Seven
Mission Goals for 2007
1.
An active youth ministry in place by the end of the year
2.
Hosting a quarterly Friends and Family Sunday (where we
invite non-believing family and friends to church)
3.
100% parish participation in the Franklin Graham festival
(i.e. everyone gets trained and brings a non-believing friend
to the festival itself)
4.
The vestry is seeking100% participation in Bible Study.
5
At least 30 new believers by this time next year.
6.
An active discipling program by the end of the year with
at least 4 leaders in discipling relationships.
7.
gathering at least 100 people for worship every Sunday.
Dear
Good Shepherd,
Good
Morning,
Mounds
of catch-up work to go and no end in sight. Here is this
week's Update and article. The article is the 5th in my
series on the Thirty Nine Articles:
Article
IV: Of the Resurrection of Christ
Commentary
by the Rev. Matt Kennedy
Christ did truly rise again
from death, and took again his body, with flesh, bones,
and all things appertaining to the perfection of Man's nature;
wherewith he ascended into Heaven, and there sitteth, until
he return to judge all Men at the last day.
The fourth article clearly affirms the literal truth of
four historical events recorded and/or prophesied in the
Bible: 1. Jesus died and rose from the dead. 2. Jesus ascended
into Heaven 3. Jesus sits at the right hand of the Father.
4. He will come again to the earth as Judge.
It is important to recognize that all four affirmations
in this fourth article are conditioned by the word “wherewith”
which, for those of us who do not speak Elizabethan English,
means “with which.” And the “wherewith” in Article Four
refers to the full humanity of Christ; his body, flesh,
bones, and “all things appertaining to the perfection of
Man's nature.”
Jesus did not, as a young girl once suggested, die and then
rise from the dead as the Holy Ghost. He rose, as the fourth
article affirms, in the flesh, bodily. Jesus Christ rose
from the dead bodily, ascended bodily, rules bodily, and
will return bodily.
The emphasis on the bodily Resurrection, Ascension, sovereign
rule, and return of Christ in the fourth Article may surprise
you if you are new to the Christian faith. Don't feel bad.
Were they to take the time to study this Article, indeed,
study the Gospels, the emphasis on the physicality of Jesus'
post-resurrection body would likely surprise a large number
of life-long churchgoers as well. For some time now there
has been a strong tendency toward an over-spiritualization
or internalization of Christianity both within mainline
liberal churches and conservative evangelical ones.
The result has been the quite common misperception that
God is concerned primarily with the “inner workings” of
your “heart” by which people mean your “feelings” and not
necessarily so concerned with your behavior or with your
“doings.” So you often run across people who will tell you
that they love Jesus, that, perhaps, they have “accepted
him into their heart” and are therefore “saved” but who
live lives of utter depravity. Their “faith” has become
synonymous with their “feelings.” Since they harbor warm
feelings for Jesus (when, that is, they think about him
at all) they delude themselves into thinking they actually
“love” Jesus in the biblical sense all the while unrepentantly
and defiantly breaking his commands.
This is why, for example, you will often hear, as I have,
professing, churchgoing, Christians who are caught up in
adultery or fornication, say things like: “I just can't
believe that God cares about what I do in my bedroom” despite
the fact that the bible clearly says otherwise.
In 1st
Corinthians 6:18-20 , for example, we read:
“Flee from sexual immorality. Every other sin a person commits
is outside the body, but the sexually immoral person sins
against his own body. Or do you not know that your body
is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you. Whom you have
from God? You are not your own, for you were bought with
a price. So glorify God with your body.”
What these purportedly Christian people ignore and, largely,
what the Church has allowed them to ignore through her neglect
of sound teaching, is that faith in Jesus Christ is a truly
holistic faith. God is not just concerned with human emotions.
What you will and what you actually do, in fact, receive
far more attention in the scriptures than what you feel
or experience on an emotional level. This is not to say
that God doesn't care about your feelings. He most certainly
does. It is to say that God is not just concerned with your
feelings or even primarily concerned with your feelings.
