Arc Church

Dear Friends,

Should you find yourself needing a reflection tool this Holy Week, consider using The Stations of the Cross and Table by arc.

They are available in text and audio-video version, you can just pop in some headphones and ponder the reflections. Though they were posted in 2020, you’ll find, it is still relevant today.

For Facebook users

English version:
https://www.facebook.com/watch/110359703746244/446855249731882

Filipino version:
https://www.facebook.com/watch/110359703746244/200578844804577

For Instagram users

English version:

Station 1
https://www.instagram.com/p/B-k-8TqHq4K/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link

Station 2

https://www.instagram.com/p/B-k_a1lHZb_/

Station 3

https://www.instagram.com/p/B-k_iJZH_CV/

Station 4

https://www.instagram.com/p/B-n2vB2HjTh/

Station 5

https://www.instagram.com/p/B-n7WvFH_6O/

Station 6

https://www.instagram.com/p/B-qzX-XH8uP/

Station 7

https://www.instagram.com/p/B-rJkjuHjgm/

Station 8

https://www.instagram.com/p/B-sy8FZHLse/

Station 9

https://www.instagram.com/p/B-v-SN3nVge/

Station 10

https://www.instagram.com/p/B-xwFLVnBVL/

Station 11

https://www.instagram.com/p/B-zBaalnr7j/

Station 12

https://www.instagram.com/p/B-08-j0HXAP/

Station 13

https://www.instagram.com/p/B-1sWrRnC7c/

Station 14

https://www.instagram.com/p/B-33nLOngWv/

Join us for the digital version of the Station of the Cross.

For English
https://www.facebook.com/watch/110359703746244/446855249731882

For Filipino

https://www.facebook.com/watch/110359703746244/200578844804577/

Arc Church updated their website address.

Prayer by Henri Nouwen

Dear God,
I am so afraid to open my clenched fists!
Who will I be when I have nothing left to hold on to?
Who will I be when I stand before you with empty hands?
Please help me to gradually open my hands
and to discover that I am not what I own,
but what you want to give me.

This Sunday at CS is the second part of the Redemptive Movement series.

The arc of the redemptive story found within the Scriptures is marked by steps. God gives us a greater understanding of His goodness with every redemptive step.
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10:00am - Coffee and Krispy Kreme
10:30am - 12:00nn Worship Gathering
Kids church available.

Limited parking available at BGC Arts Center.
Here are the other car parks close to the center:
https://www.bgcartscenter.org/plan-your-visit/77/plan-your-visit

This service will not be available for livestreaming.

While we believe that the Bible is inspired by God and contains the narrative that reveals who God is and how He moves in this world, we also know that it is written through human hands. The people who God wrote through lived in ancient times and cultures, and while we share a lot in common with them, the world they experienced was also a lot different from our world.

Thus reading the Bible has to be treated like a cross-cultural exercise into the ancient world. It also helps us to be aware that there are methods, processes, and tools that are employed by generations of manuscript experts, interpreters, scholars, philosophers, theologians, linguists, cultural anthropologists, and archeologists to help us gain a fuller, richer and deeper understanding of what text mean.

As we approach the Bible and craft our understanding of it, here are things to consider:
- Linguistic Analysis
- Authorial Intent
- Cultural Context
- Narrative Flow

As we take a look at these methods available for us to interpret the Scriptures, we see that it is more profound than we can possibly imagine. And while we don’t have the faculties to embrace the enormity of its truth fully, the quest for a more accurate understanding is worth it.

For here is where we get a better understanding of who God is, what He is like, and how we are to live in this life.

Prayer by Dag Hammarskjöld


Thou takest the pen and the lines dance
Thou takest the flute and the notes shimmer
Thou takest the brush and the colours sing

So all things have
meaning and beauty
in that space beyond time
where Thou art.
How, then, can I hold back
anything from Thee?You who are over us,
You who are one of us,
You who are also within us,
May all see you — in me also.

May I prepare the way for you,
May I thank you for all that
shall fall to my lot,May I also not forget the needs of others.
Give me a pure heart — that I may see you.
A humble heart— that I may hear you,
A heart of love — that I may serve you,
A heart of faith ­— that I may abide in you.

Amen.

This Sunday at CS: The arc of the redemptive story found within the Scriptures is marked by steps. God gives us a greater understanding of His goodness with every redemptive step.

