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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Citizen, 1996-02-14, Page 16HURON CHAPEL MISSIONARY CHURCH PASTOR JAMES H. CARNE AUBURN 526-7515 Sunday 10 a.m. - Family Bible Hour 11 a.m. - Morning Service 8 p.m. - Evening Service Wednesday 8 p.m. - Prayer & Bible Study Friday 7:30 p.m. - Youth Wheelchair accessible 91iL Visitors Welcome 9:30 a.m. Ethel Morning Worship Church School "The Lord is my Shepherd" Welcome to Brussels United - Morning Service - Sunday School - Beigrave Service MELVILLE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH BRUSSELS Rev. Cathrine Campbell 11:00 a.m. 9:30 a.m. We welcome you to come and worship with us. 887-9831 Wheelchair Accessible _ BRUSSELS UNITED CHURCH Rev. Cameron McMillan Church Office 887-6259 11:00 a.m. Manse 887-9313 Morning Worship "Feeling Lonely" Church School/Nursery BLYTH CHRISTIAN REFORMED CHURCH HIGHWAY 4, BLYTH--523-9233 Sunday 10:00 a.m. & 7:30 p.m. Rev. Adrian A. Van Geest The Church of the "Back to God Hour" and "Faith 20" Back to God Hour 10:30 a.m. CKNX Sunday Faith 20 5:30 a.m. Weekdays, Global T.V. FREE APRIL OOL'S DINNER All You Can Eat SPAGHETTI ENTERTAINMENT AY, APRIL 1, 1996 BLYTH & DISTRICT COMMUNIlY CENTRE - 6:30pm - PAY Oft YFOR YOIR WIRY! ADULTS $2.50 Each Utensil CHILDREN UNDER 6 FREE Proceeds to Blyth Church of God Building Fund Phone 523-4590 for information "Love the Lord your God with all your heart." Matthew 22:37 BRUSSELS MENNONITE FELLOWSHIP 9:30 a.m. Sunday Worship Service Guest Speaker - Don Vair 10:30 a.m. Sunday School for all ages Elder Linda Campbell 357-1648 THE ANGLICAN CHURCH OF CANADA You are welcome this Sunday February 18- Last after Epiphany St. John's - Holy Baptism Trinity - Holy Eucharist Rev. Nancy Beale Trinity, Blyth St. John's, Brussels 9:30 a.m. 11:15 a.m. PAGE 16. THE CITIZEN, WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 14, 1996 By Rev. Randy Banks Walton-Bluevale United Churches Come live with me and be my love and we will all the pleasures prove ... And I will make thee beds of roses And a thousand fragrant posies. Christopher Marlowe from The Passionate Shepherd to his love Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends. The Apostle Paul from The First Letter to the Corinthians 13 It is Valentines Day again and love — at least in its romantic manifestation — is in the spotlight. The tradition of exchanging letters, flowers, and other gifts between lovers on this day has no obvious connection with two little-known martyrs of the early church both named Valentine. And they are certainly mismatched with that naked, cherubic, Roman god of love, Cupid and his quiver full of love-inducing arrows. The observance evidently has more to do with humans taking flight into springtime lovemaking with our feathered friends. Are there actually birds in Canada that are crazy enough to pursue their mating rituals on or about Feb. 14? For humans, Valentine's Day tends to be a superficial commercialization and trivialization of the complex, preoccupying emotion of love. Everyone has an intrinsic need to love and be loved. Love has, in fact, been the primary source of inspiration for artists, poets, musicians and composers through the ages. There must be millions of songs from every genre of music that rhapsodize abut the agony and ecstasy of love. What I am not sure of is that love in all its mystifying abstraction is at all definable. What I do know is that it is a word that is used much too lightly all too often, therefore cheapening that most sacred of all Greeters at Blyth United Church this past Sunday were Hary and Feme McDowell while ushers were Doug and Barb Howson, Jeff Peters and Steve Cook. Sunday School children visiting were Corine Falconer and Kendall Whitfield. Rev. Stephen Huntley conducted the service. Rev. Huntley opened the service with greetings, Call to Worship and announcements followed by the hymn Praise to the Lord, the Almighty. For the children's time, he had with him various styles of mitts and gloves. He told them they are lifeless with no hand in them. He compared them to God as He looks at them and comes to us in many ways. The choir anthem, under the direction of Mrs. Boak, was Little Talk With Jesus. Steve Cook read the Old Testa- ment Lesson from Deuteronomy and the New Testament Lesson from I Corinthians, while the gospel reading was from Matthew read by Rev. Huntley. The sermon was entitled, "Being Good!" Rev. Huntley, made reference again to the 'Sermon on the Mount'. "It stands as a guardian against every immortal misunder- standing of the gospel." human emotions. I have to admire the forthrightness of the man who was asked by his wife (perhaps on Valentine's Day): "Do you love me?" "Of course I love you," he reassured her. "Would you die for me?" "No dear," he answered. "Mine is an undying love." We have developed many distorted and idealistic notions about love. We seem to have little aptitude