The Power of Faith Community

  Come in, come in and sit down,

you are a part of the family.

We are lost and we are found,

and we are a part of the family.

1 You know the reason why you came,

yet no reason can explain;

so share in the laughter and cry in the pain,

for we are a part of the family.  R

 Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, Rejoice.  Let your gentleness be known to everyone. The Lord is near.  Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.  And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

 Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is pleasing, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence and if there is anything worthy of praise, think about[d] these things. As for the things that you have learned and received and heard and noticed in me, do them, and the God of peace will be with you.                 Philippians 4: 4-8 NRSVue 

On Sunday morning I walked into the Trenton United Church sanctuary a few minutes early and noticed a sixteen-year-old in a pew so I went over to say hi. He's a quiet and yet open guy and I chatted him up for a few minutes about school and this-and-that. He kindly asked how things were going for me and I appreciated the exchange in terms of what I received. Then I took my place nearby with the blessing of our thirteen-year-old grandson sitting beside me. 

There were 15 young people and children in worship, a happy reality  in an aging congregation. Does this qualify as a United Church miracle?  Half a dozen of them were teens, which is remarkable. 

I give a lot of credit to Pastor Isaac, who is our son, but the congregation is very welcoming and supportive of children and youth in many ways. They are included in every aspect of congregational life, including decision making. A couple of the teens sing in the choir, which is astonishing. Several are involved in leading Sunday School, as was the case this week.  Isaac preached on a theme which is important to one of the teens and a woman in her eighties who have connected on the subject. Ike will often pause and affirm  one of the kids who has a point to make and it is delightful. You can tell that they assume they will be heard and respected. 

Isn't this what we hope for in our life together as Christians? I came across this post below and I would caution that secular kids do often have strong family and community connections and some communities of faith are just not welcoming or can be coercive. Yet I can't help but feel that there is something to what Haidt observes, someone who has devoted a lot of time and focus on "the anxious generation."

In most of the congregations I served there was a strong emphasis on inclusion of young people and that made a difference to our life together. There weren't there as ornaments or as our future. They were "part of the family", then and there, and we all need community in these anxious times. 

For what it's worth...

Camus

@newstart_2024

·

Apr 26

Religious kids used to be noticeably happier than secular ones. After 2012, that gap exploded. Jonathan Haidt dropped this on The Daily Show: Religious children have built-in community, rituals, and traditions that anchor them. Secular kids, especially those handed phones and iPads early, are left floating without real roots. Haidt (who’s an atheist) says non-religious parents now have to work much harder to intentionally create stable social connections, because a network of strangers, bots, and algorithms is not a community — it’s crazy-making. In the smartphone era, the protective effect of community and ritual has weakened dramatically for everyone, but especially for kids growing up without traditional anchors. We traded thick, real-world belonging for thin digital freedom — and we’re watching a generation pay the price in anxiety and meaninglessness. Do you think religious community still gives kids a real advantage in 2025, or can intentional secular parents create equally strong roots without it? What’s worked (or failed) in your experience?

Chernobyl and its Creatures

A roe deer stands in a forest in the state radiation ecology reserve in the 30 km (19 miles) exclusion zone around the Chernobyl nuclear reactor near the village of Babchin, some 370 km (230 miles) southeast of Minsk, March 18, 2011. Still inhospitable to humans, the Chernobyl "exclusion zone" -- a contaminated 30-km radius around the site of the nuclear reactor explosion of April 26, 1986 -- is now a nature reserve and teems with different wild animals. 

During April Earth Month we have the opportunity to celebrate the wonder of the natural world, and to be contrite over the ways humanity defiles what Christians describe as Creation. 

One of the most horrifying examples during my lifetime was the semi-meltdown at the Chernobyl nuclear plant, a facility in Russian occupied Ukraine. Because of human error and general incompetence the plant spewed a radioactive cloud that the rest of the world only found about because the usual prevailing winds were reversed for a couple of days sending the toxins toward Scandinavia. Soon an exclusion zone was set up around Chernobyl that resulted in hundreds of thousands of displaced people and the creation of ghost towns which will never be repopulated.

