Denying the Crucifixion

17 04 2012

by Andrew Stephens-Rennie

We hate them.

You know, those people who deny the resurrection. Those people who see the story of Jesus’ rising as mere metaphor, who refuse to accept that Jesus, that word made flesh, that god-man, could rise from the dead if he wanted to.

If God is God, we say, then you’d be crazy not to have faith in God’s power to raise the dead.

But let’s step back. Not too far, just a couple of days. Let’s step back to that Horrid Good Friday – you know, the one we gloss over because we think we know the end to the story. We know how it all turns out, so we don’t need to really think about how awful that day, those intervening days were. We don’t have to think about them, because we’ve read the final chapter, and we’ve got a good sense of the epilogue.

I hate it.

Read the rest of this entry »





Shadow Side and All

4 04 2012

by Andrew Stephens-Rennie

“I’ve done my one good deed for the day.”

You’ve heard the phrase. I’ve heard it countless times. Probably said it more times than I care to admit. Sometimes with irony. Others with true pride.

As if there’s nothing left to do for the next twenty-four hours.

As if a compassionate life requires more than this. Read the rest of this entry »





A Pastoral Letter for Holy Week 2012

1 04 2012

(Every year Brian writes a pastoral letter to the Wine Before Breakfast community at the University of Toronto in which he calls the community to be intentional about keeping Holy Week. We share this letter with the broader Empire Remixed community.)

by Brian Walsh

Dear friends:

We have spent the last year at Wine Before Breakfast looking for a better city.

It all began with the urban contrast of all urban contrasts:
the fall of Babylon and the descending of the New Jerusalem.

The city of man meets the city of God.

The imperial regime of luxurious wealth
built on the solid foundation of oppression and idolatry

meets a city of radical hospitality, healing and joy
built on the solid foundation of the homecoming God.

Babylon and Jerusalem.
The contrast echoes throughout the biblical story.

And they find deep resonance in our own urban experiences. Read the rest of this entry »





Lent, the City and Philippians

22 02 2012

by Brian Walsh

From the book of Revelation, back to Genesis, into the Torah, through the monarchy and then on to Isaiah with his prophecies of judgement, exile and return, the Wine Before Breakfast community has spent the last number of months meditating on a biblical vision of the city. We’ve posted a number of the sermons from those services here at Empire Remixed.

And it is an ambivalent vision of the city. We began with the cataclysmic Fall of Babylon and moved in our second week to the hope of a New Jerusalem. And its been back and forth all year.

One day you’re waiting for the sky to fall,
the next you’re dazzled by the beauty of it all

Apocalyptic dread and the beauty of hope. A biblical theology of the city finds itself between these two poles. Read the rest of this entry »





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 »





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 »





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 »





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 »





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 »





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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