Meditation on This Sunday's Gospel
by Kristin Berkey-Abbott
The readings for Sunday, January 1, 2012:
Isaiah 61:10—62:3
Psalm 148
The splendor of the LORD is over earth and heaven. (Ps. 148:13)
Galatians 4:4-7
Luke 2:22-40
By now, you may be feeling that familiar post-holiday let down. Many of us spend the first weeks in the new year feeling bereft: our favorite set of holidays is over, our friends and families have left us and maybe left us feeling let down, and we have to deal with all the ways our holidays weren't what we wanted. Maybe we have whiney children to entertain. Maybe we're missing a loved one who won't ever return to us. We miss the lights and the sense of anticipation, the parties and the expectations. What's left to look forward to? Our New Year's resolutions? Presidents’ Day? No wonder so many of us go into a funk.
It's important to remember this feeling when we hear about the life of Jesus in the weeks to come. From a distance of 2000 years, it's difficult to understand why so many people were resistant to Jesus' message. But many of Jesus' contemporaries had a post-Christmas feeling when they saw Jesus in action: "This guy is our Messiah??? For how many years did we wait??? And this is what we get???" Keep in mind that the Jews of Jesus' time wanted a Messiah who would defeat the Romans and return their holy places to them. What did they get? A guy who spoke of love, a guy who offered them spiritual liberation, which was not the kind of liberation for which they yearned.
But throughout Jesus' life, there were some people who recognized him. Today we hear about Simeon. In later weeks, we'll hear about the first disciples, who left their careers and family to follow Jesus. We'll also hear about people who didn't believe, people who would eventually demand the death of Jesus.
Where are you in these stories in the weeks to come? Are you Simeon, who has been faithful, for decades longer than most of us could have been? Are you Anna, the prophetess who has been watching for a very long time? Are you Mary and Joseph, parents to a very special child? Are you the disciples, willing to risk it all, if it means a closer relationship with Christ?
Or are you a Pharisee, disappointed with what God offers you? How can you move away from being wrecked by your emotions, in order to see the great gifts offered to you?
Maybe, instead of adopting the standard resolutions (losing those 10 pounds, getting a raise, exercising more often), you could snap out of your post-Christmas blues by thinking about resolutions that would enrich you spiritually. Could you read your Bible more? Could you start and end your day in prayer? Could you move towards tithing? Could this be the year you take a retreat?
God reaches out to you, going so far as to take on human form. What are you willing to do in return?
Wednesday, December 28, 2011
Monday, December 26, 2011
SAM will not be in the office until JAN 24th due to her vacation.
Due to other vacations, please contact Earline LaCroix at home for any emergencies.
Her contact information will be left on the church answering machine.
After JAN 2 you may contact Pastor Keith for emergencies at
(954) 668-6077
If you are in need of a PRAYER SHAWL while the office is closed, please see DANY VEGA or LIZ LOMBARDO.
JAN 1st (SUN) one service at 10:45AM led by Pastor Bedenbaugh who will also be providing pastoral care while Pastor Keith is gone.
PLEASE HELP:
Volunteers needed to assist John Walker in putting away Christmas decorations following the JAN 1st service.
SUN, JAN 8th and thereafter
Worship at 8AM and 10:45AM
Sunday School for children, youth, and adults at 9:30AM
Sunday, December 25, 2011
Saturday, December 24, 2011
CHRISTMAS SERMON 2011
If
there is one thing that we seem to do a lot of around the holidays, it is eat.
If you want some evidence I could tell you how long it took me to get out of
the Publix parking lot yesterday in the middle of the afternoon – trust me – it
took ages! Now some meals are simple – three or four ingredients – then there
are those whose list seems to go on forever – obscure spices like crushed cardamom
and weird vegetables that look like they were grown on the space station. We
run around trying to find all of these ingredients and then we begin to wonder –
could we get away with ignoring one? I
mean – a quarter of a teaspoon – who would miss it?
