Just as you were once disobedient to God but have now received mercy because of their disobedience, so they have now been disobedient in order that, by the mercy shown to you, they too may now receive mercy. For God has imprisoned all in disobedience so that he may be merciful to all.

Romans 11:30-32 NRSV

The sermon this past Sunday was challenging on several levels. For the hearer, the challenge to love enemies and show mercy to those who have wounded us is always difficult. For my part, the challenge was to fit everything I wanted to say into a short period. The topic of reconciliation is one that I've studied and written on for most of my career from seminary onward, and I've seen my own understanding transform over the years. On a personal level, learning to forgive has been an area of constant challenge in my personal walk with Christ.

So, because the time allotted in a sermon is limited, and there is so much I want to say, I thought it best to expand on what I said here in Windows. I want to share with you my favorite quote from my favorite theologian from his most famous work:

But let this city ["the pilgrim city of King Christ"] bear in mind, that among her enemies lie hidden those who are destined to be fellow citizens, that she may not think it a fruitless labor to bear what they inflict as enemies until they become confessors of the faith. So, too, as long as she is a stranger in the world, the city of God has in her communion, and bound to her by the sacraments, some who shall not eternally dwell in the lot of the saints. Of these, some are not now recognized; others declare themselves, and do not hesitate to make common cause with our enemies in murmuring against God, whose sacramental badge they wear. These men you may today see thronging the churches with us, tomorrow crowding the theatres with the godless. But we have the less reason to despair of the reclamation even of such persons, if among our most declared enemies there are now some, unknown to themselves, who are destined to become our friends. --St. Augustine, The City of God, Book I, Ch. 35

What is Augustine saying in this quote? I think he is making the same point Paul makes in Romans 11 when he considers the question of what Jesus means for his Jewish brothers and sisters who, for the moment, reject him as the messiah. Paul is writing at a very painful juncture in Christian history. A rift is beginning to form in the Jewish/Jewish-Christian community over the question of Jesus and the place of Gentiles in the Christian community. Paul argues that what seems to be the Jewish disobedience towards God's self-disclosure in Jesus achieves God's purposes of reconciling the Gentiles and offering them a place in God's promises. Quite literally, God is making room for those who were once enemies (Gentiles) to be included in the family, a point Paul makes elsewhere in Ephesian 2.

Simply put, God's reconciling work is so great and beyond the measure of our imagination, God has purposed in Jesus to make enemies into friends.

St. Augustine runs with this point, reminding his readers that we ought not to be so quick to draw hard divisions between the friends and the enemies of God, much less those we would personally call friends or enemies. God's love is so vast and overwhelming that it has the ability to reconcile even the worst among us. For that reason, we ought "not think it a fruitless labor" to return good to those who do evil towards us. Instead, we ought to see both the good and the bad we experience at the hands of others as an opportunity to show mercy and forgiveness. We love our enemies in the hope that Christ will be visible in our love and that our estranged neighbor might become our friend, even family, within the body of Christ, the church.

This is a big idea, and it is not easily digestible. It runs counter to our instincts and inherited tribalism. It cuts us to the quick and calls us to question where we have been placing our ultimate allegiance. In the "pilgrim city of King Christ," there is only one allegiance, and that is to this purpose God has revealed in the Son. My prayer is that we, personally and as a community, will embrace this allegiance with all that we have, so that we might be a place where our enemies might come to know that they were "destined to become our friends."

In Christ,

Pastor Sam

We will collect our Five-Cents-a-Meal offering this Sunday, August 18, at both services. The suggested offering is $13.65 per person, or about a nickel for each meal you eat in a three-month period. Your contribution will provide hunger relief through both local and global ministries. Last year our Five-Cents-a-Meal offerings enabled FPC to help feed the hungry in Bristol through Haven of Rest and Bristol Emergency Food Pantry, and in Ethiopia and Brazil through our missions in those countries. Please be generous!

1. Click on Donate.
2. Choose PayPal or Credit Card Giving Option.
3. Use the memo section below the amount to write "Lawrence Sharrett: Cyclical Southeastern Europe."

• Saturday, August 17: Coffee and conversation from 8:00 a.m. until 11:00 a.m. at Perkins Restaurant and Bakery. Come and go as you want.
• Sunday, August 18: A mission conversation and presentation with Q&A at 12:30 p.m. at FPC.
• Sunday, August 18: An informal gathering at 6:30 p.m. For more information, email Larry at [email protected]. 

