Monday Afterglow 5/26/2008

Yesterday was Corpus Christi (Body of Christ) Sunday in the Charismatic Episcopal Church. We had a blessed day together and a great attendance--highest since Easter when we had 63 gather for worship. Everyone gave me my Happy Birthday blessing yesterday and we feasted on some great cake after I could not blow out all the candles--a sure sign of aging :)

In previous Memorial Day weekend Sundays, St. Patrick's became somewhat of a ghost town, so I think the high gas prices kept most of us in town and I am glad we all used that opportunity to praise God together.

Corpus Christi is a day set aside to pay special attention to the Eucharist. Communion, the Eucharist (thanksgiving) , Mass (Latin for table), the Lord's Supper, Lord's Table--all names for the same celebration--is supposed to be the unity of the Church but often is what divides. This Wikipedia article does a pretty good job of describing all the different views the Church has on this subject. It is worth the read.

Our CEC view in the above article would be the High Church Anglo-Catholic mystery view of real presence. My personal view is best expressed in the poem by John Donne mentioned in the Wiki article:

He was the Word that spake it;
He took the bread and brake it;

and what that Word did make it;
I do believe and take it.

Yesterday I left my normal emphasis on spiritual formation and life-application sermons to simply try and teach the plain sense of the readings from Deut. 8, John 6, and 1 Cor. 10 to address Corpus Christi on a purely biblical level. I dealt with manna and the sustaining of temporal life by God in the wilderness, how Jesus is the true Manna come down from heaven to give eternal life, and Paul's appeal to a divided Corinthian Church about being united using the pictures of being God's bread and body for the life of the world.

ACC Bookstore and Parking, Prayer

Everyone should visit the Amherst Community Church bookstore when you get a chance for some neat items for sale there! Also, pop in early sometime and worship with ACC! Lastly, Pastor Thomas has asked us to avoid parking in the gated section of the lot closest to Main St. as he would like to lock that up when he leaves while we are still in worship.

• Please pray this week for Amanda whose boyfriend Dylan passed away last week at the age of 32.
  
• Pray for Sharon Pittman to be cancer free.
  
• Pray for te upcoming CEC International Convocation in Orlando.
• Pray for Fr. Kevin's business trip to Phoenix the second week of June to go well.
  
• Pray for the businesses and organizations where our church family are employed to be blessed by God during this economic contraction.
  
• Pray for God to be glorified through our church and for Jesus to build his Church in our midst.
  

Fr. Kevin