May 3, 2007

 

 Give up the Struggle to be Innocent

 

The events of Good Friday and Easter tell us is that every single human being is implicated in something profoundly wrong. We say, rather glibly, that Jesus died for our sins, that he died to save humankind – and thereby we say that we are all in need of something we cannot find or manufacture for ourselves, in need of a word, a gift, a touch from someone else, somewhere else, so that we can be made free of whatever it is that keeps us in the clutch of illusions and failures. If the purpose of Jesus dying was that all might be made whole, the implication is that all have been sick. So that Good Friday tells all of us, those who think they’re good and those who know they’re bad, all alike, to look inside and ask what part we would have played in the drama of the Lord’s death. There is only one innocent character in that drama and it isn’t me or you. So for all of us there is something in our lives that would, if it came to it, if it reigned unchecked in us, allow us to range ourselves with the crucifiers – some habit of selfishness or fear, some prejudice, some guilt that we don’t want confronted, some deficit in love or lovability. In some way, however small, we have already contributed to the death of Jesus. He is there on the cross because we are the way we are.

 

But on Easter Day, this bleak recognition is turned on its head. We were all involved; yet the combined weight of every human failure and wrongness, however small or great, all of that could not extinguish the creative love of God. We share one human story in which we are all caught up in one sad tangle of selfishness and fear and so on. But God has entered that human story; he has lived a life of divine and unconditional love in a human life of flesh and blood. He has not protected himself, or forced anyone to accept him. And in this world that human beings have made for themselves, this world of politics and religion and social co-operation, divine love loses. It is helpless to maintain itself in the face of the so-called real world. The vortex of error and failure that affects everybody in the world draws Jesus into its darkness and seems to destroy him body and soul. That, says Good Friday, is the kind of world this is, and we are all part of it.

 

Yet there is more than the world to think about. If that love is really what it claims to be, eternal and unconditional, it will not be destroyed. What’s more, the human embodiment of that love, the flesh and blood of Jesus, cannot be destroyed…So: if we can accept the unwelcome picture of us and our world that Good Friday offers, we are, in the strangest way, set free to hear what Easter says. Give up the struggle to be innocent and the hope that God will proclaim that you were right and everyone else wrong. Simply ask for whatever healing it is that you need, whatever grace and hope you need to be free, then step towards your neighbour; Easter reveals a God who is ready to give you that grace and to walk with you…

 

The Most Reverend Rowan Williams, Archbishop of Canterbury

Excerpted from his 2007 Easter Sermon at Canterbury Cathedral

 

 

Around Beloved…Beloved’s Worker Bees, the youth group for those ages 9-12, will gather for a light meal and game night this Friday, May 4 from 6:30-9pm.  Bring a friend and $3 for food.  Beloved’s metamorphosis, the youth group for those ages 12-15, will gather for a light meal and their final movie night of this school year on Saturday, May 5 from 6:30-9pm.  Bring a friend and $3 for food.    

 

The Women of Beloved will meet for hors d’oevres at the Elyea home on Wednesday evening, May 9 @ 7pm.  Those with a last name beginning with D-H will bring the food; please contact Donna Elyea here to learn what to bring.

 

Easter lasts for 50 days; there are many upcoming ways to celebrate at Beloved!  Remember those coin collection boxes for the hungry distributed at the beginning of Lent?  Please bring them to worship any Sunday between now and May 13^th (our final ingathering day).

 

Bishop Curry will preside at Beloved’s Ascension Day worship celebration with Baptisms on Thursday, May 17^th at 7pm to be followed by a “Death by Chocolate” reception being coordinated by Kris Leinenkugel.  If you have the gift of “helps” or “hospitality” and are willing to assist Kris with this reception, please click here.  If you have the time and ability to participate on a Volunteer Angel Army Team for the Bishop’s Visit (set up will begin at 5:30pm and tear down afterwards), please click here.

 

Three days later we will be treated with a unique Compassion opportunity on Sunday, May 20^th.  And we will end the season with acknowledgements of first reconciliation (confession), an adult baptism, and presentations of God and Country awards to two very special young men.  Watch the eNews for more details!   

 

Community House Middle School is looking for Level 4 volunteers to assist with proctoring the NC End of Grade Tests on May 21, 22, & 23 from 8:30 – noon. Please contact Ellen Bacon here.

 

 

Last Sunday…Attendance: 113; Worship Offering: $3,715.  Income needed for ministry each week: $5,500 (fully funded) à $4,400 (requiring other funding sources).  The financial goal of Church of the Beloved is to reach self-sufficiency by 12/31/2008. 

 

 

 

Serving at God’s Altar this Sunday…Angel Army Team 5: Captain: Steve Todd; Administrator: Frank Reid; Pastor: Mary Reid; Acolytes: Forrest Boylston, Hailey Boylston, Ashley Fox, Emily Scheppegrell; Altar Bread Baker: Catherine Atwood; Lay Eucharistic Ministers: Mary Reid and Frank Reid; Offertory Basket Passers: Holly Burnett, Joseph Duty, Maddie Mooney, Timmy Mooney; PowerPoint: Kevin Krantz; Presenters: Susan, Forrest & Hailey Boylston; Reader: Anna Moore.

 

 

In our Prayers…click here

 

 

Upcoming Calendar…click here