Jesus is Joy – December 18th

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jesus is joy

 

Joy is Jesus wrapped in swaddling bands,
Joy is Jesus in Mary’s loving hands.
Joy is Jesus making sorrow sing,
Mending deepest heartaches—what a gift to bring!

For from the highest heavens, knowing well His plan,
God laid Him in our hostile arms, the precious Son of Man.
Knowing all before Him—the crib, the cross, the cost—
He came to die at Calvary and seek and save the lost.

That’s you and me and everyone who’s living on this earth,
That’s men and women, black and white, who need and want new birth,
That’s those of us with broken hearts, and those who celebrate,
It’s those of us who love and laugh, and those of us who hate.

If empty was the manger, and empty was the cross,
If Jesus’ tomb was occupied, then all of us are lost.
But here lies heaven’s treasure, God’s precious, dearest prize,
In Him will all our future hopes and dreams be realized.
So may His joy now fill you, and the peace of God be known
Till we celebrate our Christ-masses around our Savior’s throne.

Invitations and Obligations – December 17th

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As part of preparing to build our current building, we ran a 3 year capital campaign to raise funds.   During that campaign I was part of a team that sent monthly letters to the congregation to report progress and encourage continued giving to the campaign.    The last year, December’s letter was due and I was pacing in the kitchen, thinking “What can I write about?”   “Write about invitations” was the answer.   I guess some prayers are answered even when we don’t realize we are praying.  This is the gist of that letter, as best as I remember.

Invitations are wonderful.  Most everyone wants to be invited to Christmas gatherings of friends and family.   We accept the invitation with a smile and excitement.   And then we realize that the invitation has turned into an obligation.   It’s an obligation to show up, participate, maybe even bring food or a gift to share.  Invitation is an exciting word; Obligation doesn’t always feel that way.   But can it?

 Following Jesus is like this.  We have accepted his great invitation to follow him.  Are we ready for the obligation that comes with that invitation?  As Methodist members we vow to uphold our church family with our prayers, our presence, our gifts, our service and our witness.   Those are the obligations that we accept with the invitation.  Do we feel the excitement and gratitude to be invited, to be included in following Jesus?  Do we feel the same excitement and gratitude to be so blessed that the obligation is a joy and an opportunity for us?

This year, the Christmas invitations are likely to be fewer and gatherings smaller, but God’s invitation is a grand as ever.     May we all have a Blessed Christmas that we greet with joy and gratitude.

 

Darcy Young

 

Thoughts from a Christian Music Junkie – December 16th

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I am admittedly a Christian music junkie. I’ve been ready to play Christian Christmas CD’s in my car since mid-October. One of my favorites that I belt out unabashedly off-key while driving (alone) is “Let There Be Light” from Point of Grace. If you’re the least bit computer-savvy, you can Google this and enjoy a YouTube version.

Here is what I think is the most pointed refrain:

“We who are His have this calling
To praise Him and make His name known
So one day the presence of Jesus
Shines in every heart and every home”

How do we “make his name known” in this time of pandemic/quarantine/isolation?

Invite someone, whether via phone call or text or snail mail, to join you in worship, in person if you are able/feel comfortable or via the livestream. Host a facebook watch party or share the church website with friends and family, even if they live afar. Many of our faith family do not have computer access; one savvy church member has shared on-line worship with a friend in assisted living via their phones on speaker mode.

In assembling these Advent kits, tools have been provided for everyone to celebrate the anticipation of Christ’s birth from their home. Mail out the Christmas greeting card that was included in the Advent kit to a neighbor or friend to whom you wouldn’t normally send a card. Contact the church office if you can think of someone who might not have received an Advent kit. Pray fervently for and enjoy the ideas/issues suggested in the Advent daily activity “grab bag”. Create your own Advent wreath and “light” a candle each Sunday of Advent.

My prayer for this Advent season is that the presence of Jesus shines in every heart and every home.

 

Melinda Scierra

In Those Days . . – December 15th

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Luke 2:1-5

In those days Caesar Augustus declared that everyone throughout the empire should be enrolled in the tax lists. 2 This first enrollment occurred when Quirinius governed Syria. 3 Everyone went to their own cities to be enrolled. 4 Since Joseph belonged to David’s house and family line, he went up from the city of Nazareth in Galilee to David’s city, called Bethlehem, in Judea. 5 He went to be enrolled together with Mary, who was promised to him in marriage and who was pregnant.