God in Jesus Christ saves, redeems, restores, and brings
to glory every physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual
faculty you possess.
The reduction of faith to feeling is not just a tendency
among the so called “carnal-Christians”. It is, I believe,
far more widespread than we might think.
To my own shame a long-time parishioner recently confessed
that while she loves Easter, the thought of the Resurrection
leaves her cold. I'll paraphrase her words because I don't
remember them with precision: “I don't care whether Jesus
really rose from the dead. Nor do I care whether I will
ever rise from the dead. Isn't the whole point of Christianity
that we get to have Jesus in our hearts now and then to
go to Heaven when we die? Isn't Heaven supposed to be spiritual?
Why should I care about what happens to my body? Why should
I care about what happened to Jesus' body? He lives in my
heart and he'll be there forever. That's all that counts.”
It is difficult to identify the source(s) of this broad
contemporary shift toward a disembodied faith. Perhaps two
centuries of academic skepticism with regard to the historicity
of the bodily Resurrection and Ascension has succeeded in
refocusing Christians away from the once foundational hope
in the general Resurrection as a real future event?
That is, perhaps in the age of Marcus Borg and the Da Vince
Code, average Christian people, not just radical skeptics
and carnal “Christians”, have effectively, if subconsciously,
surrendered, given up hope in the real restoration of creation
and the literal Resurrection of the body and, as a result,
begun to content themselves with a “demythologized”, other-worldly,
experience-centered “faith”?
If this is true, what a paltry bit of pottage we have accepted
in exchange for our true inheritance.
Christ's Resurrection stands at the very center and as the
very substance of God's salvific work.
When we think of salvation we generally think of the cross
and what was accomplished there. This is a good thing. The
death of Christ on the cross provides the atoning sacrifice
necessary for the forgiveness of human sin. To the cross,
to his death, we may also add the sinless, perfected life
of Christ. The righteousness of Christ graciously credited
to repentant sinners provides the “clean hands and pure
heart” necessary for eternal life with a Holy God. Both
Christ's life and his death, then, establish the necessary
ground or basis of salvation.
But the Resurrection is the very substance of that salvation.
The Resurrection is the culmination, the end, the pinnacle
toward which God's plan of redemption has irresistibly progressed
from before he spoke the universe into existence. It is
what Salvation looks like.
The first two chapters of Genesis are crucial to our understanding
of God's purpose regarding his human creatures. The Garden
reveals a world unsullied by sin. There is no death, no
sorrow, no mourning or pain. The Garden of Eden provides
a picture of perfect communion between God and Man. That
real communion included a man and a woman bound to God and
bound together.
And this communion was not merely “spiritual.” Adam and
Eve were not simply differentiated by the invisible essences
of masculinity and femininity. They were man and woman;
two distinct physical beings, two different but complimentary
fleshy bodies, joined together as one “flesh.” As Adam said
of Eve, “She is flesh of my flesh, bone of my bone.”
And together they lived with God and walked with him in
the cool of his Garden.
Before sin, before death, before impurity, before creation
was distorted or disrupted, God created Man as a body-soul
entity and called him “good”. To be “fully human,” in the
Garden, was to be an integrated whole—living flesh and living
spirit in one living person in perfect communion with the
Living God.
There is a beautiful symmetry here. There is marriage between
flesh and spirit, man and woman, God and man.
And, again, there was no death. So long as Man lived in
the Garden of God, he enjoyed access to the Tree of life.
Immortality was not Man's inherent possession. Man always
had the potential to die. It was rather that Man, by virtue
of being bound in perfect communion with the everlasting
God, was sustained in life through him.
Death follows sin because sin, the arrogant inward turn,
the defiant rejection of God and proud elevation of the
self, destroys communion with God. Death follows inevitably
the rejection of Life.
The first sin, the sin of Adam, then, brought enmity between
God and Man and that enmity led first to hatred and violence
between human beings and then, ultimately, to the violent
separation of the body and soul in what we refer to as “death”.