Think
about how you would complete this sentence: “It just wouldn’t be Christmas
without …what?” It just wouldn’t be Christmas without …what?
That
can be a tough question to answer especially for a child. As a kid, Christmas
for me was all about expectations. The Sears Wishbook was printed and mailed
out to homes in late September and my sisters and I would fight over who got to
look at it first. And we would check each and every page and write down on a
yellow legal pad the things that we desired in our hearts for Christmas
presents – the page numbers and the item number and the price, the color and
quantity, everything, so that there would be no mistakes. These lists could
grow quite long when one included things like sunfish sailboats and lava lamps
and chemistry sets and electric guitars and all of the others things that the
geniuses at Sears included to entice little boys like me. I never received any
of those things by the way. Now if one wrote down seven pages of things, one
was bound to be a bit disappointed in the end. Having the wrong expectations
can certainly lead to disappointment.
Even
if the Wishbook was not a part of your Christmas past, your Christmas does come
with expectations, doesn’t it? Maybe your list of expectations includes things
like decorating a tree with ornaments full of memories and stories, heirloom
balls handed down from previous generations or children’s handmade snowflakes
or ornaments that declare “My first Christmas” or “Our First Christmas.” Maybe your expectations of Christmas include
decorating cookies and sharing them (or eating them or both!) Or buying and
wrapping presents or preparing the family letter or mailing Christmas cards or
eggnog or a special Christmas Dinner. We could, one supposes, also throw in a
few holiday specials and Christmas movies and the inevitable new Christmas CD. Expectations
– Christmas is filled with them: what we need to experience or have occur or do
so that Christmas, in a word, happens, for us. I mean, what would Christmas be without
a Starbucks white chocolate mocha frappuccino?
Think about it “It just wouldn’t be Christmas
without …what?”
We
each anchor our Christmas’ in certain expectations.
But
what if – and I know this may seem peculiar – but what if our expectations were
turned inside out.
We
put so much time and effort into Christmas. There are so many cultural
expectations and emotional expectations and psychological expectations and
financial expectations and family obligations and then there always remains
that white chocolate mocha frappuccino.
Turned
our primary focus away from the pressures of weeks and weeks of trying to make
sure that everyone has a nice Christmas; away from the pressures of weeks and
weeks of trying to make sure that we have done what we need to do, experienced
what we need to experience, baked those cookies, bought those gifts, sang those
songs, the tinsel, the garland, the white
chocolate mocha frappuccino. And instead, turned our primary focus towards a life in
which as Charles Dickens suggests, we declare that: “I will honor Christmas in
my heart, and try to keep it all the year.”
What
if our expectations were turned inside out?
What
would happen if instead of trying to put Christ back into Christmas or being a
soldier fighting the “Happy Holiday” versus “Merry Christmas” war, how about
instead we take on Charles Dicken’s challenge and simply commit to honoring
Christmas in our heart and try to keep it all the year? To honor Christmas and
to keep always in our hearts is to honor Christ and to follow him. And when we
do that can’t the hustle and bustle and stress of the last few weeks or even
months (for some people it is months and you know who you are!) - couldn’t all of that find itself transformed?
Likely not all at once, but in time, undoubtedly it could, couldn’t it? And couldn’t
so much more in our lives?
A
while back, a mother came up to me and told me that her children wanted to be
involved with feeding hungry people and did I know where they might be able to do
that.
From
their desire was born our continuing monthly commitment to feeding the hungry of
Fort Lauderdale at 1st Lutheran Church’s feeding program. I imagine
something like 3,000 people have been fed and shared in conversation with us
over the past few years. But those who have participated from the congregation
have received much more than they have given – it is always that way when one
is following Jesus. In giving of their time and in their willingness to enter
into the lives of people who are suffering and marginalized and demonized and
ignored by a vast majority of folks these days, those who have gone have come
back different people. They have been changed. All because the Holy Spirit
invited them through the hearts of a couple of kids invited by the cross of
Jesus to follow him.
