Tag: faith

Giving Thanks from Pastor Derek

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O give thanks to the Lord, call on his name,
make known his deeds among the peoples.
Sing to him, sing praises to him; tell of all his wonderful works.
Glory in his holy name; let the hearts of those who seek the Lord rejoice.
Psalm 105: 1-3

Praise and thanksgiving form part of the foundation of faith. Without them, any attempt at spiritual growth is stillborn. For this reason, the medieval theologian Meister Eckhard once observed: “If the only prayer you said was thank you that would be enough.”

While we deserve credit for using our abilities, time, and energy wisely, much of what makes us who we are lies outside the scope of personal control or credit. We cannot choose our parents or the inherited qualities of character and intellect we harness to make our living; neither can we choose our race, gender, nation of birth, era, or the socio-economic class into which we are born. Depending upon one’s perspective, these things come to us by divine providence or chance.

We in the United States live in a nation in which everyone is relatively rich by global standards. Even if you should find yourself among the bottom 5% of Americans in terms of income, you would still be doing better than 68% of the world’s population in terms of international dollars adjusted for purchasing power. That is the finding of Branko Milanovic of the World Bank, who concludes that the single greatest influence on lifetime income is the nation of one’s birth.

While we can’t choose where we are born, we can choose how we react when we look around and find ourselves living under conditions only dreamt of by the majority of persons on the planet. Either we can delude ourselves into thinking that, as individuals we are somehow entitled to our special status, or we can thank God for the location of our birth and for the blessings of liberty, wisdom, and industry by which our forbearers built the society into which we were born.

Gratitude moves us to aid the less fortunate and help them help themselves – even if the folks in our neighborhoods are doing better than many others in the world. On the other hand, a sense of entitlement hardens the heart and convinces persons that what they or others have is due solely to individual effort. In these challenging economic times, America needs its annual day of gratitude now more than ever.

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!
Pastor Derek French

Have you shared the good news?

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When was the last time you turned on the television, opened a newspaper, or browsed the news on the internet and found yourself overwhelmed by the volume of good news? We live
in a culture seemingly fascinated by the tragic, the divisive, the scandalous, and the
salacious. In such a context, it is well that we remind ourselves that the word “gospel”
literally means “good news.”

Christ calls each of us to be living reminders of the good news he proclaimed during his
earthly ministry. His message is that there is a better way of being human than that which we
so often see described in the news. Through Christ, the world has the possibility of embracing
reconciliation instead of retribution, of discovering what unites us in common humanity,
rather than what divides and isolates us.

One way of witnessing to gospel is for Christians of different races, nations, and
denominations to all partake of Holy Communion on the same day. This is precisely what
many congregations have been doing since 1936, when a number of Presbyterian
congregations in the United States celebrated Holy Communion on the first Sunday of
October and invited other followers of Christ to do the same. From this humble beginning
World Communion Sunday grew into what it is today – a global opportunity to demonstrate
unity in a fragmented world.

On October 7, we join with Christians around the world in celebrating our unity in Christ. We are reminded that in spite of differences of doctrine and creed “There is one body and one Spirit … one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is above all and through all and in all.” (Ephesians 4: 4-6).
See you in church,
Pastor Derek

Keep the Sabbath Day

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Hebrews 10:24-25

Let us consider how to provoke one another to love and good deeds, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day approaching.

Matthew 18:20

“For where two or three are gathered in my name, I am there among them.”

 

As a child growing up in the American South it was fairly easy for my family and I to keep the Sabbath. So called “blue laws” were in effect which prevented the opening of most stores. Going to church, socializing with friends, and possibly eating lunch with them afterwards were the most appealing options for Sunday morning and afternoon activities. Since everyone else was in the same boat we had no real sense of sacrifice or special piety that set us apart from the rest of society. How things have changed.

Now many stores are open 24/7/365 – or 366 if it happens to be a leap year like 2012. We are confronted with many choices and opportunities as we consider how to spend our Sunday mornings and afternoons. There are youth sports, golfing, shopping and dining to consider. For many around us Sunday is merely another day of the week. It is arguably harder to keep the Sabbath today than in the past, and doing so sets us apart from the secular society around us.

We know that the ancient Hebrews believed that the concept of Sabbath was important to God. In fact keeping the Sabbath was among the Ten Commandments God gave to Moses atop Mt. Sinai. What many persons are less aware of is the rationale behind the commandment to remember the Sabbath and keep it holy.

When persons hear the word “commandment” many associate it with an arbitrary rule. While there are persons of deep faith who obey God simply because God has commanded them to do so, others struggle with such obedience. Such persons often find it helpful to understand the rationale behind God’s commandments.

