Friday, December 20, 2013

Tell me the old, old story...

…of Jesus and his birth.  Luke’s words are super-familiar.

My favorite telling of the natal story was prepared by a Portuguese web presence firm Excentric in 2010.  It’s called “Nativity 2.0” and is at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GkHNNPM7pJA. Go there.  Now.  I’ll wait for you to watch it and come back.

Fun, huh?  It’s filled with internet in-jokes and memes, but it’s still pretty good theologically despite the liberties it takes with the scriptural story and with two millennia of church traditions.  Here’s my serious point, though:  If the story of God’s incarnation of love doesn’t live and breathe and move and evolve, Jesus is just a tiny porcelain figure tucked away for 11 months and not a savior, guide, and friend, not an incarnate God-with-Us for every moment of our lives.

We have to keep Jesus real.  That’s hard, because even the nativity 1.0 stories are suffused with legend and intended to be edifying and picturesque.  That’s why so many preachers and movies over the years have reminded us that the pretty tableau smelled like a barn, that childbirth is a sweaty, painful, tedious, blood-and-amniotic-fluid-streaked process even in a 21st century hospital, much less for a young mother two millennia ago.  In this culture, it’s hard to keep the story real, but that’s the only way it has any meaning for us… for our families… for our neighbors… this week, 2013.  Thursday night at the Words and Music service we heard a reading from The Best Christmas Pageant Ever by Barbara Robinson which riffs on the too-often sanitized, child-friendly un-reality show in most churches by interjecting a very human element into a memorable reenactment.

Recasting the old, old story into new words is, of course, the ongoing business of Christianity.  Mary and Joseph have traveled through time as much as through Palestine, through minds and hearts, and there has never been a single reference point for Christmas— despite what modern commentators would like— but a series of snapshots in a 2016-year-old family album.  Now we tell this life-giving story on computer screens.  Now Joseph and Mary and magi would carry smartphones.  Now our neighbors google Christmas on their smartphones.  But Tuesday we need to help them look up from their smartphones and look up at God’s star and around at other worshippers; we need to get them actually into worship.  So take your smartphone and text their smartphones and send them the link to our building so they can follow yonder maps to our living version of the Christ Child’s arrival.  The old story, new approach, new souls.

I like that web video retelling exactly for the reason it brings Mary and Joseph and their thwarted travel plans into our context… and imaginatively puts us in their sandals, bringing their story into our experiences, so they seem real… for this really real world.  Jesus is not frozen in porcelain but still alive in Ithaca, in our hearts.

I hope you will invite your family, friends, and even acquaintances to our Christmas Eve candlelight worships (family service at 6 pm and traditional service at 8:30 pm).  Help the light of Christ shine!

                                                                 In the Joy of Christmas,
                                                                      
                                                                                David


Texts For Sunday Worship:
      From the Hebrew Bible         Isaiah 7:10-16
      From the Gospels                 Matthew 1:18-25

Friday, December 13, 2013

What’s Up with the Different Color Candles??

      A slightly lighter word this week!

      People keep asking me about why there is a pink candle in the Advent wreath.  And lots of people are confused when it turns out to be the candle lighted on the third Sunday of Advent; most figure it is the last one.  Or the first one.  But not the third one.  And why pink??? What’s up with that?

      Well, it goes back before the middle ages, when the third Sunday of Advent was celebrated as Gaudete Sunday, Latin for “Joy” Sunday.  The Scripture lessons in the Lectionary tend to include words like “joy,” and “rejoice” and “exult.”  Many traditions use Mary’s world-overturning joy in what we now call the “Magnificat,” named because she starts, “My soul magnifies the Lord.”  And the introit to Roman Catholic Mass this week begins with “Rejoice!”  (Or in Latin: “Gaudete!”)  It corresponds to Laetare Sunday at mid-Lent, which also refrains on “Joy” in the middle of the penitential season and also often uses rose for vestments and paraments.

      Most liturgies for Advent and for lighting the four candles on the wreath use variations on peace, hope, joy, and love, but while the other ones may move around depending on the congregation, we all observe Joy Sunday on the third week.  Incidentally, although the season of Advent is attested in the fourth century as preparation for Jesus’ birth, the wreath traces back to 16th century Lutherans in Germany (home of the Christmas tree, too) but quickly was adopted by protestants and Catholics and enjoyed something a renaissance in the US in the 60s and 70s to become our beloved custom.

      So why pink?  OK, the liturgy geeks point out that it is actually a rose candle, but low-church Presbyterian Ashby keeps calling it pink!  Well, it began informally as an option in the Anglican tradition to the four purple candles, as a reference to rose being the color on Laertare Sunday in Lent.  Purple is the color of royalty in anticipation of the King of Kings and the color of penance in preparation for our Savior.  Blue for advent became more common in Lutheran circles and in Anglican/Episcopalian circles in the last few decades, largely to distinguish Advent from the more sober Lenten violet.  And, to be honest, I believe many churches use blue candles for the other Sundays because it looks good!  And certainly, the striking blue quilted pulpit and lectern hangings and communion table cloth totally rock in our sanctuary!

      Spread some joy this week.  Be sure to come to church this week to enjoy (!) the sounds of the Ithaca College Brass in worship and the joyful pink candle as it is lit by a church family.  Further, I hope you will invite your family, friends, and even acquaintances to our Christmas Eve candlelight worships (family service at 6 pm and traditional service at 8:30 pm).  Let the light of Christ shine!

                                                    In the Joy of Christmas,

                                                                      
                                                                                David


Texts For Sunday Worship:
            From the Hebrew Bible              Isaiah 35:1-10
            From the Epistles                     James 5:7-10
            From the Gospels                     Matthew 11:2-11

Friday, December 6, 2013

Hymns of Heaven

      If there is anything that puts us in a Christmas frame of mind more than the aromas (baking, pine, candles) it has got to be music.  It’s everywhere, and it is a powerful emotional trigger, like tastes and smells of the season.

