First Sunday of Advent - UCC Files



First Sunday of Advent

December 1, 2013

Matthew 24:36-44

“JUST WHAT I WANTED!”

“Peace be within you,” the psalmist writes in Psalm 122, one of our Advent readings.

How often can we say that we truly have peace “within” us? With the rush of the holidays, which always seem to come early, we race around hoping for the best deals we can find for gifts for loved ones, so that on Christmas morning there will be beautifully wrapped and enticing gifts for us to unwrap and be overjoyed at having received “just what I wanted.”

What if “just what I wanted” was not in a beautifully wrapped gift? What if, instead, “just what I wanted” was finding within ourselves ways to draw closer to God, and closer to peace within us? Imagine if we used the energy we put into buying and wrapping gifts into helping others and ourselves find ways during Advent to be at peace within and with God! What if we unwrapped with as much excitement and care all the mysteries that God has in store for us when we but pause and listen for that mystery which is about to be re-enacted?

What if “just what I wanted” was more time to spend getting to know Jesus, building a relationship with the Holy Spirit that brings us to a deeper place—a well that is within us, offering the living waters we so often take for granted? What if “just what I wanted” was an opportunity to recall anew the awe and wonder we felt as children, anticipating the babe and the wise men and the joy that comes with hearts that are not broken, bruised, battered? What if “just what I wanted” was an opportunity to heal those bruises, to mend that broken, battered heart?

Advent offers us the time to do just that—to draw closer to God. To allow ourselves to heal, to find that inner peace that surpasses all understanding. What a great gift that would be to give and to receive!

Rev. Martha R. Jacobs

First Congregational Church UCC

Chappaqua, NY

Second Sunday of Advent

December 8, 2013

Isaiah 11:1-10

“The wolf shall live with the lamb, the leopard shall lie down with the kid, the calf and the lion and the fatling together, and a little child shall lead them.” Isaiah 11:6

“In those days John the Baptist appeared in the wilderness of Judea, proclaiming, ‘Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.’” Matthew 3:1-2

THE CHRISTMAS FUND

Isaiah’s vision was a message of promise and expectation. In God’s new order, wisdom, understanding, righteousness, and justice prevail, and creation is once again reconciled and restored to God’s shalom. More than seven hundred years later, John the Baptist, preaching in the wilderness of Judea, affirmed that the wait was over. The covenant has been fulfilled by the coming of Imanu-el, God-with-us, reconciling God and humankind.

Throughout its history, the United Church of Christ has lived out its calling as a witness to God’s holy love. The Christmas Fund for the Veterans of the Cross and the Emergency Fund, administered by the Pension Boards on behalf of the United Church of Christ, help provide assistance to lower-income retired clergy and lay employees, as well as to active clergy facing unforeseen financial crises. Your gift to the Christmas Fund is tangible witness to the love of Imanu-el—God with us. We invite you to covenant with us—and with thousands throughout our beloved church—in this ministry of care. Your gift can and will make a difference.

Third Sunday of Advent

December 15, 2013

Luke 1:47-55

“The wilderness and the dry land shall be glad, the desert shall rejoice and blossom; like the crocus it shall blossom abundantly, and rejoice with joy and singing….” Isaiah 35:1-2a

“My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my savior…for the Mighty One has done great things for me, and holy is God’s name.” Luke 1:46b-47

THE CHRISTMAS FUND

The prophet Isaiah proclaimed a message of joy in the face of fear and despair to a community whose suffering had rendered their spirits as arid as the Judean wilderness. But God’s reconciling love transforms parched spirits into fertile ground where new life takes root. Likewise, an encounter between an aging woman and her young kinswoman bears witness to the blossoming of new life in unexpected places.

Your contribution to the Christmas Fund for the Veterans of the Cross and the Emergency Fund enables the Pension Boards, on behalf of the United Church of Christ, to bring hope and joy to lower-income retired clergy and lay employees, as well as active clergy in times of financial crises. We invite you to join us in sharing the life-giving light and love of Christ to those who have served and those who continue to serve our church, through your prayerful contribution to the 2013 Christmas Fund for the Veterans of the Cross and the Emergency Fund. Your gifts can and do make a difference in the lives of many.

Fourth Sunday of Advent

December 22, 2013

Matthew 1:18-25

THE LONG WAIT

I still remember the long wait for Christmas when I was a child. The more the anticipation built, the longer it took. Christmas, it seemed, would never get here! Despite my impatience, it always finally arrived, complete with lights, tree, and a miraculous pile of gifts. I’m grateful for the magic of that childhood experience of Christmas. It opened a window to imagination and mystery and possibility that is still open for me today.