Basically God wants what is best for us, God’s children. God’s commandments guide us towards full, mutually interdependent and joyous life. Imagine a society in which none of the Ten Commandments were observed – a morally rudderless society without a common core of values, in which children no longer respected their parents and persons commit adultery, stole, bear false witness, and murder as they pleased. Perhaps this doesn’t take much imagination for you. Maybe the society in which you live is already moving in this direction. Either way, I think that is is easy to see that it is difficult for everyone to live a full, mutually interdependent and joyous life without such a set of commonly accepted values. Certainly, there may be fulfilled and happy individuals in such a culture but the society as a whole is less functional, less healthy than one united by shared principle. Without ethical norms the weak and less fortunate suffer.

Like God’s other commandments the commandment to keep the Sabbath is not an arbitrary rule; it is intended for our well-being and for the good of society. When we keep the Sabbath and set aside a day of our week on which we do no work we find time for those things which give meaning and depth to our lives – things like worship, fellowship and quality family time. These same things strengthen society as a whole.

It is both an article of faith and a finding of psychology that persons do better when they are not alone and isolated. Yet modern society is plagued by loneliness and isolation. According to a joint study by sociologists from Duke University and the University of Arizona nearly a quarter of respondents lacked a close confidant. Another survey found that in 2008 families in the United States spend an average of just 18 hours per month together as opposed to nearly 26 hours per month in the first decade of the 21st Century. Yet government funded studies have revealed that quality time spent with family – especially around the dinner table – is strongly associated with lower risk among children for alcohol and drug abuse, early sexual activity, better academic performance, and a lower incidence of suicide.  Keeping the Sabbath may not fix all societies ills, but having a day set aside for worship, family time and fellowship certainly can’t hurt either.

For the sake of yourself and your neighbor, for the well-being your children or your grandchildren, to enrich your life and the life of your friends and family, remember the Sabbath day and keep it holy. Gather together with other persons of faith to encounter the Risen Christ, to give and receive encouragement, and to consider how to provoke one another to love and good deeds. Remember God gave the commandment for our own good. As Jesus said, ”The sabbath was made for humankind, not humankind for the sabbath …”

 

Moravian Women’s Sunday Sermon by Reverend Maggie Wellert

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This sermon, written by Reverend Maggie Wellert, was presented on Sunday, November 6, to the East Hills Moravian Church congregation in honor of Moravian Women’s Sunday. It was delivered by East Hills Moravian Church member Nancy Costa.

We’re going to start this morning by playing “Stump the Congregation.” See if you can figure out the source of this quotation:

“Before all things we have first agreed that we will care for one another together in the faith of the Lord Jesus, be established in the righteousness that comes from God, and abiding in love, have hope in the living God. “

For those of you who have been engaged in studying Romans the past few months through Women’s Fellowship, you probably guessed it came right out of Paul’s letter. It sure has all the key words: righteousness, faith, love, hope, living God. It sure could be Paul. But, it isn’t!

Maybe you think it sounds like the Moravian Covenant for Christian Living. It has the same quality, relationship with God that helps us manage our relationships with each other. It sure could be from the MCCL. But it isn’t!

It was written in 1464 by our ancestors in the Unity of the Brethren and is found in a publication entitled “Writing of the Brethren.”1 Here’s another one, this one by Brother Rehor, a founder of the Unity, who wrote this while in prison:

“We are people who have decided once and for all to be guided only by the gospel and the example of our Lord Jesus Christ and his holy apostles in gentleness, humility, patience, and love for our enemies.”2

We are part of a long tradition of recognizing the importance of wrestling with the gospel, wrestling with our God. This call to be a Christian is no easier now than it was in the first century when Paul was discerning this new life with early communities of faith. It is no easier now than it was in the fifteenth century when our ancestors in the Unity struggled with the call to follow Jesus, and what that call meant if they were no longer part of the Roman Catholic communion.

Eventually our Brethren relatives came up with a new way of understanding what is essential for living the gospel in the world. There are two sides to the essentials, the divine and the human. The essentials on God’s side are the grace of God who wills our salvation, the saving work of God in Christ, and the gifts of the Holy Spirit. The essentials that are our human response are quite simply—quite astoundingly—faith, love, and hope.

“The grace of God who wills our salvation, the saving work of God in Christ, and the gifts of the Holy Spirit…”  Paul speaks at length about this amazing grace—the incredible love that God has for us. God’s passion for us is so profound that God chose to become one of us, leaving behind all that makes God, God. Jesus was born to Mary. Through the life, ministry, death, and resurrection of Jesus, we become brothers and sisters to Christ and to one another. Because of Christ’s work, we are healed of the brokenness of sin—we are reconciled, justified by grace through faith.