      We are starting to hum or sing along with Christmas hymns when we hear them. Of course, worship planners like me and Bill Cowdery try to minimize true Christmas hymns and emphasize the classic Advent hymns during Advent, but we even we can’t help it during the last few weeks before Christmas!  Then there are wall-to-wall Christmas carols everywhere you go.  Some are familiar ones celebrating Jesus’ birth that aren’t exactly churchy, and some are the silly songs enjoyed by children about reindeer and snow people and sleigh bells.  Some, like Adam Sandler’s Hanukkah Song and the Karlofian You’re a Mean One, Mr. Grinch just don’t quite fit any category but bring a smile.  Seasonal good fun.

      Until advertisers get a hold of them.  Each year there are cringe-worthy remakes or re-uses of holiday music to sell all sorts of… ….all sorts of….  of “stuff.”  I don’t talk back at the TV often, but those I complain to the screen about!  And the thing that really gets me snarling are Christmas hymns bastardized by advertisers.  This year’s horrible, very bad, misuse of Do You Hear What I Hear has me shouting, “Really?” during the ad.  I guess my line in the sand is that if it’s in a hymnal, it shouldn’t be used to sell things!  Not that JCPenney is taking my advice on anything.

      Such aberrations actually don’t bother me much because the power and the glory and the refreshment for the soul brought by so much Christmastide music is far more wonderful.  Little kids singing the simple children’s hymns remind us of the whole point of the Christ Child’s birth.  And that shining moment in history has inspired some of the greatest and most substantial music of generations of composers.

      This Sunday the First Congregational choir and guests will be sharing Vivaldi’s Gloria in worship.
           
            Glory be to God on high, and on earth peace, good will towards all.
            We praise thee, we bless thee, we worship thee, we glorify thee.
            We give thanks to thee for thy great glory
            O Lord God, heavenly King, God the Father Almighty.
            O Lord, the only-begotten Son, Jesus Christ.
            For thou only art holy; thou only art the Lord;
            thou only, O Christ, with the Holy Ghost,
            art most high in the glory of God the Father. Amen.

    I truly hope you can attend this week so you can get the right sort of music running around in your head to displace all the silly songs!

    And then, I hope you will invite your family, friends, and even acquaintances to our Christmas Eve candlelight worships (family service at 6pm and traditional service at 8:30pm).  That’s when we all join the heavenly chorus, echoing their joyous strains: Gloria in excelsis Deo.

                                                                           In the true Spirit of Christmas,

                                                                                      
                                                                                           David



 
Texts For Sunday Worship:
      From the Hebrew Bible         Isaiah 11:1-10
      From the Epistles                Romans 15:4-13 

Tuesday, November 26, 2013

Which One?

      Yikes!  It’s almost Christmas!!! I’ve been seeing Christmas decorations since Columbus Day! “Santa Claus is coming to town” earlier and earlier.  Some years, I can’t even tell who to expect!  Santa Claus?  Scrooge? ...or the Grinch?!

      About every two or three years, it all gets on my nerves and I retreat into my “Scrooge mode,” grumping around at how all the moneymaking has obscured the true spirit of the season, how “wishbooks” and singing fish plaques and artificial trees and comic movies about Santa Clauses and his relatives(!) have turned the holiday into utter humbug.  Acquisitiveness runs rampant!

      In my anti-commercialism mood, my favorite figure is “a mean one... Mr. Grinch!” (The only Christmas television special I will watch is the animated Dr. Seuss “Grinch!”)  We all relate to the Grinch’s annoyance at the effervescent materialism of the merchants in Whoville and how you can’t get sappy seasonal songs out of your head.  If we’ve had a bad year, we hate everyone who’s happy and carefree; if we can’t enjoy Christmas, we don’t want anyone else to, either.  Dr. Seuss picked a perfect “jealousy green” for his furry felon.

      Another gripe constricting our “too small” hearts is our suspicion that lots of our neighbors are only in it for the presents and stuff.  If joy irritates the Grinch, joyful hypocrisy irritates the Grinch-y Christian in us even more!  We distain the superficial happiness of “the consumer Christmas,” grousing that money seems to be “the reason for the season.”  OK, so we don’t actually want to steal all the materialistic trappings of everyone’s celebration like the Grinch, but we, like him, have a hard time seeing much of anything beyond materialism in most of the faces at the mall.

      However, in a good year, we do, in fact, discover that there really is a strong, hope-filled, truly joyous spirit in the hearts around us, a depth of understanding which surpasses the carol sung by the Whos around their empty tree.  Mercifully, we in the church are not as baffled by discovering a genuine “Spirit of Christmas” out there as the Grinch.  If anything we’re rather relieved that it hasn’t been totally submerged by the mass merchandisers and advertisers.

      In a very good year, we can help some scroogely grinch we know discover the wonder of the holiday, or at least, like Max the dog, look on with amused satisfaction while someone’s heart grows a couple of sizes.

      But this year, maybe we can look beyond the shadows cast across December 24th by the jolly old elf and his gift-laden sleigh and by Ebenezer Scrooge and by the Grinch and lift our eyes high enough to see the star in the East casting its holy light over all the earth.  We’ll know anew the birth of Jesus in our souls.

      It’s not the gifts, it’s not a saccharine secular “Spirit of Christmas,” it’s not humbug, it’s not the ghost of past, present, or future, it’s not trees and lights, but it’s the presence of the God who loves us enough to be born among us.  It’s not at the mall; it’s at the stable.  It’s not a cartoon character; it’s the real hope of the world.

      But deep down inside us, we know that already, don’t we?

                                                        In the true Spirit of Christ,

                                                                          
                                                                                    David

Texts For Sunday Worship:
       From the Hebrew Bible          Isaiah 2:1-5
       From the Epistles                  Romans 13:11-14
      From the Gospels                  Matthew 24:36-44

Friday, November 22, 2013

Thanking Give


      This is the week when we as families and a nation take a moment to pause and express our thankfulness for what we have.  Even people who don’t necessarily come from a religious background who thank the divine for their well-being celebrate the Pilgrim’s 1621 celebration of harvest.  Many may not believe their blessings flow from God, but they certainly will appreciate that they have them.  Whether as a fall harvest festival or as gratitude to the Almighty, many feel thankful for what they have.

