Incumbent's Message
We, as one family of Holy Emmanuel are thinking about the mission of the church, and this is a good theme to contemplate on WHO IS MY NEIGHBOR?
This is the famous question posed to Jesus by an unnamed lawyer who had painted himself in to the position of convener by attempting to test this upstart and self appointed Rabbi from Galilee. This duologue begins with a religious question: "Rabbi what must I do to inherit eternal life?" Jesus did not respond directly with an answer, but with anther question, what is the law? What is written in the law? He asked.
“You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul and with all your strength, and with your entire mind, and love your neighbor as your self.” was the reply .
Which means if you can’t love the people whom you are living with, then how can we love God who is not visible?
Jesus said “you are perfectly right! So now what is your problem? What about any of this do you not understand? Do this and you will live forever”. This is the way of life hallowed by the creator. Jesus brings the original question back to present. Do this and you will live, here and now; in the fullness of time. Do this and you will live abundantly the life that has been granted to you as a gift. Do this and you will live, as each moment counts.
But now this lawyer is embarrassed, and rather than admit this, in typical lawyerly fashion he presses on, seeking to justify him self and asks another question;
Master tell me who my neighbor is? We can see his first question was the religious question: and then the second question is the ethical question: His real motive is to look for a way to catch Jesus in a contradiction. As an answer to this question Jesus related the parable of “the Good Samaritan”. Some times we too say things or do things to embarrass others or to justify our own selfish intentions. The Bible categorized this kind of work as the work of the evil.
Therefore from this parable we learn 3 things about how we should love our neighbors and how we should live with them for the Glory of God.
1. Lack of love is often easy to justify, even though it is never right.
2. Our neighbor is any one of any race, any faith or social background who
is in need. Sometimes we reject people because:
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they don’t think the way we think, and they don’t do what we want.
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they don’t believe our faith.
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they are not up to our social stands.
3. We must not pass judgment on others or condemn or criticize others.
God wants to love every one who is in need. Therefore we need to change our evil attitudes which harm our relationship with God and people. At Jesus’ birth, Shepherds came to see Jesus and they returned , glorifying and praising God for all what they had seen. But the King said "go and make a careful search for the child, as soon as you find him, report to me so that I too may go and worship him". We can see what kind of attitudes that these two groups had. The shepherds’ attitudes were more positive and had hope, peace and joy. But the King was disturbed, breathed hatred, jealousy and violence. Therefore we must change our attitudes from the King’s attitude to the Shepherd’s attitudes.
As we talk about changing attitudes, we know that Jesus was the model servant, and He showed His servant attitudes to his disciples by washing their feet. So, if God in the flesh is willing to serve, therefore we also must be ready to serve others with servant attitudes.
To love others means, we must forgive and forget and reach out
to people with a,
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Spirit of Love
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Spirit of Humility
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Spirit of meekness, and
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Spirit of Prayer.
How to experience the rich values of the kingdom of Heaven?
Through forgiveness and reconciliation. As individuals and as a church, if we can forgive others, we can heal others. Therefore the church is called to heal the nation, through the ministry of reconciliation. According to 1 Peter 2:9, the church is a
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Chosen people
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Royal priesthood,
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Holy nation
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People belonging to God
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People who are called out of darkness in to His wonderful light
We, Holy Emmanuel Church are very proud about the great history leading to the 150th Anniversary of our consecration. We thank God for this parish. God has enfolded the members of this parish as a mother holds her precious baby in the warmth of her tender arms.
We are on a journey towards the 150th Anniversary of our consecration which falls on December 27th 2010, just three years away from now. We have already commenced planning for this memorable event.
As the parishioners of Holy Emmanuel Church we must look back and see whether we have fulfilled the mission of God? Have we been able to reach out to people as good neighbors?
St. Paul says: “The Gospel is bearing fruit and growing by the Grace of God”. We as a church, what is the Gospel that we have shared with our neighbors? The unnamed lawyer asked “Jesus who is my neighbor?” This same question, sometimes we too ask? Because we have neighbors elsewhere but not in our homes, in church or in our own locality. This problem is mainly due to lack of spirituality. So, this is our journey on our earthly pilgrimage, God wants us, as individuals and as a church to rethink about how to love God and how to love others. How to witness, as one family of Holy Emmanuel , the unity, the fellowship and the meaning of the name of Holy Emmanuel Church to the people of other faiths.
May our Good Lord bless us, and help us fulfill His calling as individuals and as a church.
May God’s rich Blessings be with you and with your loved ones.
AMEN.
Rev. Nilanga Gunesekara,
The Incumbent,
Holy Emmanuel Church
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