wfn.org | Forbes Brings Worshipers to Their Feet

[PCUSA NEWS <pcusa.news@ecunet.org>]

GA99065 
25-June-1999 
 
              Forbes Brings Worshipers to Their Feet 
 
 
FORT WORTH-After inviting the worshipers at Wednesday's Ecumenical Worship 
Service to make him feel at home by saying or signing "amen" during his 
sermon, the Rev. James Forbes brought them to their feet with a rousing 
call to do the work of the One who sent Jesus into the world.  Everything 
God made, he said, must work the work of God. 
     Telling the story of the man born blind from John 9:1-11, Forbes said 
that Jesus must have had a difficult day as his teaching was interrupted by 
the incident of the woman caught in adultery and challenges from his 
adversaries.  When he came upon the blind man, it was his disciples who 
challenged him, seeking to assign blame for the man's blindness, but Jesus 
rebuked them by telling them that blame was not he point.   
     The point, Jesus told them, is that the man was born blind so that 
God's works might be revealed in him.  This story, Forbes said, represents 
the opportunity to manifest God's work to bring light.  In the story of the 
blind man, Jesus is in "the liberating laboratory of love in action," he 
said, curing the man's blindness.  The time, Forbes said, comes when you 
have to act.  Jesus came to give light.  The work Jesus does, he continued, 
cries out for our partnership. 
     Our responsibility, Forbes concluded, is to follow Christ along the 
way so that we can transform lives.  As the blind man wanted to dedicate 
himself after he was healed, so we must offer ourselves to do the work of 
the one who sent Jesus.  We will, he said, work together. 
       The Ecumenical Service of Worship honored the Jubilee Anniversary of 
the World Council of Churches (WCC).  Forbes took note of the Jubilee when 
he said that there are few institutions anywhere in the world that come 
close to the WCC 's work for reconciliation and justice. 
     Other participants in the service included Elder Freda Gardner, 
moderator of the 211th General Assembly, the Rev. Clifton Kirkpatrick, 
Stated Clerk, the Rev. Eugene G. Turner, associate stated clerk of the 
General Assembly and director of the Department of Governing Bodies, 
Ecumenical, and Agency Relationships, Elder Angela Abrego, El Divino 
Redentor Presbyterian Church, San Antonio, and Elder Betsy Pepper, chair of 
the Committee on Local Arrangements.   
     Ecumenical participants were the Rev. Fred Opalinski, Evangelical 
Lutheran Church in America, Elder Sook Ja Sohn, vice-moderator of The 
Presbyterian Church in the Republic of Korea, the Rev. Nigel J. Robb, 
Church of Scotland, the Rev. Jesse M. Kamau, Presbyterian Church of East 
Africa, and Hae Ja Han Yu, Presbyterian Church of Korea.   
     Music leaders were Wayne Davis and Danny Ray, choir director and 
organist, respectively, at Trinity Church in Dallas, and the combined 
choirs of DeSoto Presbyterian Church, DeSoto, First Presbyterian Church, 
Duncanville, First Presbyterian Church, Lancaster, and Glendale, Oak Cliff, 
Saint Luke, and Trinity Presbyterian Churches, all of Dallas. 
 
Nancy Rodman 

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