June 21st Worship Service
In the Book of Acts in Chapter Two the Father God descends upon the Disciples, and they become Apostles, with the gift which Jesus had promised them at his accession into Heaven. They received the gift of the Holy Spirit. It was as if they had become inflated. Inflated to the point where they could not stand the confines of the house where they were staying and they burst outside into the streets of Jerusalem.
And the streets were filled with people from all over the Roman Empire who had pilgrimaged to Jerusalem to celebrate Shavuot, remembering the giving of the Torah on Mount Sinai and the Festival of Fist Fruits. And these travelers from Parthians, Medes and Elamites, Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt, Libya and Rome, Cretans and Arabs hear the message of the Risen Christ being told in their native language. “They have had too much wine,” is the common response, until Peter addresses the crowd.
Quoting the Prophet Joel about how God will pour His Spirit upon the people, and King David about how God was always before him guiding him, Peter explained that God had finally come. The Messiah had arrived. Peter told them the story of Jesus, his miracles, his teaching, his death and his resurrection over the power of death.
Peter encouraged those listening to repent and be baptized in the name of Jesus the Christ for the forgiveness of their sins, and they too would received God’s gift of the Holy Spirit. God the Father would be there to guide them through their lives, and the lives of their children, and their children’s children for all generations.
As we celebrate this Father’s Day it is good that we remember and appreciate our parents. For many of us our fathers were instrumental parts of our lives. They were there to provide a roof over our heads and food on the table. In a multitude of ways they were inspirations in our lives, positive, or perhaps not so positive, but either way from them we learned social standards such as integrity, honesty, respect and love. Our fathers were an interesting mixture of life training, family relationship, and support. For those who’s fathers are still with us, appreciate them whole heartedly. For those of us who’s fathers are no longer, remember them fondly, for they will always be with us.
Each of us has another Father. Our spiritual Father who will never leave us. Our Father, who has given us the Holy Spirit, will be with us every moment of every hour of every day. No matter where we are, no matter our circumstances God will always be there to guide us through life’s events.
This Father’s Day join us for our June 21st Worship Service.
Upper Right: Peter Preaching After the Spirit, 1426-27 Cappella Brancacci, Santa Maria del Carmine, Florence, Italy / Lower Left: Peter Save Yourselves, 1642, Charles Poërson, Notre-Dame, Paris France
June 14th Worship Service
We move forward day-by-day using faith. I can verify that “Life is what happens when we were planning something else.” Where I am today, I could never have imagined 57 years ago when I graduated from high school. These last 57 years have been an adventure, and most of it totally unexpected.
It was the same for Abram when God told him to leave his father’s house in Haran and move to the land the Lord was going to show him. It was by faith that Abram packed up his wife Sarai, his brother’s son Lot, and all their possessions and people they had acquired in Haran, and followed God to Canaan.
Along with a promised land Abram was also promised that he would be the father of great nations and that through his offspring the earth will be blessed. This was a unique promise because when they left Haran Abram was about 75 years old, and Sari was about 65. Fairly old to start this kind of adventure, but they had God’s promises. And Abram finally did have children, Ishmael from his mistress Hagar when he was 86, and his son Isaac by his wife Sari when he was 100 and Sari was 90. Ishmael eventually became the father of the Arabian nations, while Issac was the founder of the Jewish/Christian nations.
We see the same levels of faith in Matthew 9. Jesus is in the house of Matthew, the tax collector, when an official comes into the house, kneels down and says, “My daughter has died. Please come and lay hands on her that she may come back to life.” As they are walking to the official’s house a woman, who has been hemorrhaging for twelve years, approaches Jesu from behind. She believes that if she can just touch him, she will be healed. She touches the edge of his cloak, and Jesus turns to her. “Cheer up my daughter,” he said, “Your faith has made you well.” Coming the officials house they go inside, chase out the flute players and the professional mourners, and Jesus takes the hand of the daughter and she gets up.
It is faith which keeps us going. Faith that we have a God who works in our lives, and the lives of those around us. Faith that there is a plan for each of us, and a path, if we chose to follow it, that is there ready for us to follow.
Join us of our June 14th Worship Service.
Illustration: Upper Right: Jesus heals woman with hemorrhage, 12th-13th century, Cathedral of Assumption, Mosaic, Monreale, Sicily / Lower Left: Abraham and Three Angels, 1966, Marc Chagall, Saint Paul de Vence, France
Season After Pentecost (Ordinary Time)
On the first Sunday after Pentecost we begin the Season after Pentecost, a liturgical season which lasts until November 22, the last Sunday before Advent. The season does not follow a theme, like Advent or Easter, but tends to focus more on the teaching aspects of the Jesus’ ministry reaching out into early church history and theological issues of he early church as seen in the letters.
