The video above will be available to stream live at 11:00 AM HAST on April 24, 2024. You may watch the recording here at any time afterward. You will need to click the Play button to view the live video.
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Sermon: Shepherd’s Cornerstone
April 21, 2024
Acts 4:5-12
1 John 3:16-24
I’m afraid that “Shepherd’s Cornerstone” is a phrase that doesn’t make a lot of sense. Cornerstones are architectural features of buildings, buildings with foundations. Shepherds in the first century didn’t live in buildings with foundations, at least not very often.
Yet the two ideas come together, at least in my mind, in this passage from Acts. Ancient Israel routinely used “shepherd” as a metaphor for the responsibilities of civil and religious leadership. Look through the psalms and you’ll find, over and over again, “shepherd” used to explain the role of a monarch. In the 23rd Psalm, which we prayed through adapted words this morning, the writer described God’s sovereignty in the world as being like a shepherd.
In Acts 4, the senior shepherds of the Jerusalem Temple gathered together. Rulers, elders, scribes, and notably Luke named members of the high-priestly family: Annas, Caiaphas, John, and Alexander. They had gathered to consider the fate of Simon Peter and John the son of Zebedee.
Simon Peter introduced the other word in my odd phrase: “cornerstone.” It wasn’t original to him. Jesus spoke about the stone the builders rejected becoming the cornerstone while arguing with the scribes and the chief priests in the Temple during the last few days before his arrest and crucifixion. It got them angry, because he’d clearly accused them of hindering God’s plans. I have no doubt that some of them were in the room again to hear Simon Peter repeat it. I don’t think it made them any happier to hear it a second time.
Matt Skinner writes at Working Preacher, “These are not rank-and-file Jews who oppose, detain, and question Peter and John. They are the leaders of the temple and the Jewish nobles whom Rome entrusted with ruling and ensuring the peace in Judea. With the high priest atop the pyramid, they are the tiny percentage of the Judean population that possessed an enormous amount of power.”
Let me step back just a moment to explain why Peter and John were in this predicament. It had been at least two months, possibly more, since Jesus’ death and resurrection. The day of Pentecost had come along with the gift of the Holy Spirit, and that had led Simon Peter to speak in public for the first time. After that, however, the group of Jesus’ followers in Jerusalem stayed relatively quiet. They worshiped in the Temple. They shared meals with one another. They welcome new people into the church. Nobody in authority seemed to notice.
Then Peter and John went to the Temple to worship, and met a beggar who could not walk, being carried to a place where he could beg for his sustenance. Simon Peter told him, “I have no silver or gold, but what I have I give you; in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, stand up and walk.” And he did, praising God. People asked Peter to explain it, and he spoke of Jesus’ resurrection and his power to heal.
That’s what got them arrested.
I guess it was okay that they did a good thing for somebody, but they did it in the wrong place, at the wrong time, with the wrong theology. Do better next time.
D. Mark Davis writes in his blog, LeftBehindAndLovingIt, “This whole inquiry is rooted in the assumption that the ruling judges are looking down at powerless idiots. The irony is that the powerless idiots have something that the ruling judges don’t: The name of Jesus, whom these judges had rejected, but who has now returned with power. And the undeniable evidence against the judges is simply a man, who was once lame and is now walking.”
In other words, the leadership here has reverted to that most basic of assertions of power: “Because I said so.”
Mitzi J. Smith writes at Working Preacher, “Religious folks who have confused the power of position with the power of God are more likely to reject the power of God operating in others who lack similar position and rank (cf. 4:13), despite how God might use them. We should maintain some humility considering our fallibility, mortality or human condition no matter how high we might climb in institutions. Only God is infallible, inscrutable, and absolutely God.”
The cornerstone of our faith is one that’s often been rejected because it doesn’t look like it will hold the weight. We proclaim as Savior one who wouldn’t save himself. We proclaim as Judge one who endured unjust judgement. We proclaim as all-Powerful one who would not claim that power. Would you build a building on that? Would you build a program on that? Would you build a faith on that?
God would.
That’s the sticky part. God would. And has. And does.
Our cornerstone is a shepherd’s cornerstone, one based upon the role of caring, nurturing, and protecting. Caring, nurturing, and protecting not just human beings, but sheep, who are pretty annoying creatures who don’t have the sense that God gave a… well, something less sensible than a sheep.
