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Belonging to the Lord
Worship Service: Childrens Talk & Adult Sermon - January 26, 2025
What is the Lord’s? In a broad sense all things are the Lord’s: He created and sustains everything in the universe. Yet we also feel as if we are our own masters. There is an innate sense that what goes on in our minds and hearts is ours and ours alone. Yet even here all that is good and true belongs to the Lord. Miraculously, when we acknowledge that truth and live it, we can actually feel more, not less, ourselves. | By Rev. Joel C Glenn | Westville, RSAOvercoming Avoidance
Worship Service: Children & Adult - January 19, 2025
Avoiding is something we all do. We do it with small things, like when we ignore our body’s signals that it’s time for bed or when we procrastinate on the dishes. We do it with bigger things, like when we put off that important but difficult conversation we need to have or when we put future decisions out of mind. And we do it even with the most important things in our spiritual lives, when we know we have an issue but it is to challenging to face. But if we are to grow spiritually we cannot put off or ignore our flaws. We need to address them head on. This Sunday we will look at some of the reasons we avoid spiritual challenges and what we can do to overcome that tendency. | By Rev. Joel C Glenn | Westville, RSAFrom Blindness to Sight
Worship Service: Childrens Talk & Adult Sermon - January 12, 2025
We are all born into ignorance. None of us knows how to do this thing called life well. But the Lord provides the tools that allow us to learn and to improve. We will never have perfect knowledge of right and wrong; but we can come to better know the truth, and so know better how to live good lives. | By Rev. Joel C Glenn | Westville, RSALooking Forward
Worship Service: Childrens Talk & Adult Sermon - January 05, 2025
The challenge with the future is the unknowns. It is easy to see how the Lord led us even in hard times when we look back. It is more of a challenge to look forward and trust that the Lord will continue to lead us. And this is as it should be: the Lord asks us to plan for an uncertain future, and work towards it, so that He can direct us down the right path. When we find the right balance of planning and trust we can face what is to come with confidence. | By Rev. Joel C Glenn | Westville, RSAAbundance and Famine, Part 2, Perservere
Worship Service: Childrens Talk & Adult Sermon - November 24, 2024
Hard times will come, no matter how prepared we might be. We cannot avoid them. What we can do is put our preparation to use, so that we can persevere through the hard times. In fact, through this perseverance we are strengthened in both love and wisdom, and may come out the other side better people. Even if we feel that we are inadequately prepared for the challenge, the Lord always provides what we need in order to get through it. | By Rev. Joel C Glenn | Westville, RSAAbundance and Famine Part 1 Prepare
Worship Service: Childrens Talk & Adult Sermon - November 17, 2024
We have a tendency to think that whatever we are going through right now is how things will always be. But whether you are going through a time of blessings or of hardship, this too shall pass. In this two part series we will look at how we can prepare for hardship in the good times, and persevere through hardships to get back to the good times. | By Rev. Joel C Glenn | Westville, RSATrue Freedom
Worship Service: Childrens Talk & Adult Sermon - November 10, 2024
In the western world we tend to value individuality above almost anything else. The freedom of the individual is sacrosanct. The Lord also values individual freedom. Without the freedom to make personal choices we would not be able to choose heaven over hell. Yet that does not mean that all freedom is equal: one kind of individual freedom leads to hellish anarchy while the other leads to heavenly order. If we want to follow the Lord, we need to spend time distinguishing between the two. | By Rev. Joel C Glenn | Westville, RSAWhat is at the Door
Worship Service: Children & Adult - November 03, 2024
Right at the door, right at the passage from our homes out into the world, lies a choice. It is a good choice! A choice we get to make every single day. Join us as we look at what is at the door or maybe, who is at the door. | By Rev. Charles E. Blair | Westville, RSAPicking and Choosing
Worship Service: Childrens Talk & Adult Sermon - October 27, 2024
We all want to be good: but how do we decide which good things to do? No matter how much we do, there is always more to be done. When faced with just how many needs there are in the world we can become overwhelmed. We cannot possibly do it all. In order to be good we have to constantly make a judgment call about what good things we will do, and just as importantly, what good things we will not do. We’ll talk about how to make those choices this Sunday. | By Rev. Joel C Glenn | Westville, RSABeing Fed By Ravens
Worship Service: Childrens Talk & Adult Sermon - October 20, 2024
Our Story is about a Raven sent to feed Elijah. Why a Raven? This bird is a scavenger. It feeds on dead creatures/carrion. Yet today, it is a choice bird that the LORD uses to take care of Elijah. Is there more to the story than meets the eye? | By Rev. J. Bheki Dube | Westville, RSAWater into Wine
Worship Service: Childrens Talk & Adult Sermon - October 13, 2024
In the Gospel of John, Jesus’ first miracle consists of turning water into wine. While this miracle is powerful in it’s own right, it also represents a spiritual process that we all must go through: just as Jesus turned simple water into good quality wine, the Lord can transform the basic ideas we know into a way of life. What were once simple truths can become the good habits that lead to heaven. | By Rev. Joel C Glenn | Westville, RSAAre You a Pessimist or an Optimist?
