Tag: Jesus Christ

Advice and a Challenge for Followers of Jesus

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Recently, I read the news online to catch up on world events; instantly I wished I had not. Have you had a similar experience? You want to be well informed, but when you turn on the television or surf the ‘net’ you find yourself awash in stories of corruption, political rancor, and human tragedy. In short order, you may find yourself either feeling numb to human suffering or depressed and resigned to the sorry state of the world.

Whatever commands our emotional and mental attention profoundly shapes our understanding and experience of life. We are what we think as much as what we eat. Our thoughts affect how we understand the world and ourselves and influence how we interact with others. That is why it is vitally important that we each be aware of our thought process and its personal, social, and spiritual implications.

This insight is not new. Two thousand years ago the apostle Paul addressed the issue when he wrote the following advice to members of the congregation in Philippi, a city named after the father of Alexander the Great.

Finally, beloved, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is pleasing, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence and if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things. Keep on doing the things that you have learned and received and heard and seen in me, and the God of peace will be with you.
(Paul’s letter to the Philippians 4:8-9)

With these words, Paul urges followers of Jesus to take responsibility for their thoughts as well
as their words and actions. He understood that the vitality of the congregation at Philippi, the
effectiveness of their Christian witness, and the capacity for individual spiritual growth were all
either nurtured or hampered by whatever occupied members’ minds. The same holds true for us at East Hills Moravian Church.

Here’s the challenge:

  1. Become aware of what you think and take responsibility for your thought patterns.
  2. In your own life and in our life together as a community of faith, what is true, honorable,
    just, pure, pleasing, commendable, or excellent?
  3. If you feel comfortable doing so, why not share your awareness of these blessings with someone else?
  4. Make a commitment not to give power to negativity. Do not invest yourself emotionally or
    mentally in negative thoughts. Allow your own negative thoughts to pass through your mind quickly without judgment or comment. (When you try to resist negative thoughts actively, you may find that they get “stuck” – that is you obsess.) Extend the same grace towards others who express negative opinions. Hear them out, but neither affirm their negativity nor engage them in a struggle over it.

– Pastor Derek French

 

Resurrection Now And Hereafter

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(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?

Noel Coypel resurrection of christ

“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)

  • How is God working within you to bring about new life? – A resurrection of spirit?
  • How is God working within those around you to bring about new life?
  • How is God working within God’s church to bring about new life?
  • How is God working throughout the world to bring about new life?

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

Birthing Christ Within Our Soul: The Essence of Christmas and Christian Faith

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Had Christ a thousand times,

Been born in Bethlehem,

But not in you, your sin

Would still your soul condemn.

– Angelus Silesius

christmas advent

Matthias Stomer, Adoration of the Christ Child, circa 1660.

One should not mistake decorating for the holidays as preparing oneself for Christmas.

Living in the “Christmas City”, it’s sometimes easy to confuse the two. Bethlehem does a great job decorating for the holidays and marketing itself as the American destination for Christmas merrymaking. Since mid-October, city work crews have installed trees with lights on all the lamp posts. They have strategically positioned oversized Advent wreaths at major intersections around town. Local shops – even grocery stores – flood us with cheery tunes about family, fellowship, snow, and celebration. Meanwhile we decorate, shop for gifts for friends and loved ones, and anticipate our favorite personal holiday traditions. We are ready for the holidays – but are we prepared for Christmas?

If you would learn the true meaning of Christmas, do not look to society with its holiday glitter. You will not find the Christ-child there. There is no room for him in crowded malls and streets filled with frenetic holiday shoppers. Nor can Christ be found online in the midst of special holiday offers. To prepare for Christmas, seek the birth of the Christ-child within yourself.

The highest worship is like unto God to grow,
Christlike to be in life, in habit, and love’s glow.
– Angelus Silesius

Christmas comes the day Jesus’ Spirit is born within us.

O Holy Child of Bethlehem, descend to us, we pray;
Cast out our sin, and enter in, be born in us today.
We hear the Christmas angels the great glad tidings tell;
O come to us, abide with us, our Lord Emmanuel!
– Phillips Brooks

Have a Blessed Christmas,

– Pastor Derek French

Father’s Day: Lessons for Earthly Dads and the Rest of Us

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While Hebrew scripture draws upon many images to convey the relationship of God to humanity, language depicting God as divine King or holy Lawgiver often predominates. As some prophets before him, Jesus preferred to use more intimate, familial language when speaking about (or to) God. Jesus often referred to God as his Father and encouraged his followers to do likewise. Indeed, our Lord starts his model prayer with the words “Our Father.” What was Jesus trying to convey about God when he used this “father” language? How does this inform our understanding of human fatherhood?

gpd the father

To be sure, children are to obey the fifth commandment to honor their fathers and mothers. Yet healthy father-child relationships are based more on love than obedience. The ideal father – and it is the ideal which Jesus lifts up as an image of God – loves his children unconditionally. As father he provides for his children and looks to their ultimate well-being by giving them rules for living in harmony with creation and each other. Given the presence of free-will and self-determination in this world, fathers may not be able to shield their children from all suffering, conflict, and misfortune but they certainly do not willingly afflict them. (See Luke 11:11-12)

For Jesus, the father is more than just chief provider and protector of the family. The father is also as emotionally engaged in the lives of his children as their mother – rejoicing when they experience joy, and weeping when they are hurt or suffer loss. Like the mother, the father is also a nurturer. He provides wise rules to keep his children from getting into trouble and exercises his responsibility to discipline them when they go astray. Yet he also takes them into his arms and comforts them when they have been hurt. “As a father has compassion for his children, so the Lord has compassion for those who fear him.” (Psalm 103:13) God as Father is thus empathetic and caring as well as strong.