And
that new life is amazing. Yes, there is suffering there. Yes, there is difficulty
there. That life will not be free of sadness and loss. But that life won for us
by Jesus and that we live for Jesus will change us – it always does.
To honor Christmas in our hearts and keep it always is to honor
Christ. Yes, we honor Christ tonight by being here, but much more importantly
is how we will honor Christ when we leave. Because it just wouldn’t be Christmas without the
cross inviting us to live into the amazing life that began at the cross for you
and me. AMEN!
Friday, December 23, 2011
Thursday, December 22, 2011
Meditation on This Sunday's Gospel
by Kristin Berkey-Abbott
The readings for Sunday, December 25, 2011:
Choice 1:
First Reading: Isaiah 62:6-12
Psalm: Psalm 97
Second Reading: Titus 3:4-7
Gospel: Luke 2:[1-7] 8-20
Choice 2:
First Reading: Isaiah 52:7-10
Psalm: Psalm 98
Second Reading: Hebrews 1:1-4 [5-12]
Gospel: John 1:1-14
In this season of dying dictators (Muammar Gaddafi and Kim Jong Il) and dying dissidents (Vaclav Havel), it is interesting to come across the Gospel from John for Christmas day. I’ve watched Koreans weeping for their “dear leader” who left thousands of his people to starve to death, literally, in the cold. I’ve been reflecting on the way that language can shape us for good and evil. And now, here’s an uncommon metaphor for God: God as a word that lives amongst us.
I’ve been thinking about how despots use language to convince the people that they’re living different lives than the reality they actually experience. I’m thinking about how dissidents use a similar tool to dismantle empires. Anne Applebaum wrote a great essay about Havel for Tuesday's The Washington Post. She writes:
"In this essay (‘The Power of the Powerless’), Havel didn’t talk about marches or demonstrations. Instead, he asked the inhabitants of totalitarian countries to 'live in truth': that is, to go about their daily lives as if the regime did not exist, to the extent that was possible in societies where the state ran all businesses and all schools, owned most of the property and banned free speech and free press. By the late 1980s, 'living in truth' was widely practiced across central Europe. The first time I went to Poland in 1987, I stayed with friends. According to the law, I was supposed to register my presence in a private home with the police. 'We don’t do that,' my friends told me. 'We don’t believe the police have the right to know who stays with us.' I didn’t register — and because thousands of other people didn’t either, that law became unenforceable.
But Havel proposed more than mere civil disobedience. He also argued in favor of what we would now call civil society, urging the inhabitants of totalitarian states to found small institutions — musical groups, sporting groups, literary groups — that would develop the 'independent life of society' and prevent their members from being totally controlled from above. This, too, was widely practiced, in Prague’s famous underground philosophy seminars, in the illegal printing presses all across the communist world, in Poland’s independent 'Flying University,' and, most successfully, in Poland’s independent trade unions."
Reading about these resistance techniques reminded me of Nelson Mandela, who spent his decades in prison not plotting revenge but dreaming about the best ways to govern. When he was released and elected president, he was ready with plans for creating a better South Africa.
The good news that the angels announce is not just that God has come to live in our neighborhoods in the messiness that is a human life, although that would certainly be good enough news. But the true scope of the message has to do with the redemption of creation. God has broken through the dictatorships that would hold our imaginations in dank prisons. The redemption of creation is underway, and we’re invited to participate.
We can choose to live as people of God, no matter what our human empires would have us believe. We do not have to weep in the ruins of our cities. Advent has promised us that help is on the way, and Christmas gives us the Good News that the redeemer has come, and in the most unlikely circumstances.
That’s the way redemption works—not in the ways we would expect, but in surprising ways that take us where we could not dream of going, and sometimes faster than we would expect. If we could travel back in time to tell the people of 1985 that the Soviet Union would soon crumble and South Africa would be free of white rule, the people of 1985 would think we were insane. If we could travel back to the first century of the Roman empire to tell of what the followers of Jesus would accomplish, those people would laugh at us—if they even knew who Jesus was.