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10:00am - Coffee and Krispy Kreme
10:30am - 12:00nn Worship Gathering
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Kids church available.
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Limited parking available at BGC Arts Center.
Here are the other car parks close to the center: https://www.bgcartscenter.org/plan-your-visit/77/plan-your-visit

Prayer

O God, we thank you for this earth, our home; for the wide sky and the blessed sun, for the salt sea and the running water, for the everlasting hills and the never-resting winds, for trees and the common grass underfoot.

We thank you for our senses by which we hear the songs of birds, and see the splendor of the summer fields, and taste of the autumn fruits, and rejoice in the feel of the snow, and smell the breath of the spring.
Grant us a heart wide open to all this beauty, and save our souls from being so blind that we pass unseeing when even the common thornbush is aflame with your glory.

O God our creator, who lives and reigns for ever and ever.
Amen.

Join us as Gibson and Gail Viduya lead us in community worship this Sunday (September 15) at church. Come before 10:30am for breakfast, coffee and conversations. ☕🍞

This Sunday at CS: We are separated from the ancient writers by millenia. As witnesses to the spirit of the text, how do we make sense of the God portrayed by Scripture in the world we now inhabit?

10:00am - Coffee and Krispy Kreme
10:30am - 12:00nn Worship Gathering
Kids church available.

⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
Limited parking available at BGC Arts Center.

Here are the other car parks close to the center: https://www.bgcartscenter.org/plan-your-visit/77/plan-your-visit

Featured art by Andrew Judd

Scripture tells the story of a people enslaved and exiled by oppressive empires. Despite a golden age in the promised land, the story of the Israelites starts and ends with subjugation.

From the harshness of Egyptian slavery to the brutal exile by Assyria and Babylon to the heavy-handed dominions of Persia, Greece, and Rome, the pages of Scripture stand as a rebuke of dehumanizing empires.

These stories told a nation in exile that their God still loved them. Despite their failures, God longed for them, promising to restore them once more.

The Hebrew Bible stood as a judge against the myths of pagan empires. No, the world was not the by-product of the petty strife of angry deities. The cosmos were the creative act of a good God who blesses His handiwork.

The writers sent a message to their oppressors who worshipped the sun, moon, and stars that their God was the creator of those heavenly bodies. One day, He would act on their behalf.

They declared the innate dignity of humanity. Other creation myths taught that humans were slaves of the gods. Elite pagan emperors, the embodiment of these deities, had the right and mandate to enslave and to rule.

The Bible refuted this claim. It subversively declared that all human beings are image-bearers of a good God, equally sharing in the mandate to care for all creation.

This radical and revolutionary anti-empire message echoed through the ages. It served to provide the foundation for the advancement and expansion of human equality, even now, in our modern times.

Today, the Bible serves as a mirror to anyone who desires to encounter it. It can reveal to us the ways we become complicit to “empire thinking.”

It challenges us to fight for the dignity of all, to fight against those who would wield their power to diminish the image of God in their fellow man.

1. What are some ways that the idea that every human inherently holds a divine dignity could be seen as countercultural even today?

2. What are some areas in your life where you feel like the Bible’s portrayal of people might be challenging you to treat others better?

3. What does fighting for the dignity of all look like for you today?

Scripture tells the story of a people enslaved and exiled by oppressive empires. Despite a golden age in the promised land, the story of the Israelites starts and ends with subjugation.

From the harshness of Egyptian slavery to the brutal exile by Assyria and Babylon to the heavy-handed dominions of Persia, Greece, and Rome, the pages of Scripture stand as a rebuke of dehumanizing empires.

These stories told a nation in exile that their God still loved them. Despite their failures, God longed for them, promising to restore them once more.

The Hebrew Bible stood as a judge against the myths of pagan empires. No, the world was not the by-product of the petty strife of angry deities. The cosmos were the creative act of a good God who blesses His handiwork.

The writers sent a message to their oppressors who worshipped the sun, moon, and stars that their God was the creator of those heavenly bodies. One day, He would act on their behalf.

They declared the innate dignity of humanity. Other creation myths taught that humans were slaves of the gods. Elite pagan emperors, the embodiment of these deities, had the right and mandate to enslave and to rule.

The Bible refuted this claim. It subversively declared that all human beings are image-bearers of a good God, equally sharing in the mandate to care for all creation.

This radical and revolutionary anti-empire message echoed through the ages. It served to provide the foundation for the advancement and expansion of human equality, even now, in our modern times.

Today, the Bible serves as a mirror to anyone who desires to encounter it. It can reveal to us the ways we become complicit to “empire thinking.”

It challenges us to fight for the dignity of all, to fight against those who would wield their power to diminish the image of God in their fellow man.