 

At the start of the Christmas story, Joseph believes that Mary has been unfaithful to him, and he initially plans to divorce from her.  Matthew tells us an angel appears and tells Joseph to stay.  God has a role in the Christmas story for Joseph.  He wants Joseph to say with Mary and help her raise the child, the Messiah.  God’s plans for Joseph are bigger than he can imagine at this moment.  We can imagine this wasn’t an easy decision for Joseph – gossip and shame would have followed the young couple everywhere.  But Joseph was faithful to this calling from God.

Reflect

Is God calling me to do something difficult?  How can I be faithful to the work he wants me to do?  What is one step I can take to be obedient to God’s call?

 

Robin Bedson

Jesus Comes and Comes Again – December 14th

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Revelation 19:11-16

Christ defeats the beast

11 Then I saw heaven opened, and there was a white horse. Its rider was called Faithful and True, and he judges and makes war justly.

12 His eyes were like a fiery flame, and on his head were many royal crowns. He has a name written on him that no one knows but he himself.

13 He wore a robe dyed with blood, and his name was called the Word of God.

14 Heaven’s armies, wearing fine linen that was white and pure, were following him on white horses.

15 From his mouth comes a sharp sword that he will use to strike down the nations. He is the one who will rule them with an iron rod. And he is the one who will trample the winepress of the Almighty God’s passionate anger.

16 He has a name written on his robe and on his thigh: King of kings and Lord of lords.

 

Thoughts

During December we remember and wait with expectation for the advent of the baby Jesus, the long expected savior of the world.  Advent means arrival, appearance or coming.  The four weeks preceding Christmas, the Advent season, are the time to prepare our heart as we focus on the real meaning of Christmas, the first coming of Jesus.  How awesome that the God of heaven came to earth as a baby.  Old Testament prophesies fore-told of the miraculous virgin birth and his humble beginning here on earth and even detailed his human family’s lineage and place of birth.

At the first Advent Jesus came as a baby, he lived as a human experiencing all of the same emotions that we experience, yet he lived a sinless life.  It is only through his sacrificial death on the cross that his “life” and purpose is complete.  Christmas is not complete without the cross.   It is only through his sacrifice that we can have eternal life.  Without this first advent, we have no hope.  Jesus is our hope and our way to eternal life in the presence of our God.

We are told in these verses in Revelation to expect a second advent (coming) when Jesus return as a judge and with justice to trample Satan once and for all.  The cycle will then be complete.  The perfect world created by God (Genesis) was altered by the deceiver (Satan in the form of a serpent).  Sin entered the world.  Jesus came as the baby (savior) to give every person a way back to fellowship with God (Jesus’ death on the cross).  The final chapter in the story is God’s justice in stamping out evil and striking down Satan (Revelation).

Born into the human world, God came down, lived among us and died to give us life.  Jesus is our King of kings and our Lord of Lords.  Praise God.

Prayer

Thank you, father God, that you cared enough for me to provide a way for me to have fellowship with you in spite of sin in the world and my sins.  Thank you for sending part of yourself to earth as a baby and as a sacrifice to pay for my sins.  Thank you that your justice reigns and is complete.  You are King of kings and Lord of lords.  Thank you for providing a way for me to have fellowship with you, the perfect, sinless God of the universe.  Amen.

 

Joyce Blowers

Anticipation – December 13th

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Advent Wreath Candle Lighting

Third Week of Advent, December 13, 2020

Isaiah 61:1-4, 8-11 & John 1:6-8, 19-28

Reader One: We want everything to look nice: the decorations of the season, our homes with their lights and tinsel, wreaths and ribbons. We want to lighten the darkness around us, bring beauty to the ugliness that wears us down. We decorate, because it is tradition. Because it lifts our hearts. Because it makes us feel like children again. We deck our halls because company is coming.

Reader Two: The prophet Isaiah smiled when he said, “God will give a garland instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning, a mantle of praise instead of a faint spirit.” No matter how far we feel from the spirit of the season, God promises to decorate us with love and with joy.

Reader One: We light these candles as a sign of our joy in the beautiful things of this season – not just the things that glitter and flash, but the deeper things, the beauty of the heart and the soul, the beauty of love shared in service and hospitality. We light this candle of joy because company is coming.

Reader Two: O Come, O Come Emmanuel.

 

Advent is a time of anticipation, both on Earth and in Heaven.  Here we begin our advent with Church services and the beginning of the Christmas story being told.  We bake cookies, and decorate our homes with colorful lights and of course, the wonderful smelling Christmas tree.

In heaven, God is sending angels to the shepherds and a star to lead the wise men.  On earth, we wrap presents in colorful paper while in Heaven, God is wrapping his only son in swaddling clothes.  We put our angel on the tree first, as God sends his angel to watch over the manger.