While I grant you that human beings are much cleverer than sheep, our talent for getting ourselves into nonsensical situations outdoes anything any sheep has ever done. How do arguments escalate to fights? By the participants adding more energy to the argument as it goes back and forth. By the participants refusing to be the one who will back away. By the participants always being the one who is “right,” rather than the one who is loving.
You’d think that in larger groups we’d do better, but we don’t. So many wars start with provocations going back and forth until provocation has become full scale conflict. National pride is no more rational than individual pride. Given the number of people it kills, I’d have to call it less rational and more evil.
When you know where the provocations lead, why do them? Why?
Why do them when the Good Shepherd told us to love one another?
“Little children, let us love, not in word or speech, but in truth and action,” wrote a later apostle, one we know as John but almost certainly not John the son of Zebedee who stood accused with Simon Peter that day. Nevertheless, they did precisely what that writer advised decades later when they extended love, offering healing in Jesus’ name to one who rejoiced in it. They extended love when they spoke to the people prepared to judge and condemn them that God had taken something rejected and made it important. They extended love when they simply said, a few sentences later, “we cannot keep from speaking about what we have seen and heard” (Acts 4:20).
Our cornerstone, frequently rejected, is the Shepherd’s cornerstone, the cornerstone of love, compassion, generosity, and courage. Our cornerstone, frequently rejected, looks weak to the world but strong to God. Our cornerstone, frequently rejected, is the Shepherd’s cornerstone, upon which we can build a beloved community.
Our cornerstone, frequently rejected, is Jesus, the Good Shepherd, the cornerstone, the Christ of God, the one who loved and commands us to love.
Amen.
by Eric Anderson
Watch the Recorded Sermon
Pastor Eric sometimes omits things while preaching, and sometimes he adds things. Today he added more than he omitted.
Photo of a Karasu-no-tsubo rock (a foundation stone) by MirokunomichiProject – Own work, CC0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=117934949.
Worship for April 21, 2024
Thank you for joining us for this live stream (or recording, as the case may be) of Sunday worship. May it bless you! You may need to click “Play” to launch the stream, which will be live around 9:50 AM.
Welcome to the live stream of worship from Church of the Holy Cross for Sunday, April 21, 2024. You will find the service outline below, and you may download and print the PDF to follow more easily.
Service of Worship, April 21, 2024
Fourth Sunday of Easter
Rev. Eric S. Anderson, Pastor
WE GATHER TO WORSHIP GOD
Please note that audio and video of this service are being live streamed on the Internet and will be recorded. The right rear section of the sanctuary will not be captured by any cameras. Please be aware that in other sections you may be visible at times.
Prelude: Simple Gifts Kayleen Yuda
Lighting of the Candles
Ringing of the Bell
Welcome Rev. Eric S. Anderson
* Call to Worship: (based on John 10:11-18) John Narruhn
Leader: Jesus is the Good Shepherd, who lays down his life for the sheep.
People: Some would flee the wolf, leave it to attack the sheep.
Leader: Jesus does not run away because Jesus cares for the sheep.
People: We are grateful for our Good Shepherd who cares for us with all his heart.
Leader: Jesus lays down his life and takes it up again.
People: For our sake Jesus died, and for our sake Jesus lives.
All: Let us worship God!
* Hymn #479: God Is My Shepherd (v. 1-5)
* Invocation: (based on Psalm 23) John Narruhn
Be our good shepherd, O God, giving us green places to live, water to drink, comfort for our souls. Lead us in righteousness through the deepest valleys. We will not fear the shadows, for your protection comforts us. In your generosity you lay an extravagant table before us, anoint us with oil, fill our cup to overflowing. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow us all the days of our lives, and we shall live with you forever. Amen.
Please be seated
WE SHARE THE WORD OF GOD
Anthem: O Jesus, I Have Promised Kayleen Yuda
Time with the Children Rev. Eric S. Anderson
Scripture: 1 John 3:16-24 John Narruhn
We know love by this, that he laid down his life for us—and we ought to lay down our lives for one another. How does God’s love abide in anyone who has the world’s goods and sees a brother or sister in need and yet refuses help?