It was also a set-up for disappointment. I now understand, in a way that a child cannot: the things we long for don’t always come in miraculous abundance. Sometimes, the long wait simply turns into a longer, even endless one. Not all illnesses, addictions and broken relationships are healed, no matter how much we hope or pray. Not all homes are safe or warm or filled with abundance. Not every journey, or story, or struggle for justice ends well. In a world of violence and war, we still wait for Isaiah’s beautiful dream of peace. Sometimes, beyond all hope, we wait.

But isn't that the point of the Christmas stories? Light shines in the deepest darkness. Jesus is born in poverty, not a palace. His parents are refugees, not lords and ladies. A ruthless king slaughters innocent children just to prevent any threat to his power. Now THAT sounds like our world, and that, we are told, is where God can be found. The Holy, it turns out, doesn’t live in some far off realm, but comes to life in the most unexpected place—our flesh, our lives, our hurting world.

This is the mystery of Christmas, a mystery that stretches the imagination beyond the reach of reason and into the realm of soul. We were waiting for the birth of Christ . . . but it was here all along, waiting for us! It IS here, offering us the chance to become fully human, to see one another with new eyes, and to drop the swords from our hands. This is the mystery of Christmas, deeper than the magic of my childhood, more glorious than a pile of gifts. If the Love that created all things can be found alive and breathing in a newborn child in a forgotten corner of a conquered land, then that same wondrous Love can be found anywhere--even here, waiting to be born in us today!

Rev. John Gill

Church of the Savior, UCC

Knoxville, Tennessee

First Sunday after Christmas

December 29, 2013

Psalm 148

“THE CHURCH WAS THERE FOR ME”

Each of us has our own reasons for loving the United Church of Christ. Few could be more compelling than those of a recent visitor to our Cleveland Church House. It’s a story our General Minister and President, Rev. Geoffrey Black, likes to quote, and it bears repeating.

“I left home at the young age of seventeen and went to Parris Island to Marine Corps boot camp,” the visitor began. “All I knew was the all-white Pennsylvania Dutch community I came from. In 1956 I got orders to go to Japan.

“About this time, my parents had dinner with missionaries to Japan sent by the old Board for World Ministries. ‘Why doesn’t he come visit us?’ they asked. After about ten months, I did. They listened to me, to what I was going through, and tried to give me some direction. Thus began what I since have perceived to be a call to Christian ministry.

“When I think back on this,” the retired UCC pastor continued, “the fact that the church was there at a time and place for me in Japan, I have been forever grateful. And without that kind of contact at a critical point in my life, I would not be here.”

What’s your story?

Second Sunday after Christmas

January 5, 2014

John 1: [1-9] 10-18

Epiphany Celebration

"No one has ever seen God," John writes, and indeed has anyone ever been able to find words that do justice to such a passage? That may be the point: that the transcendent, beyond-words God took on flesh, came to us, took on our own existence, with its pains, its sorrows, its vulnerability and its joys. Jesus Christ in turn shows us who God is, and we have received from his fullness, "grace upon grace." Could this phrase set a tone for this newyear? Can we claim that there is more than enough of everything we need most: forgiveness and reconciliation, grace, life, truth, joy, generosity, healing, justice?

EPIPHANY

Assuming there’s no statute of limitations on New Year’s resolutions, then on this the first Sunday of 2014 let’s add one more to the list. Namely, let’s resolve to give the Festival of Epiphany, which Christians celebrate tomorrow, its due. In the United States especially, Epiphany tends to get lost in the post-Christmas decompression. We take down the tree, store away the ornaments, and think no more about the coming of Christ into the world.

But the story isn’t over on December 25. Christ, the divine son of God, has not yet appeared, or been manifest, to us, the gentiles. That only occurs with the coming of the Magi, who recognize that Christ is the savior of the world. That is the meaning of Epiphany.

We American Christians are too impatient. In much of Europe and Latin America, gifts are not exchanged at Christmas but only on Epiphany, in memory of the Magi presenting their treasures to the Christ child. In addition, many nationalities have their own unique Epiphany customs. In France, for example, families serve a gallette des rois, a kings’ cake, with a little porcelain king baked inside. The child who finds the little figurine in his or her piece of cake becomes king (or queen) for a day. In another tradition, children in several countries place bowls of water and bunches of grass on their doorsteps, symbolic nourishment for the camels that transported the visitors from the East.