Contrary to secular wisdom, death is not merely a “natural”
part of the life cycle. It is not in itself a beautiful,
cyclical, harmonious, thing. Death cuts against the very
purposes for which human beings were created.
Now, perhaps, you can see why God is not merely interested
in the salvation of souls. He did not take on human nature
and human flesh merely to bring human spirits to an ethereal
heaven of harps and halos. God did not send his Son to suffer
death on a cross so that we might enjoy disembodied bliss.
An ancient (but increasingly regurgitated) heresy called
“Gnosticism” suggests this very thing—that salvation represents
the liberation of the human spirit from the prison-house
of flesh. Death, according to this view, is not the last
enemy. Death is “freedom.” Gnostics, both ancient and modern,
reject the Incarnation, reject the Resurrection, reject
the Ascension, reject the bodily, fleshy, tangible and historic
aspects of Christianity, preferring a purely “spiritual”
salvation.
But when we turn to the scriptures, we find that such a
“salvation” would be bare and paltry. There would be no
victory in it. A salvation without Resurrection would, in
fact, constitute something of a divinely ordered retreat.
The faithful would, in such a scenario, be rescued from
the battle, but leave in the Enemy in possession of the
field.
But our God is not a God of half-victories and narrow escapes.
He is Lord. He will be all in all. At his Name every knee
will bend and tongue confess. There is no power on earth
or in heaven or under the earth that can resist his Power.
Neither Satan, nor Sin, nor Death will stand against him.
The Resurrection of Jesus Christ, then, is the substance
of God's victory and of our salvation. It is the complete
reversal of the Fall and its effects. When, on Easter morning,
the angel rolled away the stone, the flaming sword was sheathed,
and Man, body and soul, spirit and flesh, walked out of
his tomb and returned to the Garden of God.
50 days later when Christ ascended, bodily, into heaven
and passed into the Holy of Holies as our Great High Priest,
all those in him were also reunited through him to the Father,
to full, perfect communion with the Godhead. The original
created relationship between God and Man was finally and
gloriously restored.
The eternal fruit of this victory is our inheritance as
Christians.
The bodily Resurrection of Christ and his Ascension accomplished
Man's return to Eden and is thus the necessary prelude to,
the first-fruits of, the General Resurrection of all humanity,
the full restoration/recreation of God's universe, and the
ultimate salvation of all who believe.
When Jesus Christ returns to earth he will bring Heaven
with him. All the dead, from every nation and age, believer
and non-believer, will rise, imperishable, immortal to be
judged in the body and suffer in the body the penalties
for sins committed in it.
But those who believe, though guilty, will be declared righteous
on the basis of Christ's righteousness and forgiven on the
grounds of his death and cleansed by his blood, so that,
from that moment on we will live, body and soul, with him
in the new Heaven that is made one with the New earth and
there will be no more death, mourning, crying or pain. God
will wipe every tear from every eye and his dwelling will
be with Man forever.
This, finally, is what it means to be “saved.”
It does not simply mean that we have been reborn and transformed
inwardly. Rather, this inner rebirth and transformation,
this inner resurrection, serves to bear witness to the future
Resurrection of our bodies, the promise made sure on Easter
morning; that one day our bodies will be like His body and
once more and forever we will walk with God in the cool
of the Garden, a Garden itself transformed into a City,
Holy Jerusalem, the City of God.
This, then, is our hope: Heaven and Earth joined together,
creation restored, made new, populated by immortal men and
women living, body and spirit, in the eternal company of
the everlasting God.
But all of it, without the historical bodily Resurrection
of Jesus Christ, is merely a good dream. Christianity without
the Resurrection is just another futile human attempt to
make peace with death. It is no better than any other religion
or philosophy.
This goes to the logic of Paul's argument in 1st
Corinthians 15 . If there is no Resurrection, if bodily
Resurrection is not possible, then Christ also is not raised.
