49-55 Edgecombe Avenue
(at West 137th Street and St. Nicholas Avenue)
New York, NY 10030
Office: 212.926.4400
Fax: 212.926.3339
Apr 12
1:00pm-Candle Lighting Service
***DONATE A CANDLE***
( To symbolize the Light and Love of Christ that
emanates from those who have nurtured us.)
Guest Musicians – (Both Services)
‘Azusa Pacific University
100-Voice Men’s Chorale
+ Azusa, California +
ttt Please contact the church office if you would like to ‘Honor’ a loved one. 212-926-4400
St. Mark’s United Methodist Church
55 Edgecombe Avenue
New York, New York 10030
Rev. Nathaniel T. Grady, Sr. & Rev. Joseph V. Crockett, Pastors
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Commitment, Community, and the Cross
Sixth Full Week of Lent
4/1 Palm/ Passion Sunday: Worship of God in a community of God’s people
Date Book Chapter: Verse(s) Theme
4/2 Mark 11:1-11 Jesus’ Triumphal Entry into Jerusalem
4/3 Mark 11:12-33 Jesus Curses the Fig Tree, Cleanses the Temple and His Authority is Questioned
4/4 Mark 12:1-27 Parable of the Wicked Tenants
4/5 Mark 14:1-31 The Plot and the Passover
4/6 Mark 14:32-72 Jesus Prays, Is Betrayed and Appears before the Council
4/7 Mark 15:1-47 Jesus, Crucified, Dead and Buried
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49 -55 Edgecombe Avenue-New York, NY 10030– 212.926.4400
137th-138th Streets / St. Nicholas & Edgecombe Avenues
The Rev. Nathaniel T. Grady, Sr. & The Rev. Joseph V. Crockett, Pastors
Mar 26
Why Community[1] Now?
A Meditation on the Importance of Community for all Seasons of the Church
The Reverend Joseph V. Crockett, Ed.D.
Psalm 27; Romans 12: 1-5
Lent is a season or introspection, of inward reflection and examination of our own thoughts, feelings, motives and actions toward God, self and others. But, an authentic, personal relationship with Christ can never come at the expense of God’s community.
Small groups have become big business. Around 1998-99, it was estimated that nearly seventy five million American Adults, forty percent of the American population, was involved in some kind of small group.
Manufacturing industry arranges workers in teams. Corporations spend significant portions of its resources training leaders and managers in how to motivate, relate to, and encourage employees to work toward common goals. Educators teach learners skills for engaging and negotiating group dynamics. Teenagers spend the majority of their time and energy searching for autonomy – in groups. Weight Watchers, fraternities and sororities, professional societies, the sports industry and the church all organize efforts in terms of groups, small or large.
One thing these groups seek is a sense of community. Why? Because whatever is meant by the term community, most people feel that it’s important.
We can never realize the life of Christ on our own, individually or separated from the whole of God’s creation. We cannot live into the likeness of Jesus, change our community or transform the world by ourselves. While autonomy in American culture is our nation’s creed and our personal calling card, community that is distinctively Christian upholds God as our Guide and embraces every “other” as an indispensable, interdependent member of the body.
Christian community necessitates submission and commitment – taking up the cross of Christ, daily. Christian community embraces the belief that the Creator has placed us here to honor God and to be our sisters and brothers keeper. God makes us community and holds us together.
But saying we are a Christian community does not make it so. We have to work at it. We must increase our trust; and we must increase our trustworthiness. We must practice self-disclosure with sensitivity and care so that each person’s story becomes part of our shared giftedness.
Commitment to Christian community is both binding and controlling. The community of Jesus Christ cannot play at community development. Christian community is a way of life. Just as being born from above requires a different logic than the reasoning of the world, so too must we who desire Christian community live in ways that are counter to society’s cultural values and norms. Authentic Christian community is a racially alternative way of life.
An authentic, personal relationship with Christ does not come at the expense of God’s community. We are called by Christ into fellowship with God and one another. Romans 12:1-5:
“I appeal to you therefore, brothers and sisters, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. 2Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your minds, so that you may discern what is the will of God– what is good and acceptable and perfect. 3For by the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think of yourself more highly than you ought to think, but to think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned. 4For as in one body we have many members, and not all the members have the same function, 5so we, who are many, are one body in Christ, and individually we are members one of another.”
Prayer: Gracious God, thank you for loving us, calling us, and proving for us opportunities to live together as one body with Jesus Christ as our Lord. Amen.
[1] Reflections are based on Gorman, Julie A., in Community That Is Christian: A Handbook on Small Groups, 2nd edition (Grand Rapids: Baker Books, pp. 11-18).