Little children, let us love, not in word or speech, but in truth and action. And by this we will know that we are from the truth and will reassure our hearts before him whenever our hearts condemn us; for God is greater than our hearts, and he knows everything. Beloved, if our hearts do not condemn us, we have boldness before God; and we receive from him whatever we ask, because we obey his commandments and do what pleases him.
And this is his commandment that we should believe in the name of his Son Jesus Christ and love one another, just as he has commanded us. All who obey his commandments abide in him, and he abides in them. And by this we know that he abides in us, by the Spirit that he has given us.
Acts 4:5-12
The next day their rulers, elders, and scribes assembled in Jerusalem,with Annas the high priest, Caiaphas, John, and Alexander, and all who were of the high-priestly family. When they had made the prisonersstand in their midst, they inquired, ‘By what power or by what name did you do this?’ Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, said to them, ‘Rulers of the people and elders, if we are questioned today because of a good deed done to someone who was sick and are asked how this man has been healed, let it be known to all of you, and to all the people of Israel, that this man is standing before you in good health by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead. This Jesusis
“the stone that was rejected by you, the builders;
it has become the cornerstone.”
There is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among mortals by which we must be saved.’
Sermon: Shepherd’s Cornerstone Rev. Eric S. Anderson
WE RESPOND IN WORD AND DEED
Pastoral Prayer Rev. Eric S. Anderson
Please join me in the Lord’s Prayer
Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be Thy Name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For Thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory forever and ever. Amen
* Hymn #267: Come, O Spirit, Dwell among Us (v. 1-3)
Call to Offering John Narruhn
We have been summoned to love in truth and action, summoned to do so by one who loved us even when threatened with death, one who loved us through death and beyond. Let us praise Christ with our offerings today, presented so that others may also rejoice in God’s mercy. Whether you share your gift here in the church today, through a gift online, or via an envelope in the mail, let the offering now be received.
Offertory: Trusting Thee Kayleen Yuda
* Doxology
Praise God from whom all blessings flow,
Praise Him all creatures here below
Praise Him above ye heavenly host
Praise Father, Son and Holy Ghost – Amen
* Offertory Prayer John Narruhn
Accept these gifts, Good Shepherd, Cornerstone, Foundation of our life and faith. Accept these gifts from your grateful people, and may they help others to find their reasons to rejoice. Amen.
* Hymn #252: Savior, like a Shepherd Lead Us (v. 1, 1 Hwn, 2-3)
Please be seated
Announcements Rev. Eric S. Anderson
Benediction Rev. Eric S. Anderson
Postlude: Praises Kayleen Yuda
* Please stand if you are able.
Permissions
Simple Gifts
Gregg Sewell
Streamed by permission ONELICENSE A-735890
God Is My Shepherd
Text from Scottish Psalter, 1650
Adapt. by Lavon Bayler, 1992
Tune BROTHER JAMES’ AIR by James Leith Macbeth Bain
© Oxford University Press
Streamed by permission CCLI License #1595965
O Jesus, I Have Promised
Arthur Henry Mann
Robert W Thygerson
Streamed by permission ONELICENSE A-735890
Come, O Spirit, Dwell among Us
Text by Janie Alford, 1979
© 1979 Hope Publishing Company
Tune EBENEZAR by Thomas J. Williams, 1890
Public Domain
Streamed by permission ONELICENSE A-735890
Trusting Thee
Edward Broughton
Tune: © Lorenz Publishing Company,
a division of The Lorenz Corporation
(Admin. by Music Services)
Savior, like a Shepherd Lead Us
Text attrib. to Dorothy A. Thrupp, first pub. 1836
Hawaiian trans. by Laiana
Tune BRADBURY by William B. Bradbury, 1859
Public Domain
Praises
Dennis Eliot
Tune: © Lorenz Publishing Company,
a division of The Lorenz Corporation
(Admin. by Music Services)
Streamed by permission ONELICENSE A-735890
Aloha Supporters of the Arts
We’re inviting you to attend the upcoming concert series of Big Island Singers. We also would like to ask if you would kindly help us publicize our special community event by sharing this notice with your friends and families.