Of course, not everyone is in a good place from which to be thankful.  Many people have had hard years, with troubles and difficulties.  Many are economically beaten up.  Their celebrations are modest, sometimes helped by others.

This year’s huge holiday irony is the Ohio Walmart having a food drive for its own workers who cannot afford Thanksgiving meals.  Low wage employees are being asked to help low wage employees while six members of the Walton family collectively are worth $144 billion, more than the bottom 42% of US families combined.  There is something not right in our national social contract when both the stock market and the numbers of people hungry and homeless and un- or under-employed are at all-time highs.  

So it seems to me a bit facile for many of us in good places of thankfulness to simply thank God for our blessings.  “Giving thanks” may not be enough when our neighbors are stressed.  So my challenge to us this thanksgiving week is to go further and give and give thankfully.  Take the recognition that (as the psalmist says) the lines have fallen pleasantly for us, be thankful, and express your gratitude for God’s goodness by doing for the least of our neighbors (remember Matthew 25:31-46?).  And do at least one thing seriously, more than the usual token donation to the myriad of causes clamoring for our dollars between now and Christmas.  Do one thing (yes, “do,” not just write a check.  Do something.).  And give something substantial, something over and above, something that you will notice.

To get you thinking of ways you might respond thankfully, I’ll remind you of the various causes available, beginning with the gifts of conscience and compassion and justice like through the Church World Service or Heifer gift catalogs.  Other things are happening denominationally.  Help with Philippines Relief; the UCC is supporting early response and recovery efforts of partners in the ACT Alliance and the United Church of Christ in the Philippines.  To see how you can help or make a donation, go to http://www.ucc.org/disaster/philippines_typhoon_appeal.html or write a check to our church and indicate that it is for Typhoon Haiyan, and we will send it to the conference.  Feed My Starving Children Philippines relief effort: To read about the efforts being made by FMSC and to donate toward additional meals in the Philippines, visit https://www.fmsc.org/Philippines. There are simple things really close to home.  Christmas Shoeboxes for Catholic Charities of Tompkins County should be returned to the church by Sunday, December 8 for the youth to gift wrap the boxes.  Thanksgiving Meal Basket Project: Children’s Ministries is collecting food items to create six Thanksgiving Meal baskets to be distributed to local families through Family and Children’s service of Ithaca.  Heifer International fund raiser: The youth will be selling organic and fairly traded chocolates, coffees, teas, dried fruit and nuts from Equal Exchange during Advent. Please support sustainability and make a difference in the lives of small farmers and artisans across the globe.  Look for their display in the Narthex starting Sunday, Nov. 24.  Heifer gift cards will also be available for sale. Our Warm Wooly Tree is up earlier than usual this year because we want to get warm items to the folks who need them before cold weather hits.  Bring in new hats, mittens, gloves, scarves and socks for kids and adults to decorate our tree. At the end of the month, the items will be donated to community members in need through the Salvation Army.  There are individuals you may know who could use a bit more money, or some time with you being a friend, or a ride somewhere or some few minutes or hours of your time.  Something will nudge at you this week or month; respond in thankfulness.  Stretch yourself a bit this season.  Do and give to others because God has been good to you.  God has made a difference in your life; make a difference in someone’s life.

                   It’s more than thanksgiving.  It’s thankfully giving!

                                                                          In Christ,
                                                                          
                                                                                    David

Texts For Sunday Worship:        

Friday, November 15, 2013

When I Survey the Wondrous…

            I admit that I am not a big fan of all the telephone or online surveys that pop up in front of my face.  For most, I tend to hang up or click the window closed with no twinge of guilt!  Some seem worthy, and I will do them.  I was selected one year as a pastor respondent to the Presbyterian Panel, for which questions ranged from “what statement best matches your theological perspective,” to how often you exercise and do you have pets.  If a company I do business with asks, or certain organizations ask and really make a good case that my input matters, I will make an effort.  And, honestly, if filling out a customer survey on a register receipt might get me a gift certificate or enter me into a drawing for a free iPad, I’ll do those, too.

            The U.S. Congregational Life survey we will take this Sunday during worship falls into my well-worth-doing category.  It is a clear, relatively short, well-normed, broadly-based instrument which will give us not only useful demographic data but a very useful thumbnail sketch of our congregation, our composition, and our thoughts about our faith community.  What sets it apart from most other processes is that it shows us where we are on the spectrum for several key factors.  We see where we fit among other congregations and denominations in the U.S.  I find it one of the clearest, sharpest mirrors in which to see ourselves and our expectations.  As I have said often, the Ithaca community is rather unlike most other communities(!), and this survey gives us a national baseline to measure ourselves against as we prepare to undertake a national search for a pastor.

            The survey will have great utility for the search committee when we elect one, perhaps more than most surveys.  It will really help our self-study and our search to have the best information possible, and this has a lot of value for our process, so I really encourage you to add your information to our data.  Your input matters.  Really!  The more who participate, the better our results will be.  Yes, it is worth your time.  It will help!  It will give back a lot more to our congregation than a coupon for a beverage from doing a fast-food survey.

            Most people who have taken this survey have found it interesting and somewhat thought-provoking, and it is pretty quick to take.  Quite a few have mentioned, “I hadn’t thought of it that way” about some of the questions.  I was the interim at a church which needed to do a self-study survey, and while we were considering options, we were randomly selected by the U.S. Congregational Life Survey computer to be part of the original norming.  Providence.  After church, several of the members were so impressed by it that they came back on Monday to hand tabulate the questionnaires before the UPS truck came for them on Tuesday.  They didn’t want to wait the extra time for the computer to crunch all the national data!  Since then USCLS have even added powerpoint presentations of results to their excellent reports and charts. I have had very good experience with this and wish to reinforce how useful it is, even to a reluctant survey-taker like me!