If Christ is not raised then there is no reason, no ground,
no foundation, for believing either that our sins have been
put away or that Jesus' claims regarding his identity are
true. If Christ is not raised then, in fact, both our souls
and our bodies are lost. Jesus turns out in such a case
to be a pitiable man, either incredibly arrogant or wildly
insane.
This is why Christians have, from the very beginning, zealously
defended the historicity of the Resurrection accounts in
the New Testament. This is why contemporary Christian apologists
are so vigorous in their defense of the empty tomb and the
Resurrection appearances, to show that the women and disciples
did not see a ghost but the living Lord who walked, talked,
and ate with them and offered his wounds for their examination.
If Christ had remained in the grave, then our salvation
would not be complete.
If the life and death of Jesus provide the basis or the
grounds of salvation by doing away with sin and death and
providing for the imputation of an external perfected righteousness
that we cannot attain, the resurrection of Christ is that
salvation. Jesus gains for us in his rising the salvation
that he won by his life, suffering, and death. The Resurrection
is the victory of God. It is the content of salvation. It
is the end and the goal toward which his life and death
pointed. It is a return to the Tree of Life and the Garden
that will one day be a city.
end
UPDATE
CONTENTS
WHILE
WE WERE GONE
BIBLE
STUDIES
YOUTH
STUFF
CHOIR
ADULT
EDUCATION
SUNDAY
SCHOOL
CHILDREN'S
CHAPEL
GOOD
SHEPHERD LIST-SERVE
SUNDAY
MORNING PRAYER GROUP
MISSION
AND MINISTRY FAIR
NEWS
WHILE
WE WERE GONE:
This was the first vacation, since I have been at Good Shepherd,
during which I have been able to completely relax. So many
of you stepped forward to use your gifts and you did so
with care, diligence and excellence. It was very encouraging
to know that ministry continued to take place, not just
maintenance, and that so many different people participated.
Thank you so much to everyone.
BIBLE
STUDY : All
of the Bible Studies will be up and running beginning the
week of Sunday the 26 th (this Sunday). If you are new to
Good Shepherd, or if you have been here for years, the bible
studies are great ways to deepen your relationship with
God, to learn about him, to see the way that he acts in
the world and the way he can and does act in your own life.
Just as a reminder, there are five studies.
TUESDAY
MORNING BIBLE STUDY: We're
working backwards through the New Testament and are currently
in Philippians. If you're at home during the day or start
work late or have some free time, this is an excellent study.
9:00am in the Parish Hall
FIRST
LIGHT BIBLE STUDY: Tuesday Nights 6pm in the Parish Hall.
This is for
people who know their Bible's fairly well or who have been
through the New Beginner's Bible Study. We're currently
reading through Proverbs.
BEGINNERS
BIBLE STUDY: Thursday Nights, 6:30pm in the Parish Hall.
If you have
no experience with the Bible or are intimidated at all and
don't know where to begin, this is the study for you. We
discuss where things are in the Bible, how to find your
way around, how to read the Bible and how to apply it to
your own life. Even if you have some experience but feel
like you need a brush up, we'd love to have you. James
MEN'S
BREAKFAST AND BIBLE STUDY: Friday, 6:30am in the Parish
Hall. I know
its early, but if you can get up, we'll feed you breakfast.
We're currently reading through Matthew. All men, and their
sons are welcome.
WOMEN'S BIBLE STUDY: Saturday 10am in the Parish Library
. Besides tea
or coffee and usually a little something to eat, we've been
looking at the life of Elisha the prophet in the Old Testament.
We'll be done with this in a couple of weeks and will be
starting a new book. Women of all ages and interests are
welcome!
YOUTH
STUFF FROM
MICAH
Sunday
night from 6-9pm , there will be some things set up in the
Parish Hall (and around the church) for the youth. This
is aimed primarily at high school, but if you really really
want to come, I don't mind. There will be some video games
set up on a big screen as well as movies and homemade pizza.
Next week I won't be here, so there won't be an activity.