- Fri 4/26 at 7pm <> CONCERT at Church of the Holy Cross
(440 W. Lanikāula St) - Sat 4/27 at 4pm <> CONCERT at First United Protestant Church
(1350 Waiānuenue Ave) - Sun 4/28 at 4pm <> CONCERT at Episcopal Church of the Holy Apostles
(1407 Kapi’olani St)
Pastor Rev. Eric S. Anderson
Moderator Stefan Tanouye
Lay Reader John Narruhn
Choir Accompanist Kanako Okita
Choir Director Doug Albertson
Organist Kayleen Yuda
Hand Bell Director Anna Kennedy
Chapel Decorations Laura Ota
Projected Imagery Sue Smith
Web Master Ruth Niino-DuPonte
Videographers Eric Tanouye, Eli Yamaki
Ruth Niino-DuPonte, Bob Smith
We welcome you to worship this day. Church of the Holy Cross seeks to help its members, friends, and visitors follow the guidance of God, Christ, and the Holy Spirit, encouraging all people to love one another according to the teachings of Jesus. We live and teach the faith, speak good news, minister to people near and far, and work with other households of faith and helping agencies to improve our community and our world. To support our ministries, please visit our Donate Page.
Pastor’s Corner: Expectations
April 17, 2024
A few weeks ago I visited Hawai’i Volcanoes National Park with my camera – which is how I always visit Hawai’i Volcanoes National Park – and walked a trail I’d never walked before. Along the way I saw and heard a number of birds. They mostly flew in the treetops, which on that trail were pretty high, so I couldn’t be certain what birds I was seeing. I pointed my camera and I took pictures in the hope that I could identify them later when I got home.
In particular, I hoped to photograph an ‘amakihi.
I’ve seen them before; I’ve taken pictures of them before. It had been some time, however, since I’d seen or captured one. My trips to the park had won me a number of photos of ‘apapane, which I love. I came home from this particular trip with pictures of ‘apapane and a pair of nene that had decided to camp along Chain of Craters Road, which was delightful. I also believed that I’d finally photographed an ‘amakihi perched in a tree.
When I got home, I discovered that it was a mejiro, a wonderful bird to be sure, but not what I’d hoped.
Disappointment is a funny emotion. Mejiro are special birds. They’re mighty singers and they’re hard to spot. On most days, I’d be delighted to see one. On that day, however, I’d set my sights on an ‘amakihi, and as far as I could tell from the photos, hadn’t seen a single one. I was disappointed.
I don’t write this to say something like, “Always look on the bright side of life” (a la Monty Python). I write it to say that our moods and spirits depend on so many things, and one of the biggest is our goal or expectation. Realizing it, I managed to keep disappointment from becoming a deeper sadness.
It took two more trips to find an ‘amakihi, but I did it. I didn’t see any nene that day, though.
In peace,
Pastor Eric
Photo of an ‘amakihi (two trips later) by Eric Anderson.
What I’m Thinking: Rejected Stone
God had done something profoundly unexpected in Jesus – like placing a building upon a stone rejected by the builders.
Here’s a transcript:
I’m thinking about the fourth chapter of Acts of the Apostles (Acts 4:5-12). A couple of very important things took place in chapter three.
One was the first healing that was performed by one of Jesus’ apostles since his resurrection and since the day of Pentecost. Simon Peter and John had healed a man who could not walk at the entrance to the Temple.
The second was the first arrest of one of Jesus’ apostles since his resurrection and of the day of Pentecost. Because after speaking of the power of Jesus of Nazareth to heal, and also of his resurrection, and also of his power to save, Peter and John had been arrested by the Temple authorities. And here in chapter four Luke told us of their defense when they stood before the Council.
It’s not much of a defense.
Essentially, Simon Peter said this man is healed because of the power of Jesus of Nazareth. Jesus was crucified, Jesus was resurrected, and now Jesus offers salvation in his name.
As I say, it’s not much of a defense; in fact, it is the offense repeated.
But one of the things that Simon Peter said was he quoted Psalm 118 (Jesus had done it himself; it’s found in the gospels): “The stone that the builders rejected has become the chief cornerstone.” Ordinarily, you’d want to let a builder decide whether a stone has the necessary strength and integrity to serve as a cornerstone. If a cornerstone breaks in a stone building, well, the structure will come down. But the ancient Psalmist had said that God had the power to choose things and to strengthen things that human builders could not.
And in Jesus of Nazareth, his followers found that God had done precisely that with this human being Jesus, had made what seemed weak and vulnerable to the world into a source of strength, of healing, of salvation.