Worship Service: Childrens Talk & Adult Sermon - October 06, 2024
Are optimists better than pessimists? Are pessimists just realistic while optimists are naïve? What about the Lord? Is He optimistic about our potential, or does He bemoan the woeful nature of humanity? We have those two broad categories of people that conflict with each other. And at times they may be useful. But this Sunday we will look a little beyond these two categories to try to find a more spiritual view of society, humanity, and our future. | By Rev. Joel C Glenn | Westville, RSADoing No Harm
Worship Service: Informal Family - September 29, 2024
The Lord gave us the Ten Commandments (Exodus 20) because He loves us and wants to keep us safe. Not doing evil (that is, doing no harm) is the first part of caring for others (True Christianity 435). | By Rev. John L. Odhner | Bryn Athyn Cathedral UndercroftBringing Evil to Light
Worship Service: Childrens Talk & Adult Sermon - September 22, 2024
What’s the point of reflecting on your inner life? The things that go through your heart and mind? The problem is that evil that remains hidden will ultimately actually change who we are as individuals. The Lord wants us to work on our inner selves, our motivations and intentions, so that we can become truly heavenly people, in other words, people who do not just act heavenly, but who are heavenly at heart and in mind. In order for this to happen, the evils that exist within us must be examined, brought to light, and dealt with openly. | By Rev. Joel C Glenn | Westville, RSAAbide in Me
Worship Service: Childrens Talk & Adult Sermon - September 15, 2024
There are many ways we can think about what the Lord wants for us. One of the ways the Lord frames it is that He wants us to abide in Him so that He can abide in us. During the service we will be exploring how we can live our lives in a way that allows for the Lord to most fully abide in us, where we can feel His presence and experience His joy | By Rt. Rev. Bradley D. Heinrichs | Westville, RSAHow the 5 Senses Mislead Us
Worship Service: Childrens Talk & Adult Sermon - September 08, 2024
Many religions have taught that there is virtue in denying yourself pleasure. The idea is that pleasure distracts us from what truly matters and entices us to live selfishly. And that is very true. But there is also a kind of pleasure, even worldly pleasure, that can fit perfectly well into a wholesome, spiritual life. The point is not to deny ourselves for the sake of denial, but rather to deny pleasures that take us away from the Lord and embrace the ones that allow us to delight in the Lord. | By Rev. Joel C Glenn | Westville, RSADigital Well-Being
Worship Service: Childrens Talk & Adult Sermon - September 01, 2024
One of the most ubiquitous modern “idols” is the screen. It sucks us in with its promise of satisfaction, pleasure, and escape, only to rob us of time, energy, and connection. Ironically, even as we devote so much to a lifeless mass of wires and plastic, we disconnect more and more from the life-filled, flesh-and-blood people around us. We must relearn how to prioritize people, and above all the Lord, and have technology once again become a servant in pursuit of that priority. | By Rev. Joel C Glenn | Westville, RSAThe Lord is My Shepherd
Worship Service: Childrens Talk & Adult Sermon - August 25, 2024
The 23rd Psalm is one of the most well-known portions of the Bible. In it, the Lord is compared to a shepherd, providing for all our needs and guiding us through dark places. This Sunday will be spent contemplating the deeper meaning we can find contained within these powerful words of Scripture. | By Rev. Joel C Glenn | Westville, RSAMeeting God in Nature
Worship Service: Childrens Talk & Adult Sermon - August 18, 2024
