right and requirement

Jesus is identifying himself with the people he has come to save. Voluntarily giving up his power

Post script: Jesus gets tempted in the wilderness, 

Power can be twisted to serve evil purposes or divine.

We have to step into the water like Jesus did.

Is there an area we are being called to step back and say no?

Jesus was baptized in public, almost humiliating for him. Is there any way we can apply that to our public lives as christians and to our lives as a whole. To our church?

Discussion.

That’s all for now.

The Gathering

New faces and new names,

Church at St James Anglican, Union Street and Barrie?

Lisa and Andy are my points of contact, as well as Padre _____ who’s name I cannot remember.

Announcements:

Bible Study/Small Grouo starting next Wednesday September 26, 2018 led by Amanda.

Jonathan and ____ got engaged over the summer, he went to Serb for two months super neat.

Ruth and her Husband Bill are doing music and Speaking tonight

Reading from Matthew

Starting with the Genealogy, all the way through King David, Solomon, deportation in Babylon, to Jacob and Joseph and Mary-Jesus. 14 generations x3?

Jesus’ birth.

Affirmation of faith.

 

Speaker Bill Morrow “What to do when God goes off Script”

Ice breakers, life is expected and live is unexpected

That sort of experience is exactly what the Gosoel writers went through, especially Matthew (which is the  theme? for this church time).

...

...

And then, along came Jesus

Matthew is reassuring us that God is on script, and Matthew is unique in that it references the Jewish/Hebrew scriptures about this.

Matthew doesn’t have something about Jesus death and resurrection.

Matthew is imperfect? In the genealogies there are many recorded illigitimacies.

Historical placement of Matthew as a gospel in the Ancient Near East.

The legacy of the Church in Canada in the context of Residential Schools, etc. Also sexual abuse in the church.

Why bother having anything to do with the Christian Faith?

Take notes from Jesus’ life and death and resurrection.

Question: “Zero cultural support for The Gathering, why’d you bother coming out tonight?”

Meal

That’s all for now!