Personal — Passionate — Progressive
The Mystical, Communal Heart of God: Notes to the Church on a church-less Sunday
Sometimes, God's call of us is simply to make a phone call or two.
To connect with those on the margins of our consciousness and perhaps our consciences. Those who may particularly need -- or at the very least appreciate -- a listening ear midst snowbound isolation. To remind ourselves, on this church-less Sunday, that, while a community gathered to praise God can be a radical act in today's get-mine, got-yours world, this blizzard's aftermath can draw our ears into individuals' hearts ... and, simultaneously, into God's own.
Into the mystical, communal heart of God: beautiful ... intimate ... welcoming of the terribly alone. A Spirit-fire, comforting in its warmth yet searing in its solitude, challenging us to go inward not just from our chokedamp world, but with it -- even, within it.
Into the mystical, communal heart of God. What a need we have to go there -- what a desperate need -- as we quietly beckon others to join us 'round its hearth. That deep center of our connected creation, when extremes would compel us ever away:
- Global warming -- no mystery, these Maryland snows measured in feet, not inches.
- Political pundits -- heat that scalds, when light is so sorely needed.
- Wage gaps -- ever widening, in a world that idolizes wealth without work, as well as none for those who don't.
Yet, as we stare out today upon "the hoary frost of heaven", the only extremes I find our God of grace and compassion is interested in is the cold outside and the warm inside. How cold it is when we compare our churning, grimy, and -- let us say it -- shamed and shameless selves to what appears so beautiful and clean and ... calm, outside. And how warm and welcoming and purifying all can be, when we turn ourselves contemplatively back to the fire within.
The fire that burns within each of us. Drawing each of us to, then with, then within, the mystically communal heart of God.
May it be so for you, Super Bowl clamor or no, this awe-full and grace-full and church-less Sunday.
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This Sunday at BPC (2/12)
... at our 11 am Worship, we conclude a three-Sunday focus, "Our Healing Church", with the healing of two lepers: Naaman the Aramean warrior in 2 Kings 5 and an unnamed gentleman in Mark 1. The two-way flow of God's compassion signified by the phrase "healing church" -- the church spreads healing *and* is itself healed -- will be featured in the message, "The River of Healing: From 'Them' to Us". Click here for our colorful bulletin.
Art work on our Sanctuary Big Screen again will "signpost" the sermon -- as well as the Prelude at 10:50, an abbreviated version of an African-American History Month celebration featuring music by Sweet Honey in the Rock and Mahalia Jackson. This special month will also be celebrated in our hymns and other music this Sunday.
Oh, and don't forget our new-and-improved Valentine's Day quiz following Worship, in the Fellowship Hall! Hope to see you Sunday.
Posted by Bethesda Presbyterian on February 10, 2012 at 7:30pm
This Sunday at BPC (2/5) ...
A Lieutenant's Healing Journey! In keeping with Our Healing Church three-part series and the second of three successive healing stories from Mark 1, Marine Lt. James Byerly, who lost both his legs in an IED explosion during combat operations in Afghanistan, will join us in sharing a bit about his healing journey -- with a challenge to our church to be wounded healers, as well. Several of us have met James in his visits to our congregation, as he nears the end of a year-long recuperation at Walter Reed.
Visuals Galore this Sunday! In honor of African-American Month, I invite all to come to the Sanctuary a little early -- 10:45a -- to enjoy a Big Screen slide/song extravaganza celebrating our civil rights pioneers! Featured: Mahalia Jackson ("Precious Lord"), Sweet Honey in the Rock ("Where Are the Keys to the Kingdom?"), speech excerpts from Martin Luther King, Jr. Also, for the very first time, the sermon -- "Action Into Faith" -- will be highlighted by Big Screen visuals.
Sunday's Bulletin is attached. The first sermon of our three-part Our Healing Church series, "Jesus the Healer: A Threat to Order?", can be found here -- along with so much else through our website.
Our Healing Church: a deliberate double entendre. May our discipleship always prove such a two-way street. Come along for the journey!
Posted by Bethesda Presbyterian on February 3, 2012 at 1:00pm
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