Examples include Jesus teaching through Parables, or his Sermon on the Mount in Matthew or His Sermon on the Plain in Luke. There are His Signs such as Turning the Water into Wine in John or raising of Juries’ daughter in Mark. The beginning of the church from the Book of Acts with Peter going into Samaria, or the conversion of Paul and his Missionary Journeys.
The Season after Pentecost, formally called Ordinary Time, this year will last for 26 Sundays, giving us time for a variety of looks into the early church, its organization, reformation, and Presbyterian Theology.
Marriage at Cana, 1303-5, Giotto, Scrovegni Chapel, Prado, Italy / jesus heals woman with hemorage, 12th-13th century, Cathedral of Assumption, Mosaic, Monreale, Sicily / Gift of the Holy Spirit Žitomislić Monastery Bosnia / Peter Save Yourselves, 1642, Charles Poerson, Notre-Dame, Paris, France / The Conversion of St. Paul, 1866, Gustave Dore, Private Collection
Join us for our May 31st Worship Service. Join us for our June 7th Worship Service.
Easter
Eastertide/Pascha (Aramaic meaning Passover): We know it as the Easter Season following Lent. As Lent prepares us to reorder our lives, minds, and hearts to accept Jesus’ sacrifice, Easter is when we celebrate Jesus' rising from the dead, the fulfillment of God’s promises.
Easter is a moving season. Easter Sunday, the day Jesus rose from the dead, is celebrated on the first Sunday after the first full moon after the Spring Equinox. Which means Easter Sunday can be any Sunday between March 22 and April 25. This year, it is April 5th.
The Easter Season lasts 50 days, ending on Pentecost, which falls on May 24th. Easter is the time Jesus spent with His disciples following his resurrection before His ascension to heaven. It was time for teaching and preparing the disciples for the task of creating God’s church on earth. During these 40 days, Jesus appeared to Mary Magdalene, His mother and sister, His other followers as on the road to Emmaus. According to Apostle Paul, appearing to over 500 at one time (1Cor 15:6). It was a time of additional miracles, as in the catching of fish in John 21 or appearing behind closed doors in Luke 24 and offering His hand to Thomas.
This year, Jesus’ accession will be celebrated on May 14th. Ten days later, on Pentecost, we celebrate the disciples receiving the gift of the Holy Spirit, which was promised to them by Jesus at the time of his ascension.
Easter is a period of celebration. As a community of believers, we remember the time the human Risen Lord walked among the people, fulfilling God’s promises to all people.
Pictures: The Resurrection of Christ, 1499–1502, Raphael, Sao Paulo Museum of Art, / Doubting Thomas, The Maesta Altarpiece, 1461, Duccio, Museo dell’Opera del Duomo Siena, Italy / Jesus Appears to Mary, Fra Angelico, 1425, Fresco, Basilica di San Marco, Florence, Italy / The Great Commission, at the Cathedral Parish of Saint Patrick in El Paso
Join us for our May 17th Worship Service. Join us for our May 24th Worship Service.
Join us for our May 3rd Worship Service Join us for our May 10th Worship Service.
Join us for our April 19th Worship Service. Join us for our April 26th Worship Service.
Join us for our April 5th, Easter Sunday Worship Service. Join us for our April 12th Worship Service.
Lent
We can look at Lent as a time Repentance, Renewal and Redemption. Lent is the six weeks starting with Ash Wednesday, February 18th, and lasting until Easter Sunday on April 5th. Lent is a time of preparation. It is our opportunity to prepare ourselves to receive the gift of forgiveness God gave us with the sacrifice of God, in human form (Jesus), on the cross.
But in order to receive that gift we first have to accept God’s love into our hearts. The process begins with Repentance. All of us have sinned, and by acknowledging our sins we have Repentance. It is through our Repentance that we ask God to help us become the people He needs us to be. And God always accepts true Repentance with forgiveness, which bring us to Renewal. Our mistakes are still there, but God has said for us to put them behind us and follow Him forward. And as we go forward following God’s guidance, we achieve Redemption.
This year Lent began last Wednesday, February 18th, and will last until the Saturday before Easter on Sunday April 5th. Lent is 40 days long which is remembrance of the 40 days Jesus spent fasting in the desert (and the 40 days Elijah spent fasting n Mount Horeb 1Kings 19:8 ). Actually, there are 46 days between Ash Wednesday and Easter. Although there are different understandings on how to count the 40 days of Lent probably the easiest explanation is that the Sundays are not included in the 40 days.
This is an excelent time to look at the things Jesus did, His attitude toward the world and cuiture in which he lived, and how we can change our lives, and start to try and live the way Jesus wants us too.
