Spring Summer

HOPE

Charting a Future Filled With

Charting a Future Filled With

The United Methodist Church of Hyde Park

Depositphotos_68657835_l-2015.jpeg

The United Methodist Church of Hyde Park

PEACE

Reflecting A Life Centered On

SliderChurch.jpeg

Join Us For Worship...

Hyde Park United Methodist Church:
      Sunday Worship
           10:00 AM
               1 Church St.
               Hyde Park, NY 12538.
       YouTube @umchpny

The United Methodist Church of Hyde Park

Easter20241.jpeg
previous arrow
next arrow
sliderback.png
Image is not available

United Methodist Church of Hyde Park

1 Church Street ● Hyde Park, NY 12538 ● (845) 229-2114
umchpoffice@optimum.net

Online Giving

UMCHP Events

29Mar
WALK OF THE CROSS
Start-10:15AM
29Mar
TENEBRAE CONTEMPORARY SERVICE w/Communion
Start-07:00PM
31Mar
EASTER SUNRISE SERVICE
Start-06:30AM
31Mar
EASTER BREAKFAST
Start-07:00AM
31Mar
ADULT SUNDAY SCHOOL
Start-09:00AM
31Mar
EASTER SUNDAY SERVICE w/ communion
Start-09:00AM
31Mar
Pre K to 8th Grade SUNDAY SCHOOL
Start-10:00AM
31Mar
EASTER Sunday Worship w/ Communion
Start-10:30AM
01Apr
STEPHEN MINISTRY- Supervision meeting
Start-06:45PM
02Apr
CHOIR PRACTICE
Start-04:30PM
02Apr
HANDWORK & QUILTERS Group
Start-05:30PM
02Apr
CROSSFIRE Rehearsal
Start-05:30PM
03Apr
Prayer & Bible Study @ Everready
Start-08:00AM
03Apr
STEPHEN MINISTRY - Supervision of new class
Start-06:45PM
03Apr
BIBLE STUDY
Start-07:30PM

Live/Rec. Streaming

Sunday, 10 AM, YouTube Live Stream Link:
YouTube.com/@umchpny

Click here: Worship UMCHP YouTube Channel

2020 03 14 06h40 12

 The service is always recorded on YouTube and can be viewed usually on Mondays following the service. The delay is due to YouTube's copyright enforcement. Just click on the above link to go to a library of our services.

Streaming

 


 

  1. Recap

    1. First Week- Jesus as God is portrayed in Scripture as the One to be prayed to and through.

      1. He alone Understands us

      2. He alone has walked in our form

      3. He alone from out of the box of creation comes to creation

      4. He alone is the heart of God

    2. Last Week we said that Jesus as God is portrayed in Scripture not just as our friend but as the One who is to be worshipped.

      1. He alone can be trusted

      2. He alone can be present to us

      3. He alone is worthy of our future hope

    3. Today we are going to explore what Scripture says about Jesus as God who is the ever present thought of God for all of God’s creation.

      1. He alone began all time and history

      2. He alone is the author of Salvation History

      3. He alone consummates that history for His purposes

  2. If we pay attention

    1. We humans have many blind spots

      1. We tend to see other’s weaknesses and not our own

      2. We tend to seek that our own needs are met before the needs of others.

      3. The immediate overwhelms us so easily

      4. Today seems like it is the “whole of history” to us

      5. Remember what being in High School felt like?

        1. Being popular

        2. This is how it would always be

        3. High School just seemed to be the way that the whole of life would be and it seemed so critical, earth shattering to us at that time.

        4. Now those scant four years, for me, as such a minor part of my whole life that I can just wonder how important they were to me when I was going through them.

      6. Our biggest blind spot is that we tend to stare at our feet and forget about the bigger picture that is story of all of history and creation.

    2. An experiment involving renown violinist Joshua Bell illustrates this. In an article entitled “Pearls Before Breakfast,” Gene Weingarten recounts Bell’s experiment in the following words:

      1. Listen to them as I play a youtube video of Bell in a D.C. Metro station: Play Da Movie: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hnOPu0_YWhw

      2. “Joshua Bell emerged from the Metro and positioned himself against a wall beside a trash basket. By most measures, he was nondescript—a youngish white man in jeans, a long-sleeved T-shirt, and a Washington Nationals baseball cap. From a small case, he removed a violin. Placing the open case at his feet, he shrewdly threw in a few dollars and pocket change as seed money and began to play.