The Apostles' Creed is a Universal Creed of the Universal Church. It has served as a living declaration of faith from the very beginning of its use, around 390 AD. The creed was used by the early church as a concise summary of belief and a teaching tool for new believers. Credo, which means "I believe," is the first statement read and learned. From this simple, yet profound, statement, the creed then goes on to make wonderfully daring declarations about God, Jesus, and even the Holy Spirit, with the majority of these statements focused upon Jesus Christ. In a time when Bibles were nonexistent, the Apostles' Creed used bold, concise, and easily memorized statements, each supported with multiple scriptural references, to outline the boundaries of Christian faith. The Apostles' Creed has served as the foundation for many different denominations and creeds since its acceptance.

What does this ancient document continue to say to us now almost two thousand centuries later? Each phrase offers up profound theological vistas that invite believers to continue reflecting upon the Good News of Jesus Christ. You are invited to do so in a short-term, video- and discussion-based adult class paralleling Sam Weddington's upcoming preaching series on the Apostles' Creed and designed to engage reflection. The new class will meet in the chapel on Sunday mornings from 10:20 to 10:40, starting September 8. For more information, please see Sam or Dave.

Our acolytes will resume their role in our 11:00 traditional worship service Sunday, September 8. We would like to add members to our team before then! If you and your child are interested in serving in this capacity, please let Pastor Sam know by email at [email protected]. The program is open to any child in grades 5 -12. Our first orientation will be held Sunday, August 25, at 12:30, directly after the traditional worship service. Please see the following schedule:

 

Acolyte Orientation & Practice
Sunday, August 25, 12:30 p.m.	Acolyte Team Orientation
Wednesday, August 28, 7:15 p.m.	Acolyte Rehearsal with Choir
Sunday, September 1, 12:30 p.m.	Acolyte Final Rehearsal
Sunday, September 8, 11:00 a.m.	Acolytes Resume Worship

Kids, start your engines, aka bikes! Come to the church this Saturday, August 17, at 10:30 a.m. We will meet around back at the magnolia tree. Bring bikes or any riding toy and a picnic lunch! For more information, contact Lilly Osborne.

We had fun in the sun and the shade at our churchwide celebration on the grounds last Sunday. The kids enjoyed the inflatables, and everyone enjoyed the fellowship. See Lilly Osborne's photos, below, and follow this link to our video, courtesy of George Linke, at https://youtu.be/O_GFNK3ErHk.

Our brothers and sisters of our Marthina Mission Chapel need a relatively new wheelchair, first aid supplies, and a first aid cart with drawers. If anyone has these items in storage and would like to donate them, please contact Bud Branscomb at 423-416-3212 (mobile) to coordinate drop-off and pickup. Thank you!

Just a reminder to everyone who registered for our church family summer camp: it's nearly here! Next weekend, August 23 -25, we will enjoy adventure, relaxation, and family fun at the Young Life camp in Windy Gap in Weaverville, NC. Can't wait!

Invite your friends and come to FPC's Fall Student Retreat at Doe River Gorge in Hampton, TN! This special weekend for students in grades seven through twelve is scheduled for August 31 through September 2. It will include wild fun, adventure in the great outdoors, worship, and bonding with your church family. We will leave Saturday and return Monday afternoon. Join us for a weekend of fun and fellowship with your friends!

The $175 cost for the weekend covers everything and includes a T-shirt. You can register and pay the $50 deposit at the link below. Turn in money to the church or pay online at https://onrealm.org/fpcbristol/Give.

Ready to go? ==> REGISTER HERE <==

First Presbyterian Church invites all students in seventh to eleventh grade to join our fall confirmation class, which begins Sunday, September 8. In this course, we will learn, discuss, and ask hard questions about faith, God, and more. The confirmation class prepares students for baptism or to confirm the vows of their baptism by professing their faith in Jesus Christ.

The confirmation journey is a two-year experience. At the conclusion of the two years, students will be invited to confirm their faith and join the church. Confirmation class will take place on Sunday mornings from 10:00 till 10:45 in the big room in the Student Ministries wing. Each class builds on the information from the previous week, so class attendance is very important. We ask you to make a commitment to attend every Sunday. If you miss a class, we can help you make it up, but we ask all confirmands to take this commitment seriously.

As you learn through discussion and activities, you will find the confirmation journey to be a time of both individual growth and relational growth with your church family. You will play games, watch videos, and meet friends in new ways. And in addition to your teachers, you will have two mentors, an adult and a high school student, to help you as you go through the process. If you are interested in participating in confirmation, contact Katie Arnold at [email protected].

When we hear news of the Sharretts' mission work this Sunday, August 18, David Moore (August 14 -17) will already have fulfilled his mission to mow the church grass for the week. Randy Olson (August 21 -24) will welcome us home from family camp with a well-mown lawn next Sunday.