It is, I think, one of the more instructive things for us to keep in mind, because we human beings have a habit of favoring what’s strong and powerful and apparently mighty in the world. We tend to ignore or discount the worth, the value, and the impact of those that seem weak. But it is in weakness that God’s grace was manifest in Jesus. It was in rejection that God expressed power. It was in death that God chose life.
That’s what I’m thinking. I’m curious to hear what you’re thinking. Leave me your thoughts in the comment section below; I’d love to hear from you.
A Song from Church of the Holy Cross: April 17, 2024
The video above will be available to stream live at 11:00 AM HAST on April 17, 2024. You may watch the recording here at any time afterward. You will need to click the Play button to view the live video.
Sermon: God’s Children Now
April 14, 2024
1 John 3:1-7
Luke 24:36-48
“See what love the Father has given us, that we should be called children of God; and that is what we are.”
Up to this point in the First Letter of John, the author – I guess we’ll call him John, although the name itself doesn’t appear in the book or in the other two books we call “letters of John” – up to this point, the author has called his readers “little children.” I think he intended it as a term of endearment, because he also uses the word, “beloved” to address his readers. In this moment, however, we’re no longer John’s children. We’re God’s children, and God’s children because God loved us and loves us still.
That’s a wonderful thing to hear.
It’s especially nice to hear after hearing, in the first chapter, “If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.” That’s a somewhat subtle way of saying that if we say we’re sinless, we lie. John assures us, however, that God forgives sin through the advocacy of Jesus Christ. “My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous, and he is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world.”
Again, a wonderful thing to hear.
In the second chapter of 1 John, he writes about a conflict within the church, one that has apparently caused some people to leave. It’s not clear what happened or why they left, but John had no sympathy. “They went out from us, but they did not belong to us, for if they had belonged to us they would have remainedwith us.”
Having written that they “do not belong to us,” John wrote that “we” are God’s children. “They,” therefore, are not.
I’m afraid that conflicts in the Church have often looked like this. “We” are righteous and “they” are unrighteous. “We” are children of God and “they” are “children of the devil,” which John called “them” in the very next verse after our reading stopped this morning.
Nobody knows for certain when 1 John was written, but here we have it: within a hundred years of Jesus’ death and resurrection, the Church was engaged in separating “Us” from “Them” and the “children of God” from the “children of the devil.”
I’m… pretty sure that that was not what Jesus had in mind.
It does seem that Jesus might have had something in mind around, oh, I don’t know, loving one another. John wrote about that a lot in this book, as it happens. “Beloved, we are God’s children now; what we will be has not yet been revealed. What we do know is this: when heis revealed, we will be like him, for we will see him as he is.” We will be like the one who loves us into becoming God’s children.
It’s a pity that we’re not there yet.
We weren’t there yet when John wrote, because otherwise his understanding of love might have kept him from labeling those who disagreed with him “children of the devil.” We weren’t there yet when Christian leaders in the first few centuries began calling themselves “orthodox” and others “heretics.” We weren’t there yet when major divisions in the Church took place in the five hundreds, and in the thousands, and the 1500s, and are we experiencing another transition now?
The biggest witness against the truth proclaimed by the Church is its division against itself. If we cannot love those who proclaim the resurrection of Christ as we do, how will we ever love anyone else?
It’s an awfully good question.
You see, I run into verse 6, “No one who abides in him sins; no one who sins has either seen him or known him,” and I ask myself: So do I know God? Do I know Christ? Am I God’s child?
Elisabeth Johnson writes at Working Preacher, “The nature of Christian hope is to live simultaneously in the ‘now’ and the ‘not yet.’ We are called to live into the future reality that God has promised. Perhaps this is the context in which to understand the following verses about sin (verses 4-7), which seem to contradict what the author has already said in 1:6-10. Whereas the author had affirmed in 1:6-10 that it is delusional for anyone to say that they are without sin, now he circles back to say that it is also delusional to think that we can abide in Christ and continue to sin as though nothing has changed.
“The purity of Christ that is to characterize believers is not some esoteric quality but is manifest in concrete acts of love.”
