Sermon Series on Leviticus

So we are working through the Book of Leviticus this Fall at All Saints in a sermon series entitled, Mercy Grace, and the Cross of Christ: A look at Leviticus for the 21st Century.

Since it is my firm conviction that Christians cannot hope to grasp the fullness of the Cross of Christ without an understanding of what Leviticus is about (hint: Jesus), we are looking at the key passages and sections of the often neglected OT book as a means of establishing the foundation of the Gospel. Two Sunday's ago we looked at the Feast of Trumpets which is the foreshadowing of the Great In Gathering when Christ comes again. As we looked at the passage I drew an analogy between the feast of Trumpets and what many call "Rally Day" or Reunion Sunday to highlight that people are coming off their summer vacations and gathering to begin the new church year.

This past Sunday we took our first look at the Day of Atonement as it is briefly described in chapter 23 in the context of it's call on God's people for spiritual renewal. Here is an excerpt from that sermon:


"The point of the times of rest and self examination is not to put yet another weighty burden but rather to offer a breathe of hope .. a point of release from the burdens of the world AND our own personal sin as we look to the Cross... you see when we examine ourselves and find ourselves lacking we have a choice: WE CAN MAKE EXCUSES OR we can turn to the Cross... we can turn to the one who paid for all those things we see in ourselves that we don't want to see when we examine ourselves. When we face our falleness we can turn to Jesus who put Himself in or place who lived as we live and died the death we deserve.. we can ask Jesus, our Lord Jesus, our Savior, to have mercy on the one we know ourselves to be. To have mercy on us... BUT we have trouble accepting the forgiveness of God because we operate under an illusion.. and the illusion is this... He wouldn't really forgive me if He knew who I really was.., Brothers and sisters He does know who we are... when Jesus died He died for your sins.. not just collective sins ... for your specific sins... for you. He knows you and He died for you to make the Day of Atonement have it's fullest meaning and He offers you and I a chance to respond to His sacrifice.. to accept... receive and be something new, in other words, He is offering in Himself and in and through His sacrifice … He is offering to you and to me transformation... real and enduring TRANSFORMATION!"


You can hear the whole thing at www.allsaintsanglicanbr.org


Blessings,

mark+

Good news, and other ramblings for Wednesday morning

not as GOOD as THE Good News but I can walk and bend my knee this morning... as I mentioned yesterday we had a lovely cold snap hit in time for this last long run before the race on the 25th of Oct. so now I know that a really good way to ruin a perfectly good first cool day of the Fall is to start off with a 24 miler:)

I am praying for the people in Samoa who were struck by the tsunami yesterday and the folks in SE Asia who are suffering from the storm Ketsana

It is a simply gorgeous day here in BR today...

so why so long...

Well it could be that I am lazy or it could be that I have been super busy... we had the Bishop in for my service of installation as the rector of All Saints and the lead up to that took time and then after it was playing catch up but mostly I wonder if this is a good use of time for someone leading a new church... surely the things I think of or the things going on in my life are not terribly interesting to others (I say that in soite of the twitterization of America) but today in keeping with the post I just put up about the marathon training run this morning I can do nothing except sit and so working on the "blogging thingy"... in the next post I shall take up our new sermon series (does that sound pretentious or what?

what was i thinking

So I ran 24 miles this morning. The plan at the beginning worked like a charm...kept it slow... good warm up hit the half way point right at 2:04 and still felt strong. But then came the strange feeling in the left knee and the the tightening... it was a good morning for running the heat we had been having in BR broke to a nice cool morning... I am under a month out from the Marine Corps Marathon in DC and I am becoming increasingly convinced that my goal of an under four hour time is WAAAY out of reach. Things were looking good earlier in the training this summer but It occured to me that my 47 years may simply have run faster than me...I am looking forward to the run in DC but right now I am just hoping to finish the race ahead of the street cleaners.

Oh yeah... that funky feeling... almost certainly the iliotibial band right at the knee... becoming inflamed... never had this on any of the runs so far so ...apparently ... for me 21 miles is where the ye old iliotibial band decides to say "no thank you very much" and if you insist on keeping up this foolishness I'll be reminding you of the error of your ways for the rest of the daym, tonight and well untill I just get tired of hurting you...

All kidding aside .. it does hurt like the dickens BUT the run is for charity... I am running for 25:40 and for the Sonrise orphanage in Rwanda you can check out the fund raising page at http://www.2540.org/Team2540/marine-corps-marathon-2009-e5/fr-mark-turner-m49/

As I sit here on the back porch of our home.. I think about how it was just a year ago that I had come home from being in Rwanda. It seems a long time ago... but the people of Africa and the faith of the Christians there remains such a big part of me...


mark+