Watch this week’s service on YouTube by clicking: April 14 Worship Service Video
Join us for Worship Sunday at 10:00 AM followed by fellowship and refreshments in the He/SheBrews Café
- A congregational meeting has been called for Sunday, April 28, 2024 following the church service to hear a report about the potential sale of surplus church property. Rules for quorum will be in effect so please plan to join us on the 28th.
- “SoulCollage” Spirituality Workshop led by Rev. Nancy Finlayson is coming up on Saturday, April 20 and registration through the church office is still open. For more information on what to expect please visit Life and Work
- Congratulations to Jacquie and Doug Craigen who are celebrating the birth of their first grandchild, Joseph Adil, son of Tara and Tomasz Glowacki. Jacquie is our Financial Administrator and we join her family in thanksgiving for this immense blessing.
- Congratulations to Barb and Mitch Blake who will be celebrating their 75th wedding anniversary on Thursday, April 25. What a blessing the Blakes have been to so many!
- We were saddened to learn of the death of Bob Rhynard, our long-time friend and member. Details for a funeral service are pending but likely at the church the week after next. Please remember Barb and her family in your prayers this week.
Dear Friends
Welcome to worship for Sunday, April 14, 2024.
Looking for an elective in my last year at theological college I chose a course called “Faith Seeking Understanding” which was being offered at the Jesuit College at U of T. What it turned out to be was an introduction to a somewhat obscure discipline called “Apologetics”. Apologetics isn’t telling someone you’re sorry for something. It is the practice of talking about Christian faith in a way that tries to explain what we believe without the expectation that the explanation will result in faith. After all faith is a consequence of ‘experience’ and not simply ‘explanation’.
As an academic subject Apologetics is fairly new, 19th century, but as a practice it has always been and is very biblical. Best to think of the answers Jesus would give to those who wanted to discredit him. “Are we to pay taxes to Caesar or not” Jesus is asked. He doesn’t say yes. He doesn’t say no. he doesn’t insult or ignore the question. Rather he asks another question, “Tell me, whose picture is on the coin?” The inquisitor replies with the obvious “Caesar’s”.
“Well then,” says Jesus “give to Caesar what belongs to Caesar. But don’t give to Caesar that which belongs to God.” That’s Apologetics.
I thought of this course when I was reflecting on an odd phrase in the Gospel lesson this week from Luke 24. Jesus has made a resurrection appearance to the disciples who are understandably bewildered and perplexed. Jesus asks, “Do you have something here to eat”? They give him some broiled fish but come on!?! What is that all about? The answer I think is apologetics. Not of Jesus but of the early church.
As the early church found it’s footing, it’s spirit, and it’s power there were those who wanted to discredit the claims the church made. How is it possible that one rose from the dead and continues to live albeit in a different fashion than he did in his first life? Early Christians believed this with all their heart. But others suggested that it was all a ruse. At various times the church was accused of making it all up as though Jesus had never even existed. They were accused of stealing the body and making the claim of resurrection. Some suggested that Jesus only lived on in his teachings and in his followers’ memories.
But this was not what the church believed. And they testified that these alternatives were not their experience. They had seen him. They had heard him. They had touched him. For heaven’s sake, he even ate fish!!!
The gospel writers were Apologists of a sort. They were willing to tell their critics that they were wrong. They were witnesses to what they had seen with their own eyes and touched with their own hands. The story of ‘doubting’ Thomas is another biblical example of Apologetics. Thomas only wanted what the others had experienced for he was not with them with Jesus appeared. The Resurrected Jesus bore the marks of his pain and, though healed, was his physical self.
You and I do not meet Jesus the way of the disciples. He does not come to us in physical form and break bread and eat fish in our company. But that is the testimony of the early church. Just as they testified to the ongoing presence of Jesus as Holy Spirit in the story of Pentecost. For us that presence is no less real even if it is experienced more in the ways described by Catholic contemplative Thomas Merton in his book “He Is Risen”, “True encounter with Christ liberates something in us, a power we did not know we had, a hope, a capacity for life, a resilience, an ability to bounce back when we thought we were completely defeated, a capacity to grow and change, a power of creative transformation.”
And for that, we do not apologize!
Grace and peace,
Michael
- For news and events please have a look at Life & Work on our website: Life and Work
- Did you know you can support this ministry by e-transfer, automatic withdrawal (PAR), and gifted securities, in addition to weekly or monthly cheques? For Offering Information please visit: https://charleswoodunited.org/support/ We have begun to receive donations for this summer’s Roofing Project which will be held separate from Operations and Mission & Service. Thank you for your generous support.
- Through the United Church of Canada’s membership in the Canadian Foodgrains Bank, an appeal for donations has been issued for the Humanitarian Crisis in the Middle East. For more information and to donate please visit: Humanitarian Crisis in the Middle East Appeal
- Share the service with friends by forwarding this email or using this link: https://youtu.be/zgeoYk-om5E
- Read this week’s scripture lesson here: Luke 24:36-48
