Good morning,
Praise the Lord for this Fabulous Friday. It will be one of the ten best days. The Spring flowers are in full bloom. The grass is lavishly green. Praise the Lord for the splendor of the Spring Season. Our Lord makes all things glorious and beautiful. Those who live in the area, please join us for our weekly TV outreach this evening at 7 PM on Time Warner channel 4.
I love the event of Emmaus as it is recorded in Luke 24. The women come to the Tomb early in the morning, while it was still dark. The two disciples of our Lord journey to Emmaus. It is an evening scene, getting darker by the minute. The Risen Lord suddenly appears in the scene and joins the two travelers as the unknown traveler. He is Risen but not recoginized and as they go Cleopas and the other, clearly overwhelmed and distraught, share with their new companion the sad news of recent days. It is a story of dashed hopes and dreams lost. The stranger asks them, what were they talking about with so much intensity. They say, "About Jesus of Nazareth. He was a prophet, powerful in word and deed before God and all the people. The chief priests and our rulers handed him over to be sentenced to death, and they crucified him; but we had hoped that he was the one who was going to redeem Israel. And what is more, it is the third day since all this took place. In addition, some of the women amazed us. They went to our tomb early this morning but didn't find his body. They came and told us that they had seen a vision of angels, who said he was alive. Then some of our companions went to the tomb and found it just as the women had said, but they did not see him."
Cleopas pours his heart out to this man who has joined their journey to Emmaus. As the travelers talk, we sense that perhaps these disciples are going to Emmaus not to get home or to get work done, but just to get away from the terrible things they had witnessed in Jerusalem. There is not much known about Emmaus, and one theologian interprets Emmaus as the place we go in order to escape. Emmaus is the place that we throw up our arms and say, “Let the whole thing go…It makes no difference anyway.” Emmaus could be buying a new suit or pair of shoes that you don’t really need. Emmaus could stand for whatever we do or wherever we go to make ourselves try and forget about the awfulness of things. We journey to Emmaus often. Then someone comes along wondering what we're talking about, and we turn to them and ask, "Don't you see? Don't you understand how bad things are?"
However, the story of the walk to Emmaus is the story about how sometimes we are the ones who don't see; sometimes we are the ones who don't understand, and we need a new perspective. After the two disciples share their story with their new companion, they get what is quite surely an unexpected response. "Wasn't this the way it was supposed to happen?" the man asks. "Don't you understand? Don't you see? There had to be suffering in order for there to be glory!"
Then the man tells his own story. He begins with Moses and all the prophets, explaining to them what was said in all the Scriptures about the Messiah. He didn't miss a thing. From Genesis onward, this man talks to Cleopas and the other about how this story pointed forward to a fulfillment which could only be found when God's anointed took Israel's suffering, the world's suffering, on to himself, died under its weight, and rose again as the beginning of God's new creation, God's new people. This had to happen. Now it has occurred, but the disciples cannot see that, and they don't understand who is walking along with them.
We know that the disciple's companion was Jesus the Risen Lord , but in their misery, they did not recognize him. Even as he revealed the Scriptures to them, they still did not understand; it took the breaking of bread and a shared meal that night in Emmaus for their eyes to be opened. But the story of the walk to Emmaus reminds us that the risen Lord meets in our pain and sorrow and frustration. The resurrected Christ meets us on the road to our Emmaus; He is with us in the ordinary places and experiences of our lives, and in the places to which we retreat when life is too much for us to bear. This story also reminds us that when the Lord comes to us, it may be in unfamiliar ways, and when we least expect him.
We have to be prepared to share our grief in prayer with the stranger who approaches and then we have to learn to listen for his voice; explaining, leading forwards, warming our hearts as he tells us the story of comfort we need to hear.
That is the road to Emmaus. It is the place where Christ walks with us through all the difficulties. It is the place where he reminds us of the story of our redemption. It is also a story about new beginnings as Christ joins with us on our personal road to Emmaus. He walks with us when it seems like everything in the world is going wrong, and even as he walks with us, he reminds us of the story of our salvation; As we journey with Christ on the road to Emmaus, we cannot help but be changed. Our hearts burn within us as we encounter the risen Lord and we discover the hope of new life in a story that is as old as the ages. Emmaus is the beginning of the journey, not the end.
In Christ the Rise Lord,
Brown
http://youtu.be/RFU9nsG7Oww
Saturday evening worship service.