In a Monday essay in The Washington Post, Madeleine Albright sums Havel this way: “he declared himself neither an optimist (‘because I am not sure everything ends well,’) nor a pessimist (‘because I am not sure everything ends badly’) but, instead, ‘a realist who carries hope, and hope is the belief that freedom and justice have meaning . . . and that liberty is always worth the trouble.’”
Christians, too, believe that freedom and justice have meaning and that liberty is always worth the trouble. And if we believe in the Good News that surrounds us at Christmas, we can be wild-eyed optimists. We know that things will end well; we have a multitude of promises and plenty of evidence that God will keep those promises of liberty for the captives.
by Kristin Berkey-Abbott
The readings for Sunday, December 25, 2011:
Choice 1:
First Reading: Isaiah 62:6-12
Psalm: Psalm 97
Second Reading: Titus 3:4-7
Gospel: Luke 2:[1-7] 8-20
Choice 2:
First Reading: Isaiah 52:7-10
Psalm: Psalm 98
Second Reading: Hebrews 1:1-4 [5-12]
Gospel: John 1:1-14
In this season of dying dictators (Muammar Gaddafi and Kim Jong Il) and dying dissidents (Vaclav Havel), it is interesting to come across the Gospel from John for Christmas day. I’ve watched Koreans weeping for their “dear leader” who left thousands of his people to starve to death, literally, in the cold. I’ve been reflecting on the way that language can shape us for good and evil. And now, here’s an uncommon metaphor for God: God as a word that lives amongst us.
I’ve been thinking about how despots use language to convince the people that they’re living different lives than the reality they actually experience. I’m thinking about how dissidents use a similar tool to dismantle empires. Anne Applebaum wrote a great essay about Havel for Tuesday's The Washington Post. She writes:
"In this essay (‘The Power of the Powerless’), Havel didn’t talk about marches or demonstrations. Instead, he asked the inhabitants of totalitarian countries to 'live in truth': that is, to go about their daily lives as if the regime did not exist, to the extent that was possible in societies where the state ran all businesses and all schools, owned most of the property and banned free speech and free press. By the late 1980s, 'living in truth' was widely practiced across central Europe. The first time I went to Poland in 1987, I stayed with friends. According to the law, I was supposed to register my presence in a private home with the police. 'We don’t do that,' my friends told me. 'We don’t believe the police have the right to know who stays with us.' I didn’t register — and because thousands of other people didn’t either, that law became unenforceable.
But Havel proposed more than mere civil disobedience. He also argued in favor of what we would now call civil society, urging the inhabitants of totalitarian states to found small institutions — musical groups, sporting groups, literary groups — that would develop the 'independent life of society' and prevent their members from being totally controlled from above. This, too, was widely practiced, in Prague’s famous underground philosophy seminars, in the illegal printing presses all across the communist world, in Poland’s independent 'Flying University,' and, most successfully, in Poland’s independent trade unions."
Reading about these resistance techniques reminded me of Nelson Mandela, who spent his decades in prison not plotting revenge but dreaming about the best ways to govern. When he was released and elected president, he was ready with plans for creating a better South Africa.
The good news that the angels announce is not just that God has come to live in our neighborhoods in the messiness that is a human life, although that would certainly be good enough news. But the true scope of the message has to do with the redemption of creation. God has broken through the dictatorships that would hold our imaginations in dank prisons. The redemption of creation is underway, and we’re invited to participate.
We can choose to live as people of God, no matter what our human empires would have us believe. We do not have to weep in the ruins of our cities. Advent has promised us that help is on the way, and Christmas gives us the Good News that the redeemer has come, and in the most unlikely circumstances.
