Basic Info
Good Samaritan Episcopal Church
1522 Highland Rd. Dallas, TX. 75206
info@goodsamaritandallas.org
214 328 3883
Read all our posts. Feel free to add comments. We’d like to have you be a part of our website.
ISLAM (* and American culture.
This is of course one of the the great world religions. The nature of our culture makes it difficult for many to grasp the varied nature of Isalm.
Our sensibility over the “separation of church and state,” which really means the separation of religion and secular culture makes it very difficult for our media from Fox to CNN, to even be aware of the whole story of what goes on in the Middle East, between the Israeli’s and the Palestinians, as well as comprehending the events in Iran.
Shia Islam is very different from Sunni Islam which we are most familiar with in Wahhabism, Islam as practiced by the Royal House of Saud. Shia comes to us from the followers of Ali who is understood to be the true follower of the Prophet. In some ways it reflects Persia it’s center. We remember it from the Bible because God used the Medes and the Persians to free the Jews form the Babylonian captivity in the 6th cent BC. Cyrus the Great and successive emperors allowed for the rebuilding of the temple in Jerusalem. Persia was conquered by Alexander the Great in the 4th cent. BC. This brought a confluence of hellenism, greek language, culture and philosophy to Persia. What happened was a mix of Persian and Greek culture, a process that went on for centuries. Shia Islam reflects this in having a stronger emphasis on theology and philosophy than it’s Sunni brothers. Of course juricprudance is primary for both.
Within Shia Islam there are various traditions of belief and practice, just as in catholicism on finds Anglicanism, along with Eastern Orthodoxy and Roman Catholicism.
The sorts of things that are very important in a country where there is no “separation, ” is that religion and politics are one. Questions regarding the interpretation of a juridical tradition may be the hinge on which the current conflict turns. Our problem is that American governments, take your pick, and our media seem unable to ask questions that are in any way relevant to what is going on. The U. S. government is hard pressed to have a policy which comprehends the nature of a sophisticated theo-politcal system.
It is important for us not to discount these people, and to realize that our media is virtually incapable of telling us the real story. Let us pray for the people of Iran that they may be delivered form their distress, and that God’s truth and justice may be manifest there as well as here.
Pentecost!!!!!!!!!!?????????!!!!!!!!!!!??????????!!!!!!!!!!!!!??????!!!!!!!!
When a lot of folks hear the word “Pentecost,” they tend to think of preachers sweating and yelling, of people waving their arms in the air, or falling over backwards. Sometimes that’s what you’ll see when you are channel surfing by the “religious,” stations on TV.
Tasteful Episcopalians sanitized the whole business by calling Whitsunday. The term Pentecost returned in the Prayer Book revision of 1979, and found acceptance not only referring to the day but to the entire season of the church year between Easter and Advent.
Pentecost is the celebration of the coming of the Holy Spirit to the diciples after Jesus ascension, transforming them from men of modest faith into apostolic men who were ready do die for the gospel. This transformation was accompanied by signs and wonders of all kinds. In the early church the proclamation of the gospel was normally accompanied by the miraculous which supported the reality of the claims about Jesus power to save.
The charismatic movement which came to the Episcopal Church in the late 60′s and 70′s caused some of the church to deal with the reality of the working of the Holy Spirit in the lives of people and the church. There are two basic attitudes about God. The first is that God is basically not active with the creation in a personal way. God may be a creator, lawgiver, scripture revealer on the one hand, or a hard to define spirit which is a part of everything; you, me, rocks, trees, etc. That’s the “God is personally passive in it’s transcentent and imminent forms.”
OR!
GOD is personally active with us hear and now!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Sacramental Churches like the Episcopal Church have the personal activity of God the Holy Spirit embedded in our understanding ofour relationship with Him.
We believe and practice the “Baptism of the Holy Spirit.” We believe that one must be baptised by water and the Spirit. One is marked with the sigin of the cross on one’s forehead. this is a pentecostal action. Confirmation is a renewing of this through the laying on of apostolic hands. In pentecostal and some charismatic circles this would be referred to as “The Baptism of the Spirit.” In the Eucharist the Holy Spirit comes upon the gifts of bread and wine.