After residents were evacuated following the Chernobyl disaster, the forest began to take over the town of Pripyat in modern-day Ukraine (Credit: Getty Images)

 It's hard for me to believe that this past weekend marked the fortieth anniversary of this catastrophic event. There have been a number of articles and reports about the resurgence of wildlife in the exclusion zone despite the radioactivity. Among these creatures are elk, wolf, roe deer, fox, wild boar, weasel, lynx, pine marten, bear, raccoon dog, mink, ermine, stone marten, polecat, and hare. Wild horses have been reintroduced to the region as well. 

There are more wild animals now that before the disaster. While the radiation is not good for the critters and may cause serious genetic damage it would seem that the presence of humans is worse.  We wouldn't want to consider the exclusion zone as a sort of Noah's ark, a lot of animals have thrived without people. God help us all if the pointless war in Ukraine damages the concrete-entombed reactor. 

I'll note that while humans are still prohibited from entering the zone except for researchers, there were some who returned. They were known as the Babushkas of Chernobyl, elderly women who returned to their rural homes to carry on life, growing gardens, fishing, and generally fending for themselves. Authorities allowed them to stay and even supported them in a limited way, probably because they were already old. Most of them are gone now but they actually seemed to thrive as well for the years remaining to them.

I rewatched award-winning The Babushkas of Chernobyl documentary from 2015 and it is lovely. One scene I'd forgotten shows a number of the women coming together at Easter for a simple feast. At the table they raise glasses of vodka and moonshine and declare "Christ is Risen." He is risen indeed, and we can pray for the resurrection of all Creation. 

The Good Shepherd & the Wolves

“I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.  The hired hand, who is not the shepherd and does not own the sheep, sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and runs away, and the wolf snatches them and scatters them. The hired hand runs away because a hired hand does not care for the sheep. 

I am the good shepherd. I know my own, and my own know me, just as the Father knows me, and I know the Father. And I lay down my life for the sheep.  I have other sheep that do not belong to this fold. I must bring them also, and they will listen to my voice. So there will be one flock, one shepherd. For this reason the Father loves me, because I lay down my life in order to take it up again.  No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it up again. I have received this command from my Father.”                                 John 10:11-18 NRSVue 

 I have noted that lots of United Church congregations have moved away from using the Ecumenical Lectionary, the three-year cycle of scripture passages for Sunday worship. Since it's half a century since the UCC adopted the lectionary it's understandable that some worship leaders are choosing other themes for the Christian Year. The Lectionary is not carved in stone. 

Just the same, I noticed that this past Sunday was Good Shepherd Sunday, with lectionary readings including the 23rd Psalm and the passage from John's Gospel in which Jesus tells his listeners that he is the gate to the sheepfold. Chapter 10 immediately goes on to "I am the good shepherd" repeated for emphasis, and perhaps the latter portion would have been more current because Jesus goes on to offer a warning about the wolf who scatters the sheep because the hired hand doesn't protect them. 

There seem to be lots of wolves running the world these days rather than trustworthy shepherds who are willing to lay down their lives for their people. Autocrats and dictators hold sway even in countries that consider themselves democracies. 

What I find chilling is that many religious leaders, supposedly Jesus' hired hands to care for their flocks, have aligned themselves with the wolves and ignore the gospel message of compassion and sacrificial love. I am stunned that many of them have all but abandoned scripture except to quote obscure passages to justify war and hatred. They are the proverbial "wolves in sheep's clothing" and there seem to be millions with the herd mentality to follow them. 

Jesus is the Gate to the sheepfold. Jesus is the Good Shepherd of the flock. We need to hear this more than ever. 

                                                   Good Shepherd mosaic -- Ravenna 425-450 AD

Drops of God & the Spirituality of Wine

 

On the third day there was a wedding in Cana of Galilee, and the mother of Jesus was there. Jesus and his disciples had also been invited to the wedding.  When the wine gave out, the mother of Jesus said to him, “They have no wine.” And Jesus said to her, “Woman, what concern is that to me and to you? My hour has not yet come.” His mother said to the servants, “Do whatever he tells you.”  

Now standing there were six stone water jars for the Jewish rites of purification, each holding twenty or thirty gallons. Jesus said to them, “Fill the jars with water.” And they filled them up to the brim.  He said to them, “Now draw some out, and take it to the person in charge of the banquet.” So they took it. When the person in charge tasted the water that had become wine and did not know where it came from (though the servants who had drawn the water knew), that person called the bridegroom and said to him, “Everyone serves the good wine first and then the inferior wine after the guests have become drunk. But you have kept the good wine until now.”  Jesus did this, the first of his signs, in Cana of Galilee and revealed his glory, and his disciples believed in him.

