Sermons by Darryl G. Klassen

COVENANT PROMISES: PARTNERING TOGETHER   “Fellowship” has taken on a companion word that detracts from its original meaning: coffee! Following a rousing time of worship or Bible study, we love to come down from that high with a relaxing “coffee fellowship.” Our common misunderstanding is that fellowship means “visiting” with a coffee cup in hand.              That’s not what “fellowship” means.              The biblical understanding of “fellowship” comes from the Greek word “koinonia.” It is translated “fellowship” in your Bibles, but it means “partnership.”              J.R.R Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings first volume, The Fellowship of the Ring illustrates this. Nine unlikely characters from different races (Hobbit, Elf, Dwarf, Wizard, and Human) come together in a partnership to accomplish a herculean task. They can’t do it alone; they need each other. In a significant scene, the nine heroes covenant together to form a fellowship dedicated to their singular task: to destroy the ring

THE NON-AVENGERS: EARTH’S GREATEST HEROES   There is an old story, probably from the first Gulf War in the 90s, where a soldier fighting overseas receives a letter from his girlfriend – a dear John letter. She was breaking up with him. In the letter she was asking him to return the photo of herself; she was marrying another man and needed the photo for the engagement column in the local paper. Distraught, the soldier shared his grief with his buddies. One of them came up with the idea that the platoon members give him all the photos of their girlfriends and send them to her with this note: “For the life of me, I can’t remember which one is yours…”                    We are told that revenge is sweet. Getting even or triumphing over enemies is a rush. Pop culture teaches this in our stories all the time. I confess that I enjoyed the Avengers storyline and how Ironman finally defeated Thanos.              But I am also reminded and very influenced by Walter Wink’s paper The Myth of Redem