In contrast to image of God as a king who maintains a certain distance from his subjects, God as a Father is actively present on a daily basis in the lives of his children.

As we celebrate Fathers’ Day, we give thanks to the Creator for men in our lives who have, in
whatever small ways, resembled the ideal of our heavenly Father. Earthly dads are not perfect. All have flaws and some so damage their children’s concept of “father” that the latter have difficulty using this language in reference to God. Perhaps anticipating the stumbling block such earthly fathers could become to believers Jesus advises us: “And call no one your father on earth, for you have one Father—the one in heaven.” (Matthew 23:9)

– Pastor Derek French

Lent as an expression of counter-culture

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Given our hedonistic culture it’s no surprise Mardi Gras, that pre-eminent celebration of personal indulgence, has found broad acceptance while the season of Lent has not. Themes of penitence, preparation, and reconciliation do not resonate with our society’s consumerist or narcissistic proclivities.

lent_ash_wednesday

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

Wishing You a Peaceful Christmas and a Joyous New Year

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nativity

Jacob Jordaens, The Nativity, 1653

A bit over two thousand years ago Jesus, the Prince of Peace, was born in a stable because no one would make room for him anywhere else. His earthly parents, Mary and Joseph, were of extremely modest means. Their son’s first resting place was a re-purposed feeding trough. Outside of heaven, Jesus’ birth was a decidedly low key event. Except for a few shepherds and astrologers, no one took much notice – either then or at any point during the next two hundred years. We don’t even know the exact day upon which Christ entered the world.

The first Christmas was of necessity simple, peaceful, and intimate. Given the fanfare and
preparation which precede a child’s birth today we might feel sorry for Jesus. Yet, from the moment of his birth, Jesus had all that truly matters in life. For that matter, so did Mary and Joseph. Mary had time to nurture her newborn and contemplate the love and support of her husband, Joseph, who stayed by her side even though the child who now looked up at her was not his own. With Joseph she could reflect on God’s blessings, on the miracle of birth, the messages of angels, the power of love, and the wonder of the Incarnation. As the angels sang their Gloria, there was peace on earth among those whom God favored.

It is ironic that peace, simplicity, intimacy, and time for prayerful contemplation are so hard to
come by as we celebrate the birth of the Prince of Peace. Having perfected celebration of “the
Holiday season” in all its festive glittering allure, have we lost Christmas? The true treasures
of Christmas–those which Jesus and his parents enjoyed–are free. They cannot be bought with gold or silver.

The Prince of Peace was born in a stable for there was no room for him anywhere else. Have you made room in your heart and time in your life for the Christ or does he need to seek shelter elsewhere?

O Holy Child of Bethlehem, descend to us we pray; Cast out our sin and enter in, be born in us
today.
We hear the Christmas angels the great glad tidings tell; O come to us, abide with us, our Lord
Immanuel.
Have a Blessed Christmas,

Pastor Derek French

Lord of the harvest

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harvestIn an age before supermarkets and seed catalogs the harvest season could be an anxious time of year. The quantity and quality of the harvest often determined the fate not only of individuals, but also of entire communities. A succession of failed harvests brought famine and death while good harvests provided adequate food to sustain the community over the winter and quality seed for planting the following Spring’s crop. Jesus’ hearers would have been acutely aware of all this as they listened to his parable.

“The kingdom of heaven may be compared to someone who sowed good seed in his field; but while everybody was asleep, an enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat, and then went away. So the plants came up and bore grain, then the weeds appeared as well. And the slaves of the householder came and said to him, “Master, did you not sow good seed in your field? Where, then, did these weeds come from?’ He answered, “An enemy has done this.’ The slaves said to him, “Then do you want us to go and gather them?’ But he replied, “No; for in gathering the weeds you would uproot the wheat along with them. Let both of them grow together until the harvest; and at harvest time I will tell the reapers, Collect the weeds first and bind them in bundles to be burned, but gather the wheat into my barn.” (Matthew 13: 26-30)

The weeds in question are most probably darnel – a toxic plant which resembles wheat. Mixing darnel in with the wheat crop was an act of indiscriminate agricultural terrorism. Having toxins mixed in one’s flour was bad enough. Having toxic seed mixed with good seed for next season’s sowing was a disaster in the making for the whole community. Sensible farmers purified both land and crop with fire whenever they detected darnel.

Jesus’ parable suggests that God cares for the Kingdom of Heaven in much the same way that a farmer cares for his crops and fields. That which is unholy and evil cannot be permitted to destroy that which is righteous, holy, and good. For imperfect sinners such as ourselves the good news is that God will not render judgment until the harvest is gathered in. There is still time for each person living to choose whether to cultivate weeds or wheat in his or her life. We cannot earn salvation, yet our life choices do matter. In part, we each self-select a destiny as chaff for the fire or wheat for the barn.

“and all were judged according to what they had done. … and anyone whose name was not found written in the book of life was thrown into the lake of fire.” (Revelation 20:13-15)

Happy Thanksgiving,

Pastor Derek

Register now for Shepherd’s Journey

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east hills moravian shepherds journey christmas adventTake your children on an exciting journey back in time to the streets of biblical Bethlehem on the night that Jesus was born!

Your kids will meet the townspeople, bakers, money changers, and more, as they wander the streets in search of the newborn Christ child. They may even discover a small stable as the shepherds did long ago!

While walk-ins are welcome, it is preferable to pre-register your child. Please use the form below to sign up your children and their friends (ages 3 through 3rd grade)!

2013’s Shepherd’s Journey is Sunday, December 15, from 6:30 – 7:45 PM at East Hills Moravian Church.

To register your child, please download this form. Registrations are due by Sunday, December 8.