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Preparations are being made for our Pentecost worship, bonfire and camp-out at the Molls this Saturday and Sunday. (Note: There’s no Friday gathering this week!) Plan to arrive around 6 for supper. Meat is being provided, please contribute side dishes, desserts, beverages as you can. And if you’re sleeping over, Tom promises to cook out breakfast for us! It would be very helpful if we could have an idea who is coming, so please RSVP to Bob at 267.377.7192 or bob [at] liveservegrow [dot] info. Worship will feature a retelling of the Pentecost story, music by our house band, and we’re pretty sure there will be appearances by water, wind and fire! Please join us if you can!

We need a host for Friday, June 1. If you can help out, call Bob. Thanks!

Last Friday we focused on the story of the how the early church dealt with including outsiders, told in Acts 15. Through the ministry of Paul and Barnabas, and earlier of Peter, many gentiles, people outside the family of Israel, are coming to faith. And that is too much for some insiders, who insist that these newcomers must be circumcised to fulfill the demands of the law handed down to Moses, before they can be part of the Church. The Apostles convene a conclave to settle the matter. Finally, the Church agrees that if God sees fit to give the Holy Spirit to these outsiders, who are they to demand more?

This story is a powerful example of a theme often repeated throughout Acts: God, not the Apostles or any other religious authorities, is running this show. Just as Jesus tells the disciples before his Ascension that they will not just witness to Israel but to the ends of the earth, so here the Spirit again makes clear that the Message is for all people.

We also see the church reading its context, both shaping and being shaped by the new environment it is in. As a sect of Judaism, the church could safely balance the Message and its historic rules and practices. But now, engaging the diversity of the world, the Apostles face a challenge. Do converts have to become Jews in order to become Christians? The Spirit leads them to focus on Christ rather than Moses, and they instruct the new believers to adhere to essentials of the faith without requiring them to observe the letter of the Jewish law.

This story also raised some deep questions: In fulfilling the law on our behalf, did Jesus lower the bar for us, or raise it? Would God, after exhibiting the most costly love imaginable - sending his son to the cross - then simply revert to demanding that everyone adhere to the pre-existing law? If our role is not just to tick off do’s and don’ts on a list, what is our role in the world and relationship with God?

What do you think? What questions does the story bring up for you? If you want, please share and discuss them by leaving comments to this post.

A Prayer for Eyes to See God’s Work

Daily life and work often breeds in us tunnel vision…we focus intensely on the issues and problems and opportunities right in front of us, but we lose the big picture sense of the world around us that our peripheral vision can provide. So we spent some time looking up, and down, and right, and left, to exercise our ability to notice what is not right in front of us, concluding with this prayer:

Look up: Give us your eyes as we approach the season of your coming.

Look down: Give us your eyes as we learn to love in the way of your love.

Look to one side: Give us your eyes in our homes, our churches, and outward in the world.

Look to the other side: Give us your eyes. Let us see your presence in all of us.

(From “Body Prayer,” Doug Pagitt and Kathryn Pryll)

“You are my friends when you do the things I command you. I’m no longer calling you servants because servants don’t understand what their master is thinking and planning. No, I’ve named you friends because I’ve let you in on everything I’ve heard from the Father. You didn’t choose me, remember; I chose you, and put you in the world to bear fruit, fruit that won’t spoil. As fruit bearers, whatever you ask the Father in relation to me, he gives you.” — John 15:12-16, The Message.

Servants, as Jesus points out, only do what they are told. They never have insight or input into what is going on. Their role vis-a-vis the master is defined and unchanging. They have their place never to leave it, despite how well they might do their work.

Friends, on the other hand, are in relationship. Friends share many things, and respond to each other, adapting to the needs and circumstances in each others’ lives. For Jesus to call us friends is an amazing thing, and it frees us to be in relationship with him and to participate in the kingdom with him. We are neither slaves nor sheep. We have freedom and responsibility to point the way to the kingdom.

Of course, it’s not as simple as What a Friend We Have in Jesus. Just before uttering the words above, Jesus reminds the disciples that following his command means loving others as he has loved them, and that means loving unsparingly, dangerously, sacrificially — laying down one’s life for one’s friends.

But neither can we just follow orders, keeping the rules and ticking off our obligations. That’s the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, and Jesus was clear in the Sermon on the Mount that that’s just the starting place. Servants have no obligation beyond obedience. But Jesus wants us, as his friends, to be his partners and co-conspirators in loving all his friends — all of God’s people and God’s creation. We’ve been invited to transform ourselves and our world. We’ve been chosen for a life we could never choose for ourselves.

Read John 15:12-16 again. How does it sound to hear Jesus call you his friend? In what ways has Jesus called you to join him in transforming your life or your world? How might he be calling you today?

Saturday, May 26
6:30 p.m.
Home of John and Vlatka Moll

C*A*L will celebrate Pentecost (the coming of the Holy Spirit) with a Saturday night pot-luck, worship, bonfire and camp out.

The evening will include a shared meal, Molls will supply the meat. Interactive worship will follow the meal. Our band will play and we will all participate in telling the story of Pentecost exploring what that means for us.

Following the worship, weather permitting, we will have a bonfire. (Fire is the symbol for the Holy Spirit)

We would like to do a group activity of painting flower pots and planted red flowers in them. These could be given to a friend or family member as a way of “Sharing the gift of the Spirit”

We will also take an offering that night to aid the victims of the recent tornadoes in the midwest.

CAL Pentecost Flier

Our gathering this Friday is at the Fishers at 6:30 for supper and 7:30 for worship. Need more info or directions? Call Bob at 267-377-7192.

“Those who love me will keep my word, and my Father will love them; and we will come to them and make our home with them.” — Jesus (John 14:34)

Home is a place of safety and security for most of us. Wherever we feel safe, wherever we can be accepted for who we are, as we are — there we say we are “at home.” Home is not just a physical location but a psychological one, the place where our true selves, our God-created selves, are OK.

What a promise Jesus makes to the disciples — and to us — in this passage from John’s gospel. We will come to them and make our home with them. This is amazing because it promises that we can be “at home” — safe, secure, accepted as we are — with the Father and the Son. And what is even better is that God doesn’t hold us at arm’s length, doesn’t place a lot of conditions, but can be at home with us if we love Him. The Word became flesh and blood and moved into the neighborhood (John 1:14, The Message)

At home with God, we are surrounded with his love, safe in His arms. Christ is with us even if we fail to notice him, calling us into his presence. As you go through this week, think about the ways Christ is taking up residence in your life and calling you into the safety and security of his love. How is he making you “at home?” How is he calling you to help others to feel “at home?”

Just a reminder that this Friday night we’re at Orth’s (24 Douglass Rd., Lansdale, PA 19446 if you’re mapquesting, 215-996-5646) and the 11th we’re at Karthaus’ (44 Mystic View Lane, Doylestown, PA 18901, 215-345-0788). We gather for dinner 6-6:30 p.m. and worship is at 7:30.

Don’t forget, May 26 is our pentecost bonfire… stay tuned for details.