Today, July 12th, are having a “drive-in” communion from 10:30 AM to 11:30 AM.
Communicants are asked to bring their own B&W–bread & Welches, remember open containers of wine are not permitted in your car in North Carolina.
The service will be quite simple. Pull into the right-hand drive of the lower parking lot. It is one-way. When it is your turn, drive up to where the pastor is standing. He will have a prayer with you, and conduct a short service, sharing the communion with you. After you have been served, drive out and find a parking place in front of the church if you wish to greet others from a safe social distance. Please bring a mask to wear when you exit you car. Of course, greeting friends from a safe social distance is optional. You may simply return to your home.
If you can’t come to the drive-by–or even if you can, don’t miss Fries at Five Worship on Zoom meeting. Email frieschurch6@gmail.com for an invite to the meeting. Don’t forget to pray for Fries daily, and if you have prayer request send them along to friesprayers@gmail.com. I know that you are praying for:
An end to the pandemic
Those who are ill
Those who have lost loved ones
Those who face financial hardship
That justice be done in the distribution of US bail-out funds
Those who are in harms way to serve the rest of us
Those who are hungry, anxious, and in fear of losing their homes
Forsyth Prison Ministries, including residents and workers
Social and Economic Justice for all….
Meditation: Wonderful Words of Warning: Sin
This morning, as we prepare for the Holy Communion, I want to talk to you about one of the Wonderful Words of Warning: Sin. In the Bible, sin takes several forms:
Sometimes, sin is the willful transgression of the known law of God. God laid down the law through Moses to protect his people from themselves and one another. When I break the law, I invariably hurt one or more people, and I always end up hurting myself.
Sometimes, sin is missing the mark. Imagine you are an apprentice to a potter. In the beginning, the things you turn on the wheel and fire in the kiln will be primitive and sometimes downright ugly. It takes time and effort to become a master potter. And it takes time and effort to be the person God wants us to be. We miss the mark when we do anything other than our best. You remember that old grammar school ditty: Good, better, best, never let it rest, until the good is better, and the better is best. I think God wants that for all the people. It is not enough that we hit the mark yesterday. The mark is continually moving.
There is a third definition of sin, and I will let you hear it from the lips of another. A man once came to me with his life in shambles. Like King David, he had let his eyes wander. He ended up losing his wife, his children, his home—everything dear to him. He said, “Worth, do you know what sin is?” I said, “I think I do, but you had better tell me.” He said, “Sin is anything we do, by which we hurt ourselves or another.”
His definition was painfully perfect. I would add only that sin is “anything we do or fail to do” by which we hurt ourselves or another. Most of us are keenly aware of the sins we commit against God, against one another, and against ourselves; but we are often blissfully ignorant of the good that we have failed to do. It is only after we have achieved a degree of moral and spiritual knowledge that we are able to see that the good we fail to do can be even more costly than the evil we have done.
All of us are sinners. None are perfect. All have made mistakes. In Romans 3, the apostle write, “None is righteous, no not one. All have turned aside, together we have gone wrong.”
We are all sinners, but there is a remedy for the sins of the past. We need to seek forgiveness. 1st John 1:9 declares, “If we confess our sins, (God) is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”
We are all sinners, but there is a remedy for sins of the future. We must love more. In Romans 13:9-10, St. Paul writes:
The commandments, “You shall not commit adultery, You shall not kill, You shall not steal, You shall not covet,” and any other commandment, are summed up in this sentence, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfilling of the law.”
It is easy to live a life of limited love, loving only those who are like us. It is more difficult to live a broader life, loving not only those who are like us but those who are unlike us. We can seldom do that without help. Fortunately, “God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit which has been given to us.” (Romans 5:5)
In one sense, sin is a bad word, a terrible word. However, in another sense sin is a wonderful word of warning that leads to a richer, fuller life. Check out the other “Wonderful Words of Life,” especially “Forgiveness.”
God bless you!
Pastor Green