Good News - Week of 9/25/2016

PRAYER OF THE WEEK
Today, God, we confess fumblings and failures in accomplishing unity, as we set aside yet another day to remind ourselves of the task. On this World Communion Sunday, give us eyes to recognize your reflection in the eyes of Christians everywhere. Give us a mind to accept and celebrate our differences. Give us a heart big enough to love your children everywhere. We thank you for setting a table with space enough for us all! Amen.
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Altar decoration for World Communion Sunday AVONDALE PATTILLO UMC

WORLD COMMUNION SUNDAY
This coming Sunday, October 2 is World Communion Sunday. World Communion Sunday was begun among several U.S. Protestant denominations in the 1940s as a way of recognizing and celebrating that we celebrate Communion with Christians of many theologies and denominations all over the world. At that time, many Protestant denominations in the U.S. celebrated Communion very infrequently. Quarterly celebration was often the norm, and it was rarely coordinated across denominations or even within them. Setting the first Sunday of October as World Communion Sunday through the Federal Council of Churches became one way to ensure that at least once per year, many American Protestants, and their related missionary churches outside the U.S., might celebrate at the same time.

Since the 1940s, when World Communion Sunday was founded, nearly all Protestant denominations in the U.S., including United Methodists, have significantly increased the frequency of celebrating Holy Communion. Weekly celebration is a common stated norm. Celebration at least monthly is the most commonly practiced norm, including the first Sunday of each month and other Holy Days, such as Christmas Eve, Epiphany, Transfiguration, Palm Sunday, Holy Thursday, Easter, Pentecost, Trinity Sunday, World Communion Sunday, All Saints, and Christ the King. Today, then, many more U.S. Protestants celebrate Holy Communion on the same Sundays many times every year. So now, World Communion Sunday brings special emphasis to that part of our ecumenically shared Communion ritual where we join the songs and prayers of all the saints on earth and all the saints and creatures of heaven around the Lord’s Table. May your celebration be filled with the praises of our Holy, Holy, Holy Triune God this day!
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Angel of Grief

NOTES ON THE SCRIPTURE
Lamentations 1:1-6 - The destruction prophesied has come. Jerusalem and the temple are in ruins. Exile from Jerusalem and Judah has begun. The prophet gives voice to the people’s lament: "Her foes have become her masters… because the Lord has made her suffer for the multitude of her transgressions."

Psalm 137 - This psalm was written in the time when the Israelites were being exiled from their land and taken into Babylonia. These soldiers were attempting to strip God's people of their familiar land, familiar life, and familiar praise. In fact, these soldiers taunted the Israelites, saying, "Sing us one of the songs of Zion" as they marched in incredible numbers out of their land. Feeling completely stripped of their lives, they replied, "How shall we sing the Lord's song in this strange land?"  (A Strange Land)

2 Timothy 1:1-14 - Paul's greeting and opening exhortation in the second letter: Remember who you are, rekindle the gift in you, don't be afraid. There is no shame in suffering when it comes from trusting and obeying the Lord.

Luke 17:5-10 - Jesus teaches on faith and status. The disciples ask for more faith; Jesus says they need a different kind. They appear to want to be treated as equals of powerful persons; Jesus tells them to regard themselves as slaves who can’t be sold for profit. Their one task is obedience. 

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Except where noted prayers, scripture notes and World Communion notes are from Discipleship Ministries