Word from the Pastor:
Saecula Saeculorum
Jesus answered Pilate, “My kingdom does not have its origin in this world. If my kingdom came from this world, my followers would fight to keep me from being handed over to the religious authorities. But my kingdom isn’t from the present ordering of the world.” Pilate responded, “So, you are a king!” Jesus answered, “You say that I am a king. For this I have been born, and for this I have come into the world, so that I may testify to the truth. Every person who values truth hears my voice.” Pilate said to him, “What is truth?”
—John 18:36-38a
You may be wondering what that strange title, Saecula Saeculorum, means, exactly. The loose rendering of the Latin is “forever and ever” or, more strictly, “unto the age of the ages.” I used it as the title of this article because this phrase, both in Scripture (see, for example, Galatians 1:5 and 1 Peter 4:11) and in the life of the church, has a long and complicated history. Paul, Peter, the writer of Hebrews, and John of Patmos use this phrase to contrast the concept of God’s eternal power and the enduring nature of His reign to all other measures of power and meaning. Only God and God’s rule is eternal, transcending all powers, principalities, and circumstances.
If saecula saeculorum is a shorthand way to highlight the eternal nature of God and God’s rule, then we gain an insight into Jesus’s response to Pilate in John 18. Pilate, a creature of the bureaucracy of empire, thinks and acts in ways that prioritize the aims and goals of his king, the emperor. His imagination and heart are ultimately limited by his allegiance to power concepts and compulsory rule by force. Here in John, he even does his best to pin Jesus down to making a similar sort of claim, although he fails to do so. For Pilate, any king or kingdom is measured by fleeting standards of human dreams and aspirations. So it is no surprise that when confronted with the alternative that Jesus presents, his only response is, “What is truth?” Even truth, then, is malleable when your only measure is the span of a human life or, at best, a few human generations. All is change to creatures ruled by change.
Yet Jesus makes it clear that the kingdom he proclaims and the rule he is inaugurating is of an entirely different order. Its measure isn’t the brief passing of human life or the even briefer span of human plans. Jesus’s rule isn’t derived from the present ordering of the world; it’s not from around here. God’s kingdom isn’t a matter of instituting another human project. Instead, the kingdom of God is built upon the eternal and unchanging truth that God is God alone, we are creatures, and in Jesus Christ, we are destined for an eternal fellowship of unending love with God. Saecula saeculorum, amen!
Reflecting on this contrast, St. Augustine in his City of God suggested that there are two realities at work in the world, the city of God and the city of man, or the heavenly city and the earthly. He writes:
"But the families which do not live by faith seek their peace in the earthly advantages of this life; while the families which live by faith look for those eternal blessings which are promised… The earthly city, which does not live by faith, seeks an earthly peace, and the end it proposes, in the well-ordered concord of civic obedience and rule, is the combination of men’s wills to attain the things which are helpful to this life. The heavenly city, or rather the part of it which sojourns on earth and lives by faith, makes use of this peace only because it must, until this mortal condition which necessitates it shall pass away."—City of God, Book 19, Chapter 17, s.1
Translation: there is God’s eternity and God’s kingdom that holds as its highest good eternal communion with God (saecula saeculorum), and there is the world as it is presently ordered whose aims, ordering, and rule are destined to pass away. This present ordering is the origin of the concept of the secular, or that which is confined to this age. Secular isn’t about whether someone or a group of people have a religious belief. Secular is the horizon of time by which our human projects and dreams are measured. All secular things, all present orderings of the world that measure outcomes in time, are destined to pass away.
And so, Augustine argues, the heavenly city and its citizens (the church) lives with its eye on a different prize. Yes, we must make our way in this world as it is, but we do not make our home or place our hopes in it. Yes, we honor the emperor (1 Peter 2:17), and we obey governing authorities (Romans 13:1), but we never, ever confuse their reign with the eternal city of fellowship with God, built upon Jesus Christ. The rulers of this world and the Pilates of our age are secular, by definition; the church, in Jesus Christ, is destined for eternity. Saecula saeculorum, amen!
