SASS Weekly Newsletter

June 8 2020

 

June 7 2020 :– Sunday Worship

Sunday was Trinity Sunday. Following Ascension and Pentecost we had one final “focused” Sunday before six months of Ordinary Time, all the way until the last Sunday of the liturgical year; Christ the King Sunday. What is so special about our understanding of God as “Three-in-One” and “One-in-Three”, that it will give us the fuel to propel us in to these next six months? The answer is the love that binds the Father, the Son and the Spirit. Here is the definition of Trinity that I love. “The Trinity is composed of three united Persons without separate existence—so completely united as to form one God. The divine nature subsists in three distinctions—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.”[1] We focused our worship on the Apostle Paul’s prayer for God’s people in Ephesians 3:14-21. Paul wants you and me to fully experience and live out of the love of God; God’s essential essence. He prays that we would become filled to capacity with that love. If we are would that be sufficient fuel for these next six months? May the Triune God of grace fill us to the full measure of God Himself.

 

I am sure some of you would like to watch those two videos from Sunday again so here are the links:- Love Divine & The Irish Blessing

 

If you missed our recent Worship Service then why not catch up by watching it on YouTube. Recordings of the online services are available on our SASS YOUTUBE channel. Simply search on YouTube for “SASS Presbyterian” or click on the link on our church homepage.

 

“Join the movement of the Early Church in June”

 

Having been blessed spending moments with the Master during May we are expanding our reading into June, to spend 20 minutes each day reading and meditating on Luke’s 2^nd volume of his writings, the Acts of the Apostles. I have included the reading plan for this upcoming week, for your reference.

 

 

 

Thursday Morning Bible Study

 

Pastor Daniel is continuing to lead the weekly Thursday Morning Bible Study, using ZOOM, 10-11:30am.

 

 

 

Competition Time

 

Last week’s competition was for you to find the 24 books in the following paragraph.

 

Can you find the names of 24 books of the Bible in this paragraph? This is a most remarkable puzzle. Someone found it in the seat pocket on a flight from Los Angeles to Honolulu, keeping himself occupied for hours. One man from Illinois worked on this while fishing from his boat. Roy Clark studied it while playing his banjo. Elaine Victs mentioned it in her column once. One woman judges the job to be so involving, she brews a cup of tea to help calm her nerves. There will be some names that are really easy to spot...that's a fact. Some people will soon find themselves in a jam, especially since the book names are not necessarily capitalized. The truth is, from answers we get, we are forced to admit it usually takes a minister or scholar to see some of them at the worst. Something in our genes is responsible for the difficulty we have. Those able to find all of them will hear great lamentations from those who have to be shown. One revelation may help, books like Timothy and Samuel may occur without their numbers. And punctuation or spaces in the middle are normal. A chipper attitude will help you compete. Remember, there are 24 books of the Bible lurking somewhere in this paragraph.

 

Congratulations to the 10 participants who all managed to find the books. The first entry I received was from a lawyer who correctly identified the 24 books above but challenged the quizmaster that in fact there are actually 28 books given that 4 of them have two separate books. The quizmaster being Irish appreciates sarcasm most days but in such a serious quiz there is absolutely no place for it whatsoever so it gave the quizmaster great joy to disqualify the entry from the lawyer. As such the winner of the above quiz is Eileen Claydon. Well done good and faithful participant.

 

This week’s competition. Can you name the 12 movie titles? To try and create some level of fairness all entries will be saved by the quizmaster and a winner will be drawn at random.

 

 

 

 

 

Let’s PRAY TOGETHER

 

On Sunday, The Walton-Knight clan led us in prayer and what a blessing. I’m sure you will agree. So I have included sections of that prayer for your use this coming week.

 

Almighty and eternal God, you have revealed yourself as Father, Son and Holy Spirit, and live and reign in the perfect unity of love. Hold us firm in this faith, that we may know you in all your ways and evermore rejoice in your eternal glory, who are three Persons in one God, now and forever. 

 

Father, we are reminded that the trinity demonstrates perfect love and yet from our human perspective and minds that concept seems beyond our capability to grasp and to live within. Our world has distorted love beyond recognition, we doubt motives, we seek self-gain, we distrust, we pervert, we do not love unconditionally. Lord, have mercy on our limitations and distortions. Be gentle with us as we struggle to comprehend our sinfulness. Be merciful and hear us as we bring before you our grief and lament for the fallenness that we see around us.

 

God is love and in him is no darkness at all. Jesus, you walked this earth and experienced human pain and hatred. Forgive our world that is rocked by deep divisions. Jesus - your perfect love was shown by your arms stretched out on the Cross for all people- of every race, nation, colour and creed. You died and conquered death that all may live. Yet we live in a world that takes life cheaply. Forgive us. Give us your courage to reach across divides, fill us with your passion for the lost, may your love dwell in us so deeply that we will work tirelessly for justice, truth and forgiveness. May our actions, words and lives point to true and perfect love. We pray specifically for the Untied States. For the racial under currents that are being exposed and the anger, and violence that has erupted. We pray for our African American brothers and sisters that are oppressed, that they may be treated with respect and honour as people made in your image. We pray for the police that try to maintain peace, that they will act with appropriate responses, support and accountability. We pray for those in political power that they may be wise and seek the common good in all decisions.  

