Watch this week’s service on YouTube by clicking:
February 2 Worship Service Video
Join us for Worship Sunday at 10:00 AM followed by fellowship and refreshments in the He/SheBrews Café
- Mardi Gras Celebration Coming Soon – Our winter is going to be warmed up shortly as our annual Mardi Gras Sunday approaches. Due to scheduling conflicts, we have moved it up earlier in the calendar and will be held on Sunday, February 16. That day we will worship in the company of a brass band playing Dixieland standards. The service will be followed by the return of our Pancake Breakfast in the Van Roon Community Hall at 11:00. Please plan on joining us and bringing a friend!!
- Volunteer Opportunities – In advance of our Annual Meeting on March 9th, we are looking for people to take the place of Council and Committee members whose terms are expiring. We hope to fill the following vacancies: Secretary of Council, Worship and Education (2 vacancies), Ministry and Personnel (1 vacancy), Gifts and Resources (1 vacancy). For information on the work of these committees, please visit our website (Church Committees) or contact Michael Wilson.
- 2024 Income Tax Receipts – Receipts for donations in 2024 are now printed and available. They will be set out in the Entrance Hall of the church for the next four Sundays. Following that, any remaining will be mailed by the end of February. Postage, of course, has become quite expensive so please help us ease that cost by picking up your envelope on Sundays or during weekday office hours.
Dear Friends
Welcome to worship for Sunday, February 2, 2025.
On my one and only visit to Nazareth, in 2019, I arrived in a tour van that approached from the south. It was a remarkable view because Nazareth is an elevated city. Not nestled in hilly country but as if set on a plateau. The road was far below the city and the road rose up to it. I couldn’t stop thinking about one clear memory from the only biblical story set in Nazareth when Jesus is an adult. There really is a cliff over which he could have been thrown.
That’s how the story in Luke 4 of Jesus’ visit to his hometown ends. A congregation in the synagogue where he had grown up became so enraged at what Jesus had said that the bible says they leapt to their feet and carried him to the cliff where they meant to throw him over (spoiler alert: they don’t). Unlike most, if not all other stories, this is a place where the people knew Jesus well. They knew his mother. They knew his father. They were, at least initially, delighted that one of their own had done so well and was so highly regarded. What had he done or said that could ignite such passion and fury?
Not wanting to give away this week’s sermon, but Jesus had simply suggested that the chosen people weren’t the only chosen people. That is, God undoubtedly loved Israel but that did not necessarily mean that God didn’t love other people as well. Jesus proposed in Nazareth that what we experience as God’s grace is not limited to us, whatever the ‘us’ may be. God is just as present, just as concerned, just as attentive to another family, or church, or tribe, or nation, or colour, or language, or culture. In fact, if I take Luke 4 to heart, I have to make the assumption that God has awfully strong feelings for people of other religions as well.
Love to all. I know it’s infuriating but…that’s just the way God is.
Grace and peace,
Michael
- For news and events please have a look at Life & Work on our website: Life and Work
- Did you know you can support this ministry by e-transfer, automatic withdrawal (PAR), and gifted securities, in addition to weekly or monthly cheques? For Offering Information please visit: https://charleswoodunited.org/support/ We have begun to receive donations for this summer’s Roofing Project which will be held separate from Operations and Mission & Service. Thank you for your generous support.
- Share the service with friends by forwarding this email or using this link: https://youtu.be/XYi2g2ZZ1m4
- Read this week’s scripture lesson here: Luke 4:14-30
