| |
|
|
|
|
Sunnyvale Presbyterian Church
|
August 20, 2017
|
|
| |
|
Questions for
Reflection
What are some of your favorite things to eat? Why do you like them?
What are some special foods that you enjoy? What gives them particular meaning for you?
Are there particular foods you avoid? Why?
|
|
Embodied Faith
The Rev. Hardy Kim, preaching
|
Over the past few weeks, one of the ways that I have enjoyed getting to know the community has been through our Community Dinners. These times of sharing in food and conversation - in refreshing our bodies and renewing our connections - have helped me to feel better grounded in the midst of all of you. In fact, I often find food a very powerful way of connecting with others: cooking or experiencing a new restaurant with others, learning about someone's family or cultural history through special dishes, there's something uniquely powerful about the things we eat.
So, it's no surprise that so many communities have used food and diet as a way of marking who is in and who is out. Even these days, we like to think, what someone eats and how they to eat it can tell us a lot about them. The people of Jesus' tended to think the same way. But in our worship this week we're going to explore a message of challenge that Jesus gave to his followers, when he asked them to rethink the value of being so careful about food and boundaries.
I hope you'll come and join in our worship and then in the evening meal and conversation that will follow. Look on our website or in the newsletter if you want more details about the Community Dinner!
Peace,
Hardy
P.S. Family worship continues through August, so our children and youth continue to be with us in worship - what a gift! When we see things through the eyes of those younger than us, we are given the gift of fresh perspective.
|
|
Theme for the Day
|
The Church is the body of Christ. Christ gives to the Church all the gifts necessary to be his body. The Church strives to demonstrate these gifts in its life as a community in the world: The Church is to be a community of faith, entrusting itself to God alone, even at the risk of losing its life.
--From "The Foundations of Presbyterian Polity," PC(USA) Book of Order
|
|
|
| |
|
|
Scripture Passage
Then he called the crowd to him and said to them, "Listen and understand: it is not what goes into the mouth that defiles a person, but it is what comes out of the mouth that defiles." Then the disciples approached and said to him, "Do you know that the Pharisees took offense when they heard what you said?" He answered, "Every plant that my heavenly Father has not planted will be uprooted. Let them alone; they are blind guides of the blind. And if one blind person guides another, both will fall into a pit." But Peter said to him, "Explain this parable to us." Then he said, "Are you also still without understanding? Do you not see that whatever goes into the mouth enters the stomach, and goes out into the sewer? But what comes out of the mouth proceeds from the heart, and this is what defiles. For out of the heart come evil intentions, murder, adultery, fornication, theft, false witness, slander. These are what defile a person, but to eat with unwashed hands does not defile."
|
|
|
|
