Worship Focus 

Sunnyvale Presbyterian Church
July 30, 2017
Questions for
Reflection
 
Who are the people--or what are the standards--by which you measure yourself and your success?
 
What are some of the things about yourself or your family that you love, that don't quite seem to fit in with what is "normal" in the world around you?
 
Quick Links  

 
  
A Fellowship of the Weak
The Rev. Hardy Kim, preaching 
   
 
 
I am so excited to be with you as we start building our relationship together through our worship of God.
 
I know that there is so much to learn about you--the things that have been important to your community, the events and values that have defined you, the hopes and dreams that God has planted in your hearts.
 
So, I want to get our conversation started as soon as we can, on July 30. I hope you'll come and join us as I share some reflections (based on Jesus' teaching in parables) on how we might begin to explore how we might define ourselves as a community seeking God's reign on earth.
 
I look forward to seeing you this Sunday at 7:50 a.m., 10 a.m., or 5 p.m.
 
Peace,
Hardy
 
Welcome Hardy After Each Service

Early Light--Brunch in Fellowship Hall
10 a.m.--Light Lunch in Fellowship Hall
Intersections--Dinner in Fellowship Hall
   
Theme for the Day
 
When you are able to create a lonely place in the middle of your actions and concerns, your successes and failures slowly can lose some of their power over you. For then your love for this world can merge with a compassionate understanding of its illusions. Then your serious engagement can merge with an unmasking smile. Then your concern for others can be motivated more by their needs than your own. In short: then you can care.
--Henri Nouwen, Out of Solitude: Three Meditations on the Christian Life
Scripture Passages
O give thanks to the Lord, call on his name,
   make known his deeds among the peoples.
Sing to him, sing praises to him;
   tell of all his wonderful works.
Glory in his holy name;
   let the hearts of those who seek the Lord rejoice.
Seek the Lord and his strength;
   seek his presence continually.
Remember the wonderful works he has done,
   his miracles, and the judgements he has uttered,
O offspring of his servant Abraham,
   children of Jacob, his chosen ones.
 
He is the Lord our God;
   his judgements are in all the earth.
He is mindful of his covenant for ever,
   of the word that he commanded, for a thousand generations,
the covenant that he made with Abraham,
   his sworn promise to Isaac,
which he confirmed to Jacob as a statute,
   to Israel as an everlasting covenant,
saying, 'To you I will give the land of Canaan
   as your portion for an inheritance.'
Praise the Lord!

He put before them another parable: "The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed that someone took and sowed in his field; it is the smallest of all the seeds, but when it has grown it is the greatest of shrubs and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and make nests in its branches." He told them another parable: "The kingdom of heaven is like yeast that a woman took and mixed in with three measures of flour until all of it was leavened."
 
"The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which someone found and hid; then in his joy he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field. "Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant in search of fine pearls; on finding one pearl of great value, he went and sold all that he had and bought it. "Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a net that was thrown into the sea and caught fish of every kind; when it was full, they drew it ashore, sat down, and put the good into baskets but threw out the bad. So it will be at the end of the age. The angels will come out and separate the evil from the righteous and throw them into the furnace of fire, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. "Have you understood all this?" They answered, "Yes." And he said to them, "Therefore every scribe who has been trained for the kingdom of heaven is like the master of a household who brings out of his treasure what is new and what is old."