I trust that springtime has found you all well.  We enjoyed another great Sunday School lesson this past weekend and discussed the community project that is occurring this coming Sunday.

Whether you missed last week, or did not participate in the “Knock on Nine” event, and even if you haven’t attended Sunday School in a long time, you can still come and join our class in helping to make 2 homes in our “Mile of Grace” better places.  The Mary Virginia Thomas Sunday School Class volunteered to clean up two yards this Sunday.  The more help we have the less time it will take us – however, we have been assured of being done by 10:45 am.  Afterwhich we will enjoy a nice church picnic. 

WE ARE NOT MEETING AT THE CHURCH.  To help us, come to Helping Hands at 8:45 am.  We will have some brief instruction and then head over to our 2 projects.  Wear yard clothes, bring gloves, clippers, weed eaters and the like, plus a little picnic food and join us.  Many hands make light work!

For more information, please read the letter below and/or call the church.

There won’t be a Sunday School Class this weekend.  Hope to see you at Helping Hands.

Brian

5 Then I said to the king, “If it pleases the king, and if your servant has found favor with you, I ask that you send me to Judah, to the city of my ancestors’ graves, so that I may rebuild it.” 
11 So I came to Jerusalem and was there for three days.
12 Then I got up during the night, I and a few men with me; I told no one what my God had put into my heart to do for Jerusalem. The only animal I took was the animal I rode.
13 I went out by night by the Valley Gate past the Dragon’s Spring and to the Dung Gate, and I inspected the walls of Jerusalem that had been broken down and its gates that had been destroyed by fire.
14 Then I went on to the Fountain Gate and to the King’s Pool; but there was no place for the animal I was riding to continue.
15 So I went up by way of the valley by night and inspected the wall. Then I turned back and entered by the Valley Gate, and so returned.
16 The officials did not know where I had gone or what I was doing; I had not yet told the Jews, the priests, the nobles, the officials, and the rest that were to do the work.
17 Then I said to them, “You see the trouble we are in, how Jerusalem lies in ruins with its gates burned. Come, let us rebuild the wall of Jerusalem, so that we may no longer suffer disgrace.”
18 I told them that the hand of my God had been gracious upon me, and also the words that the king had spoken to me. Then they said, “Let us start building!” So they committed themselves to the common good.
19 But when Sanballat the Horonite and Tobiah the Ammonite official, and Geshem the Arab heard of it, they mocked and ridiculed us, saying, “What is this that you are doing? Are you rebelling against the king?”
20 Then I replied to them, “The God of heaven is the one who will give us success, and we his servants are going to start building; but you have no share or claim or historic right in Jerusalem.”  Neh 2:5, 11-20 (NRSV)

Of course, the problem isn’t the ultimate goal – it’s how we get there.  Nehemiah shows us that careful measurement and contemplation of the task, together with prayer for God’s guidance, is necessary before we commence to rally support.  There is a lesson in the reaction of the people as well.  We must also be mindful of keeping open minds toward the leadership of others.  We could scoff with the Sanballats, Tobiahs and Geshems of the world, but it is better to lay our hand to the work; to say “Let us start building!”

21 Be subject to one another out of reverence for Christ.
22 Wives, be subject to your husbands as you are to the Lord.
23 For the husband is the head of the wife just as Christ is the head of the church, the body of which he is the Savior.
24 Just as the church is subject to Christ, so also wives ought to be, in everything, to their husbands.
25 Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her,
26 in order to make her holy by cleansing her with the washing of water by the word,
27 so as to present the church to himself in splendor, without a spot or wrinkle or anything of the kind—yes, so that she may be holy and without blemish.
28 In the same way, husbands should love their wives as they do their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself.
29 For no one ever hates his own body, but he nourishes and tenderly cares for it, just as Christ does for the church,
30 because we are members of his body.
31 ”For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two will become one flesh.”
32 This is a great mystery, and I am applying it to Christ and the church.
33 Each of you, however, should love his wife as himself, and a wife should respect her husband.  Eph 5:21-33 (NRSV)

1 Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right.
2 ”Honor your father and mother”—this is the first commandment with a promise:
3 ”so that it may be well with you and you may live long on the earth.”
4 And, fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord.  Eph 6:1-4 (NRSV)

