Rally Sunday

Today was Rally Sunday. It was a fun surprise to see the balloons in the sanctuary and great to be back into the Sunday school year.  As a Sunday school teacher and mom, I very much enjoy Rally Sunday each year, and was particularly struck this year by how all of the children have grown. Kids I have known since they are babies are now as tall as me! My own children, who started attending St. Andrew's when we moved to Ottawa and they were preschoolers, toddlers, and babies, are now in the older ages of Sunday school, and the youth group. It has been comforting and important for us to become part of this church community over the past decade.  After having spent much of the summer travelling, it was also lovely to see so many familiar faces - and some new ones - and to enjoy delicious homemade soups and corn on the cob, not to mention desserts, with everyone.  It was also a pleasure to meet Sydney, our new Christian Education co-ordinator, today.

I am grateful and pleased to begin another church year with our St. Andrew's family.

Rebecca B.

What shall it profit, my brethren, if a man say he hath faith, but hath not works?

One part of today’s rich and complex message involved the Epistle of James, one of my favourite books of the Bible for its stirring call to action:  “What shall it profit, my brethren, if a man say he hath faith, but hath not works? Shall faith be able to save him? … So faith also, if it have not works, is dead in itself.”

I have wondered how this Epistle stood in the context of being “saved by grace alone”, the often repeated standard of salvation in other parts of the New Testament, and so was most interested in Alex’s discussion of the contention that surrounded its inclusion in the Bible, with Luther opposed to it.  I’m glad it is there.  Indeed it is difficult to imagine faith that is not paired with action, and Christ commended the practice of showing good works to glorify God.

Much of Alex’s message dealt with the passage: And let every man be swift to hear, but slow to speak, and slow to anger.  What an instructive phrase for all of us.  One tires of the polluting culture of opinion so prevalent in the media and in our daily lives, proceeding from ideological biases and the need to fill time and space on the cheap, without reference to all the facts and the development of a fair view of events.  There is room for anger, for Christ himself became angry, but it is a slow anger bred from study and discernment rather than a quick and ill-considered anger that simply conforms to pre-existing prejudices.  

Let us have more of the Epistle of James in our lives, a book that speaks through the ages, encouraging social justice, intellectual balance, and respect for what others have to say.

Rob R.

Christian Discipleship

“The Christian Martyrs’ Last Prayer” by Jean-Léon Gérôme, 1883.

This morning Alex stirred us with a sermon that really asked us what it means to be a disciple and to stand united.  It made me think about a time earlier this week.  As I was walking home from work, I over heard two gentlemen having a friendly debate outside one of their homes.  When I passed them one of them said: "Talk is talk, and action is action".  This random statement has stuck with me all week.  When listening to Alex, I couldn't help but think talk is talk, and action and action.   

As disciples we are called to talk, yet more importantly to act.  I recognize that even with the best of intentions there are often times where other actions would have allowed me to be a better disciple of the Lord.  It is sermons like this morning's that challenge us to continue to be better Christians in all that we do -- talk and action -- while holding firmly to Jesus Christ, our Lord.

There have been many that have gone before us that are strong examples, who lived wholeheartedly with the whole amour of our God like Dietrich Bonhoeffer.  While we can learn so much from them, we must realize what is important is that we are never alone in all the talk and actions that we do -- Jesus Christ is with us.  With him we are stronger, like a bunch of pencils all stacked together that cannot be broken.

Colleen G.

And we weren't left hanging

I approached this Sunday worship with some trepidation  as I noted the theme  "caught between heaven and earth "  and zeroed in on the  Scripture reading for meditation taken from 2 Samuel 18.5-9 ,15,31-33. This is a violent reading for sure    and to make matters worse--I was doing the reading !!

But the service began with a hymn of such assurance and peace--My shepherd is the King of Love"  and  the Children's story  served to give a glimpse that this violent reading was going to be tied in with the story of the Prodigal Son  and the power of God's love.  Sure we saw that King David's story  touched on --- the  good, the bad and the ugly in every form, -- on violence,  on a dysfunctional family,  on a story  of rebellion, deceit, murder  and civil war  but through it all God keeps His Promise and it is promise of Love and Forgiveness.

Rev, Karen, like a master weaver, was able to safely ground us after the violence and emotion of the scripture passage  with the thought that  we  too, at times, resonate with King David  and are sometimes caught between violence and peace,  between justice and  mercy,  between wrong and right, between hate and love . But our God is a God of compassion and if we look closely  we realize that this is what God looks like.