So, tomorrow let’s celebrate Epiphany as if it’s just as important as Advent and Christmas—because it is!

The Baptism of Christ (First Sunday after Epiphany)

January 12, 2014

Matthew 3:13-17

Possibilities Unfolding

Jesus is announcing himself as the one promised by God through the prophet Isaiah long ago, when he spoke of a transforming Servant who would inaugurate a time of beauty, grace, healing, and justice. How does the word "Beloved" in this scripture (“This is my Son, the Beloved, with whom I am well pleased”) convey a sense of who and whose we are? Have you ever thought of baptism as conferring servanthood, of all things? Would we throw a party for such a gift, for becoming servants?

“BUT A SAMARITAN…WENT TO HIM AND BOUND UP HIS WOUNDS.” (Luke 10:33-34)

A man on the road fell among robbers. They stripped him and beat him and left him there for dead. A priest saw the man, but passed by on the other side. Likewise, a Levite passed by on the other side….

Jesus’ parable speaks to the continuing crisis in the Congo. For too long, God knows, the world has watched, and then passed by on the other side.

It’s called “The greatest humanitarian crisis in the world today,” and for good reason. Since 1998, six million people have died as a result of the brutal and merciless civil wars in the eastern region of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Caught in the crossfire, a half million women and girls have been systematically raped and sexually mutilated by armed forces on all sides, fighting to gain control over the area’s rich mineral resources. Hundreds of thousands of civilians have fled their homes, leaving behind their belongings—and even family members too young or too weak to escape.

If God ever called us to come to the aid of a people in need it is now. And if ever a people needed our help, it is the traumatized and affected population throughout the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Our Global Ministries, which unites us with our Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) brothers and sisters, has called for a special Congo Initiative in 2014, sharing stories, building partnerships, and yes taking action—just as the Samaritan did.

To learn more about the Congo Initiative, please go to congo-initiative

Second Sunday after Epiphany

January 19, 2014

John 1:29-42

All That We Are

Today's reading "sees" the baptism of Jesus from the perspective of John the Baptist, who tells the story of his own eye-opening experience of the sky opening up, the Spirit descending like a dove, and the voice of God telling him who this Jesus was. John's preaching is a testimony to that life-changing truth, a truth that has changed our lives, a truth that we still seek to live out in authentic witness today. After all, what good is a truth that doesn't change our lives?

CHURCH UNITY IN THE COMMUNITY

For many United Church of Christ congregations, ecumenism is not primarily a grand universal plan for Christian unity, worthy as that objective may be. Rather, it is a ministry of caring, lived out every day in cooperation with other congregations in their own communities.

In Duluth, Minnesota, ecumenism is called the Gabriel Project, a joint ministry to the needy in the East Hillside neighborhood, a lower-income section of the city. Peace United Church of Christ was one of the founders of this consortium, which includes other Protestant as well as Catholic and Jewish congregations.

The deaths of undocumented immigrants in the merciless heat of the southern Arizona desert galvanized Good Shepherd United Church of Christ in Sahuarita to join Humane Borders, a coalition of church people who build and maintain water stations along the trails and pathways the migrants traverse.

California United Church of Christ in California, Missouri, has always taken a leading role in the town’s Ministerial Alliance. Local churches cooperate in providing emergency assistance for poor families and transients passing through the area. Volunteers from several churches serve in the food pantry and the clothing ministry, started in particular to meet the needs of disadvantaged school children.

The Afghanistan Project in Lenox, Massachusetts began when the outreach committee of the Church on the Hill UCC “wanted to do something that mattered.” They agreed that rebuilding an Afghan village was most urgent, and enlisted other churches in town to join them in a fund-raising and educational effort that reached its goal in two years.

On this Ecumenical Sunday, we recognize all the communities across the United States where church unity in service is a daily reality.

Third Sunday after Epiphany

January 26, 2014

Matthew 4:12-23:

Called Together

In every age, followers of Jesus come from all sorts of backgrounds, all sorts of families, all sorts of faith journeys, and yet Jesus calls us together, to leave our old lives behind, and to be one community even in our diversity. We might wonder how to reconcile the abandonment of our past relationships with today's emphasis on "family values." But is it possible that God calls us, in our own settings, to repent, that is, to turn in a new direction, to open our lives to a radical renewal? Jesus provoked many of his listeners with such expectations, but on the other hand, he inspired a number of them to leave everything for exactly such a reorientation and renewal. Their lives were never again the same.