Such a comforting and warm anticipation knowing God is beginning his lessons to help mankind know his teachings through his son.  We learn each year throughout the Advent season, that

God has a plan for his son and for us all. Calling his son, Jesus Emmanuel, God with us, shows us the promise God is giving us. Let us share this story throughout the Advent season to remind all mankind that God will take care of us.

 

Carol Parisella

anticipation

 

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A Child is Born – December 12th

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Isaiah 9:6-7

A child is born to us, a son is given to us,

    and authority will be on his shoulders.

    He will be named

    Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,

    Eternal Father, Prince of Peace.

7 There will be vast authority and endless peace

    for David’s throne and for his kingdom,

    establishing and sustaining it

    with justice and righteousness

    now and forever.

Luke 2:29-32

 Simeon took Jesus in his arms and praised God. He said,

29 “Now, master, let your servant go in peace according to your word,
30     because my eyes have seen your salvation.
31 You prepared this salvation in the presence of all peoples.
32 It’s a light for revelation to the Gentiles
and a glory for your people Israel.”

Mary Pondering – December 11th

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Mary Pondering                               Luke 1:46-55

 

But in the days to come,

        the mountain of the Lord’s house

            will be the highest of the mountains;

        it will be lifted above the hills;

            peoples will stream to it.

2 Many nations will go and say:mary pondering

    “Come, let’s go up to the mountain of the Lord,

            to the house of Jacob’s God,

        so that he may teach us his ways

            and we may walk in God’s paths!”

Instruction will come from Zion

        and the Lord’s word from Jerusalem.

3 God will judge between the nations

        and settle disputes of mighty nations,

            which are far away.

They will beat their swords into iron plows

        and their spears into pruning tools.

Nation will not take up sword against nation;

        they will no longer learn how to make war.

4 All will sit underneath their own grapevines,

        under their own fig trees.

    There will be no one to terrify them;

        for the mouth of the Lord of heavenly forces has spoken.

 

The prophets look forward to a day when all nations will live in peace and justice. Reflect on actions and attitudes that make for peace.  Where is peace needed in the world today?

Let the Stable Still Astonish – December 10th

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Let the stable still astonish:
Straw-dirt floor, dull eyes,
Dusty flanks of donkeys, oxen;
Crumbling, crooked walls;
No bed to carry that pain,
And then, the child,
Rag-wrapped, laid to cry
In a trough.

Who would have chosen this?
Who would have said: “Yes,
Let the God of all the heavens and earth
be born here, in this place.” ?

Who but the same God
Who stands in the darker, fouler rooms of our hearts
and says, “Yes, let the God
of Heaven and Earth
be born here —-
in this place.”

            Leslie Leyland Fields

let the stable still astonish

 

Waiting in Hope

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Advent December 2020
Prelude to conversation…

We are waiting aren’t we?
We are longing for, urgently expecting and impatiently waiting for the end of COVID.

This is not the first time that people have been longing for the end of something…urgently expecting a better/brighter day…and impatiently waiting for the moment to be over.

When our country fought the Civil War, all folks longed for the end, expected a better day and waited impatiently for the war to be over. Of course the folks who had been brought to this country to be slaves had been longing for the end of slavery, expecting a better day and waiting for freedom for more than 100 years before the war was over. Black Lives Matter reminds us that though the Civil War is long over…there are still many longing for freedom, expecting a better day and waiting impatiently for justice.

Same thing could be said for every war…WW1, WW2, Korean, Vietnam, Iraq etc. In those times
there was plenty of waiting, longing, and expecting.
Same thing could be said for the last pandemic. Reading articles written in 1918, one could think that those articles had been written this year…in regards to the longing for it to be over, the expecting that tomorrow will be brighter, the waiting for “normal” to return.

At the end of these periods of longing, expecting and waiting there was a resolution of some sort. That which we longed for…peace, that which we expected…a better day, and that which we waited for… a return to “normal”… happened, though not exactly alike for everyone, there was a moment at the end of the crisis when there was hope. Hope for peace on earth and good will for everyone. Hope for a better day when all the barriers…when all the mountains and valleys would be made a level living field. Hope that a new “normal” would exceed the old “normal”.

So… we have evidence that hope can be born, or brought back to life, even in the worst possible moments of life. We long for hope to be restored in all people. We expect that hope will bring a brighter day. We wait for the star…the light… to guide us to a stable in Bethlehem or better yet…a place in our hearts… where hope will be reborn into our world.

There is work still to do. There is a pandemic still to be brought into control. There will still be months of longing, expecting and waiting. AND while this is so…so is the assurance that God-is-with-us. Just down the road…the light of hope is becoming visible. If we follow that light…
then even in the midst of longing, expecting and waiting for COVID to end…there is hope.

Hope!

-Rev Ted Anderson