Prayer

   

 To clasp the hands in prayer  

 is the beginning of an 

 uprising against the disorder 

 of the world.

                    - Karl Barth

                       

 

Prayer is vital to the life of our church - when we pray, we do so in faith that God hears us and cares about us. When we pray, we are being the Body of Christ.

This Sunday, you will notice a slight change in the prayer time. Your prayers are important to us and to the life of the community. We know that God hears our prayers, whether we speak them aloud or not, and it's also important to laugh and cry with one another as we share our prayers. However, for the time being, the prayer time will include some silence but not a time to speak your prayers to the group in the worship service. BUT, there are many other ways for you to share your joys and concerns, and to know that others are praying for you! Please freely make use of the following:

1) If you would like someone to pray with you personally, members of our Caring Committee are available after the worship service - just go forward after the postlude and someone will be there to pray with you.

2) There are several ways that you can submit a prayer request in writing. If we receive it before the Sunday service and you indicate that you would like it to be mentioned in the pastoral prayer, we will do our best to do so. These prayers will also be shared with the Prayer Care Tree, a group of members dedicated to regularly praying for the church.
     - Just before or after worship, fill out one of the prayer cards on the nametag table.
     - Click here to fill out a prayer request online.
     - Email your prayer request to the church office (office@fccithaca.org).
     - Call the church office with your prayer request (257-6033).

In this time of transition, the worship committee has been working hard to ensure that our worship services continue to be meaningful and welcoming. There will be opportunities for more lay leadership, and if you are interested in helping lead parts of worship (such as the offering/announcement time or the welcome and prayer of confession), please be in touch with Mike Billing, Chair of the Worship Committee.

I look forward to seeing you in worship this Sunday - we will hear the story of Christ's baptism and reflect on the meaning of our own baptisms. And we'll share a meal together at God's table.

Blessings,
Manda

Texts For This Week:
Isaiah 43:1-7
Luke 3:15-22

Our Place Holy

 Well, it’s the Winter Solstice (yay, longer days ahead!), and somehow we once again survived the end of the world. And God is STILL speaking, even if the Mayans aren’t! Things are in a flurry here in the office, where Cathy and Jessie have been working hard to print bulletins for FOUR different services (the 23^rd, 30^th, and 2 Christmas Eve services). And our bulletin angels came in to stuff them so that we can come and worship. Many others have worked hard to make this a special season in the church – THANK YOU to all of you who have so faithfully and cheerfully offered your time and gifts!

I want to extend a special thank you to Monica Bosworth-Viscuso and all those who helped make the Advent Garden a sacred and beautiful experience for children and their families. As we hold in our hearts all those who are grieving losses this holiday season, especially those who have lost children, we also cherish and celebrate the gift of babies and children who bless our lives with wonder and joy.

Whether you will be with us in body or in spirit, I am thankful for your presence this Christmastide. In the flurry of activity and preparations, I hope you can take some time to breathe and recognize the wonder and holiness of this present moment. I’ll leave you with this poem from one of my favorite poets and writers, Wendell Berry:

Remembering that it happened once,

We cannot turn away the thought,

As we go out, cold, to our barns

Toward the long night’s end, that we

Ourselves are living in the world

It happened in when it first happened,

That we ourselves, opening a stall

(A latch thrown open countless times

Before), might find them breathing there,

Foreknown: the Child bedded in straw,

The mother kneeling over Him,

The husband standing in belief

He scarcely can believe, in light

That lights them from no source we see,

An April morning’s light, the air

Around them joyful as a choir.

We stand with one hand on the door,

Looking into another world

That is this world, the pale daylight

Coming just as before, our chores

To do, the cattle all awake,

Our own white frozen breath hanging

In front of us; and we are here

As we have never been before,

Sighted as not before, our place

Holy, although we knew it not.

