Tag: Spirituality

Register now for Shepherd’s Journey

Posted on by

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.

On The Job Training And Continuing Christian Education For Adults

Posted on by

christian_educationFollowing the “Great Recession” of 2008-2009 many gained new appreciation for the role continuing education plays in making oneself employable. In today’s marketplace, no one can afford to be a “one trick pony.” The value of on the job training and continuing education has long been acknowledged. What’s new in this job market is that what once was required to thrive, is now required just to survive.

Given these developments it is surprising how few realize that a healthy and growing faith also needs to be nourished through continuous learning. Many adults haven’t engaged in serious Bible study since attending Sunday School as a child. Fewer still have had spiritual formation training or the benefit of a Spiritual Director. On the job faith training is readily available through East Hills’ many programs of ministry, and yet, our Board of Christian Education, Emergency Shelter program, choirs and many other church groups are always looking for volunteers.

There may be nothing new under the sun, but there are ways to look at life through the lens of Scripture which, if not completely new, might at least be new to you. You wouldn’t want to negotiate adult life with only the experience and job skills you had at age thirteen would you? Why then, would you expect an adolescent faith to sustain you as you struggle to balance family and career, raise children, care for your aging parents, or deal with the challenges of aging yourself? Worship is a great place to start your continuing education as a disciple of Jesus Christ, but it should not be your only source of spiritual growth. Start a program of home Bible study – or better – attend an adult Sunday School class or evening Bible study or discussion group.

You may feel hesitant to attend if you have not done so in the past, but take heart. Unlike the job market, where only qualified applicants need apply, God accepts all persons regardless of previous experience or training. As has often been said, “God doesn’t call the equipped; God equips those he calls.” Rest assured there is a place for your gifts, experience, and energy in the ministry of East Hills Moravian Church. Take the initiative and let us know what God is calling you to do!

This fall we invite you to gather at East Hills Moravian Church for worship and adult Sunday School. Learn how to live a life transformed, renewed and blessed by God. Connect with fellow believers in worship and join together in following Christ as we serve others and glorify God through the sharing of our time, talents and financial resources.
See you in church

Creating Sacred Community

Posted on by

Since its beginning, God has called and challenged the Church to create sacred community in the midst of diversity. As Christians, we find the source of our unity in a common commitment to the Person and teaching of Jesus Christ. Yet, as we know from our secular lives, sharing a common friend and some ideas by no means guarantees lack of conflict. We need practical guidance for living in community such as that the Apostle Paul provided to the church in Rome.

The Apostle PaulLet love be genuine; hate what is evil, hold fast to what is good; love one another with mutual affection; outdo one another in showing honor. Do not lag in zeal, be ardent in spirit, serve the Lord. Rejoice in hope, be patient in suffering, persevere in prayer. Contribute to the needs of the saints; extend hospitality to strangers. Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse them. Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep. Live in harmony with one another; do not be haughty, but associate with the lowly; do not claim to be wiser than you are. Do not repay anyone evil for evil, but take thought for what is noble in the sight of all. If it is possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all. (Romans 12: 9-18)

In many ways, Paul’s advice is a practical explanation of how to live out Christ’s commandment to “love your neighbor as yourself.” It is a “play book” for creating sacred community on a day to day basis. I commend these words to you for personal study and meditation as we prepare to celebrate the 56th anniversary of this congregation.

Today, more than in the recent past, our society needs the alternative vision of community which the church can provide when it is faithful to Jesus and follows Paul’s concrete advice on how to live out our faith. In many ways, as we left the 20th century behind and moved into the 21st century, our society is becoming more and more like that of Paul’s day. We too live in a pluralistic, increasingly urban, and multi-lingual society. Like Christians of Paul’s day, we live among persons fascinated by materialism and the promise of getting rich quickly.

Our society, like that of ancient Rome, is mesmerized by public spectacle and scandal and divided by competing political and philosophical perspectives. There’s much which might divide us from fellow believers yet Christ calls us to unity. As Christians, we must live in this society, but we need not adopt all its values and behaviors.

We can choose to know Christ and make him known through the example of our life together here at East Hills Moravian Church.

See you in church,
Pastor Derek French

Easter Sunday and the significance of The Day Of Resurrection

Posted on by

bethlehem easter service moravianOn Easter morning we gather to hear and respond to familiar affirmations of faith:

“The Lord is risen! The Lord is risen indeed!”

Moravian Easter liturgies speak of a God who so loves humanity so much that he chose to enter a suffering world in the person of Jesus Christ in order to mend our relationship with God, free us from the power of sin, and open the way to eternal life. At the Easter dawn service the congregation responds to such statements of faith with the words: “This we truly believe.”

On Resurrection Sunday, when the band is playing, the choirs are singing, and the church is decked out with daffodils and Easter lilies, it is not hard to affirm Christian faith and attach ourselves to its message of hope. Yet how many of those who gather on Easter Sunday are also willing to walk with Christ through the Garden of Gethsemane, stand with him on the Pavement of Judgment before Pilate, accompany him as he carries the cross on the Via Dolorosa, or stand at the foot of the cross on Good Friday?