for distinguishing between what is love and what is lust for infatuation. Ann Landers, whose own marriage ended in divorce, once observed that "infatuation is instant desire ... one set of glands calling to another." Love, on the other hand, involves "quiet under- standing and mature acceptance of imperfection to another person." We tend to love as long as we feel exhilarated about it. When love becomes challenging, mundane, hurtful, and costly, we can be too quick to abandon it and seek it elsewhere. We, who in ministry, have officiated at many wedding ceremonies, know that, in some instances, a more accurate rendering of the wedding vows would be "as long as we both shall love" rather than "as long as we both shall live." It is little wonder that more than 50 per cent of first marriages terminate with divorce within the first five years given that commitments are so qualified and tenuous. In the context of Christianity, God is equated with love. The one who does not love does not know God because God is love (I John 4.8). The great commandment, Jesus declares, is to love God and one another, even enemies. God's love is characterized in the Bible as being constant, unconditional, selfless, and forbearing. No matter He said, "One trouble with being Christian good is that good people were often the very ones who caused Jesus so much trouble. People who never cheated on their taxes or their spouses, people who knew the scripture backwards and forwards, people Who lived by the book and kept themselves clean and eventually cried out, "Crucify Him!" "Can good news triumph?" he asked. "Isn't that why we come to church on a cold February morning, when many of the homes we pass on the way indicate others are Pastor Rudy Baergen from First Mennonite Church, Kitchener, was guest speaker at Brussels Mennonite Fellowship on Sunday, Feb. 11. He spoke on the issue of baptism. He explained the significance of baptism of the spirit and the symbolic water baptism. The Larprom family was in charge of the music for the service. Elwin Garland Was worship leader. Following the service, the Youth Group put on a "soup and dessert" lunch as a fundraiser for their service projects which will take how unloving and unlovable God's people become, God's love for them will not be withdrawn. The ancient Greeks had a special word for this kind of love - agape (a-gah-pay). It is this god-love that is at the heart of Paul's eloquent hymn to love in I Corinthians 13, a favourite passage, incidentally, at wedding services. Paul describes this love as not insisting on its own way, of being patient and forbearing, and of being unwilling to keep score of wrongs. For humans, love of such a magnitude is essentially unattain- able, but it should be our goal. How fortunate for our eternal well-being that God's love is not as shallow and capricious as our love tends to be. Love cannot be reduced to a box of chocolates, a dozen roses, dinner by candlelight, or a gushy poem by Christopher Marlowe to his lady- love. True love will be experienced in equal measure of joy and sorrow, surprise and disappointment, delight and pain, give and take, safety and risk. A writer named David Anderson says: "Love anything and your heart will certainly be wrung and possibly broken. If you want to make certain of keeping it intact, you must give your heart to no one. Tennyson also understood the riskiness of love as he wrote in his epic poem In Memoriam: "It is better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all." If Valentine's Day provides us with a focus for reflecting on the sanctity of love both human and divine, then God bless it after all. Love, however, will be more profoundly satisfying and fulfilling if we avoid misaligning it with the fleetingness of infatuation and romance that comes in heart-shaped packages. As for the ornithological origins of Valentine's Day, any outdoor amorous activity on Feb. 14 would indeed be for the birds. sleeping in? We want to be good people and strive to be better neighbours or church people. Let us agree that we are at least on our way to goodness because we did get up and go to church this morning." Following the sermon, the hymn The Lord Is My Shepherd was sung. In the hospital are Shirley Shobbrook and Cliff Hoegy. Rev. Huntley will be holding a Lenten Bible Study, Monday, Feb. 19 - April 1. Contact the office for more information. place in March. Some youth will be travelling to Hamilton and some to Montreal for volunteer service on projects in the respective cities. Don Vair from Belgrave will be the speaker at the Sunday service next week. In the afternoon, some members of the congregation went to Huronlea to provide a service for the seniors. The Grade 7-8 class held an activity on Saturday, which began with skating at Beigrave arena and finished at Travis Campbell's home for games and a snack. From the Minister's Study Love for the birds? McDowells greet at United Mennonites hear guest pastor