A great big thanks to Milanda Taylor, Chellee Bailey, Wendy Self and Heather Saint for all their work to pull together last week's worship.  Thanks also to the children and youth who shared their tremendous gifts and to their parents who got them to all their practices as well as to church last Sunday!  We are truly blessed! And we look forward to having them participate in worship again very soon!

I apologize for the confusion about the offering for the Simpson family.  The communion rail offering this week will be used to help them as they recover from the tornado.  Please keep those affected in your prayers as well as those affected by the floods in Tennessee and those threatened by the oil spill in the Gulf!

This week we will celebrate Holy Communion and continue hearing from the witnesses to resurrection.  This week's voice belongs to Peter as he finds that being a witness to resurrection requires him to die to old ideas in order to allow others to experience the good news of new life.

Now the apostles and the believers who were in Judea heard that the Gentiles had also accepted the word of God. ²So when Peter went up to Jerusalem, the circumcised believers criticized him, ³saying, "Why did you go to uncircumcised men and eat with them?" ⁴Then Peter began to explain it to them, step by step, saying, ⁵"I was in the city of Joppa praying, and in a trance I saw a vision. There was something like a large sheet coming down from heaven, being lowered by its four corners; and it came close to me. ⁶As I looked at it closely I saw four-footed animals, beasts of prey, reptiles, and birds of the air. ⁷I also heard a voice saying to me, 'Get up, Peter; kill and eat.' ⁸But I replied, 'By no means, Lord; for nothing profane or unclean has ever entered my mouth.' ⁹But a second time the voice answered from heaven, 'What God has made clean, you must not call profane.' ¹⁰This happened three times; then everything was pulled up again to heaven. ¹¹At that very moment three men, sent to me from Caesarea, arrived at the house where we were. ¹²The Spirit told me to go with them and not to make a distinction between them and us. These six brothers also accompanied me, and we entered the man's house. ¹³He told us how he had seen the angel standing in his house and saying, 'Send to Joppa and bring Simon, who is called Peter; ¹⁴he will give you a message by which you and your entire household will be saved.' ¹⁵And as I began to speak, the Holy Spirit fell upon them just as it had upon us at the beginning. ¹⁶And I remembered the word of the Lord, how he had said, 'John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.' ¹⁷If then God gave them the same gift that he gave us when we believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, who was I that I could hinder God?" ¹⁸When they heard this, they were silenced. And they praised God, saying, "Then God has given even to the Gentiles the repentance that leads to life."  Acts 11:1-18

·      Are there any categories of people you are tempted to exclude as "impure"?

·      What is more important to a Christian: compassion or purity?

·      Can you think of modern day equivalents to Peter's encounter with Cornelius?

See you on Sunday!