TO KNOW CHRIST AND TO MAKE HIM KNOWN
It’s time to order tulips, daffodils and lilies to decorate the East Hills Moravian Church sanctuary for Easter morning.
Order them In memory of a loved one, in honor of a loved one or special event, or for blessings received.
You may take your flowers home after the last service Easter morning. Plant them in your garden where they’ll bloom for many years!
Deadline to place your order is March 26, 2017.
Please use the Easter Flowers order form here
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Then Jesus told them a parable about their need to pray always and not to lose heart. – Luke 18:1
Prayer is the foundation of the life of faith in both individuals and the church. It is an essential practice for anyone who is serious about following Jesus or growing spiritually.
Both Jesus and Paul seem to imply that the alternative to praying “without ceasing” is to lose our heart. We can interpret this in several ways.
Losing heart may mean that we become discouraged. Our challenges and the crosses we bear may become too heavy for us without prayer. The Spirit of God moving within us is quenched and our faith may wither and die. Thérèse of Lisieux said: “For me, prayer is a surge of the heart; it is a simple look turned toward heaven; it is a cry of recognition and of love, embracing both trial and joy.” If you have never established a practice of prayer, simply turning your thoughts to God several times a day is an excellent way to begin. Prayer preserves our relationship with God and safeguards us by keeping our hearts close to our Savior and Sustainer.
Losing heart may also mean that our hearts are hardened into cynicism as we confront the realities of daily life. Prayer softens hearts so we are able to again see ourselves and others through the eyes of God rather than those of the world. As we pray, we are reminded of Jesus’ words, “Truly I tell you, just as you did it to one of the least of these who are members of my family, you did it to me.” A soft heart is a healthy, growing, living heart.
Finally, without ceaseless prayer on the part of its members, the good intentions and actions of the church are not anchored in the work of God. We risk losing the heart of our ministry which is to further the saving work of Jesus Christ rather than serving ourselves or preserving any institution. Recall that Jesus said: “For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake, and for the sake of the gospel, will save it.” Only by losing ourselves in God’s work as we are empowered from on high through continual prayer can we hope for future vitality as individuals and as church.
Truly then, we must pray always and not lose heart; for without a heart, all the living die.
This is the Easter season it is a time for new life – a time to pray without ceasing.
– Pastor Derek French
Carl Heinrich Bloch – The Resurrection Of Christ
Do you know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? … If we have been united with him in a death like his, we will certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his. (Romans 6: 3, 5)
On a day we now call “Easter” Christians gather to celebrate God’s resurrection of Jesus Christ. This holy day lies at the very heart of Christian faith – especially in its Moravian expression. Moravians have been called “The Easter People.” Yet amid the glories of sunrise worship, the fellowship of an early morning breakfast together, and cherished, if painful memories of those who “have entered into the joy of their Lord” since last Easter Day, how many find time to reflect on the full implications of belief in the resurrection of the dead?
Resurrection is not a description of an afterlife; resurrection is the reversal of death itself. It is the triumph of God over grave. To believe in the resurrection of the dead is to hope for something more than continued personal existence as an immortal soul after one’s body has perished. It is to share the faith of the Old Testament’s Job who said: “For I know that my Redeemer lives, and that at the last he will stand upon the earth; and after my skin has been thus destroyed, then in my flesh I shall see God.” (Job 19: 25, 26)
According to ancient Hebrew belief, soul and body were aspects of a differentiated, but unified person rather than independent components existing in their own right. Not until they were influenced by the thought of the Greek philosopher Plato did Jewish writers begin to speculate about the continuation of the soul apart from the body. The earliest expressions of Christian faith accord with their ancient Jewish antecedents.
In the Resurrection, God gives life not to some disembodied spiritual aspect of Jesus, but to an Incarnation – a person of flesh and blood. On this St. Paul and all the Gospels agree. Following his resurrection, Jesus eats with his disciples, teaches them, and has them touch him. “Look at my hands and my feet; see that it is I myself. Touch me and see; for a ghost does not have flesh and bones as you see that I have.” (Luke 24:39) The Gospel of John portrays Christ inviting Thomas to touch the nail-wounds in his Savior’s hands. (John 20:27)
Belief shapes our approach to the world and to life. If we believe only in the immortality of the soul we may be tempted to turn our backs on the world’s problems, live as best and as happily as we can and take comfort in the thought that we are only passing through. If we believe that at the last Christ will stand on the earth and that we, in our flesh shall see God, we do not have the luxury of such individualistic detachment and complacency.
