New Year Services

There will be a New Year’s Eve service at 6:30pm and a New Year’s Day service at 9:00am.

Wishing you and yours a blessed and safe New Year’s.

Pentecost 24 Give to God what is God’s Oct. 26th, 2008

Matthew 22:34-46
34When the Pharisees heard that he had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together, 35and one of them, a lawyer, asked him a question to test him. 36″Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest?” 37He said to him, “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ 38This is the greatest and first commandment. 39And a second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ 40On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.”
41Now while the Pharisees were gathered together, Jesus asked them this question: 42″What do you think of the Messiah? Whose son is he?” They said to him, “The son of David.” 43He said to them, “How is it then that David by the Spirit calls him Lord, saying, 44‘The Lord said to my Lord, “Sit at my right hand, until I put your enemies under your feet”‘? 45If David thus calls him Lord, how can he be his son?” 46No one was able to give him an answer, nor from that day did anyone dare to ask him any more questions.
The greatest commandment is to love the Lord your god with all your heart soul and mind and the second is like until it you should love your neighbor as yourself.
This past week I was in Connecticut at a leadership conference and one of the faculty was Dr. Donna Hicks who works with the center for international peace at Harvard University. Her major teaching piece was on what she calls the Dignity model. As she taught us about using human dignity as a base for discussions about peace and bringing healing to hurt we learned about what it looks like when we preserve peoples dignity and what happens when there are Dignity violations.
Paul says in his letter to the thessalonians:
In all dealings emanate from the heart of love where Christ alone reigns thes 2:2
Great love, -the disciples were not know for preaching or conflict resolution but for there love.
Dignity I defined as.
dig•ni•ty
1: the quality or state of being worthy, honored, or esteemedWhat are we know for? What is our legacy?
In the baptism service we are asked if we will protect the dignity of every human being. Our response is I will with God’s help. Are we known by our love our respect of each other our holding of each others dignity? Wouldn’t that be a great attribute to be known for?

It seems to me that Jesus keep people’s dignity at the heart of his interactions and ministry. Even the religious leaders. Even to his death he held people’s dignity as sacred even when they didn’t hold his as sacred.

This last week I had the opportunity to go on a couple Bike rides with some really good Bike riders and they were very good about holding my dignity even when I was clearly out of their class.
For me looking at how we act and interact with holding peoples dignity as sacred is a whole new way of looking at the world and my relationships and it gives us a base and example to hold up against in the question of how Christ like are we being as a community. To each other and to the world
The other thing I do at this leadership week is jump into the Housatonic river. I do it because no one else would but I also feel like coming out of that river plunges me into my love for life and God it is my ritual for recommitting myself to God’s call to walk with him. We promise in our baptismal renewal to protect the dignity of every human being with God help may that prayer rise from our hearts and lips to God ears.

In the name of God

Christmas meal benefit this Sunday

Please come to the Christmas concert that benefits the Christmas day free meal.  The concert features Fioratura from Hartford, WI and is free.  A free will offering will be taken and all proceeds go to fund the Christmas dinner.  The concert is at Good Shepherd form 1pm to 3pm this Sunday Dec. 7th.  Please come and tell all your friends.