A Pastoral Letter for Holy Week 2010

28 03 2010

Every year Brian writes a pastoral letter to the Wine Before Breakfast community at the University of Toronto. In his letter he calls the community to a holy observance of Passion Week. This year the WBB community read Mark’s telling of Holy Week throughout the 40 days of Lent. We’re sharing that letter with the broader Empire Remixed community.

by Brian Walsh

My beloved sisters and brothers in Christ.

For the forty days of Lent we have dwelt with Jesus during Holy Week. For five weeks we have allowed Mark’s gospel to lead us deeply into one week. The week of weeks. The week that is at the heart of our faith. Passion Week.

That week is now upon us. Our Lenten journey has prepared us for this week. It has been an intense Lent for us, but now it gets even more intense.

It is all about bearing witness. Can we bear witness to these horrific events that are at the same time our very salvation? Can we “bear” to bear witness? Have we got that kind of courage, that kind of faithfulness? Read the rest of this entry »


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Advent III :: Turning the Corner

13 12 2009

by Andrew Stephens-Rennie

I think that maybe we’re turning the corner. Maybe, just maybe, this time of waiting and expectation can birth joy and exuberance. I’m still not sure, still not certain what will come. Surely the spirit of God is moving. Surely the way of the Lord is being prepared.

The past weeks have been difficult. The past months somewhat overwhelming. This year, walking in advent hope and expectation has come with its share of challenges.

On numerous occasions in the past few weeks, I’ve been caught referring to advent as “lent.” Read the rest of this entry »


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Sermon for Lent 5b

9 04 2009

by Andrew Stephens-Rennie

March 29, 2009 (Lent 5b)
Delivered at St. Michael and All Angels, Ottawa
Jeremiah 31:31-34

The days are surely coming, says the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah. It will not be like the covenant that I made with their ancestors when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt—a covenant that they broke, though I was their husband, says the Lord.

But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. No longer shall they teach one another, or say to each other, ‘Know the Lord’, for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, says the Lord; for I will forgive their iniquity, and remember their sin no more.

The days are surely coming. Those days will surely come.

The days are surely coming, says the Lord. But there’s always dark before the dawn. Winter before springtime. Pain before a child is born. And we all know, if we’ve paid attention to the stories of Jesus that death necessarily comes before resurrection. Read the rest of this entry »


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Memory and Rebuilding in the Ruins of America

19 03 2008

by Brian Walsh

Five Years in Iraq and Holy Week. These two come together today. We are in the middle of Holy Week, walking that path of the cross with Jesus. And today marks five years of war in Iraq.

So I thought that I would share with you some words that I wrote for a chapel talk at Messiah College in Pennsylvania a couple weeks ago. I had been speaking about Isaiah 58 and how the prophet not only dismisses any pious fasting that is devoid of justice in the attempt to rebuild life in the midst of the ruins of post-exile Jerusalem, but also how he offers the community deeper and more liberating memories for their reconstruction efforts.

You see, the fasting that was instituted after the exile was a fasting in mournful memory of the loss of the Temple and the Monarchy. Isaiah doesn’t think that these are memories worth keeping.

Look closely at Isaiah 58 and you will see that the prophet offers better and deeper memories to this community … memories of exodus, jubilee, creation and sabbath. In that context, I then said the following to the students of Messiah College:
Read the rest of this entry »


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The Testimony of the Stones

12 03 2008

by Brian Walsh

We had heard that voice before. Somewhere we had heard that voice. We had felt that presence. And we have very long memories.

You see, we have been around for a very, very long time. Longer, in fact, then anyone else.

But where was it? Where had we heard this voice before? And why did this voice, this presence, awaken in us such joy?

Why did this voice, this man riding by on a donkey arouse in us such hope? Read the rest of this entry »


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Will You Take My Cup?

7 03 2008

by Andrew Stephens-Rennie

A reflection on Romans 15:1-13
Wine Before Breakfast
Originally Delivered March 13, 2007

Jesus cries out,
battered and bruised
in the garden of torment, sweat, and blood he prays:

Take this cup from me.
Will you take the cup? Read the rest of this entry »


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Blogging Lent

1 03 2008

by Andrew Stephens-Rennie

I know that we’re well into our lenten journey, and trying our best to avoid the A—— word. We’ve already shared a couple of reflections on lent on the blog – one from Ericka here and one from Liz here.

As we’ve done so, I’ve kept in the back of my mind the fact there are others out there blogging Lent much more regularly than we. Jonny Baker has pointed me in the direction of the Grace Lent Blog. Read the rest of this entry »


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Discerning Lent

28 02 2008

by Liz Ivkovich

“And we know that the Son of God has come and has given us understanding, that we may know Him who is true; and we are in Him who is true, in His Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God and eternal life.” (1 John 5:20 NIV)

“We are in Him who is true…” The Jesus that we are in exists in this very moment, shining down on us like a spotlight. The hopes, dreams, and plans of five minutes ago are in the shadows. The future and how the pieces of the journey fit together are in the shadow. All the clarity we have is for this exact moment.

Discernment is a lifelong process for us as Christians, and so you seem to hear people talking about it all the time. Maybe it’s the community I’m in, where people live by three year contract cycles, or the friends I have who are just now graduating various schools en masse, but ‘Discernment’ seems to be the catch phrase of our generation of Christians. Read the rest of this entry »


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Lent for Me v. Lent for God

15 02 2008

by Ericka Stephens-Rennie

I recently read this article on Lent and its connection to justice. As someone who grew up in a non-denominational church, I, like author Julie Clawson, didn’t know what Lent really was until university. She writes:

I was serving as a Children’s Director at a small Baptist church and was attempting to find a way to introduce the kids to Lent in tangible ways. As I pulled together resources, I discovered that many of the common practices of the Lenten season sprung from the desire for justice. Prayer represented justice toward God, fasting justice towards self, and charity justice towards neighbors. Through this threefold pursuit of justice I saw that the Lenten season encompassed more than just personal piety, but called for a period of restoration of relationships with God, with self, and with others. In essence, a specific time to focus on the ways Jesus had taught us to actually live.

Read the rest of this entry »


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