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By Michael Wilson Pastoral Letters September 13, 2024

 

 

 

                                 

Watch this week’s service on YouTube by clicking:

September 15 Worship Service Video

 

 

Join us for Worship Sunday at 10:00 AM followed by fellowship and refreshments in the He/SheBrews Café

 

  • Roofing Project Fundraiser – Raise the Roof is a Coffeehouse style event on Friday, September 20 at 7:00 PM. You can expect fresh coffee and beverages, pies and cakes, silent and rainbow auctions, and a whole lot of fellowship. Entertainment that evening will feature professional tenor Adam Sperry who is starring in Manitoba Underground Opera Company’s production of “Tales of Hoffmann”. Tickets are $20 and available Sundays before and after church and through the week at the church office. You might enjoy watching this video of Adam to get a sense of his style and sound: God Only Knows

 

  • We were saddened by news of the death of the Dr. Robert Galston this past Monday. Bob was minster of Charleswood United Church from 1989-1998. A Celebration of Life will be held at Charleswood UC on Thursday, September 19 at 2:00 PM. Please remember Bob’s wife Dorothy, his children Yvonne, Brenda, and Blair, grandchildren Sheldon and Robbie, stepsons Clark and Curtis, and all their extended family in your prayers this week.

 

  • For news and events please have a look at Life & Work on our website: Life and Work

 

 

Dear Friends

Welcome to worship for Sunday, September 15, 2024.

“Who do people say that I am?” It is perhaps the most famous rhetorical question of all time.

Jesus is travelling with his disciples and during a long day of walking there would have been all kinds of topics of conversation. There must have been talk about the weather, there’s always talk of weather on a journey. There was likely talk of the scenery. When you’re moving through a territory as a pedestrian you have all kinds of time to notice the brush and the beauty that surround you. Maybe they talked about the news or the scores as in Bartholomew saying to Thaddeus ‘Nazareth sure laid a beating on Capernaum last night, eh?’

But Mark (as does Matthew and Luke) tells us that Jesus used this relatively down time to check in with his disciples, those who were supposed to learn-on-the-road. It is in the middle of Mark, chapter 8 in a 16 chapter gospel, and by this time they had witnessed remarkable things. Healings and miracles and parables. Crowds fed, storms stilled, Gentiles welcomed. When Jesus asks the famous question, the disciples have had an abundance of material from which to form an answer. But they seem a little caught off guard by it.

And so they speculate. “Well, some say John the Baptist. Others Elijah. Or one of the prophets.” They are not guessing at who Jesus was an incarnation of for everyone they propose was dead, some for hundreds of years. They’re really trying to get at whose footsteps Jesus is walking in. Who is his influence. Whose mantle has he picked up and carried like the line from In Flanders Fields “to you from failing hands we throw the torch.”

None of this seems to phase Jesus. I’m sure he’s heard the rumours too. A new John, a new Elijah. Whatever. And so he redirects the question, but you, you who follow, you who left everything behind, you who have witnessed such amazing things, who do you say that I am?

It’s still a great question, in part because there are so many different answers to it. Some say Jesus is the one and only who saves. Some say Jesus works only through the church. Some say Jesus will come again. Some say Jesus was a nice man who lived a long time ago. Some say Jesus wasn’t a man at all but a spectre in human form. Some say Jesus was a fraud. Some say Jesus was a character in a fictional story. And so it goes.

Peter answers the question by looking forward instead of looking back. He makes the claim that Jesus is the Messiah, the anointed One, the One who is to come. He may have been insightful but then again, he may have gotten lucky. For when Jesus says that the Messiah is the One who will suffer many things, be rejected, and killed before rising again, Peter takes issue with it. For that he goes from hero to goat faster than you can say ‘Ben Johnson’. When Peter opposes Jesus’ understanding of messiahship Jesus rebukes him and refers to him as ‘Satan’ (a Hebrew word that means adversary). There aren’t supposed to be wrong answers to rhetorical questions but in this case, Peter really stepped in it.

Who do we say Jesus is? Part of faith is trying to figure that out so I will give it a go. I believe Jesus was a real historical figure who lived in first century Judea under Roman occupation. I believe Jesus was devoutly Jewish and remained so throughout his life. I believe that God was present to Jesus in ways that were unique to him and yet entirely consistent with the ways God is present to us all. I know that creates a paradox but I think the unresolvable tension between the human and divine aspects of Jesus is what gives faith its spark and its life.

More importantly I believe Jesus is the One we meet in the world that God so loves. He is present when we stretch our arms, hearts, and minds and experience love in the broadest possible of ways. We meet him lying by the side of the road and in the one who stops. We meet him in blind seeing and the possessed freed. We see him when the hungry are fed, the thirsty have water, the naked are clothed, and the stranger is welcomed. And we meet him in the still, small voice and at the table where no one is turned away.

Of course, that’s only who I can say Jesus is thus far. For more of Jesus will be revealed as I learn to love more than I do now.  

 

Grace and peace,

Michael

 

  • 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.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Michael Wilson / About Author
Michael’s involvement in the wider church has included ministry with children and youth, membership on the National Division of World Outreach, supervision of campus ministry, and the Ten Days for Global Justice National Committee. He has been blessed by the opportunity to represent the United Church of Canada in the Bahamas, Cuba, and Africa on different occasions. Michael has taught at the University of Winnipeg – Faculty of Theology and is past President of the Conference of Manitoba and North Western Ontario.
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