Beyond Murder

“Be civil and don’t kill each other.” If you’ve never said that to your kids when you leave them alone together, you’ve probably thought it. Which leads us to the scripture read for us earlier, Matthew 5:21 Jesus said, “You have heard that our ancestors were told, ‘You must not murder. If you commit murder,…

Beyond Civility 1: Beyond the Rules

And you are probably wondering, what’s with Buzz? If you were with us this summer, our theme was “A Return to Civility” and we focused on the Ten Commandments. But, while civility may keep society intact, it is the minimum. Have you ever heard someone comment, at least they were civil? That’s not exactly a…

Not just a Church, A Family

The church! When you think of the church, what is it you think of? For some people, there is only one church. The one they were brought to as an infant, where they went to Sunday School and then on to youth group. The church where they were baptized, where they were married, and the…

It’s the Church, Not a Bar

For many of you, that opening scene is familiar and brings back memories of the 1980s and 90s.  It of course is the opening credits from the sitcom, Cheers. A while back, Angela and I cut the cable and have been relying on streaming services, and because we are fairly selective in our viewing, avoiding…

A Return to Civility: Do not Covet

A Sunday school teacher was asking her class if anyone knew what the Tenth Commandment was, to which a little boy responded, “You must not take the covers off your neighbour’s wife.” Pretty close. Well, here we are—the last week of our series, A Return to Civility.  When we started the series in June, I…

A Return to Civility 9: Do no Lie

Well, that was fun, and maybe a little bit convicting. I think that if we were honest today, we’d all agree that there is a feeling of violation that happens when we feel that we have been deceived. Most relationships can take almost anything except deceit. It was Friedrich Nietzsche who said, “I'm not upset…

A Return to Civility 6: Do Not Murder

A Sunday school teacher was discussing the Ten Commandments with her five and six-year-olds. After explaining the commandment to "honour thy father and thy mother," she asked, "Is there a commandment that teaches us how to treat our brothers and sisters?" Without missing a beat, one little boy (the eldest child of a family) answered,…

A Return to Civility 4: Keep the Sabbath

What a crazy world we live in today. Do you ever feel like the Rabbit in “Alice in Wonderland”? You know the one, he’s always rushing this way and that looking at his watch and muttering, “I’m late, I’m late”. It seems that every hour of every day is filled to the limit with things…

A Return to Civility 3

Recently I was reading an article written by a friend of mine, Mike McNeil. Mike and I are from the same home church, and he taught at Kingswood University for forty years before taking a teaching position with Kings Church in Saint John. Mike writes a column called Soul Apologetics, and this week the article…