Adult Education Announcements

Brenda Lytle will lead Living on the Edge, a Bible Study based upon Romans 12, begining September 15. It is a study of becoming a Romans 12 Christian, and a pathway to becoming more like Jesus. This study will meet in room 403 on the third floor of the Duncan-Giersch Center each Wednesday morning at 9:00am for ten weeks. The Living on the Edge Bible Study was developed by Chip Ingram, Senior Pastor of Venture Christian Church in Gatos, CA, President of Living on the Edge, an international teaching and discipleship ministry that provides practical help for everyday believers. If you would like to participate in this exciting study that invites us to "dare to experience true spirituality," contact Brenda Lytle.

From Mother Barbara Crafton

Mother Barbara Cawthorne CraftonForgiveness: What It Is and What It Isn't

Peter wants to know how often he should forgive someone who has injured him. Seven times? He asks. Nope -- Jesus says we're to forgive the one who has injured us seven times seventy. Peter's response is not recorded -- he was probably stunned, since most of us have a hard time forgiving injury even once, let alone 490 times! Oh, dear.

Perhaps our inability to forgive rests, in part, on some mistaken ideas we have had for years about what forgiveness is. We will explore this possibility in our time together and will emerge from the day with a new sense of hope and freedom. 

Download the Forgiveness Weekend Registration Brochure!   (Click "Print 4 pages" at top left of page.)

From Rev. William D. Bennett, Jr. 

"The life of faith is not about becoming a better and better person through a superhuman effort of will. It is about connecting with the power of a loving God." - Barbara Cawthorne Crafton, "Forgiveness: What It Is and What It Isn't," YES! WE'LL GATHER AT THE RIVER! Church Publishing JourneyBook, p.62

The authentic practice of radical forgiveness is at the very heart of anything that can be called a true Christian life, or a truly Christian Church. As we heard in last Sunday's Gospel reading, Jesus, when asked by his disciples, "...teach us to pray..." places forgiveness of sins ("trespasses," "debts") as the centerpiece of the form of prayer which he teaches them. In Benedictine Monasteries, the Abbot, after the communal meals, will intone the Our Father, repeating the phrase ""...forgive us our trespasses..." three times, as an affirmation of how deeply in the DNA of real Christian community forgiving one another is, and how much it sets real Christian life apart from the murderous cycle of recrimination, resentment, and revenge which can dominate the world, under the thrall of the power of death as it indisputably is. The wisdom of the Gospel of Jesus Christ understands that honest acknowledgement of sin, and also the practice of the forgiveness of sin by one who has been hurt by the sinful actions of another is the only way we can experience real liberation and freedom in this life. It is also the only way we can break through to one another and be able to live in real community with each other. In talking about the sacramental rite of The Reconciliation of a Penitent, in earlier times known as "Confession," Episcopal priest, spiritual director, and author Barbara Cawthorne Crafton writes: "At its best, confession has nothing to do with shame or with superficial legalisms. It is the act of a spiritual adult who recognizes an action in her past as unworthy of the beloved child of God she knows herself to be, and who desires to be free to do things differently next time. Primarily, confession is the restoration to community of one who is estranged from it. It is a profound welcome home to one who has spent some time in self-imposed exile... Only when we have allowed God's reconciling love to shine on even the soiled places can we know ourselves to be wholly loved." (YES! WE'LL GATHER AT THE RIVER, pp. 49-50). Whether you have or will avail yourself of this sacramental rite, its presence in the life of the Church is a sign of the centrality of forgiveness, both the receiving and giving of it, as central to being a baptized Christian.

As has been announced earlier, Mother Crafton will be with us to lead a "Forgiveness Weekend" at the beginning of our Fall Adult Christian Formation programs, the weekend of September 17-19. This will include a Friday evening gathering, a Saturday retreat which is currently scheduled from 9 AM-2:30 PM, and she will teach and preach on Sunday morning. More details on all of these will be forthcoming, but please put that special weekend on your calendar now.

"...it is the grace of the Gospel, which is so hard for the pious to understand, that it confronts us with the truth and says: You are a sinner, a great desperate sinner; now come as the sinner that you are, to God who loves you. He wants you as you are; He does not want anything from you... He wants you alone. "My son, my daughter, give me thine heart" (Proverbs 13:26). God has come to you to save the sinner. Be glad! (Dietrich Bonhoeffer, "Confession and Communion," LIFE TOGETHER)

Peace and Blessings, Bill