Update December 16th, 2005

Dear Good Shepherd,

This will be a shorter Update than usual this week, that's because not much is happening next week other than the Christmas worship services, but you can read the full update below. One thing I did want to emphasize is that the GREENING OF THE CHURCH is this Sunday.

We need your help to decorate the church for Christmas. It's a very big but very merry job. The decorating will be preceded by a potluck lunch. So please bring something to share! See below for more details.

Weekly Article

Question and Answer 4: How did the people the bible live so long?

This week aquestion from Jenna Dean "How did people live so long in the Old Testament? Some of them are hundreds of years old?"

This is a very good question and it's one that lots of people have asked.

Before diving into an answer, let's take a look at some of the longest living people in the bible.

Turn to Genesis 5 and you'll find a list of descendants from Adam to Noah, through Adam's son Seth.

Here is a shorthand version of that list:

1. Adam: died at 930 years old

2. Seth: died at 912

3. Enosh: died at 905

4. Kenan: died at 910

5. Mahalalel: died at 895

6. Jared: died at 962

7. Enoch: taken up at 365 (the text says God took him away; no record of his death)

8. Methuselah: died at 969

9. Lamech: died at 777

10. Noah is the last name listed. The only age given for Noah in chapter 5 is his age when he fathered children, 500 years old. According to Genesis 9:29 Noah died at the age of 950.

One of the more important things to remember about this list is that it is not a full listing of every single male descendant from Adam to Noah. The biblical writers often compressed or telescoped genealogies by including only the most important ancestors in a given line. Thus, it would be a mistake to calculate the ages of the men listed in chapter 5 and come up with the number of years between Adam and Noah (as some have tried to do). Likely the time between Adam and Noah was much, much longer; possibly tens of thousands of years.

If you count the names in chapter 5 you will note that there are ten names listed from Adam to Noah. This reinforces the conclusion of the paragraph above that this genealogy has been stylistically shaped or compressed.

Why? Well, “ten” like seven, three, and forty, was a symbolic number in the ancient world. Ten, like the number seven, conveyed the idea of completeness or wholeness. So the ancient writer of this section of Genesis (probably Moses) included only ten of the most prominent human ancestors from Adam and Noah as a kind of literary device to communicate to the ancient reader, that these 10 ancestors are symbolic of the whole or complete number of Adam's descendants before the flood recorded in Genesis 6.

Now comes the hard question. Do the incredible ages listed also reflect some unknown symbolism or literary device? Are these ages intended as literal ages or are they figurative?

One possible solution and the one I favor is related to God's purpose in creating the human body. When you read through the accounts of creation in Genesis 1 and 2, you'll notice that God originally designed Adam and Eve to live forever.

They were given souls and bodies and commanded to use their bodies to increase and multiply, to have lots of babies.

Most importantly, death was not part of God's original plan.

Human beings were created to live forever in loving communion with God, and with each other, body and soul, forever.

Is this even possible?

God is the very source of life. He gives it and he sustains it. So long as humanity remained in perfect communion with God, death had no foothold in creation.

But when humanity rejected God and fell to the temptations of Satan (Genesis 3:1-13), that communion, that perfect connection, between humanity and God was broken. Death entered the world.

When Adam and Eve sinned it was like they unplugged a lamp. Their connection to God, the Life-source, was broken; the light went out and their bodies began to decay.

Now, have you ever tried to unscrew a light bulb right after you unplug a lamp? It burns. The bulb stays hot for quite a while. You have to wait before you can unscrew it.

In the same way, the long lives of the descendants of Adam in the years directly after the perfect communion between humanity and God was broken might be intended to reflect a sort of residual heat, a residual life-force, bearing witness to the life-giving relationship that had been destroyed.

Are the years literal or figurative?

I don't know. One day we'll be able to ask Moses and the people themselves face to face.

The safest bet is to take the recorded ages at face value and to remember that God alone determines how long we live and when we die.

But in either case, whether they are literal or figurative, the ages point us back to the fact that death was never part of God's plan.