When Christ ascended to heaven, he promised the gift of the Holy Spirit, the Spirit who continues to move among us yet today; granting gifts to build up the church, the community of saints who are gathered to remember the grace, love, and gifts of God, and then scattered to share that same grace, love, and gifts with all of God’s creation; bringing God’s healing into the world.

The human response to all that God offers: faith, love, and hope.

Faith is our ability to trust in God’s grace. This is how we carry out the Great Commandment: Love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your might. ALL. Hear that fully…God wants our all.

And there is so much that gets in the way: distractions, fears, the voices of the world that call us to follow a different lord and god…not the Lord God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. What is it that challenges you to keep God first in your daily walk? How do you respond to the voices that tempt and allure—to be first, to always win, to always have your way?

Love is taught first by God in Jesus, as if God wanted to say, “this is what love looks like walking around in human form.” What distinguished that walking around love? Jesus was full of compassion, paying attention to the needs and pain, the hunger of those he met daily; taking time to pray and be in touch with God in order to stay focused on his mission; taking time out for dinner with friends; holding children when no one thought children had a place in the center of things. Love looks like Jesus.

After speaking the Great Commandment, Jesus spoke of another commandment like it: Love your neighbor as yourself. That’s precisely what love looks like. And, Jesus wasn’t just talking about the people across the aisle here who look and act like us, who share our values and standards. Jesus was talking about the enemy; the people we don’t like so much; the ones who are annoying, disruptive, who don’t share our values and standards.

How do you respond in love to the many needs that appear at our door steps? Who will feed the hungry? Who will visit the sick? Who will care for the poor and the lonely, offer a word of encouragement to an outsider? How will you love the people sharing this worship space today? Perhaps you can write a card, offer the right hand of fellowship, offer a cup of coffee, or simply listen when another speaks.

Hope…ah, this is the Moravian way of living as declared in the Easter Morning Liturgy. We are Easter people. We audaciously walk to our cemeteries at Easter dawn, even to the grave of the most recently deceased among us, the place where our tears still flow and the wounds are still raw. We stand there and proclaim, death does not have the final word. We are people of hope; we live into the promises of God for the salvation of the entire planet. We will walk the path of love until there is no more pain…because we know that nothing, not even death, can separate us from the love of our God in Jesus Christ.

We live in hope because we daily experience the work of the Holy Spirit in our midst: when we think things have totally fallen apart and we don’t know how to go on, there is this little candlelight that glimmers—an unexpected person shows up to help with the funeral luncheon; a new voice sings with the choir; there are enough turkeys to fill the order for Thanksgiving baskets; that annoying person hugs you in a true spirit of love and you are renewed in your connection.

We live in hope because we live in faith, trusting in the power of God’s love, trusting that we are capable of living out a life of love, in spite of all the voices of hate, in spite of the distractions that threaten to lead us towards envy, loneliness, pain, depression, laziness, or whatever else is threatening you today.

Paul recognized the power of faith, love, and hope in the sacrament of Baptism. Baptism, he proclaims to the Romans, is a symbol of our new life in the Spirit. Our Liturgy for Baptism reflects that reality: called in grace; living in relationship with the Living God; united with Christ through grace and the power of the Holy Spirit; called to a life of faith and willing obedience.

As you wrap yourself around the reality of what God has done—the grace of God, the saving work of God, the gifts of the Holy Spirit—as you ponder this deep love of God for you, consider how you live out the human essentials of faith, love, and hope. Consider how you might renew your commitment to Christ.

 

The Rev. Maggie Wellert

Great Kills Moravian Church

Staten Island, NY

August 9, 2011

1 Rudolf Rican, The History of the Unity of the Brethren, translated by C. Daniel Crews, (Bethlehem PA and Winston-Salem NC: The Moravian Church in America, 1992), 33.

2 Ibid., 30

 

Stewardship Message From Pastor Derek French

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Services this past Sunday featured personal testimonies by Barb Hendricks and Peter Diehl about the importance of worship in their lives. Barb reminded us that while worship may begin during a Sunday service, its blessings extend into all areas of life. Our work and our hobbies can become a form of worship if we do them for God’s glory. Peter shared that worship is a place where he is challenged to grow in his faith and follow the example of Jesus Christ. Worship enriches and expands his experience of life.

This coming Sunday we will hear members of the congregation bear witness to the transformation and blessing that can come to us when we dedicate a portion of our lives to service and mission. We will explore the unique gifts God has given to you and look at ways each of us can use these gifts to bless others in our congregation, neighborhoods, nation and world.

