For the past 9 years, Community Missions has been presenting this interfaith prayer service. It is held on the National Day of Prayer For Mental Illness Recovery and Understanding. this day of prayer is part of Mental Illness Awareness Week, which is the first full week in October each year. This year, our 10th anniversary of the service, was presented as an online service because of the Covid-19 pandemic.
By Rev. Mark Breese: “It feels a little magical and it helps float the troubles away for a time. Each step feels like I’ve entered the magical Technicolor world of OZ and I’m walking down my own ‘Yellow Brick Road’.”
Good intentions are generally…. well, good. But sometimes we miss the mark and so things don’t go as we expect. Peter had good intentions one day, the best actually. He just got is wrong on this occasion. The question becomes what does he, or we, do about it when we miss.
About this channel: Weekly worship normally takes place at Community Missions each Wednesday morning in our Chapel at 1570 Buffalo Ave. During the COVID-19 Pandemic, we have moved the service online. A new chapel worship service will be posted each week on the Hope For Niagara YouTube Channel.
The world often sets up so many boundaries….well, let’s be more honest than that. WE humans set up boundaries that are pointlessly driven by our selfishness. We create all these “Other-isms”: racism, sexism, classism, nationalism, etc., etc. All of it is driven by our fear that someone might get what we have or need. In the process we take (tangible and intangible) stuff away from someone else and set up the idea of the Taboo and The Other. These boundaries get baked into our societies so thoroughly that we often thing we are just doing and being like good conforming people should. Even Jesus faced this and fell into expected patterns and behavior– until he broke the patterns and started crossing all these boundaries.
About this channel: Weekly worship normally takes place at Community Missions each Wednesday morning in our Chapel at 1570 Buffalo Ave. During the COVID-19 Pandemic, we have moved the service online. A new chapel worship service will be posted each week on the Hope For Niagara YouTube Channel.
Faith is hard and doubt is easy. It is always a struggle to live faithfully as Christians. Some days are easier, some harder and God is with us through it all. Peter’s chance to walk on water meets with both success and failure– with strong faith and distracted doubt. Jesus remained faithful to Peter when there was doubt. Since that is true for us as well, we should take heart. See below video for links to Podcast versions.
About this channel: Weekly worship normally takes place at Community Missions each Wednesday morning in our Chapel at 1570 Buffalo Ave. During the COVID-19 Pandemic, we have moved the service online. A new chapel worship service will be posted each week on the Hope For Niagara YouTube Channel.
Making choices is part of our daily life. In our current times even small choices can affect our life and the life of others in out-sized ways. From wearing masks to taking a stand on racial justice, acting with wisdom is what is required of us. In today’s message we will look at a series of short parables of Jesus and at King Solomon, the wisest of all the kings of Israel.
This service is part of an ongoing, occasional series about Choices and Building The Kingdom of God.
About this channel: Weekly worship normally takes place at Community Missions each Wednesday morning in our Chapel at 1570 Buffalo Ave. During the COVID-19 Pandemic, we have moved the service online. A new chapel worship service will be posted each week on the Hope For Niagara YouTube Channel.
By Rev. Mark Breese: “Really, when you think about it, why would they be silent! And in this particular story, it is totally improbable that people would keep mum. The dude could not hear or speak. Then suddenly he could! If he kept quiet, that would kind of defeat the purpose of being healed in the first place.”
By Rev. Mark Breese: “I have actually only seen the very first moment of the sun rising into view a handful of times. There was period of time in my early 20’s that I decided I was going to make sure I experienced this exact moment of the sun first coming into view.”
By Rev. Mark Breese: “What was I doing, like, looking for something to bummed out about? Why in the world would I do that? So I sat for some time thinking about that, till long after it got dark.”
There are always lots of choices that we make everyday. Some are small some are large. These days, it seems there are small choices that can make a big difference, not just for ourselves, but for others. All these choices, our choices, can determine what kind of world we live in. To get into our conversation we will take a look at gardening and start by asking a question: When you plant a seed, what happens in the ground?
Our text for the day is Mark 4:26-29.
This service is part of an ongoing, occasional series about Choices and Building The Kingdom of God. It is also the 2nd service offered as a live stream. There are a couple of technical glitches. Thanks in advance for your understanding.