Much to my chagrin, it looks unlikely that time travel is possible.
How can we be so sure? Well, no has ever visited us from the future. Pressing the point, no one from the future has ever traveled through time to prevent the tragedies and terrors that have beset us.
The author Connie Willis has a fun take on the question of time travel. In her fictional future, individuals no longer study history as we might. Instead of learning about ancient cultures in dusty old libraries, historians physically travel through time to observe history. Of course, these historians must be careful that they do not alter the natural evolution of time and circumstances, lest their meddling might create a cataclysmic disaster.
Have you ever wondered what it would be like to travel back to Jesus’s day and age? Have you ever found yourself wishing that you could observe the significant moments in our faith history? Have you ever wondered what it would be like to observe David fighting Goliath? Or wondered what Jesus’s voice sounded like, or to witness one of his miracles, or to be at the foot of the cross?
When we read scripture, the Word of God—literally, the revelation of God—helps us to make sense of past events. Scripture becomes truth because God breathes life in to the words on the page so that we can see Jesus and feel His presence. As a church, our task is to create an environment so that we can experience God’s story in a dramatic way.
Although we cannot physically travel back to the Holy Land in a DeLorean, à la the Back to the Future movies, or observe someone’s preserved memories in a Pensieve, à la the Harry Potter epic, we can replicate the events from the past so that we can better understand them.
Thursday, April 13 is Maundy Thursday. The use of the word Maundy comes from the Latin word, mandatum, which means ‘commandment.’ It refers to Jesus’s instructions to his disciples during the Last Supper for them to “love one another.” Traditionally, Maundy Thursday is a time when the church shares communion together. It is a time where we recreate the moment that Jesus breaks bread and shares the cup. For when we do so, we do so in “remembrance of Him.”
We remember Christ when we reenact Jesus’s last meal with his disciples. We understand Jesus’s life, ministry and sacrifice when we share table fellowship.
This year, we will be offering a Passover Seder experience in order that we might better understand Jesus’s last night with his disciples. We will do so by trying to experience firsthand what his Passover meal would have been like. The Bible tells us that Jesus and his closest followers would have had a Passover meal (known as a Seder, which means “order”) before they retreated to the Garden of Gethsemane.
In an effort to better recall Jesus’s life and teachings, we will gather on Maundy Thursday in our Mission and Fellowship Center at 6:00 PM to have an experience that more nearly matches what Jesus and his disciples were doing. Although the experience will not be a meal as we know it, we will be sampling small items of familiar foods.
Luke teaches us: “Then came the day of Unleavened Bread, on which the Passover lamb had to be sacrificed. So, Jesus sent Peter and John, saying, “Go and prepare the Passover meal for us that we may eat it.”
We will be preparing an experience for you to better see, hear and touch Jesus on that Maunday Thursday evening. Let’s discover together what it must have been like to be with Jesus during those last, fateful hours.
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Our Passover Seder will take place at 6:00 PM on Thursday, April 13 in our Mission and Fellowship Center. This one-hour experience will be appropriate for families with elementary school children, grades 1 and up. A nursery will be provided for infants up to Kindergarten. Please email us (fbcsylva@gmail.com) or call the church office to let us know that you will be attending so that we can be prepared for our time together.
Baby Shower for Jessie and Joseph Moon
Please come to a baby shower honoring Jessie and Joseph Moon and their two baby Moons (boy and girl). The shower will be April 9th from 2:00 – 3:30 PM in the Mission Fellowship Center. The babies are registered at Babies R’ Us, Target and Walmart.
Jessie and Joseph will be making their home in Asheville in the near future, due to Joseph's job. They have been such a blessing and asset to our church for several years. We are sad to see them go, but we pray for God's blessings on them.
Mission Moment
Our Church is pleased to support CBF Global Missions in moments like these where bearing witness to Jesus Christ takes form through meeting the needs of a community and growing ministry with assets and passions of the community .
"Conetoe, North Carolina, is one of the country's many "food deserts," where fresh, nutritious food is not readily available. Our partner Rev. Richard Joyner started a community garden in Conetoe and enlisted the youth in the community to help him take care of it. These youth became so involved in the garden that they not only helped with the garden daily, but they also organized a non-profit called the Conetoe Family Life Center and put together a grant allowing them to build an educational building for the ministry. We are finding as we work alongside the youth and Richard Joyner, that Conetoe is also a "spiritual desert." Therefore, our hope is to provide a Christian educational piece connected to the Conetoe Family Life Center ministry through our current music and art programs."
- Anna and LaCount Anderson, CBF field personnel in Eastern North Carolina
Easter Lilies for Sale!
If you are interested in buying an Easter Lily in memory or honor of someone please let the church office know. The Lilies are $13.00 and will be available for you to take home Easter Sunday.
Sylva Family Camp Out
Thank You Note
To our church family,
Sam and I would like to thank you for your love shown to us during my recent surgery and time of recuperation. For the many cards, flowers, visits, food, reading materials, and other kind things, we truly thank you. We are truly blessed by our loving church family.
