by the Rev. B.J. Beu
When the disciples asked Jesus to teach them how to pray, he gifted us with what has come to be known as the Lord’s Prayer: “Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name….” Jesus constantly referred to God as “Abba,” which is Aramaic for “Father.” In modern parlance we could even translate “Abba” as “Daddy.”
Many Christians use Jesus’ language as proof that God is also our Father, and by extension, that God is male. Continue reading
REFLECTIONS FROM THE REVEREND
by the Rev. B.J. Beu
If you hang out at church long enough, you can expect to hear those pesky requests to give a hand at the church and to live your faith. No matter how quick you are out of coffee hour, you may be invited to invite a friend to church, join a church ministry, participate in the prayer chain, invite a friend to church, help in our newly-formed nursery, assist in Sunday school, invite a friend to church, volunteer to usher or serve communion, phone your friends who are missing from church, invite a new friend to church, provide food some Sunday for fellowship hour, make a casserole for a family struggling with a sick loved one, invite a friend to church, and the list goes on and on. Did I mention, invite a friend to church.
Before you dismiss this plea, thinking that God only uses people of unquestionable moral and religious fiber to do these things—not people like us, not people with our quirks, secret foibles, and decidedly non-holy peccadilloes—consider that you may be exactly the kind of people God wants after all.
THOUGHT-PROVOKING STUDY SERIES CONTINUES
Progressive Christianity Study Group - First Thursdays, 7 pm
NEXT GATHERING: May 2, 2013 - 7:00 – 8:30 pm
All are welcome!
Neighborhood Congregational Church Library
The Study group meets the first Thursday of each month in the Bridge Hall Library at 7 PM. Please contact Lynn Kentfield at 363-0919 if you have any questions.
Neighborhood Congregational Church’s
Annual Beach Worship Service
Neighborhood Congregational Church hosts a special worship celebration each year of song, dance, prayer, and a message from the church’s pastor, the Rev. B. J. Beu on Sunday morning. Look for a 2013 date soon!
All are invited to bring beach blankets, beach chairs, and picnic supplies for a fun day at the Cleo Street beach.
by the Rev. B.J. Beu
At this year’s annual meeting of the Southern California Nevada Conference of the United Church of Christ, we celebrated being on the journey as people of God within the UCC. If you consider that our forebears in Salem, Massachusetts, hung women for being witches and pressed Giles Corey with stones for being a warlock, it’s been quite a journey indeed!
One of the interesting things about being a pastor within a relatively small Protestant denomination is that people often confuse the United Church of Christ with churches of similar sounding names. I hear remarks like, “Oh, I have a good friend who goes to the Church of Christ. You’re the church that doesn’t have music, right?” “No,” I say. “We love music. We’re the church that hung the witches.” Besides the obvious difference in our theologies, churches within the Protestant tradition differ from one another in worship by how far we carry the Protestant Reformation. Continue reading
REFLECTIONS FROM THE REVEREND
by the Rev. B.J. Beu
As I was packing up to move to our new home, I ran across an old copy of TIME Magazine that addressed the gospel of wealth preached in many evangelical and mainline churches. TIME’s September 18, 2006, cover sports a picture of a Rolls Royce complete with a gleaming cross for a hood ornament and asks the question: “Does God Want You to Be Rich?” I was intrigued to reread how a secular magazine would handle this trend in American civil religion. I say this trend in American civil religion rather than this trend in Christianity intentionally.
Sadly, what passes for Christianity in many American churches today is a blending of national self-interest and capitalistic values married to the confession that Jesus is Lord and the belief that God has bestowed unique blessings on our great country. In American civil religion, particularly when it is under the influence of prosperity theology, wealth is the sign of God’s blessings—which easily morphs into a prejudice against the poor: God has not blessed them. Such a perversion of the gospel is incompatible with the teachings of Jesus Christ, who blesses the poor and teaches us to pray for our daily bread, not for a Mercedes Benz.