There’s something beautiful about being in nature, surrounded by trees and flowers, hearing the birds singing, watching as the sun lights up the clouds. It can feel like a truly spiritual experience. And in fact, it is: every last thing in nature is a reflection of the spiritual world, and ultimately, of the Lord. Nor is this just a symbolic connection: the life we see all around us is actually created and sustained by spiritual life from the Lord. Our relationship with nature is an opportunity to reflect and connect more deeply with the Lord. | By Rev. Joel C Glenn | Westville, RSAGod's Healing Forgiveness
Worship Service: Childrens Talk & Adult Sermon - August 11, 2024
We all have times when we become paralyzed by evil and falsity. We want desperately to be good but for some reason we cannot seem to let go of harmful thoughts and feelings. The Lord’s forgiveness offers us a way out of this spiritual paralysis: when we raise our thoughts to Him, He heals us through His forgiveness, and in that healing we find freedom for our minds. | By Rev. Joel C Glenn | Westville, RSARemove Those Earrings
Worship Service: Childrens Talk & Adult Sermon - August 04, 2024
To love the Lord means to love to do what He commands (John 14:21-24). That is because He is what He commands, for His commandments originate from Him, so that He is present in them, and is thus present in the person on whose life they are engraved, and they are engraved on a person by his willing and doing them. (AR 551) | By Rev. J. Bheki Dube | Westville, RSAChildhood Spirituality, Part 2 - Heavenly Innocence
Worship Service: Childrens Talk & Adult Sermon - July 28, 2024
We can all agree that childhood is a time of great innocence. We see it in the faces of infants and in the behaviour of little children. The Teachings of the New Church say that this innocence comes directly from the Lord, and at heart is a simple willingness to be led by the Lord. This same innocence is not restricted to childhood; in fact, the more we as adults lean into a willingness to simply be led by the Lord, the more we return to the innocence of childhood; with the difference that because it is something we consciously choose, it can be deeper and stronger even than the innocence that we had as children. | By Rev. Joel C Glenn | Westville, RSAChildhood Spirituality, Part 1: A Foundation for Life
Worship Service: Childrens Talk & Adult Sermon - July 21, 2024
“Grow up!” “Don’t be such a child!” “Act like an adult!” These are all familiar messages that we start to hear as we get older. We are encouraged to leave behind the things of childhood and enter “the real world.” And there is a truth in this way of thinking. But the Lord also says almost the opposite: “unless you are converted and become as little children, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 18:3). Although we do leave childhood behind, there is some spiritual element of childhood that it is essential for us to hold onto. | By Rev. Joel C Glenn | Westville, RSAThe Decree of Shame: The Story of Daniel in the Den of Lions Retold
Worship Service: Childrens Talk & Adult Sermon - July 14, 2024
A Decree of Shame condemns and sends an innocent, God-fearing man to a Den of Lions with the hope he dies there. But then, there is our Lord, our God. His presence changes the narrative and brings an unexpected twist that brings nothing less than legendary and continuous happiness. | By Rev. J. Bheki Dube | Westville, RSAHeaven Is Not For Sale
Worship Service: Childrens Talk & Adult Sermon - July 07, 2024
You can’t buy your way into heaven, no matter how much wealth you amass. That won’t come as a surprise to most of you. Yet somehow, subconsciously, we end up trying. Every time we feel entitled to reward because of our good deeds, we have diminished good deeds to a mere currency with which we can buy a slice of heaven. Every time we feel slighted for the ill fortune that befalls us in spite of our goodness, we have reduced God’s living Providence into a mere balance sheet of good countered by evil. It is only when we realize that goodness is its own reward that we can be free from the allure of heaven as a reward. Heaven is not a reward; heaven is the natural result of a life of goodness. | By Rev. Joel C Glenn | Westville, RSA