I think the purity of Christ that is to characterize believers is not some automatic quality. We have to conceive and achieve those concrete acts of love ourselves. We may have become God’s children, but we remain responsible human beings. A child, you may have noticed, makes their own decisions about things, which are sometimes at odds with the parent’s desires. These may happen because the child doesn’t know what the parent wants, or because the child isn’t paying attention to what the parent wants, or because the child wants something different from what the parent wants. It’s the same with Christians’ relationship with God. We sometimes do things and find out later that God wasn’t in favor. We sometimes do things carelessly, without thinking, and then slap our foreheads and say, “I shouldn’t have done that.”
And let’s face it, sometimes we know perfectly well that God wants us to act out of love and charity and compassion and we choose indifference, selfishness, or even hate.
I think those are the times that are hardest to acknowledge within ourselves and hardest to confess to God. “Oh, I didn’t know.” Well, yeah, I did. “I wasn’t thinking.” Well, yeah, I was. About myself and what I wanted. Yeah, I was thinking.
And most popular of all: “I was entitled. I was in charge. I was right.”
But entitlement isn’t about love. God is in charge. And was I, were you, are we really right when we act outside of love?
Those are hard to acknowledge to ourselves. They’re hard to confess to God.
“There is a genuine tension, both within the text of 1 John and within the experience of the church, regarding the reality of sin on the one hand, and life as God’s children on the other,” writes Brian Peterson at Working Preacher. “What is clear is that the author will allow neither self-delusions of sinlessness nor a casual acceptance of sin within the lives of God’s children…
“In our text, as further response, the author says that one’s actions really do matter. Being a child of God does not make all behaviors un-sinful for you. Sin within those who hope in Jesus is both a real possibility, and a profound contradiction. That contradiction is not to be glossed over.”
We live and strive and choose and act in the “already” and the “not yet.” We are God’s children – that is what we are – but we do not live, strive, choose, and act with the perfection of the One in whose image we are made, the One whose children we are. We aspire to it, and with each choice and action of our lives we strive to achieve that perfection. With each confession and repentance, we come closer to it.
As Janette H. Ok writes at Working Preacher, “We live into our beloved and begotten identity confident of the fact that God is not done with us yet. We commit ourselves again and again to doing what is right and loving one another, knowing that becoming more like the Father is a privilege of being called his sons and daughters—and that is what we are!”
There are no perfect ohi’a blossoms, and there are no perfect Christians. There is no perfect Church, and there is no perfect compassion within the Church. But if we feed one another, if we care for one another, if we extend that imperfect caring to those around us, we get closer and closer to this ideal that John imagined, wrote, and encouraged to those he called “little children,” “beloved,” and, yes, “children of God.”
Amen.
by Eric Anderson
Watch the Recorded Sermon
Pastor Eric makes changes while he preaches. Sometime he decides to make them, and sometimes he just makes them.
Photo of an ‘amakihi and imperfect ohi’a blossoms by Eric Anderson.
Worship for April 14, 2024
Thank you for joining us for this live stream (or recording, as the case may be) of Sunday worship. May it bless you! You may need to click “Play” to launch the stream, which will be live around 9:50 AM.
Welcome to the live stream of worship from Church of the Holy Cross for Sunday, April 14, 2024. You will find the service outline below, and you may download and print the PDF to follow more easily.
Service of Worship, April 14, 2024
Third Sunday of Easter
Rev. Eric S. Anderson, Pastor
WE GATHER TO WORSHIP GOD
Please note that audio and video of this service are being live streamed on the Internet and will be recorded. The right rear section of the sanctuary will not be captured by any cameras. Please be aware that in other sections you may be visible at times.
Prelude: Melodie in G Major Kayleen Yuda
Lighting of the Candles
Ringing of the Bell
Welcome Rev. Eric S. Anderson
* Call to Worship: (based on Acts 3:12-19 Woody Kita
Leader: We wonder at the mighty acts of God because they are wonder-full.
People: The God of the ages has made the Rejected One into the Author of Life
Leader: Faith in God’s goodness has healed bodies, minds, and souls.
People: Faithful acts in God’s name have healed families and communities.
Leader: We may act ill in ignorance, we and our leaders,
People: When we do we repent, and call upon the risen Christ.
All: Forgiven and lifted up, let us worship God!
