I don’t believe we can properly understand the significance of the resurrection of Jesus without finding it at least a little bit disturbing.

Every single account in the New Testament of someone seeing and recognizing the risen Jesus describes the shock, and in some cases sheer terror of the witnesses. The writers of these accounts wanted their readers to know that Jesus’ rising from the dead was completely unexpected to those who first bore witness to it, and that it was something that they had truly witnessed. It wasn’t just a spiritual feeling they had that somehow Jesus’ essence went on after his death. And it wasn’t just some kind of myth that they told themselves to symbolize the legacy of his life and teaching. Jesus truly rose from the dead, which completely shocked his earliest followers and completely changed their lives.

One of the ways in which his rising from the dead changed their lives was that they went from being a cluster of terrified and deeply traumatized former disciples (remember most of them had decided to abandon Jesus) to becoming a fearless band of witnesses, dedicated to sharing with the entire known world the news of Jesus’ resurrection, and everything that it means – and it means a lot.

Exactly what it all means was something Jesus had to take some time to teach his first disciples after he rose from the dead. According to the New Testament the risen Jesus appeared several times to his followers over the next 40 days, walking them through the Hebrew scriptures and showing them how everything in the story of God and his people ultimately points to Jesus and his death and resurrection. He wanted them to see that his death and resurrection was the turning point in God’s plan to redeem the whole world. In showing them all of this, Jesus truly made his followers into witnesses, not just of an unsettling one-time freak event, but of the outworking of God’s plan to save the world and the beginning of God’s renewal of the whole of creation.

And we can be witnesses too. We may not see the risen Jesus until he comes again when God’s kingdom is fulfilled, but we can know the power of his death and resurrection and bear witness to God’s redeeming purposes for our lives and for the life of the whole world.

I hope you can join us this Sunday as we continue to celebrate the power of Jesus’ rising from the dead and explore even further how we can also be witnesses of the risen Jesus.
Rev. David Turner +

Town Wide Yard Sale
Saturday June 2nd, 2018 8am-1pm
We are asking for your help looking for items to sell! We would like books, food and plants and all the other treasures you’re ready to part with.
Please no clothing, tv’s, computer monitors or Baby furniture.
Thank you for your Support!
Check with Alice Kennedy (832-2627) for pick up and storage.

Weekly Newsletter here.

One of the many uncanny things about Jesus is that you can be actively running away from him and/or your life as one of his followers ­– you can be completely disillusioned and have abandoned any hope you may have once had in Jesus – and yet suddenly discover that he has been with you and teaching you the whole way.

This is exactly what happened to two of Jesus’ followers on the third day after his death, following the initial reports that his body had been found missing. You can read what happened for yourself in the Gospel of Luke 25:13-35.

One of the most mysterious details of this event is the question of what exactly kept the two disillusioned disciples from recognizing him. Was it their grief that kept them from seeing? Was it their unbelief or profound discouragement? Was it Jesus himself who somehow kept them from recognizing him until just the right moment? Luke doesn’t say.

Whatever the answer to this question may be, my hope is that as we reflect on this story this week, and as we gather to worship God and break bread together in Jesus’ name, that anything keeping us from recognizing Jesus’ presence will fall away, and that we will all recognize that Christ is risen.

He is risen indeed! Alleluia!

Weekly Newsletter here

According to Michael Frost, in his book Surprise the World, there are at least 5 things that every follower of Jesus can do to help a growing number of people experience a growing relationship with God. Over the last few weeks we’ve looked closely at the first 3 of these habits (regularly Blessing others, Eating with others, and Listening for the voice of the Spirit). This Sunday we’re going to explore habit number 4, Learning Jesus.

In Surprise the World, Michael Frost expresses his concern that far too many Christians have  only a “passing knowledge” of the life and teachings of Jesus. They know what Frost calls “Jesus’ greatest hits – his birth, his death, his resurrection, a few miracles, and a couple of parables.” But for us to be able to answer people’s questions about Jesus, Christians need to know so much more. We need to know the Gospels forward and backward. We need to know what the earliest writings about Jesus, the Epistles, say about who he is and what he said and did. And we need to be continually learning Jesus, not just to be able to answer people’s questions about Jesus, but so that we can know, in every aspect of our lives, what Jesus would have us do.

Following last Sunday’s sermon on the habit of Listening to the Spirit, a lot of us were wondering how we can know whether the voices we hear, coming from all around us and even from with in us, are from the Spirit or not. In John 14:26 Jesus tells his earliest followers that “the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you.” In other words, Jesus sends the Spirit and the Spirit points back to Jesus. Learning to listen to the Spirit, therefore, begins by learning Jesus.

