We begin a three-week Stewardship Worship Series.

May 7, 2023 – Generosity and the Way of God

May 14, 2023 – What Faith Teaches about Giving

May 21, 2023 – God’s Promise of Abundance

Our God is a generous, giving God! Everything we have is a gift from God.  The gift of creation. The gift of life itself.  The material bounty of the earth.  And beyond these material gifts, God also gives us the spiritual gifts of love, faith, grace, forgiveness, and the greatest gift of all – the gift of his son, Jesus Christ.   “For God so loved the world that he gave his only son” (John 3:16).  Indeed, the whole bible testifies to God’s generosity. 

Jesus teaches that a God who feeds the sparrows, a God who dresses the lilies of the field, will unfailingly care for us.  Amen and Amen.   

Barbara Ganitch and Patty Staggs will be speaking on Oakland Methodist Foundation and about our church’s finance.  Come, friends, let us reflect on God’s generosity this Sunday. 

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The Beatitudes

“Blessed are the poor in Spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” (Matthew 5:3)

“Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.” (Matthew 5:4)

We come to the third Beatitude, ⁵ Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth. (Matthew 5:5)

 “Happy are the meek?  Really?  Once again, Jesus’ teaching runs counter to almost everything we believe and practice in daily life. We say, “you have to fight for your rights.”  Jesus answers, “The meek shall inherit the earth.”  History seems built on the theme of the survival of the fittest and the meek don’t fulfil that description.  We think happiness is to be found in the display of power, right?   

Come friends, join us as we reflect on “Happy are the meek” this Sunday.    

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The Beatitudes

We reflected on “Blessed are the poor in Spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” (Matthew 5:3) last Sunday.  And this Sunday, we will reflect on “Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.” (Matthew 5:4)

Happy are the mourners?  Really?  We know better!  Mourning is something to be avoided if at all possible.  And if it proves to be inescapable, it is to be endured with stoic courage. We certainly don’t expect to find happiness in the place of mourning. 

The late J.B. Phillips said that if we humans were to write this Beatitude to reflect life as we see it, we would have it say, “Blessed are the hard-boiled: for they never let life hurt them.”  Most of us have been taught to keep a tough exterior and to be careful that we refrain from being unnecessarily open to emotional pain.  Right?  Come friends, join us as we reflect on “Happy are the mourners.”  

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The Beatitudes

In chapters 5-7, Matthew records a sermon that Jesus preached early in his ministry, and the first part of that sermon are statements called The Beatitudes.  Each of these eight statements begin with the words “Blessed are…” or “Happy are those ….”

Some people feel Jesus’ teaching on the Beatitudes does not apply to us today because they are found to be all too striking, mind blowing, and hard.  G. K. Chesterton wrote, “The Christian ideal has not been tried and found wanting.  It has been found difficult; and left untried.”  Is that so? 

I don’t think we are intended to live the Beatitude reality alone but in the presence of the Risen Christ Jesus and fellow siblings of Jesus Christ to experience God’s kingdom or kin-dom here and now.  By living out ,“Blessed are the poor in spirit, those who mourn, the meek, those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, the merciful, the pure in heart, the peacemakers, and those who are persecuted because of righteousness…”, I believe we will experience the Risen Christ in our lives together where we experience God’s beloved community here in Oakland.

Would you join us?  This Sunday, we will be reflecting on the “Blessed are the poor in Spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”  (Matthew 5:3)

Worship Information for Good Friday (April 7) & Easter (April 9)

April 9, 2023

Easter Sunday

We continue our journey from the Good Friday.  The Easter story continues for the Good Friday’s ending song by our choir, “O Sacred Head, Now Wounded”, and we enter the story of Mary’s witness account of the first Easter Sunday.   What was Mary’s witness to that morning.  Mary’s witness moves from a place of darkness and uncertainty to hope, joy and celebration.  How about you?  What is your resurrection story?  What does Jesus’ Resurrection mean for you?  

Christ is risen!  He is risen indeed!  Sisters and brothers in Christ, celebrate Easter worship with us.  The Easter celebration is filled with gifts of guest musicians, our choir, spoken words, songs, prayers, celebration of baptism of Kiara Isabelle Iyengar and Atousa Daliri, and receiving a new member, Joyce Ann Thompson and a homily.  An intimate time of followship will follow the services. 

Please bring fresh cut flowers for children to decorate the Easter Cross this Sunday! 

Children will remain in worship with their family and they will be dismissed to go Easter Egg hunt right after the service.   The children will experience the Easter Sunday with our intergenerational families and will receive activity sheets and hands on materials to engage their minds and hearts in worship.      

We are designating our Easter Offering towards building up our Children and the Joint Youth Program with our circuit churches.  Help us empower our children and youth in their faith journey. Through your gifts, our children and youth will know the breadth of God’s love and grace.  We bless them to be faithful disciples for the transformation of the world.

Come and join us.

Finally, Holy week is upon us.  This Sunday is known as Palm-Passion Sunday which is a dual feast, Palm Sunday because Palm branches are carried in to commemorate the triumphal entry of Jesus Christ riding the donkey, and Passion Sunday because the Passion Narrative is proclaimed. 

We are with Jesus in Gethsemane this Sunday and he is about to be abandoned by those closest to him.  Three disciples fall asleep; another disciple betrays him; Mark 14:50 tells us, “All of them deserted him and fled.”  Jesus prays for the cup to pass, and we are reminded of the cup that “runneth over” in Psalm 23:5, and the cup that Jesus has just lifted to his disciples at the Last Supper.   It is in the garden of Gethsemane that Jesus faces the biggest risk, the risk of temptation, as he prays, “Remove this cup from me”. (Mark 14:36)

Is there any risk for God in this story?  Is there risk for the disciples?  For us?  Jesus is asking us to risk in order to love as he did. 

We will celebrate Passion Sunday with Holy Communion as we conclude the Lenten Worship series, “Entering the Passion of Jesus.”  Come and join us.