 

We, your people, bear witness to the brokenness in the world. We acknowledge our actions and responses that have aided or abetted injustice and we lament at the state of our nations. Holy Spirit as you bear witness to us as children of God, intercede for us. We raise before you those parts of the world still struggling to contain CoVid 19, especially Latin America. For our own authorities as they navigate reopening plans and endeavour to keep us safe. We pray for those who are in hospital or face ill health from whatever cause. Be especially with Winnie as she has recently been in hospital. Comfort those who mourn, for Eileen and for Gary, bind up the broken hearted and restore in us your joy. 

 

Amen!

 

Josh prayed for Winnie Bradford. Some of you may be wondering why. Winnie had a CT-scan this week which shows she has a small brain aneurysm, but the doctor has advised against surgery. She is at home now and so I would encourage us to pray for her as she will have a few more appointments in the weeks to come.

 

Don’t forget, in order for us to pray for each other we all need to share what’s going on in our lives. Send your prayer concerns, requests, stories by emailing prayer@sasspc.bc.ca

 

 

Anyone entering SASS must sign-in / sign-out

 

In last week’s newsletter I mentioned that the Session have put together a small steering committee to put together a safety plan for how we might make use of our facility but at the same time minimise as much as possible any potential transmission of the COVID-19 virus. Following Dr. Henry’s guidance we have started to use a “log book” in order to help with contact tracing in the event that someone at SASS contracts the coronavirus. Anyone entering the building at any time MUST sign in / sign out so that we can maintain this log book for the foreseeable future. The ONLY entry point in to our building will be the main door from the car park. If you would like to speak with someone in the office please arrange an appointment with them in advance. 

 

 

 

  Worship Service information

We continue to hold our Sunday worship services online, via ZOOM. The link to all SASS meetings and worship services is easily accessible. Just go to our homepage – sasspc.bc.ca and scroll down and click on the following graphic. The password to access our ZOOM meetings will be “sass” – lowercase, no quotes.

 

The ZOOM Meeting ID for our SASS worship services is – 795 930 7120

 

If you DO NOT have access to a computer / internet then you can phone in and listen to any SASS meeting / service using the above meeting ID.

1. Dial 778 907 2071
2. When prompted enter the Meeting ID: 795 930 7120, followed by #.
3. You will be asked for a participant ID - just hit the # key.
4. When prompted enter the password: 676824

 

PLEASE REMEMBER on Sundays to check that your MIC is muted and that your video is disabled / turned off, to limit bandwidth usage and potential on-screen distractions.

If you dial in using your phone please MUTE your phone, if that option is available.

 

If you are having any difficulty

connecting to our ZOOM services

please let me know.

 

 

 

Pastor Martin’s Musings

“Who imagined the sun and gives source to its light?”

 

I mentioned Chris Tomlin’s song “Indescribable” in my sermon on the Trinity. The verse in the song that just blows my mind every time I sing it is …

 

Who has told every lightning bolt where it should go
Or seen heavenly storehouses laden with snow
Who imagined the sun and gives source to its light
Yet conceals it to bring us the coolness of night
None can fathom

 

Imagine! Imagine imagining the sun? Wow! Is there any wonder Tomlin sums up by saying “none can fathom.” The sun is just so awesome, and the more we have of it these days the better. Right?

 

This past season I added some lights to my gardens, front and back. I bought some of those little cheap solar panelled lights that are more for decorative effect every night when the sun disappears.

Many years ago, the thought of powering lights by harnessing the power of the sun sounded like science fiction. Today, though, you can see solar panels dotting the rooftops of buildings and houses, as well as street lights in some cities. Have you ever stopped to wonder exactly how these cheap lights work? It's science! Solar lights work because of the photovoltaic effect. The most important part of a solar light is the photovoltaic or solar cell. It is the dark panel that converts sunlight into direct electrical current, that is stored up in the rechargeable battery. When the sunlight disappears a photoreceptor detects the darkness and turns on the LEDs that shine all night, powered by the charged battery. That’s the theory.

But sometimes theory is not enough. Sometimes the battery for whatever reason does not get charged enough and so the light does not stay lit all night and the next night the charge is so small that the light hardly works at all. It’s not the sun’s fault.

What a failure of manufacturing. How can a solar light not harness enough of the awesomeness of the sun to store enough energy to power small LEDs for one night?

Here’s the thing. I can complain all I want about my cheap solar lights that don’t work that well. But I have a work around. I have rechargeable batteries that I can fully charge indoors and once they are inserted into the outdoor lights, those lights stay on all night long. For a day or two. Because it’s not the batteries fault. Something is wrong with the solar cell. It just does not do what it is supposed to do.

But my light “issues” have made me think about my life.

What if I am created to be a solar light? What if the sun is more than capable of supplying the necessary light that I need to store up and use to shine light in to the darkness. But sometimes I don’t store enough power because I just don’t spend enough time in the light. That causes me to work at a lesser capability than my potential.

I wonder if I spent more time in the Light of the Son would I be able to store sufficient power to shine His light? 

I wonder.

Given I started this newsletter mentioning the Trinity, let me conclude with Paul’s prayer for us. My prayer for us. 

I kneel before the Father, ¹⁵ from whom every family in heaven and on earth derives its name. ¹⁶ I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, ¹⁷ so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, ¹⁸ may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, ¹⁹ and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God. 

 

²⁰ Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, ²¹ to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! 

 

Amen. ^[2]

 

God bless,

Pastor Martin

 

pastormbaxter@gmail.com

Direct Line in Church Office – 604 770 1025

 

www.sasspc.bc.ca