Jan. 13, 2013 - Baptism of Jesus

Greetings,

Based on an idea I got from Gathering, the United Church worship resource magazine, I am going to use the Sundays leading up to Lent to look at the theme Faith as a Journey.  In the time for all ages, we will journey around the sanctuary to see how different parts of our worship space and what we do there helps us on our faith journey.  This  Sunday we will look at the Baptismal Font.

Sunday Worship

This Sunday is Baptism of Jesus.  The Gospel tells the story of Jesus’ baptism by John.   This event is recorded in all three Synoptic Gospels (there’s a word for you “synoptic,”  it’s a Greek word roughly meaning “seen together.”  The Synoptic Gospels are Matthew, Mark and Luke.  These three clearly share a great deal of content and are structured in a similar way.  The Gospel of John is different, both in much of its content and its structure.) Mark’s Gospel has no stories of Jesus’ birth.  In Mark we first see Jesus at his baptism.  Matthew has quite a long story about the baptism.  The story from Luke which is the Gospel for this Sunday contains the shortest version of the story.  In the Christian understanding of baptism, there is an idea that we become and are called be holy.  But what does that mean?  Too often Christian holiness seems to equated outside the church (and sometimes within) with a nasty sort of bigoted, self-righteous  prudishness.  I don’t believe that this is what we are called to become. 

From the Scriptures we will hear from the Prophets: Isaiah 43: 1-7,  and from the Gospels: Luke 3: 15-17, 21-22 

The Story for all ages is “Starting a Journey”  The sermon title is, “Called to be holy”  

Sunday School

This Sunday we will be using the book "Bible in Felt" for our lesson.  It is a wonderful opportunity to display the story using felt backdrops and it allows the children to help tell the story by adding the felt characters to the backdrop.  The lesson this week is Jesus' Baptism and is called "John Prepares the Way".  Our craft will focus on the Holy Spirit coming down like a dove.

rEvolve Concert postponed

The rEvolve Concert that was to take place on January 26^th has had to be postponed to a later date.  We’ll let you know. 

BISSELL URGENT APPEAL    

“We are completely out of toothpaste, gloves/mitts, and socks. Anything you can do to help really makes a big difference in the lives of those living without a home at this chilling time of year!”  These items can be brought to the Church,  from whence they will be taken to the Bissell Centre.

Important Dates and Youth Events (Y)

Ø  Wed, Jan 16 – Operations Meeting
Ø  Mon, Jan 21 – Worship Meeting
Ø  Tues, Jan 29 – Board Meeting
Ø  Wed, Feb to Mar 17 – Lent Bible study

Thank you for taking the time to read this.

God bless,

Larry

(Rev.) Larry K. Wright, CD, BA, MDiv

Minister

Spirit West United Church

780-481-1406

Spiritwest.minister@telus.net

Spiritwest.org