After-Worship Class: Building Up Your Faith

Will you be joining us for our Lenten After-Worship Class for the Season of Lent? 
The tentative dates (weather permitting!!) are Sunday, Feb. 22, Mar. 1, Mar. 15, and Mar. 22.  We are scheduling around the Presbyterian Women's meeting on the Second Sunday.


There are three ways to sign up.


1. On the Church's Facebook Page: First Presbyterian Church of Perth Amboy


2. By email to Pastor Peter: pastorpeter@fpcperthamboy.org


3. On the Connection Card in the program for the Feb. 15, 2015 Worship Service.


There are three potential responses:


1. YES, sign me up.
2. YES-but I have child care issues.(Let us know who and how many)
3. Yes-but I have questions. (Enclose your questions)


For four of the Sundays in Lent, we will be looking at four of the most basic components of our Christian Life:


1. Prayer
2. Reading of Scripture
3. Worship
4. Giving


Ahead of each class, a resource will be given out, usually a chapter from a book screened by Pastor Peter.  Members of the class will be asked to read it in the week before so that on Sunday, our time will be spent connecting our own faith practices to what has been presented. 


Any questions or comments you might have can be directed by email or as a comment to the blog post.  May God bless us in our walk of faith.

February Herald Pastoral Letter

February, 2015

Dear Neighbors,

 

In the north country of Canada, the Inuit (native people) were evangelized by the Roman Catholic and the Anglican (Episcopalian in the USA) churches.  Both churches reported great success.  If in March, the Roman Catholic missionary came to a village of 78 souls, in June, he would report 78 converts before moving on.  If the Anglican missionary then came in September, in December, he too would report 78 converts before moving on. 

 

However, it was reported that the Roman Catholic image of roasting on a spit forever in a fiery hell held the attention of the First Nations a little more effectively than the Anglican image of a loving and benevolent Lord Jesus. 

 

I have to admit that I can identify with that.  I’ve gone to Christian school most of my life and the images of the Apocalyptic comic books handed out by one particularly virulent group of “hell and damnation” youth speakers is still very powerful in my psyche.  One piece that sticks in particular in the passage that describes the next way the earth will be destroyed in judgment, by fire, referenced in II Peter.

 

I can lay out chapter and verse better concerning apocalyptic, End Times, and judgment themes than just about any other themes across Scripture.  That is because it plays on fear and our survival instincts. 

 

But that focus undercuts all that Jesus did for us.  His death and resurrection was so that we would never face that End Time of judgment and death.  All that violence and death he took upon his own person.  And when the End Times and apocalyptic stuff points us back to Jesus, it has served its purpose.  But it cannot become an end unto itself.

 

As we begin the season of Lent this month, the question I pose is what images of our faith have impressed themselves in your faith.  If there aren’t any, take this season, as we begin to study the gospel of John, to see what images do take hold most powerfully.

 

Peace,

Pastor Peter

Our Online Bible Study

Since the beginning of the year, Pastor Peter has been providing an online blogging bible study or “blogstudy” of the Book of 1 Peter.  It is a close study of the book, sentence by sentence, defining terms and meanings, connecting concepts, and looking to the structure of the book on a small and larger scale.

If you wish to receive an email when the postings come out, please let Pastor Peter of the church office know at pastorpeter@fpcperthamboy.org or office@fpcperthamboy.org.  We need to know who you are and the preferred email address where you would like to receive the study.

The piloting of this project was for the last three weeks.  Those three weeks are coming to a conclusion and the study is going to continue.  The Blogstudy web address is www.bibleminutea.blogspot.com if you wish to go there directly. 

These postings come out during the week, three to six times per week.  At the present time, they are being ‘advertised’ on the church’s Facebook page and on Pastor Peter’s Facebook page. 

This study is Pastor Peter’s own study of the book.  It is taking the Book of 1 Peter sentence by sentence, breaking each down into phrases or words demanding their own particular study.  Each sentence begins with an introductory post and concludes with a posting seeking to fit that sentence into the wider structure of the book.  You are cordially invited to join him.

Feedback and questions are welcome through the ‘comments’ section of the blog.

Christian Perspectives Class: A Nation Post-Ferguson

On January 18, 25, February 1, and 8, we are going to have a Class looking at reactions to and a follow up to what happened in Ferguson, Missouri, on Staten Island here in New York, and elsewhere around the nation.  We will meet after worship, gathering between 11am and 11:10.  The class is open to everyone.  Please let me know if you are able to attend so we can prepare enough copies of materials.

The purpose of this class is to consider how we bring about a faithful and faith-based response to what has happened in the world around us.

You are invited to join us after church for this group.  We are going to meet in Westminster Hall.  Our first reading is going to be “A Pastoral Letter to White Americans” written by Jim Wallis in his blog.  Jim Wallis is President of Sojourners, a group that lives a communal life in Washington DC and publishes a magazine of the same name that takes on pressing social issues in the United States. 

You can find the posting online at:

 http://sojo.net/blogs/2014/12/11/pastoral-letter-white-americans

We will also have hard copies at the class.

