You can hear an audio recording of the second scripture reading and my sermon entitled,
“ Don't Take Off Your Clothes, Jus Come Home ”
being preached, by CLICKING HERE.
You can hear an audio recording of the second scripture reading and my sermon entitled,
“ Let Your Light Shine Before Others ”
being preached, by CLICKING HERE.
Dear Followers of a brightly shining Jesus—in our midst,
By the time you’re reading this, it will nearly be Lent! And to be perfectly honest, it snuck up on me
this year! Lent, of course, is the
liturgical season in which precedes Easter, 40 days in which early Christians
prepared for baptism and a life of faith in the Church, a time when we as
believers and followers of Jesus traditionally undertake spiritual disciplines
such as prayer, fasting, studying of scripture, feeding strangers, assisting
those who have been victimized, standing up for justice and righteousness. Lent is an important season which serves to recall
us to practice what we believe.
Another Lenten word is praxis. Praxis
comes from a Greek word meaning, “to do.”
Lenten praxis means “doing Lent.”
So, rather than think about Lent as a season, a time that comes and
goes—instead, it’s a call to be doing and practicing our faith. It’s why we often talk about participating in
practices of “giving up things,” which is an ancient way of understanding how
to make MORE ROOM in our lives for the works of faith.
…So the question becomes, “What are you doing for Lent?” As in, choose your praxis!
Again, traditional Christians are encouraged to pray, to fast, to
study God’s word, to participate in feeding, in sharing, in helping, in
standing with, in lifting up …goodness and kindness and mercy and many other virtues. Again, traditioned believers will be
clamoring to be visible witnesses to what they believe, by practicing faith, and
being the embodiment of the work and witness of God’s Kingdom as witnessed in
Jesus.
…Have I talked you into “participating”
yet? Because you can’t “do Lent” while
sitting down! Or being quiet, or sticking
to yourself. You can’t be a part of the
movement, shake up the countryside, learn how to walk on the Way, seek
forgiveness or be forgiven—by keeping it to yourself. …It’s not like Advent!
Advent was about waiting and watching, hoping and ringing in the
season of God’s love. Lent? It’s about challenging and changing what
we’ve always done. It’s about picking up
where we’ve left off. It’s trying again
to bring the Kingdom of God to bear on our lives, remembering what it means to
embody a resurrection!
What will you praxis this Lent?
How will you show the world what you believe about Jesus Christ? Where will you show up and be the Kingdom’s
work, and with whom?
Don’t be afraid. Even if Lent
snuck up on you, too—it’s not too late! It
will come to you. The Spirit will help
make it known for you. Just don’t sit
still.
We will celebrate the beginning of Lent on Ash Wednesday, March 5th.
Palm Sunday is April 13th.
We will celebrate Maundy Thursday on April 17th.
And Easter is April 20th.
Lent, is all the time between Ash Wednesday and Easter Sunday. Make it count.
Jesus shone God’s light on those who were in need, not to make it public, but to reflect the rays of God’s action. Jesus is still the light of the world. We are the reflections of his light. Let your light shine before others.
You can hear an audio recording of the second scripture reading and my sermon entitled,
“ A Good Measure ”
being preached, by CLICKING HERE.
You can hear an audio recording of the second scripture reading and my sermon entitled,
“ A Great Crowd of His Disciples ”
being preached, by CLICKING HERE.
You can hear an audio recording of my sermon entitled,
“ When E. F. Hutton Talks ... ”
being preached, by CLICKING HERE.
You can hear an audio recording of the second scripture reading and my sermon entitled,
“ What's He Come Out To Do? That's What I'm Here to Find Out! ...Wait, What's He Saying? ”
being preached, by CLICKING HERE.
Dear Star-Illumined-Jesus Followers,
One of the things I love about serving this congregation is that you
know how to pray; and one of the things I’ve heard a lot from the recipients of
those prayers is that the prayers are FELT by those who are the focus of your
prayers! It’s awesome!
Yet one of the conversations behind the scenes has been how our
prayers can be best directed, so as to be felt, so as to help realize God’s
work …because we have a Prayer Tree, a Prayer Group using Facebook, there can
be announcements from the pulpit, there’s a newsletter, a Facebook page, word
of mouth, a Sunday School Class, a Choir Group—all of whom can be prayerful! Or not—because we also have folks who think
that prayers are like religion and politics—not to be spoken in public! Or shared!
Praying for one another is a gift of the heart, the Spirit, a sign of
the love of Christ among us, that regardless of one’s circumstances, can have a
powerfully-felt impact—both for the prayer and the one(s) being prayed
for. But it’s also true that to be
prayed for, one shouldn’t have to give up their privacy. Sometimes we need to be prayed for, but it’s
a situation or circumstance that should not be revealed!
I’d like it if one of the ministries of this congregation can be that we pray for one another—in times of great need, or just ordinary plenty. We can do this by being mindful to pray for each other by just perusing through the directory along with remembering our families and neighbors. But when it comes to praying in special circumstances, we should apply some additional guidance.
When someone asks to be put on our prayer tree, that’s a group of
dedicated, faithful people who do the praying.
If you have prayer requests or would like to be added to the prayer
tree, please contact Janice Vail, she can add you to the list of people who are
called on the telephone and asked to pray.
Persons can also be added to our Facebook Prayer group—a private
group of dedicated pray-ers. Only
members of this group will see prayer requests, each request is confidential,
it is definitely not public. If you have
prayer requests, or you’d like to be added to this group, please contact Ashley
in the Church Office—every person who requests to be a part of this group is vetted
ahead of time.
In addition to prayers, our Witness and Service committee is charged
with care for members and others, because sometimes we need a little prayer and
a cup of soup! All of us can help can
help by helping to ask one another when we think someone might need to be
prayed for or if we need to be asking about fulfilling other needs. If you know someone is or may need our
prayers, asking them if they want to be prayed for is a good start; then
sharing that with the appropriate persons.
If someone has a desire to keep a request completely private, you can
contact me directly—I’ll then know to be praying for you, especially; and, we
can also determine how best to employ our prayer networks on your behalf.
Again, part of the ministry of this congregation has been and should
be to seek to minister to one another in the form of prayer. Not as a source of sharing information, but
directing divine initiative.
We should be able to do prayer better than politics as a part of keeping up with the story and work of God’s amazing love! Jesus shone God’s light on those who were in need, not to make it public, but to reflect the rays of God’s action. Jesus was the light of the world. And we reflect that light, too.
You can hear an audio recording of the second scripture reading and my sermon entitled,
“ Look! Everyone's Staring! What's He Come Out To Do? ”
being preached, by CLICKING HERE.
You can hear an audio recording of the second scripture reading and my sermon entitled,
“ Signs of What? ”
being preached, by CLICKING HERE.
