❖ Video ❖ Audio (Message) Water for Purification Turned to Wine Mari Ikeda Last month I used two Sundays of my turn to talk about the covenant of the members of this church, I’d like to go back to my series on John’s Gospel. Today’s reading is 2:1-12. It’s a little long, but let’s read the whole passage to start. 1 On the third day a wedding took place at Cana in Galilee. Jesus’ mother was there, 2 and Jesus and his disciples had also been invited to the wedding. 3 When the wine was gone, Jesus’ mother said to him, “They have no more wine.” 4 “Woman, why do…

❖ Video ❖ Audio (Message) נ (Nun) A Lamp To My Feet And A Light For My Path Series: Finding the Gospel in Psalm 119ーA Hymn to the Law　14/22 Psalm 119:105-112 Andy Nagahara This is the fourteenth in a series of Psalm 119, which is called a hymn to the Law. Today, we will focus on verses 105-112, in which the fourteenth letter of the Hebrew alphabet, “נ　（Nun),” is placed at the beginning of each line of the fourteenth paragraph.Since the last time around, the atmosphere of the psalm has changed a bit. In the last part, there were no words at all like the previously familiar cries for help.…

❖ Video ❖ Audio (Message) Make Your Weakness the Source of Your Strength Your church Covenant II Mari Ikeda How are we practicing in the church the second promise of Your Church Covenant, “Love and serve each other”? Whether or not we actually practice it well, what kind of community are we trying to become? Today, I’d like to learn from the conversations between Jesus and Peter, what church is, and how we should be. There are three important points. Let us start with reading the passage of the first encounter of Jesus and Peter in John 1. A. Be yourself 1. Jesus chose you because you were you Andrew,…

❖ Video ❖ Audio (Message) מ(Mem) The perfect food sweeter than honey Series: Finding the Gospel in Psalm 119ーA Hymn to the Law　13/22 Psalm 119:97-104 Andy Nagahara This is the thirteenth in a series of Psalm 119, which is called a hymn to the Law. Today, we will focus on verses 97-104, in which the thirteenth letter of the Hebrew alphabet, “מ（Mem),” is placed at the beginning of each line of the thirteenth paragraph. Mem is the Hebrew letter equivalent to the Greek letter Μμmu, and the English letter M. The character is believed to have originated from a letter depicting water (Hebrew: מים mayim). For the people who had…

❖ Video ❖ Audio (Message) “From Solitude to Community to Ministry” Luke 6:12-26　 Yourchurch Covenant, (* This message is based on Henry Nouwen’s essay in 1995 titled, “Moving from Solitude to Community to Ministry.”) Mari Ikeda Today I’d like to leave my series on John’s Gospel, to talk about the membership of this church. In this church, members are not members forever once they become members. Rather, we ask everyone including pastors to decide annually. To be specific, we ask people to make a covenant to keep three promises. Three promises are, first to love God, second to love each other in the church, and third to go out from…

❖ Video ❖ Audio (Message) ל (Lamedh) The Secret of Eternal Life Series: Finding the Gospel in Psalm 119ーA Hymn to the Law　12/22 Psalm 119:89-96 Andy Nagahara This is the twelfth in a series of Psalm 119, which is called a hymn to the Law. Finally, we are now in the second half of the Psalm 119. We will focus on verses 89-96, in which the twelfth letter of the Hebrew alphabet, “ל (lamedh),” is placed at the beginning of each line of the twelfth paragraph.This is equivalent to the Greek letter lambda, and the English letter L. It is considered to derive from a script depicting a shepherd’s staff…

❖ Video ❖ Audio (Message) “You Will See Greater Things” John 1:43-51 Mari Ikeda Today I’m going to continue the series of John’s Gospel, so I’ll read 1:43-51. This passage, continuing from last time, is the scene in which the first disciples met Jesus. It was Andrew and Peter last time. Today it will be persons called Philip and Nathanael. Let’s read a little at a time, starting with v.43-44. A. Philip 1. Discovered by Jesus (43-44) 43 The next day Jesus decided to leave for Galilee. Finding Philip, he said to him, “Follow me.” 44 Philip, like Andrew and Peter, was from the town of Bethsaida. Here we have…

❖ Video ❖ Audio (Message) כ (Kaph) Put your hope in God’s word Series: Finding the Gospel in Psalm 119ーA Hymn to the Law　11/22 Psalm 119:81-86 Andy Nagahara We return to our series on Psalm 119, which is also called a hymn to the Law. For today’s eleventh part, we will focus on verses 81-88, in which the eleventh letter of the Hebrew alphabet, “כ (kaph),” is placed at the beginning of each line of the paragraph.This character is thought to derive from a letter depicting a palm (Hebrew: כף kaf). What can we learn from the state of the psalmist when he was in the midst of life-threatening hardship,…

❖ 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…