But set the date for the following weekend. If you didn't
get a copy of the youth activities list for the next month,
see me. There are also a few copies floating around down
in the parish hall. At some point, I need to put together
a contact list of all the kids and their parents. E-mail
is my preferred method of communication, but phones and
snail mail also work. Feel free to contact me anytime: (607)621-2876
.
CHOIR PRACTICE : Choir will be meeting one
more Thursday Night at 7:30 . After that, the practices
will move to Sunday afternoons. This is to accommodate Micah,
who will be here only on the weekends from now on, and all
of you who are booked up through the week. If you are not
currently a member of the choir and would like to be, PLEASE
call 621-2876 or 773-4810 . We are in need of every kind
of voice—Soprano, Alto, Tenor and Bass. Also, if you play
an instrument and would like to glorify God in that way,
please call the numbers above.
ADULT
EDUCATION SERIES:
HERESIES AND CULTS:
This Saturday I'll give a brief update regarding the goings
on in the Anglican Communion and regarding what happened
at the Network Council Meeting, then we'll take up the ancient
heresy of Arianism:
You
can read about that here:
http://mb-soft.com/believe/txo/arianism.htm
SUNDAY SCHOOL: This year will see a few
minor changes in the realm of Elementary and Jr. High Sunday
School. The first change will be one of space. The 3 to
6 year olds will be moving into the small Atrium on the
third floor, in order that the 6 to 9 group can share space
with Jr. High. Each class will have its own curriculum and
teachers, but our space issues are such that we will have
to share. None of these changes will take place until after
Ingathering/Mission's Fair, September 16 th . Until then
Summer Sunday School will continue as it has been.
CHILDREN'S
CHAPEL :
Another new and exciting ministry beginning this year is
Children's Chapel. As most of you know, I am committed to
having children in worship, both as participants and as
ministers (acolytes, musicians etc.) but we've found that
the sermon time can be a little bit long, especially for
the little ones. So this year, after the gospel children
aged 3 / 4 (who are beginning to speak well) and 8 will
be invited to go down stairs with Mrs. Carmen Swoffer-Penna
to hear a Bible Story, sing some songs and worship together
before coming back up in time for the Birthday Prayer time
and Eucharist. You'll notice we're already arranging a space
downstairs in the Parish Hall to make this time possible.
Thank you in advance to Mrs. Swoffer-Penna and her willingness
to undertake this new ministry.
GOOD
SHEPHERD LISTSERVE: I
want to again encourage you to join the Good Shepherd list-serve.
A list-serve is a discussion forum that is generally carried
forward by email. Someone will open a topic by sending an
article or by posing a question to the list. All others
subscribed to the list receive that article or question
by email and have the opportunity to address the topic and
participate in the general discussion simply by replying
to the message. Your response will automatically be sent
to all who are subscribed to the list.
Isaac Njuko, one of our newer members, hit on the idea of
setting up the list-serve for Good Shepherd after Christian
education one Sunday. He thought it would be a good way
to continue the interesting discussions we have there throughout
the week and a good way pare ourselves for future Christian
ed topic.
If you would like to be included on the discussion list,
please follow this link to subscribe:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/COT_GoodShepherd/join
I
will be participating quite a bit on the list-serve during
my vacation. So if you have any questions about God, theology,
scripture, Christian living, this is a great place to join
and ask.
SUNDAY MORNING PRAYER GROUP—Update:
It
is physically beyond Anne, at this particular moment, to
make it downstairs after Sunday school to the library for
this 15 minute prayer time ( 10:15-10:30am ). Her physical
limitations, however, should be no means be a reason for
the group to stop meeting. You don't need to sign up. Just
make your way to the library for a few minutes of prayer
after Sunday School and before Service. This is an excellent
opportunity to prepare your heart and mind for worship,
to pray for the preacher and other ministers, and to ask
that the Holy Spirit will work in the church.