They should also point us forward. Because while human beings rejected God and became subject to death, God loved us so much that when the time was right he became a human being himself.

In Jesus of Nazareth, God lived as one of us for 33 years and then, after he had taught many things, he sacrificed himself by being nailed to a wooden cross. He suffered death and was buried.

His death took away the sins that separate you and I from God.

His death made it possible for us to be reconciled, reconnected, with him forever.

When you give your life to Jesus Christ, your sins are washed away, God comes to live in your heart, and the perfect communion, broken so many years ago, is restored. Not only will your soul always be alive with God through Jesus Christ, your body also will live forever.

How do I know this?

On the third day after Jesus died. He rose from the dead. He wasn't a ghost or a spirit. He was alive, body and soul.

And he promised us that everyone who believes in him will share in his resurrection.

If you die before Jesus comes again, he will call your body up out of the grave and you will live with him here on earth, forever and ever, just like he intended in the Garden of Eden so long ago. If you are alive when he returns, then you will never die. Your body will be transformed from a perishable body to an imperishable body and, like Enoch, you will never experience death.

If you think the people in Genesis 5 lived a long time, just wait until Jesus returns. You and I will have all eternity to explore the world and the universe in perfect communion with our loving Father and His Son Jesus Christ.

Here's the news,

UPDATE CONTENTS:
DECK THE HALLS

CHRISTMAS PAGEANT

EVANGELISM

STEWARDSHIP

ADVENT
CHRISTIAN EDUCATION: FAMILY LIFE

CHRISTIAN EDUCATION: THE NEXT SERIES
BIBLE STUDIES and CHRISTMAS

CHRISTMAS WORSHIP SCHEDULE

NEWS

DECK THE HALLS: The “Greening” of the church will take place on Sunday December 18 th , after the pot-luck lunch following the 10:30am service. For those of you who are new to Good Shepherd, the “greening of the church” is essentially decorating the church for Christmas. Greenery and wreaths are hung, trees set up, ribbons tied, lights and decorations put in their proper places and a good time had by all. HELP is something we need every year, so please don't be shy. There are some jobs that require strong men, unafraid of heights, and others require a great deal of attention to detail and organization. If you have these qualities and skills, what a great time to use them and have fun in the process.

There will be a pot-luck lunch right after the 10:30. Cookie wanted me to remind you to BRING A DISH (preferably with food in it). All sorts and kinds of foods are wanted. We hope for a large crowd of helpers and we want to be able to feed everyone.

CHRISTMAS PAGEANT : Anne wanted me to remind you that even though the church is being decorated, there will still be pageant practice. The practice will be held immediately after the 10:30am service while the potluck lunch is being set up downstairs. So if you are in any way connected to the pageant be sure to be there this Sunday for practice immediately after the 10:30am service.

EVANGELISM: Thank you to everyone who gave time, effort, and/or financial support to this project. We reached about 400 homes with warm bread and the good news of Jesus Christ. On a personal note, I want to say that I was so very proud to be your pastor last Saturday. You are such a wonderful group of believers. You are not content to keep the good news to yourselves, but you are committed to taking the love of Christ to the lonely, lost, and hurting people on the Southside. I thank God for each of you and for the maturity, commitment and faithfulness you demonstrated. That is what the bible means by bearing fruit! Thank you and thanks be to God

I don't know what God will do with this effort. Will he bring people to faith? Will he bring more new people to Good Shepherd? I don't know. I do know that we did, are doing, and will continue to do what God has commanded us to do. The rest is in his hands. Whatever happens I have no doubt God will bless Good Shepherd in some very significant way and I'm excited to see what he does.

STEWARDSHIP: We will be collecting pledge cards all month long and into January. You are welcome to mail them or drop them in the offering plate.

ADVENT : is almost over. This Sunday, in fact, is the last Sunday of Advent. For those of you new to the Anglican tradition wondering about some of the changes in worship during Advent, be sure to read this article

CHRISTIAN EDUCATION: FAMILY LIFE Last week we looked at some of the missions and responsibilities the bible gives believing parents and grandparents and we discussed some practical ways to make our homes places where God and his word are loved, discussed and followed.

