English Congregation  2018   

Lent Year B

Lent is a 40-day period before Easter that commemorates the time Jesus spent in the wilderness. In the early church this was a time of preparation for those about to be baptized. Today it is more often regarded as a season of soul searching and repentance for all Christians when we prepare for the joy and celebration of Easter by giving ourselves an annual spiritual check up. It begins with Ash Wednesday and ends at sundown on Holy Thursday.  (The Thursday before Easter)  If you are a good mathematician you probably realize that there are more than 40 days between Ash Wednesday and Holy Thursday.  That is because early Christians never fasted on Sundays.  They are are excluded from the days of Lent because they are always celebrations of Christ’s resurrection.

The temptations of Christ parallel those of the children of Israel in the wilderness but how different are his responses. The children of Israel were dissatisfied with God’s provision of manna. They remembered the rich foods from their captivity in Egypt and greedily hungered for more so that their physical cravings could be satisfied. (Num 11:4-36) Christ saw his physical hunger as unimportant and trusted in God to provide for all his needs. At Massah the Israelites demanded miraculous signs that revealed God’s presence, totally ignoring God’s constant and miraculous care for them. (Ex 17:1-7). Jesus refused to test God by the use of miraculous signs. The Israelites fashioned a golden calf to worship but Christ turned his back on temptations of worldly wealth and power. Each time he is tempted by Satan, Christ deliberately turned away from the attractions of a self-centered and self-serving world in order to place God’s purposes and the outwardly focused values of God’s kingdom at the center of all he was and did.

Lent is a time for “confrontation with the false self” (Thomas Keating) when we reflect on the responses and behaviors we exhibit that are least Christ like and seek God’s help in rededicating ourselves to God and God’s purposes. This is a time for self-denial and fasting when we give up some of the comforts of our lives in order to make ourselves more available to God.

Traditionally, penitential prayer, fasting, and alms giving mark spiritual disciplines during Lent. Some churches especially in the Orthodox tradition, still observe a rigid schedule of fasting on certain days during Lent, especially the giving up of meat, alcohol, sweets, and other types of food. Other traditions do not place as great an emphasis on fasting, but focus on charitable deeds, especially helping those in physical need with food and clothing, or simply the giving of money to charities. Most Christian churches that observe Lent at all focus on it as a time of prayer especially penance, repenting for failures and sin as a way to focus on the need for God’s grace. It is really a preparation to celebrate God’s marvelous redemption at Easter, and the resurrected life that we live, and hope for, as Christians.

Interestingly the concept of spring-cleaning emerged from the practice of Lent. This was the time of year in Europe when one cleaned house – first physically and then spiritually. I love this idea of connecting our daily lives and routines to the seasons of the church calendar.  However what we “sweep out” or give up at this season should be more than food. It could be soccer or TV or social commitments. We might discuss with our families ways to give up our busyness and focus on the truly important things of God. The time we free up can be used for special prayers and Bible readings, for spiritual retreats and for involvement in local or overseas mission that enables us to focus beyond ourselves and onto our responsibility to those who are hurting and in need.

During Lent it is as though we join Jesus in his walk toward Good Friday and the crucifixion. Our self-denial is a way to enter into the fellowship of Christ’s suffering so that we can identify more fully with those who are chronically hungry, oppressed, in pain or in need.

The Episcopal Church’s Presiding Bishop Michael Curry, noted during a sermon given to the Taiwan Diocesan convention that during Lent we use the religious disciplines of “Prayer, service, scripture study, and sacraments” to effect a “turn around” [repentance] during this season.  I invite all of us at the Church of the Good Shepherd’s English congregation to explore and imagine new ways/disciplines that may transform our solitary walk into one that brings us to a consciousness of journeying with Christ, ever present on our way.

     Lent, Holy Week, Easter, and Sundays after Easter

                             February 14, 2018                  Ash Wednesday

February 18                   First Sunday in Lent  
                                      "I was sinking deep in sin....Love floats!"