            Well, yes, maybe sticking in a “Golden Ticket” in one survey for an Equal Exchange chocolate bar is more for fun than an actual bribe, but I truly encourage you to attend worship Sunday and help all of us view more clearly what and who we are as First Congregational.  We’ll see you then!

                                                                          In Christ,
                                                                          
                                                                                    David


Texts For Sunday Worship:

Friday, November 8, 2013

Harvest Gratitude

      This is the time of year, leading up to Thanksgiving, when we in the mainstream northeast culture tend to get really nostalgic about our agrarian roots… at least decoratively.  Glorious piles of pumpkins and squashes and vegetables and different colored ears of maize tumbling from cornucopias perch perfectly on straw, perhaps with a few cornstalks in the background.  Makes us feel like the pilgrims at their first harvest celebration.

      Of course, what we really pick up in Tops or Wegmans is more prosaic, wrapped in plastic, generally.  And unless you live around really old-school Mennonites who sometimes do stack shocks of corn after handcutting it on smaller, more uneven patches, most of the corn is sucked up by big green John Deere harvesters and loaded in bulk transport trailers.  Even most of the Mennonites around Dundee use mechanical harvesters; the only difference is that they have steel lug wheels like their big green tractors.  So even agriculture is a lot different from the Thanksgiving season pictures.

      Supporting the work of the church has changed a lot from the images of the favorite thanksgiving and harvest hymns we sing.  The Biblical images of supporting the temple are based on hand- and animal-based agriculture which in the ancient near east was mostly year round, and the faithful brought foodstuffs and offerings to the temple or sent money with which the needs of the temple staff could be purchased in Jerusalem.  People brought a portion off the top to the temple, the “first fruits.”  There were alms taken for the poor, as well.  In the middle ages, and in more northern Europe, churches and abbeys and such owned land which was farmed and the produce stored, as well as monetary offerings, but a significant portion of church income came in late fall at the harvest, when farmers sold their crops or brought bags of grain or whatever to the church warehouses.  For much of church history, in fact, most income (cash or goods) arrived in the fall, and the church used that through the year.

      In the “new” world, without the establishment of church properties but with a by then very well developed currency and banking system, most churches in the American colonies were using offering plates passed during worship for mission and support of the poor and for paying clergy.  Building upkeep was typically paid by pew rentals.  And most congregations got their influx of giving with the first fruits of harvest, less in kind and more in coin, and still mostly in autumn.

      Lots changed with the industrial revolution.  For purposes of a history of church giving, the biggest was that more people were receiving weekly paychecks than getting seasonal farm income.  So instead of getting several hundred dollars in October from the landowners, things shifted to weekly donations from many workers.  Pew rents began to fall out of favor around the U.S. Civil War.  Personally, I think that had to do with central heating in sanctuaries in the northeast that got us away from box pews to the auditorium style seating of churches built since the Second Great Awakening.  Predictable paychecks meant predictable offerings and tithes through the year.

      In the 20th century, churches became more “businesslike” in their operation, and the managerial types wanted to be able to prepare annual budgets, and it helped to get indications from church members about how much they might contribute for the year.  With predictable family income, members could make annual pledges, and “cash flow” in general for most churches evened out, and we ended up with the system now familiar to us.

      So that’s the long way around to why we have a fall stewardship push and pledge cards!

      The thing to remember, however industrialized our giving has become since the Plymouth colony, is that our human, spiritual impulse remains the same: sharing with others and God part of what we earn so that the gospel of God’s love and human justice and compassion are spread to others.
We share because we are grateful for what God has done for us and our families and our world.  That has not changed, no matter how we get those symbols of our thanksgiving to the front of our sanctuary.

      Be generous as God has been generous to us!

                                                                          In Christ,
                                                                          
                                                                                    David

      A quick reminder: on the 17th, we will be doing the U.S. Congregational Life Survey at the end of worship.  Please make an effort to attend on November 17 to contribute.  We can make special arrangements for you if you cannot attend that day, but even the blank surveys must be returned, so we have to make sure they are accounted for.   Call the office at 607-257-6033, and we will work something out for you.  In one of the surveys there is hidden a “Golden Ticket” for a chocolate bar from the Equal Exchange project the Youth Ministry Team is doing to support the Heifer Project.  How’s that for an extra incentive!?!


Texts For Sunday Worship:
 

Friday, November 1, 2013

Looking in the Mirror

      In The Who’s rock opera, Tommy, there is a song called “Go to the Mirror.”  Tommy, for those of you not so steeped in classic rock history as some of us (well, OK, as people like me!) has shut down in a form of selective mutism, blindness, and deafness.  It takes a couple of more cuts for him to break out of his traumatized condition and break free.

      Mirrors are one of Paul’s illustrations, of course, and we interim's like to say we are holding up a mirror to the congregation so it can see itself as it is.

      The downside is that sometimes when we look in the mirror we are not so fond of what we see, but the fact is that mirrors are an accuracy check.  Once in a while, we may need to wipe the accumulated haze off our mirrors to see clearly.  If you shave or put on makeup, fogginess is not a good thing.  Nor is nostalgic haze good for a church.  Sometimes a bit of magnification of a blemish is distressing, but it helps you deal with things.  That’s also true for shaving and makeup!

      This Sunday, as part of our all-church self-study, we turn to who we are as a congregation now and what our general priorities are as First Congregational and the people in it moving forward.
A large part of our time Sunday will uncover the activities and programs and caregiving and such that we value, but we also have a few hopefully fun ways at learning more about who we are right now.  (Think of your favorite vacation places, favorite foods, and television show or music, and bring your phone downstairs with you.)