This began as a “Current Events” class, but time and distance have changed the focus.  I had strong feelings about what went on, as did many Americans.  We are NOT going to hash out what happened, what we think should have happened, or what might have happened.  We are going to listen, as Christians, and consider how we, as Christians, will help the world that God has given us.

If you have any questions, please let me know.

Pastor Peter

 

Pastorpeter@fpcperthamboy.org

Elections in a "Christian Nation"

When anyone asks my opinion or advice around election time, my response is always the same: "vote early, vote often."  Yes, I am being satirical.  The reason I like election day is that the commercials will then END.  The bad news is there will be no competition for the Christmas advertising.  But that is another post...


I love this nation, but I hate its political advertising.  The virulence in the negative ads is dynamite detonated in a septic tank!  Even politicians I might otherwise like and respect, I don't in election season.  And it only gets worse when these negative commercials are juxtaposed against the positive ones. 


On the one hand, the candidate is little better than a puppy-kicking felon and on the other, they are kitten-rescuing angels. 


On the one hand, those who run negative commercials stand on the sidelines with blood and guts clenched in their fists, while, on the other, they polish their halos.


America is accused of being a Christian nation.  Yah, sure.  If election season proves anything, it proves the DESPERATE need we have to be a forgiven nation.  There is not much in those commercials that could truly answer "What Would Jesus Do?"


The amazing thing is that the hatred and virulence have actually gotten better!  In 1804, when V-P Aaron Burr capped former Treasury Secretary Alexander Hamilton, the expression of political hatred peaked.
 
What are we to do? 


In light of election day, how about some hard questions?  How does the church respond to partisan politics?  What is our relationship to the political structure of the United States? 


How about this?  The moment Jesus endorses a candidate, will the IRS dare to pull our tax-free status because Christianity engaged in politics?  


Until then, when our faith is used to justify power politics, ask what happened to the meek inheriting the earth?


When a Christian expresses our faith as a reason why political power should be used to condemn THAT sinner, ask what happened to loving our neighbor? 


When Christianity is used to back political decisions to exploit and destroy the environment, ask what happened to the stewardship of our creation?


Vote with care, vote with pride.  This nation is a gift and deserves our participation.  But most powerfully it needs our prayers.

Vacation Schedule for the Israelites and Church and State for the Church

Deuteronomy 16 sets up the vacation schedule for the people of Israel.  There is Passover, the festival of 'weeks', what becomes Pentecost for us in the NT, and the festival of booths.  All concentrate of food (good Presbyterians these Israelites!).  The first recognizes Passover, when the angel of death passed over the first born of the Israelites in Egypt.  The next is seven weeks after the harvest is begun, rejoicing over the gift of the Promised land given to the people by God.  The festival of booths is when they complete the processing of the harvest, and is kept for a week.


All the males of Israel are to muster to the place where God will command for all these festivals.  It isn't conquered yet, but it shall be Jerusalem.


16 continues with the civil code for the Promised Land, beginning with the judicial, specifically, the selection of judges where justice, and only justice, shall be pursued.


In Romans 13, Paul is taking care to place the followers of Christ in relationship to the Roman authorities.  We are to be subject to the authorities placed over us, to pay our taxes, to live in peace.  Not a bad theology when Paul is sending this letter to the capital of the Roman empire.  It is also in contra-distinction to the nation of Israel, which seemed to be in constant strife with the Roman Empire, especially into the lead up to the Jewish Rebellion in 70 AD.


Paul cites the law of love as the backbone for our obedience.  The "shalt nots" of the 10 Commandments are summed up by the second part of the Great Commandment, "Love your neighbor as yourself."  It is a connection of the basics of the Torah's legal code with the discussion of obeying the law and authority of the Romans, currently placed in control by the power of God.


The sum up for all is that we are closer today than yesterday to the return of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Back in Scripture after a month plus

Hmmm.  I'm the one whose proclaimed that reading God's Holy Word is the second of our core values in being God's Neighbor.  Kind of wish I'd done a better job of that in my own life.  But now we move forward.


Deuteronomy 15 is all about building God's Neighborhood of the Promised Land.  There was to be no poverty in God's neighborhood.  In a perfect neighborhood, it would be because God's blessings flowed.  But Israel wasn't perfect.  So, every seven years, all debts were canceled.  And the 'haves' were expected to lend to the 'have nots' whatever they needed to survive. Liberally and ungrudgingly they were to give.


Slaves too were to be released in that seventh year, and not simply with freedom, but with a cut of the profits they helped the owner make, enough to make a new life for themselves, male and female alike.  Unless the slave chose to stay a slave.  Once that decision was made, it was irreversible. 


Finally, in God's Neighborhood, the first born were all dedicated to the Lord.  Among the flocks and herds, they were to be eaten in the presence of the Lord, unless deformed, then impure.  They were still eaten, but at home. 


But always the rule of blood, it was to be poured on the ground.


Romans 12 calls for our surrender to God.  Make our bodies a living sacrifice, be transformed by our God to what is good.  Each of us has something to give to the Lord, as we are one body with many members.  Let us use the gifts we have been given according to the needs that surround us.  Finally, we are to turn good against evil, living peaceably so far as it depends on us.  God brings vengeance, not us.  In fact, good against evil turns coals upon the heads of our enemies.


Thus endeth the reading...