❖ Video (Whole Worship Service) ❖ Audio (Message) “Come, and You Will See.” John 1:35-42 Mari Ikeda As it’s the beginning of the new year, I was thinking to speak about the covenant of members of this church. But I decided to continue the series of John’s Gospel first, because I thought the passage to follow in the series was very appropriate to read at the start of a year. The passage is from John 1:35, the scene of the encounter of Jesus and His first disciples. It is illustrated the most in v.38-39, but let’s follow the order and read a little at a time, v.35-37 first. A. Being…

❖ Video (Whole Worship Service) ❖ Audio (Message) Sow seeds of joy and peace Matthew 10:26-29 Andy Nagahara One day at the end of the last year, Tamori-san was on a TV program called Tetsuko’s Room and when Tetsuko asked him what kind of year he thought next year would be, he replied, “I think it will be like a new pre-war year, won’tIt?”.I was born in 1955. It was ten years after the end of World War II. For younger people today, this may feel like just shortly after the war, but I was not aware of this at all. However, my parents lived through the war, and my…

❖ Video (Whole Worship Service) ❖ Audio (Message) The Two Epilogues of the Christmas Story Matthew 2:16-18, Luke 2:25-38 Mari Ikeda It’s Christmas Day today, but according to the Church Calendar the official Christmas service was last week, and so it’s the end-of-year service today. So I decided to pick up the passages from the Bible which can be read as the epilogues of the Christmas story today. There are two different ones, each of which has a content completely opposite to the other. One is a tragedy, while the other seems to be a happy ending. By comparing these two stories, I realized they teach us how we should walk…

❖ Video (Whole Worship Service) ❖ Audio (Message) No Vacancy! Luke 2:1-21 Message for Christmas 2022 Andy Nagahara Now it is the last week of Advent. Since Christmas Day falls on a Sunday this year, some churches will hold their Christmas service on that day, but many churches have their Christmas service on this last Sunday of Advent. So let us, too, reflect on the events of Christmas today as we read the Gospel of Luke chapter 2. At first, let’s read verses 1-7. A. The miserable birthday (1-7) 1 In those days Caesar Augustus issued a decree that a census should be taken of the entire Roman world. 2…

❖ Video (Whole Worship Service) ❖ Audio (Message) God’s Weakness That Surpasses Any Force or Power Luke 2:1-7 Message for the third Sunday of Advent Mari Ikeda It’s the third Sunday of Advent today.To start my message today, I’d like you to have an image in your mind. I have used this image in a different context before. It’s domino toppling, especially not a linear sequence, but a planar one. The trick is to stand dominoes to be toppled automatically one after another by toppling only the first domino. It feels nice to make all the dominoes fall just by flipping and toppling the first one by our finger. It…