Sam and Dorris Beck
Subtle Lies and the Deceptions We Sow
“Lying is not only saying what isn’t true. It is also, in fact especially, saying more than is true…” –Albert Camus
“You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.” Exodus 20:16
In other words, do not lie.
Now, before you dismiss this passage of scripture as out of touch with reality or inconsequential to modern life, consider that it’s one of the Ten Commandments. Still not impressed? This is not an isolated commandment. The scriptures are replete with references imploring us to be honest.
On Tuesday morning, I heard a disturbing story on National Public Radio’s show Morning Edition. The segment was, “The Truth Is, Lying Might Not Be So Bad.” Commentator Shankar Vedantam was reporting on the conclusions discovered from a recent scientific study on lying:
“Researchers found something that we won’t find surprising: Once participants (in a study on lying) told the first lie, the second lie became easier to tell. And the magnitude of lies increased over time.”
One scientist put it this way: “It turns out that the brain also reacts very strongly to a first act of lying, but then as we keep on lying more and more the brain stops reacting to it. So, we start by being aware of this dishonest act and we are at least aware of it, but over time it just goes into the background and we don’t pay attention to it.”
According to the study, we typically won’t change our behavior until we experience enough discomfort from the consequences of our deceit to alter our ways.
As Vedantam concludes, “The first step down the path to deception makes every step easier.”
When we ruminate on the commandment that we are not to lie, most of us will admit that telling straight up falsehoods is wrong. We’ve experienced enough pain from telling outright lies to make us think twice before we boldly proclaim that we did not eat all the oatmeal cream pies when in fact, we did.
We know this is wrong and we know we will be punished for it. In truth, our spouses love their fair share of the Little Debbie Snack Cakes.
No, for most of us, deceitfulness comes in the form of changing the truth to fit our needs and desires. We report an event from our point of view. We shape the hearing of a conversation according to our best interests. We omit details. We emphasize the wrong things. We overinflate and use hyperbole. We tell the story the way we want to tell it.
Is that a lie? Yes. Yes, it is.
When we push and pull on the truth to suit our own ends, we are violating God’s commandment. In the first place, when we manipulate reality to fit our own agenda, we are making ourselves out to be our own god. It is a selfish posture that seeks the best for ourselves. Second, others will discover that we are not trustworthy. They will experience us as shifty dodgers who cannot be relied upon. This is not a good recipe for healthy relationships as this kind of deception results in suspicion, conspiracy theories and toxicity.
I can’t remember who told me this, but I’ve never been able to shake it. Trust is earned like money is earned and banked. Deceit spends the currency of trust. And when the vault of trust is empty, it won’t matter how significant that final withdrawal of trust is. When your trust is bankrupt, the relationship ends. It’s why we say that something was, “The straw that broke the camel’s back.”
Jesus calls Satan the author of lies. In him there “is no truth.” Satan deceives because his motivation is clear. He wants us to be our own god. The Deceiver wants us to pursue what’s best for ourselves. He wants us to believe the lie that what is best for us is what’s best for all. This has something to do with a snake in a garden, but I digress…
There are two things that are required here. First, we’ve got to stop telling falsehoods. Period. Second, we’ve got find ways to acknowledge when we are wrong, or have messed up. We should be forthcoming about other people’s points of view, even when they’re not in our best interest. Few things earn our respect more than individuals who can admit when they are wrong, and have a reasonable outlook that is circumspect.
And finally, we’ve got to be aware that lying is like a cheap, but effective drug. Once we start, it’s hard to stop.
NC After School Workshop
Kelly Brown, 1st Explorers Ministry Director will be leading a workshop session next week in Charlotte, NC at the NC Center for After School Programs Synergy Conference on Growing An After School Program in a Rural Community. He will share with attenders about how 1st Explorers was started 4 years ago and how it has grown over the years.
Mission Moment
Our Church is pleased to support CBF Global Missions in moments like these where unity and love are modeled and shared.
"Recently the ladies in my ministry and I learned to crochet "plarn" (plastic yarn) mats from used grocery bags -- a very useful skill in a country where these bags are everywhere. The crocheted mats are lightweight and waterproof. For those living in a tent year round with the cold ground in the winter and the hot air in the summer, the mats allow the air to circulate under and through the mats, providing a cooler place to sleep. At first, the ladies were surprised at the idea of using plastic bags like this, but they soon caught on and crocheted all the bags I'd brought with me. They were quite taken with the idea of using something which costs them nothing to create a useful item for their tents."
- Anonymous CBF field personnel serving in the Middle East
An Invitation
The Tuckaseigee Baptist Association WMU invites our church to attend their annual meeting on Thursday, April 6th, at Faith Baptist Church. The meeting begins at 6 p.m. with a salad supper (bring a salad to share). Special music will be provided by Hollerin' Home and Deborah Taylor will share her experiences in the midst of Hurricane Matthew's devastation which caused $1.5 billion of damage to eastern North Carolina.