Location: First United Methodist Church
53 McKinley Avenue
Endicott
Sponsored by the Union Center United Methodist Church, 128, Maple Drive, Endicott
Saturday, May 7, 2011
6 PM Coffee Fellowship
6:30 PM Worship Service
Worship Music: Jane Hettinger, Mary Haskel
Speaker: Dave Hettinger
Friday, May 6, 2011
Thursday, May 5, 2011
Brown's Daily Word 5-5-11
Good morning,
Praise the Lord for this day which the Lord has made. We will rejoice and be glad in it. The Lord blessed us with a beautiful Wednesday evening gathering. The fellowship was sweet. The study and sharing were provoking and challenging In Hebrews 9:11-14 it is written, "When Christ came as high priest of the good things that are already here, he went through the greater and more perfect tabernacle that is not man-made, that is to say, not a part of this creation. He did not enter by means of the blood of goats and calves; but he entered the Most Holy Place once for all by his own blood, having obtained eternal redemption. The blood of goats and bulls and the ashes of a heifer sprinkled on those who are ceremonially unclean sanctify them so that they are outwardly clean. How much more, then, will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself unblemished to God, cleanse our consciences from acts that lead to death, so that we may serve the living God!"
Jonathan Edwards (1703-1758) served the Lord faithfully in his generation as did King David in his generation. Each one of us is called serve the Lord here and now. Jonathan Edwards was a brilliant theologian whose sermons had an overwhelming impact on those who heard him. One in particular, his famous ’Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God," moved hundreds to repentance and salvation. That single message helped to spark the revival known as ’The Great Awakening" (1734-1744). From a human standpoint, it seems incredible that such far-reaching results could come from one message. Edwards did not have a commanding voice or impressive pulpit manner. He used very few gestures, and he read from a manuscript. Yet the Holy Spirit moved on his hearers with great conviction and power.
Few know the spiritual preparation involved in that sermon. John Chapman gives us the story. "For 3 days Edwards had not eaten a mouthful of food; for 3 nights he had not closed his eyes in sleep. Over and over again he was heard to pray, ’O Lord, give me New England! Give me New England!’ When he rose from his knees and made his way into the pulpit that Sunday, he looked as if he had been gazing straight into the face of God. Even before he began to speak, tremendous conviction fell upon his audience." Holiness was Jonathan Edwards’ heart’s desire in life. So should it be in ours but it won’t happen without work, without preparation.
Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. (who was a justice on the Supreme Court, nominated by Theodore Roosevelt) said, "To reach the port of heaven we must sail, sometimes with the wind and sometimes against it, but we must sail and not drift, nor lie at anchor."
We must sail, not drift. Drifting will get us nowhere. The Christian life is a life of action, doing, working, and serving. Because of this action, we are called to prepare ourselves; to prepare our minds, our bodies and our hearts for serving the Lord. I Tim. 1:15-17, "Here is a trustworthy saying that deserves full acceptance: Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners—of whom I am the worst. But for that very reason I was shown mercy so that in me, the worst of sinners, Christ Jesus might display his unlimited patience as an example for those who would believe on him and receive eternal life. Now to the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory for ever and ever. Amen."
In Christ,
Brown
http://youtu.be/bMlsifnlQN8
Saturday evening worship service.
Location: First United Methodist Church
53 McKinley Avenue
Endicott
Sponsored by the Union Center United Methodist Church, 128, Maple Drive, Endicott
Saturday, May 7, 2011
6 PM Coffee Fellowship
6:30 PM Worship Service
Worship Music: Jane Hettinger, Mary Haskel
Speaker: Dave Hettinger
Praise the Lord for this day which the Lord has made. We will rejoice and be glad in it. The Lord blessed us with a beautiful Wednesday evening gathering. The fellowship was sweet. The study and sharing were provoking and challenging In Hebrews 9:11-14 it is written, "When Christ came as high priest of the good things that are already here, he went through the greater and more perfect tabernacle that is not man-made, that is to say, not a part of this creation. He did not enter by means of the blood of goats and calves; but he entered the Most Holy Place once for all by his own blood, having obtained eternal redemption. The blood of goats and bulls and the ashes of a heifer sprinkled on those who are ceremonially unclean sanctify them so that they are outwardly clean. How much more, then, will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself unblemished to God, cleanse our consciences from acts that lead to death, so that we may serve the living God!"
Jonathan Edwards (1703-1758) served the Lord faithfully in his generation as did King David in his generation. Each one of us is called serve the Lord here and now. Jonathan Edwards was a brilliant theologian whose sermons had an overwhelming impact on those who heard him. One in particular, his famous ’Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God," moved hundreds to repentance and salvation. That single message helped to spark the revival known as ’The Great Awakening" (1734-1744). From a human standpoint, it seems incredible that such far-reaching results could come from one message. Edwards did not have a commanding voice or impressive pulpit manner. He used very few gestures, and he read from a manuscript. Yet the Holy Spirit moved on his hearers with great conviction and power.
