Ryland Epworth United Methodist Church
Sunday Bulletin Excerpts
11 O'Clock Worship Service
May 3, 1998
Thought for the Week
O God, our shepherd, our gate, our lamb: In the resurrection of your Son have you brought us into your pasture. Guide us to your clear streams, and tame the wolf at our gate; through Christ our Lord. Amen. Alleluia.
The United Methodist Book of Worship
Instrumental Selections
Sermon Title: Is the Church the Goal of Creation?
Scripture Lessons: Revelation 7:9-17, St. John 10:22-30
Summary: All things were made for Jesus Christ, the head of the Church. The goal of creation and everything God is doing in it is for the sake of Christ's body, the Church. Even in its imperfection and hard times, the Church is "the sacrament or sign and instrument of intimate union with God and of the unity of the human race." Not only that, the Church is the reality she signifies. The whole creation is yearning for its fulfillment in the coming glorious freedom of the perfected Church, so mysteriously and wonderfully portrayed in Revelation 7:9-17. God is wasting nothing for the sake of Christ's body, the Church--communion with God and the gift of ourselves to one another in God. What a destiny!
Choral Selections
Bulletin Archives
Back to Main page