      Then, on the 17th, we will be doing the U.S. Congregational Life Survey at the end of worship.  This is a well-normed survey that will help us see where we are in the wider religious spectrum of the country.  It, unlike many surveys done during interim times, builds up from members’ responses instead of starting with lists of programs or activities in a congregation.  If you are the kind of person who groans when given a survey, this one should be more interesting than most, and the data is really, really, really valuable to our search process.  Most people find the questions thought-provoking and interesting.  So please make a serious effort to attend on November 17 to contribute.  We can make special arrangements for you if you cannot attend that day, but even the blank surveys must be returned to the data company, so we have to make sure they are accounted for.   Call the office at 607-257-6033, and we will work something out!  For what it’s worth, the last church-wide survey was in 2003.  Some things have happened since then.

      I remember when I realized that the image I had of myself from photographs was not looking back at me from the mirror, and I’m familiar with the sort of sigh and shrug church members have when they get clear on who the congregation actually is now.  Kind of the same.  For what it’s worth, I didn’t mind the graying at my temples, but the first gray hairs in my moustache made me wince.  But most days, the actual truth seems better than the out of date memory.

      Please join us as we look at ourselves a bit.  Even if you cannot stay for the discussion, please stay long enough to have lunch with each other!  I hear there may be ice cream for dessert…

                                                                          In Christ,
                                                                          
                                                                                    David

And remember to change your clocks back an hour Saturday night!!


Texts For Sunday Worship:
   From the Epistles          2 Thessalonians 1:1-4, 11-12
   From the Gospels         Luke 19:1-10

Friday, October 25, 2013

Context Is Everything

      And context is an often overlooked factor for churches!  Usually, it is mostly when doing mission studies or transitional self-studies or trying to find a date that doesn’t conflict with events in the community when “context” rises to the level of consciousness for most congregations.

      Here’s an interesting context:  as the children attending the Community Nursery School downstairs arrive past the pastor’s study window or come tumbling out at day’s end, they’re speaking maybe a dozen different languages with their families.  And you hear all the world’s languages on the school campuses and on the Commons and at Wegmans and walking by you in cell phone conversations around town.  It is simply that First Congregational sits in an international community with diverse tongues.  That is an unusual context.

      Here’s an interesting context: modern U.S. culture is pluralistic, diverse, and much less accommodating to religious observance.  Most of the world’s major religions are here, which is also a significant context, of course.  But all of us worship and live in the larger social environment where soccer (football), hockey, football (American), and a dozen other games and competitions and practices encroach on times once sacrosanct.  For many of us, church is no longer the primary affiliation, but just one of many organizations and activities in which we participate.  That’s a new… and inevitable… context.

      Here’s an interesting context: for all the affluence around the church building, we know (because we drive through Ithaca and Tompkins County) that the median family income is $49k with close to and that the poverty threshold for a family of four is about $23k and that about a quarter of county residents are near or below the poverty level.  The median for Cayuga Heights is $89k.  Uneven economic conditions are an uncomfortable context.

      Here’s an interesting context: we have twice the percentage of young adults in our community as the national average.  No big surprise for a town with a major university and a college.  With 18.2%, Cayuga Heights has the highest percentage of doctorate degrees in the country, by one listing.  Los Alamos has 11.7%.  We are also one of the major centers of animal sciences and have nationally respected schools of all sorts.  So the academic industry is a singular context for us.

     This Sunday as part of our all-church self-study, we will review our community contexts (contexts, plural) to see both how they shape First Congregational and how First Congregational can serve our broader neighborhood and the people in it.

     Please join us as we look around us at our community.  We will also catch up a few things on our timeline, particularly recent years.  Even if you cannot stay for the discussion, please stay long enough to have lunch with each other!

                                                                                       In Christ,
                                                                                     
                                                                                        David

Texts For Sunday Worship:
From the Hebrew Bible          Joel 2:23-32
From the Epistles                  2 Timothy 4:6-8, 16-18
From the Gospels                  Luke 18:9-14

Friday, October 18, 2013

Physical Therapy and the Interim Process

        Some of my very favorite people in the medical industrial complex are physical therapists.

        Not only are they generally cheerful, calm, considerate, and compassionate people doing a great job helping their clients, they have a distinct perspective on their work.  Physical and Occupational Therapists have as their overall outcome their patients getting back to their lives as successfully and completely as possible.  Much of the medical community is, by necessity, illness-based and centered on hospital, office, or care facility.  Physical and occupational therapists are health- and recovery-focused, and center their work on the patients’ home or workplace.  They aim for “real world” results.  People getting back to doing what they do and able to do as much as possible for themselves is their goal.

        Sometimes their work is not comfortable.  Often they are working on strengthening muscles and expanding range-of-motion.  They are well trained and very attuned to the person they are helping and understand what is needed.  Sometimes they can push people farther than they like and may often cause discomfort with their exercises, yet they encourage the person to push on through the discomfort.  I remember hearing one PT explain to someone, “this may be painful, but I will never hurt you.  I know how far to push you so you get better but not so far that you damage anything.”  Good physical therapists also help patients learn or relearn good behaviors, to adjust their motions to maintain good health.  A good sports therapist might not merely massage injured muscles or flex joints but help the athlete develop better form that doesn’t cause damage and good recovery routines.  Good practices avoid repetition of problems.  Their intention is that we get stronger and healthier so that we can do everything we can.  Like so many therapists, they are health-oriented and outcome-oriented.

        A number of us in the transitional ministry business feel an affinity.  We are focused on congregations getting back to doing what they need to do.  Unlike many consultants, we are hands-on with congregations.  We have research and experience to know what might be underlying a problem.  We may need to push to free up frozen joints or loosen adhesions, which may certainly be uncomfortable at the time, but allows fuller healing and recovery.  Helping develop better practices and behaviors helps a church get back onto its stride and get back out there in the game.  We sometimes have to torque things, and sometimes we have to give recovery time.  Like PT/OTs, we know the idea is to get people moving, and to help them establish good patterns that will last.  Like PT/OTs we know we only have a limited time working with someone, and like them, we know it is actually up to the person— or congregation— to commit to a healthier course.