1 Do not speak harshly to an older man, but speak to him as to a father, to younger men as brothers,
2 to older women as mothers, to younger women as sisters—with absolute purity.
3 Honor widows who are really widows.
4 If a widow has children or grandchildren, they should first learn their religious duty to their own family and make some repayment to their parents; for this is pleasing in God’s sight.
5 The real widow, left alone, has set her hope on God and continues in supplications and prayers night and day;
6 but the widow who lives for pleasure is dead even while she lives.
7 Give these commands as well, so that they may be above reproach.
8 And whoever does not provide for relatives, and especially for family members, has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever.  1 Tim 5:1-8 (NRSV)

By “real” widow, the writer means someone without children or grand-children or other family members upon whom she could rely.  Concerning verse 6 – living for pleasure – Wesley says:

Delicately, voluptuously, in elegant, regular sensuality, though not in the use of any such pleasures as are unlawful in themselves.—Wesley’s Commentary

In other words, if she is so focused on the passing pleasures of this world, she really is dead while living – for those things ultimately do not satisfy.

Okay – so what has this to do with the great mystery of our faith as discussed last week and as referenced in part of tomorrow’s lesson scripture for this week (Ephesians 5:32)?

12 As God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience.
13 Bear with one another and, if anyone has a complaint against another, forgive each other; just as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive.
14 Above all, clothe yourselves with love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony.
15 And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in the one body. And be thankful.
16 Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly; teach and admonish one another in all wisdom; and with gratitude in your hearts sing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs to God.
17 And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.

18 Wives, be subject to your husbands, as is fitting in the Lord.
19 Husbands, love your wives and never treat them harshly.
20 Children, obey your parents in everything, for this is your acceptable duty in the Lord.
21 Fathers, do not provoke your children, or they may lose heart.
22 Slaves, obey your earthly masters in everything, not only while being watched and in order to please them, but wholeheartedly, fearing the Lord.
23 Whatever your task, put yourselves into it, as done for the Lord and not for your masters,
24 since you know that from the Lord you will receive the inheritance as your reward; you serve the Lord Christ. (Colossians 3:12-24)

     I looked at our lesson for today, Service, and wondered how I was to make a connection with the above story.  Let’s say that the table that is being set is “God’s church” and each piece of “service” represents individuals and what gifts they bring to His church.  No two pieces are the same and each piece serves an individual purpose.  All are necessary, but all are different. We are given instruction and proper placement of our “service” through God’s Word.  If we come to the table without “service” it would be extremely difficult to partake of the feast before us.  The same is true of God’s church, in that, if we come to His church without “service”  we can not truly call ourselves “servants of Christ”.  Maxie Dunnam writes:  “To be a Christian person, one fully alive in Christ, is to be one whose life reflects the life of Jesus.”   Paul writes -  “ we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus for the life of good deeds which God designed for us.”  (Ephesians 2:10)  “and it is he who has given some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors and teachers, to equip God’s people for work in his service, for the building up of the body of Christ…” (Ephesians 4: 11-12) – Karen

In Calendar: Christ’s Time for the Church, Laurence Hull Stookey reminds us that we are meant to worship together as a church:

“For many people the church is a voluntary organization of individuals and exists primarily for reasons that relate to efficiency. . .  Because such a gathering is purely voluntary, people feel free to participate when they wish (particularly when they ‘need’ to ‘get something out of it’), and to do otherwise the rest of the time.

“A proper theology of the Day of Pentecost says a resounding ‘No!’ to such popular ideas.  It is not something we choose to do (and equally well could choose not to do), but something to which we are summoned . . . The free-spirited individualism of our age is a manifestation of Babel, not Pentecost, as should be evident from the intransigent divisions and intractable conflicts such individualism fosters.  The Risen One, who is present at all times and in all places, seeks to bind together by the action of the Spirit all things that have been wrongly separated.  Participation therefore is not something we do on the basis of personal choice or need; participation in the Body of Christ is inherent in being Christian.  The church, not the individual, is the irreducible unit of Christianity . . .  No matter how haltingly and imperfectly, the church seeks to enact in the present world the justice and grace that characterize the eternal reign of God.”

How do you think of your participation in the Church?  To you agree or disagree with Prof. Stookey?  How would you define the “Ekklesia”?  How does what he says relate to our study of worship and the Church Year?