heart stories

2 Corinthians 1: 3-7
Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves have received from God. For just as the sufferings of Christ flow over into our lives, so also through Christ our comfort overflows. If we are distressed, it is for your comfort and salvation; if we are comforted, it is for your comfort, which produces in you patient endurance of the same sufferings we suffer. And our hope for you is firm, because we know that just as you share in our sufferings, so also you share in our comfort.

it is in sharing with each other that we set free ourselves. however, jesus also warns us not to cast our pearls before swine so we must be vigilant not to share our pearls with those who will not appreciate or understand what a rare gift we are giving to them.

with that in mind...we are trying something new-ish.

a night dedicated to heart stories

we have always been an open community sharing opinions and points of view with each other.

however, these sharing times have always been built around a certain topic

tomorrow is going to be different because we ARE the topic.

an evening dedicating to sharing, offering testimonies, of where we have seen God at work in our own lives. an evening dedicating to sharing our own experiences in order to bless others. a spiritual open mic night so to speak.

7-8.15
coffee and snacks will be there, the introduction of our new devotional and some beautiful music. hope you can join us.

we offer this video to you. although it is part of another church's stewardship campaign we think it offers some powerful reminders of what this thing called faith is supposed to be all about.

edenism: take back the planet

what are we supposed to do?

is al gore our messiah?

after all, the environment is a hot topic right now [no pun intended] but how should a believer approach such an issue.

as with all things we need to look at something like this with both our hearts AND our minds.

is recycling enough? why has the church been so late to the party on this issue?

immersn purposefully avoids the use of paper as much as possible and uses very little electricity each week but does any of this really matter?

are we polishing brass on the titanic?

the great thing about the faith is that we are always called to believe that there is something that can be done. that the night is not everlasting. that evil does not need to win. that our destiny is a new creation and not destruction. with that in mind let us talk ever-so-briefly about edenism:

he-don-ism 

[heed-n-iz-uhm]–noun
1.
the doctrine that pleasure or happiness is the highest good.

ed-en-ism

[eed-n-iz-uh m]- noun
1. giving of our own time and energy to worship God by caring for creation

while films like an inconvenient truth are helpful in that the budgets and the science and the celebrity attached to them are incredibly useful to get the message out there is something else that a community of believers can add to the equation: love.

we need to take the idea that we could destroy this planet [which, at the risk of overstating the obvious is our home] we also need to see this planet as a profound work of art which sustains us and is a testament to how much we are loved.

therefore, edenism is not just an effort to combat pollution...it is an act of worship, penance if you will, and an apology to god for how we have treated this work of art granted to us by on high.

if we believe that what happens in our bodies impacts our souls then a night spent picking up garbage for god is a profoundly impacting evening given over to our lord. our souls take part in re-claiming god's work. as we scrape the crud and junk from the street [or the woods as in the case of this immersn] we also remove the crud and junk from ourselves. we see all the things that block us from the beautiful view of god that was [and is] ours by right. our souls are also polluted and from that pollution comes the lack of care for how we treat this world and the people in it.

tomorrow night let us, as jesus taught, "wash the feet of god" by cleaning up a small part of the creation so generously bestowed upon us.

Shakespeare was a smart guy. He could express the human condition better and more clearly than anyone.



Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer

The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune,

Or to take arms against a sea of troubles,

And by opposing end them?



To fight or not to fight. To go to war, or to protest against war. Where, as Christians, do we stand?



For as long as there have been communities of mankind, there has been war. But then along comes Jesus, who states that the way forward is a way of peace. Of not fighting, but turning the other cheek. Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called the sons of God (Matthew 5:9).



How do we live with such a commandment in a world as war-torn as ours? Is there such a thing as Just War – a necessary evil to keep the peace? What is the difference between a soldier and a peacekeeper? Are we to stand back and die for peace, just as Jesus died for us and the martyrs died for him, or are we called to fight oppression and wrongdoing in God's name? Peter carried a sword in the garden of Gethsemane; Jesus whipped the extortionists who littered the temple's holy ground. How does that resonate with our own understandings of Christ and his teachings?



It is a topic that asks a lot of questions, none of which have easy answers. But they are necessary questions.

Holy Week Seder Meal

the seder is a jewish meal rich in tradition and symbolism and community
we gather and eat and remember the story of salvation
each part of the meal is an offering to God
the dinner IS the grace.
7pm
plus dessert and a powerful spiritual discipline that will hopefully stick with you for a long time.

This is the holiest time in the christian calendar and we want to mark the event by partaking [and transforming] an event that is thousands of years old.
please join us and celebrate and reflect on the significance of this holiest of weeks.
we walk together
we eat together
we live together
we are together

here is a brief video about the dayyenu from a christian perspective [not sure what a dayyenu is? watch the video]