That’s the way redemption works—not in the ways we would expect, but in surprising ways that take us where we could not dream of going, and sometimes faster than we would expect. If we could travel back in time to tell the people of 1985 that the Soviet Union would soon crumble and South Africa would be free of white rule, the people of 1985 would think we were insane. If we could travel back to the first century of the Roman empire to tell of what the followers of Jesus would accomplish, those people would laugh at us—if they even knew who Jesus was.
In a Monday essay in The Washington Post, Madeleine Albright sums Havel this way: “he declared himself neither an optimist (‘because I am not sure everything ends well,’) nor a pessimist (‘because I am not sure everything ends badly’) but, instead, ‘a realist who carries hope, and hope is the belief that freedom and justice have meaning . . . and that liberty is always worth the trouble.’”
Christians, too, believe that freedom and justice have meaning and that liberty is always worth the trouble. And if we believe in the Good News that surrounds us at Christmas, we can be wild-eyed optimists. We know that things will end well; we have a multitude of promises and plenty of evidence that God will keep those promises of liberty for the captives.
Tuesday, December 20, 2011
The office is closed until JAN 2nd.
SAM will not be in the office until JAN 24th due to her vacation.
Due to other vacations, please contact Earline LaCroix at home for any emergencies.
Her contact information will be left on the church answering machine.
After JAN 2 you may contact Pastor Keith for emergencies at
(954) 668-6077
If you are in need of a PRAYER SHAWL while the office is closed, please see DANY VEGA or LIZ LOMBARDO.
JAN 1st (SUN) one service at 10:45AM
***Volunteers needed to assist in putting away Christmas decorations following the service***
SUN, JAN 8th and thereafter
Worship at 8AM and 10:45AM
Sunday School for children, youth, and adults at 9:30AM
Monday, December 19, 2011
5PM Inside/Outside Sunset Service .
7:30PM Family Service w/hand chimes
11PM Christmas Eve Cantata Service w/the Trinity Worship Choir
+++All Services include candles and communion+++
25th (Sunday) CHRISTMAS DAY SERVICE
10:45AM (only) Cantata Service
reprise
JAN 1st 2012 EPIPHANY Sunday w/ Healing
and Healthy Coffee Hour
(One service at 10:45AM
only)
JAN 8th 2012 BAPTISM OF OUR
LORD
We return to
our 8AM and 10:45AM schedule
Sunday, December 18, 2011
Saturday, December 17, 2011
LUKE
1 THE 4th SUNDAY IN ADVENT SERMON DEC 18th 2011
In
today’s Gospel one wonders if Gabriel isn’t being a little like a used car salesman
(no offense to the used car salesman of the world – they just have this almost
universal reputation, deserved or not, of always lifting up the good points,
while withholding any potential flaws in the automobile at hand. So Gabriel fails
to mention that this baby that will dwell in her uterus for nine months, swell
her ankles, give her morning sickness, enlarge her belly and strain her back,
that this baby will come into the world in a feeding trough for animals without
antiseptic or epidural or with the mess of afterbirth.
So
God is about to save the world by coming into the world in the flesh. Coming as
a baby chilling inside of Mary for those 9 long months as many babies do, those
who do not come early or late to the party, so to speak. Mary, with her
betrothed Joseph, working class folks before the term probably existed. He a
carpenter. She, well, Mary. We use churchy words like incarnation, to describe
what God does here – becomes flesh, fully human, yet at the same time in this
incarnation, fully divine.
How?
Well,
as Mary says, nothing is impossible with God; the Holy Spirit being the means
through which God’s plan of salvation comes to fruition. The Holy Spirit doing
what it always does – God’s will.
Why
should we care? Because we believe that we, as the confession says, are slaves
to sin and cannot free ourselves. So God had to do it and chose to do it
incarnationally. By coming into the world in the flesh, to be born as children
are born. To live as we live. To suffer and to die so that the power of death
would be broken and through grace to welcome us with him into the Kingdom.