CHHSM AND “MISSION EARTH”

We sometimes forget that the United Church of Christ is more than our 5,000 local churches, 38 Conferences, and various national ministries. Our church family also includes the 73 members of our Council for Health and Human Services Ministries or CHHSM. Together they operate 363 communities and programs for children, youth, families, older adults, and people with disabilities, and serve over a million people a year.

That these ministries, ranging in size from small care centers to large hospital networks, are an intimate part of our fellowship was brought home, once again, by their participation in last spring’s church-wide Mission 4/1 Earth program.

At United Church Homes and Services’ Abernethy Laurels continuing care community in Newton, North Carolina, thirty residents and guests gathered in the courtyard last April to plant trees and then dedicate them to God. Piedmont Crossing, another United Church Homes and Services community in North Carolina, also held a tree-planting ceremony.

On Earth Day, staff members at United Church Homes in Marion, Ohio, participated in the annual Downtown Clean-up Day, and planted a donated blue spruce tree in front of the County Courthouse.

Lake Prince Woods, a United Church Homes and Services continuing care community in Suffolk, Virginia, set a goal of recycling a thousand plastic bags. Within two weeks, the participants had collected twice that number.

The CHHSM mission is summed up in its motto: “Advancing the healing and service ministry of Jesus Christ.” On this Health and Human Service Sunday especially, we give thanks to God for these inspiring ministries.

Fourth Sunday after Epiphany

February 2, 2014

Matthew 5:1-12

The Vision Beautiful

The Beatitudes present a beautiful vision. But the Beatitudes can also beoverly "spiritualized," and we may be lulled into thinking that the struggles of the poor and the suffering must be endured until a future promise of God will be fulfilled. One good corrective to this temptation is to read Richard Swanson's translation in Provoking the Gospel of Matthew. "Godlike in their happiness, the poor in breath: theirs is the dominion of the heavens. Godlike in their happiness, the mourners: they shall be called as witnesses." The urgent image of "breath" replaces the usual "spirit," and mourners receive not the usual comfort, but the comfort of telling the truth. The reality of the Cross is manifest in this "vision beautiful," adding depth and surprise to a familiar teaching.

“BUDDING HOPE” IN HAITI

For a long time, it seemed like all the news from Haiti was bad news: a devastating earthquake followed by a cholera epidemic, to mention only the worst. And, with most employable people out of work, the prospects for improvement remain dim. Still, young Haitian adults especially have not stopped dreaming of a better future. Julia wants to be an economist. Samuel hopes to be an architect. And Sophia sees herself as a physician.

To have any chance of realizing their dreams, these young women and men must find ways to save money for higher education. But first they have to earn some. With our partners in the National Spiritual Council of Churches in Haiti, or CONASPEH, we support a micro-credit project called “Budding Hope” to help twelve high school graduates, including Julia, Samuel, and Sophia, start income-producing ventures.

The group began with a chicken cooperative, which not only outgrew its original coop, but also morphed into a garden to grow vegetables for sale. That success has permitted members of the group to consider even bolder initiatives in the future while holding their profits in common for future educational expenses. “Budding Hope” has also inspired other micro-savings groups of young adults to organize to invest in micro-enterprises.

Diane and Tim Fonderlin, Global Ministries missionaries in Haiti, contributed to the success of “Budding Hope” by introducing the concept of micro-savings and micro-enterprise to these young people in the first place. We are involved, too, through our giving to Our Church’s Wider Mission.

Fifth Sunday after Epiphany

February 9, 2014

Matthew 5:13-20

Restoring Beauty

After lifting up the mostly unlikely people—the poor in spirit, the meek and the merciful, those who mourn and those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, the pure in heart, the peacemakers, and the persecuted—and calling them "blessed," Jesus addresses his crowd of listeners as "you," and offers them words of both reassurance and challenge. The "you," is plural, to be heard by us as the Body of Christ in the world God loves. We listen with the crowd to hear that we, too, are "the salt of the earth" and "the light of the world." While Jesus is telling us who we are, these metaphors are also about the effect of what we do in the world. We're called to make a reinvigorating difference in the world, so that all who watch us will feel new life, new possibility, new hope, new beauty.

THE SACRED CONVERSATION CONTINUES

If God is still speaking to us in the United Church of Christ, as we devoutly believe, it’s assuredly through our “sacred conversation on race.” The good news today, on this Racial Justice Sunday, is that we as a church have responded to God’s call, and are fully engaged in this holy initiative.