February 25                   Second Sunday in Lent

March 4                         Third Sunday in Lent

March  11                     Fourth Sunday in Lent    

March 18                     Fifth Sunday in Lent

March 25                     Palm Sunday
                                    Combined Service

March 29                    Maundy Thursday Agape Fest   7:30pm 
                                    and foot washing service with Combined Congregations 

March 30                   Good Friday   
                                   Service at Noon   Combined Service

March 31                  Easter Vigil    8 pm   
                                  (Great Vigil of Easter Combined Service)

April  1                     Easter English Service at  9:30 am
                                 Easter Brunch and Easter Egg Hunt 11 am-1 pm

April 8                      Second Sunday of Easter

April  15                    Third Sunday of Easter
April  22                   Fourth Sunday of Easter

April 29                    Fifth Sunday of Easter

May  6                      Sixth Sunday of Easter

May 13                 Seventh Sunday of Easter   
                    
May 20                  Day of Pentecost

                           

English Congregation’s Calendar 2017-2018

Advent – Christmas – Epiphany Year B

December 03       Candle of Hope, Isaiah 64:1-9

           O that you would tear open the heavens and come down,
          so that the mountains would quake at your presence--

December 10      Candle of Peace, Isaiah 40:1-1                                  

                           He will feed his flock like a shepherd;
he will gather the lambs in his arms,

                               and carry them in his bosom,
                        and gently lead the mother sheep.

December 17           Candle of Joy,  Lessons and Carols

                                  Canticle 15    The Song of Mary Magnificat

                                Luke 1:46-55

My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord,

  my spirit rejoices in God my Savior; * 

December 24      Candle of Love, Luke 1:26-38

                           [Mary] “Greetings, favored one! The Lord is with you.” 

                                    Greetings, my favored sons and daughters of earth!

                                    The Lord is with Us!  Amen. [HJB]

December 24      Combined English and Chinese Christmas Eve   

                            Candle Light Service 7 PM

December 25   English Christmas Service at 9:30 AM

Dec 31              First Sunday after Christmas

January 7         First Sunday after Epiphany

                          

January 14         Second Sunday after Epiphany

January 21         Third Sunday after Epiphany

January 28         Fourth Sunday after Epiphany

                          

February 4          Fifth Sunday after Epiphany

                          

February 11         Last Sunday after Epiphany        

 Promises of Advent, Christmas, Epiphany

“Adventus” means coming.  We, Christians believe that Advent is not only the beginning of the liturgical year; we also believe that it is the beginning and the end of our spiritual posture before God.  Advent sets us on our way to hope in the promise that Jesus came to save, and will come again to judge.  To our joy, we discover that in faith Christ’s judgment is our salvation.

God is coming to be with us is a message as old as human existence as told in the Bible.  In Genesis 3:8, we read, “And they heard the voice of the LORD God walking in the garden in the cool of the day: and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God amongst the trees of the garden.”

Awareness of God’s presence is not a welcome realization!  It seems that Adam and Eve’s response to “God with us” was to hide.  I suppose that we share their dread, because we have been hiding from God since the beginning of our own awaking that God is with us.  We sing, “O come, O come, Emmanuel”, yet, our hearts whisper, “not yet, not now”! Quick, cover this shame!

We fear God’s judgment of our limitless cravings that bend us to mere self-satisfactions.    Yet, like a child whose bravery insists that she is able to stand and to run own her own, quickly loses her courage when she discovers she has run too far, and run out of sight of Mom and Dad.  She discovers that she has lost the arms of security and found the embrace of despair.

We fear Immanuel, “God with us”, as condemnation of our willfulness.  “God with us”, seems to us a loss of freedom.  Immanuel exposes our freedom as bondage to self as solitary confinement that separates us from others and from “The OTHER”.

We are filled with dreadful discontent that exposes our broken sacred image of God.  He is coming.  We wait. 

He arrives with healing in His wings!  He is born that we no more may die.  He gives us second birth.  Our image is reclaimed and restored in His coming.  Hark!  The angels sing!

That is what Advent brings!   God’s coming brings to us hope, peace, joy, and love!  Thanks be to God for the manger where his promises are fulfilled.  The babe’s name shall be called Immanuel, “with us is God!” During Advent, God comes from the future to be with us.    “Christ has died.  Christ is risen. Christ will come again.”  We follow, enlightened by The Light of the World, Christ our Lord.

Amen.

A Christmas card to our Good Shepherd Family
A Far and Near!

I wish you all a joyful Christmas and New Year! 

May God’s gift of Love and Light be born again in the hearts and minds of each sojourner who rests awhile with the English congregation of the Church of the Good Shepherd.

I journey home to Scottsdale, Arizona to share Christmas with my family, Elizabeth, Kenneth, and Coal (family dog)!  I will arrive in time for Christmas dinner and sharing gifts around the Christmas tree; thank God for the International Date Line that has me arrive in the  USA   before I departed Taiwan.  A Wonderment!

Thank you all for sharing in our Koinonia ministry at the Church of the Good Shepherd.  Thank you too for your love and support of me as I partner with you in my 52^nd year of ministry in 2018!

May you all know the hope, peace, joy, and love of Christ our Savior now and always! 

Love and prayers,

Father Herbert

December 25, 2017