        For the next 45 minutes, in the D.C. Metro on January 12, 2007, Bell played Mozart and Schubert as over 1,000 people streamed by, most hardly taking notice. If they had paid attention, they might have recognized the young man for the world-renowned violinist he is. They also might have noted the violin he played—a rare Stradivarius worth over $3 million. It was all part of a project arranged by The Washington Post—"an experiment in context, perception, and priorities—as well as an unblinking assessment of public taste. In a banal setting, at an inconvenient time, would beauty transcend?"

        Just three days earlier, Joshua Bell sold out Boston Symphony Hall, with ordinary seats going for $100. In the subway, Bell garnered about $32 from the 27 people who stopped long enough to give a donation.”

        (Read them online at: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/04/04/AR2007040401721.html)

    3. We as humans have our blind spots, the greatest of which is to look at our feet and our own context as being the Alpha and Omega of our existence.

    4. Advent asks that we pay attention to the greater story of humanity, for the God who is coming to us is the God who brackets our whole existence. Calling us from our blind spots to the macro vision of being God’s people.

  3. Scripture

    1. We are actually dealing with two scriptures this morning

      1. John 1:1-18 (http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=John%201:1-18&version=NIV)

      2. Rev. 1:17-18 (http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Rev.%201:17-18&version=NIV)

    2. Hear the Word of God from the Gospel of John 1:1-18

      1. 1:1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.

        There was a man sent from God whose name was John. He came as a witness to testify concerning that light, so that through him all might believe. He himself was not the light; he came only as a witness to the light.

        The true light that gives light to everyone was coming into the world. 10 He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him. 11 He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him. 12 Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God— 13 children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God.

        14 The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.

        15 (John testified concerning him. He cried out, saying, “This is the one I spoke about when I said, ‘He who comes after me has surpassed me because he was before me.’”) 16 Out of his fullness we have all received grace in place of grace already given. 17 For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. 18 No one has ever seen God, but the one and only Son, who is himself God and is in closest relationship with the Father, has made him known.

      2. John setting the tone for the Gospel that he will relate

        1. Jesus is not an afterthought

        2. Jesus is the substance of Creation

        3. Humanity’s attributes are at the heart of God through the preexistent Jesus.

        4. Humanity is God’s greatest expression

          1. Freedom

          2. Co creation

          3. Imago Dei

        5. From the beginning, God had the fullness of humanity in mind. All its generations and vacillations, that humanity might emerge from its self encrusted existence into the fullness and abundance of life that God intended and Jesus witnessed to from the beginning.

    3. Hear the Word of God from Rev. 1:17-18

      1. 17 When I saw him, [the heavenly image of Christ,] I fell at his feet as though dead. Then he placed his right hand on me and said: “Do not be afraid. I am the First and the Last. 18 I am the Living One; I was dead, and now look, I am alive for ever and ever! And I hold the keys of death and Hades.

      2. An image of Christ triumphant

        1. The One who reconciles all history with

          1. The justice of God

          2. The heart of humanity

          3. This is the love of Christ

    4. Christmas, the nativity of Christ, beckons and beacons that we draw our attention to the greater story of humanity, for God who is coming to us is the God who brackets our whole existence. Calling us from our blind spots to the macro vision of being God’s people that not only we, but all of God’s creation might have life and have it abundantly and eternally.

  4. Christmas embraces us with the reality that God not only knows us, that not only can and wills to lead us, but in Christ, God has forethought for us to the perfection of our souls.

    1. Before the beginning of creation God held your life in mind through the love of Christ.

    2. In the end of the story of creation, Jesus has thought for us as the very heart of God.

    3. What you are going through now is not the Alpha and Omega of your life, but only a season of life.

    4. The fullness of God’s revelation in Christ is that we are part of a greater plan that is in the process of fulfillment, so pay attention, for Christmas changes everything as our beginning and our end, the One who is worthy of living and dying for is coming to God’s people. In Jesus’ name, amen.