Even the hymns served to ground us --",Precious Lord ,take my hand "  "Guide me ,O thou Great  Redeemer ". Yes, it was good to be in the house of the Lord.

Beulah P.

Love your neighbour as yourself

In the Children's Story, we were reminded that tablets are used to store information.  However, tablets used many years ago were made of slate and the information recorded could be easily wiped out.  A new use/start could be made of the tablets.

The Scripture Reading: Matthew 7:1-5 included in verses 1&2  "1 Do not judge, or you too will be judged. 2 For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.”  A reminder that none of us are perfect and without sin, and in need of forgiveness.

The theme of the sermon continued Half Truths #4 in the bible, included the often quoted “Love the sinner, hate the sin”.  The latter quote implies that the imperfect person is worthy of our love, but their imperfection is not.  To do this requires our judgment of what is imperfect or sinful.  It would also put each of us  at risk of being judged.  While we all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.  We have all been given a new start/beginning, by His grace.

God's commandment to us is to love our neighbour as ourselves.  We need to practice it.

Barbara S.

Jesus: Literally

This Sunday we took a journey of discovery of the revealed word of God as Jesus taught us to read and review the old laws.

5.4 The Bible is to be understood in the light
of the revelation of God's work in Christ.
The writing of the Bible was conditioned
by the language, thought,
and setting of its time.
The Bible must be read in its historical context.
We interpret Scripture
as we compare passages,
seeing the two Testaments in light of each other,
and listening to commentators past and present.
Relying on the Holy Spirit,
we seek the application of God's word for our time.

We have known and read the old laws and have sought to understand the context and the perceived differences between the old and new Testaments. Jesus came to clarify where the teachers of the time had gone astray.

Do not think that I came to destroy the Law or the Prophets. I did not come to destroy but to fulfill” (Matthew 5:17).

The Greek word pleroo, translated “fulfill” in Matthew 5:17, means “to make full, to fill, to fill up,…to fill to the full” or “to render full, i.e. to complete” ( Thayer’s Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament, 2002, Strong’s number 4137). In other words, Jesus said He came to complete the law and make it perfect. How? By showing the spiritual intent and application of God’s law. His meaning is clear from the remainder of the chapter, where He showed the spiritual intent of specific commandments.

Our reading today shows this process.

Mathew 5:38-48

38 “You have heard that it was said, ‘Eye for eye, and tooth for tooth.’[a] 39 But I tell you, do not resist an evil person. If anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to them the other cheek also. 40 And if anyone wants to sue you and take your shirt, hand over your coat as well. 41 If anyone forces you to go one mile, go with them two miles. 42 Give to the one who asks you, and do not turn away from the one who wants to borrow from you.

So we are learning today that Jesus came to make the laws full by ensuring the true understanding of God’s promise. We are Christian and thus the word of Jesus the great teacher helps us to understand where, why and how the word need to be seen and understood.

 We must then ensure we do not forget to whom we must look for interpretation and clarity.

John 3:2
2 He came to Jesus by night and said to him, “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God; for no one can do these signs that you do apart from the presence of God.”

Honour the word of the Lord.

Noral R.

Finding "The Way"

Mid -summer Sunday : blistering hot, dry days unroll daily but finally, today,  rain  is in the forecast .  And so  I go with flow and let the service unroll  and  bring me out of my reverie. Today, numbers are smaller, but yet we connect with our guest Minister .

Our first hymn reconnects me with my high school days  at  Morning worship--  "How sweet the name of Jesus sounds" ---as  lovely today as it was back then   and it still is .  But it is the message " Finding "The Way "  that stirs me .

 Based in  John 13.33-35, 14 ;1-7, we are reminded how many times we have had the "lost way experience"--taking the wrong turn ,confusion at different points of life,  that  spiritually lost feeling-- yea ! Can identify!  Jesus'  disciples  certainly were in that same place of  "the lost feeling"  and then Jesus pointedly declares "I am the way ,no man comes to the Father ,but by me ."  The early Christians were called  "People of the Way". But how  can we find this "Way "?  Perhaps ,it really is a combination of faith and trust in God, a belief in a God who leads us out of the confusion, gives us clarity and "has our back".

Yet,  it is even a little more --Love may just be The Way -- Love is from God, love is God and God is Love .  So finding  the Way must be encased in Love .  So when we  are reminded  to come and follow  Christ , we must first come ---with complete Love --Love  for God ,whom we cannot see and Love for our neighbour whom  we can see.

Beulah P.