God’s resurrection of Jesus is the opening act of a new work of redemption and renewal touching all aspects of creation, both physical and spiritual, so that the Creator’s will might be done on earth as it is in heaven. If we have been baptized into the death of Jesus, if we hope for and anticipate a resurrection like his, it follows that we must begin living into that reality today.
Lent is (almost) upon us and it’s time to order flowers to beautify the church on Easter morning. This year we are offering lilies, daffodils, and tulips and they may be taken home after the last service Easter morning.Please download and complete this form to order your flowers.
Order deadline for Easter Flowers is March 6th, 2016
(Regarding her brother, Lazarus) Martha said to him, “I know that he will rise again in the resurrection on the last day.” Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. Those who believe in me, even though they die, will live, and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die.” (The Gospel of John 11: 24-26). Do you believe this?
“The Resurrection Of Christ” 1700, Noël Coypel [Public domain]
The Resurrection lies at the center of Christian life, faith and hope. For the Apostle Paul, God’s raising of Christ affirmed the redemptive nature of Jesus’ death on the cross and served as a conclusive declaration that Jesus was the Son of God. (Romans 1:3-4) Christ’s resurrection is the lens through which his followers interpret his life and teaching. For that reason, Christians around the world gather in sanctuaries and graveyards, on mountains, and seashores each Easter to proclaim God’s victory over the power of sin and death and God’s promise of eternal life with the words, “The Lord is risen.”
Yet the Resurrection is not just a hope deferred until our death or the death of a loved one. If we so choose, it can be an everyday reality shaping all aspects of our lives. We can look within and around us to discern where God is bringing about new life. Only as we do so do Jesus’ words to Martha begin to make sense: “everyone who lives and believes in me will never die.” Elsewhere Jesus says: “This is eternal life; that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.” (John 17:3)
Of course, in order to perceive the action of God, one must first believe such action is possible. At first Martha could not believe when Jesus said to her, “Your brother will rise again.” (John 11:23). The truth was too good to be true. But with God, all things are possible. Jesus said: “I am the resurrection and the life. Those who believe in me, even though they die, will live, and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die.”
Do you believe this? Do you live this belief?
– Pastor Derek French
As a bonus, you may take your flowers home with you and plant them in your garden after the last service Easter morning.
Enjoy your Easter flowers for years to come!
Order your flowers by completing the attached form. Return to Anna Kohler with your payment tby March 22 (address and contact info is included in the form).
Download Easter Flowers form (Word doc)
Pop culture and marketers urge us to gratify our desire for pleasure and convenience whatever the cost and tell us that we each deserve such things. Lent suggests we forgo certain pleasures for the sake of spiritual discipline in order to grow in our faith. Culture celebrates the ego-self and places each person at the center of his or her own virtual world with every perceived need and whim being catered to. Christ calls us to self-sacrifice, saying: “Whoever does not take up the cross and follow me is not worthy of me. Those who find their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will find it.” (Matthew 10:38-39)
The conflict between the values of secular society and those commanded by Christ make Lent the most profoundly counter-cultural season of the church year. Followers of Christ can expect no support from the culture around them as they try to deepen their relationship with God or grow spiritually. For this reason, it is important that the church help its members keep a holy Lent. One way your church supports your growth as a disciple of Christ is by scheduling dinners and programs each Wednesday in Lent.
Ash Wednesday Worship (imposition of ashes if desired) Sanctuary, March 5 at 7:00 PM
Wednesday Lenten Dinners & Programming March 12, 19, 26 and April 2, 9
(To be held in Fellowship Hall)
Dinner at 6:00 PM followed by prayers and song at 6:50 PM
Half hour programs for adults and children on Christian discipleship 7:00 to 7:30 PM
Children will be learning the good news about Jesus as they add one reminder bead each week to a bracelet in a program entitled, “The Good News Beads.”
The adult program is entitled “Jesus Still Lead On” and is a study of Christian discipleship based on the Moravian Covenant for Christian Living and The Foundation of Our Faith by The Rev. Kevin Frack of the Moravian Church in America, Southern Province.
Holy Week Reading Services April 14-16, at 7:00 PM
Maundy Thursday Holy Communion April 17th at 7:00 PM
Good Friday Tenebrae Service April 18th at 7:00 PM
– Pastor Derek
Pastor Derek French’s Lent message appears in The Star, March 2014
Good Friday at East Hills Moravian Church
Please order by completing the form below and return it with payment to Anna Koehler (address is on order form).
Order deadline is Sunday, April 6th, 2014
Click here to download the order form (a window will open – save the order form to your desktop or other folder)
Easter morning at East Hills
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