        And, like PT or OT sometimes it takes a while to get back the range of motion or the strength or the new habits, and the process can be frustrating.  Or annoying.  But if you do the work, you get better.  If you work on good technique and good recovery practices, you decrease the chance of another problem.

        Another way to put this is that we are really early in the process of understanding what has happened with FCCI over the decades.  But remember that I like the image of PT/OT; this is not a post-mortem looking back.  It is helping us look forward and push forward and get back to being the kind of church members and community benefit from.  We need to understand the past not to dwell there but to find clues for doing things more healthfully into the future.  If we learn where the congregation has stumbled in the past, maybe a few adjustments will keep our stride from faltering again.

        We are still figuring stuff out.  In the second part of our all-congregation work we will be taking “the data,” drawing some perspectives from it, and defining a shared vision of the way forward.  After a break for the Thanksgiving through Christmas crush our question expands to “So, what’s next for us?”  From there we will elect a search committee to match up our vision with the right pastor or pastors.  I expect that our conversations and “ah ha!” moments this fall will lead us also to work on some ways to avoid some of the difficulties of the past and define our life together in ways that will work in years to come.  Already some themes are emerging after only two at-large meetings.  I suspect we will need to look at clearer structures and processes for working together and at pastoral relationship support.  Positively, there have been several times of tension around different subjects, yet the congregation and its leaders have dealt with them as they arise in fairly creative and practical ways.  Some of that history can provide insight for the future.

         All in all, you are to be commended for good work and good (very good) spirit.  Honestly, I think FCCI is rebounding remarkably well and is amazingly open to the work needed to get out there running again.  Yeah, there may be a few owowowow moments when something gets pushed past comfortable, but if you keep the main goal of a strong witness to God’s love foremost in your mind, you’ll get there!

        The secret?  The real spiritual therapist in all this is God!

                                                                                       In Christ,
                                                                                     
                                                                                        David

Texts For Sunday Worship:
From the Hebrew Bible          Jeremiah 31:27-34
From the Gospels                  Luke 18:1-8

Friday, October 11, 2013

Weekly Word from the Interim Pastor

        Our Hebrew Bible lesson this Sunday from Jeremiah 29 is, honestly, a bit odd.  It is the prophet’s words to the captives dragged off to exile in Babylon by Nebuchadnezzar in 597 BCE, telling them to settle in for the long haul, to raise families, and to become part of the city’s life.  This is not exactly what either the Jews deported to Babylon nor the ones remaining in the ruins of Palestine wanted to hear.  They, of course, wanted to know that they would promptly be repatriated and that the nation could rebuild.  Nope, says the prophet, it will take time, maybe close to a generation.  Instead of being put in a time-out chair in the kitchen for five minutes, you are grounded for months.  This isn’t just POWs, this is wholesale resettlement, like the British Expulsion of the Acadians to Louisiana, the Trail of Tears of the forced removal of native Americans to Oklahoma in 1830, and, ironically, the relocation of Arabs at the founding of modern Israel in 1948.  Jeremiah is telling the exiles that they very well may never see home again.

        But his words are not that downbeat.  He tells them not to live on the edge, to settle down (at least kinda settled), to go about life as if it was normal (or at least normal enough), to raise families, make livings, become good expatriate citizens of Babylon.  Resume your lives, even if displaced from your beloved Jerusalem.  The big reason they can do this it that God is just as present in Babylon as Jerusalem, that they are chosen and covenanted and precious no matter where they happen to be.  And this becomes a key turning point in Judaism.  From being totally centered on the temple in Jerusalem, the nation and religion become, for lack of a better word, portable.  The primary interaction between human and divine is no longer on the rock of the Temple Mount but in keeping Torah, keeping to the word of God in Scriptures.  Even when Cyrus returned the exiles home (and it wasn’t the same place as before), Judaism continued to be about a people and a promise more than a place.  You can be faithful wherever you are.

        In Jesus’ time, that strain of Judaism picking up on keeping Torah was represented by the Pharisees even as the Sadducees represented the strain focused on the Temple.  The Christ Followers centered on the relationship between the believer and Jesus Christ.  Both the Pharisees and the Christians had the advantage of carrying their belief with them in scroll and community, and in the case of the Church, in sacrament.  Those became advantages as Judaism underwent the Diaspora, the Dispersion, and as Christianity became a world religion, too.  Jeremiah prophesied more than he knew: be faithful wherever you are, be it Jerusalem, Babylon, Rome, or Ithaca!

        Join us for worship Sunday and for the second of our all-church self-study lunches.  As the old song goes, “grow where you are planted!”


                                                                                       In Christ,
                                                                                     
                                                                                               David

Texts For Sunday Worship:
      From the Hebrew Bible        Jeremiah 29:4-7
      From the Epistles               2 Timothy 2:8-15
      From the Gospels               Luke 17:11-19

Friday, October 4, 2013

Weekly Word from the Interim Pastor

       As you know, I’m from the Presbyterian tradition, and we just adore the whole ecumenical cooperation thing and, especially, World Communion Sunday, the first Sunday in October when many congregations around the world all witness to our unity around the Holy Table.

       But the United Church of Christ simply blows me away with its commitment to the unity of all Christ’s people.  Time and again I find references in UCC documents, liturgy, and writings a deep, abiding commitment to Jesus’ prayers in the Gospels that all his disciples be one.  That desire actually to demonstrate Christ’s desire that we be one church runs all the way through its life and structure.  In fact, it was the gathering of four very diverse traditions— the Congregational (mostly in New England) and Christian Churches (largely in the upper Midwest) which united in 1926, and the Evangelical and Reformed (primarily German Reformed) Churches which united in 1934.  Each pair was driven by the conviction that the many splintered denominations around the globe were an affront to God, and that humans should try to bring ourselves back together. Tthey realized that even bringing near-neighbors like the E&Rs together was plenty difficult.  Still they persisted, and, having united in those partnerships, responded to the post-World War II ecumenical impulse by entering negotiations to unite yet further. On June 25,1954 in Cleveland, the Congregational Christian Church and the Evangelical and Reformed Churches became the United Church of Christ.  The simple name reflects the witness, a united church worshiping and serving Christ.  It has been a passionate, progressive voice for social justice, spiritual renewal, openness, grace, hope, and the proclamation of God’s love in the world.  We can be proud to stand in that heritage.

