Upcoming Worship Se

Upcoming worship services

Jan 14, 10:00, Morning Prayer
Jan 21, 10:00, Morning Prayer
Jan 28, 10:00, Morning Prayer

Feb 4, 10:00, Holy Communion, Father Hillin
Feb 11, 10:00, Morning Prayer
Feb 18, 10:00, Morning Prayer
Feb 25, 10:00, Morning Prayer


THIS is a link to the church calendar of the Episcopal Church. It has links to further information about the people who are commemorated on any particular day.



Sunday, October 26, 2008

Father Nissen's message, October 26

The Gospel reading for today comes from the book of Matthew, chapter 22, verses 34 through 46. Here is the passage, taken from the Contemporary English Version through e-Sword.net.

After Jesus had made the Sadducees look foolish, the Pharisees heard about it and got together.
One of them was an expert in the Jewish Law. So he tried to test Jesus by asking,
"Teacher, what is the most important commandment in the Law?"
Jesus answered: Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, and mind.
This is the first and most important commandment.
The second most important commandment is like this one. And it is, "Love others as much as you love yourself."
All the Law of Moses and the Books of the Prophets are based on these two commandments.
While the Pharisees were still there, Jesus asked them,
"What do you think about the Messiah? Whose family will he come from?" They answered, "He will be a son of King David."
Jesus replied, "How then could the Spirit lead David to call the Messiah his Lord? David said,
'The Lord said to my Lord: Sit at my right side until I make your enemies into a footstool for you.'
If David called the Messiah his Lord, how can the Messiah be a son of King David?"
No one was able to give Jesus an answer, and from that day on, no one dared ask him any more questions.

We hear today the summary of the law, a summary which Jesus gives to the Pharisees. This summary says that God's law boils down to "Love God above all and love our neighbors as ourselves."

We must go beyond the 10 Commandments to let Jesus lift the burdens of our lives. Then we can love anew ourselves and others.

We need sermns, thought, meditation an d practical consideration so we can love better. We need to lover more creatively as church families. If we are to live as God wants us to live as a church family, we must deal with each other in a positive way. We must be
  • supporting
  • encouraging
  • accepting
  • listening
  • respecting
  • trusting
  • negotiating differences
May we continue to work on these areas in our church families.

Thursday, October 16, 2008

Father Nissen's message that wasn't

The morning worship service that was scheduled for October 12 was canceled because of the heavy rain. But this is the message that Father Nissen had intended to deliver.

The Gospel reading for the day was Matthew 22: 1 - 14.

This is an allegorical parable. It talks about people being invited to a wedding banquet, but they did not come. Some even became violent.

There are many themes in this parable. Here are a few:
  • Not to accept God in our lives is serious. It is a snub against God.
  • If we accept God in our lives we can become righteous.
  • If we do not accept God in our lives we do violence against our selves and others. By not growing in grace and not loving other as we should.

Sunday, October 5, 2008

Father Nissen's message of 5 October

The Gospel reading for the day is Matthew 21: 33 - 46.  Here is that passage from the New English Bible:

[Jesus said,] "Listen to another parable.  There was a landowner who planted a vineyard: he put a wall rount it, hewed out a winepress, and built a watchtower; then let it out to vine-growers and went abroad.  When the harvest season approached, he sent his servants to the tenants to collect the produce due to him.  But they seized his servants, thrashed one, killed another, and stoned a third.  Again, he sent other servants, this time a larger number; and they treated them in the same way.  Finally he sent his son.  'They will respect my son,' he said.  But when they saw the son the tenants said to one another, 'This is the heir; come onk let us kill him, and get his inheritance.'  So they seized him, flung him out of the vineyard, and killed him.  When the owner of the vineyard comes, how do you think he will deal with those tenants?"  

"He will bring those bad men to a bad end," they answered, "and hand the vineyard over to other tenants, who will give him his share of the crop when the season comes."  

Jesus said to them, "Have you never read in the scriptures:  'The stone which the builders rejected has become the main cornerstone.  This is the Lord's doing, and it is wonderful in our eyes'?  Therefore, I tell you, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you, and given to a nation that yields the proper fruit."

When the chief priests and Pharisees heard this parables, they saw that he was referring to them.  They wanted to arrest him, but were afraid of the crowds, who looked on Jesus as a prophet.

* * *
This is a parable of a hostile takeover!  The tenants took over the farm, killed the landowner's messengers, who had come to collect his share of the profits, and even killed the landowner's son.  Of course, the meaning is transferred to God the Father as the landowner and Jesus as the Son.  Not only Jesus, but other servants--the church--are made to suffer, too.  

We wonder, why do these injustices occur?  Partly because people have free will to love or hate, and too often we ignore God altogether.  Second, we tend to think we own everything, but in fact everything we have is a gift from God.  Then, too, people tend to become easily angry with God and then to transfer this anger to others.  But in all this the church will be vindicated.

Although we may be tempted to think that some of the teachings of the Bible do not apply to us, we must keep reading them.  The Holy Spirit will reveal to us the deeper meaning of this teaching  in our lives.