Pictures: Upper lLeft: Jesus Tempted by the Devil, Spanish Fresco Metropolitan Museum of Art , the Cloisters Collection / Upper Right: Jesus and Samaritan Woman at Well, R1420, German Reverse Glass Painting, MET New York / Lower Left: Jesus Blesses Mothers and Children, Stained Glass Window in the Saint John the Baptist church in Zagreb, Croatia / Lower Right: Jesus teaching disciples, Fra Angelico, San Marco Monestary, Florence, 1400s
Join us for our March 29th Palm Sunday Worship Service.
Join us for our March 15th Worship Service. Join us for our March 22nd Worship Service.
Join us for our March 1st Worship Service. Join us for our March 8th Worship Service.
Join us for our Ash Wednesday Worship Service. Join us for our February 22nd Worship Service.
Epiphany
Epiphany comes from the Greek, and means manifestation or revealing. Starting on January 6 the season of Epiphany runs until Ash Wednesday, February 28th, and the start of Lent. The purpose of the season to recognize the time Jesus is acknowledged as the Son of God, the answer to God’s promise of redemption reaching back to the words of the prophets of the Old Testament.
Three Wisemen Visit Jesus, El Greco, 1568, Museo Soumaya, Mexico City
Simeon and Anna in the Temple, Rembrandt, 1669, National Museum, Stockholm
Recognitions comes in several instances. The most celebrated is the visit of the Magi following the heavenly star and bringing gifts to the Christ child. Other examples include the presentation of Jesus at the temple and being recognized by Anna and Simeon. Another example is Jesus’ baptism, first when he is recognized by John the Baptist, and again when coming out of the water the heavens open, the spirit in the form of a dove descends and the voice of God saying, “This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased.”
Baptism of Christ, Jose Ferraz de Almeida Jr, 1895, Pinacoteca do Estado de Sao Paulo, Brazil
Join us for our February 8th Worship Service. Join us for our February 15th Worship Service.
Join us for our January 25 Worship Service. Join us for our February 1st Worship Service.
Join us for our January 11th Worship Service. Join us for our January 18th Worship Service.
Christmas
It is the season of Christmas, December 25th - January 5th. We have spent the last four weeks preparing our hearts, minds, and soles to receive the gift God sent to His people, Himself to be sacrificed, that His people’s sins may be washed away, and they can be with Him, eternally. But why 12 days for the season?
The Christmas Season, also known as Christmastide, goes back to the Council of Tours meeting in 567 CE who proclaimed the 12 days between Christmas (the birth) and Epiphany (the Magi Recognition) as the Christmas Season. The main purpose is to celebrate. After the 4 weeks of fasting, introspection and preparation to receive Jesus into our lives, now is the time to celebrate our acceptance.
Significant events during Christmastide include: December 25: Jesus’ birth / December 26: feast of St. Stephen (Good King Wenceslaus) / December 27: feast of John the Apostle / December 28: feast of the Holy Innocents (children killed on Herod’s order) / December 29: murder of Thomas Becket 1170 (Archbishop of Canterbury) / December 30: remembrance of John Wyclif 1395 (translated the Bible to English…martyred because) / January 1: circumcision of Jesus / January 2: remembrance of Vedanayagam Samuel Azariah, 1945 Bishop of South India / January 4: remembrance of Elizabeth Ann Seton, 1821, founder of the United States parochial school system / January 5: Epiphany Eve, remembrance of the Desert Mothers (women ascetics living in the deserts of Egypt, Palestine, Syria 4th & 5th century) / January 6: Epiphany begins, Magi visit (manifestation).
Join us for our Christmas Eve Service.
Join us for our December 28th Worship Service.
Join us for our January 4th Worship Service.
Photos: Death of the Innocents, Siena Cathedral, Siena Italy / Canterbury Cathedral, site of Thomas Becket murder, Canterbury, England
No one is sure when Advent, the four Sundays leading up to Christmas, came into the Christian schedule, but it was well established by the year 480, and so we have been celebrating the birth of Jesus, God’s gift to humanity, for well over 1500 years. Advent actually takes place on three levels. The first is the physical birth of Jesus in Bethlehem over 2,000 years ago. The second is the reception of Jesus into the hearts of the believers. Finally, there is the awaited presence of when Jesus returns to the earth and brings about the world of His desire.
Advent is celebrated in many ways. There is always the decorating of the church with a Christmas Tree, Christmas Wreathes, special programs and litanies, Christmas Cantatas, and almost in each church the lighting of the Advent Candles representing Hope, Peace, Joy and Love. The center candle, the Christ Candle is lit on Christmas Eve, and again on Christmas Day and the following Sundays during the Christmas Season.
It is our way of celebrating the birth of Jesus, God’s gift to a world in sin, and the source of our salvation. An event well worth celebrating, and preparing for.
Join us for our November 30th Worship Service. Join us for our December 7th Worship Service.
Join us for our December 14th Worship Service. Join us for our December 21st Worship Service.
ADVENT