See you at church,

Derek French

This We Truly Believe

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What we truly believe matters. A true belief is an ideas transformed into action. Our actions shape our lives; collectively our lives shape the world in which we live.

The true beliefs of a society determine not only the quality of life of its members, but also that society’s impact on other societies and – given modern humanity’s unprecedented dominion over the earth – the extinction or survival of entire species and/or ecosystems. True belief has its consequences.

What do you truly believe?

In the past the belief structure of many, perhaps even most, persons was shaped largely by that of their local community. Today this is no longer true. We live in an era of heightened communication and access to information. The internet, radio and television allow us to share as never before in an open ended, free-flowing exchange of ideas and beliefs. Old belief systems are constantly exposed to challenge and alternative belief systems. As a result, most persons find themselves assembling a personal belief structure from a variety of  sources – the internet, television programming, school, work, friends, talk radio, etc.

Unfortunately not all ideas and belief structures are created equal. Without some proven frame of reference the individual has no way of evaluating the information he or she receive. That’s where familiarity with a well established, carefully thought-out worldview such as that of orthodox Christianity can help. You may not agree with all the particulars, but at least you don’t have to reinvent the wheel from scratch.

When thinking about faith many persons are immediately drawn to questions concerning whether a said belief is reasonable, defensible, or factually true. For me, the far more important and interesting question is the function of that belief within the life of an individual or society.

The New Testament describes a vision of a world in which the majority of persons truly believe in the God of Abraham, Isaac, Moses and Jesus Christ. It is a world at peace, a world where justice abounds, a world filled with righteous persons, a world where resources are shared, rather than fought over or hoarded. It is a world in which persons forgive the sins, the slights, the injuries they have received from others in the same manner in which they hope to be forgiven by God and by others. It is a world of life, love, and hope.  … And all of this flows from a true, lived belief in a loving Creator who gave his only Son to us to save us from ourselves.

“But,” says the agnostic, “what evidence is there to back up your belief.” None, other than that which can only be perceived by faith. To play on a saying about peace: “There is no way to faith; faith is the way.”

“But,” says the agnostic, “ … many persons in the Church don’t act as if they believe this. Further, this is too idealistic ever to work.” Sadly, both true. Yet this is no indictment of either Christ or Christianity, only of the sincerity of Christians and their unwillingness to live out their belief in daily life. The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.

What do you truly believe? Does your belief make the world a better place?

Wednesday evening Lenten Programs, March 16 to April 13 at 6 p.m.

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I invite you at attend our special Lenten dinners and programs as you observe Lent this year. We will gather in Fellowship Hall to begin with a light meal at 6 p.m. before continuing with presentations and discussion at 7 p.m. Our adult programming will be based on John Bunyan’s classic allegory Pilgrim’s Progress. Appropriate children’s learning activities also scheduled each week. Bring your whole family.
Blessings,
Pastor Derek

Pilgrimage: When the Journey is as Significant as the Destination

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For me, commercial air travel is something to be endured rather than anticipated. If I have the time, I much prefer to travel by car, ship, or train.

True, an airplane is a rapid, sometimes economical, way to cover long distances between two points. But once the novelty of flight has worn off, flying can become merely a means to an end – a way to get to one’s destination and back when one is in a hurry. Travelling forty thousand feet above the earth at an airspeed of 500 knots it’s hard to admire the scenery.

By way of contrast, the last time I crossed our nation by rail I witnessed the gradual changes of landscape as I journeyed from the East Coast’s rolling hills, to the open agricultural heartland of America, across prairies, desserts, and mountains to the Pacific Ocean. Modern homes look more alike all the time, yet each region of the United States still maintains bits of its distinctive architecture. Travelling at a slower rate of speed I also had more time to meet new people and have conversations with them over meals in the train’s dining car or as we watched western pronghorn antelope out the windows of the observation car.

The liturgical season of Lent is an opportunity to slow down spiritually and experience the richness of our journey of faith. During lent the image of pilgrimage is often evoked. A pilgrimage is an intentional journey to a place imbued with spiritual or emotional meaning. In the past, when walking or riding a horse were the fastest modes of transportation available, the journey to a holy site took far longer. Not surprisingly then, the experiences one had along the way, the people one met, and the sights that one saw were considered as integral to the pilgrimage experience as arriving at one’s destination.

We live in a fast, modern world. Yet from time to time we all need to slow down, reconnect with friends, family and strangers, and nurture our spirituality. In short, we need to appreciate and savor what it means to be human. Lent is the perfect time to do just that.