John 2:1-11 NRSVue 

We're watching Drops of God, season two, a mostly entertaining series about a competition between two young oenophiles for the most valuable wine collection in the world. It is in English and French and Japanese (mercifully subtitled) and set in the latter two countries, as well as Italy and Georgia. We hadn't realized that Georgia is considered the birthplace of wine approximately 8,000 years ago and there is a UNESCO designation for the way in which wine is produced in large amphoras buried in cellars. 

Our knowledge of wine extends to reading reviews for the best bargains at the LCBO to enjoy with a meal. And as I age I'm less inclined toward alcohol of any kind, yet the series is entertaining not only because of the rivalry between the two central figures but because of the attention to detail and profound respect for wine and the culture of producing it. While the episodes delve into the history of wine they also consider the effects of climate change on production and the adaptations necessary to produce quality vintages.

                                                             Icon of Jesus turning water into wine

The way various characters speak about and enjoy wine in Drops of God, often in conjunction with convivial meals, is akin to a spiritual experience, although spittoons are used far too frequently during competition. 

This got me thinking about the Last Supper, Jesus' final meal with his disciples during which wine becomes a sacrament related to his death. And the first miracle in the gospels is Jesus turning water into wine as a wedding feast in Cana.  

I also realized that I have a book called The Spirituality of Wine in which the author, whose family owns a vineyard in Germany, maintains that wine is the food mentioned more than any other in the bible. Here is the description of her book: 

In this book Gisela Kreglinger offers a fresh, holistic vision of the Christian life that sees God at work in all created things, including vineyards, the work of vintners, and the beauty of well-crafted wine shared with others around a table. Kreglinger begins by examining wine in the Bible, in the history of the church, and in the Lord’s Supper, and these reflections culminate in a theology of joy and feasting that celebrates the human senses as gifts for tasting the goodness of God.

These days we're hearing more about wine being a possible carcinogen than "drops of God" but if it's in the bible in must be good for us!

Did St. Paul Remake Human History?

 

                                                  

                                                                          Illustration by Laurie Avon

St. Paul Remade Human History. How Did He Do It?

New scholarship reconsiders the apostle who turned a Jewish sect into a world religion—and whose legacy remains contested two millennia later.

By Adam Gopnik April 13, 2026

Paul, called to be an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, and our brother Sosthenes,  To the church of God in Corinth, to those sanctified in Christ Jesus and called to be his holy people, together with all those everywhere who call on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ—their Lord and ours:

 Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

                             the salutation from Paul's first letter to the church in Corinth

For a few decades those of us who were part of more "liberal" or "progressive" Christian traditions were encouraged to dislike the apostle Paul because he was deemed a misogynist. It was an unfair characterization I didn't really buy into because there is a fair amount of evidence that Paul regarded many women as partners in ministry and evangelism in ways that are ignored by lots of conservative Christians. 

So, I was intrigued by the Adam Gopnik lengthy article in the New Yorker which explores the influence of Rabbi Saul who became Paul the Apostle, arguably the founder of Christianity as a religion both related to and distinct from Judaism. 

In the piece Gopnik offers that "Wherever he appears, Paul is not a saint in his cell but a messenger at work—a man of close shaves, sudden escapes, and high-stakes debates." This is a wonderful sentence because it captures so much of who Paul was as a "ships, horses and sandal-leather" guy, seemingly always on the move until his incarceration and execution. He took full advantage of the freedom of movement his Roman citizenship afforded him. The letters he wrote which are now part of the New Testament were missives of encouragement and sometimes admonishment to the Christian communities he established across the Mediterranean region of the vast empire. 

I was taken by the evocative illustration at the beginning of the piece as much as the article itself. Laurie Avon has done a brilliant job of capturing Paul's evangelical zeal. So much to ponder in one image. 

I would agree that Paul remade human history, although I imagine he would give all credit to Jesus, the Christ, and the work of the Holy Spirit. 

                                                            The Conversion of St. Paul -- Caravaggio