This week we'll continue that discussion, complete our short bible study on parenting, and look at some practical ways you can share the message of salvation with your kids or grandkids.

Once God's word is present and welcomed into your home, sharing the gospel becomes much easier to do.

For those interested, here are the two books I have used throughout this section of our family life series:

Dare to Discipline , by Dr. James Dobson

Standing on the Promises by Douglas Wilson

CHRISTIAN EDUCATION: THE NEXT SERIES As I mentioned a few Updates ago, the next series is going to begin the second half of January . This time, we'll be examining the biblical role of the church. What is the church? Is it a building? Is it a group of people? Can it be both? What is it supposed to be and do? The bible answers all of these questions and in it, God provides the mission for every local parish, including Good Shepherd.

The vestry and I encourage everyone to attend this series as through it you will learn and see some of the principles that have been at the core of some of the programs we have established and leadership decisions we have made over the last three years.

BIBLE STUDIES and CHRISTMAS: There will be no bible studies from the last Sunday of Advent until after the New Year. That means that he last bible study of the year will be this Saturday's Women's Bible Study.

I hope you all enjoy this Christmas season with your families and friends. Celebrate, have fun, and keep up your habits of daily bible reading and prayer. :)

Invite your friends to come to church and give praise and thanks to God for sending his Son Jesus Christ into the world on Christmas Eve and/or Christmas morning and then on the following Sunday New Year's Day, the Second Sunday of Christmas!

Bible Studies will resume their normal meeting schedule the week of January 1 st 2006.

CHRISTMAS WORSHIP SCHEDULE: Christmas is on a Sunday this year and there will be church that day, but at a different time so please pay special attention to the schedule below.

Christmas Eve

5:00pm Christmas Eve family service with pageant

10:30pm Christmas Carols

11:00pm Christmas Eve Celebration: communion, sermon, music, lights!

Christmas Day

11:00am Christmas Day Worship: Communion and sermon

Good News for the Week

In the sixth month, God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth, a town in Galilee, to a virgin pledged to be married to a man named Joseph, a descendant of David. The virgin's name was Mary. The angel went to her and said, "Greetings, you who are highly favored! The Lord is with you."   Mary was greatly troubled at his words and wondered what kind of greeting this might be. But the angel said to her, "Do not be afraid, Mary, you have found favor with God. You will be with child and give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever; his kingdom will never end." "How will this be," Mary asked the angel, "since I am a virgin?" The angel answered, "The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the holy one to be born will be called the Son of God. Even Elizabeth your relative is going to have a child in her old age, and she who was said to be barren is in her sixth month. For nothing is impossible with God."   "I am the Lord's servant," Mary answered. "May it be to me as you have said." Then the angel left her. (Luke 1:26-38)

Don't forget to....BRING A FRIEND TO CHURCH!

Daily Schedule for the week of Sunday December 16th, 2005

Monday:
8:30 a.m. Morning Prayer

Tuesday
8:30 a.m. Morning Prayer

Tuesday Bible Studies will resume the week of January 1 st , 2006

Wednesday
8:30 a.m. Morning Prayer

Thursday
8:30 a.m. Morning Prayer
5:30 p.m. Shepherd's Bowl

7:30 p.m. Choir Practice

Thursday Bible Studies will resume the week of January 1 st .

Friday
8:30 a.m. Morning Prayer

Friday Bible Studies will resume the week of January 1 st , 2006

Saturday: CHRISTMAS EVE

5:00pm Christmas Eve family service with pageant

10:30pm Christmas Carols

11:00pm Christmas Eve Celebration: communion, sermon, music, lights!
Saturday Bible Studies will resume the week of January 1 st , 2006

CHRISTMAS DAY!
11:00am Christmas Day Worship: Communion and sermon

God bless you all

 


Matt+