How was church today?

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Well, I was invited into the pulpit at Cochrane Street United Church here in St. John's

There were a few hiccups but apart from that the service was well received and I was both impressed and pleased with some of the conversation afterwards which actually hinged on the actual text I preached on.

While the Rev. Miriam Bowlby did give me a brief tutorial of the sound board it became noticeable early on that I clearly wasn't paying attention at the time. I muted the mics instead of making them hot. I projected well enough for most to hear me without them but an alert pianist sussed the problem very quickly and undid my mistake.

Yay!

Which then led to another problem. When I sing with a head-set I am used to having sound guy mute me because I am a bit of a foghorn. We had no sound guy so I was not muted for the hymns. So think of a foghorn with a bull-horn. So some technical glitches need to be worked on for next week's service.

I noticed on the way into Cochrane that some pack ice had been pushed into the harbour.

And on the way home I stepped out of the church into a bizarre combination of wet snow, rain and ice pellets falling simultaneously. And now the weather seems to have made up its mind and settled on snow.

Yah!
 
Different bit in the service today. The Pastoral Care Committee invited the public education person from the local Alzheimer Society unit to come to speak - so we had that instead of the usual sermon. We do have many older folk in our group, and a good many who are coping with relatives & friends with dementia also. It was a decent overview of dementia etc. I wish the worship team had somehow connected it more to worship tho - it felt a bit disjointed. Than I had to rush off to do counting.
 
It's hard to judge 'how was church' when I was the one in the pulpit. Good turn out at both locations. Both the pianist and Seelerman (my driver) sat through both services without complaint, and I got hugs and thanks at the door.
Water lapping at the sides of the road in a couple of places and signs that it had been partly over the road within the last few days. We were warned to watch for deer and other wildlife on the road near flooded areas but didn't encounter any.
I treated Seelerman to a buffet lunch at a hotel restaurant on our return - good meal, relaxing.

Oh yes, they paid me and told me that they look forward to me visiting again for two Sundays in June.
 
We had Camp Sunday today. The sermon was replaced with an "open mic" time for people to share memories and stories. Not my favourite format.

As the person in charge of Children's Time, I tried to keep it church-y by tying in the chosen scripture (Psalm 46) with the camp/nature theme. I made a big scene of putting in earplugs, a thick hat and noise-cancelling headphones -- all in the interest of finding a still and quiet place to be with God. We thought together about how that might work in our day-to-day lives... but that being at camp and being in nature when we can is a great way to find some stillness and a connection to our faith.

They thought my getup was hilarious, but who knows if they got the point I was trying to make. But no surprise there, really.
 
Today's sermon was on Connectedness. Ironically, I have seldom felt less connected at worship than I did today. On the plus side though the coffee at church was quite splendid and the music was nice. :)
 
We had a guest preacher from London today. He talked about being courageous and how Christians should handle themselves in difficult times. He referred to Paul when he was in prison and how he praised God and found contentment even before he was physically freed because his freedom came from within...... and how sometimes we don't bother to praise God until after we are freed from whatever strife we may be going through.
 
Rev. Sheena was preaching today which is always a treat as her ideas have considerable depth. She was preaching on the story of Jesus and the two disciples on the road to Emmaus. Sheena was saying biblical archeaologists have never found an actual place of Emmaus so if we take the story as metaphor then everywhere can be Emmaus and we can by extension meet up with Jesus anywhere and everywhere. Glad I went to church today it was more worthwhile than it was last week. :)
 
You just never know said:
Rev. Sheena was preaching today which is always a treat as her ideas have considerable depth. She was preaching on the story of Jesus and the two disciples on the road to Emmaus. Sheena was saying biblical archeaologists have never found an actual place of Emmaus so if we take the story as metaphor then everywhere can be Emmaus and we can by extension meet up with Jesus anywhere and everywhere. Glad I went to church today it was more worthwhile than it was last week. :)
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Isn't it a' Maze in what you can find tucked away in word(s) as foundation of sol (singular old thing ... broken to chitz)?
 
Attended two wonderful church services yesterday.

The first was the regular Sunday morning church service and our guest preacher was the interim pastor of another Toronto Baptist Church. He spoke on "The Storms of Life."

The second was the official launch service of a friend's new Korean Baptist church (my friend is the pastor). People from about 10 churches came together to help celebrate and dedicate the church to God.
 