1. What are some ways that the idea that every human inherently holds a divine dignity could be seen as countercultural even today?

2. What are some areas in your life where you feel like the Bible’s portrayal of people might be challenging you to treat others better?

3. What does fighting for the dignity of all look like for you today?

A Prayer For When I Feel Rejected by James Martin, SJ

Loving God, you made me who I am. I praise you and I love you, for I am wonderfully made, in your own image. But when people make fun of me, I feel hurt and embarrassed and even ashamed. So please God, help me remember my own goodness, which lies in you.

Help me remember my dignity, which you gave me when I was conceived. Help me remember that I can live a life of love, because you created my heart. Be with me, loving God, when people hate me, and help me to respond how you would want me to: with a love that respects others, but also respects me. Help me find friends who love me for who I am. Help me, most of all, to be a loving person.

And God, help me remember that Jesus loves me. For he was seen as an outcast, too. He was misunderstood, too. He was beaten and spat upon. Jesus understands me, and loves me with a special love, because of the way you made me.

And when I am feeling lonely, help me to remember that Jesus welcomed everyone as a friend. Jesus reminded everyone that God loved them. Jesus encouraged everyone to embrace their dignity, even when others were blind to seeing that dignity. Jesus loved everyone with the boundless love that you gave him. And he loves me, too.

One more thing, God: Help me remember that nothing is impossible with you, that you have a way of making things better, and that you can find a way of love for me, even if I can’t see it right now. Help me remember all these things in the heart you created, loving God. Amen.

What are the things you can’t unsee when you look at the story beneath the story of the Bible? Join us next Sunday as we see what was happening behind the scenes as the Scripture was told, written, edited, compiled, and translated into the book we read today.

10:00am - Coffee and Krispy Kreme
10:30am - 12:00nn Worship Gathering
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀

Kids church available. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
Limited parking available at BGC Arts Center.
Here are the other car parks close to the center: https://www.bgcartscenter.org/plan-your-visit/77/plan-your-visit

Join us as leads us in community worship this Sunday (September 8) at church. Come before 10:30am for breakfast, coffee and conversations. ☕🍞

The fact that many Biblical laws required a process of interpretation is proof that these laws were given not as demands for blind obedience but as invitations to do the work of wisdom and engage in a relationship with the Giver of these laws.

Furthermore, in later generations, God’s people had to reimagine and amend the laws to reflect the new social and political changes of their day.

These are some Biblical laws that evolved over time:

1. 𝗣𝗔𝗦𝗦𝗢𝗩𝗘𝗥 𝗖𝗘𝗟𝗘𝗕𝗥𝗔𝗧𝗜𝗢𝗡

EXODUS 12
Israelites were to celebrate Passover in their homes. They were to obey this instruction as a lasting ordinance for them and their descendants.

DEUTERONOMY 16
Israelites were told to celebrate Passover in the temple, the place of the Lord’s choosing for “the dwelling of his name.”

The temple was seen as a symbol of nationalism. So some Bible scholars believe that the amendment was to encourage a people facing a foreign invasion.

2. 𝗧𝗥𝗘𝗔𝗧𝗠𝗘𝗡𝗧 𝗢𝗙 𝗦𝗟𝗔𝗩𝗘𝗦

EXODUS 21
Only male Jewish slaves could be set free.

DEUTERONOMY 15
Both male and female Jewish slaves are to be set free, with the slave owner mandated to be generous to them.

Today, in both Christianity and Judaism, slavery is not accepted as reflecting the will of God at all. As a result, all laws that deal with slavery are considered obsolete.

3. 𝗚𝗘𝗡𝗘𝗥𝗔𝗧𝗜𝗢𝗡𝗔𝗟 𝗖𝗢𝗡𝗦𝗘𝗤𝗨𝗘𝗡𝗖𝗘𝗦 𝗢𝗙 𝗜𝗗𝗢𝗟𝗔𝗧𝗥𝗬

EXODUS 20
Violating the law against idolatry was punished by rejection up to the third and fourth generation.

EZEKIEL 18
Centuries later, God exiles the nation of Israel into Babylon as punishment for their idolatry. Their children cry out to God because they have to pay for the sins of their parents.

So God Himself gives into the cry of His exiled children and amends His own law. He decrees that henceforth, each will only be judged according to their own sins.

These are just a couple of examples out of many that show that Biblical laws were not and are not static. They are dynamic and alive. Each generation has had to wrestle with what God has required of them.

God invites us to engage His laws through the wisdom of the community and the society around us.