Few know the spiritual preparation involved in that sermon. John Chapman gives us the story. "For 3 days Edwards had not eaten a mouthful of food; for 3 nights he had not closed his eyes in sleep. Over and over again he was heard to pray, ’O Lord, give me New England! Give me New England!’ When he rose from his knees and made his way into the pulpit that Sunday, he looked as if he had been gazing straight into the face of God. Even before he began to speak, tremendous conviction fell upon his audience." Holiness was Jonathan Edwards’ heart’s desire in life. So should it be in ours but it won’t happen without work, without preparation.
Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. (who was a justice on the Supreme Court, nominated by Theodore Roosevelt) said, "To reach the port of heaven we must sail, sometimes with the wind and sometimes against it, but we must sail and not drift, nor lie at anchor."
We must sail, not drift. Drifting will get us nowhere. The Christian life is a life of action, doing, working, and serving. Because of this action, we are called to prepare ourselves; to prepare our minds, our bodies and our hearts for serving the Lord. I Tim. 1:15-17, "Here is a trustworthy saying that deserves full acceptance: Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners—of whom I am the worst. But for that very reason I was shown mercy so that in me, the worst of sinners, Christ Jesus might display his unlimited patience as an example for those who would believe on him and receive eternal life. Now to the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory for ever and ever. Amen."
In Christ,
Brown
http://youtu.be/bMlsifnlQN8
Saturday evening worship service.
Location: First United Methodist Church
53 McKinley Avenue
Endicott
Sponsored by the Union Center United Methodist Church, 128, Maple Drive, Endicott
Saturday, May 7, 2011
6 PM Coffee Fellowship
6:30 PM Worship Service
Worship Music: Jane Hettinger, Mary Haskel
Speaker: Dave Hettinger
Wednesday, May 4, 2011
Brown's Daily Word 5/4/11
Good morning,
Praise the Lord for this new day. We will gather for our mid-week service this evening at 6 PM for soup and fellowship, Bible Study at 6:30 PM, followed by Choir practice.
Alice and I drove down to Washington, DC Monday afternoon for a very short visit with Sunita and Andy. I also had a regular visit with my doctor at Johns Hopkins in Baltimore, MD yesterday. We had a safe trip back home, though the last hour was very rainy and even displaying lightning. It was a Summer-like day in Washington and Baltimore, with the temperature reaching the low eighties.
I love the powerful passage that we find in 1 Peter 1: “Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade kept in heaven for you, who through faith are shielded by God’s power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time. In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. These have come so that your faith - of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire - may be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed. Though you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy, for you are receiving the goal of your faith, the salvation of your souls.” I Peter 1:3-9
Peter, who is also called “the apostle of hope,” encouraged all to trust in Jesus, live obediently in hard circumstances, and keep their hope fixed on God’s ultimate purpose of deliverance. I was reading about Dr. Jerome Groopman of Harvard. When he diagnosed his patients with serious diseases, he discovered that all of them were “looking for a sense of genuine hope—and indeed, that hope was as important to them as anything he might prescribe as a physician.” After writing a book called "The Anatomy of Hope", Groopman was asked for his definition of hope. He replied: “Basically, I think hope is the ability to see a path to the future. You are facing dire circumstances, and you need to know everything that’s blocking or threatening you. And then you see a path, or a potential path, to get to where you want to be. Once you see that, there’s a tremendous emotional uplift that occurs.” The doctor confessed, “I think hope has been, is, and always will be the heart of medicine and healing. We could not live without hope.” Even with all the medical technology available to us now, “we still come back to this profound human need to believe that there is a possibility to reach a future that is better than the one in the present.” In the Bible, “hope” means “certainty,” and the only reason it is called “hope” rather than “certainty” is that we do not yet possess it, although we surely will.“Hope” as it is described in 1 Peter 1 does not imply a wishfulness but rather a dynamic confidence that does not end with this life but continues throughout eternity. “Hope is one of the theological virtues,” C. S. Lewis said. “This means that a continual looking forward to the eternal world is not (as some modern people think) a form of escapism or wishful thinking, but one of the things a Christian is meant to do. It does not mean that we are to leave the present world as it is. If you read history you will find that the Christians who did most for the present world were just those who thought most of the next. The apostles themselves, who set on foot the conversion of the Roman Empire, the great men who built up the Middle Ages, the English Evangelicals who abolished the Slave Trade, all left their mark on Earth, precisely because their minds were occupied with Heaven. It is since Christians have largely ceased to think of the other world that they have become so ineffective in this. Aim at Heaven and you will get earth ‘thrown in’: aim at earth and you will get neither.” Christians are promised a greater ability to function in life. Peter speaks of this as “a living hope,” and living means it is something that comes to us every day; it is something that is available all the time. In the New Testament we can see how these early Christians were filled with a constant sense of the presence of Jesus. Everywhere they went they did so with joy, optimism, and expectation. When we read the book of Acts we see that from beginning to end it has a ring of triumph. In Christ,
Brown
http://youtu.be/SCxUQqx2hPg
Saturday evening worship service.