One of my favourite little tit-bits about the Road to Emmaus story is the identity of the two disciples. One was named, Cleopas; the other, since un-named, is presumed to be a female.
 
BetteTheRed said:
One of my favourite little tit-bits about the Road to Emmaus story is the identity of the two disciples. One was named, Cleopas; the other, since un-named, is presumed to be a female.
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One should not travel alone ... without a beautiful sol!

John Nash wrote game theory on it ...

It is still being questioned ...
 
BetteTheRed said:
One of my favourite little tit-bits about the Road to Emmaus story is the identity of the two disciples. One was named, Cleopas; the other, since un-named, is presumed to be a female.
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Presumed by whom Bette? I've never heard of that before. I've always seen and heard it presented as two males.
 
Jae said:
Presumed by whom Bette? I've never heard of that before. I've always seen and heard it presented as two males.
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Heard it or presumed it Jae?
I guess I presumed for about sixty years that two people meant two men. Then someone, somewhere (and I don't remember just who or where) questioned whether the second person could have been a woman and suggested this this might have been Cleopas and his wife. (Within my lifetime women were often not named but simply identified with their husband - ie Mr. and Mrs. John Smith, or Jack Smith and the missus.)
Two people walking together could have been man and woman,, or two men, or less likely two women.
One of them is named - Cleopas, a man's name. The other is unnamed.
Generally when we speak two people we either simply say 'two people', or we say both names 'Jack and Harry were walking along ...'
This makes me think that there was more than a 50/50 chance that the second person was a woman.
Even in a society as male dominated as Palestine was at that time, women were likely to be present even if they are not named.
 
Our minister also spoke on the journey to Emmaus. After the service I had the opportunity to discuss it with her. Her emphases was on 'meeting Jesus on the Way', the various times and places we meet Jesus. I mentioned that we didn't sing my favourite hymn for this reading. 'Stay With Us Through the Night', but that I also liked the one chosen by the choir director VU#184 As We Walked Home at Close of Day. Excellent theology.
Seelergirl and Grandson joined us for the service. It's always good to have them with us.
 
Jae said:
Presumed by whom Bette? I've never heard of that before. I've always seen and heard it presented as two males.
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Well, here's one piece that suggests it so clearly it isn't something Bette just pulled out of her brain. In fact, the author died in 2000 so it's over twenty years old.

http://www.jesus.org/death-and-resu...were-the-disciples-on-the-road-to-emmaus.html

In the end, since the second disciple on the road to Emmaus was unnamed and undescribed, we can never know for sure. The idea that it was two men is tradition but I don't know that it is actually backed up by scripture. Dr. James Boice, author of my link, does cite scripture as evidence for his position beyond just the lack of a name for the second disciple on the road (in fact, he thinks it was Cleopas' wife).
 
Mendalla said:
Well, here's one piece that suggests it so clearly it isn't something Bette just pulled out of her brain. In fact, the author died in 2000 so it's over twenty years old.

http://www.jesus.org/death-and-resu...were-the-disciples-on-the-road-to-emmaus.html

In the end, since the second disciple on the road to Emmaus was unnamed and undescribed, we can never know for sure. The idea that it was two men is tradition but I don't know that it is actually backed up by scripture. Dr. James Boice, author of my link, does cite scripture as evidence for his position beyond just the lack of a name for the second disciple on the road (in fact, he thinks it was Cleopas' wife).
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To be clear, I'm not claiming that the second disciple could not have been a woman. However, I do question Bette's statement that they are presumed to be - as though the majority of opinion swings that way. As I said - this is the first I've ever heard of such a suggestion and I say that as someone who's been in the Church for over 50 years and who is studying Scripture at the graduate level.
 
Jae said:
To be clear, I'm not claiming that the second disciple could not have been a woman. However, I do question Bette's statement that they are presumed to be - as though the majority of opinion swings that way. As I said - this is the first I've ever heard of such a suggestion and I say that as someone who's been in the Church for over 50 years and who is studying Scripture at the graduate level.
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I have no idea what the scholarly consensus is and grew up with the same version as you. Consensus does not make something right in any case, only accepted. And I see no reason why it could not be as Dr. Boice suggests. And if you are going to play the credentials game, I would suggest he wins. His about page is quite impressive.

That said, you are right that @BetteTheRed may have overstated her case.
 
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