For further reading on this topic, check out Pete Enns’s book “How the Bible Actually Works.”

𝗤𝗨𝗘𝗦𝗧𝗜𝗢𝗡𝗦 𝗙𝗢𝗥 𝗣𝗘𝗥𝗦𝗢𝗡𝗔𝗟 𝗥𝗘𝗙𝗟𝗘𝗖𝗧𝗜𝗢𝗡 𝗔𝗡𝗗 𝗚𝗥𝗢𝗨𝗣 𝗗𝗜𝗦𝗖𝗨𝗦𝗦𝗜𝗢𝗡:

1. What are some contradictions or dissonances you’ve struggled with in the Bible and its interpretation? How have they affected your relationship with Scripture?

2. If you were to revisit these passages, how would setting aside preconceived lenses of interpretation affect how you engage with the text? Could these contradictions help humanize and ground these passages of the Bible for you?

Prayer Poem from CS Lewis

Master they say that when I seem
To be in speech with you,
Since you make no replies, it’s all a dream
– One talker aping two.

The are half right, but not as they
imagine; rather, I
Seek in myself the things I meant to say,
And lo! The well’s are dry.

Then, seeing me empty, you forsake
The listener’s role, and through
My dead lips breathe and into utterance wake
The thoughts I never knew.

And thus you neither need reply
Nor can; thus while we seem
Two talking, thou art One forever, and I
No dreamer, but thy dream.

Join us as leads us in community worship this Sunday (September 1) at church. Come before 10:30am for breakfast, coffee and conversations. ☕🍞

What might happen if we rediscovered the Scriptures outside the narrow confines of rigid formulas and pithy soundbites? Join us next Sunday as we continue to unpack the complex nature of the living, breathing Word of God.
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10:00am - Coffee and Krispy Kreme
10:30am - 12:00nn Worship Gathering
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
Kids church available. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
Limited parking available at BGC Arts Center.
Here are the other car parks close to the center: https://www.bgcartscenter.org/plan-your-visit/77/plan-your-visit

Life’s instruction manual. Rulebook from heaven.

These are some common metaphors used to describe the Bible. While well-intentioned, they create unrealistic expectations for how the Word of God should work.

Broken down, the Bible consists of:
𝟰𝟯% 𝗘𝗽𝗶𝗰 𝗡𝗮𝗿𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗶𝘃𝗲 (502 Chapters)
𝟯𝟯% 𝗣𝗼𝗲𝘁𝗿𝘆 (387 Chapters)
𝟮𝟰% 𝗗𝗶𝘀𝗰𝗼𝘂𝗿𝘀𝗲 (300 Chapters)

Sure, some sections contain laws and rules. However, they still fall within the context of a story. Each discourse deeply rooted in a particular cultural and historical perspective.

Given its vast complexities, we can’t expect to find formulaic answers to our specific questions about relationships, wealth, salvation, purpose, and meaning. The Bible was not written with Twitter in mind.

It starts as a story about a specific group of people rescued by a God who sought communion with them. Who wanted to bless the world through His people.

The narrative transitions into a story of deliverance for the whole world, for the whole of man. Not just physical deliverance, but salvation from sin and evil. And through this, God invites us to be people that bless the world.

The Bible is an invitation into a journey, to get to know the infinitely complex God it writes about. It’s a book about relationship, not a manual for life.

𝗤𝗨𝗘𝗦𝗧𝗜𝗢𝗡𝗦 𝗙𝗢𝗥 𝗣𝗘𝗥𝗦𝗢𝗡𝗔𝗟 𝗥𝗘𝗙𝗟𝗘𝗖𝗧𝗜𝗢𝗡 𝗔𝗡𝗗 𝗚𝗥𝗢𝗨𝗣 𝗗𝗜𝗦𝗖𝗨𝗦𝗦𝗜𝗢𝗡:

1. Have you found encouragement in something you read in the Bible? In what way?

2. Has the Bible ever forced you to deeply wrestle with something in your life? How did that turn out?

3. Have you ever been embarrassed by something you found in the Bible? Did you feel pressure, like you needed to defend it?

4. Have you considered how your relationship with the Bible might be like your relationship with a close relative? How might this approach affect how you read the Bible?

In light of the Amazon fires, and all other tragedies and atrocities committed towards nature, we offer this prayer:
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O God, enlarge within us the sense of fellowship with all living things, our brothers the animals to whom Thou gavest the earth as their home in common with us.

