[amc] a note from the pastor

How extensive is the experience of human life?  What are the boundaries of our existence?  These kinds of questions have intrigued people through the ages and have prompted many speculations about both the beginning and the end of our human condition.  And, in spite of all the meditation and imagination and analysis, there is no absolute answer to this inquiry.  Yet across the earth there exists unmistakable evidence that diverse groups of persons believed life in the earth was not the extent of the human experience.  Relics recovered in burial sites testify of a sustained belief in some form of afterlife.  Ancient cemeteries also contain provisions deposited with the corpses that were intended to help persons along their journey in another world beyond the earth.  This practice might have developed from the hope that individual existence would not end when the body dies.  Or it may have been prompted by the psychological awareness of a mystical, spiritual dimension of life that we know as the ‘content of conscience’ which provides a sense that some personal behaviors are appropriate and some actions create inner grief and distress.  Such a feeling could suggest that there would be a time of accounting for the character of one’s life in the earth.  The scriptures we hear today relate to dimensions of human existence that are beyond our present capacity to comprehend.

ANNOUNCEMENTS

Please pass the hymnals to the aisle after worship.

Saturday, November 6  Seasonal choir practice for Advent/Christmas, 1:30p, AMC Sanctuary

Sunday, November 7  Community dinner, noon

Saturday, November 13, 9 am - 4 pm. Texas Mennonite Sale & Auction for World Relief, Holy Cross Lutheran Church, 7901 Westview Dr, Houston TX. 77055.  For more information visit www.texasreliefsale.org.  If you are interested in attending the relief sale, volunteering to work, or donating items to the sale, contact Steve or Pat Hochstetler, srh2pjh@xxxxxxxxx or call 989-1321.

Sunday, November 14   A Congregational Meeting will follow the morning worship service.  All persons in the community are encouraged to attend the hour session.

Sunday, November 14  Contemplative Prayer Group, general meeting, discussion, prayer.  1-2:30p, Austin Mennonite Church

Sunday, November 14   Working Group for the National Assembly to Honor Freedom of Conscience meeting over lunch, 1-2p  Austin Mennonite Church