Fifth Full Week of Lent
3/25 5th Sunday of Lent: Worship of God in a community of God’s people
Date Book Chapter: Verse(s) Theme
3/26 Isaiah 52:13-53:12 The Suffering Servant
3/27 Isaiah 55:1-13 Invitation to Abundant Life
3/28 Isaiah 61:1-11 Good News of Deliverance
3/29 Isaiah 62: 1-12 Vindication and Salvation of Zion
3/30 Isaiah 63:7-64:12 God’s Mercy Remembered
3/31 Isaiah 66: 1-4 The Worship God Demands
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Fourth Full Week of Lent
3/18 4th Sunday of Lent: Worship of God in a community of God’s people
Date Book Chapter: Verse(s) Theme
3/19 Psalm 26 Plea for Justice, Declaration of Righteousness
3/20 Psalm 27 Triumphant Song of Confidence
3/21 Psalm 30 Thanksgiving for Recovery from Illness
3/22 Psalm 31 Prayer and Praise for Deliverance from Enemies
3/23 Psalm 32 The Joy of Forgiveness
3/24 Psalm 33 The Greatness and Goodness of God
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Sermon preached on March 12, 2012 by The Reverend Sabrina Johnson Chandler at St. Mark’s United Methodist Church in Harlem, NY
Tearing Down the House!
John 2:13-22
13 The Passover of the Jews was near, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. 14 In the temple he found people selling cattle, sheep, and doves, and the money-changers seated at their tables. 15 Making a whip of cords, he drove all of them out of the temple, both the sheep and the cattle. He also poured out the coins of the money-changers and overturned their tables. 16 He told those who were selling the doves, ‘Take these things out of here! Stop making my Father’s house a market-place!’ 17 His disciples remembered that it was written, ‘Zeal for your house will consume me.’ 18 The Jews then said to him, ‘What sign can you show us for doing this?’ 19 Jesus answered them, ‘Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.’ 20 The Jews then said, ‘This temple has been under construction for forty-six years, and will you raise it up in three days?’ 21 But he was speaking of the temple of his body. 22 After he was raised from the dead, his disciples remembered that he had said this; and they believed the scripture and the word that Jesus had spoken.
A few months ago, there was a story in the news that made quite a stir. Apparently, Elin Nordegren decided that she was going to completely demolish her house, a house that looked to be a perfectly good house. Of course, the reason this would even make the news was because Ms. Nordegren is also known as the former Mrs. Tiger Woods. And the house was a 12.3 million dollar oceanfront mansion in North Palm Beach!
For me, what was quite remarkable about all of this was all of the attention that her action drew, and all of the speculation about why she was tearing down the house. I mean, let’s face it, it was her house to do with whatever she wanted. But, some people seemed at turns angry, annoyed or just plain judgmental about it. ‘Almost as if to say, what gives her the right’?
They wanted to understand why this woman was razing a perfectly good, multi-million dollar beachfront mansion to the ground!
Was it just a show of arrogant wealth? Was she tearing it down…simply because she could? What kind of person does that in the face of all of the people in the world who are suffering because of lack?
Was it to pay Tiger back? After all, she got a whopping $110 million dollar settlement out of their very public, very scandalous divorce. She had been betrayed in the worst possible way. Maybe she was tearing this luxury home down to rub his nose in her apparent victory.
But, then more details were revealed. It turns out that Read the rest of this entry »
Third Full Week of Lent
3/11 3rd Sunday of Lent: Worship of God in a community of God’s people
Date Book Chapter: Verse(s) Theme
3/12 2 Corinthians 5:20-6:10 The Ministry of Reconciliation
3/13 Romans 4:13-25 God’s Promise Realized through Faith
3/14 1 Corinthians 1:18-25 Christ the Power and Wisdom of God
3/15 Ephesians 2:1-10 From Death to Life
3/16 Hebrews 5:5-10 Jesus the Great High Priest
3/17 Philippians 2:5-11 Imitating Christ’s Humility
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Mar 10
FEATURING
BY
Robert Ray
The Brooklyn Ecumenical Choir of Bedford Stuyvesant
Patricia Pates Eaton and Lawrence P. Wrenn
Co-Conductors
Sunday, March 11, 2012
3 P.M.
AT
Saint Mark’s United Methodist Church
49-55 Edgecombe Avenue at West 137th Street
New York, New York 10030
The Rev. Nathaniel T. Grady Sr.,M.Div., D.D. The Rev. Joseph V. Crockett . M.Div., Ed. D.
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