We remember with shame that in the past we have exercised the high dominion of man with ruthless cruelty so that the voice of the earth, which should have gone up to Thee in song has been a groan of travail.

May we realize that they live not for us alone, but for themselves and for Thee and that they love the sweetness of life even as we, and serve Thee better in their place than we in ours.

Join us as leads us in community worship this Sunday (August 25) at church. Come before 10:30am for breakfast, coffee and conversations. ☕🍞

The Bible is often popularly framed as life’s instruction manual. But if it was so clear, why are there so many interpretations of these ancient texts?
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Join us this Sunday as we continue our series on the Bible.
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10:00am - Coffee and Krispy Kreme
10:30am - 12:00nn Worship Gathering
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
Kids church available.
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
Limited parking available at BGC Arts Center.
Here are the other car parks close to the center: https://www.bgcartscenter.org/plan-your-visit/77/plan-your-visit

Becoming together.

As Christians, we believe that the Bible is divine word. But we cannot deny that it is human word as well. It is not a book that fell from heaven or a collection of timeless truths for all time spoken into a vacuum.
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Regardless of how God spoke into these ancient writings, he chose to work through the fullness, the limits and the brokenness of what it means to be human beings living in specific ancient times, places and cultures.
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Every word, every sentence, every truth dispensed from it doesn’t exist apart from the human context it was written in. If we don’t keep this in mind, there’s a chance we might turn the Bible into some other kind of book.
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To extract all that God intends for us to receive from the Bible, it is healthy to remember our distance from the ancient times, places, and cultures of its context and origin.
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These people had agendas, questions they were asking, specific ways they would communicate. They told, wrote, compiled and edited their stories to accomplish particular purposes.
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When we try to enter the world of these ancient people, we can begin to make sense of what the scriptures might have for us today.
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Questions for personal reflection and group discussion:
1. Have you ever read the Bible? Regardless of how much you've read, how do you feel about it?
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2. Have you ever felt like God spoke to you through the Bible? What was that like?
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3. What does it tell us about God, that he chose to speak through the stories and encounters of human beings?
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4. How does it affect your faith to know that the Bible comes to us through a very human process? Why do you think that is?
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5. Do you think the stories in the Bible are still relevant for today? If so, how are they relevant?

Prayer: From Anam Cara by John O'Donohue
May the light of your soul guide you.
May the light of your soul bless the work
You do with the secret love and warmth of your heart.
May you see in what you do the beauty of your own soul.
May the sacredness of your work bring healing, light and renewal to those
Who work with you and to those who see and receive your work.
May your work never weary you.
May it release within you wellsprings of refreshment, inspiration and excitement.
May you be present in what you do.
May you never become lost in the bland absences.
May the day never burden you.
May dawn find you awake and alert, approaching your new day with dreams,
Possibilities and promises.
May evening find you gracious and fulfilled.
May you go into the night blessed, sheltered and protected.
May your soul calm, console and renew you.

“We look at this Son and see the God who cannot be seen. We look at this Son and see God’s original purpose in everything created.” 1 Colossians 1:15

If we want to know who God is and what God is like, the scripture asks us to pay close attention to Jesus.

What does it say to us about who God is and what God is like that Jesus is born into poverty, into a slave nation, instead of being born into the royal family of his time’s superpower? Who is God identifying with through Jesus’ birth?

What does it say to us about who God is and what God is like that he made the those who were considered “the outsiders” in his culture like women and foreigners the heroes of his stories?

What does is it say to us about who God is and what God is like that Jesus strived to include in his table those who had been written off by society, like those who would have been considered the worst sinners people of his time?

What does it say to us about who God is and what God is like when Jesus offered people a burden which is light and saves his harshest criticisms for those who felt like they were “the righteous ones”?

What does is say to us about who God is and what God is like, when Jesus asked us to love our neighbour as ourselves. When he forgave the people that falsely accused him, who brutalized and murdered him?

What does it say to us about who God is and what God is like when Jesus asked Peter, who had just drew his sword to defend Jesus, to lay his weapon down? When Jesus taught us that those who live by armed weapons shall also die by them?

Join us as and .zac lead us in community worship this Sunday (August 18) at church. Come before 10:30am for breakfast, coffee and conversations. ☕🍞

Join us this week as we start a new series on what the bible is, and why it’s still worth reading
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10:00am - Coffee and Krispy Kreme
10:30am - 12:00nn Worship Gathering
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
Kids church available. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
Limited parking available at BGC Art Center
Here are the other car parks close to the art center: https://www.bgcartscenter.org/plan-your-visit/77/plan-your-visit