You might ask why I’ve gone into all this detailed analysis. It’s simple, really. I’m writing this on Monday, November 2, 2020, the day before our national election. In the lead-up to this election, I’ve heard many, many voices insisting that voting this way or that is some sort of litmus test for one’s Christian faith. Anxiety is high. Who knows what tomorrow or the following weeks might hold?
Yet, whatever the outcome, I say to the church of Jesus Christ: stop measuring yourselves this way. Republican or Democrat, it is all destined to pass away. Yes, we must live as responsible pilgrims in this world, but as Jesus reminds us, we are not of this world (John 17:16). We are salt and light. At best, we point the way to what is and is to come in and through Jesus Christ who loved us first. We are witnesses to the world, not its princes. My prayer is that the church will end its confusion on this point.
In Christ,
Pastor Sam
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Five Cents a Meal Offering Sunday
We will collect our quarterly Five Cents a Meal offering this Sunday, November 8, at both services and online. To give this offering remotely, go to our website, fpcbristol.org, and click on GIVE in the top right corner of our homepage. On the new page, click on the arrow on the Fund line, then scroll down and click on Five Cents a Meal. The suggested offering is $13.65 per person, or about a nickel for each meal in a three-month period. Feel free to round up! The monies we collect for hunger relief will go to Bristol Emergency Food Pantry and Holston Presbytery Hunger Ministries. Please be generous in these difficult times!
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Pledge Reminder
We are grateful to all who have returned their pledge cards for 2021. We are writing our letters of thanks now! If you haven’t returned your card yet, please send it as soon as possible. Your pledge helps us plan for the new year.
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7-12-7 Campaign
That’s not a date but three points in the day when we ask that all members of the congregation—who can—join us in prayer. We are asking prayer partners to join with us at their choice of 7:00 a.m., 12:00 p.m., or 7:00 p.m. Together in prayer we will ask for God’s guidance, deliverance, and mercy for our church, community, nation, and world. The challenges 2020 has presented are great, but God is greater still.
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Worship
November 8
23rd Sunday after Pentecost
Lessons
Judges 16:28-30
Sermon
Holding Out for a Hero
Elizabeth Patrick
Last Sunday’s Attendance
In person: 9:00: 37; 11:00: 24
Livestream: 58
Playbacks: 123
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Calendar
Sunday, November 8
9:00 a.m.
Worship,
Fellowship Hall & Livestream
10:10 a.m.
Sunday School
11:00 a.m.
Worship, Sanctuary
6:00 p.m.
Student Fellowship
Monday, November 9
7:00 p.m.
Building & Grounds Comm.,
Fellowship Hall
7:00 p.m.
Worship Comm.,
Room 123
Tuesday, November 10
10:00 a.m.
Staff Meeting,
Zoom
6:00 p.m.
Venture Crew 3,
Room 165
Wednesday, November 11
2:00 p.m.
Advent Devotional Workshop,
Fellowship Hall
6:15 p.m.
Handbell Practice,
Fellowship Hall
7:15 p.m.
Choir Practice,
Sanctuary
Thursday, November 12
7:00 a.m.
Men’s Bible Study,
Fellowship Hall
8:30 a.m.
Meals on Wheels,
Fellowship Hall
Saturday, November 14
10:00 a.m.
Women’s Faith & Fellowship,
Fellowship Hall
4:00 p.m.
Sharing Christ Volunteers,
Downtown Mission
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In-Person Sunday Adult Classes
We now offer two “Live! In person!” classes for adults on Sunday mornings at the church. The first, facilitated by Nancy Allerton, discusses the sermon texts for the week and meets in room 123. The second, facilitated by Matt Richardson, focuses on the Gospel of John and meets in room 167. Both classes welcome all adults anytime they can attend.
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Study the Bible Online
We offer two adult studies on our YouTube channel. The Sunday Bible study, Praying With the Psalms, looks at the Book of Psalms through the lens of prayer. We also post a short study every Wednesday. If you subscribe, you will be notified when new studies become available.
