-  Please pray for Marie Van Beek, Alex Benjamin, Rylton Thomas and Kate Burgess, who will be confirmed, and for James Edward Ellis IV who will be baptized, when Bishop Shannon visits Saint Patrick's on Sunday, December 8, 2013. The service on that day will be held in the afternoon, at 2 PM.  There will be potluck following the service, to honor the Bishop and celebrate with those confirmed and baptized.  Please bring food!

-  The victims of typhoon in the Philippines are calling for help.  On Sunday morning more than 2300 people lost their lives when Haiyan Typhoon brought death and destruction, and the toll is still rising.  Episcopal Relief and Development has set up the "Disaster Response Fund" in its website to help us reach out to those in need.   Please see Episcopal Relief and Development Website for information on how to give.  Any gift you give between now and Dec. 6 will be matched by a group of ERD donors.    

-  Hypothermia Shelter Program.  We need volunteers to open church door on Thursday and Friday evenings in December for the homeless who will stay overnight in the church.  The group will be supervised by Volunteers of America, and will come around 8:00 PM on December 5,6,12,13,19,20, 28 and 29.  St. Pat's volunteers will stay for about 15 minutes after they arrive.  A sign-up sheet will be posted in the narthex.  Please sign up to help.  Thank you. 

- On every Sunday we need volunteers to serve for our coffee hour.  Please sign up to help! The sign-up sheet is in the kitchen. Everyone is invited to stay after church for a time to visit with our friends and catch up on what has been going on in each others' lives.  

-  Many thanks to Diem Nguyen and Steve Lebo, who make the Sunday service bulletin for us!    

- We thank Catherine Dubas and the volunteers who assist her in organizing and teaching Sunday School while we search for a Sunday School Coordinator. 

-  Many thanks to Pierre Chanu who painted the cross at the end of the office wing ...

... and many thanks to Joe and Charles Hiller who cleared the bushes along our church driveway from Kenfig Place.

-  Last Sunday, after church, the Van Beeks and Lois Cascella led our youth in participating in the FSC CROP Walk.  The 2.5-mile walk involved churches in the Falls Church area, raising fund to help the poor and hungry. Thanks, Lois, for the pictures!

Proper 27 -- Year C -- Nov. 10, 2013

Luke 20:27-38                                           Tinh Huynh+

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The Christian faith proclaims resurrection,

and this is one of the most challenging things

to speak about.

     Our Nicene Creed reads, "We look for the resurrection of the dead, and the life of the world to come."

     In the Apostles' Creed, we say, "I believe in the resurrection of the body."  

     What will life after the resurrection be like?

     The Sadducees in the Gospel story ask Jesus whose wife the woman would be at the resurrection.

     When the Sadducees made up a story about the woman who married the seven brothers, they did not want to learn anything from Jesus.

      They ridiculed the belief in resurrection.

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      Ancient Jews believed that they lived on their children.

      A man can remain alive after death if he has someone to remember him, and to carry on his family name.

      If a man died without an heir, he is finished.

      Deuteronomy 25 specifies that when brothers reside together,

and if one of them dies and has no son,

a brother must become the widow's husband.

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If the man has no desire to marry his brother's widow,

the widow would go to the elders to sue him,

and he would then endure the punishment

that no Jewish man wants to go through:

     The widow would pull his sandal off his foot, spit in his face, and declare, "This is what is done to the man who does not build up his brother's house."

      Throughout Israel his family shall be known as

"the house of him whose sandal was pulled off."

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     The Sadducees chose not to believe in the resurrection.

      They said on the day of resurrection, if it happens,

the women in the story would be confused:  which man is supposed to be her husband?  

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saying that the resurrected don't marry

because they are like angels and they are children of God.

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     The Bible does not speak of the resurrection as a rational kind of thing.

      Instead, the Bible speaks of the resurrection as a mystery.

and you will continue to be part of God's life.

---------------- 

      God's life never stops.

      Barbara Brown Taylor, an Episcopal preacher,

says that resurrection is not about us. Resurrection is about God.  Resurrection is about God's love and faithfulness: God never abandon the bodies of his beloved children.

      In the Bible there is Godly man named Job.

      Job suffered so much from a skin disease that he wanted to die.

      He asks, "If a man dies shall he live again?"

Job must have struggled with this question for a long time. 

      Finally, he said, "I know that my Redeemer lives."

Somehow, in his heart Job knew that there is God who loved him and was his Redeemer, and that God never dies.

------------------ 

     Jesus believed in resurrection.

      He surrendered his life because he trusted in the Father who would raised him up at last.

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      After his resurrection Jesus appeared to his disciple in his body.

     Jesus then ate fish, broke bread, and cooked breakfast for his disciples. He also walked through locked doors to visit them, and then he vanished from them.

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     The apostle Paul says that we cannot know all about the things heavenly, but in the age to come we will know.

      We must admit that our knowledge and experience are limited.

--------------- 

     Although we cannot understand the resurrection of the last day, we have seen its signs. 

      We have seen the little resurrection that happen in our lives.    

     When reconciliation happens to those in conflict, resurrection happens.

      When we confess our sins and hear the words of absolution, resurrection happens.

       As we believe with our whole heart that God has forgiven us, we experienced resurrection.

       When brothers and sisters come to make peace with each other, after many years of estrangement, resurrection happens.

       When church members, who got into conflict over petty things, and then grow up spiritually to become capable of repentance and forgiveness, I say that is resurrection.

       All these little resurrections speak to the hope of the resurrection that our Lord spoke about.

       While holding on to the hope of the great resurrection that our Lord proclaims, we seek the little resurrections on our earthly journey.   These are the resurrections of the soul.

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     It's up to us, whether to believe or not to believe in the resurrection.

     Paul firmly believed in the resurrection,

and he said that nothing can separate us from the love of God.

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     Jesus said, "Those who are considered worthy of a place in that age and in the resurrection cannot die any more."  

     We need to work on being fit for the resurrection.  

     Those who believe in resurrection will work on becoming worthy of the resurrection.

     In today's collect, we say, "O God, who blessed Son came into the world that he might destroy the works of the devil and make us children of God and heirs of eternal life: Grant that, having this hope, we may purify ourselves as he is pure, that, when he comes again with power and great glory, we may be made like him in his eternal and glorious kingdom."

     Those who believe in resurrection will work on becoming worthy of the resurrection. Amen.  

Chúa Nhật, 10 tháng 11 2013

Kinh Văn:  Luca 20:27, 34-38