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St
Alban’s (Grand Cayman) & St Mary’s (Cayman Brac) | ||
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2
August 2009 Welcome
to
St
Alban's Anglican Church
Today's
Scripture: Exodus 16: 2-4, 9-15
Ephesians 4:1-16
S. John 6:24-35 Today:
9:00 a.m. Matins; 9.30 a.m. Holy Eucharist;
6.00 p.m. Evening Prayer This
Week: Tues-Wed, Fri 12.30 p.m. Midday Prayers; Thurs
(TRANSFIGURATION) 12.30 HC 8th Sunday after TrinityO God, whose never-failing providence ordereth all things both in heaven and earth: We humbly beseech thee to put away from us all hurtful things, and to give us those things which be profitable for us; through Jesus Christ our Lord.
FAITH IN FOCUS: MIXED MOTIVES Have
you ever wondered why people practise the religion they do? Take
Christianity, for example. The essence of Christianity is love of
God through love of neighbour. In other words to be a Christian is
to put others always before your self. It means being at the service
of whomever is in real need. It’s
not rocket science to see that this approach to life is going to
cause Christians a good deal of inconvenience, not to mention
suffering and hardship at times. That’s why one of
Christianity’s mottoes is about carrying your cross. A
more natural way of life would be to feather your own nest, to make
sure that you are well provided for and comfortable and then, if it
took your fancy, to think about helping others, provided that they
weren’t too much of a nuisance. So
why do we do what we do? Some people think that religion is a sort
of insurance policy that they take out to give themselves a soft
landing in the afterlife. At best we can say that they see this way
of living as qualifying them for eternal life. Their motivation is
the reward of heaven. Not
so helpful ulterior motives could be the desire to be seen as part
of the religious community for social reasons, to get votes in an
election or to increase the sales of your ironmongery business. This
is to use religion for other purposes. Of
course, there are folk who espouse Christianity because they are
absolutely convinced by the teaching of Jesus; it makes sense of
life here and now and it offers the best chance of living life to
the full. They can see the wisdom of it all and can appreciate what
God is promising on both sides of the grave. In
today’s gospel Jesus looks at the crowd and sees all the above
types of people: those who believe because they have seen Him in the
signs and those who believe because they have had all the bread they
wanted to eat. Which
are you?
WORD OF GOD I
tell you solemnly, you are not looking for me because you have seen
the signs but because you had all the bread you wanted to eat. (John
6:26) WORD
FOR TODAY Why
do we practise our faith? Why do we follow Christ? Is it because we
think that some sort of eternal life insurance policy is worth having
just in case? Or is it because we have seen the signs, as Jesus says,
and realise that our faith gives meaning to our lives on earth? SINCERITY
is impossible, unless it pervade the whole being, and the pretence of
it saps the very foundation of character. (James Russell Lowell) THE
AUTHORS FOUND that religious satisfaction was the most powerful
predictor of existential well being. The degree to which an individual
felt close to God was the most important factor in terms of
existential well-being. While frequency of prayer contributed to
general life satisfaction and personal happiness. As a result of their
study the authors concluded that it would be important to look at a
combination of religious items, including prayer, relationship with
God, and other measures of religious experience to begin to adequately
clarify the associations of religious commitment with general
well-being. (David
B Larson) THIS
WEEK’S BIBLE READINGS
Mon: Ezek 28:1-19, James 2:1-13, Luke 23:13-25 Tues: Ezek 33:1-20, James 2:14-end, Luke 23:26-43 Wed: Ezek 33: 21-end, James 3, Luke 23:44-56a Thurs (TRANSFIGURATION): Daniel 7:9-10, 13-14, 2 Peter 1: 16-19, Luke 9:28-36 Fri: Ezek 34:17-end, James 4:13 – 5:6, Luke 24:13-35 Sat : Ezek 36:16-36, James 5:7–end, Luke 24:36-end NEXT SUNDAY: 1 Kings 19: 4-8, Eph 4:25 – 5:2, S. John 6:35, 41-51
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