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Join Us Online
Remember to subscribe to our YouTube channel to watch the livestream of our early worship service and other activities. Go to YouTube.com and type in “FPC Bristol.” Click on the link and hit “subscribe.” You will receive notifications of new videos. We also suggest that you connect to our various Facebook sites. Go to Facebook and type in “FPC Bristol,” and several accounts will show up. Some are open to the public, while others are restricted. In either case, “like” the page, or ask to join a group if it is closed.
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Give Safely
During the COVID-19 crisis, we encourage you to give by way of our website or by text or mail. Your continued, faithful giving ensures that we have the resources to continue our ministries. You can give online by going to fpcbristol.org and clicking on “Give” in the upper right corner. You can send your pledge, offering, or special gift by texting fpcbristol to 73256. You can also mail your checks directly to the church. Thank you!
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Please Help with AV in Worship
We need you on our audiovisual team! We will train you to control the cameras, modulate the sound, or run the videos and graphics. Just contact the church office to join.
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Subscriptions & Deadline
Subscribe to our free e-newsletter by emailing your name and preferred email address to [email protected].
Windows is emailed just after midnight on Thursdays and posted to our website later that day.
The deadline for contributions is the Monday before publication.
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Library Project Rewards the Work
Efforts to make our church library a more inviting place in which we can read, review, and study have continued despite the pandemic. Becca Tate and Beth Flannagan have been working —safely!—on this project over the past several months. They would love to talk with anyone who is a decorator or designer or simply savvy about using space. If that sounds like you, please contact Beth at [email protected].
Meanwhile, Becca and Beth keep striking gold as they dig into our collection. One of their recent finds is a comprehensive article in the Bristol Herald Courier in March 1963, prior to the church’s relocation from downtown to its “new” campus adjacent to King College (now University). Another nugget they uncovered is a history of the church by Dorothy VanCleve, written in 1959 in partial fulfillment of the requirements for an MA from East Tennessee Teachers College (now ETSU). That work was followed in the early 1970s by Ann Harrison’s history, A Long Communion. Who knows what they’ll discover next?
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Connect with a Connect Team
We’re developing new resources for church communication, and we ask you to share your time and talents in this vital ministry. Are you interested in helping others in the church stay current and connected? Do you have the skills, gifts, and time to make a quick call once a month to approximately eight members of the church, to see how they are doing and share what’s new at FPC? If so, please let Dave Welch know. Contact him at [email protected] or 423-764-7176.
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Cheerios for Fairmount Snacks
We are collecting boxes of Multi Grain Cheerios for the students of our neighborhood school. Fairmount teachers use them for math lessons at snack time, and the whole grains are just sweet enough to appeal to the children. Please drop your contributions in the little red house in the Fellowship Hallway or leave them on Dottie Havlik’s porch, only four blocks from the church. For more information, email Dottie at [email protected] or call her at 423-956-6747.
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Organist's Footnotes
We welcome a guest organist Sunday, Joy Smith-Briggs, who hails from Indiana and is Organist at Central Presbyterian Church in Bristol, Virginia. She will play Malcolm Archer’s “Cantilene” for our prelude; John Dixon’s “Voluntary on ‘Restoration’” for the offertory; and Gordon Young’s “Passacaglia” for the postlude.
Malcolm Archer (b. 1952) has had a distinguished career in church music that has taken him to the posts of Organist and Director of Music at three English Cathedrals: Bristol, Wells, and St. Paul’s. For 11 years, he served as Director of Chapel Music at Winchester College. He has for many years directed the choir for the Jean Langlais Festival in France. He holds Fellowships from the Royal College of Organists, the Royal School of Church Music, and the Guild of Church Musicians, the latter two awarded for his many years of service to the church as a choir trainer and composer.