(from A Timbered Choir by Wendell Berry)

Blessings, peace, and the light of Christ to you,

Manda

Note: I will be on vacation from December 26, returning to the office on January 7. If you have an emergency pastoral need, please call the church office for the phone number for the Rev. Wayne Gustafson, who will be providing emergency care if needed.

 

Texts For This Week:  
Psalms           Psalm 116
Gospels         John 1:1-14

Second Sunday of Advent

I hope you were able to get out and enjoy some of the lovely weather earlier this week, and that these colder days are giving you ample opportunity to snuggle up with loved ones - both people and animals! This Sunday, warm your spirit by joining us for worship, where the choir will sing the first part of the Messiah. Stay for the all-church meeting to hear more from the church council, and come back in the afternoon for Christmas Crafts and the Pasta Supper.

During December, our special offering goes to the Christmas Fund for the Veterans of the Cross and the Emergency Fund. This fund helps retired ministers, and it also goes to help others who are currently serving churches. You might be surprised to learn that I have been a beneficiary of this fund. When I was in seminary, I had some unexpected medical costs that I just couldn't cover. The South Central Conference Minister applied to the Christmas Fund on my behalf, and I was given a generous gift that helped to pay these costs. I am extremely grateful for this gift, and I know that when I give to this fund, it goes to those who truly have need. Here is some information about how the funds are used (from pbucc.org):

The generous gifts of UCC congregations and individuals to the Christmas Fund enabled the Pension Boards’ Ministerial Assistance program to provide the following gifts:

Some form of Ministerial Assistance will be provided to approximately 1,600 persons during 2012.

• Christmas Gift checks were sent to approximately 900 persons in 2011. Of those who received checks, 20 are over 100 years of age. The oldest person is 107. One person has received Christmas checks continuously since 1976. The 900 gifts total $270,000. 
  
  
• Monthly pension supplementation is being provided to 394 persons. These gifts total $109,447.17 per month. A significant part of annual total of $1,255,885.20 comes from the Christmas Fund. (2012 data) 
  
  
• Quarterly health premium supplementation is being provided to 226 families, totaling $130,456.75 per quarter. All of the funding for health premium supplementation is derived from the Christmas Fund. (2012 Data)
   
• Emergency Grants totaling $61,684.23 were provided to 40 individuals and families from January 1 through November 30, 2012.
  

(These statistics reflect annualized projections as of November 30, 2012. The numbers of persons receiving assistance and the totals of assistance payments fluctuate on a monthly basis.)

As you consider all the worthy causes to which you can contribute this season, I hope you'll include the Christmas Fund in your giving plans. You can place a check in the Sunday offering or give it to the church office (write "Christmas Fund" in the memo line), or you can donate online by clicking here. 

Whether or not you can make a financial gift, please take some time to pray for those who have given so much of themselves to serve the church.  

Blessings and peace of the season to you... 

Manda

Texts For This Week:  
Gospels                   Luke 1:26-38

Advent

Advent begins this Sunday, and when you walk into worship, you'll see that the sanctuary has been transformed with beautiful greenery, blue liturgical colors, and an Advent wreath! This Advent, we will follow a path from the Wilderness, to Nazareth, to Jerusalem, to Ithaca. Advent is a time of waiting and expectation, trusting that God will break into the world with new light and new hope. And so it seems fitting that tomorrow is World AIDS Day, a day when we remember that every day there are people living with HIV/AIDS, and we are ALL affected. You can click here to download or subscribe (scroll down for instructions) to a meaningful daily Advent calendar from the Ecumenical Advocacy Alliance.

Also, you will be receiving an important letter from me in the mail within the next day or so. You can also click here to read it online. Click "Letter from Manda" to download the letter.

