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The Chimes nline
Newsletter of First Presbyterian Church of Atlanta
SUNDAY Schedule Sunday, October 31 Reformation Sunday • Prayer breakfast for Homeless persons - 6:30 am, Fifield Hall • Communion Service 8:30 am, Winship Chapel • The Mustard Seed Bookstore 9:00 am - 1:00 pm • Cherub Choir - 9:30 am • Worship Service - 9:00 am, Sanctuary • Sunday School - 10:05 am • Youth Contemporary Worship 10:05 am, B111 • Fellowship Hour - 11:00 am Fifield Hall • Worship Service - 11:15 am, Sanctuary • Fellowship Hour - 12:15 pm Reception Room
reminder The Chimes is published bimonthly. In months where there are five Sundays (as in October), the fifth Sunday will be printed as a single issue.
October 31, 2010 Christ at the Center
T
h i s Su n d a y, October 31, is Halloween. Do you remember the excited anticipation that we experienced as kids around this holiday? The October 31 candy, the costumes, Craig Goodrich to preach and especially the question “What are you going to be this year?” Halloween, though now almost an entirely secular holiday (with decorations proliferating in recent years!), has a past that includes both pagan as well as religious roots. The name itself comes from a shortening of “All Hallows Eve,” the evening before All Hallows Day, which we know as All Saints Day, and which is Monday November 1. Well, as Presbyterians we do not officially recognize Halloween and typically we have not celebrated All Saints Day. Instead, we celebrate “Reformation Sunday.” It is a time to look back to our roots in the Protestant Reformation of the 16th century and in remembering perhaps to rediscover who we are. Our Book of Order describes the Reformation led by Martin Luther, John Calvin and others as a time characterized by the “rediscovery of God’s grace in Jesus Christ as revealed in Scripture.” For these reformers this rediscovery of grace had a powerful and profound effect both on their self-understanding and on the world.
But what exactly is the grace of God? One writer has described grace simply as “God’s one way love.” (Paul Zahl in Grace In Practice). The writer of John’s gospel says of Jesus, “From his fullness we have all received grace upon grace. The law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.” (John 1: 1617). And the apostle Paul in one of the most famous passages in the entire Bible writes that there is nothing that “will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Romans 8: 39). You see, grace is a gift. It can only be received. It is never earned. Grace upon grace. God’s one way love indeed! I wonder what a rediscovery of this grace might mean for you and for me, and for this world? So, let me ask you, what are you going to be for Halloween this year? If you are having trouble deciding, how about being a grace-filled Presbyterian? After all, what could be more exciting than that! Come to worship this Reformation Sunday. The sermon is entitled “Rediscovering Grace.”
Grace and peace to you.
Faithfully,
Craig