January 25 Worship - "Ezra - A Zealous Restoration"

On a rainy Sunday, we gathered for worship.  While we still shared many prayer concerns, particularly about peoples' health, we were also able to celebrate several people who are recovering from recent illnesses and surgical procedures.  This brightened our spirits as we came together in God's presence.

We continued our journey along Godsway 66, turning our attention to the Jews who returned from exile.  When the Persians defeated the Babylonians, the emperor Cyrus allowed the Jews to return to Jerusalem and supported them in rebuilding the Temple.  (This would become known as the Second Jewish Temple.)  Ezra, a priest who returned with a group after the Temple was rebuilt, took religious leadership in Jerusalem.  He was troubled that a number of men returning from exile had married "foreign women" (that is, non-Jews who were living in and around Jerusalem when the Jews returned).  Ezra was convinced that the influence of foreigners (non-Jews) and their gods had led to the previous defeat of Judah and insisted that it not happen again.  So he prevented such marriages from taking place and those who had already married shunned their wives (and any children born to them) and sent them away.

The zeal for keeping the faith, so that they would take full advantage of the "second chance" God was giving them, is understandable.  However, it seems like Ezra was "fighting the last war," so to speak.  He was so desperate to not make the mistakes of history that he didn't see how the circumstances had changed.  After all, without the support of foreign leaders and foreign money, the Jews could never had returned to Jerusalem or rebuilt the Temple so quickly.  How much to deal with non-Jews and how much to separate from them had been a long complex issue, especially during the exile.  It would remain so, even to Jesus' day and beyond.

If you missed Sunday's sermon, if you'd like to listen to it again, or if you'd like to share it with others, you can find an audio recording here.

You can also listen to the related Communion meditation and closing benediction.

Week of Prayer for Christian Unity

Tomorrow, many congregations will join together and participate in a Week of Prayer for Christian Unity.  This annual observance, sponsored by the World Council of Churches and several Protestant, Orthodox, and Catholic communions, invites Christians around the world to explicitly pray for the divisions and separation in the wider church to be healed.  This week, at least in the northern hemisphere, occurs from January 18 through January 25 (the feast days of St. Peter and St. Paul, respectively).

This year's theme, "Jesus said to her: Give me to drink" is drawn from John 4, where Jesus asks a Samaritan woman drawing water from a well to give him a drink.  An ecumenical group of Christian leaders in Brazil have prepared this year's resources for the 2015 week of prayer, complete with devotional materials for the week.  Click here to download a .pdf copy of these materials -- note, the devotional resources begin begin on page 21.

I hope that you will take this opportunity to join with Christians around the world in praying for unity in Christ's church.  We will have a couple of special moments in worship on Sunday as part of this week of prayer.

January 11 Worship - "2 Chronicles - Those Who Set Their Hearts to Seek God"

This Sunday, we gathered on another cold and cloudy winter morning -- though it was not so slick and cold as last Sunday.  There were lots of prayer concerns for people who are sick or in the hospital (a reminder of how difficult this flu season has been so far, among other things).

We also continued the Godsway 66 series into 2 Chronicles, which focuses on the Jerusalem kings from Solomon until the exile in Babylon.  While some of this book repeats 1 Kings and 2 Kings, there is a different emphasis on how the kings support the Temple and the priests -- to the extent that they do support the Temple and the priests.  Unfortunately, external influences cause the kings to lose focus on worshiping the one true God, which allows the worship of foreign gods to enter the kingdom.  Eventually, King Hezekiah tries to root all all of the foreign god worship, leading an effort to reestablish proper faith in God and worship in the Temple.

As part of this, the Passover celebration is held (evidently for the first time in generations).  Hezekiah, eager to encourage proper worship, issues a broad invitation to participate, even to some people in the northern kingdom.  During the Passover, some of these people attend, but they are not ritually clean -- which creates a problem in the celebration.  Hezekiah urges patience, though, recognizing that all of the people had made mistakes, but praying that God would forgive them and claim them again as God's chosen people.

This created a precedent in which not all of the rules of Torah had to be followed by people of faith.  Perhaps it was the attitude that allowed for the flexibility necessary to preserve the Jewish faith through the tough times of the defeat of Jerusalem, the exile and captivity in Babylon, and the return to the devastated Promised Land 70 years later (not to mention all of the challenges of the 25 centuries from then until now).  It is an open question we face as Christians always -- how many of the rules must we follow, and how much should we rely on God's grace and mercy to forgive our oversights?

If you missed Sunday's sermon, if you'd like to listen to it again, or if you'd like to share it with others, you can find an audio recording here. 

You can also listen to the related Communion meditation and closing benediction.

Prayer for Mission in Laos

This week we pray for Xuyen Dangers, our missionary to Laos.  Xuyen is a social work supervisor who trains university social work interns.

You can read more about the mission to Laos here, including a reminder of how one person, working patiently, can make big changes in a community.

There are Christian missionaries serving on our behalf in many countries around the world.  Each week, Global Missions highlights the work in one of these countries and asks the wider church to pray for its continued vitality in spreading the Gospel.

January 4 Worship - "The Man with the Plan (1 Chronicles)"

A few stalwart people gathered on Sunday, given the frigid temperatures and overnight snowfall which made some roads slick in the morning.  God was still praised, if in a slightly more informal way than some weeks.

We continued our Godsway 66 series in the new year, turning our attention to the history of the Jewish monarchy and Temple presented in 1 Chronicles.  Here, King David seems to be the most important figure in Jewish history, due to faithfulness and his preparations to build God's Temple in Jerusalem.  In fact, he seems to have micromanaged that process; after God told David he would not build the Temple, David created elaborate plans to ensure that it would be built after his death, which he gave to Solomon shortly before he died.

Of course, we know the rest of the story.  The Temple was built, but succeeding generations had trouble keeping worship of God at the center of their lives -- in they worshiped God at all.  Eventually, they were defeated, the Temple was destroyed, and the leadership was carried into exile in Babylon.  However, the legacy of the Temple was so important that it was a beacon for those exiles, who dreamed of returning to Jerusalem and rebuilding the Temple.  It became a way for them to preserve and, in some ways, reclaim their identity as God's people.

If you missed Sunday's sermon, if you'd like to listen to it again, or if you'd like to share it with others, you can listen to an audio recording here.

You can also listen to the Communion meditation and the closing benediction.

December 28 Worship: "New Year, New Vision"

We gathered on the Sunday after Christmas to continue the celebration of Jesus' birth and to look ahead into a new year.  As part of our celebration, I encouraged us to consider the prophecy of Ezekiel seeing the plans for the second Temple to be built in Jerusalem (after the Jews returned from exile in Babylon).  This vision seems to be a combination of Ezekiel's desire for people to return to Jerusalem and build a Temple and God's desire for the people to demonstrate their faithfulness.

Too often, we assume that God wants to replace our desires completely.  Time and time again in the Bible, though, God seems to meld human desires with divine wisdom.  This is an important lesson for us at the start of a new year, when we feel the urge to completely change different parts of our lives.  Instead of always insisting on u-turns, perhaps we should consider some of the better desires of our nature.  This might be the best way to improve our lives.

If you missed Sunday's sermon, if you'd like to listen to it again, or if you'd like to share it with others, you can find an audio recording here.

You can also listen to the Communion meditation and the closing benediction.