Almost six years ago, in May 2008, our national officers invited pastors across the UCC to preach on race, “in the hope of inaugurating a sacred conversation in the coming months that is urgently needed in churches, in our homes, and in the halls of power.” All settings of the church were called upon to engage the issue of race in America, not as an abstraction, but starting where individuals were, realizing there was work for all of us to do. That call has been answered in many ways, ranging from examining issues of institutional and personal racism and initiating anti-racism training, to addressing the consequences of white privilege to all members of society.

That sacred conversation continues today across the United Church of Christ. As new participants join in the dialogue, new issues—such as the impact of race upon our criminal justice, medical, educational, and economic systems—are addressed, and new resources are available, developed according to suggestions from individuals and groups that have participated in the program over the past few years, and supported by gifts to Our Church’s Wider Mission.

Sixth Sunday after Epiphany

February 16, 2014

Matthew 5:21-37

From the Heart

Today’s scripture from Matthew's Gospel has challenged scholars who seek to examine these teachings of Jesus in the context of Hebrew Law. Taken in their first-century setting, they point to issues in the church that were being addressed by the author, just as churches today grapple with tradition in order to discern God's will in our own place and time. Many scholars observe that Jesus is addressing issues and reinterpreting the law in a culture that was very pluralistic, with many different views and voices. This leaves room for understanding and owning sacred text in new ways based on contemporary issues.

A PLACE WHERE INDIVIDUAL AND COMMUNAL NEEDS ARE RECONCILED

It happens somewhere almost every Sunday. But it doesn’t often get recorded by a prize-winning poet. Not long after Christian Wiman was diagnosed with a rare type of cancer, he entered for the first time the church at the end of the block where he lives. Wiman describes the experience in My Bright Abyss, his “meditation of a modern believer.”

“The sanctuary was small, starkly beautiful, less than half filled with a mix of old German immigrants, a smattering of hipsters and upscale parents, and a couple of people who seemed homeless or headed there. The preacher had real presence. Tall, striking, clearly literary, he was definitely not the sort or person you expect to be leading a struggling little urban church. The service, too, was a surprise. After welcoming gays and lesbians, the preacher spoke inspiringly of the church as a place where our individual and communal needs and instincts were reconciled. His sermon was as witty and entertaining as it was theologically sophisticated and discomfiting. Its essence was how the void of God and the love of God come together in the mystery of the cross. I didn’t really understand that notion then, but I felt…oddly lightened by contemplating it.”

Somewhere almost every Sunday, someone enters a church and finds a place where individual and communal needs and instincts are reconciled, as Christian Wiman did in that church at the end of the block. Which, by the way, turned out to be part of the United Church of Christ.

Seventh Sunday after Epiphany

February 23, 2014

Matthew 5:38-48

Expanding Boundaries

Years ago, Calvin Miller wrote a series of books that were analogies to the Gospels and other New Testament writings. These books, The Singer, The Song, and The Finale, reframe the stories in such a way that we are drawn into the conflict between Jesus and the religious leaders of his day as if it were a battle between beauty and ugliness. At one point, a chapter begins with the simple statement, "The only thing an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth is good for is creating an eyeless, toothless world." Is it more important to seek retribution or to meet evil with good? Does the ancient Covenant simply render judgment on the dealings of people with each other, or create among us the possibility of true community?

THE AMITY FOUNDATION

As everyone knows, the Chinese economy has expanded significantly during the past few years. So has the Chinese Christian church. Consumer demand in the United States may be partly responsible for the economic boom in China, but, according to Tom and Lynnea Morse, two of our missionaries there, church growth in China is the fruit of “the work being quietly done by Chinese believers who held on to their faith through all of China’s turmoil.”

To see that work close-up, the Morses toured western Hunan province, which has not shared in China’s economic expansion. They visited a rural church, “little more than a single bare cement room,” which, they learned, had saved a community. “The entire village was gathered to give thanks to God for changing their lives.” Ten years earlier, when there was no church, the village was known for its bitter quarrels. Inspired by the preaching in a nearby Christian church, the community applied to our partner, the Amity Foundation, for help building their own church.

Created in 1985 on the initiative of Chinese Christians to promote rural development in the poorest provinces of the country, the Amity Foundation responded with material and emotional support. Before long, the new church had transformed the village. The quarrels ceased, and, seeing the change, the local government awarded the community the title, “Harmonious Village.”

Our missionaries in China are excited about our partnership with the Amity Foundation, and the work it does, along with our Global Ministries, such as building roads, schools, clinics, and yes churches. But, Tom and Lynnea add, “We never lose sight of the fact that only God can repair hearts, lives, and communities.”

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