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

The "M" word or Marriage lessons from the Episcopal Church?

Click on the link to shorter sermon on Paul's letter to the Ephesians. http://www.saintjames.org/Sermons/2003/sermon030817.html

Let me begin with Paul, Eph 4:28 "Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth, but that which is good to the use of edifying, that it may minister grace unto the hearers."
I hope my communication today will be edifying and not corrupting.

The thing I love about the "M" word is that no matter what you say about it, you are going to get in trouble. This certainly holds true for Paul, Charlie, and me. The lesson was from Paul's letter (including Eph 5:22-....). You know, the part about wives obeying their husbands. The sermon took 23 minutes to explain away Paul. Is it because the Episcopal Church does not have a legitimate voice on the subject of marriage that we cannot be more concise? Also, Charlie is tired of attempts to legislate marriage! Let us then do away with all laws that refer to marriage. Of course in doing so we would leave widowed spouses devoid of social security checks, inheritance would be thrown to the whims of the courts, and "free love" would govern our relationships. Therefore, polygamy, incest, bestiality, transdimensional beings having intercourse with us, and who knows what else could be okay. Paul himself was trying to set down some rules for husbands and wives (traditional marriage). Let us throw him out the window as well because he was writing 2000 years ago, and is therefore irrelevant. And where did Charlie get the notion that nobody in Rock Hill was upset about the Episcopal Church having the current female Presiding Bishop Elect? Has he not been reading Cato's comments?

TravelingMercies on the Sunday Sermon

I too enjoyed hearing from our youth and leaders on their mission trip; "hands on Christianity" is a great phrase, and I found myself pondering when was the last time I was able or willing to do that. I was particularly touched, both in the service and in the coffee hour, with their discussion of "Bill," the person who asked for their help, needed their help, but was neither courteous nor appreciative of it. As one of the sweetest of the young people said, hopefully, "You could tell he was appreciative, he just had a hard time showing it." It's one of the most valuable lessons to learn that the needy cannot always show their appreciation, or may even seem hostile as they accept our assistance. Like our young people, we need to keep working with Christian love, even though the objects of our help don't always respond the way we might like them too!