March 11 Worship: "Lost Covenant: The Curse of Those Left Behind"

On Sunday, we continued our Lenten journey.  If our day began slowly, as many of us were tired from one hour less of sleep due to Daylight Savings and it was a dreary morning, I think as worship progressed we felt energized by the presence of God.

We continued our "Curses" sermon series, looking this week at the curse God placed on those Jews who were not taken into exile by the Babylonians.  In "Lost Covenant: The Curse of Those Left Behind" we considered an unexpected revelation that God sometimes makes when steadfastness turns to something less than faithfulness.  In essence, frustrated by stubbornness and reverence for the Holy, God looks for ways to start over.  In the sermon, we considered ways in which God might train us to be better Christians without completely rebuilding us from scratch, focusing on a comparison to improving a golf swing that I think is a helpful metaphor.

If you missed the sermon, if you'd like to listen to it again, or if you'd like to share it with someone else, you can listen to an audio recording here.

Prayer for Mission in Swaziland

This week, we pray for our missionary in Swaziland, Lizzy Beach.  She has served for over a year in an African nation ravaged by AIDS, leaving countless children orphaned and many infected themselves.  In this impoverished country, people have responded -- out of necessity -- by changing their understanding of family, as many bring these children, and others in need, into their homes.

You can read more about the mission to Swaziland here, including links to interviews and a detailed account of the hope that our missionary attempts to bring to a desperate situation.

There are Christian missionaries serving around the world on our behalf in 70 countries. Each week, Global Missions highlights one of these missions and asks the church to pray for its continued vitality in spreading the Gospel.

Coming Up Sunday, March 11

**Don't forget to "Spring Forward" on Saturday night as Daylight Savings Time begins this weekend.  We don't want you to be late for worship on Sunday!**

This week, we will continue our Lenten journey together.  As we progress in our "Curses" sermon series, we will consider an odd lesson that people of faith have often forgotten through the centuries: as the human situation changes, sometimes God's desire for people changes.  That was certainly the case in ancient Israel, when many of the leaders were captured and sent into exile by the Babylonians.  Contrary to expectations, God blessed those who were exiled and cursed those who remained behind in the Promised Land.  On Sunday, we will consider when the good of steadfast faith turns to the sin of obstinance.

March 4 Worship: "Fallen Idol: The Curse of the Ark of the Covenant"

On Sunday, we continued our Lenten journey.  Our worship was warm and Spirit-filled, including a wonderful musical offering, "Sanctuary," from Eastgate's Bell Choir.  We also continued our "Curses" sermon series.  This week we focused on the story of the curse that befell the Philistines after they captured the Ark of the Covenant.  In "Fallen Idol: The Curse of the Ark of the Covenant," we considered the idolatry that sometimes succumb to in our lives, losing self-awareness and perception about things in our lives like money, possessions, and even loving relationships with those closest to us.

In all honesty, I found Sunday's sermon a bit difficult to prepare.  I greatly enjoy the Biblical story that I preached upon, but idolatry in our lives is much different from placing a statue on a pedestal.  Though I believe that idolatry is a common occurrence, even for Christians at times, it does not have generic manifestations, but tends to be very unique.  It may even be that certain actions might be idolatrous for some people, but not others.  This made illustrating Sunday's sermon more difficult than I had expected.  As you noticed (or will if you listen), I eventually resorted to speaking about an opposite of idolatry, in this case love, to try to flesh out the Biblical lesson for our lives.

If you missed the sermon, if you would like to listen to it again, or if you'd like to share it with someone, you can find an audio recording here.

Prayer for Mission in Haiti

This week we pray for the ongoing mission in Haiti, including the work of our mission workers there, Jeanette Salley and Katie Pickens.  Both of them actively serve with CONASPEH, the National Spiritual Council of Churches in Haiti.  As you might imagine, much of their work still involves recovery from the devastating earthquake in January 2010.

You can read about the mission to Haiti here, including a link to interviews with both missionaries and Katie Pickens' frequently updated blog. 

I also hope that you will pray for Eastgate's continued outreach to Haiti, including our commitment to provide the salary for a doctor in Haiti each year.  Envelopes for contributions for this purpose are on the back table in the sanctuary.  We are currently planning a Haiti Sunday later in the spring to highlight this significant outreach project of our congregation.

There are Christian missionaries serving around the world on our behalf in 70 countries. Each week, Global Missions highlights one of these missions and asks the church to pray for its continued vitality in spreading the Gospel.

Into Your Hands...

Each Sunday -- in fact, each time we worship -- we celebrate the Lord's Supper.  Sometimes, as on Ash Wednesday, we come forward to take communion; more often, we stay in our seats as the deacons pass trays with pieces of bread and small cups.

If you're like me, you focus on the eating and drinking during Communion.  After all, Jesus directed his disciples in the Upper Room to "Take, eat" and "Drink of this, all of you."

But before the bread and the cup reach our lips, it first passes through our hands.  An Episcopal priest recently spent a sabbatical focused on the use of our hands in the holy sacrament of communion.  She traveled to various Episcopal parishes and took photographs of people receiving the bread into their hands -- in Episcopal practice, congregants come forward, kneel, and the communion wafer is placed into their hands.  After worship, she asked the people she photographed, "What is the most important thing you do with your hands?"

We Christians, who have been taught that we are 'the hands and feet of Christ,' each week take bread and cup representing Christ's body and blood into those same hands.  This makes me wonder: How do I use my hands the rest of the time?

If the sacrament usually reminds us, by eating, to remember whence comes the food that sustains us, it can also remind us, by taking it into our hands, to remember that we are entrusted by God to handle holy things and, by extension, to do holy things in Christ's name.

Coming Up Sunday, March 4

On Sunday we will continue our Lenten journey together toward Holy Week and Easter.  As we enter March, we will go deeper into our consideration of the sinful context of our broken world in our sermon series, "Curses."  In the past couple of weeks, we've considered the general nature of sin and the passing of sin from generation to generation, stunting our spiritual growth.  This week, with "Fallen Gods: The Curse of the Captured Ark," we will explore how God reacts to our efforts to place our passions on pedestals, exalting them as we should honor God alone.

We will explore our identity in light of one of the funniest stories in the Bible about what happens to a Philistine god after the ancient warriors captured the Ark of the Covenant and brought it into their sanctuary.  If you want a chuckle before Sunday, you might look up 1 Samuel 5.