Location: First United Methodist Church
53 McKinley Avenue
Endicott
Sponsored by the Union Center United Methodist Church, 128, Maple Drive, Endicott
Saturday, May 7, 2011
6 PM Coffee Fellowship
6:30 PM Worship Service
Worship Music: Jane Hettinger, Mary Haskel
Speaker: Dave Hettinger
Praise the Lord for this new day. We will gather for our mid-week service this evening at 6 PM for soup and fellowship, Bible Study at 6:30 PM, followed by Choir practice.
Alice and I drove down to Washington, DC Monday afternoon for a very short visit with Sunita and Andy. I also had a regular visit with my doctor at Johns Hopkins in Baltimore, MD yesterday. We had a safe trip back home, though the last hour was very rainy and even displaying lightning. It was a Summer-like day in Washington and Baltimore, with the temperature reaching the low eighties.
I love the powerful passage that we find in 1 Peter 1: “Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade kept in heaven for you, who through faith are shielded by God’s power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time. In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. These have come so that your faith - of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire - may be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed. Though you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy, for you are receiving the goal of your faith, the salvation of your souls.” I Peter 1:3-9
Peter, who is also called “the apostle of hope,” encouraged all to trust in Jesus, live obediently in hard circumstances, and keep their hope fixed on God’s ultimate purpose of deliverance. I was reading about Dr. Jerome Groopman of Harvard. When he diagnosed his patients with serious diseases, he discovered that all of them were “looking for a sense of genuine hope—and indeed, that hope was as important to them as anything he might prescribe as a physician.” After writing a book called "The Anatomy of Hope", Groopman was asked for his definition of hope. He replied: “Basically, I think hope is the ability to see a path to the future. You are facing dire circumstances, and you need to know everything that’s blocking or threatening you. And then you see a path, or a potential path, to get to where you want to be. Once you see that, there’s a tremendous emotional uplift that occurs.” The doctor confessed, “I think hope has been, is, and always will be the heart of medicine and healing. We could not live without hope.” Even with all the medical technology available to us now, “we still come back to this profound human need to believe that there is a possibility to reach a future that is better than the one in the present.” In the Bible, “hope” means “certainty,” and the only reason it is called “hope” rather than “certainty” is that we do not yet possess it, although we surely will.“Hope” as it is described in 1 Peter 1 does not imply a wishfulness but rather a dynamic confidence that does not end with this life but continues throughout eternity. “Hope is one of the theological virtues,” C. S. Lewis said. “This means that a continual looking forward to the eternal world is not (as some modern people think) a form of escapism or wishful thinking, but one of the things a Christian is meant to do. It does not mean that we are to leave the present world as it is. If you read history you will find that the Christians who did most for the present world were just those who thought most of the next. The apostles themselves, who set on foot the conversion of the Roman Empire, the great men who built up the Middle Ages, the English Evangelicals who abolished the Slave Trade, all left their mark on Earth, precisely because their minds were occupied with Heaven. It is since Christians have largely ceased to think of the other world that they have become so ineffective in this. Aim at Heaven and you will get earth ‘thrown in’: aim at earth and you will get neither.” Christians are promised a greater ability to function in life. Peter speaks of this as “a living hope,” and living means it is something that comes to us every day; it is something that is available all the time. In the New Testament we can see how these early Christians were filled with a constant sense of the presence of Jesus. Everywhere they went they did so with joy, optimism, and expectation. When we read the book of Acts we see that from beginning to end it has a ring of triumph. In Christ,
Brown
http://youtu.be/SCxUQqx2hPg
Saturday evening worship service.
Location: First United Methodist Church
53 McKinley Avenue
Endicott
Sponsored by the Union Center United Methodist Church, 128, Maple Drive, Endicott
Saturday, May 7, 2011
6 PM Coffee Fellowship
6:30 PM Worship Service
Worship Music: Jane Hettinger, Mary Haskel
Speaker: Dave Hettinger
Monday, May 2, 2011
Brown's Daily Word 5-2-11
Good morning,
Praise the Lord this first Monday of May. The Lord blessed us with a full and blessed weekend of worship, witness, and fellowship. Sunita celebrated her birthday yesterday. She and Andy attended a wedding celebration of one of their friends/colleagues this past Saturday.