* Hymn #12: I Sing the Mighty Power of God (v. 1-3)
* Invocation (based on Psalm 4) Woody Kita
Answer us when we call, O God our God. Be gracious to us and hear our prayers. We cry from our injuries, we cry from our shame. We cry from our truth, which others have called lies. Put gladness in our hearts, a joy greater than our most precious feasts. May we lie down and sleep in peace, sheltered by your grace. Amen.
Please be seated
WE SHARE THE WORD OF GOD
Anthem: Truly God Is God Holy Cross Singers
Time with the Children
Scripture: 1 John 3:1-7 Woody Kita
See what love the Father has given us that we should be called children of God; and that is what we are. The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him. Beloved, we are God’s children now; what we will be has not yet been revealed. What we do know is this: when heis revealed, we will be like him, for we will see him as he is. And all who have this hope in him purify themselves, just as he is pure.
Everyone who commits sin is guilty of lawlessness; sin is lawlessness. You know that he was revealed to take away sins, and in him there is no sin. No one who abides in him sins; no one who sins has either seen him or known him. Little children, let no one deceive you. Everyone who does what is right is righteous, just as he is righteous.
Luke 24:36-48
While they were talking about this, Jesus himself stood among them and said to them, ‘Peace be with you.’They were startled and terrified, and thought that they were seeing a ghost. He said to them, ‘Why are you frightened, and why do doubts arise in your hearts? Look at my hands and my feet; see that it is I myself. Touch me and see; for a ghost does not have flesh and bones as you see that I have.’ And when he had said this, he showed them his hands and his feet.While in their joy they were disbelieving and still wondering, he said to them, ‘Have you anything here to eat?’ They gave him a piece of broiled fish, and he took it and ate in their presence.
Then he said to them, ‘These are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you—that everything written about me in the law of Moses, the prophets, and the psalms must be fulfilled.’ Then he opened their minds to understand the scriptures, and he said to them, ‘Thus it is written, that the Messiahis to suffer and to rise from the dead on the third day, and that repentance and forgiveness of sins is to be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem. You are witnessesof these things.
Sermon: God’s Children Now
WE RESPOND IN WORD AND DEED
Pastoral Prayer Rev. Eric S. Anderson
Please join me in the Lord’s Prayer
Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be Thy Name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For Thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory forever and ever. Amen
* Hymn #13: O My Soul, Bless Your Creator (v. 1-5)
Call to Offering Woody Kita
Discipleship – following Jesus – does not have the clarity of perfection. It weaves from side to side, it goes back from time to time, it stalls. We do our best to help, to serve, and to give, in all the messiness of the world. Whether you share your gift here in the church today, through a gift online, or via an envelope in the mail, let the offering now be received.
Offertory: Offertory Kayleen Yuda
* Doxology
Praise God from whom all blessings flow,
Praise Him all creatures here below
Praise Him above ye heavenly host
Praise Father, Son and Holy Ghost – Amen
* Offertory Prayer Woody Kita
Your imperfect people offer you these imperfect gifts, O God. Accept them, we pray, and help both your people and their gifts to serve the purposes of your grace and love. Amen.
* Hymn #533: Children of God (v. 1-4)
Please be seated
Announcements Rev. Eris S. Anderson
Benediction Rev. Eris S. Anderson
Postlude: Immortal, Invisible, God Only Wise Kayleen Yuda
* Please stand if you are able.
Permissions
Melodie in G Major
Alexandre Guilmant
Tune: © 1947, Lorenz Publishing Company,
a division of The Lorenz Corporation (Admin by Music Services)
Streamed by permission ONELICENSE A-735890
I Sing the Mighty Power of God
Text by Isaac Watts, 1715
Tune ELLACOMBE from Gesangbuch der herzoglichen
Wirtembergischen katholischen Hofkapelle, 1784
Public Domain
Truly God Is God
Michael Barrett
Tune: Copyright © 1995 by Malcolm Music,
a div. of Shawnee Press, Inc.
Text: Copyright © 1995 by Malcolm Music,
a div. of Shawnee Press, Inc.
