Thanks again to Jocelyn and her sister for answering the call to help our brothers and sisters in Haiti. And thank you SMMC'ers for all the donations you gathered once again. Please keep our friends in Haiti in prayer, as well as Jocelyn and the ministry of Redeeming Waters International.
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We are currently (from June through October) teaching and discussing Jesus' "Sermon on the Mount" on Sunday mornings. Join us for worship at 9:45am, which is followed by a discussion class at 11:15am. Pastor Chris is also blogging on the SOTM here.
What's wrong with this picture (at left), and what might it have to do with the Sermon on the Mount?
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This Sunday is known as "Pentecost Sunday". Here are some articles which provide some background to what is meaningful about this particular time in the church year:
Also check out this video...
]]>44It was now about the sixth hour, and darkness came over the whole land until the ninth hour, 45for the sun stopped shining. And the curtain of the temple was torn in two. 46Jesus called out with a loud voice, "Father, into your hands I commit my spirit." When he had said this, he breathed his last.
I've been coming across lots of great reflections on Good Friday, and wanted to share them with you. May these words help you to ask good questions, find comfort, and discover new ways to experience the story of the day when Jesus was crucified.
Karen Spears Zacharias: The Kingdom of Heaven in his hands.
Jesus Creed (Scot McKnight): God Provides, We Slip in our Hands.
Julie Clawson: Follow Jesus -- Good Friday.
J.R. Briggs: Holy Week – A Guided Reflection.
]]>In preparation for this service, we looked for scriptures that helped us remember our need for confession and repentance and listened as members of our community read them aloud. We chose music that gave us opportunities to respond vocally to the stories from the scriptures. And we transformed something that was once living (palm branches) into the ash that was placed on our foreheads & hands.
In an Ash Wednesday service we are reminded that "From dust [we] came, to dust [we] will return". And as we gathered to worship on Wednesday night, we confessed our sins, we admitted our need to repent before God, and admitted our need for the grace that is offered in Jesus Christ. We believe that God is transforming this world, and us, through his Son Jesus. Just as God breathed life into dust (Genesis 1), God can transform us and fill us with new life.
Since this was our first time observing Ash Wednesday together, I would like to invite members of the SMMC community to reflect on this experience here. In the comment space below, share a comment about how you felt, or what you experienced, or how you felt God's presence in this practice with the ashes. As it is important to try new things (or very old things!) that open us up to God's presence and Spirit, it is also vital to reflect on our experiences together. So please do so below. And thank you for sharing.
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February 17 2010 will be a special day in the life of SMMC. On that day we will celebrate our first Ash Wednesday service. Ash Wednesday, while perhaps unfamiliar to those of us who grew up in Mennonite and evangelical Protestant churches, is a special day of repentance that begins the season of Lent in the Christian Year. Mark Roberts gives a good description of it's history in the church. Ash Wednesday...
has been honored by Christians for well over ten centuries at the beginning of Lent, a six-week season of preparation for Easter. In the earliest centuries, Christians who had fallen into persistent sin had ashes sprinkled on their bodies as a sign of repentance, even as Job repented "in dust and ashes" (Job 42:6). Around the tenth century, all believers began to signify their need for repentance by having ashes placed on their foreheads in the shape of a cross. Notice: even this sign of sinfulness hinted at the good news yet to come through its shape. Ash Wednesday is not some dour, depressing holy day because it symbolically anticipates Good Friday and Easter. (http://bit.ly/bmIZ9W)
On this evening we will participate in some worship practices that invite us to be very real with ourselves in the presence of God. It is a time of humility and of repentance, but also a time of anticipation. We will be invited to come forward during the service, to receive ashes on our hand or forehead, while hearing the words from Genesis 3, "You are dust, and to dust you shall return". As Mark Roberts writes, "This is the bad news of our sinfulness that prepares us to receive the good news of forgiveness in Christ." Thinking about the bad news can help us to be open to the gracious reality of the Good News of Jesus Christ.
For more information on Ash Wednesday from a Mennonite/Anabaptist perspective please see Pastor Brian Miller's excellent reflections here.
We hope you will join us as we come together for this special time of worship.
Details: February 17, 7pm at the SMMC Meetinghouse. As this will be a time of reflection and meditation, we are asking that all who attend enter the sanctuary in silence this evening. Our worship time will include silent reflection, confession, listening to scripture stories, singing, and the imposition of ashes.
]]>]]>"We who have seen the light of Christ are obliged, by the greatness of the grace that has been given us, to make known the presence of the Savior to the ends of the earth...not only by preaching the glad tidings of his coming; but above all by revealing Him in our lives... Every day of our mortal lives must be His manifestation, His divine Epiphany, in the world which He has created and redeemed."