In terms of worship, every member of the congregation has the opportunity to experience the last week of Christ’s life prior to his execution by crucifixion during our Holy Week Reading Services. Each night we will take turns reading from the Gospels’ accounts of what Jesus was doing on a particular day or evening. The week comes to a liturgical climax with Maundy Thursday Holy Communion and our Good Friday Tenebrae services.

All evening worship services will be held at 7:00 pm.

In terms of life, every day presents us with many choices to serve God or to serve the world which crucified our Lord. What you decide to do with each day of your life will reveal whether Easter’s affirmation of faith “This we truly believe,” is an accurate expression of personal faith or empty words. Fortunately for all of us, God allows U-turns. No matter how insincere we have been in the past; no matter how unfaithful we may have been in attending worship, in loving our neighbor as ourselves, in keeping God first in our lives, we always have the option of turning towards God.

Must Jesus bear the cross alone,
and all the world go free?
(There’s a cross for everyone
And I know that there’s a cross for me).

No Cross. No Crown.

See you in church,

Pastor Derek

The Paradox of Lent

Posted on by

“… you are dust and to the dust you shall return.”

(Genesis 3:19b)

Meditating on the reality of human mortality is something most of us prefer to avoid. While we know our days are numbered, we usually manage to distract ourselves from this ever present fact with work, family responsibilities and recreation. Yet the Church has a whole liturgical season dedicated to contemplation of death and to the transience of all human endeavors? Why?

monkey trapThere’s an old story about an ingenious monkey trap. Reportedly, the monkey hunters tie a coconut to a tree, drill a hole in the coconut just large enough for a monkey’s hand to reach in, and place a piece of fruit or a nut inside. The monkey comes and is easily able to reach his hand into the hole to grasp the food. Yet when the monkey closes his fist around his prize he can no longer withdraw his hand from the coconut. The delay provided allows a hunter to aim, shoot, and bag a monkey for dinner.

Nothing in the material world lasts forever, but that doesn’t keep us from clinging to families, achievements, possessions, and institutions like a monkey grasping fruit in a coconut. Familiar surroundings provide the illusion of security and permanence while the hunter creeps closer each passing day. Some live to a happy old age. Others fall to illness, accidents, natural disasters, or senseless acts of violence. In the end, we all die. Can we escape this “monkey trap”? Christian faith answers, “Yes!”

The spiritual disciplines of Lent – prayer, worship, fasting, and the imposition of ashes – exist to help us let go of our old selves, our old securities and old identities. It is only with open, empty hands that we can hold the hand of God. When we take God’s hand and follow Christ we discover that acceptance of our mortality has paradoxically led us to a new life on earth, followed by eternal life with God in heaven.

“When this perishable body puts on imperishability and this mortal body puts on immortality, then the saying that is written will be fulfilled: Death has been swallowed up in
victory.”

(I Corinthians 15:54)

Lent and death gives way to Easter and life.

See you in church,
Pastor Derek

Patience: An Advent Virtue

Posted on by

“… the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience…”

Though St. Paul lists patience as the fourth of God’s spiritual gifts, it is a virtue seldom sought or  cultivated by most 21st century Americans. Rather, under the influence of a consumer culture, we have come to expect instant gratification in all aspects of life.

While shopping, we look to see if our line is shortest or whether the line one aisle over is moving a bit more quickly than the one we are in. A day or two now seems too long to wait
for a DVD. Perhaps that’s why Netflix and other movie services are switching to streaming
video over the internet rather than mailing out DVD’s or Blu-ray Discs. A person can choose
his or her movie and watch it instantly.

Quick service is nice, but the most important and fulfilling aspects of life still require varying degrees of patience on our part. Neither best friends nor babies come “guaranteed overnight delivery.” A relationship with either requires patience and the investment of time on our part. Most resistant to haste is the cultivation of the spiritual life and one’s relationship with God.

God’s time frame is not ours. The Psalmist says that for God a thousand years pass as quickly as an evening. Instant gratification exists neither in nature nor in God’s dealings with humanity as they are recorded in the Bible. Grain takes a season to grow from seed to harvest. Many generations were born and died between God’s promise of a Messiah in Isaiah’s day until the time of Christ’s birth. The Jewish kingdom itself, as well as its Babylonian and Persian conquerors, was history long before then. Patience was then, and still is required to maintain faith and hope, let alone joy and peace.

Patience does not mean resignation or inaction. Both of the latter crush hope, and that is certainly not what God desires when blessing us with the gift of patience. The spiritual gift of
patience empowers persons to work actively towards fulfilling the vision of God’s Kingdom
come to earth, even when realization of that vision is delayed. Patience allows us to see
personal trials and loss as temporary afflictions through which we must pass on the way to full
realization of God’s vision for us when we join God in eternal life.

During Advent, our worship services are crafted to help members cultivate the spiritual gift
of patience. Those attending will hear traditional prophecies regarding the birth of a Savior,
light candles marking the passing of time, and sing hymns of longing such as “O Come, O
Come, Immanuel.” 

Come Christmas, worship will remind us once again that good things come to those who wait.

Have A Blessed Christmas,
Pastor Derek

Giving Thanks from Pastor Derek

Posted on by

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?

Posted on by

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