Joe Sawatzky's blog

In giving a word of encouragement before handing over to me to preach last Sunday, the pastor made a correlation between four women in the congregation and two other sets of people in the Bible. The day before, I had preached on Mark 15, so that chapter was on the pastor’s mind. In particular, his attention was fixed on verse 40 which tells of three women “looking on” at the death of Jesus. These were Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James the younger and of Joses, and Salome.

Because I've been invited to lead a discipleship class with a local congregation, I've been digging deep into the gospels for lessons from the parables of Jesus. Last week we covered a lesser-known parable, a scenario involving slaves and masters from Luke 17:7-10.

An Anabaptist hermeneutic, or way of reading scripture, is usually characterized as “Christ-centered”, that is, with the figure of Jesus as the one around whom the story gathers. Putting Christ at the center, however, presupposes something even more basic: that there even is a center which draws in the other lines of scripture.

January 16 was the third Monday in January, Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, as observed in the United States of America. Marking this day is in my blood; growing up, I used to attend the festivities hosted by Bethel College, North Newton, Kansas, for the wider community in honor of Dr. King. Since living in Africa, the continent of King's ancestors, I've used this day to reflect on the connections between the American story and the South African story, and the place of my own experiences within those larger streams. I do so again now.

Though it was Palm Sunday, I went to church yesterday prepared to preach on the passion. This was so because it has been my observation over time that our small, Pentecostal church does not necessarily utilize the passion-Easter narrative on Easter, let alone any other stories specific to the times of the church year. And, because we would not be with them for Easter, I wanted to ensure that the people would hear something from the passion this Holy Week.

At the first meeting of the Steering Committee for the Anabaptist Network in South Africa last December, we had a lengthy conversation on the subject of “simplicity”. And though the bulk of our conversation had to do with economic considerations, one of our members suggested another manifestation of the life of simplicity to which Jesus calls his disciples: simplicity in speech.

On the occasion of having to preach at a funeral for a man who was the victim of a stabbing, I found myself pondering again the first murder in the Bible, the story of the brothers Cain and Abel (Gen. 4).

That these were indeed “brothers” is not something the text will allow us to forget.

After birthing Cain, Eve “bore his brother Abel” (v. 2).

After having his offering disregarded by God, “Cain said to his brother Abel . . . (v. 8a).

Yesterday, on my scripture blog, I reflected on the claims of the Christ hymn of Colossians 1:15-20, specifically on the claim embedded in its center that "he is the head of the body, the church" (v. 18). That Christ is the "head of the body, the church" is particularly relevant in light of much pastor-speak I have heard in this country about headship. For example, Charismatic pastors are particularly keen on emphasizing their importance in/over the church.

While leading a discipleship class for an aspiring Mennonite congregation whose members come from Pentecostal backgrounds, I have revisited in recent weeks the parables of Jesus. Each Wednesday evening, we study one story Jesus told and glean from it one characteristic of a disciple, a person who has decided to “take up the cross and follow Jesus” (Mk. 8:34). This week our text was Luke 10:25-37, the so-called parable of “the Good Samaritan”, set in its narrative context, and our characteristic was compassion.

One hears this slogan these days on South African radio. What "it" is, or that which we are implored to "feel" is, of course, the 2010 World Cup soccer tournament.