A
dozen years ago my family and I were living and serving in Baltimore and celebrating
Christmas with family. That year was a year of complicated Lego sets and I had
a thousand pieces and an instruction book the size of an unabridged dictionary in
front of me building this, this thing, one small piece at a time. And starting over
and over my mind befuddled from a midnight mass and too little sleep. Then the
phone rang, which was not unusual being Christmas morning with lots of our
family in places far away. But the phone call did not begin with “Merry Christmas”
but rather, Vicar Keith, my mother is about to die – could you come quickly?
And so I did, leaving family and unfinished Lego sets and dinner - and despite driving a ticket-able speed, she
died before I got there, her two sons meeting me at the door to her room, the
fullness of what just happened settling in, written in their expressions, their
eyes, the weight bearing them down.
And
if I thought that build a 1,000 piece Lego set was befuddling and pretty much
beyond my ability, well, standing in that room with these two men looking at me,
their mother laying dead on the bed in front of us, their expressions saying “now
what?” or perhaps “say something, speak into the silence, to our pain and
grief.” They wanting something to cling
to, and I reaching, hoping and praying for something to cling to, to give me
voice, words, something, my Christmas morning not at all going to plan.
Like
Mary as she declares: Here am I, the servant of the Lord; let it be
with me according to your word.
Let
us all say: Here am I, the servant of the Lord; let it be with me according to
your word.
AMEN!
Wednesday, December 14, 2011
Meditation on This Sunday's Gospel
by Kristin Berkey-Abbott
The Readings for Sunday, December 18, 2011:
First Reading: 2 Samuel 7:1-11, 16
Psalm: Luke 1:47-55 (Luke 1:46b-55 NRSV)
Psalm (Alt.): Psalm 89:1-4, 19-26
Second Reading: Romans 16:25-27
Gospel: Luke 1:26-38
Today we get to one of the more familiar Advent stories, one of the ones we expect to be hearing. We may say, “Thank goodness! I’m tired of John the Baptist. I can relate to Mary.”
Can we relate to Mary? Two thousand years of Church tradition tend to paint her in terms that serve whatever purpose society needed at the time. So in some decades we see Mary a perfect woman, sinless and blameless, the kind of woman who transcends humanity and gives birth to the Lord. Some decades write Mary out of the picture once the work in the stable is done, while other decades depict her as an interfering mother—the first helicopter parent!
I’m not Catholic, so I’ve never had to wrestle with the idea of Mary as sinless. In fact, the churches of my childhood and adolescence stressed that Mary was as human as the rest of us. In a recent blog post, Pastor Joelle stresses: “In fact, I think the whole idea of the Immaculate Conception, that Mary HAD to be conceived without sin in order for her womb to be worthy to hold Christ kind of chips away at the whole idea of the Incarnation and God entering this messy sinful world. And it begins with entering the womb of a young girl who was, like the rest of us, far from perfect. Mary doesn't need to be perfect to hold Jesus. And neither do we.”
We’ve heard the story of Mary so many times that we forget how remarkable it really is. We forget how bizarre the story told by the angel Gabriel must seem. A young girl growing God in her womb? A post-menopausal woman conceiving? It’s all too much to fathom.
I always wonder if there were women who sent Gabriel away: "I'm going to be the mother of who? It will happen how? Go away. I don't have time for this nonsense. If God wants to perform a miracle, let God teach my children not to track so much dirt into this house."
We won't ever hear about those women, because they decided that they didn't want to be part of God's glorious vision.
It’s important, too, to notice that God’s glorious vision doesn’t always match the way we would expect God to act. We see a history of God choosing the lowly, the meek, the outcast. Moses the stutterer, David the cheater, Peter the doubter. What business school would endorse this approach to brand building?
But our Scriptures remind us again and again that God works in mystical ways that our rational brains can’t always comprehend. If God can accomplish great things by means of a young woman, a barren woman, a variety of wandering preachers and prophets, tax collectors and fisherman, just think what God might accomplish with all of our gifts and resources.