The Gospel Reading for yesterday was taken from John 20: 19 ff: “Now Thomas, called the Twin, one of the twelve, was not with them when Jesus came. The other disciples therefore said to him, ‘We have seen the Lord.’ So he said to them, ‘Unless I see in his hands the print of the nails, and put my finger into the print of the nails, and put my hand into his side, I will not believe.’ And after eight days his disciples were again inside, and Thomas with them. Jesus came, the doors being shut, and stood in the midst, and said, ‘Peace to you!’ Then he said to Thomas, ‘Reach your finger here, and look at my hands; and reach your hand here, and put it into my side. Do not be unbelieving, but believing.’ And Thomas answered and said to him, ‘My Lord and my God!’ Jesus said to him, ‘Thomas, because you have seen me, you have believed. Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.” (John 20:24-29) Thomas was invited to see and touch Jesus. His doubts were banished, and his faith soared.
The apostle John added his own footnote at that point. After affirming that the life of Jesus was filled with other events and signs that are not recorded in his volume, he wrote, “But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life in His name.” (John 20:31).
In John Masefield’s drama, “The Trial of Jesus,” there is a passage in which the Roman centurion in command at the cross came back to Pilate at the end of the day to hand in his report. Later Pilate’s wife asked the soldier how Jesus died. He told her in more detail than was really necessary. Suddenly she asked, “Do you think he’s dead?” The centurion responded, “No, I don’t.” “Where is he?” she asked? “He’s loose in the world, lady, where no one can stop his truth!”
Indeed our Risen Lord is at large in the world today. We can serve Him, we can worship Him with joy and obedience.
In Christ,
Brown
http://youtu.be/fktj1yOQ2nQ
Saturday evening worship service.
Location: First United Methodist Church
53 McKinley Avenue
Endicott
Sponsored by the Union Center United Methodist Church, 128, Maple Drive, Endicott
Saturday, May 7, 2011
6 PM Coffee Fellowship
6:30 PM Worship Service
Worship Music: Jane Hettinger, Mary Haskel
Speaker: Dave Hettinger
Praise the Lord this first Monday of May. The Lord blessed us with a full and blessed weekend of worship, witness, and fellowship. Sunita celebrated her birthday yesterday. She and Andy attended a wedding celebration of one of their friends/colleagues this past Saturday.
The Gospel Reading for yesterday was taken from John 20: 19 ff: “Now Thomas, called the Twin, one of the twelve, was not with them when Jesus came. The other disciples therefore said to him, ‘We have seen the Lord.’ So he said to them, ‘Unless I see in his hands the print of the nails, and put my finger into the print of the nails, and put my hand into his side, I will not believe.’ And after eight days his disciples were again inside, and Thomas with them. Jesus came, the doors being shut, and stood in the midst, and said, ‘Peace to you!’ Then he said to Thomas, ‘Reach your finger here, and look at my hands; and reach your hand here, and put it into my side. Do not be unbelieving, but believing.’ And Thomas answered and said to him, ‘My Lord and my God!’ Jesus said to him, ‘Thomas, because you have seen me, you have believed. Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.” (John 20:24-29) Thomas was invited to see and touch Jesus. His doubts were banished, and his faith soared.
The apostle John added his own footnote at that point. After affirming that the life of Jesus was filled with other events and signs that are not recorded in his volume, he wrote, “But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life in His name.” (John 20:31).
In John Masefield’s drama, “The Trial of Jesus,” there is a passage in which the Roman centurion in command at the cross came back to Pilate at the end of the day to hand in his report. Later Pilate’s wife asked the soldier how Jesus died. He told her in more detail than was really necessary. Suddenly she asked, “Do you think he’s dead?” The centurion responded, “No, I don’t.” “Where is he?” she asked? “He’s loose in the world, lady, where no one can stop his truth!”
Indeed our Risen Lord is at large in the world today. We can serve Him, we can worship Him with joy and obedience.
In Christ,
Brown
http://youtu.be/fktj1yOQ2nQ
Saturday evening worship service.
Location: First United Methodist Church
53 McKinley Avenue
Endicott
Sponsored by the Union Center United Methodist Church, 128, Maple Drive, Endicott
Saturday, May 7, 2011
6 PM Coffee Fellowship
6:30 PM Worship Service
Worship Music: Jane Hettinger, Mary Haskel
Speaker: Dave Hettinger
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