Holy Communion, part 2 - The ApproachIn the second part of this three-part series, we explore the Offertory of the Holy Communion service. This is not merely a plate passed and a pretty anthem sung. This part of the service extend all the way to the Comfortable Words, and acts as the hinge between the Service of the Word and the Service of the Sacrament. Having had faith stirred anew in our hearts by the proclamation of God's word, we now make our approach to his Holy Table by bringing him gifts: our treasure (offering alms), our concerns (praying for the health of his church), our vulnerability (making our humble confession to Almighty God). In short, we bring ourselves, our souls and bodies, as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God by the cleansing of his Word. Download audio file:
0 Comments
Holy Communion, part 1 - The PreparationIn this new three-part series, we explore the liturgy of Holy Communion in the Book of Common Prayer. As we walk through the the liturgy part by part, we will also stop occasionally to look at the ceremonial we use to adorn the liturgy in its exercise at Holy Trinity. In our first lesson, we explored first a few contextual matters:
In this last section, we explored how the liturgy of Holy Communion can be broken down into three major parts:
For these three weeks, we will refer to these three parts as
We concluded our first week by looking more closely at the Service of the Word Download the audio file:
Joseph 3 - True Reconciliation After rising to power, Joseph is suddenly confronted by the chance to avenge himself on his brothers went they present himself to them, not recognizing him, to buy some of Egypt's surplice grain during a famine. Will he take it? Or will he demonstrate that God has changed him according to his own purposes throughout his many trials? And perhaps more to the point, have Joseph's brothers changed at all from when he last saw them eleven years before? Download audio file:
Joseph 2 - From Prison to Prince Despite very cold weather, a group of folks gathered more informally at Eric and Wendy Coykendall's house to continue our series on the Patriarch Joseph. In this lesson, we cover ground in chapters 40 and 41. Here we see Joseph's rise to power within Egypt. For each humiliation resulting in the stripping of Joseph's garments, so every exaltation results in his being literally re-clothed, two times, one for each deprivation. Having been humbled to trust utterly in God, Joseph is nevertheless a strong and confident personality who manages to impress the most powerful man on earth in his day, the Pharaoh of Egypt. This section of the story ends with Joseph "forgetting his father's house," which makes the reader wonder how the promise originally given to Abraham about his descendants is going to continue forward. Download audio file:
Joseph 1 - Jealous Brothers, Jealous Wives Today we began a new series called "biblical biographies," which is actually several month long mini-series on various biblical figures from both Testaments. Our first three-week miniseries focuses on the Patriarch Joseph from the book of Genesis. Looking at Genesis chapters 30, 37, and 39, we walk with Joseph through his two great deprivations, first sold into slavery by his jealous brothers, then wrongly accused by the jealous wife of his master and thrown in prison. In both cases, his humiliation is symbolized by the stripping of his garments. Does Joseph learn anything from these injustices? And where is God throughout all this? Download audio file:
Because we had several Sundays last fall when our church was quite literally *at* capacity, Fr. Adam and the vestry have decided to start a second, earlier, service. The service will be at 8:30 am.
Some quick notes about this service:
We need volunteers! We need readers, ushers, altar servers, altar guild help, and a small cleanup crew. If you know you plan to attend the 8:30 service, or if you are interested in lending a hand while still worshipping at 10:30, please contact Fr. Adam immediately. Creeds 8: Last ThingsIn our final installment of this series on the Creeds, we look at the last two clauses of the Creed which, together with the clause about Christ's return in glory to judge the living and the dead earlier, constitute the basic Christian teaching concerning the end of the age. We explore how the "end times" or "last things" (from the Greek ta eschata, hence "eschatology") have already begun with the resurrection of Jesus Christ, and how the Christian hope is to share in his resurrection glory, and the finality of his unadulterated reign on earth. Eschatology: the study of the end times
Click below to download the audio recording.
Creeds 7: Redemption AppliedIn lesson 3 we learned about the objective work of Christ once and for all completed on the cross. In this lesson, we learn how that objective work is subjectively applied to us, individual believers. In particular, we will look at the role of faith (and where the Protestant Reformers got the idea of by grace alone through faith alone), and the instrumentality of the two Dominical Sacraments, Baptism and the Lord's Supper. Soteriology: the study of salvation
Click this link to purchase your own copy of Thomas Oden's "Classic Christianity," your Rector's recommended reference resource for Christian doctrine. Click below for the audio recording
Below is an audio recording of last Sunday's Annual Meeting of the parish, and a PDF copy of the printed Annual Report.
Creeds 6: People of GodIn this lesson we explore the meaning of the so-called "four marks of the church" contained in the Nicene Creed: one, holy, catholic, and apostolic. Before we defined those words, however, we first explored the meaning of the most important word in this section of the creed: "church." What is it? Where does it come from? And how does the church relate to the Old Covenant people of God? Ecclesiology: the study of the church
Click below to download audio recording.
This chart shows the distribution of the world's religions across the world's major regions. It shows the uniquely global appeal of Christianity, a vivid illustration of the church's "catholicity."
|
Fr. Adam RickA prayerbook Christian with a patristic twist. Archives
September 2021
Categories
All
|