Ryland Epworth United Methodist Church
Sunday Bulletin Excerpts
11 O'Clock Worship Service
August 9, 1998
Thought for the Week
Take, Lord, all my liberty. Receive my memory, my understanding, and my whole will. Whatever I have and possess, you have given to me; to you I restore it wholly, and to you will I utterly surrender it for my direction. Give me the love of you only, with your grace, and I am rich enough; nor do I ask anything besides.
Saint Ignatius Loyola (1491-1556), Saint Benedict's Prayer Book
Instrumental Selections
Sermon Title: IN THE WAY OR ON THE WAY?
Scripture Lessons: Psalm 48, Hebrews 11:1-3,8-16; St. Luke 12:32-40
Summary: In the Way or On the Way? This is the question with which the anonymous author of the Letter to the Hebrews is confronting his readers, now as then. He is prodding drifting Christians to get in with Jesus for the long haul, in spite of everything which denies one even a ghost of a chance to make a success of the Christian life.
Our Lord has promised to bring to completion the work he has begun in us. But we are tempted, as Eugene Peterson reminds us, to drift into becoming Add-On Christians, fussily religious, and even anxiety-driven in our rush to get it all together for God, by supplementing and embellishing the purity and simplicity of Christ's vision of the kingdom. The effort is futile, as it drains our confidence in the promises of God, and opens the way to despair. We find ourselves despairing of the human race.
Faith is getting out of God's way, and on the way. Keeping our eyes on Jesus, the Pioneer of our salvation, is the act of faith that substantiates our hope.
Choral Selections
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