Author: occwebsite

14 April | Signs 1 | Michael Bells

Thank you for joining us on-line!
OCC is made up of people who are meeting in-person and who are meeting on-line.

Remember we are currently showing the video of the service on a week’s delay. The video goes live at 8:00am.

So this video is from Sunday 7 April 2024 but is being shown on 14 April 2024. Pastor Mike is speaking both online and in person at OCC.

God calls all of us into his presence:

He calls us to be together both with him and with one another;
He calls us to wait with and for him;
He calls us to serve & bless others – those who are part of God’s kingdom and those who have not yet responded to God’s grace.
As you prepare to watch our service video, we encourage you to take a few moments…

Get your coffee or tea. Settle in, be still…
Take some deep breaths… in and out… breathe.

6:30pm Youth

7 April | Easter | Michael Bells

Thank you for joining us on-line!
OCC is made up of people who are meeting in-person and who are meeting on-line.

Remember we are currently showing the video of the service on a week’s delay. The video goes live at 8:00am.

So this video is from Easter Sunday 31 March 2024 but is being shown on 7 April 2024. Pastor Mike is speaking both online and in person at OCC.

God calls all of us into his presence:

He calls us to be together both with him and with one another;
He calls us to wait with and for him;
He calls us to serve & bless others – those who are part of God’s kingdom and those who have not yet responded to God’s grace.
As you prepare to watch our service video, we encourage you to take a few moments…

Get your coffee or tea. Settle in, be still…
Take some deep breaths… in and out… breathe.

 

6:30pm Prayer

6:30pm Youth

new series: signs & signposts

Over the next few weeks, we are going to be looking at…

Signs of Glory & Broken Signposts

One of the central themes of John’s Gospel is glory.
Glory is one of those big words that we all have a sense of what it might mean but it goes beyond that into other areas entirely.
In ancient Hebrew, the word for glory kavod has to do with weight.

  • something that is weighty
  • something that means something
  • something that matters
  • something that you can’t ignore

Glory spills over in two directions
On the one hand, it spills over into authority and rule, so that when the Psalmist says that God has put humans into a position of glory and authority, it means that they have all the other creatures of the world subject to them. That’s the glory and honour that God has given to human beings. This is picked up in a passage like Romans 8 where the authority of humans, because they are now in Christ, is the thing through which God is going to remake the world.

But there is also a sense of the visibility of glory and the glory of the divine presence. So that when the glory of God comes to dwell in the tabernacle in Exodus 40, or in the temple in 1 Kings 8, the priests can’t stand to minister, because the glory of the Lord has filled the house

  • and it’s dazzling
  • and it’s radiant
  • and they can they can’t bear to look at it

At the beginning of the Book of Ezekiel, when Ezekiel sees the vision of the divine throne chariot with this figure sitting on this throne, he falls down on his face as though he’s dead. The glory has to do both with the authority of God over the world and with the extraordinary radiance of God’s presence within the world and then dangerously and strangely with the human beings who are called to stand at that intersection of heaven and earth.

Here are the passages and themes we will be looking at

7 signs of glory

  1. Changing water into wine at Cana John 2:1–11
  2. Healing the royal official’s son in Capernaum John 4:46–54
  3. Healing the paralytic at Bethesda John 5:1–15
  4. Feeding the 5000 John 6:5–14
  5. Jesus walking on water John 6:16–24
  6. Healing the man blind from birth John 9:1–7
  7. The raising of Lazarus John 11:1–45

7 broken signposts

  1. Spirituality turned inward
  2. Love turned selfish,
  3. Justice is denied,
  4. Beauty is defaced,
  5. Freedom is taken,
  6. Truth is skewed,
  7. Power is abused

1 April

It’s the day after Easter.
Reality has set in, but the tomb is still empty.
May we live as Resurrection people living in a Good Friday world

1 April | After Resurrection

May the light of Jesus shine continuously
to drive away all darkness
and strengthen you in hope

May Christ, the morning star
who knows no setting
find his light ever burning in our hearts
and reach you with love

May the God who gives his light to all creation
fill you with joy in the faith
Go now, sent out to be the Easter people
proclaiming the good news. Amen

 

Grey Gum: A Jazz Story for Resurrection Sunday

This jazz-story was first told on Resurrection Sunday at Grandview Church, Vancouver.

It creatively imagines how the whole creation may have responded on that day of Christ’s resurrection, by telling the story of Grey-Gum.
Grey-Gum is an intuitive Australian eucalyptus tree, who dwells in the middle of a hot, oily, black bitumen shopping centre car park.

I hope that you enjoy this jazz-story:
“Once upon a time there was a grey-gum eucalyptus tree, who grew by a small creek in a valley in Western Sydney, Australia. . .”
Mark Glanville

31 March | Palm Sunday | Michael Bells

Thank you for joining us on-line!
OCC is made up of people who are meeting in-person and who are meeting on-line.

Remember we are currently showing the video of the service on a week’s delay. The video goes live at 8:00am.

So this video is from Palm Sunday 24 March 2024 but is being shown on 31 March 2024. Pastor Mike is speaking both online and in person at OCC.

God calls all of us into his presence:

He calls us to be together both with him and with one another;
He calls us to wait with and for him;
He calls us to serve & bless others – those who are part of God’s kingdom and those who have not yet responded to God’s grace.
As you prepare to watch our service video, we encourage you to take a few moments…

Get your coffee or tea. Settle in, be still…
Take some deep breaths… in and out… breathe.

 

31 March | Running to the Tomb

Eugène Burnand’s 1867 painting The Disciples Peter and John Running to the Sepulchre on the Morning of the Resurrection

31 March | Easter Sunday

Arise! People,
lift up your eyes, Is. 51:6
And look toward the east; Ps. 103:12
For soon, the glory of the Lord will be revealed, Is. 40:5a
All flesh will see it together; Is. 40:5b

Arise!
For the Sun of Righteousness will come, Mal. 4:2a
With healing in His wings! Mal. 4:2b
Bend your faces to the east, Is. 24:15
Awaken your eyes to the morning of our salvation! Is. 33:2

Arise!
For too long, we hungered in the night, Matt. 5:6
Scavenging in spiritual shadows; Jer. 6:4
For too long, we thirsted in darkness, Matt. 5:6
Wandering hopelessly under starless skies; Ex. 14:3

Arise! Arise!
And flood the world with light! Matt. 5:14
End this age of gloom! Is. 9:1
Rain warmth upon our land! Deut. 11:11
And coax the earth from its winter slumber! Song. 2:11

Arise! Arise!
Wipe out the thick clouds of transgression, Is. 44:22a
Break through the fog of despair; Eccl. 2:20
The heavy mist of ego and pride, Is. 44:22b
The overcast of guilt, which too long kept us captive; Ps. 32:5

Arise! Arise!
And give strength to the weary, Is. 40:29
And vision to the prisoners of darkness, Is. 42:7 Arise! The age of darkness has ended, Ps. 88:12
Our covenant with death is cancelled! Is. 28:18

Arise! Shine!
For our light has come! Is. 60:1a
The glory of the Lord has risen upon us! Is. 60:1b
Our sun will set no more, Is. 60:20a
Neither will our moon wane! Is. 60:20b

Arise!
The Lord will be our everlasting light, Is. 60:20c
Our nights of mourning are no more. Is. 60:20d
Arise!