27th Sunday After Pentecost
Glory to Jesus Christ! Glory Forever!
2nd Sunday after Pentecost
November 24, 2024
Sat 11/23/24 4:00pm Vigil Divine Liturgy +Peter and +Mary Kavchak by Drew Moniot
Sun 11/24/24 9:30am Divine Liturgy +Karen Bohin by Rick and Ireful Reeder
Wed 11/27/24 7:00pm Liturgy for Healing; Thanksgiving
Fri 11/29/24 7:00pm Immanuel Moleben
Sat 11/30/24 4:00pm Vigil Divine Liturgy +Jerry Tincha by Ann Hoszwa
Sun 12/1/24 9:30am Divine Liturgy +Edward Musko by Helen Musko
Variable Parts Tone 2 - Pages 130 - 131
Epistle Ephesians 6:10-17
Gospel Luke 13:10-17
Memorial Candle Request - +Lewis and Emma Jean Buchkovich by Allen family
Please Pray for: Fr. Michael Huszti, Fr. Laska, Susie Curcio, Robert Zera, Teresa Milkovich, Robert Saper, Anna Habil, Martha Sapar, Mike Dancisin, Karen Smaretsky Vavro, Diane Sotak, Anna Pocchiari, Larry Hamil, Beverly Jones, Marilyn Book, Maryann Russin Schyvers, Nick Russin, Mary Motko, Ken Konchan
Attendance: 11/16 — 30; 11/17 — 85; Collection: 11/16 - 11/17 — $1,837.00
Epistle Readers 23-Nov Mary Troyan 24-Nov Amanda Stavish 30-Nov John Baycura/Mary Motko 1-Dec Hans Bergh
Gibsonia Schedule:
Sun 11/24/24 11:30am Divine Liturgy 27th Sunday after Pentecost
Sun 12/1/24 11:30am Divine Liturgy 28th Sunday after Pentecost
We would like to make you aware of our Nut, Poppyseed & Apricot Roll sale. Order forms are on the bulletin board or orders may be placed by phone. The order deadline is November 30th.
By order only: $12.00 each
Pick up Sat., Dec - 14 or Sat - Dec 21 from 10am - 1pm
to order call 412-837-9446
Save these Dates:
December 2nd we will grind nuts for the nut rolls. Bring your food processor.
December 10th we will be making pierogi at 9:00am.
December 10th will be parish Christmas caroling at Concordia nursing home at 4:45pm - we meet in the lobby
December 13th & 20th we will bake nut rolls starting at 9:00am.
December 18th Help is needed on at 2:00pm to decorate the church for Christmas.
Thank You: Thank you to everyone who helped with the Game Day Special sale. We sold out of the kielbasa sandwiches. Thanks again for your support of our fundraising!
Holiday Hallmark Christmas Ornaments Sale: These ornaments will be for sale downstairs after the Sunday morning Liturgy. Find a special one for yourself or someone else. Donations will be given to the Religious Education Program.
St. Nicholas Celebration: December 5th Parish St. Nicholas Eve. Liturgy will be at 6:00pm with ECF student program. Supper will follow. Please sign up downstairs if you plan to attend.
What does it mean to be thankful? It comes from the Greek word "charis". and is translated grace. A person who is thankful realizes that who he is, what he has, what he has accomplished and what he owns and possesses, ultimately is not from himself or others, but is from God, and is by God's grace. In in 3:27, John the Baptist says, "A man can receive nothing unless it has been given him from heaven." 1 Cor 4:7 tells us, "What do you have that you did not receive?" In 1 Chro 29:13-14, David says, "Now therefore, our God, we thank You, and praise Your glorious name... Who am l and who are my people that we should be able to offer as generously as this? For all things come from You, and from Your hand we have given You."
The thankful person knows that there is a God, and realizes that all that he has that is good is from God, and then from his heart and in his own words he expresses thanks to God, he honors God. But in Rom 1:21 the unbeliever is described this way — "For even though they knew God, they did not honor Him as God, or give thanks, but they became foolish in their speculations, and their foolish heart was darkened."
The thankful person is humble, for he realizes he is not a self-made person. He is not proud, thinking in his heart, "Look at me, and look at what I have done." He knows that God has been working in his life, that Christ is praying for him, and that the Spirit is sanctifying him. In 1 Tim 1:12 Paul said, "I thank Christ Jesus my Lord who has strengthened me." The thankful person is not proud or arrogant, and so thankfulness comes from his humble heart to God Himself.
In the Bible, thanksgiving is much more than a quick nod of the cap for all the goodies in life. Thanksgiving is an act of worship. Thanksgiving is a deeply theological act, rightly understood. As a matter of fact, thankfulness is a theology in microcosm — a key to understanding what we really believe about God, ourselves, and the world we experience. A haunting question is this: How do atheists observe Thanksgiving? I can easily understand what an atheist or agnostic would think of fellow human beings and feel led to express thankfulness and gratitude to all those who, both directly and indirectly, have contributed to their lives. But what about the blessings that cannot be ascribed to human agency? Those are both more numerous and more significant, ranging from the universe we experience to the gift of life itself. Can one really be thankful without being thankful to someone?
It makes no sense to express thankfulness to a purely naturalistic system. The late Stephen Jay Gould, an atheist and one of the foremost paleontologists and evolutionists of his day, described human life as merely an accident, though a very happy accident for us. Within that worldview, how does thankfulness work?
The Apostle St. Paul points to a central insight about thankfulness when he instructs the Christians in Rome about the reality and consequences of unbelief. After making clear that God has revealed himself to all humanity through the created order, Paul asserts that we are all without excuse when it comes to our responsibility to know and worship. He wrote: For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse. For even though they knew God, they did not honor Him as God or give thanks, but they became futile in their speculations, and their foolish heart was darkened Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools. . . [Romans 1:20-221.
St. Paul wants us to understand that the refusal to honor God and give thanks is a raw form of the primal sin. Theologians have long debated the foundational sin — and answers have ranged from lust to pride. Nevertheless, it would seem that being unthankful, refusing to recognize God as the source of all good things, is very close to the essence of the primal sin. What explains the rebellion of Adam and Eve in the Garden? A lack of proper thankfulness was at the core of their sin. God gave them unspeakable riches and abundance, but forbade them the fruit of one tree. A proper thankfulness would have led our first parents to avoid that fruit at all costs, and to obey the Lord's command. Taken further, this first sin was also a lack of thankfulness in that the decision to eat the forbidden fruit indicated a lack of thankfulness that took the form of an assertion that we creatures — not the Creator — know what is best for us and intend the best for us.
So, observe a wonderful Thanksgiving — but realize that a proper Christian Thanksgiving is a deeply theological act that requires an active mind as well as a thankful heart. We need to think deeply, widely, carefully, and faithfully about the countless reasons for our thankfulness to God.
It is humbling to see that St. Paul so explicitly links a lack of thankfulness to sin, foolishness, and idolatry. A lack of proper thankfulness to God is a clear sign of a basic godlessness. Millions of Americans will celebrate Thanksgiving with little consciousness of this truth. Their impulse to express gratitude is a sign of their spiritual need that can be met only in Christ.