	Richard Shephard

Sunday's music: Our anthem this week, "Eternal God," was composed by acclaimed British choral composer and educator Richard Shephard MBE (b. 1949). Shephard is best known for his extensive collection of sacred choral music, which is frequently performed throughout Great Britain and America. He is also a celebrated composer of operas, musicals, and orchestral works. Shephard began his musical studies as a chorister at Gloucester Cathedral under the direction of composer Herbert Sumsion. He later studied at Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, where he earned a degree from David Willcocks. He now holds the Lambeth Doctorate of Music from Oxford University as well as two honorary doctorates from the University of the South in Sewanee, Tennessee, and the University of York, England. Shephard is now Chamberlain of York Minster, where he heads the development department, and an Honorary Visiting Fellow in the Music Department of the University of York.

"Eternal God" uses words from St. Augustine of Hippo's (354 -430) "Prayer to Know God." It is a prayer that asks for the light, joy, and strength needed to truly know God through Jesus Christ. St. Augustine was a Roman African theologian and philosopher from Numidia (a province in what is now northeast Algeria) whose writings influenced the development of the Western church. Augustine was born to a household of mixed religion (his mother was Christian and his father pagan), and throughout his youth he explored different philosophical and religious practices, including hedonism, Neoplatanism, and Manichaeism. At the age of 31 he came upon Romans 13:13-14: "Not in rioting and drunkenness, not in chambering and wantonness, not in strife and envying, but put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh to fulfill the lusts thereof." Upon reading this, he began a study of the Holy Bible and converted to Christianity. His subsequent works are highly celebrated in the Catholic and Anglican churches as well as throughout Protestant denominations. He was canonized by Pope Boniface in 1298.

	Jehan Alain

Organist's footnotes: The French organist and composer Jehan Ariste Alain (1911-1940) had a short career as a composer that began when he was 18 and lasted until the outbreak of the Second World War ten years later. He was influenced not only by the musical language of the earlier Claude Debussy and his contemporary Olivier Messiaen (seen in our offertory, "Le jardin suspendu," 1934) but also by an interest in the music, dance, and philosophies of the Far East; a renaissance of Baroque music (seen in our prelude, Variations sur un thème de Clément Janequin, 1937); and jazz. Alain described "Le jardin suspendu" ("The Hanging Garden") as a portrayal of "the ideal, perpetual pursuit and escape of the artist, an inaccessible and inviolable refuge."

He wrote choral music, including a Requiem mass, chamber music, songs, and three volumes of piano music. But it is his organ music for which he is best known. His most famous work is "Litanies," our postlude, composed in 1937. That work is prefaced with the text: "When, in its distress, the Christian soul can find no more words to invoke God's mercy, it repeats endlessly the same litany ... for reason has reached its limit; only faith can take one further."

Sunday, August 18

9:00 a.m.       Worship, Fellowship Hall

10:10 a.m.     Sunday School

11:00 a.m.     Worship, Sanctuary

12:30 p.m.     Larry Sharrett Mission Presentation, Fellowship Hall

4:00 p.m.       Evangelism & Outreach Comm., Room 117

Tuesday, August 20

10:00 a.m.     Staff Meeting, Room 117

10:00 a.m.     Morning Prayer Group, Conf. Room

7:00 p.m.       Boy Scout Troop 3, Scout Wing

Wednesday, August 21

5:00 p.m.       Baby & Toddler Care, Rooms 34 - 37

5:30 p.m.       Fellowship Dinner, Fellowship Hall

6:00 p.m.       Wednesday Night Kids

6:00 p.m.       Middle School Gathering

6:00 p.m.       High School Small Groups

6:15 p.m.       Handbell Practice, Room 212

6:20 p.m.       Adult Enrichment, TBA

7:15 p.m.       Sanctuary Choir, Room 202

7:15 p.m.       Worship Team, Fellowship Hall

Thursday, August 22

7:00 a.m.       Men's Bible Study, Parlor

12:00 p.m.     Noon Bible Study, Room 117

Friday, August 23

Family Camp Weekend at Windy Gap, NC

Church Officers
Class of 2019	Class of 2020	Class of 2021
ELDERS
Anna Booher	Nancy Allerton	Ann Abel
Lee Galliher	Rebecca Beck	Randy Cook
Pete Holler	David Hyde	John Graham
Han Ong	Jordan Pennington	Katie McInnis
Pete Stigers	Jerry Poteat	John Vann
DEACONS
Sujean Bradley	Blake Bassett	Fred Harkleroad
George Linke	Rhonda Comer	Matt Kingsley
Greg Roberts	Ron Fox	Lisa McClain
Nate Sproles	Brenda Lawson	Drew Rice
Bill Whisnant	Barbara Thompson	Joyce Samuel
TRUSTEES
Nancy Cook	Peggy Hill	Jack Butterworth