Sacraments are always personal! Because God: Father, Son & Holy Spirit are personal!
Remember it makes a whole lot more sense for you and I to have found ourselves as persons on this planet because a personal Father, Son, and Holy Spirit said let’s make those folks in our own image, than the notion of personal beings just showing up in a totally nonpersonal cosmos.
God is personal. God is active.
Here’s the next step. “God is doing for us more than we can desire or pray for.” that’s wonderful for us, But it comes with a price. The price is that we don’t get to control, ….. ! Here’s the deal. If we believe in a passive god, a principle of the universe, or a pantheistic spirit that we are in and is in everything making us and everything one, or no god at all. WE GET TO BE IN CHARGE! Then, where’s a god when you need it? What folks would really like is to be be in charge and be able to access super powers when we need them. God as concerge.
Pentecost brings us once again or maybe for the first time to the reality that we belong to HIM, and that he empowers us on every level of our being, and that the way to live the fullest life possible in The Holy Spirit is to turn ourselves over to The Holy Spirit every day.
ASCENSION is coming!
The Feast of the Ascension is jsut around the corner! In fact we’ll be celebrating it here at 7pm on May 21st
What will you do to celebrate?
We’ll blow out the Paschal Candle after the gospel reading!
Big whoop!
Well that’s just about it, so it’s no wonder that the Feast of the Ascension is another one of those MAJOR feasts that we’ve just about forgotten. Why is the Ascension so important?
It’s one of those BIG EVENTS that have to happen in order for the work of God in Jesus to be fully complete. Some folks think that it was dreamed up by the disciples because they needed a way to explain how Jesus left the scene. After all what do you do with a risen Lord after the novelty has worn off? Let’s get HIM safely back to heaven so that we can get on with the work of the church. Nooooooo. That’s not it!
The Feast of the Ascension is not just about Jesus it’s about you and me. As the resurrection of Jesus shows us about our bodily resurrection, the ascension shows us about the reality of our ascending too. The difference for us is that we will be resurrected and ascend all in one great motion. Jesus ascend to show us what will occur with us.
Do you want to ascend? Think about it for a few minutes. You may have seen that movie where the camera elevates 10 meters every 10 seconds. How would you like to experience the world, the cosmos, from that vantage point without means of tangible support? This is your chance. What’s more it will happen and there is nothing you can do to get out of it. There’s a special bonus for you too. After your resurrection you won’t get acrophobia! That’s the way God is. He’s going to take care of everything for you!
There’s much more to the Feast of The Ascension, and of course it can all be theologically explained.Get ready for takeoff at church 7pm, Thursday May 21st.
Is Christianity for Whimps?
Being a Christian isn’t for whimps! Throughout the New Testament especially in the Gospel of Luke, God reminds us that “being a Christian” demands more of us than merely identifying ourselves as followers of Jesus Christ. Indeed we are asked to do much, much more.
In Luke 9, our Lord tells us that we must forget ourselves, take up the cross and follow him. What does it mean in our daily lives? It means that we must put God and his teaching first, every day, before all; things: before our families, before our jobs, before our creature comforts, and before our natural instincts and inclinations. A good measure of the true nature of our Christian walk is found in how we treat others. So what does it mean to forget ourselves and follow God with regard to our relationships in community? Let’s look at Luke 6. There we are told to love our enemies, do good top those who hate us, bkless those who curse us, pray for those who mistreat us. This teaching goes against every human instict we have. When hated, cursed, and mistreated it is our natural, fallen instinct to do in return what was done to us, claimingall the while that we are only doing what is “fair” or “just.” If we choose that path, we have denied our Lord what he desires most from us – complete devotion to Him and love for one qnother as brothers and sisiters in Jesus Christ. Jesus lets go of every personal concern when he takes up his cross. We may do the same. He sacrifices himself because he wants to follow the Father’s will, in spite of the injustices done to him in life and throughout the Passion. Our Lord will give us the grace to do what Jesus did and”let go and let God.” So, when you are tempted to strike back when struck, remember – Love, Do Good, Bless, Pray. It’s a tall order, kbut one that we are capable of meeting if we ask the Lord for strength, courage and a loving heart.
