Monthly Service Sermon – August 2017

Before God the Parent, Tenri-O-no-Mikoto, I, Owen Osamu Nakao, Pastor of Tenrikyo Pearl Church, pray with reverence:

God the Parent, as we receive Your overflowing grace and blessings, which grants us the free use our bodies, we advance toward the realization of the joyous life world as you guide us in our spiritual development. We are forever grateful for these blessings and we express our gratitude day and night as we apply our efforts in sprinkling the fragrance of the teachings and salvation work. Today is the day we are granted to conduct the August monthly service at Pearl Church. The service performers will now unite their hearts to perform the seated service and Teodori joyously and in high spirits. As you observe the brothers and sisters of the path who have looked forward to this day singing the songs of the service in unison, with hearts filled with gratitude for Your parental love, we hope that You can be spirited as well.

We give thanks for the successful completion of the annual Children’s Pilgrimage to Jiba in which one member of our church served as Boy’s & Girl’s Hinokishin Corps counselor. We give thanks for the opportunity do hinokishin in the community by doing yard work, for the elderly and disabled. We thank you deeply for these blessings as we strive to convey the teachings to as many people as possible. Later this month the annual Tenrikyo Bazaar will be held on August 27 with members of this church helping in preparation hinokishin, ohagi making, shuttle van driving, parking, bubble drink booth and cleanup. Also next month on September 24, we hope to be joining other sister churches under Tengen Bunkyokai in participating in the 2 nd Tengen Ojibagaeri Taikai (Jiba Pilgrimage Convention) activity. We pray for safe and successful events.

In this 180 th year of Tenrikyo, we vow to continue to work together with a unity of mind engaging in hinokishin and salvation work and encourage as much people as possible to return to Jiba. We pray for the victims and survivors of conflicts and disasters in the world; that they may have faith and resolve to overcome their grief and suffering.

With the Shinbashira as the core, we pledge to make sincere efforts in our daily lives to truly follow the Divine Model of Oyasama.

We pray that Your guidance will strengthen us into worthy Yoboku, striving with a single heart for the salvation of others. We hope that our efforts will bring joy to You and peace in this world where we all help one another as brothers and sisters. With our minds in unity towards the Truth of the Jiba, we would like to spiritedly perform the August Monthly Service.

In union with the congregation, I pray for these blessings.

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