Sunday, July 15th, 2018 ~ 8th Sunday after Pentecost, 16th Sunday in Ordinary Time
So, who do you think you are? Who do you think First Federated Church is? Well, I’ll tell you the answer revealed in the baptismal font; you – we – are chosen before the foundation of the world to be both holy and blameless. We are called to embrace this gift called Life and to live it to the glory of God all of our days whether they belong or brief.
Sunday, July 8th, 2018 ~ 7th Sunday After Pentecost
Jesus has also called us to go fast and light in the environments in which we live, and sharing the truth: Jesus has come to save the world. Telling the world about this truth is a large responsibility.
July 1st, 2018 ~ 6th Sunday in Pentecost & 13th Sunday in Ordinary Time
The baptismal font and the Lord’s Table are visible signs of an invisible truth – that the cost of membership into the Body of Christ, the Church has been paid. So a more appropriate question would be the one that the Old Testament prophet Micah asked nearly a century before Christ: With what shall I come before the Lord, and bow myself before God on high?
But we, like David, must remember who we are; baptized, adopted children of the Creator of the Universe, of all that Was and Is and Will Be. We need to put on the big boy and big girl pants of our baptism and meet Today’s challenges as bravely and as boldly as David met Goliath thousands of years ago. We are called to use the gray matter between our ears and remind ourselves that “God did not give us a spirit of timidity or cowardice or fear, but has given us a spirit of power and of love and of sound judgment and personal discipline [abilities that result in a calm, well-balanced mind and self-control].”
Special Music: Jazz Worship Service Special Guests: Musicians from the Central Illinois Jazz Society House Band ~ Larry Harms, bandleader, Andy Crawford, bass, Scott Anderson, guitar, and Jeremy Clark, drums.
There is no problem with questioning God, lots of people in the Bible did it, the church has done it for centuries, but when questions turn to doubt we often forget what God has already done for us. Just as God freed the Israelites from slavery, God has freed us too. The slavery from which we have been freed isn’t so much a physical thing, although it can be, as much as it is a freedom from sin. We are no longer bound to it. Those chains have been broken. In God, we are a new people. The old life has gone and the new life has begun. God has freed us.
Today, it seems as though the word of God is rare too. It also seems that when God does call us it’s hard to distinguish God’s voice from every other voice trying to get out attention. Is God calling to us? Or, is it just our desires playing tricks on us? Things would be so much simpler if we had some sort of Caller ID for God. If we could look at a screen and know the call is important because the Caller ID reads “God is calling.” That would make life much easier.
At some point in our lives, we have told a secret. Maybe you told one this week. Or even this morning. At some point in our lives, we’ve heard secrets, some big, some small. Secrets aren’t necessarily bad, but secrets don’t make friends. Secrets leave people out, making them feel excluded and alone.
With Pentecost a new chapter is dawning; a new chapter is being penned in our lives. Are we up to the challenge of tearing down walls, of being color blind, and to see the face of God in the faces of the least, the last, the lost and the lonely?
Spring Cantata: Missa Brevis in d Composer: Mozart KV65 Performed by: The FFC Chancel Choir and Morgan Koehler, Lauren Smagacz, Joseph Maubach, and Greg Etzel; Katie Ross for helping in the alto section; and our string trio: Andrei Gabor, Ellyn Liu, and Felix Yang;
It has been said that there are two lasting things that we give our children; one is roots and the other is wings. Good deep roots make a good foundation upon which they build their lives. Wings give freedom and the courage to fly, to soar on the winds of life.