Of course, first we have to hear that message, that invitation from God. It’s hard for this message to make its way through all the fear-based messages beamed to us from our culture. The angel tells Mary not to be afraid, and that is a message we need to hear. Don't dance with your dread. Don't keep company with your fears, your worst case scenarios. Dream big. Think of the world God promises (read further in Luke): God will fill the hungry with good things. The one who is mighty does great things for the lowly.
We have much to fear, but we’re not that different from past cultures. The ancient prophets move me to tears with the promise of the building up of the ancient ruins, the raising up the former devastations, the repair the ruined cities (last week’s Isaiah reading) and the establishment of a throne established forever for a God who wants to dwell with us (this week’s reading from 2 Samuel).
Our culture gives us stories of chronic unemployment and possible economic collapses yet to come. Our Scriptures tell us of a God that breaks into our normal lives to remind us that God is redeeming creation even if we aren’t aware of that process. Our prophets remind us that ruin doesn’t have to last forever. Gabriel gives the promise that nothing is impossible with God. Now, that is Good News indeed.
by Kristin Berkey-Abbott
The Readings for Sunday, December 18, 2011:
First Reading: 2 Samuel 7:1-11, 16
Psalm: Luke 1:47-55 (Luke 1:46b-55 NRSV)
Psalm (Alt.): Psalm 89:1-4, 19-26
Second Reading: Romans 16:25-27
Gospel: Luke 1:26-38
Today we get to one of the more familiar Advent stories, one of the ones we expect to be hearing. We may say, “Thank goodness! I’m tired of John the Baptist. I can relate to Mary.”
Can we relate to Mary? Two thousand years of Church tradition tend to paint her in terms that serve whatever purpose society needed at the time. So in some decades we see Mary a perfect woman, sinless and blameless, the kind of woman who transcends humanity and gives birth to the Lord. Some decades write Mary out of the picture once the work in the stable is done, while other decades depict her as an interfering mother—the first helicopter parent!
I’m not Catholic, so I’ve never had to wrestle with the idea of Mary as sinless. In fact, the churches of my childhood and adolescence stressed that Mary was as human as the rest of us. In a recent blog post, Pastor Joelle stresses: “In fact, I think the whole idea of the Immaculate Conception, that Mary HAD to be conceived without sin in order for her womb to be worthy to hold Christ kind of chips away at the whole idea of the Incarnation and God entering this messy sinful world. And it begins with entering the womb of a young girl who was, like the rest of us, far from perfect. Mary doesn't need to be perfect to hold Jesus. And neither do we.”
We’ve heard the story of Mary so many times that we forget how remarkable it really is. We forget how bizarre the story told by the angel Gabriel must seem. A young girl growing God in her womb? A post-menopausal woman conceiving? It’s all too much to fathom.
I always wonder if there were women who sent Gabriel away: "I'm going to be the mother of who? It will happen how? Go away. I don't have time for this nonsense. If God wants to perform a miracle, let God teach my children not to track so much dirt into this house."
We won't ever hear about those women, because they decided that they didn't want to be part of God's glorious vision.
It’s important, too, to notice that God’s glorious vision doesn’t always match the way we would expect God to act. We see a history of God choosing the lowly, the meek, the outcast. Moses the stutterer, David the cheater, Peter the doubter. What business school would endorse this approach to brand building?
But our Scriptures remind us again and again that God works in mystical ways that our rational brains can’t always comprehend. If God can accomplish great things by means of a young woman, a barren woman, a variety of wandering preachers and prophets, tax collectors and fisherman, just think what God might accomplish with all of our gifts and resources.
Of course, first we have to hear that message, that invitation from God. It’s hard for this message to make its way through all the fear-based messages beamed to us from our culture. The angel tells Mary not to be afraid, and that is a message we need to hear. Don't dance with your dread. Don't keep company with your fears, your worst case scenarios. Dream big. Think of the world God promises (read further in Luke): God will fill the hungry with good things. The one who is mighty does great things for the lowly.
