Dr. Derek C. Carr (UBC Hispanic Studies and member of Our Lady of Perpetual Help) spoke on inner joy. As one of the regular readers in his church one block from ours, he notes that when he looks out at some of the laity, he is astonished to see them "looking like suffering saints in bad religious art". Why this appearance of inner misery, particularly during the season of Christmastide? Is this what all established religious movements succumb to eventually? The exuberance of the early church gave way to their focusing on death, Aryans (heretics worse even than Anabaptists) argued that the flesh is evil and that only the spirit is to be cultivated. This interest in dualism persisted into the middle ages, and since believers heard only passages from the Old Testament which foretold ideas of the New Testament, they were unaware of the many exhortations in scripture to be joyful or of the expressions of untold joy in those ancient stories. We sang a poetic version of Psalm 100 (No. 42) which has the line "Him serve with mirth, his praise forth tell". Derek argued that we are "resurrection people" far more than we are "Good Friday people". The Russian word for Sunday (not just Easter Sunday) is related to the word for resurrection. Every Sunday should be filled with the joy of the resurrection, and every day should come to be seen as "the day the Lord has made, let us rejoice and be glad in it." [JEK]

Passage:
Communion: No
Ecumenical or Event: Epiphany
Potluck Lunch: No
Congregational Meeting: No

Speaker: Derek Carr
Worship Leader: Evan Kreider
Song Leader: Edwin Hintz
Pianist: Ruth Enns
Usher: Harold Neufeld
Zoom Coordinator:
Children's Feature Leader:

Bring Flowers: PETER & HELGA NEUDORF
Coffee Helper: Hannelore & Andre
Sound Helper:

Child Care Volunteer: Christine Unruh