John S. Dixon (b. 1957) grew up about 50 miles east of London, near the Thames River estuary. Although he did not choose to make music his major field of study or his career, he was active in music and theater while studying for his Bachelor of Arts degree at Oxford University and later at Harvard, where he earned an MBA. When he moved to America permanently in 1988, he became a member of Providence Presbyterian Church, where he now serves as Organist and Composer-in-Residence. He lives in Norfolk, Virginia.
Gordon Young (1919–1998) was educated at Southwestern College (Winfield, Kansas) and the Curtis Institute (Philadelphia) where he was a student of Alexander McCurdy. After serving churches in Philadelphia and Kansas (where he also worked as a radio organist and newspaper critic), Young became the music director (for 15 years) at First Presbyterian Church in Detroit, where he was a visible and important presence in the American church music scene. He also taught organ on the faculty of Wayne State University. Young published voluminously, and his organ and choral works were in the catalogs of most major American publishers. Numerous works of his were also issued in the Netherlands, where his music has remained very popular. Young is best known for his organ work “Prelude in Classic Style” (from Nine Pieces for Organ, Sacred Music Press, 1966), which has entered the worldwide standard organ repertoire.
Watch our video of last Sunday’s 11:00 worship service here.
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Gifts to the Church
Memorials and honoraria are published in the newsletter only after the family has been personally notified by our business office. Today we gratefully acknowledge gifts in memory of:
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Harriette Massengill: to the Memorial Fund from John & Karen Vann
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Bob Millard: to the Memorial Fund from Joe & Patti Hagerty, from Eddie & Peggy Hill, from Debbie & Shawn Johnson, from Carl & Elliott Moore, from Frances Rowell, from Dotty Royston, from Roger & Donna Sikorski, from John & Karen Vann; to the Minister’s Discretionary Fund from Barbara Duncan, from Peggy Peters, from Cora Lee Raccioppo
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Mona Mills: to the Memorial Fund from John & Karen Vann
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Birthday Prayer Fellowship
Nov. 8 Danae Kreiss
Nov. 9 Ann Arnold, Andrea Pennington, Dawn Regan
Nov. 13 Samuel Hankins
Pray for the World
As we weather the COVID-19 pandemic, we are asking you to spend more time in prayer for our church, our community, our nation, and the world. Pray for our leaders, first responders, frontline workers, and the vulnerable. We also ask that you pray for an end to this disease.
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In Our Prayers
Please also include in your prayers the members of our community who wish to remain anonymous.
Family of Brian Alderman
Caitlin Ball
Joe Bell
Scott & Ellie Boggs
Danielle & Todd Booher
Bud & Margie Branscomb
Bristol Tennessee School System
Becky Busler
Christians in Nigeria/ECWA
Community, nation & world
John Crewey
Family of Earl Edwards
Ethiopian brothers & sisters
Sarah & Sam Ferguson
First responders & medical &
infrastructure personnel
DeeDee Galliher
Deborah Garritson
Gladeville PC (Wise) & FPC Pound
Goddards (missionaries in Paraguay)
Elizabeth Graham
Martha Graham
Emma & Gina Grubbs
Ron Grubbs
Conor Haaser & squadron
Lou Hebb
Nate & Angela & newborn Higgins
Kate Hill (missionary)
Davan & Kristi Johnson
Marty Keys & family
Josh & Morgan King & family
Danae & Dan Kreiss
June Lamb
Nancy Lilly
Laura & George Linke
Marthina Chapel
Dot Mattison
Kathleen McGlothlin
Family of Bob Millard
Alice Moore
National election
National & international leaders
Brianna Necessary
Martha North
Randi Otto
Pastor Nehemiah & family
Rosa Poteat
Jodi & Kreg Ramey
Meg & Drew Rice
Brittany Salter
Strickland family
Jim Swartchick
Allen Vance
Bill Wade
Patsy Ward
Michael & Rachel Weller
Deborah Whitaker
Dave Whitesides
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701 Florida Avenue | Bristol, TN 37620 | 423-764-7176 | fpcbristol.org
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