        Which makes the celebration of World Communion Sunday right down our alley!  If there is any opportunity to demonstrate that all Christ’s followers are joined together, a world-wide exhibition of our unity is a great way to not only talk about it but act it out.  Even if it is one congregation at a time and a bit imperfect (in that we still can’t quite manage to get even all the congregations in a single town to set up a couple of block-long table down the main street and sit down together), it’s a way of at least pushing our boundaries and trying to symbolize that “we are one in the Spirit, one in the Lord.”

        In 1936 the first Sunday in October was celebrated “World Wide Communion Sunday.”  In a few years, the idea had spread.  And it’s still one of the best ways we have of visibly showing we believe in a deep spiritual unity as Christ’s disciples.

        A key part of our UCC celebration on any communion Sunday is the open invitation to the table.  Unlike some other denominations, we don’t have “requirements” or restrictions on who may or may not commune.  We take Jesus’ own invitation to those who believe in him seriously and welcome all to the table Jesus has prepared.  Who are we to stand between someone and our Savior?  That’s a truly “wide” invitation!  It’s one of the ways we live out the UCC national slogan, “No matter where you are on life’s journey, you’re welcome here.”  Everyone is welcome around the bequilted wooden table at the front of our sanctuary at 306 Highland Drive in Ithaca.

        A little challenge: invite someone to World Communion Sunday on October 6th.  Seriously!  Ask some family, friends, coworkers, neighbors who haven’t been to a church in a while, or maybe even ever, or maybe who had a bad experience with church or who has felt left out or excluded, and offer to pick them up or meet them and walk in with them and show them the way.  (Studies show that people who have not been in a particular worship service are very afraid of making a mistake or of not knowing  anyone there, so accompanying them and helping them find their way around the service and the building is a huge help.)  If that first person isn’t interested, ask someone else.  Seriously!  Try up to three invitations, even if they don’t accept, but at least try, OK?!?   Seriously!

        Jesus invites everyone to share in the meal which he has prepared… everyone. No matter where one is on life’s journey, all are welcome here.  All.

        Let’s make Jesus happy by displaying our unity around the world and our welcome around his table.

Friday, September 27, 2013

What’s Next

            I often find when I have people saying, “What’s taking so long to get going?” and “Why so soon?” in about equal numbers that I’ve found the right timing!  (Of course, sometimes just calendar issues make a difference, but we are all used to that!)

            So I believe we are in about the right spot to be having our all-church conversations as part of this “time between.”  But I’ve had a couple of questions about practical matters.

            To reiterate: our first two conversations will be introducing the process and developing together a timeline of the events, seasons, and people in the last fifty or sixty years.  Those will be October 6 and 13.  We will look at the community and our context in Ithaca and Tompkins County on October 27.  Then on November 3 we will look at ourselves in the mirror and talk about the valuable missions and ministries done for God and neighbor by the congregation.  On November 17 we will use part of the worship time to fill out the excellent US Congregational Life Survey, one of the very few normed across the nation and the denominational spectrum.

            We will have a refreshment and conversation time after worship as usual, and then we will gather downstairs in the fellowship hall for a light lunch.  Part of the idea of that is to refuel so we can work for a while, but just as much to enjoy each other’s company, visit, and have a fellowship time in fellowship hall.  In fact, if you have other Sunday plans, stay for lunch even if you have to leave right afterward.  Even if you have no interest in the working session, come for lunch anyhow.  And if there are recent arrivals or first time attenders, invite them downstairs anyhow, especially!  I’ve heard lots about how enjoyable such communal meals have been here over the years, and encourage everyone to show up for that part at least.  Children are not merely welcome but encouraged to attend!  We can work out rides, too.

            Another set of questions have been about whether you have to be at all of them.  Nope!  They are connected, to be sure, but each should be valuable and interesting (and even some fun) in its own right.  We hope to be able to record some way or another (if you have ideas or video or audio equipment to help with that, let me or the office know), and we will have notes about the sessions both to catch people up if they could not be there and to preserve the ideas for the search committee we will be electing later.

            And folks have asked me, “How is this different than what we did before?”  First, being mildly impatient and easily bored myself, I like to keep it kind of compressed and tightly spaced, hence the packed schedule in October and November.  It’s also in order to be done before Thanksgiving and Advent and Christmas.  I try to keep it moving and interesting and fun.  But the biggest difference is that I keep the focus on the end product: the search for the next pastor.  We can do this partly because the good work done with the Gathering process last time gives us a head start on the data and vision parts of the process.  But our focus will be on understanding the history and processes and makeup of the congregation and how they relate to the pastoral relationship.  Sure, we have to refresh and reaffirm the vision we have of First Congregational Church, but my push will be toward understanding how that vision and the way this congregation functions will inform the search for a next pastor.  The goal of all this is a strong, productive, healthy partnership between pulpit and pew into the future.  That goal will drive the conversations and keep us on track.  The product is not a good study experience or a statement of mission, but a call extended to the right person to work with you to accomplish that mission.

            If you know people who have not felt good about the church for a while (or are one), please encourage them to join the all-church conversations.  The atmosphere will be honest, but I want to make it non-threatening and comfortable so people can share if they want.  It’s a chance to see how we got where we are and find out where God wants us next.  Please participate!

            This Sunday we have a group of guest singers from a Cornell Glee Club joining our choir, so I hope you can make it to worship.  Somehow, the combination of a “glee” club and the joy of God’s love in Christ Jesus amuses me.  Hope to see you Sunday at 10 am.