We have much to fear, but we’re not that different from past cultures. The ancient prophets move me to tears with the promise of the building up of the ancient ruins, the raising up the former devastations, the repair the ruined cities (last week’s Isaiah reading) and the establishment of a throne established forever for a God who wants to dwell with us (this week’s reading from 2 Samuel).
Our culture gives us stories of chronic unemployment and possible economic collapses yet to come. Our Scriptures tell us of a God that breaks into our normal lives to remind us that God is redeeming creation even if we aren’t aware of that process. Our prophets remind us that ruin doesn’t have to last forever. Gabriel gives the promise that nothing is impossible with God. Now, that is Good News indeed.
Tuesday, December 13, 2011
are due this Sunday December 18th!
Envelopes are in the worship bulletins or contqact SAM in the office.
We ask that poinsettias be taken home Christmas Eve or Christmas Day as the office will be closed for the week following these services. Those left will be given away or planted in the garden.
SPECIAL CONGREGATIONAL MEETING
There will be a special congregational meeting
during both the 8AM and 10:45AM worship services on Sunday JAN 15th.
Special congregational meetings are limited in purpose and scope to the
expressed purpose for which they have been called. This meeting has been called
by your congregational council in order to vote on their motion concerning the
timing of the annual regular council elections and the voting for the 2012
spending plan/budget.
At a similar special congregational meeting held January 16, 2011, the congregation approved one-time changes that allowed for the elections for Trinity’s congregational council to be held on the last Sunday in January and the annual budget cycle to be moved to July 1, 2011 through June 30th 2012 with the budget vote held in the late May-early June timeframe. Pending constitutional revisions that should be brought before the congregation prior to the end of 2012, your congregational council is asking that these changes remain in place until such time as the Trinity Constitution is revised and approved.
Prior to 2011, we held the council elections and the budget vote simultaneously during the winter semi-annual congregational meeting.
As
the motion comes from the council, a second will not be necessary. The motion will be placed on the floor, questions directly pertaining to the motion will be entertained and the vote called for.
Rather than the previous practice of voting what we think to be right, we are continuing to expand a practice in which we focus on God’s will and not our own. So during the vote we will be asking:
“All
who sense that it is God’s will to prayerfully hold our council elections on
Sunday January 29th during the 8AM and 10:45AM worship services and to prayerfully vote on
our 2012 Spending Plan/Budget on Sunday June 3rd during all worship
services held that day, say ‘yes’; all who do not believe that this is God’s
will say ‘no.’”
Then
we will ask:
All who sense that it is God’s will to continue this
pattern of Trinity council elections on the last Sunday in January and Budget/Spending
Plan voting during a Sunday in late May/early June until such time as the
Trinity Constitution is revised or amended or other congregational action to
change this pattern is taken say ‘yes’; all who do not believe that this is God’s
will say ‘no.’”
Results
from the two services will be added together and the results released through BLOG,
email and bulletin.
Please note: Should there be a nomination from the
floor for council at the 10:45AM service on January 29th, then the
January 29th meeting will be considered a nominating meeting only
and the elections will take place at both services on Sunday February 5th.
Monday, December 12, 2011
5PM Inside/Outside Sunset Service .
7:30PM Family Service w/hand chimes
11PM Christmas Eve Cantata Service w/the Trinity Worship Choir
+++All Services include candles and communion+++
25th (Sunday) CHRISTMAS DAY SERVICE
10:45AM (only) Cantata Service
reprise
JAN 1st 2012 EPIPHANY Sunday w/
Healing and Healthy Coffee Hour
(One service at 10:45AM
only)
JAN 8th 2012 BAPTISM
OF OUR LORD
We return to
our 8AM and 10:45AM schedule
NOW POSTED!
Or go to http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ol--OE3RAo for this or any previous sermon.
Friday, December 09, 2011
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