SUNDAY SERVICE
​​​
​​September 15, 2024
11:00 AM
​
  1. Who is Jesus?

Rev. Dr. Chris Ponnuraj​, Preaching

​​​Sunday’s Bulletin
​
Mr. John Strybos - Music Director​
Soloist: Kelly Guerra Sedgwick

Join us for our
Friendship and Fellowship Hour
after 11:00 AM service in Bodge Lounge.


​Come and share the joy of Christ’s love with us.
All are welcome!
​

Next Showing
​Saturday October 26
Pot Luck Dinner at 6 PM
Movie at 7 PM

​All are welcome, admission is free.
For more information send an email to [email protected]

The Last Saturday Night Movie Club will meet the
last Saturday of each month through December
​ for a Pot Luck Dinner and a movie.

Your donations help us  to continue with our Missions during these trying times!

Mail a check or make a donation through
​ your online banking service.
Make the donation to: West Center Congregational Church
101 Pondfield Road West Bronxville, NY 10708

View Other Ways to donate to West Center 

Join us for these
​Upcoming Events

September 29 is Homecoming Sunday and
​Lauren Mitchell exhibits
​a selection of her artwork.
​11:00 am
​
​Worship returns to the Sanctuary; the Chancel Choir returns from summer vacation. There will be a special art exhibit in Bodge Lounge featuring works by West Center member and student at the Fashion Institute of Technology,
​ Lauren Mitchell.

Blessing of the Animals in October
​October 27, 2024
11:00 am
​Blessing of the Animals during the service -- bring your pet or a picture of your pet to be blessed.


​SEVENTEENTH SUNDAY
AFTER PENTECOST


​West Center’s worship service will be held
in the air conditioned Bodge Lounge,
​located adjacent to our Sanctuary.
​
Depending on the weather the worship will be back in the Sanctuary on September 29, possibly sooner.

Be Opened
​​​​​Short Sermon
Rev. Dr. Christopher Ponnuraj, Minister

Day after day we hear the news about war, terrorism, gunshots on the streets, shootings in the schools and even the illness of our loved ones, and the list goes on and on. Twenty-three years have passed after the 9/11 devastation, and we still live in fear. We are gathered this Sunday morning and are reminded that what will happen next is what God wants to happen next. We read in Psalm 118:6 -7 “The LORD is with me; I will not be afraid. What can man do to me? The LORD is with me; he is my helper. I will look in triumph on my enemies" No matter the terrifying, horrible headlines in the newspapers, you and I realize that as the Lord reminds us by saying, ‘be strong, do not fear’, we can do just that.

We have been in a series through the New Testament book of Mark called Following Jesus in the Real World. Last week, we saw Jesus in a debate with a religious group called the Pharisees over traditions and purity. In that debate we saw Jesus question the traditions of the Pharisees, the rules, and rituals that they added to the Old Testament law. But Jesus went even further than questioning their traditions, because he also overturned all the Jewish dietary laws. We saw two weeks ago that it’s not the food that goes into a person that causes that person to become unclean, but that it’s what comes out of a person’s heart. It only makes sense that if Jesus questioned the Jewish food laws, that he’d also question the traditional categorization of people into categories of clean and unclean.

Today we’re going to see Jesus cross some radical boundaries in his ministry. We’re going to see Jesus’ venture into non-Jewish territory, and while there we’re going to see Jesus’ encounter with two non-Jewish people. In these two encounters we’re going to find some principles that apply to us as well as we follow Jesus to the outer limits of our comfort zone. Encounter With a Non-Jewish Woman (Mark 7:24-30): This episode is among the most difficult to understand in all of Mark’s biography, because Jesus seems to be very mean to this woman.

Jesus travels from the region around the Sea of Galilee to a city named Tyre. Tyre was an ancient non-Jewish city that had a long history of hostility with the people of Israel. Tyre is in modern day Lebanon. Now, why does Jesus go there? Well, his conflict with the religious leaders in the region of Galilee has probably put the spotlight on him, getting the attention of the Roman authorities in the region of Galilee. By fleeing to Tyre, Jesus goes outside the jurisdiction of the Roman authorities in Galilee. Perhaps that’s part of the reason. But we also get a sense from Mark that Jesus is trying to get a break from the crowd. He goes for some privacy, for a break from the exhausting pace of ministry he’s been on in Galilee.

But once there a woman comes to him with a request. This is not the first time someone has come to Jesus with a special request. But out of all the people who do this, this woman has the most against her. First, she’s a woman, and many of the Jewish men of Jesus’ day would not even speak to a woman unless it was their wife or their mother. But this isn’t just any woman; she’s a non-Jewish woman, a Greek woman born in Syrophoenician. Yet despite her strikes against her, she begs Jesus to deliver her daughter from a demonic spirit. Now most of the Jewish people of Jesus’ day believed that all non-Jewish people were demonized, so the fact that this woman’s daughter was demonized wouldn’t come as a surprise to a first century Jew. What would surprise them was that she wanted her daughter to be free from this stronghold of evil.

But what surprises us even more is Jesus’ response to the woman. He uses a parable, a metaphor, to explain his reluctance to heal her daughter. He says, "First let the children eat all they want because it’s not right to take the children’s bread and toss it to the dogs." Clearly the "children" in this parable refer to the people of Israel, and the "bread" refers to Jesus’ ministry. The "dogs" then refer to non-Jewish people. Jesus is saying that he should finish his ministry in Israel before he branches out to non-Jewish peoples.

Jesus is affirming the priority of the people of Israel in his mission, that his focus has been the people of Israel, and it’s only after he leaves the earth, and his church starts expanding that the doors will open to non-Jewish people like this woman. Jesus is affirming what the apostle Paul would later affirm as well, when Paul says, in Romans 1:16 " For I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God that brings salvation to everyone who believes: first to the Jew, then to the Gentile".

If you would like to learn more,
please join us in our worship at 11:00 AM on Sunday.
​
​Peace and Blessings!
Rev. Dr. Christopher Ponnuraj, Minister
Family Coffee House
November 9, 2024.
7-9 pm
in Bodge Lounge
​
​featuring singer Michael McMahon, a former student of John Strybos.

​Contact us:

Church Office: 101 Pondfield Road West,
Bronxville, NY 10708
Email: [email protected]
​Phone: (914) 337-3829