Streamed by permission ONELICENSE A-735890
O My Soul, Bless Your Creator
Text from United Presbyterian Book of Psalms, 1871
Tune STUTTGART attrib. to Christian F. Witt, 1715
Public Domain
Offertory
Cesar Franck
Carl Fischer, LLC
Public Domain
Streamed by permission ONELICENSE A-735890
Children of God
Text by John Greenleaf Whittier, 1848
Tune WELWYN by Alfred Scott-Gatty, 1900
Public Domain
Immortal, Invisible, God Only Wise
arr. Alice Jordan
Tune: © 1988 Van Ness Press (ASCAP)
Text: © 1988 Van Ness Press (ASCAP)
All rights reserved
Streamed by permission ONELICENSE A-735890
Dates to Remember
Today: April 14 — Council Meeting after worship
Pastor Rev. Eric S. Anderson
Moderator Stefan Tanouye
Lay Reader Woody Kita
Choir Accompanist Kanako Okita
Choir Director Doug Albertson
Organist Kayleen Yuda
Hand Bell Director Anna Kennedy
Chapel Decorations Janet Fujioka
Projected Imagery Sue Smith
Web Master Ruth Niino-DuPonte
Videographers Eric Tanouye, Eli Yamaki
Ruth Niino-DuPonte, Bob Smith
We welcome you to worship this day. Church of the Holy Cross seeks to help its members, friends, and visitors follow the guidance of God, Christ, and the Holy Spirit, encouraging all people to love one another according to the teachings of Jesus. We live and teach the faith, speak good news, minister to people near and far, and work with other households of faith and helping agencies to improve our community and our world. To support our ministries, please visit our Donate Page.
Pastor’s Corner: Seeing the Future
April 10, 2024
I think it would be very confusing to see the future. The things that will happen depend so much on the things that happen now, and then the additional things that will happen between now and then, that to see the future would not be to see one thing, but a crowded field of possibilities. As things change, we might see the possibilities narrow as some things become less possible and others become more likely, until that moment when one thing and one thing only might happen. We call that moment, “the present.”
We try to see the future anyway. We project a future to make decisions about investments, about jobs, about political candidates, about whether or when to have children. Inevitably, we find that the future we imagined is not the present we receive. Investments do worse (or better; it happens); jobs aren’t what we thought; elected candidates contradict our expectations; children turn out to be far more unpredictable than we’d thought. And we do need to imagine and plan; we’d be irresponsible to make no provision at all for the future.
I recently listened to Preet Bharara interview Vinod Khosla, a venture capitalist and entrepreneur best known for founding Sun Microsystems. Khosla, despite his success, does not give much credence to forecasts. Instead, he looks for places that he can make a difference, where his resources can make achievement more likely. He tries to make a different future happen.
What if we did that with our faith? What if we lived to make a future happen that’s better than the present we have and better than the future we expect, the one we fear? What if we found the places we can influence what’s next for the good of the world?
That seems more likely to work than trying to predict tomorrow.
In peace,
Pastor Eric
What I’m Thinking: Aspiring to Childhood
For John, being a child of God was being perfect, not something we’ve achieved often if at all. Even then, it was an aspirational goal.
Here’s a transcript:
I’m thinking about the third chapter of the First Letter of John (1 John 3:1-7). The passage begins with words that are very comforting, even inspiring. See what a great gift God has given us, that we might be called God’s children, for that is what we are. It is a wonderful thing to be thought of as a child of God.
But after that it gets more challenging.
John wrote that an essential characteristic of the children of God is perfection, perfection in word, deed, and in purity. And I don’t know about you, but in my lifetime, perfection has not been a primary characteristic of Christians. As I read the history of the Christian Church, I don’t see perfection as a primary characteristic anywhere along those 2000 years.
So reading this, I find myself wondering, “Am I, are we, indeed to be called children of God?”
Well, in much of the rest of the letter (or a sermon; it’s a little uncertain what form of literature this is; it doesn’t have the characteristics of a first century letter), the author insists that Christians ought to love one another. Why does somebody write that? Because the advice was needed.
John saw that people were not loving one another within the Christian communities, so John wrote to say: This is what we are supposed to be. This is how we become that. it’s aspirational as well as defined.
So if you are looking for a way to achieve perfection in the world, well, I can’t promise that this will work, because only one person has achieved perfection and that person went through a lot to do it, but: Love one another is the route. It is the way. It is the journey.
Love one another, so that when you are called a child of God, it may be as close to the ideal of being a child of God as is possible in the here and now.
That’s what I’m thinking. I’m curious to hear what you’re thinking. Leave me your thoughts in the comment section below. I’d love to hear from you.