Gandhi's Birthday Message

"Nonviolence succeeds only when we have a real living faith in God. "
"My effort should never be to undermine another's faith but to make him a better follower of his own faith. "
"My faith is brightest in the midst of impenetrable darkness."
Quotations from M. Gandhi

The End of a Winning Streak.

After the immensely controversial Sermon Scoring System was banned from the official Episcopal Church of Our Saviour Web site, sermons have been pretty good. This week I have to bring you the bad news, that there is no way to graphically score the sermon(s) we endured today. I use the plural because I counted at least three separate sermons and ten good stopping places. First we touched on the Lessons, then we traveled to Cange, Haiti, and then we went on to hear about the importance of Baptism with a few anti-football and anti-conservative potshots thrown in. The only good thing to say about this one is that it is over. Ever since this blog was started as a place for comments on the Sunday Sermon, I have been looking for a good way for you the readers to post a score for the sermon. I will use the Tag Board for the score from now on. )-:

God's Child

Mary Kat did a good job reminding me that children in Jesus' time had it rough. Corporal punishment was the rule, as was child labor. Indeed children were pretty low on the pecking order. She brought a whole new perspective on Jesus taking the child and putting it on his lap, demonstrating to his disciples that even the lowest are to be treated as God's most important creatures. And what about the old testament lesson? The Child of God is foretold, as is the scorn of those opposed to him. This highlights one of the problems with radical Islam. Mohammed's fundamental belief is that God cannot have a child, and Jesus can not be His son in a literal sense. To radical Islam, Christianity is therefore heretical and blasphemous. I wish they could see the old testament verses through the eyes of a child. I always thought we were all children of God. Was I wrong?

Bobby lays down the Law

This Sunday's sermon was a lenghty exposition on the laws and commandments. Father Dunbar drew from so many sources that my head is still spinning. This was a real trip around the Bible. It dovetailed nicely with the rest of the service which had many references to placing God first, and when one does, the Christian life will follow. Could we get a copy of this sermon for posting on the blog?

Commisioning Sunday

It is amazing how many people are involved in on way or another with ministries of one form or another. If our Church is representative of the community, then there should be hope for the future. All this without any help from "The Purpose Driven Life. " The link to the Wall Street Journal Article requires a subscription but here is another blog discussing this http://mormanity.blogspot.com/2006/09/apostasy-20-now-purpose-driven.html. I have to agree that the "Driven" part bothers me when it appears to be turning into a business plan for congregations. I think we are doing well with something far less than a megachurch, so let us listen for God's purpose each in our own way. We just might be on the right path after all.

Why Whine about Wine?

So the city of Rock Hill is not up to permit wine sales on Sunday. Elected officials are afraid to speak out like our rector. Charlie is right when he leads us to the message that Sunday being a day of rest and abstinence is more human tradition than God's law. I guess fundamentalists would not dare lift a finger to help their fellow man on God's day of rest ( not man's day of rest by the way). Jesus got in trouble for "working"on the Sabbath. A waitress friend told me of the time she served a Jewish patron at a Saturday breakfast. He apparently had her tear open his "Sweet and Low" because he considered that to be "work". I guess lifting the glass to the lips was not considered work. This kind of law abiding behavior carried to the extreme would result in a "Bizzaro World" like in the Superman comics (where the rescue workers caused accidents and everything was the opposite of our world). Sunday for most of us is another day of work. Maybe Jesus did break the laws of man so that we might glimpse God's law. So when we throw out the laws of man what are we left with? Where do you get your moral and ethical foundation? Existentialism, secular humanism, moral relativism, the U.S. Constitution, religion? Put your dollar down. Mine says "IN GOD WE TRUST."
For another take on our drunken history go to http://anglicans.blogspot.com/2006/09/filled-with-spirit.html

What will they think of next?

We really should question the sanity of our Episcopal Church "leadership." See the following:
http://lobsterhouse.blogspot.com/2006/08/shame-on-you-dean-samuel-t.html

Here is the story from The Church of England Newspaper http://www.churchnewspaper.com/news.php?read=on&number_key=5835&title=Row%20over%20Iran%20visit%20to%20US