I'll meet you in the Wilderness on Sunday...have a blessed weekend!
Manda

Texts For This Week:  
Hebrew Bible           Isaiah 40:1-11

Epistles                  Hebrews 11:1-3, 8-12

Thanksgiving Sunday

This Sunday will be Thanksgiving Sunday, and in our church, it's also Stewardship Sunday. These two are naturally linked, because what better way is there to express our gratitude than by giving back? Last night I heard a story of someone who, after Hurricane Sandy hit his neighborhood and left them without power, opened his home to share the food he had. Others started doing the same, and there was a great feast - those who had little, and those who had much, shared their abundance so that no one would go hungry.

As I was reflecting on this story, I came across this devotional from the UCC, and I wanted to share it with you. As we consider what stewardship means in the context of Thanksgiving, I hope we will all give thanks - in tangible ways - out of our abundance.

Looking forward to worshiping with you on Sunday.
Blessings,
Manda


Abundance or Scarcity?
http://www.ucc.org/feed-your-spirit/daily-devotional/abundance-or-scarcity-2.html

Abundance or Scarcity?

Excerpt from Psalm 128

“Your wife will be like a fruitful vine within your house; your children will be like olive shoots around the table.”

Reflection by Martin B. Copenhaver

So much of our scripture is a celebration of abundance. The first chapters of Genesis are a song of praise for God’s generosity. With each act of creation, the divine refrain is, “It is good, it is good, it is very good.” And it pictures the Creator saying, “Be fruitful and multiply.”

Many of the Psalms, including the one for today, survey creation and catalogue this abundance in loving detail and with joyful thanksgiving.

Then, in the Gospels, Jesus multiplies loaves and fishes so that there is more than enough for everyone. At a wedding feast he turns water into wine, and more wine than could be consumed at a dozen weddings. These highly symbolic stories speak of God’s abundance. There is enough, there is more than enough.

That’s the biblical narrative. But the narrative by which we are tempted to live is another story entirely, a story of scarcity, where there is never enough. In fact, we are tempted to define enough as, “always something more than I have now.”

Do you live out of a sense of abundance or scarcity? That may be an economic question, but certainly it is a faith question.

Prayer
O God, when I count your blessings, they are numberless as the sands, so I confess that I don’t always get very far with my counting. So I simply thank you for sharing your abundance with me. Amen.

About the Author
Martin B. Copenhaver is Senior Pastor, Wellesley Congregational Church, United Church of Christ, Wellesley, Massachusetts. He is the author, with Lillian Daniel, of This Odd and Wondrous Calling: the Public and Private Lives of Two Ministers.

 

Texts For This Week:  
Prophets           Joel 2:21-27

Histories           1 Samuel 2:1-10

The Separating Power of Possessions

This is stewardship season, and as we continue to reflect together on what it means to be good stewards of all that God has given us, I wanted to share with you this Daily Devotional from the UCC. I look forward to worshiping with you on Sunday - hope you have a great weekend!
Blessings,
Manda

The Separating Power of Possessions
 

"Their possessions were too great for them to dwell together."

Reflection by Martin B. Copenhaver

Jacob and Esau, the twin brothers whose tussles began in their mother's womb, eventually reconciled enough to be able to settle in the same neighborhood in Canaan.  They prospered, but eventually became the victim of their own success.  The land was not able to support the herds of cattle of both brothers, so Esau had to move away.

This was a matter of environmental sustainability, but also something more.  As the author of Genesis put it, "Their possessions were too great for them to dwell together."  This is not an ancient problem.  Today—whether it's in Canaan or New Canaan—prosperity has a way of separating us.  The fastest growing segment of the housing market is exclusive gated communities, whose chief attraction is the way they separate people.  If you have enough money to buy sugar in large quantities, you are less likely to have to go next door to borrow a cup from a neighbor.  When you have your own car, you never meet your neighbor at the bus stop.

Our prosperity can be too great for us truly to dwell with one another.  There is another way of putting it:  Sometimes the more wealth we have, the more impoverished our lives can become.  Is there a way you can think of to keep your possessions from coming between you and your neighbor?

Prayer

Dear God, everything I have is a gift from you.  May I express my thanks by never letting my possessions create distance between me and those around me.  Amen.

