Hyde Park United Methodist

The Lord’s Prayer as we know it today is drawn from a few different gospels, and has variations among different faith traditions. Praying the Lord’s Prayer draws us together in communion with God and community with each other. It properly sets the framework of prayer as being first an act of praise to God before it is an act of petition. It acknowledges our faults and confesses our sins, and notes the impact that our behavior has on others. And it ends with a claim on hope, and the certainty of God’s abiding presence with us. The Lord’s Prayer gives us guidance on how to make balanced, holistic prayer a way of life, not just a thing to recite.

Jesus calls out those who flaunt their charity and their piety in front of others. They need to be governed by an inner motivation that is right with God, a “hidden holiness” that is sourced from a pure heart. Our external behavior needs to be consistent with our inner motivation.

These verses contain some of the most unsettling and radical ideas in the entire Sermon on the Mount. Jesus takes Old Testament commandments about murder, adultery, divorce, oath-keeping, and revenge and takes them one step further. It is not enough, according to Jesus, to simply keep the letter of the law. That is just the starting point. To truly fulfill the law, we need to pay attention to what is in our hearts, our motivations, and be governed by a spirit of love.

Few passages in the gospels are as iconic as the Beatitudes, the opening verses of the Sermon on the Mount. The key, repeating word is “Blessed.”. These are also radical inversions of contemporary wisdom, in which we are unsettled (and even disturbed) by what Jesus is calling us to. This Sunday, we will go through each of the beatitudes, and discover their power in and through us.

As we celebrate the new year, help us grieve all we have lost and left behind in 2020, anticipate the year ahead, and guide us in recommitting our hearts to God.

As we draw the year to a close, we also conclude our amazing, year-long journey through the Bible. The book of Revelation reminds us that by looking back and looking forward, we can gain the hope, courage, and resilience to live fully in the present.

Christmas is the incarnation of a paradox—Jesus—fully human and fully divine. Two seemingly incompatible ideas held together in one person. Jesus models a way of being that embraces the tensions and messiness of our lives.

Living with Love means sharing the gift of God’s love, through faith in Jesus Christ. We love God and others because of the truth of God’s love revealed to us in Jesus Christ. Failure to believe in Jesus will lead to a lesser expression of love, even hatred and division. And loving God means taking the truth of our faith and making it impactful on the lives of others.

Join us from 6p - 8p on Friday, Dec 18 and Saturday, Dec. 19 at our Hyde Park campus (500 W Platt Street, Tampa, FL 33606) for a drive-thru nativity featuring our youth and children's ministries.Be sure to pause and play the narration as you drive through each scene.

Living with joy means seeing suffering and tribulation as opportunities, not simply as challenges. Hardship happens to all of us. What should distinguish us as followers of Jesus is our response to that suffering, and James offers some surprising advice: consider suffering as an opportunity for joy. How? Because hardship can make us stronger.

Living with peace does not mean avoiding conflict, but holding one’s truth lovingly. The two key points in this passage are to pray for everyone and live in God’s truth. Paul was writing to Timothy in a time when there were many false teachers, and such heresy, blasphemy, and idolatry were a significant threat to new Christians and leaders in the church.

The practical message here comes from verses 16-19: “Rejoice always. Pray continually. Give thanks in every situation because this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus. Don’t suppress the Spirit. 1 Thessalonians is one of the earliest epistles from Paul, and therefore one of the first New Testament books written. It emerged relatively soon after the birth of the church, when the first Christians were living in hope and expectation of the imminent return of Jesus. 

In his letter, Paul reminds members of the church in Ephesus to be characterized by unity, because there is unity in the Godhead. It also reminds us that even today, we can be part of the great unfolding story of God’s love. On this Commitment Sunday, we will be sharing our Estimate of Giving Cards as a tangible and practical way for us to “each do our part.” Regardless of the size of our estimate, know that together, in unity, God can use us to make a profound impact on the world.

Paul’s letter to the Corinthians addressed the significant issues of conflict that plagued that early congregation. It was part of a wider, cosmopolitan community marked by a melting pot of ideologies and perspectives. In his letter, Paul continually returned to the quality of love, which to him was central to the character of the Christian. We remember that because of God’s love, we can respond in generosity and self-sacrifice for the world. And one of the ways that we can grow deeper in our commitment to God is by giving our money to God out of a sense of love and gratitude.

This Sunday, we will remember those in our congregation who passed away in the past year. This year, we remember them in the scriptural context of Acts 15. The new church had reached a crossroads of identity, in which it had to decide whether to adhere strictly to Jewish custom and practice, or make allowance for Gentiles to follow Jesus without becoming cultural Jews. As we remember the saints of the church, we see in them reminders of how they modeled such love and grace, and remind us that we can be the same.