I really hope you’ll join us on Sunday as we continue to explore the power and the promise of learning Jesus.

Are you called to be an Alpha Host, Helper, and/or Inviter?
The purpose of Alpha is to help people experience a relationship with Jesus by sharing the good news of the gospel in a relaxed, easy-going and friendly atmosphere. As Nicky Gumbel, one of the leading figures of Alpha, likes to say,  “Alpha is friends bringing friends.”

Tuesday, March 20 at 4:30 PM – 6:30 PM
A team of 21 youth and leaders from all across the diocese are going to Toronto to learn about God by serving His people. The trip will be from April 28th to May 4th, and it’s estimated to cost about 9000$ total.
Last year’s trip was a huge success in which each of the participants took significant steps forward in their spiritual and leadership formation. The Parishes of the Upper Kennebecasis will be well represented by Rev. Dan McMullen, mission interns Nate Fetter and T.J.Trenzek-Jeall, Jessie Gowan, Carter Scott, and Amy, Cameron, and Chelsea Hoyt.

Please support these young missional leaders and enjoy some awesome chili while you’re at it.

Cost $10 per person or $25 for a family.
All proceeds will go to financing the mission trip to Toronto.

For More News …

For Lent this year we are exploring 5 habits that followers of Jesus can adopt to help a growing number of people find out more about the God we hope they will come to know and love.  In his book Surprise the World Michael Frost calls these habits “questionable behaviours.” They are behaviors that get people asking questions, the sort of questions that followers of Jesus can then answer by sharing what they have experienced and come to know about who God is and what God is like.

The first of these habits is to regularly and intentionally seek out people to Bless. We can bless others through words of encouragement, acts of service and/or gifts.

The second habit, which Rev. Deacon Brenda Fowler spoke about this past Sunday, is the habit of Eating with People. Jesus made a habit of regularly eating with people and of using those times together around a meal to teach and to demonstrate some of the most powerful realities about God and God’s kingdom. Meals have a way of bringing people together and of opening them to share so much more with each other than just food.

This Sunday we’ll be exploring the third habit, the habit of Listing.

We live in a world of almost constant noise and continuous sound, and we are surrounded by so many voices. But this Sunday the Rev. Rob Marsh is going to talk to us about how we can break through all the noise and make a habit of listening to the voice of the Holy Spirit.

We’re taught by none other than Jesus himself that the Holy Spirit is the companion of Jesus’ followers and a source of strength and special gifts in ministry. But Jesus also tells his followers that the Holy Spirit will lead them into all truth.

The Spirit is an indispensable source of guidance and wisdom for followers of Jesus as we make our way through the world, seeking to bless and share life with others. But to really benefit from the Spirit’s guidance we need to make a habit of listening to his voice.

I hope you will join us this week as we seek the Spirit’s wisdom and learn how to make a habit of listening to the Spirit’s voice.

Are you called to be an Alpha Host, Helper, and/or Inviter?

Contact Shonaugh Moore at 832-5802 for tickets and more information.

 For More News …

In his book, Surprise the World, Michael Frost wants to encourage followers of Jesus to adopt 5 habits that he believes will not only help us cultivate a deeper connection with God and a stronger sense of community with one another, but will also help us share our faith with others in ways that are surprising and deeply meaningful.

The first of these habits, which we explored last Sunday, was to Bless 3 people every week – 1 fellow church member, 1 non-church member, and 1 more person from either category.

The second habit, which we will be exploring this Sunday, is to Eat with 3 people every week – at least one of whom is not a member of your church. 

Lots of surprising things can happen around a meal. One of the most surprising things about Jesus was who he ate with. His detractors regularly accused him of being a drunkard and a glutton. Jesus was neither of those things, but obviously his preparedness to eat and drink with sinners, tax collectors and prostitutes gave his enemies plenty of ammunition.

He began his public ministry by miraculously providing huge amounts of high quality wine at a wedding feast in Cana where the wine had run out (John chapter 2). The water jars Jesus used to turn water into wine had been set aside for the ceremonial washing associated with Jewish purification rites. According to these rites, if someone felt they had been ‘contaminated’, for example by contact with someone outside of their religious community (i.e. Gentiles), they would wash in water and recite certain prayers to restore themselves to their ceremonially purified state before God.

Jesus takes these symbols of the religious separation between people, between Jews and Gentiles, between the holy and the unholy, and fills them with wine, the universal symbol of hospitality, inclusion and fellowship, and then continues to do this through the rest of his earthly ministry.

This Sunday we’ll be exploring how we can practice a similar kind of radical and surprising hospitality through the simple act of sharing a meal, and you are invited!

Please see Shonaugh Moore for tickets and details.

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