MISSION
AND MINISTRY FAIR
As
Last Year, the Sunday after Labor Day , September 9, will
be the Annual Mission and Ministry Fair. In place of Education
for Everyone, the parish hall will be transformed into a
Fair of Many Displays, in front of which will be a chance
to sign up for jobs for the fall. Matt and I will be contacting
heads of Ministries this week to remind you about your display.
In the meantime, everyone can be praying about what ministry
God might be calling you to this year. Take the opportunity
to evaluate everything you're doing and put your priorities
in order for this coming year.
Here
are just a few of the Jobs you'll be able to sign up for
at the Fair:
Sextons
—we don't pay anyone specially to clean the church.
We do this important work ourselves. But that means everyone
pitching in a little. You have the option of signing up
for an individual weekly job (mopping a floor, vacuuming
a room) or signing up as a family or group of people to
be on a monthly rotation. The teams do a more in depth cleaning
of the church each week.
Shepherd's
Bowl —the original teams are still in place from
when the Soup Kitchen first began. Some of them are well
overdue for a sabbatical from this ministry. If you've never
served in a soup kitchen before, or have and would like
to do it again, Please look for this Sign up!
Calling
Committee —This is an important and little known
ministry in the church. Calling Committee Members are given
a Short List (short being the operative word) of church
members to call when information needs to go out quickly.
The more Calling Committee Members there are, the shorter
each list. Happily for everyone, the church is getting bigger
and so many more people are needed for this job.
Altar
Guild —This group prepares the altar for worship
each week as well as cleaning and maintaining the linens
and brass. It is, at this point, made up of women, but men
are welcome to join. Without the Altar Guild, Sunday morning
worship would be much impoverished. Please consider signing
up.
Eucharistic
Ministers —these are the people who serve on the
altar during worship, both at 8am and 10:30 am each Sunday.
If you have always wanted to be in the thick of the action,
or to serve in worship particularly, please pray about this
opportunity.
Readers
—Another opportunity during worship. Readers read
the lessons before the Gospel. Proclaiming God's Word aloud
in church is an important part of Anglican Worship and an
excellent way to serve God.
This
list is by no means exhaustive, but I hope you will pray
about some of these, or other jobs and come prepared to
commit to the upbuilding of the whole church.
HAVE
YOU…. shared your faith with a friend? The vestry has challenged
all of us to share our faith in Jesus Christ with at least
one non-believer each month.
Good News for the Week
"
'The LORD declares to you that the LORD himself will establish
a house for you: When your days are over and you rest with
your fathers, I will raise up your offspring to succeed
you, who will come from your own body, and I will establish
his kingdom. He is the one who will build a house for my
Name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever.
I will be his father, and he will be my son. When he does
wrong, I will punish him with the rod of men, with floggings
inflicted by men. But my love will never be taken away from
him, as I took it away from Saul, whom I removed from before
you. Your house and your kingdom will endure forever before
me; your throne will be established forever.' " (2nd Samuel
7:11-16)
Don't
forget to....BRING A FRIEND TO CHURCH!
Daily Schedule for the week of Sunday August 26th, 2007
Monday:
pastor's day off
Tuesday
8:30 a.m. Morning Prayer
9:00 a.m. Tuesday Morning Bible Study
6:00 p.m. First Light Bible Study
Wednesday
8:30 a.m. Morning Prayer
Thursday
8:30 a.m. Morning Prayer
5:30 p.m. Shepherd's Bowl
6:30 p.m. New Beginners Bible Study
Friday
6:30 a.m. Men's Breakfast/Bible Study (still
going)
8:30 a.m. Morning Prayer
Pastor's sermon prep day
Saturday:
10:00 a.m. Women's Bible Study
4:30
p.m. Hebrew Class
Sunday
September 2nd, 2007 SUNDAY
MORNING WORSHIP (SEASON OF PENTECOST)
8:00am
Worship, Holy Communion and Sermon
9:15-10:15
a.m. Christian Education for All Ages
10:15-10:30
a.m. Prayer in the Library
10:30am
Worship, Holy Communion, Music, Sermon
God bless you all
In Christ,
Matt+
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