                                                                                       In Christ,
                                                                                     
                                                                                               David

Texts For Sunday Worship:
      From the Hebrew Bible          Jeremiah 32:1-3a, 6-15
      From the Epistles                  1 Timothy 6:6-19
      From the Gospels                  Luke 16:19-31

Friday, September 20, 2013

Ecclesiastical Parbuckling

            It probably says too much about me that I have been entranced watching the work around the Costa Concordia off the coast of Sicily.  Lots of things about it make really good illustrations about all sorts of topics, even if they are not going to make it into a sermon ever.  But it can make it into a Weekly Word!

            We are about to begin the all-church self-study events in preparation for calling a search committee which will prepare a church profile and then seek candidates for the pastorate here.  This fall there will be four lunch meetings after church on a series of topics and a survey about church participation to which everyone— member, friend, new arrival, long-time hand, happy, disappointed, confused, younger, older, middler— is invited.

            This is a pretty early stage in the parbuckling, refloating, refitting, and resailing of First Congregational.  (Notice the difference there with the Costa Concordia, which will decidedly not cruise again.  FCCI will.  Period.)

            Many months ago, the Concordia wreck got stabilized, and then the divers and engineers started to figure out what they had to work with.  Then they spent a long time developing plans, testing scenarios, getting things thought out.  Another long period of time was building the equipment needed and getting it in place.  Finally, only last week, 20 months after the ship scraped bottom and capsized, did they get to the first big salvage effort.  Now that they have it upright, the have a lot to do for the next stage of effort.

            In terms of my gimmicky parallel, First Congregational and the people who love it want it not just upright and salvaged, but sailing the seas of the gospel. Now that things are more stable, it is time to see what we have to work with. At this point, that is all we are doing in the first conversations.  From there we will develop plans of action to undertake the pastoral search, then marshal the resources and people to do it.  But right now, we are learning about where we are and what has happened.  Then we can work on the engineering and the tasks of making it happen.

            Our first two conversations will be introducing the process and developing together a timeline of the events, seasons, and people in the last fifty or sixty years of First Congregational’s life.  Those will be October 6 and 13.  We will look at the community and our context in Ithaca and Tompkins County on October 27.  Then on November 3 we will look at ourselves in the mirror and talk about the valuable missions and ministries done for God and neighbor by the congregation.  On November 17 we will use part of the worship time to fill out the excellent US Congregational Life Survey, one of the very few normed across the nation and the denominational spectrum.

            In all of this, your participation… your honest, gracious participation… is key.

            We will gather for an informal lunch and working time after worship those four Sundays.  There will be activities and care for children so they can join in.  Older children and youth can sit in on the conversation.  If you can’t make a session or have to leave early, don’t worry; although they build on each other, each session should be interesting and valuable on its own.  We can help with rides and other things to help you attend.  Even if you don’t know what you might contribute, I would really appreciate you showing up!  And if you can’t stay for the meeting, at least stay for lunch and to visit with folks.

            It is my intention to keep the conversation lively and honest, to share some information on church dynamics that will be helpful understanding where we need to go next, not to drag things out, but to keep very focused on the overall purpose: discovering God’s direction for First Congregational and preparing for a healthy and productive partnership with a pastor in the near future.

            Are you with me? (I hope so.)

            And maybe on Sunday you’ll find out how this all fits with the scripture lessons!

                                                                                       In Christ,
                                                                                     
                                                                                               David

Texts For Sunday Worship:
      From the Hebrew Bible        Jeremiah 8:18-9:1
      From the Epistles                1 Timothy 2:1-7
      From the Gospels                Luke 16:1-13

Friday, September 13, 2013

Welcome

    Welcome to First Congregational... for the first time perhaps.  Or welcome back!  With public school having started this week, this Sunday is the sort of “official” start of the FCCI program year, too.

    The choir is back to practicing, and the Children and Youth Ministry Team is back with the familiar Christian Education and faith formation program.  Most of the committees are back to meeting in September after their more “irregular” summer.  Folks who were less frequent over the school break are getting back in the rhythm of attendance.  The enjoyable and challenging AfterWord series resumes this week with Bob Riter from the Cancer Resource Center.

    We’re back in business!

    Some folks are not so much returning “back” as attending for the first time.  It’s up to we long-time attenders to make those first tentative steps past our threshold a meaningful, comfortable, and spiritually connecting morning.  I have no doubt that long-time attenders here are capable of a generous, inclusive, embracing welcome; my concern is that with the delight in seeing each other again it will be easy to overlook the first-timers and forget to enfold them into the flock gracefully and graciously.

    So keep an eye out for new faces, and be happy to see them!  If you approach them with happiness, you will probably find that sometimes tricky balance of welcoming without being overwhelming.  Many churchgoers fear that they will be too aggressive in pouncing on new people and turn them off, so we sometimes act “too cool” and keep away.  Lots of us have experiences visiting that have turned us off— usually by feeling too singled out too obviously— but don’t let that stifle your hospitality.  And remember that what you might think is “giving people space” can be experienced as neglect.  But just because that balance is tricky don’t give up!  Welcome like you like to be welcomed, and you will probably hit the comfort zone.  And if you are waaaaay introverted, just point a new face out to folks who are more comfortable saying “Hi” for the first time.  We’ve got the whole spectrum among us!

    Most times when we read the UCC slogan we focus on the “wherever you are on your life’s journey,” cherishing the openness and grace to all souls.  These Sundays in September, let’s run with the “you’re welcome here” part.  After all, God is happy to see everyone in church, whether for the first or ninety-ninth time.

    May you feel welcome this Sunday.  And share it!

                                                           In Christ,
                                                               
                                                                David

Texts For Sunday Worship:
From the Hebrew Bible       Jeremiah 4:11-12 , 22-26
From the Epistles              1 Timothy 1:12-17
From the Gospels              Luke 15:1-10