Texts For This Week:  
Hebrew Bible           Ruth 2:1-13

Gospels                  Mark 12:38-44

After the Storm

Yesterday, I went to a meeting of the authorized ministers in the Susquehanna Association of the UCC. Our new conference minister, David Gaewski, met with us as part of his "listening tour" of the NY Conference. Rev. Gaewski shared with us some updates about UCC churches affected by Hurricane Sandy. I wanted to share his update as well as an inspirational reflection by Rev. Donna Schaper, pastor of Judson Memorial Church in Greenwich Village. At the bottom of this message you will find links and information about how you can help and stay up-to-date.

Looking forward to worshiping with you on Sunday, as we celebrate the feast of Communion, remember those who have passed on in the last year, and work together after worship to feed our neighbors.

Blessings,
Manda

From David Gaewski:
Update: Reports are trickling in on damages sustained and unfolding concerns. Thankfully most of our churches on Long Island did not sustain major damage. Two churches that have reported damage are Rockaway Beach (Queens) and Mt. Vernon (Weschester Co.). I must emphasize that there are still a number of churches both on Long Island and NYC that we have not yet heard from. Fires have continued to be burn and sadly there have been several reports of looting. We thank all who have reached out to us in NY with messages of support. 


"Many Different Kinds of Power" by Donna Schaper

Last night at Judson about 20 of us gathered, along with one dog, to light candles, sing a few songs and say a few prayers. We also walked the giant canvas labyrinth, which was easy to put out in the dark. It has white stripes. We observed what our hearts know: there are many different kinds of power. Too many people are saying they are “out of power,” or “powerless.” More precisely, we are without electrical power.

Last Sunday I innocently preached about the need for new folkways, new rituals, and new ways of being. I actually said, “For most of us, the major ritual of our lives is to remember to plug in our cell phones.” I pontified, “Wouldn’t it be great if we kept a good Sabbath with such rigor or also prayed intentionally before we ate or before we slept? Not to mention how great a Jubilee, an automatic normalized forgiveness of debts, would mark our political economy?” Well. Since Sandy hit, we have been wandering around with cell cords in hand in lower Manhattan, looking for a plug that had power. No lights, no traffic lights, no hot water, and no working plugs: that is the reality post Sandy. It is dark outside and sometimes also dark inside.

To keep from being a complete fibber, we just had to do a service. We had to remind ourselves that there are different kinds of power than the kind we don’t have. There is people power and candlepower, physical power (you can’t volunteer for the Red Cross if you can’t lift 50 pounds or stay for 12 hours), magical power, the kind that makes you think the A train will be humming again soon. There is the power to hear words anew: infrastructure, nature, air, wind, fire. There is the power to recognize, as the labyrinth shows, that in every end there is a beginning. New York will never be the same. We know that. Worship helps us say what we know out loud. The word Katrina came to mind. We have known for a long time about climate change and aging infrastructure. Now we know that we know, in a different kind of power, the kind that moves people to change.

As we went back to our dark homes and our meager food, we didn’t forget to give thanks for the Sabbath we had just had because nature had demonstrated astonishing infrastructural failure.

Click here to read another reflection by Donna Schaper

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The New York Conference has set up a fund to help with Sandy recovery. The funds will be administered to UCC churches who can then use them in various ways to help themselves and their neighbors. There are 2 ways to donate to this fund:

1. Go to http://uccny.org and click the donate button on the right. Type an amount into the "UCCNY Sandy Relief Fund" box and fill out the rest of the form to make a donation.

2. Write a check to our church and indicate that it is for Sandy Relief. We will send it to the conference office.

If you are on Facebook, click here to go to the NY Conference page. Regular updates are posted here. You can also visit http://uccny.org for updates on the conference website, but Facebook has the most current information.


Texts For This Week:  
Hebrew Bible           Ruth 1:1-11, 14-18

Gospels                  Mark 12:28-34