Come as you are.
Life-long Jesus follower, or never cracked open a Bible. Shirt and tie guy, or jeans and sneakers person. You are welcome here. We invite you to join our perfectly imperfect community where we explore together the big questions: What’s the meaning of life? Does my life have a purpose? Who is Jesus? What does it mean to be a Christian? No question is dumb or insignificant. We explore these together, we seek to bring hope and healing in our neighbourhood and city through practical projects all while having fun and the odd potluck!
St. Paul’s will offer services online only during the month of April due to construction at The Mount Community Centre. For Zoom links or our YouTube channel, please see below.
One Service. Three Ways:
On Line
Join Us From Home or Away via Zoom
Go to: https://zoom.us/
Click “Join a meeting” > meeting ID: 786 765 4264 > password: 184 928
OR Call Toll Free: 1 855 703 8985 > meeting ID: 786 765 4264 > password: 184 928
In Person
Join Us
St Paul’s Presbyterian Church
1545 Monaghan Road – enter at McDonnel Street
Join us at St Paul’s Presbyterian worship sanctuary located at the front north corner of The Mount Community Centre
YouTube
StPaulsPeterborough on YouTube
The service video will be playing live on Sunday or the recording will be available after to view / listen in if you missed it.
Have you ever gone out of your way to avoid someone? Perhaps you were dating someone and broke up. If so, you may have avoided going to those places in town you used to frequent together for fear of running into them and having an awkward moment. Or perhaps you had a fight with someone, a friend perhaps, and now there is a riff in your friendship. So you withdraw from activities you used to share and even decline invitations to social gatherings that he/she may attend.
The Sunday night of his resurrection Jesus found his disciples hiding out. They were huddled behind locked doors fearful of what might happen next. I suppose we can sympathize with those disciples. The events of the past few days had been totally unexpected, and they weren’t sure what to do next. Jesus seeks them out, stands among them and says, “Peace be with you!”
The problem with hiding is it shrinks our life. Avoiding situations or people limits us and curtails our freedom. Jesus died not so we could live small, fearful lives….but that we would live with joy, purpose and abundance. Join us this Sunday as we ask: are you hiding? Can you be free of fear?
To read ahead: John 20: 19-31
Have you ever met someone who didn’t live up to your expectations? Perhaps you feel one of your children hasn’t lived up to their potential, or someone failed to deliver on a promise. If so, you’re in good company! The disciples themselves were disappointed and disillusioned when Jesus died. They had hoped he was the promised Messiah, the one who would redeem Israel and drive out their Roman oppressors.
Some of us grew up in Hallmark greeting-card types of families. You know the kind: a loving mother and father who rarely (if ever) fought, we knew we were loved and valued. We had enough food on the table, clothes to wear, a nice place to live, a safe community.
But more often, for most of us, our families were less-than-perfect. We may have experienced divorce, poverty, addiction, conflict, and some of these conditions may have even led to our estrangement from one or more family members.
Such was the case for Mary Magdalene. Earlier in her life scripture tells us she was plagued by demons. This would have caused her social estrangement from her community and family, and affected her emotional, mental, physical and spiritual health. After Jesus healed her of this affliction, she became one of His devoted followers. He had seen her, loved her and gave her a fresh start and a place to belong. Imagine her heartbreak when he died.
Perhaps it was for this reason that Jesus appeared to her first after his resurrection. He wanted to reassure her that her relationship with Him would continue for eternity. His death was a second healing for her and the rest of humankind. The death to end all deaths. A death that gave us all a place in God’s family.
What Good News for Mary…and for us!
Have you ever had someone “take your place”? Perhaps, like me, you play a team sport and if you need to miss a game due to illness or another commitment you arrange for a spare to substitute for you. Or perhaps you can’t make a work shift because of a medical appointment, so you switch with a co-worker. It is wonderful to have others to step in for us when we are not able to honour a commitment.
On Good Friday we will consider how Jesus took our place on the cross. This is not something we asked Him to do, nor did we even realize that we needed a “substitute” to take our place — but Jesus knew. Nor was His a temporary substitution, but His work accomplished, for us, a permanent place in His Father’s kingdom — both a kingdom here and now, and an eternal Kingdom.
Human beings like spectacle.
Whether it’s the lights, music and dancing of the Super Bowl half-time show; the crowds that gather under the balcony of Buckingham Palace for a glimpse of the royal family or the people who gather when a large building is wired with explosives and expected to implode, we like spectacle. Spectacles may be unexpected or planned, but these are events that are striking or impressive in some way.
A common undercurrent of most spectacles is POWER. Whether that power comes in the form of celebrity or royalty; money; military might; or the power of explosives. Spectacles are a show of power.
As Jesus enters into Jerusalem on what we know as Palm Sunday he leaves clues that his Kingship is one of power, but a different kind of power than that exercised by earthly kings. Join us this Sunday as we begin Holy Week by examining our place in the crowd that surrounds Jesus. What power are we pursuing?
To prepare, please read ahead: Psalm 118: 1-2; 19-29 and John 12:12-36
UNDIES EVENT - March 24-31
St. Paul’s is once again organizing two “Undie Sundays” in support of the local Youth Emergency Shelter (YES). Last year the Peterborough community came out in droves to donate new ladies underwear and men’s boxer briefs. In total over 500 pairs of underwear were donated! It warmed the heart of Sarah Cornett, the Shelter’s Manager. “The generosity of this community is amazing, and I’m grateful to St. Paul’s Presbyterian church for suggesting this “Undie Sundays” campaign.” The YES Shelter for Youth and Families provides emergency shelter, transitional housing, education, food and clothing support to youth and families. “We always seem to have ample second-hand clothing that our clients can sort through to find what they need for themselves or their children,” says Cornett. “But understandably, no one wants to wear second-hand underwear….so we find ourselves in constant short supply.”
OFFERING
You can send weekly or monthly offering by mail, by dropping off at the church’s new letter slot in the green door, by Pre Authorized Remittance (PAR), and through www.CanadaHelps.org by searching for St. Paul’s Presbyterian Church Peterborough. Electronic bank transfer (e-transfers) can be sent to finance@stpaulspeterborough.ca
