Connect and reconnect

 " These Bible passages and many more, assure us we don’t need to fear death. It is a once in a lifetime event. All the rest is life. There is life before death. There is life after it."   ____________________ Text: Matthew 5:1-12; 1 John 3:1-3; Revelation 7 Theme: “Life before and after death” ___________________________ Intr – If you would make a list of forbidden topics for daily life conversations, where would you start? -politics? -other people’s life? -Sexuality? -Death?... Here I think we hit home.         Death has become such a dreadful topic that euphemisms were created to keep the word at a safe distance. “Passing away, passing on; going to a better place”, and others. Somebody has once observed that we live in the opposite of the Victorian era -- when sex was a forbidden topic and death was a daily one.         Are you comfortable talking about death? Maybe you aren’t; maybe a little. Or just on some occasions, like funerals. Perhaps it’s easier

 Michael Coren, in his October 30th Toronto Star column, claims that the main reason why people are not attending Church anymore is because for some Christian Religion and conservatism have become synonyms, which is to be reputed as a bad connection. In order to attract more people back to Jesus -- not to the organized Church --, Christians should therefore encompass more of the social justice topics related to Christ's life and ministry. The article seems to hang from this claim: “To a great many Canadians, Christianity has become another word for conservatism”. Therefore, it doesn’t seem to be as focused on bettering organized religion as it is in pushing a shift from conservatism to a more progressive agenda. That is illustrated by the way Christ’s teachings are referred to. There is no mention to repenting and believing the Gospel, Christ’s His redemptive work, focus on Word and Sacraments, etc, which is the source of action for Faith. Rather, Jesus’ life it is framed in term