ST. MARK UMC: RECONCILING MINISTRY AND PARABLE OF THE MUSTARD SEED :ST. BARTHOLOMEW EPISCOPHAL CHURCH

2 Corinthians 5

New International Version

Awaiting the New Body

6 Therefore we are always confident and know that as long as we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord. 7 For we live by faith, not by sight. 8 We are confident, I say, and would prefer to be away from the body and at home with the Lord. 9 So we make it our goal to please him, whether we are at home in the body or away from it. 10 For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each of us may receive what is due us for the things done while in the body, whether good or bad.

The Ministry of Reconciliation

11 Since, then, we know what it is to fear the Lord, we try to persuade others. What we are is plain to God, and I hope it is also plain to your conscience. 12 We are not trying to commend ourselves to you again, but are giving you an opportunity to take pride in us, so that you can answer those who take pride in what is seen rather than in what is in the heart. 13 If we are “out of our mind,” as some say, it is for God; if we are in our right mind, it is for you. 14 For Christ’s love compels us, because we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died. 15 And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again.

16 So from now on we regard no one from a worldly point of view. Though we once regarded Christ in this way, we do so no longer. 17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come:  The old has gone, the new is here! 18 All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: 19 that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting people’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. 20 We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God. 21 God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

Mark 4

New International Version

The Parable of the Growing Seed

²⁶ He also said, “This is what the kingdom of God is like. A man scatters seed on the ground. ²⁷ Night and day, whether he sleeps or gets up, the seed sprouts and grows, though he does not know how. ²⁸ All by itself the soil produces grain—first the stalk, then the head, then the full kernel in the head. ²⁹ As soon as the grain is ripe, he puts the sickle to it, because the harvest has come.”

The Parable of the Mustard Seed

³⁰ Again he said, “What shall we say the kingdom of God is like, or what parable shall we use to describe it? ³¹ It is like a mustard seed, which is the smallest of all seeds on earth. ³² Yet when planted, it grows and becomes the largest of all garden plants, with such big branches that the birds can perch in its shade.”

³³ With many similar parables Jesus spoke the word to them, as much as they could understand. ³⁴ He did not say anything to them without using a parable. But when he was alone with his own disciples, he explained everything.

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Attended ...

St. Mark United Methodist Church this Sunday morning of June 14, 2015.  Instead of the Faith Seekers Bible Study Class, which really should be renamed Agnostics Anonymous, decided to check out the much larger Interactive Class for the first time.  My interactions with members of the Faith Seekers Class was going nowhere.  It was obvious they did not care to hear my perspective on any bible related topic.
Plus they were doing Hebrews this month which most of us just finished reading with Rev. Dr. Beth's Wednesday Afternoon Bible Study 101 Class.

The Pink Sheep of The Family 


Found the chosen topic for this Sunday's Interactive Class to be quite an interesting one:  the difference between guilt/shame and how it was shame relating to the difference between ones true self and ones false self.  

How quickly they forget that surviving also a reason for the difference.

Then,

 I sat through the 11:15 worship service wanting to hear what our Rev. Joshua Noblitt having to say during his sermon this morning titled "Kingdom Eyes".

Later,
 

also attended the St. Bartholomew Epicopal Church Sunday evening worship service where I get to hear The Rev. Mac McCord Thigpen III deliver his evening sermon also based on the Parable of the Mustard Seed.

 

Both sermons were very political in nature as well as both pastors openly gay.  But where Rev. Noblitt's sermon focused more on Reconciling Ministry and political involvement on a community level, Rev. Thigpen's sermon focuses more on survival of the Epicophal church in a changing world.

http://twistedpurplecow.blogspot.com/2014/06/st-bartholomew-episcopal-church-atlanta.html

 

"THAT'S YO DADDY!"

Can't help but see an inversed relationship between these last two pieces of art..?  

As I listened to Rev. Thigpen's sermon, couldn't take my eyes off the the framed art piece on the wall directely behind him; how the canopy looked as if it was floating in the air.  Only after the Sunday evening service over, was I able taking a closer look and seeing that they were mounted by poles instead of floating with tassel hanging from the corners.

As opposed to being the 

pink sheep in the family, I'm definitely an Anti-Christ.